Dust off an old Dream

Thanks again to Nicole Antoinette for shaking up my world yesterday. Her blog post was all about redefining failure. Instead of viewing failure as not achieving our goals, we should view failure as not stating or chasing after your goals in the first place. Hear here!

Nicole suggested you ask yourself these questions (among others), "Who do I want to be?", "What do I want to experience?" and "How can I fully show up for myself?" Each question was it's own summit to climb and I stared at that first question for what probably added up to hours in total.

Of course I wanted to distract myself, to check my emails or walk away, but I sat there and determined not to move until the question was answered. Who do I want to be? Who DO I want to be? Dammit I don't know!

I knew I didn't want to be employed. I think wage slavery is a mugs game I've been playing far too long, but I've never been one of those people who had a talent they could make money from. I have researched a MULTITUDE of home-businesses from sewing to market stalls but never found one that could make a comparable income.

A few years ago I quit my administration job to become a kennel-hand; this was by FAR the closest I had ever been fulfilled by my employment (I love animals), but in the end seeing all the good animals put down every week was too much to bear. At least I found my beloved Winstan there and I managed to save just one.

Winstan lying on Jess

So all I had to go on was: I want to be self employed and I want to help animals. Then the little light bulb went on over my head; although the better analogy would be, then the fog cleared away and I could see the light bulb over my head. You see I remembered rather than realised that I have always wanted to run an animal sanctuary. Big or small, it doesn't matter.

However everyone had always said, "You can't do that, they're money pits" which, of course is true. So I chalked it up to a pipe dream and forgot all about it. Until yesterday.

So here, now, I say to you all. I WILL have an animal sanctuary. And if I don't make it, at least I tried, and then I haven't failed at all.

#restyle2013 catchup

wow I have fallen behind. But the good news is I have lots of photos to show you just how good op-shopping can be!

The Perth Fashion Festival has released its programme dates and I can't wait to attend the Restyle on the Runway show again this year. The Op-Shop Challenge for August 6th was accessorise and since they already have separate days for belts, shoes and bags I decided to buy a beautiful little brooch from The Salvos in Morley (cost: $7). 

August 7th called for customised items; clothes that may not be 100% perfect but are able to be updated to suit your wardrobe.
I've already shown you my customised pink trousers which were originally flared when I bought them. After a few years of less and less wear I have now taken in the legs to make them straighter.

Another (and far easier) example of customising an item that you like but doesn't fit perfectly is the floral dress shown here. I loved the blue/teal floral pattern on this white dress but the fit was made for someone far bustier than myself. After playing around with the gaping bodice a few times I realised that a quick and easy way to take in the excess fabric would be to hand stitch in an extra pleat. All this required was a couple of stitches which changed the neckline from v-neck to sweetheart; removing the gape at the same time.

Here's a closeup of the stitches.

I'll be back with more op-shopped goodies tomorrow!

How important is routine for a productive life?

I think the answer to this one might be subjective, but I'm interested in how people manage their time in a day-to-day manner. I'm not sure if most people would like to accomplish more each day but I certainly would. To be honest I completely begrudge every minute spent at work because it could be time spent doing things I like, and selling my time to pay the bills seems like a pretty wasteful thing to do with my life (but that's another post entirely!)

The thing is, I used to be a shift worker which came with a lot of negatives like not seeing friends or visiting The Paddock regularly. I tended to work short shifts though: about 6 hours usually from very early in the morning or from after lunch through to evening which always left me with half a day to do my own thing.

Now I'm working full time hours I get half as much done at home - I'm too tired to get stuck into anything tricky like sewing after the 10-hour round trip to work and back. The dogs are lucky to get a trip to the park in the dark! So that leaves my weekends which I tend to fill with socialisation with friends and family, trips to The Paddock or Rest & Relaxation if I haven't had any for a while. I miss my half-day time slots to sew something or otherwise set time aside for a task.

I kept thinking once I had settled into a new routine at work I would get back to making things but that all seems to have ground to a halt. How do other people manage to do the things they want AND have a job, be a parent etc.? Do you make routine work for you?

First Post Introduction

Inspired by Leo Babauta from ZenHabits I am hereby beginning an attempt to write every day (well, at least every WEEK day). Encouraged to give my rambling thoughts some sense of order I decided to start this blog.

I don’t feel like a ‘natural’ blogger because I am quite a shy person at heart. Also my only previous experience ‘writing’ has been in a diary I kept as a child/teen and some essay writing for various courses I have studied over my life.

See? Already I want to go back and delete the previous paragraph. My inner voice is being critical; “who cares?” and “you don’t write well enough to be interesting”.

Well, it’s a start. I’ve actually considered writing a blog before, but what to write it about? Lack of topics isn’t exactly a problem for me, I have varied interests but compartmentalise my life to such a degree that combining all these topics had just not crossed my mind. That is, until now.

So I will be attempting to blog about these subjects which are close to my heart (these are NOT in any kind of order):

Self-sustainable living

Fashion: with a heavy leaning toward Rockabilly and Vintage

Sewing and other D.I.Y.

Anarchism and Self-Management

Practicing Buddhism

Being Vegetarian (I’m a vegan wannabe)

Dogs and Animal Welfare

Permaculture

Running and other awesome sports like roller derby

Alternative lifestyles

I’m sure there is a lot of ground I will cover otherwise too, as this process unfolds.

Most of all I want to be honest. Honest with you and honest with me. I haven’t always been honest to myself, or those who love me. I want to lose the fear I have of ‘everything coming out’, I don’t know why but I’m afraid if I truly let people get to know me, then they won’t like me anymore.

So I have ‘work’ friends and ‘girl’ friends and ‘couple’ friends but only a handful of people in the world know all the dark parts about me that I usually gloss over. They are the people who have seen me at my worst and have stuck around. True friends. I’m lucky to have even a handful of such amazing people.

Let me finish by introducing some of my favourite blogs/sites of the moment:

The Rockabilly Girl Next Door

ZenHabits

No Meat Athlete

JuliaBobbin

PLEASE feel free to leave any comments, good or bad, all criticism is welcome and will be taken constructively. OK, for total honesty, I will attempt to take all criticism constructively, but if I feel any rage rising I'll go back and read one of my favourite ZenHabits on A Method for Beating Anger, then I'll come back and reply from a better mental place. xxx