Happy New Year 2012

Posted on by Linda Matthews
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Happy new year to all my friends, readers, students and customers; to those who just stop in from time to time, to those who visit every day, to those who support me in so many different ways. If I don’t say it often enough I’m truly thankful and grateful that you’re here.

I hope you’ll join me as we take this marking of time, the upcoming first day of a brand new year, and use it as an opportunity to start afresh with a brand new blank page and begin writing our story for this year; a story that’s inspiring, creative and meaningful. And of course one that includes lots of cloth and thread.

I’m excited about this new year and I hope you are too.

Happy New Year

We will open the book.
Its pages are blank.
We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.
Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Beginning where you are
I love the sentiment of that quotation, however as I mentioned in an article I wrote the other day – you can read it here – that although the beginning of a new year is a wonderful time to begin writing your story, you can do it at any time. I got so many lovely emails about the article, and about that particular paragraph, that I made you a downloadable card – a new year’s gift – just so you can remember that you can begin writing your story at any time.

Begin Your Story

Click here, and the image will open in a new browser page then you can “right click” and save to your desktop (or whatever you do on a mac – sorry, not mac savvy). Print it out, stick it somewhere where you can see it regularly, and enjoy.

Other ways to help you on your new year’s journey

One Word Selection GuideHave you given vision to your year ahead by choosing a word yet?
Using a word is such a gentle and powerful way to carry you through the year because there are no hard and fast resolutions and no “shoulds” or “shouldn’ts”. A word guides with vision and flexibility. Because I believe so strongly in the power of using a word, I even made it easy for you to choose your own word by putting together a free One Word Selection Guide. … Continue reading →

Reflections

Posted on by Linda Matthews
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ReflectionsAs the old year comes quickly to an end, it’s time for final reflections and asking deep questions. What are the things you are leaving behind; letting go of? What are the things you are taking with you into a brand new 2012? Are you ready to let the old year go with ease and gratitude for lessons learned – the difficult and the easy? Are you ready to release the things that didn’t work for you? Are you ready to move on? So many questions.

It’s only in recent years I’ve become so very reflective. As I get older, these things begin to have more importance than they used to. I feel sometimes that if I’d only learned to be a little more reflective when I was younger, perhaps the journey would have been different. But perhaps not. Perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.

This year was the year I payed close attention to things; I was very mindful of the things I did. And I began to really notice – the things that I was doing out of habit or obligation – the things that I had no heart for – the things that I really enjoyed. I learned to be a little kinder to myself, and as a result, to others as well. I learned to find peace, acceptance and joy in the place I am now, regardless of what surrounds me. I learned to live with simplicity and to travel a little lighter, although this will be a continuing journey. I learned what it feels like to live in a place of abundance and to share it with others. I’ve learned to recognize with gratitude that what’s within yourself is far more important than what surrounds you in the physical world. These are all things I’ll gladly take with me.

I’m leaving behind the things that I don’t have any heart for; things that make me feel small inside. Little things mainly, selfish things. Things I do out of obligation that no longer fill my heart with joy. I’m learning to say “no” with kindness and consideration for others as well as myself. When you say no to the things you have no heart for, you’re doing everyone a favor.

And then there are tougher lessons that I’m still processing. I’d like to leave them behind and maybe pretend for a while that they don’t matter. But I know I’ll take them with me. Reluctantly. But at least with awareness and a willingness to work on them.

The biggest lesson I learned is that it’s completely ok to start over again from the place that you are right now. Knowing what you know. And what you don’t know. And to be at peace with that decision. Moving on imperfectly. You don’t need a brand new book to begin writing a brand new story, and although it marks a significant point in time, you don’t need a brand new year to begin living it. You simply make the choice and begin.

The best thing I’m taking with me into 2012
Do you remember these? If you do you’re showing your age. But that’s ok.

Incense Oils

As a teenager in the 70s these incense oils were about as much as I could afford but I loved their earthy smell and I still wear them today, preferring them over the scent of perfume.

Sadly the company that made the Spiritual Sky brand oils in the US sold the business a few years back to someone who changed the recipe and now the scents smell like peeeeeewwwww! (and that’s being kind). But you can still buy the oils with the original recipe in Australia. So if you were lucky enough to have a relative who sent you some for Christmas, lucky you! I’m now stocked up till the year 2020. For the rest of you, you can find them on ebay. Just make sure they have the little lotus blossom label and they come out of Australia.

The best thing I’m taking into 2012 is that I’m truly grateful that some things never change, small as they are. What’s your one small significant gratitude for 2011?

… Continue reading →

The Day After

Posted on by Linda Matthews
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Christmas 2011 is over. Are you breathing a sigh of relief? It seems like so many expectations, anticipations and sometimes disappointments are wrapped up into that one day of the year. This year I took it gently.

However I continued my annual tradition of the “day after” where I allow myself a day to spend as I wish and usually involves a trip to the local craft store to stock up on a few fresh supplies in preparation for the beginning of a new year. With the anticipation of my new venture – The Creative Explorer’s Club – which begins 1st January, the craft store beckoned.

I expected to see more people out and about than I did, but it turned out to be one of those lovely shopping trips where the traffic was easy and the shoppers still had a little left-over holiday politeness and cheer about them. I love days like that.

So what did I get? Just a few necessities.

This year I have a few projects I want to work with personally – small fun projects, thoughtful projects, projects that require a little reflection – projects that I’ll be sharing and encouraging my Creative Explorers to work with so I can’t reveal all just yet, it would spoil the surprise. But I can hint a little.

My main purchase was a new journal. A nice one with lovely pages. Because I’m doing some journaling next year. But I couldn’t help but pick up a few extra fun things as well.

The Creative Explorer's Club

Charms. Some just because … Continue reading →

New in the Store: Printable “Vision Your Year” Day Planner Set

Posted on by Linda Matthews
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In an effort to manage my business a little better this year, I’ve spent most of the year devising a way to manage my time. If you’ve ever tried to organize your time, you’ll know that this isn’t an easy thing to do. They write books about this and there’s a whole industry built around time management. I read several books and realized that things can get fairly complicated. I always like the simple approach so I set out to find a method that worked for me.

I tried various software programs but they were too inconvenient. If the computer was shut down I’d have to wait until it fired up and then get the program open. And honestly, sometimes it would take so long I’d get sidetracked with other things and I’d simply forget what I wanted to add to my list.

Then I tried various styles of day planners and I liked this method better. I found that the act of writing things out by hand gave me time or organize my day in a thoughtful manner. So I tweaked and changed things until I found the ideal page layout for me. I like a nice big page so I’ve got plenty of room to write things down. A large page does take up more space on my desk, but the convenience of having it right there when I need it, far outweighs the inconvenience of it taking up desk space.

Printable Day PlannerIn preparation for the new year coming up, the last month or so I’ve been looking around for a commercial planner that meets my needs, but with no success. So I eventually gave up and made my own planner pages.

Once I’d designed my planner pages I then set about looking for a binder. I found this ProClick DO-It-Yourself Presentation Kit at the local office supply store which contains sheets of prepunched paper and a clickable spiral spine which is just perfect. I like the clickable spiral spine because now I can easily add or remove pages if I need to and I can easily fold my planner over so it takes up less space on my desk.

Organize your vision for the year
With the new year quickly approaching, it’s the perfect time for everyone to vision a more organized year. Trust me, it takes away a lot of stress when your days and weeks are organized. And to help you along, I’ve polished off the visual design a little better to pretty things up, and can now offer you my printable “Vision Your Year” Day Planner Set as a digital download (don’t you just love instant gratification?) In addition, I made a couple of “printer friendly” colors so you have three different color choices.

147 pages to download and print out for only … Continue reading →