THIS! made me cry with joy and want to DANCE so very very much. Enjoy

Swing Dancers vs. Street Dancers @ Montreal Swing Riot 2015 from Alain Wong on Vimeo.

There is something about this clip that makes me so very excited.  I wish wish wish my body was able to do what these folk do.  I love to dance so much and feel the music.  I know in my head I am doing this when i hear music i love.  And hey - dance like no one is watching.  But if they were...they wouldn't see this.  This ROCKs.  I love a dance off - I love the whole thing of it, and how it gets better and better.  Just love it.  

My Rules

I have lots of notes up in front of me.  And lists.  I have just collated them.  as follows

Be engaged, Curious, Vibrant and Brave.
do yoga every day
eat clean food
do art projects
organise parties
create great art
get people together - get people to know each other a bit better
have fun
enjoy life
be grateful
inspire yourself and others to shine
eat outside. eat together
travel
do what you love
help people
make friends
give of yourself
listen
think the best of people
be yourself. don't pretend
seize the scary stuff
do something different
be optimistic
do less
get excited
be uncommon
play
get into the arena
go outside your comfort zone
believe in magic
know when to walk away
trust the universe
buy local

thinking about future dreams

I am currently re visiting Amelia's Journal Your Dreams week long workshop... and having read some of my old old dream posts.  I am thinking about some future dreams.  Dreams and Mondo Beyondo esque wishes!

I am still dreaming of a big kitchen table and lots of likeminded friends.  All sociable and bright and fun folk.....

I am going to add my dream camper van.... its not just a camper van (though one of those would be very cool) but its morphed into a sort of converted horsebox or hi top lorry sort of thing.  Its like this.... (hope to drag in a photo I have on pinterest here) its painted mat black and it has wooden lining and a wood stove.  Its livable in, but its also a sort of roaming studio.  Its very cool indeed.

For a nearby and achievable dream - I have a fabulous fabulous life affirming soul feeding weekend in Yorkshire for the Do What You Love retreat.  And I learn to paint really big.  Its like a new departure for me and it just lifts off into the stratosphere in a thoroughly brilliant way!

I get on this years Yoga Teacher Training, and that too, is like a fir lit within me and is totally inspiring and life changing in a beautiful and good way.

For some further away lovely dreams I create and set up a creative retreat of my own.  I set it up, build it and people come and its just GREAT.  Its got some sort of theme, like making your own wedding decorations... for hen parties.... or the other one I would love to set up is just like for creative UK bloggers.... that would so cool.  We could all share our skills and teach each other.  And just hang out and talk and deepen friendships! *puts dreaming cap on* xxx

hello world

Today I am writing this in the Blue Dog Gallery.  There have been no customers, but at least the lovely owners suspected that this might be the case.  Last Monday they thought it would be dead and someone came in and snapped up 2 amazing metalwork and glass chairs for £1200.  That sort of thing is worth staying open for just in case.  Me, well I just love the opportunity to earn some cash, read my book (well I just started reading a book called Life of Pi - my brother and a couple of friends said it is a good one.  Have you read it?) and luckily I can even hoss about on the internet. Get me.

The universe is being kind to my quest to earn this  year.  Next week there is the possibility of 3 supergroups, though of course, I may get none, depending on the whims of fate.  However I'd like to think that the universe will be on my side again and hopefully give the ones on Tuesday and Thursday.  Much as I would quite like to travel to Birmingham and stay over in  a hotel for an extra £100 it would be awkward for child care as the focus group we had to move is now rescheduled for that date.  And poor Bub would be in the hands of someone who he won't be used to at bedtime.  But as we are at the moment, we are going to have to lump this one.  If that is how it pans out. Hub has got some more work too, which is all fab.  But it is precarious, in that, we both have no idea how much work will or won't come in in the next few months, and last year the 99% certain job did not come in, wiping out our saved monies.  At least I had something saved.  And good thing that I am in charge of the finances!! I think we have to forge on and put our faith in said lovely and beautiful Universe.  That work will continue to come in throughout the year, and that both of us will create ways of increasing our incomes.  I have more recruitment work too. 

Tomorrow I have a meeting with the Yoga Teacher re joining the Teacher Training this year.  I have just read the email and its all about getting plugged into the whole training experience.  Which means going on retreats really.  Universe I would LOVE to go on as many Yoga retreats as he does!!  More money and time away!! Although he does do one dayers and hopefully that ought to do for now!  Although, how, universe can I justify going on a week long yoga retreat???  How can I afford it? 

My week this week is a busy one now.  Today is Gallery work and yoga class (am pleased that I am making these twice a week so far this year)
Tomorrow I am meeting up with 2 mummy friends (one with new born and one who may not be able to make it as she is already a week over due!) Then on to my Yoga Teacher Training meeting.  Then collect Bub from Nursery and hang out all afternoon, awaiting the online supermarket delivery.... Oh and I am expecting a delivery of tee shirts (I sew labels into them for cash)

Wednesday is Playgroup and French class
THursday is my rescheduled trip to the Saatchi Gallery in London
Friday I am babysitting M (3 yr old) for cash
I think I put my name down for a stall at an art fair on Saturday.... not sure if I did or not.  But I could be doing that....
I think I put my name down for a stall at an art fair on Saturday.... not sure if I did or not.  But I could be doing that....

And ....  today is my 21st day of not drinking coffee.  And I have only eaten meat once (sarnies provided at work were very un vegetarian friendly).  I have drunk alcohol 3 times (onces in anger, oops and twice for social reasons) I have had considerably less milk (no lattes helps) and lots more veggies and less bread too..... It hasn't made any difference to my weight sadly, but at least I am eating well!!  I did find myself craving craving craving a coffee yesterday.  But am glad I held out to get through my 21 days.  I think I will generally be going for the vegetarian option from now on as well.  Not dogmatically, but still.  I just am starting to want to avoid meat eating. 

Lastly, for this is a long and rambling old post.  We are thinking of getting a car.  It is a luxury as we are fine without it. But we do have the money from the payout we got from our insurance on our car being written off.  And we will only be getting a tiny cheap car.  A Panda.  Very economical.  That's the plan anyway!

And having read a book about detoxifying childhood.  I am revisiting my desire to build community in our street.  I am not sure how. How about Universe  you help me come up with some ideas?  I have thought of having a party.  Its the simplest route n'est ce pas? Or just a project visiting the neighbours and getting to know them a little bit, just like that.  Maybe another more interesting idea will come to me now? 

I am looking forward very much to attending the Do What You Love retreat.  And - though I have been workly restricted from doing the more painterly and messy tasks on the brilliant Experimental Art Course even re reading the posts Amelia does is filling me with enthusiasm and ideas.  Go Amelia.  She is fab. When I do my creative retreat, she will definately be doing a workshop or 3!  xx

Laters y'all.  Love blossoming out to y'all.  Smile!

Millionaire Mind

How do you prepare for a challenge? What I do is read up and psych myself up for it, then start taking action.  I have a few of books about... well they are kind of about manifestation.  Somehow though they often have different titles, they seem to be able the same thing.  Anyway.  Yesterday I decided that first and foremost I need to get my mind and heart in the right place to set forth on my quest.  To Have Both.  To go on this retreat AND have Hub back me up that it is a worthwhile outlaying of cash and that I deserve it.  The main way to do this is to SHOW how much money I have got coming in.  Generally when I make a focus of my ability to bring in cash,  cash comes in.  I need to step this up right now as you know.  So I was babysitting for a friend last night and I took with me a bag load of my books.  Some on which chakra to focus on, some more about positive feelings being the way to manifest, and some like how to get rich books.  I read the Yoga book first, and well, I am pleased to say that on so many levels i am very glad to be getting back into my yoga again.  If I am looking at getting my financial life together (along with everything else, as its all interlinked) then Yoga is a good thing,

Then J woke up and I had to go and  settle him down again as he was crying.  He didn't want me to go away and so I ended up sitting there on the bed while he fell asleep (and it wasn't an instant thing, I would creep off and he would wake up again, so I just decided to stay there for a bit)  So I was getting bored and looking around, and there was a bookshelf in front of me, and its full of my friends books.  I can't see everything very clearly so I reach in and randomly pull a book out. Talk about manifestation,  Its called 'The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind' by T Harv Eker and 2 of my friends have mentioned it to me recently.  Cool.  The right tip for an evening spent studying ways to improve my wealth generation!

And indeed it is a very interesting book.  I have been reading it all day in my gallery job.  And am definately all fired up about some serious wealth creation!  One Idea I LOVE is that you have gotta think BOTH -  life not being either or, but asking the question, " How can I have both?" "How can I Do What I Love AND make a lot of money" or for me, "How can I go on this retreat AND have Hub feel great about it and support me whole heartedly in it"

And I like it because, it isn't all about being greedy or selfish to get wealthy.  It was about how to be of more use, to have more power, to HELP more people. So none of this depressing face reality or get harsh and selfish stuff.  But lots of the think creatively, take action (Ready, Fire Aim) and work it out as you go along.  Also it combines really nicely the whole, yes earn more money, but you also gotta save, and invest AND simplify your needs.  So for me it ticks  lots of boxes.  Am enjoying it.  One thing I also like is about money management.  It suggests you create a bank account for 'Financial Freedom" and you put in 10% of your income in there and this is used for investment purposes and buying passive income producing streams.  And you have a Financial Freedom jar in your house and you must put something into it daily, be it a penny or all your loose change or whatever.  To create the habit.  I like this. And then you also have a 10% which is PLAY money.  And you use this to spend on things that make you happy and FEEL Rich.  SO it balances your life and you don't feel at all deprived and likely to blow your savings.  Then he recommends 10% on long term savings for spending account.  10% for Education, 50% for necessities and 10% to your give account.  This he says means you can manage your money and be happy and be financially free on a much smaller amount of money than you thought.  And its worth setting up and doing even if you only have £1 a month to put in each account.  Just allocate something to it, and build up.

Anyway I am liking his thinking.  And I know Danielle La Porte somewhere said she liked naming her bank accounts with crazy outrageous and specific names... I want to set up an account somewhere called Financial Freedom Account.  I have in the past gone through long periods of saving 10% and it totally works.  (I also save 25% as I am self employed and I have to keep some back for tax). I definately want one of those jars in the house.  Cool.  And of course.  For me.  I am going to have a JAR for my Do What You Love Retreat fees.

I am also all psyched up for ACTION.  I have got a list of things to do. And I am doing them.  I did one today.  I contacted Dottie Angel to see if she would like me as a volunteer assistant on her retreat in Suffolk this summer.  Not only do I love her style and think I could be a good helper, but it is about seeing how different retreats work and meeting the artists/ craftspeople and workshop doers I admire. (another part of this books is all about learning by doing, getting involved, being there to see)

Dear Universe, Please can I Do What I Love?

Click here to visit Do What You Love.

Dear Universe

I firstly would like to thank you for coming up trumps with the Blue Dog Gallery job.  Most brilliant.  Cheers.

I was wondering if you might be able to help me out with something else?....

I would really like to go to the Do What You Love retreat in May.  Its a bit pricey for me at the moment, so I would love it if you could come up with some way of helping me out with achieving the funds necessary.  I believe that it will be a very, very good experience for me.

Click here to visit Do What You Love.

 Firstly,  for artistic reasons.  I totally would love to meet and work with Flora Bowley.  I singled her out from the Squam workshops journal (which I bought in lieu of actually going!)  as someone I aspire to be like.  She my Journalling my dreams pages here (its this one... . And seeing as she is American and normally only does workshops in America, it would be just so fab to be able to go to the workshop she is doing in THIS country this year.  It would mean a lot and I think I would really get a lot out of it.  See a review of her workshops by Kelly Rae Roberts here.  As you may know, Kelly Rae ran an ecourse called Flying Lessons (see button on my side bar for details, its now released as an ebook and is top banana)  I took Flying Lessons last year and it introduced me to a whole world of creative entrepreneurs (Amelia, Concetta, Maki as well as Beth and Louise)  and it started the whole, 'I want to go on a retreat / I want to start up a creative retreat'  seed in me. 

Click here to visit Do What You Love.

Secondly they are also running business development workshops for creatives like me.  It would be so fab to do the workshop with a whole bunch of similarly minded creative folks.  I think that both the workshop and the opportunity to mix with other creative business people would be really beneficial, and a real boost to my dream of earning a living from my creativitiy.

And another aspect is that I do still dream of running retreats myself, I would love to go on one, to see how it is, to experience it to see what is good about it, what I would do differently or the same.  I would love to meet Beth Nichols and talk to her about her experiences of it and also other people on the retreat like Louise Gale, and no doubt others, who have also done other retreats about their experiences.

And lastly because I would like to support Beth in her new business venture.  I am so impressed with how she has got this all together and how amazing it all looks.

So for those reasons, and possibly more, I would love to have YOUR support dear universe.  Please can you help me find a way to go on this retreat?

Lots of love from Moyra

Click here to visit Do What You Love.

wednesday luck

Hmm.  Yesterday I made a pledge to myself to let the UNIVERSE direct my life, and sort out my problems (such as they are) and today.  Well things are good.  I do feel more relaxed about stuff.  And jobs just keep coming my way.  I have some more label sewing to do.  Nothing fancy about this, but a surprisingly good piece work earner.  If only this were more regular.  I have 2 supergroups coming up.  And then, one of the ladies who organise stuff at the Hanover Centre asked me if I would be interested in being paid to run regular table top sales at the centre as a fundraising activity for them.  Seems like a win win to me.  I really would like a weekend job, so that we have that regular money coming in.  And then on top of that I just have to cobble together work that creates earnings in excess of £1000 a month.  Not massive earnings lets face it, but a good start and will help us survive through the irregularities of Hub's payments.  I really don't want a full time job.  I would have to give up my playgroup.  I love my playgroup.  Its so good.  I am so proud of it. Mainly its great because great people come, but I do make a right proper effort to be welcoming and friendly and I think it sets the tone.  Everyone all seems to chat with each other and get on really well.  One thing I was proud of today, in particular,  was that a lady who came right at the start, told me that she usually went to another, very local, playgroup and she wouldn't be coming to mine again as it clashes, and she was only here because of some reason or other.  Well, fair enough I thought, I'd go to my nearest too. Then, she didn't sign in for ages, and I got privately really annoyed with her for not paying and started to fret about how to go about reminding her to pay.  And then I just thought, you know what, if she forgets to pay, so what.  Its her Karma.  And I forgot about it.  Then, much later, she did pay, and when she did I started talking to her, and I found out she was from Iceland (I love Iceland, its an amazing place that I travelled to a while ago, so know a bit about it) and we had a great chat.  And right at the end of the session she said to me, "I am going to come back here again, its a really lovely playgroup".  I am so pleased I didn't get all mean about her not paying. She was lovely.  I don't want to give up my playgroup.  So I am not going to.  I am going to have faith that things I love doing are going to bring me money and income.  I will still be looking, but only for part time work.