Gypsy Queen

It was such a beautiful weekend - weather wise - that I decided to take my art outdoors.  Setting up, I just invited my muse along and we made played with colour.  It was so meditative that I found 5 hours had gone and it was time to think about dinner!  This is Gypsy Queen and I'm loving her hair, thanks to the tulip paints I can now add lots of dimensions into my paint.  I am still adoring my prismacolour pencils - the best thing I ever came across.  i could spend so much on art, craft materials - it's so expensive and yet so worth it. I also put some finishing touches to PInk Lady, the copper hair is a first for me! 

Nearing 10,000 words

It has been over two weeks since I last wrote here.  I think that this blogging malarkey is working because I have been beavering away on my handbook/guidebook/manual.  So far I'm nearing 10,000 words, and I'm liking the way it's going.  This started out as a challenge to get this done before I go home to UK and it's looking like I may be getting there. Three weeks have passed and I have achieved a fair bit.

What I'm finding very interesting is the flow process I find myself in when I sit down to write.  What normally happens and this has evolved, is I will proof and edit what I wrote the day before.  This gets me into the mindset of where I was up to and what things I had been saying.  I also have a word doc on my desktop that I add to when I'm about to stop writing for the day, so that I can go and check on this first thing the next day, or the next session.  

At the moment I'm writing all the time, in the morning, through the afternoon and in the evening, taking regular breaks, drinking lots of water and eating almonds (plus other stuff of course)  All good brain food. 

And so what I have right now is a working doc, that is taking the form of "8 Steps to creating your Personal Statement for University".  I'm on step 7 right now.  I started with the steps and the activities, then I will put the coat on the rest of the book, the introduction, the references, the links, the FAQ's, the Index.  

This came to my attention today and I find it very interesting:

From Jon Kremer’s free book marketing newsletter: In 2009, traditional publishing produced 288,355 titles and print-on-demand (POD) services produced 764,448. Traditional publishers published 45,000 novels, 32,300 childrens' books, 19,300 religion titles, 15,400 science titles, and 26,000 economics titles. The top POD publishers were CreateSpace (21,819 titles), Lulu.com (10,386 titles), Xlibris (10,161), AuthorHouse (9,445 titles), and PublishAmerica (5,689 titles). 

I found this quote on word document and not sure where I found it.... sorry to whomever

"I have decided today to change my definition of success.  Instead of measuring it in ££ Pounds, I decided that the best way to be a success would be to spend as much time doing what I love.   That way even if I didn’t make lots of of money at least I would love what I was doing., happy from moment to moment".

I think that's me. <3

2 Days mindblooming.

Yesterday was a real mindblooming day.  So much so, I couldn't get to sleep last night because my mind was still churning about the handbook.  Still not sure if it's a workbook, guidebook or handbook. I'll have to ponder on that one.  It's definitely going to be something that a prospective university applicant can work through, either young person, or mature student.  I have been collating all my own notes, reference material and inspirational exercises which will encourage the reader to begin the process of unlocking the creative statement within.  It's going to be an interesting few weeks as I continue to transfer ideas, formula from written page to mac.     Found a great quote today from 'Why do bad things happen' by Gordon Smith (the Psychic Barber)

"When crap happens, just stand above the situation and say "Is that mine? No. Then don't take it on or own it, its not yours, just roll up your sleeves and get on with things". [p51]  I quite like this because recently I've been thinking in too much detail about a particular problem and it's actually not mine, it's someone else's - so I'm going to take this valuable lesson and apply it - see how it fits.

And so - "It's not mine, I'm not taking it on, I'm not owning it, I'm going to get on with my own things today"   There, I feel better.  Have good good Friday x