Encourage Yourself

It's very easy to beat yourself up and feel horrible about yourself
We need to remember that we must encourage ourselves

We have to be careful what we think about and what we say

Let's not focus on the past you may not be able to do anything about it but you can do something about your future.  Feeling guilty all the time will not make you a better person. When you are feeling bad about yourself, you are most likely to make another mistake.
We need to continue to press forward because guilt will steal your joy

Don't allow what others say about you put you down

"Your value doesn't go down because someone mistreated you" Joel Osteen


So what are some good ways to encourage yourself?

1) Treat yourself
It's ok to do something that you enjoy paint your nails, go out for a coffee, get a facial

2) Spend time with good friends
Make sure you spend time with people who lift you up and encourage you. It's not wise to spend time with people who put you down and don't understand the dreams that you have for your life.

3) Be careful what you say about yourself
It's very easy to talk bad about yourself but this is something that we really cannot do because the way see ourselves is how others will see you.

4) Watch or read something that makes you laugh

There are plenty of ways to encourage yourself

Encourage Others

I don't know about you but I really enjoy encouraging others you never know what someone is going through. 

You might be the person who brightens up their day!

Just smiling at the person who serves you your morning coffee is a encouragement to them. 

I love making cards! So I like to make a nice card and write something to a friend and a mail it to them because let's be honest in this day and age it's very rare to receive a letter in the mail that's not a bill

No one has ever overdosed on encouragement 

So what are some great ways we can encourage others 

1) Compliment someone 

2) Write a nice note or email to someone 

3) Send someone flowers 

4) Bake some cupcakes and hand them out to your coworkers 

5) Smile at someone

There are many other ways to encourage people and I'm sure that you can think of plenty other ways too. 

I believe that it is very important to make everyday count and I think that helping others is a great way to spend time. It may not seem like a big deal smiling at someone but you never know what that person may be going through.

 Let's choose to deposit hope and joy everywhere we go

Growing up in the 90's

I was cleaning out my room and I found all of my CD's when I was kid I started to listen to them again and remembered every dance move from the Spice Girls song "Stop"

Did anyone else have the dolls or giant shoes?

I must admit I am excited for the Spice Girl's musical I'm hoping that it will come here in Australia

Another thing I remembered that I loved was Daria! My friend recently got me the box set for me and I loved every minute of it

What about the Backstreet boys? LOVED them! I had a huge crush on Nick Carter lol

Did anyone else play Crash bandicoot religiously?

It was a great trip down memory lane!

What are some of your favourite things you remembered growing up?

Did you have a stamp collection?

Let us know we would love to walk down memory lane again =)

(images are from google images)

It's time to push through the Winter blues

I had the day off today and decided to go for a drive and get a hot chocolate at the cafe near my house but to my surprise there was no parking at all so I had to park far away and go for a walk. It was freezing and I was starting to complain to myself about winter I had to stop myself from this because let's be honest for a minute, complaining only magnifies the situation and makes it look a lot bigger than what it really is. I had to remind myself that complaining about winter will not make it spring and it will not make me warm. So I decided to embrace the cold and I went for a longer walk! During this walk I did some thinking and I learnt that every season is very important. It may look like the plants are dead during the winter but they are resting and getting prepared to bloom and shine during spring. I think that is how it goes with life it may look like the "season" we are in is horrible cold and dark but we need to embrace every moment and make the most out our time because spring is coming. Let's use what we have learnt in previous seasons to bloom in the next season instead of being discouraged. It's time to enjoy the journey because every day counts and you never know what you have learnt from the past may help someone else who is going through the situation =)

(image is from weheart.com)

Creative Gift Ideas

I have a good friend's birthday coming up and I had NO idea what to buy her!
So I thought it would be nice to make her a scarf because Winter has just started over here and she always admires the scarfs and hats I  crochet

It's really easy to learn how to crochet there are a lot of great websites that you can look
I use Youtube to learn new tips and tricks and there are videos that will teach you the basics and will teach you new patterns and designs

This is  A LOT of fun! Once you master the scarf you can easily learn how to make patches for a blanket

If you have any questions about crocheting please leave a comment and I'll get back to you

Keep your lipstick on your lips and off your cup

One of the things I hate is going out with friends for dinner and my lipstick comes off on my glass
I feel so uncomfortable because I see the mark for the rest of the night
I have learnt a trick!
I know this will sound slightly strange
Lick your glass before you drink this will keep your lipstick on your lips where it belongs =)

Fitzroy Adventures

I had lunch with a close friend on Sunday and had some time to kill so I thought it would be fun to explore Fitzroy. Fitzroy is only 2km away from central Melbourne. This place can be very odd but fun at the same time. It's a great place to check out art galleries, cafes, restaurants, shops and vintage stores.

One of my favourite place is the Clear It outlet store http://www.clearitonline.com.au/

 This place is HUGE!!! 

They have top brands available there Alannah HIll, Dangerfield, Princess Highway and much more

One of the great things about this store is that you can buy fabric from the designers and it's a really good price.

When I was studying at fashion school most of my fabrics came from there

This is a great place to update your wardrobe 

Happy shopping everyone! 

Paper Flowers

I had so much fun making this! I'm using this flower for a birthday present

This is great and creative way to use for gift wrapping and also card making

This is very easy to make it only takes 5 minutes of your time =)

Things you will need:

- Paper

- Scissors

- Ruler

- Pen/pencil

- Sticky tape or sticky dots

Step 1

Get some paper (I have been using some scrapbook paper)

Step 2

Use your ruler and and make 3 squares

One big, medium and small

After you have done this cut your squares out    

Step 3

Fold each of your squares into a triangle

Step 4 

Draw a petal on your paper then cut it

Unfold your paper and you should have 3 pieces of paper in a shape of a flower

Step 5

Get a pencil and curl your petals 

Step 6

When you finish this get your sticky dots and start sticking them together

Start with the biggest flower then put the medium flower on top and so on

Step 7

You have finished your flower if you like you can stick a button in the middle of it (I used a giant sequin) 

There you have it! I have made a few of these and have put them with my wrapping paper and gift ribbons 

Tea cups, candles and cake stands

For those who don't live in Australia there is a huge/awesome event that happens once a year called "Love Vintage Show"

I found out about this in Frankie magazine and this year was the first time I went 

It was held in the Royal Melbourne exhibition centre 

 So basically there are a lot of stands with different things EG clothes and homewares

I would love to focus on one stand that stood out the most to me and I spent most of my time there too

Kate and Rose- Vintage Tea Cup Candles and Cake Stands

OMG if there was a Heaven on earth I think we would be very close (for all those who know me know that tea cups are a huge weakness for me) 

These ladies go to second hand stores find some cups and make candles because they get bored when the kids are at school. How clever is that?!

I got a egg cup with a little candle in it, but I figured when the candle runs out I can put tea lights in it until I master making candles myself but then I thought why not put candles in my other tea cups that I don't drink from anymore

Check out their facebook page //www.facebook.com/katenrose

Thank you Kate and Rose for inspiring me =)