Place: Kym Rolle’s Palace 

Poison: Chardonnay and Cigar (only joking) 

Favourite Things: Oprah Magazine 

After a big day in the office, I have retired to kym’s house for a glass of wine and some idol action! 

ahhh, anyways my Oprah subscription arrived in perfect timing yesterday to inspire this tired creative soul. 

This poem stopped me in my tracks. 

I will not die an unlived life 

I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. 

I choose to inhabit my days, 

to allow my living to open me, 

to make me less afraid, more accessible 

to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, 

a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance, 

to live so that which came to me as a seed goes to the next as a blossom, 

and that which came to me as a blossom, goes on as fruit. (Dawna Markova) 

I love to live my life with a bigger perspective. I want to live with the understanding that ‘we were all destined to nourish and grow that which is given.’ I long to be someone who leaves an imprint where I have tramped, to care for and bring life to all parts of my world. 

I long to live without fear, nourishing the souls of all that come accross my path, not just some. 

I want to be more accessible as a person, so that I can live beyond myself. 

Despite the pain, to be discontent unless I am growing! 

Challenged… 

A

The lovely women at Full Gospel Assembly did this promo for a speaking engagement I did for their women last month. The Afternoon tea was beautiful, the women who came even more special and the deco’s, event management was supreme.

Its very Jamie Oliver, check it out! click here: promo for speaking

Love ya

A

Place: My Bedroom 

Poison: Water 

Favourite Thing: this room! 

Well the Mont Blanc catalogue gives us one more quote, which is from the pen of Sir Albert Einstein. Its great! 

‘Chopping wood is so popular because it is an activity in which you see the results immediately’ 

GOLD! 

How much do we as humans struggle with delayed gratification? How often do we stop creating, because it is tedious and time consuming? 

I am so guilty of this. Ask my mum. Sewing, I throw away the patterns and just cut it, how I think it should go. Cooking, no measurements lets just throw it all together. Pottery, can’t we bring it out of the kiln yet? Marriage, seriously are there any men out there? 

I think the best things in life do take time and patience. With our creativity, yes chopping wood may be satisfactory because the results are so immediate, however what about the patience it takes to carve a statue out of wood, whittling down a massive trunk to be a unique and foreboding work of art. 

What areas of creativity do you need to develop patience in? 

Mine? Most! 

Ahhhhhh, the pleasure and the pain of creativity. 

Squirming 

A 

Place: 130’s café 

Poison: Latte (PS they have a new coffee machine- NICE) 

Favourite Things: Still the Mont Blanc catalogue 

This poem speaks for itself, out of the Mont Blanc catalogue, which I picked up in Dubai from our hotel. 

‘Writing is an expression of individuality. 

Writing captures the thought with which we exercise influence, achieve success and express feelings. 

Writing is an expression of a society’s culture. 

Ancient cultures were passed down through handwriting. Written texts are the legacy of a society to its future generations. 

What you write with expresses your personality. 

Writing with a special instrument is a celebration of your own thoughts and denotes a unique personal writing culture.’ 

I am all for celebrating ‘a unique writing culture’. As much as I appreciate the technologies of our age, I think it is sad that handwriting is considered an ancient form of expression. 

Our handwriting does express individuality, and I believe whole-heartedly that journaling, hand writing letters and expressing directly from our hearts is something that you rob the next generation if it is not expressed. 

I also believe, when you hand write something it unlocks something in your heart, just as singing a song rather than just hearing it does something to our souls. 

Write dear friend, 

You never know what is awaiting expression. 

Yours Sincerely 

A 

Check out these spunks, post the bloke! This is my department. Let me introduce them to you.

Jen- (my little sis) Events Administrator

Me- (random)

Clare- Visual Arts Team Leader

Hayley- Weekend Service Coordinator

Simone- Event Coordinator

Lying on top- Danni- Hospitality Manager

Aren’t they beautiful!

I love em

A

Place: Home on my couch 

Poison: Diet Coke 

Favourite Things: Mont Blanc Catalogue 

Flicking through the latest Mont Blanc Catalogue, I have found quite a few quotes that I would love to write about over the next few days. 

First one- 

Helmut Hahn (not sure who this guy is, if anyone knows, make a comment) 

‘Creativity has to do more with the elimination of the inessential than inventing something new.’ 

Wow, that’s so profound. For a creative soul like mine, that is so baffling. How much of my life do I spend trying to muster up something new, a fresh idea? Yet Helmut believes its about eliminating the inessential rather than finding something new. 

How does this relate to me? I suppose new ideas and fresh approaches come when I clean out the distracting clutter that hides the sparkle of a different idea. 

My flat mate Elly is shifting out, (so sad, so sad- she is married in a couple of weeks) in the midst of that we are both eliminating the inessentials that we have both collected in the two years that we have lived together. 

However, as she packs and throws out, it is making space for new stuff that I need, but also gives me a fresh canvas to do some new things we my environment and the surrounds. 

This is relevant for all areas of our creativity. Get rid of the inessential and you never know what that dust may uncover. 

Much Love 

A 

Place: Tarts North Perth 

Poison: Water with fresh mint 

Favourite Things: thinking about my 30^th Birthday 

I have been planning all day today for my upcoming milestone of my 30^th birthday. Being an event coordinator, I don’t want to be one of those people whose skills are only expressed throughout work hours.  E.g. School Teacher whose kids never do homework, Plumber whose bathroom leaks, A Chef who eats take-out! Even though my job is event management I want my birthday weekend to be creative, fresh, celebratory, quirky and filled with my favourite things. The problem is every funky idea that I come up with keeps going pear shaped. I am putting more effort and thought into this weekend than anything that I am doing at the moment. 

Many random ideas have been floated but none of them have flown!

In the midst of brainstorming though I wrote a list of my favourite things to help me with the 30^th birthday celebrations. Here it is:  

Favourite things: My Family esp. Jackson, vanilla candles, sheet music, flowers, body butter, the green tea cup club, coffee, milk’d café, friends, long walks on the beach, cooking, charlotte and molly, cabbage patch kids (not really they make me laugh), white wine, 130’s cafe, travel, aeroplanes, my travel journal, thinking about travel, oriental lillies, avocado, pumpkin soup, writing, antique shops, my granma, knitting, my dad’s harley, my piano, licorice, chicken salad, mango, walking, parasols, hot water bottles, chai, auckland, ikea, theatre, el rancho relaxo, long lazy breakfasts, christmas day lunch, spring blossoms, aqua blue, magazines, slippers, old books, the bible, the church, praying, finding out something new, meeting old friends, painting, life, architecture, wisdom!

Favourite things, make me smile.

A

Place: Milkd 

Poison: Skinny Cappuccino 

Favourite Things: Red Bracelet from Greece from Rose! 

I was reading late into the night last night a chapter that talked about Abraham Lincoln (former president of USA) and all the failure that preceded his presidency.  I could bore you with all the details, but what I was mostly inspired about was year in, year out, the amount of times that he failed, was defeated, was told no way will you ever be president!

 It totally inspired and spun me out! We are talking about decades of defeat, not just years. He keep stepping up to plate and kept on failing, yet he continued to put his dream out there.  How often do we give up after one NO, after one decline, after one word of discouragement? I don’t want to be someone who is naively pursuing dreams in life that are truly unattainable. Yet I also do not want to be someone who quits after a few set backs that try to take the wind out of my sails. There are areas of my life where I have seen failure, where I have had set back after set back, yet I am determined to press on towards the goal and the prize. Failure is not something to be ashamed of. It is definitely something that we should not ignore and allow the shape of it to define needed change. But it is not the summation of your efforts. It is merely part of the journey. 

Fail brilliantly dear friend, you never know one day you might just make presidency! 

A    

Place: My Office 

Poison: Long Macciato 

Favourite Things: Claudine on the phone 

Do you live your everyday with a sense of expectation and thankfulness for the good in the world? Or with a cynical heart that sees all the brokenness and carries the baggage of past hurts? 

I am the world’s biggest Christmas groupie! 

I love the food, the family stuff, the presents and the smells, basically the whole package! 

One traditional picture that is created at Christmas ‘The Three Wise Men’ is one of my favourites. The gospel of Matthew describes them as scholars, they are obviously very important, special, men of wisdom yet they humbly make a massive effort to walk to this random shed out in the middle of no where, carrying expensive gifts of frankincense and myrrh, yet the scripture says that they were filled with a sense of wonder and awe. 

The message version of the bible says that ‘they could hardly contain themselves.’ These were our equivalent of fortune 500, business men, who humbled themselves and had wonder and awe, as they travelled towards a new born baby. 

In the natural, a smelly, animal infested stable, a baby, a mother and father, a long, frustrating walk following a star, which I am sure hid from them often. In the spiritual, the birth of a king, so purposed that this infant was to change the course of eternity, three grown, and men full of wisdom humbled themselves in wonder and awe. 

Just the Sunday night gone I was reminded how I was when I first came to Riverview, I was chatting with a lady after the service, and she was telling me how she normally goes to the Catholic Church and how this week she knew she just had to come to Riverview. She said she ran over to her neighbour’s house, because he comes to Riverview, and said take me to your church tonight. She was in awe of what was happening here at Riverview and was so inspired, she was breath taken in wonder, and was so refreshed by church being done differently! 

For us at Riverview Church, a random warehouse in Burswood, Perth Western Australia, a company of people who come together all with our brokenness, ability to hurt, our baggage, people who sit in your seat, people who play the wrong chords, people who break things, maybe who do not encourage you after you’ve given your heart out to serve. 

In the spiritual, a heavenly transaction which is so full of purpose, where hearts and lives are changed eternally! That is a picture of wonder and awe… So whatever it is that you have become to familiar with friend, your church, your spouse, your mum and dad, choose to come to them with a sense of wonder and awe. 

When you do this, you realise that God has set purpose right at the very core of those people and the church. And that he is always working to bring everything together for good for those who love and trust him. 

WonderFULL 

A