ipe Daily Bliss: March 2008

Daily Bliss

Today's lovely moments are tomorrow’s beautiful memories

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Get busy living!

So says one of my life's lessons learned. Boy, have I been living! Every week is action-packed with the quotidien (work in all its forms, home care, Lucy, Gypsy, beading & cross stitch) as well as with the extra special (Paul, the kids & friends) so it was nice to take a day off this week & do something totally different.

I gave myself a 'pamper day' on Thursday: a day to catch up with my hairdresser, Cara, for a haircut & colour, a manicure & (more importantly for someone forever on her feet) a pedicure. Then, I toodled over to Indooroopilly to get a wax & polish for the car and a massage for me. Because of the drought, the car hasn't had a wash in months, & I needed to get rid of the kinks in my neck that come from my still-fairly-new exercise routines & still somewhat frozen shoulder. Every minute of that massage was wonderful!

Kathleen Noonan of the Courier Mail newspaper says that women do these kind of pamper activities because they are unhappy. She says that women who have pamper days (particularly manicures) are apparently trying to hide from what makes them unhappy (their clutter, lack of exercise, too much food, child-care guilt, the need to 'have it all') and that women in their 40s are the worst offenders of hiding from reality.

Come off the grass, Kathleen! I don't know where she did her research, but I certainly wasn't asked to participate in any survey. For me, these kinds of activities have little to do with 'finding happiness', but are equivalent to the car's grease and oil change & keeping in touch with how the ever-aging bod is plodding along. This keeping in touch is not a bad idea at all. It's about getting busy living & practising a wellness lifestyle. I want to live a full and interesting life and want to maximise my health levels to do so.

Next month the 'pamper day' will be the annual doc's checkup to coincide with my birthday week. Apart from my frozen shoulder, I've been wonderfully healthy since my influenza & viral pneumonia miseries of September-November 2006. I want to stay that way.

P.S. The kitchen had a pamper day on Friday. I got to work only to be sent home because I wasn't needed, so I attacked every nook & cranny, pot & pan. I didn't want to mess it up to cook dinner on Friday, but Paul brought me back to reality by making tomato soup from all our Autumn tomatoes while I was at beading class today. Tonight's dinner is business as usual. LOL

posted by Felicity | 3:55 pm | 1 comments

New Charts

Thank you everyone for your wonderfully supportive blog anniversary wishes. Like all the wonderful stitching & beading support you have given me over the last two years, your messages were much appreciated.

I couldn't help myself. It was sitting there at my LNS with my name on it! I bought a rather large (? a fat half) piece of dark coffee 32ct linen but needed suggestions as to what I should do with it.


I just spent aother fortune at Colours Down Under, an online counted cross-stitch shop based in Perth, Western Australia. I think this design will look very nice on that piece of fabric and hanging in my bedroom (if you look at Gypsy on the side panel, she's sitting on the bed - bad cat! The quilt is a light shade of the same fabric & also has the rose theme)

While I was there, I also bought ...


I think it's time I 'went on the wagon'



Bliss

posted by Felicity | 6:03 am | 7 comments

Monday, March 24, 2008

Blog Anniversary

'Collecting the stash and telling yourself that you are going to work on a project is well and good. However, like the novel you have to read for next week's Year 12 English class or the 20 bars of music you need memorised for Friday afternoon, the best way to get started is to simply begin. Consequently, I've picked up my needle and thread and have begun to stitch.'

Two years ago I set up this blog in an attempt to motivate myself to finish a few UFOs. I'm not a fast stitcher, nor do I tend to stitch more than one piece at once, so my output hasn't been enormous. I am, however, pleased as can be with what I have created. Stitch by stitch I finished about ten lovely things.

Thanks everyone for your wonderful support! It has really been appreciated.

Happiness & laughter always,

Bliss

Works in Progress


The Rose Garden



Medieval Maiden - Renaissance Rose
designed by Joan Elliott

Works Completed


















posted by Felicity | 5:14 am | 18 comments

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Lucy Update: 10 months!




Lucy - Born 22nd May 2007; Arrival weight - 3.5kg; Current weight - 35kg

posted by Felicity | 12:38 pm | 2 comments

Saturday, March 22, 2008

2500 weeks

Today, I am 2500 weeks old. Just a useless bit of information, really. Is it any less significant than the birthday I have in a month? Anyway, here are some of life's lessons that I have learned.

Life Lessons

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy
dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A wr iter wr ites. If you want to be a wr iter, wr ite.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for
an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.
Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don't ask, you don't get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift


posted by Felicity | 3:59 am | 1 comments

Sunday, March 16, 2008

The Rose Garden - Update No.5



This wee bit took me all of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' to complete.
Stitch by stitch. Stitch by stitch will get me there!
I feel a bit like Frodo Baggins on his quest.
Gotta finish! Gotta finish!




Then, this is what this same section looks like after three Harry Potter films.
I've seen them many times before. LOL

posted by Felicity | 4:53 pm | 7 comments

Saturday, March 15, 2008

It's a beading class day

I'm quite excited. The highlight of my week is the beading class I'm taking on Saturday mornings. I enjoy the projects & I like being around people. Today is Saturday!

The MOTH's back from Canberra where he spent the working week. He went to bed at 7.30pm last night, so I guess that with the party weekend & work, he's all tuckered out. Paul's reached collapse point, so I've put my foot down & told him to plan a holiday as soon as possible. No point in me doing it, cos he's sure to have other ideas to mine. It's one of those areas men like to have the control & I enjoy whatever we do as long as it's together and there is food and wine and walking in it ... oh and a green climate.

I gather last weekend's engagement party in Mackay was a success, so that's good. Now, we've got to hang out until 3rd April 2010 for the wedding.

Meanwhile, my week was uneventful except for a pleasant Friday lunch with my neighbour, Libby. I 'housewifed' at my paid employment for four days this week, walked the dog in the evenings, did some uni reading & generally filled in the time the way I fill in time when Paul's away. Unusually for me, I even turned on the television. I'm not a TV watcher as a rule, but I wanted someone other than my own company on Thursday night, so watched about 20 minutes of Gerard Depardieu in some rather strange French film.

What plans for this weekend? Beading this morning, Lucy to school this afternoon, a play tonight (if the MOTH is rested enough) & dinner tomorrow night with the kids (one of them is cooking). The rest is the household stuff & Paul time.

Whatever you are doing this weekend, have a good one.

Happiness & laughter always,

Bliss

posted by Felicity | 3:02 am | 0 comments

Saturday, March 08, 2008

SBQ

After you stitch a pattern or kit, what do you do with it?


I used to keep the chart in a folder to do again at a later date. Recently, I've started giving some away to stitchers who admired the project. I'm never quite sure what's right with copyright.

posted by Felicity | 5:57 am | 1 comments

Catherine Tate of the BBC telling it like it is

posted by Felicity | 5:43 am | 0 comments

Friday, March 07, 2008

Work Choices


At dinner last night, I had a most interesting conversation with my nearly 22 year old daughter. We were talking about what she was planning to do long-term with her current employer and somehow she got around to blurting out the bold statement that she thought that I had the best job in the world - housewife.

HOUSEWIFE?

MOI?

I'm not about to rant but I am somewhat bemused.

The thing is that I don't consider myself a 'housewife' in the traditional sense because I actually work 27 to 36 hours paid hours a week, but the Living Doll does & so, it seems, do the other offspring, my inlaws and my outlaws - even the MOTH sees me primarily as a housewife. They measure my life by what I turn out in cross stitch & how much time I spend walking the dog!

What? Doesn't my employment count for anything?

It seems not.

My now mother-in-law's very first private words to me when I met her were about me not spending all the MOTH's money on owning a house. She was talking as if I wasn't going to make a contribution! At the time, I owned outright my own home & I was working full time as a high school teacher. Hello, where did she get that idea? Was I going to squander my then boyfriend's money and not make a contribution? Yeah, right!

The definition of housewife is 'a wife who manages a household while her husband earns the family income'. In our case, the MOTH does earn the majority of the family income because he works for a wealthy mining company & I work for state education, but surely somewhere my piddly 27 - 36 hours a week paid employment (on top of being the chief cook & bottle washer) should count for some kudos even if my employer doesn't pay nearly as well as the MOTH's employer does ... shouldn't they?

It seems not.

On top of that, I work an extra 2-3 days at home on my (external studies) Masters course. Bloody hell! Surely that should count for something?

Also apparently not. Doing my Masters is considered 'an interest'.

That's what I thought my beading classes were. LOL ... How naive am I?

What's your take on what you do, folks? How do your nearest & dearest perceive what you do during the daylight hours when they are 'doing the important stuff'? Does it have to earn the mega bucks before it's counted as real work?

I haven't, of course, had a moment to stitch this week because I've been busy being a 'cough' housewife, but I'm sure I'll find some time soon to put in enough progress to give you a new picture on my Blissful Creations site.

Meanwhile, this weekend, I'm 'housewifing' whilst the MOTH goes to Mackay to attend his son's engagement party - you know the one where I was told to find something to do (sit on a park bench, if necessary) cos I wasn't welcome to attend. The boys don't want a step mother on the scene. The ex-wife's partner wasn't invited either. I'm feeling pretty low about not going. I'm also quite pissed off at the MOTH & his family in general.

The kids still don't get the idea that their parents' lives have moved on in the years since their marital breakup. The kids don't understand that they cannot dictate how their parents live, particularly as the kids live in their own little world over a thousand kilometres from the parents. I don't understand why the parents let the boys get away with what they get away with. If the boys want their own partners recognised, they have to understand that their parents are allowed lives with love interests too. It should be quid pro quo.

But enough. I am now starting to rant! Worse still, I might cry. LOL

Until next time, have a good weekend, whatever it is that you are doing.

Bliss

posted by Felicity | 12:47 pm | 6 comments

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Saturday

Yesterday was one of those marvelous days when everything was just right.

The nicest part was, of course, waking up to the MOTH's gentle snores beside me. He'd been away all week, first in Melbourne & then in Perth, but got back late on Friday.

The day didn't start quite as early as a weekday because I made the decision that I was not going to exercise on waking (I walked 60km this week). Instead, I wrote a letter to Jocelyne in France to wish her a happy birthday for the 17th (note to self: do it more often cos your French is slipping through lack of practice).

Next, I headed off to beading class with Edith & the crew. I'm enjoying these classes very much (another note to self: do this week's homework or next week's class will be a waste of tuition fees as it's teaching how to finish off all the projects so far started).

20 minutes before the end of the class, The Crown Prince rang to invite me to lunch. How cool was that? His partner is off to Korea on Monday for a 5-week holiday with her family, so we just HAD to have a send off.

Hence the MOTH, Crown Prince, Crown Princess & their consorts and I whiled away three very pleasant hours at the Pig & Whistle at Indooroopilly, having lunch, sipping wine & then delicious coffee.

Afterwards, the MOTH & I went birthday shopping for his future DIL. We thought we'd give gift-giving one more try despite the fiasco with her Christmas gift. I let Paul choose the item. The No 1 son can later whine at him instead of me if he thinks it's crap. We also organised the Easter chocolate for the MOTH's boys (aged 18 to 24 this year) in case he doesn't see them before Easter. Paul's seeing them all next weekend at the engagement party (the one that I was told I was not allowed attend).

Then home to walk the dog (I might choose not to exercise for self on Saturdays, but Lucy can't be neglected), have a quick shower and organise to go out again for an evening at the Cremoynne Theatre, Southbank.



We went to see The Female of the Species and it was hillarious!

Home again, supper for the MOTH & then off to bed. I was exhausted. Sunday's a housework and homework kind of day so that we can start again on Monday.

I hope you had as good a Saturday as me.

Happiness & laughter always,

Bliss

posted by Felicity | 8:00 am | 0 comments

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