Flourpot Charcoal

My brother is here to paint our house.  I had a whole heap of colour panics yesterday, but the fact that the colour label was missing from the tin and the Dulux colour matcher thing was being repaired, and the other paint shop place couldn't seem to match the paint either, turned out to be a good thing.  My brother being late also turned out to be a good thing too.  As the whole delay meant I waited to him to have him give his opinion on the paint colours as well.  The match pots I had just were not quite right, but I was about to plump for one or t'other as I knew I was going to have to buy the paint for him to start!

So in this whole meantime, I went to the Flourpot to buy some bread.  We had all agreed that this cafe was a good colour for us.  Me, my brother, my husband.  In fact this had been the colour we had been trying to match by eye!

So I was in there, buying bread, and thought I would ask them if they knew what colour the outside walls were painted.  The first girl didn't know, but the other one thought she knew who might know and took my number and offered to see if she could find out.

Later she texted me with "go to Johnstones paints on New England rd. ask for John and ask him for Flourpot Charcoal!  So later, my brother and I took the paint samples I had put on a bit of card and went there and compared the walls to the colours we had.  It was indeed the just right mix of the two but with a blue rather than a green tinge to it.  Definitely the colour we preferred.  So we dashed off at 4.30pm to Johnstones, John was there and sorted us out with paint.  It turns out that its a match for a Farrow & Ball colour.  So if anyone is interested, we are about to paint our house "off black"  yup.  a blooming Flourpot charcoal house! We have a veyr bright pink door and I think its going to look fab.  HA! well I blooming hope so.  Its been something I've been thinking about for several years now.  And whatever happens it will most definitely look better than the very grubby in need of a filling wall that we had before.

If you are interested in the whole Ideas for My home board I have built on pinterest.  Its here.

Will share pics of course!

With regard to the 29 gifts.  Still going.  I haven't been counting the days.  I am not sure where I am at.  I did give a gift on Tuesday. -  I tipped heavy on my morning coffee and donated to the charity they support too.  Wednesday.... I gave my undivided attention to a mum at school and listened to her air her grievances. Being off facebook is just great.  I am still horrified by the whole Brexit fiasco.  I believe the Chalcot report has added to the general hoo ha of bad politics.  Am feeling best well out of it.  There is not much I feel I can do about any of it, and getting angrier and more upset is not going to help anyone. 

The funny thing is that I seem to be being given gifts myself. On Monday, a friend offered to take Bub and give him tea and all for no reason, and yesterday,  I was given a pair of brand new shoes for my son (as another child's feet grew too much for them before they were even worn).   And I asked our builder chap if I could hire his ladder. I need one and was prepared to hire it from HSS but thought I'd ask him instead.  He refused money and insisted that we borrow it for a couple of days as he wasn't using it.  (I rounded his fee up some  - maybe i can buy him a bottle of wine? he's a nice man)

Monday Monday: Money, 29Gifts, 5:2 and what happened to June

So no blues for me, as it happens.  I am in a beautiful space - Jane's Place -  will post photos if I can.  I have hired it for the day to work.  I have to write a report, but looking at the work I have done so far, I somehow think I may have got further with it than I had previously thought.  In fact.  I maybe have done it.

We will see.  And so am having a cup of tea and writing this.  I am back on the 5:2.  June was a mad mad hectic month for me.  I did Suffolk Open Studios and went away on an art retreat.  I also worked a lot and went out a lot.  I saw a play written by someone I know AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE no less.  And blimey it was brilliant!  (The Suicide by Suhayla El-Bushra) Only thing was I went to see if after a day that had started at 5.30am.  And I coached a lot of people that day, more than I normally do, so I was exhausted.  And getting back at past midnight was all a bit much.  On top of that because I was away so much Hub got pissed off with me, saying I was 'gallavanting' and all.  Which was true, of course. I kind of was, but also working and it all just came at once.  All of it had been organised months before, and it just piled up. So I felt really tired, but got no sympathy or respite because Hub had lots of work on and an exam to revise for and wasn't feeling much sympathy to said gallavanting.  Anyways, that's all over now, and it was my main excuse for halting the 5:2.  I did do about 4 -5 weeks and I did shed some kilos and some inches.  I now have a 5:2 buddy here in Brighton and am back in the game.

Being off facebook is really great.  It had become a frenzied place with the referendum and emotions were very high, and very low too.  I was not enjoying many of the posts about what a disaster it all was.  I know some people did vote to leave for non racist reasons and perhaps they were happy.  But Boris Johnson certainly didn't seem happy.  So given he was the leader of the Leave campaign, says it all to me.  I think that they all deserved the drubbing they got for that whole sordid affair.  And now lets see what happens.  But I am feeling good to be well out of it.  29 gifts is likewise going well.  I have to admit that I didn't manage anything specific on Saturday, or I could say I gifted a friend with some quiet time by looking after her son all Saturday afternoon.  I'm not sure.  I think I am going to give myself the benefit of the doubt  -ha another gift! be gentle and compassionate with yourself as well as others.   Yesterday I gave Hub the gift of going to buy him fish and chips, with my spending money (we are running a budget! take outs count as treats!) as he was very busy with work.  

Am still loving The Art of Money.  Looking forward to reading more of that later.  We are onto the practical stuff next.  But I have to say that I am very happy with our pot system.  Both Hub and I have a pot each with £50 cash in.  This is our spending money.  We have another pot with £50 cash in which is for food and household items.  We know what is a treat (which comes from our own spending pots) and what is not.  And we talk about it if we are not sure.  We decided yesterday that a lunch out with Ted's cousin who was visiting Brighton for the day, was sort of a treat but also unavoidable.  And its going into the food budget.  Or possibly will have its own pot of 'Entertaining".  This is not a frugality exercise, but it is a tracking one.  Awareness is key.  Though, it is helping with not being exessive with our own spending.  I have not bought quite a few coffees out already! Go me.  

We have also signed up to Xero accounting and this is also part of being a Money Maestress (I invented that word.  Hope it makes sense!)  

Good Morning World

I am not supposed to be listening to politics or that sort of news.  But Hub is very interested in it so he tells me that there is talk of a new political party being set up with the express purpose of keeping the UK in the EU.  Funny old times.

On other news Wales beat Belgium 3-1.  Go the Wales.  Playing as a team, knowing what each of their strengths are and placing them in a positicion to play to those strengths.  Lots to be learned there.

Feels personally a little raw around the Art of Money edges.  It appears that I am not earning (since April anyways) as much as I thought I was earning.  June was fantastic.  But April and May were not.  March was damn fine as it happens,  but we decided to look at what we had earned since April.    So it brought my average way down.  I don't work in the holidays and this contributed.  And so on and so on.   I am learning to roll with these ups and downs.  But I smarted a little when it was shown up like this and knocked my confidence a bit.  So Art of Money says to get into your body and feel the feelings and notice where all the shame stories come from.  Allow them but don't be ruled by them.  Getting real is good, berating myself and shaming myself because I "shoud be doing better" is not helpful.

I need to teach how to earn fabulous amounts of money in concise amounts of time.  And the other thing I want to teach is how to earn money from things that - I am not sure how it is phrased.  But that is not me charging for my time.  But me earning from something that can be sold over and over.  So this is the question.  Keeping positve and Keep moving.

And 29 days and 29 gifts.  Am still off facebook which feels good.  And I need to think of another gift to give today.  I baby sat last night.  Which is money in the baby sitting bank, so to speak.

A gift to give away today..... let the opportunity arise.  And dear darling universe.  Let the opportunity arise that I may match my husband's income - and when I say that I mean that this year I would like for us both to earn more than he earned himself last year.  (a while ago I wished I would earn more than him and he started earning less than me! Not this time)  And dearest darlingest universe.  I would like for the opportunity to arise that shows me how I can earn passive income, unrelated to my hours and days. Namaste. 

a day off

Today had been full.  But now it has gaps.  I have given my gift already.  The woman in our neighbourhood who started the Hanover Community Noticeboard.  This is a FB group  -so I am not going there just now.  Actually its an awesome place to give gifts as anything you want to give away you just post it up and someone comes and gets it.  Or you can sell stuff.  Its a really cool thing.  So there was a write up about it in the local newspaper, "Hanover, is just a state of mind" it read.  She later posted that as she had been away she didn't have a IRL copy.  I kept it for her.  So today as well as that, which I was going to drop around anyway, I popped a few extra things in the envelope and wrote a note.  And walked round to pop it through her door.  Yes it felt good.

So in my gaps I have been reading The Art of Money and other interesting things.  I came across this quote.  "Teach what you most need to learn, no one learns more than the teacher".  Apparently its from A Course in Miracles.  I haven't read it.  I think its a weighty tome.  But perhaps its getting nearer.  I have had an enquiry from a couple who need Business Coaching (and the organisational side of this in particular) and they have created a game that is based on A Course in Miracles.  I think I might like it, given it seems to have influenced quite a few writers whose books I have read.

And this quote,  "Teach what you most need to Learn"  is something I oft recite with regard to my teaching productivity and organisation! Ha!  I am a creative, I proliferate wildy.  I need to edit muchly. Focus and Follow through are my challenge....

So I teach that.  I think the next thing I want to teach is how to set up and run a phenomenally successful light touch business that is fun to work in and makes lots of money with ease and delight.  That would be ace cool.   So - I will be working on that. 

29 Gifts day 2. And notes on The Art of Money for us

Yesterday I almost didn't give anything away.  In a way I didn't, not especially, not like a thing.  I thought about it all day and even that really helped.  I so enjoyed not being on facebook and hearing the days politics gone over and over.  Its a relief to get back to the day to day business of living.  Living my politics so to speak.  I had arranged to so coaching session with a friend which had been part of my assignement for my Business & Leadership coaching course.  Because it had been a while since we had last spoken it was also a little bit of a catch up, and given the events of late it was hard not to discuss how we were both feeling.  I told her how i had decided to stop going over how bad it all was and focus on the 29 gifts as a way of taking back my own optimism.  And she kindly pointed out that this coaching session was a gift of my time.  So that was what I gave away yesterday.  My time and expertise.  Though I admit it was quite an informal session and because of her optimism I actually got a lot out of it. Perhaps that is what it is all about, when you give you get. 

She was really hopeful, and was welcoming the change in the air and saw it as an opportunity.  So that was really refreshing.  We both managed to steer clear of any pessimistic thoughts!

Today I am - excited can't be the right word.... but I am actually very delighted.  A bit delighted.  Well I just recognise that my Hub and I have reached a point where we are going to have a finance and budgeting meeting.  We have actually agreed how this will work.  We AGREED it.  It is in fact momentous, because being able to talk about money is SOOOO HARD.  Or can be, and certainly has been for us.  So, for any of you who see this Money Work as actually proper spiritual, psychological stuff, this is a big and good thing for us.  We are, at our ripe old age HA, being adult about it. 

So far, we have 3 spending pots in the kitchen.  One is for household and food items bought locally by cash.  And we both have a weekly allowance each, in cash.  We have also agreed guideline budgets for other things such as.. now, what are they = oh yes,  Clothing; Personal Care; Learning & Development, Christmas & Gifts.  Because we like to spend differently (I am more inclined towards travel, trips and holidays - he is more inclined to splash out big on birthdays and Christmas)  We can save up to spend on these things over and above the guidelines.  Its experimental at the moment.  But for me, this is major.  Before any conversation we had was ended with   -well we have to earn more money!  -which we do, and part of our financial meeting is to look at that - but there was never any consideration to looking at how we spent the money we had and how we prioritised that.  That was something that was just not allowed to be discussed as it was seen as being stingy and mean. 

So   -just to balance this ridiculous glee at an agreed spending budget, and the fact that we can both agree on it.  We also have in place a structure to discuss income.  We will be looking at what we both earned each month, and what is due in the month to come.  We have a basic target to meet that will cover our expenses.  And so if we are not meeting that we need to really come up with ideas to do so.  Then if that is being met, we have good and ultimate targets to meet.  To keep us moving forward.  And so the idea is, we start to gain control over our finances.  We can track the spending and the income, know where we are and make informed decisions based on facts.  Sigh.  Can't tell you how happy this makes me.  Being a couple can make all this very tricky!! But we have buy in.  From both of us, on both counts.  Becuase it will only work if we both take part.  I am so proud of us. 

Coincidentally I am reading Bari Tesler's book, The Art of Money.  I am a bit fascinated by her work - she is a "Financial Therapist"  and combines the psycholigical with the nuts and bolts practicalities.  And its something that really interests me.  Has done for a while actually.  I am interested by how she managed to combine her spiritual psychological somatic coaching life with that of being a book keeper.  Its not exactly the same as my life path, but I have this wild creative messy side and this side that wants to tidy up and keep track and be very nuts and bolts and getting stuff done.  And there is no way I am giving either up! So its an interesting read.  And given where Hub and I have got to, and what she advocates, I am again, doubly proud of us.  We rock. 

And just in case you are interested in reading a few good books on this subject.  I recommend these;
The Soul of Money, Overcoming Underearning and this video by Charles Davis whose course, Creative with Money I did.  

So  - day 2.  28 gifst to go.  Giving something away today.  I shall muse upon it and let you know tomorrow what happened.  xxx

Facebook abstinence and the 29 gifts

I posted in facebook that I am leaving for 29 days.  I am really feeling deeply upset by the political situation right now in this country.  I live in a social media bubble of likeminded friends.  Not surprisingly of course, but most of them are as depressed about it as I am.  And are sharing things that reinforce the same things that are upsetting and worrying me at night.  Stuff like the chaos of our political system, how sad it is to be leaving Europe, what an arse Nigel Farage is, how much we have been lied to, how not very good, or very good Jeremy Corbyn is, but either way how much the Labour Party want him to resign.  And how the media are biased.  How racism is emboldened by this result.  How much of an idiot Trump is but on the other hand how much Hilary is not that likeable.  And so on and so on.  I live in a bubble in Brighton as well.  So the people I meet in the street feel the same.  Our MP is already on my side, or I am on hers.  Brighton voted to remain.  It all feels out of my control and as if this country is at odds with who I am.  And I just don't know what to do about it.  And that sense of helplessness is just not helping me sleep at night. 

The best  response I have seen is about living your politics by what you do, what you say and what you consume.  And the only thing that has inspired me lately was some children in Bristol going out and practicing random acts of kindness.

A few years back, thanks to Andrea Sher's recommendation, I read a book called The 29 Gifts. Its about a woman who heals herself by  - every day - for 29 days - giving a gift.  It doesn't have to be large, it doesn't have to be a thing.  But if you miss a day you have to start the 29 days all over again.  And it changes her life and helps her recover from a medical condition.  I tried it and it was wonderful.  Takes the focus off yourself and changes how you percieve yourself in the world.  For me that time I did it, it just made me feel so wealthy, so abundant. 

So I am resigning from facebook for 29 days.  And I am starting my own 29 gifts campaign.  I shall be finding out how to get an Irish passport as I personally want to remain an EU citizen and I believe I have the option of dual nationality. 

If you haven't read The 29 Gifts I would highly recommend it.  As I am a communication addict I intend to write about it here.  I am in recovery.  I want my bouyant, happy, optimistic self back.  Let that be my country.  I want it back. 

And seeing as I am such a social media addict.  I seem to have created a community on Follr.me for this activity.  If you want to join me there then please do.  Here's the link.  http://follr.me/MoyraScott

Namaste Y'all. 

Brexit

So.  Its a funny space to be in.  I am actually feeling depressed about it.  Proper heavy low feeling.  I keep thinking I want to drink a lot of wine.  Which then makes me feel like an alcoholic.  I am not going to drink wine, as it feels like the wrong thing to do.  Besides I did that on Friday and Monday and it hasn't really made things better.  I know that happiness is a choice.  So I need to decide to be happy.  And think of all the good things.  Like how lucky I am and how I have my health and my youth (compared to some! ha!) and I even have a house to live in, plenty of food and work I love to do.  So I am lucky.   I love my work.  I love my family.  I love my friends.  I love Brighton.  I love dancing and I went dancing this very morning.  During that dancing for a while I genuinely smiled with real joy. 

I have absolutely no idea what to do about the whole Brexit fiasco.  I am utterly dissapointed with the politicions we have  - apart from Caroline Lucas and  - it appears  -most of the Scottish MPs.  I particularly like Nicola Sturgeon and wish I could vote for her.  She seems to have her head on straight. 

I have already voted for Caroline Lucas.  I guess I should consider who my MEP is.  While we still have them.  I can apply for an Irish passport and should it come to pass that the UK leaves the EU I will most definitely want to remain an EU citizen. 

What else.  I have signed a few petitions.  I could write to the Labour party.  And the Torys.  I really really want to keep the NHS well funded.  And fight for a good education system for the country.  I spose.  It feels fairly paltry.  But hey.  I feel that ACTION is the way forward.  Its hard to be depressed if you are actually doing something.  Harder anyway.

And the other thing I am going to do is keep thinking of positive things.  LIke those kids who did random acts of kindness.  And I think I will do some of those too.  I did that 29 things a while back.  I think I will start that again. 

that's all from me.  Brexit Schmexit.