Easter Eggs

On Easter Day the veil between time and eternity thins to gossamer. Douglas Horton

Easter Egg picture... Frangi in the water
If you'd like to create your own picture there is a fun site that will keep you away from the housework and easter bonnet creations for a half hour or so... this one reminds me of a glass paper weight, but it's one of our pictures of a frangipani sinking into water.
Dumpr.net

Frangipanis on The Rock

We've been playing with texture in our art class, so I decided to convert one of my old frangipani pictures from a blue background into an oxide. I mixed sand in with the paint and the artwork has a delightfully gritty feel to it now. It's been christened Frangipanis On Ayers Rock.

Brian The Water Dragon

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. George Eliot

This is Brian the water dragon on the wall near our kitchen. He lives in a bird bath near our pool - he used to live in the small dog's water dish, but he's grown out of it. He occasionally climbs the brick walls and seems to enjoy laying on the window near our kitchen - we pretend it's that he loves to be one of the family, and enjoys our cooking chats, but we suspect it is just that he enjoys the insects that hover near the lights.

I never thought I could adopt a reptile as one of the family, but he has worked his way into my heart and I love him to bits.

Favicon Generator

"Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks." Author Unknown

In the process of assisting my son create his new website Paradise-Treasures.com.au, I found a fantastic favicon generator. If you don't know what a favicon is, it is the little picture that you see just before the http on the address bar. Or if you bookmark sites - go to the Favourites file on your toolbar, then have a look at the little pictures that are along side the name of the site.

For some reason, search engines really like them, and if you check your website stats you will see the robots looking for one on your site. Anyway, if you have ever tried to make one from scratch, as I have, you will be blessing Dynamic Drive for making this very easy to use product for we who would love to be, however are not so great, computer nerds.

The generator can be found when you click here the site is called Dynamic Drive Favicon Generator.

Paradise Treasures has lots of treasures for your home from all over the world. Paradise-Treasures... they travel the world to exotic places so you don't have to - isn't that nice of them - you'd think he'd take his mother wouldn't you!?

De cluttering

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." William Morris

Zena the wonder dog has been helping me this week... she lies in the corner of my office while I tap away on the computer. She also barks at the door when someone comes and reminds me when it is 4pm (her dinnertime). I've been particularly boring for her this week.

Well I have to say that I thought I had rid myself of clutter over the last few years of moving a fair bit... however... I was wrong. For the last few days I have been decluttering my website, oh my goodness... I have pages in there that I had forgotten about, ones that had missing pictures, and old addresses, this all because I decided to change our webhosting this week. However, it was very timely and much needed, and I should be finished sometime around the year 2013 hopefully.

Three Rules of Work

White house on the water Art work by Kareen
Three rules of work: out of clutter find simplicity; from discord find harmony; in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. Albert Einstein
That's a quote that I read today in Notebook Magazine". I was lazily watching the river while sitting at Westport Club in Port Macquarie - Westport has to have the most beautiful views and access to the river anywhere, but I digress - and as I read the quote, I realised that "in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity" was a confirmation of a conversation I had been having earlier in the day.

Once opportunity knocked when I was sitting at Blue Poles Cafe looking out over another magnificent view. The rather wonderful owner came over to my husband and I and announced that they were selling Blue Poles. At the time it never occurred to me (or my husband) to ask 'how much?' or that it may have been in our price range - so we never asked how much they wanted. We did find out later, that not only was it in our price range, but we could have easily afforded it. Bugger.

Opportunity was knocking, but my ears weren't open. The opportunity occurred in the midst of difficulty too. We had been visiting and supporting a young man in hospital with an end stage brain tumour and we had travelled up to Blue Poles for a bit of a break and some recharging.

Do you ever wonder how much opportunity knocks, and you never notice? I certainly am.

Computer Screen Cleaner

If you are anything like me, you probably never get around to cleaning the inside of your computer screen, but when you think about it, it probably does get quite dusty. Well this is a link to an amazing interior screen cleaner... I never thought it was possible or even necessary till this morning. If you click here it will clean the inside of your computer screen too...

God Bless You

A friend had moved to a new town, and didn't know anyone, and was starting to feel a bit lost and lonely. She happened to drop into a store for her groceries, and the man at the counter said, 'God Bless You for dropping by today' she was so touched, and started to feel welcomed to her new area. I wonder how many of us would be game to say, 'God Bless You' to a complete stranger.

God Bless You for dropping by here today.

Random Blogging, Random Images, Random Art Gallery

Have you ever tried using the internet for inspiration? I do regularly, especially for images that may be uplifting or just to visit an online gallery - one that I may never visit in my daily life otherwise. Well today I was looking at Tiny Houses , and on the tiny house blog I noticed a gorgeous photo of zen rocks (the one featured above) I love zen rocks. So I googled Zen Rocks in the images choice, which took me to a series of photos of zen rocks. The image I selected took me to Creative Think.com which then suggested a site called Creating Passionate Users a blog on Random Blogging - hang on...isn't that what I was just doing? (she says as she looks around the room feeling slightly weird)(and your point is says her husband?)(oh shut up and go back to the cricket)

Apparently when you stumble on just the thing you need, from a seeming random source it is called Serendipity - maybe it was just time that I knew what that word was for when I was doing random searches. Serendipitous really.



Wikipedia says: "Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated. The word has been voted as one of the ten English words that were hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company."

Have you noticed Serendipity in your life lately? Sounds quite nice when you say it out loud... especially the dipity bit... dipity do da dipity ya my oh my what a wonderful day. (yes I know, I know it's zippity... go and watch the cricket with my husband)

The Chicken or The Egg

We received the following email today from The Salvos International Development - The Chicken or The Egg... This easter, consider buying a chicken for a family. ? A chicken ? you say ? Well not just a chicken, if you feel like it you can also buy a a goat, or a pig. By doing this you actually give people in a third world country a livelihood and a way for them to look after themselves... what a great idea... if it is in your heart to help someone in this way read on...


We found out that chickens are more fun than eggs!

Because...
Chickens give eggs for protein
Offspring for sale
And support for veggie gardens

We also found that in Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania, families are eagerly waiting for that chicken which will help them start their own small business, giving them much needed support for nutrition and income.

So...
This Easter, buy a chicken instead of an egg!
And help us help widows, orphans and HIV/Aids patients receive an opportunity to participate in chicken projects.

How?
Buy a chicken for $10 go to salvos.org.au and click on the image of the "cool chicken

Louise Hay and Dr Christiane Northrup

Years ago when I was a very unhappy, newly separated Hairdresser, one of my clients recommended a book to me called You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. I didn't really understand it at the time, but occasionally I would get it out and read it. Then when I came down with pneumonia, and was ill for months, with my lungs deteriorating by the day, I desperately turned to Louise for help. Within a short time, I was better.

Breakfast

I went to a cafe that advertised breakfast anytime, so I ordered French Toast during the Rennaisance. Steven Wright

It takes hands to build a house...

It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home. Author Unknown

Home

Thomas Kinkade

I recently bought one of Thomas Kinkade's small calendars, and I have been constantly delighted and uplifted to each day see a wonderful painting after wonderful painting. He is truly inspirational...

Celebrate Home

Celebrate Home - love the place you live.