So Cute It Hurts

Tiredness

This Sunday, i decided to just feel (instead of think) ~ feel the heat, feel the soft warm breeze, feel the floor i walk on, feel the calm and quietness, feel the air, feel the rain, feel alive and feed my energy into the knowing, into the passive awareness and take away from the doing too much or over thinking. To my surprise, my tiredness starts to go and i feel awake. This feeling of freedom is just beautiful. No pressure on me to get any where or to achieve anything. No deadlines No appointments. Going with flow and bending with the wind.

I am reminded of a story i read from Winnie the Pooh:
“Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?'
'Supposing it didn't,' said Pooh after careful thought.
Piglet was comforted by this.”

Fear is looking into the future with negative mind ~ thinking about all the possibilities of things that might go wrong.Hope is looking into the future with a position mind ~ thinking about all the possibilities of things that might go right. Looking at the future with hope increases the chances of success, good health and happiness. And you don't get so tired and worrying for what will happen. Often times, we tend to do far too much and being far too little.

Give yourself a little break this Sunday.
Have a restful Sunday.
Love to you and yours.

Friendship and community in this World

Friendship comes when we develop a beautiful mind with respect, understanding, love, and see the good in the other person. Your friendship and the sense of this community here transform me. You have given me a safe place to share my thoughts and things on life. You just listen and support me without criticism and judgement. Having friends from all walks of life with different philosophy, different ideas and believes but still share the same quality of compassion, kindness and trustworthiness, allows me to become mellow, to see a winder view, to see deeper into my own views and to see the brighter side of life. I am forever grateful.

Small acts of kindness and generosity is what friendship really means. I have a friend for life. You came to me and saw my beautiful qualities, my good qualities, my kindness and generosity and for a few moments you were blinded to all my faults and the stupid things i have done in the pass. Imagine that was you that people could see the goodness in you, how would you feel? And what would that change in you? This degree of friendship and this sense of community here, allows me to take away all my fear and let my defense system down. And i realize you have given me the gift of fearlessness. Whatever i do or whatever i have done, you do not critic me and you make no judgement. It's so beautiful to be around you who sees me for who i am, allows me to feel relax and feel appreciated, understood and accepted. You heal me by giving me a sense of fearlessness in your presence ~ you allow me to open up, you allow me to release my pain and just be free.

This week i received these beautiful thoughtful handmade keepsake lockets from sweet Lori. It reminded me that when you give that degree of acceptance and unconditional love to the other person, you help to heal the person by giving her/him a sense of fearlessness. The most amazing feeling about this community is that when i go to bed at night, i know you will be there in the morning and i know you will support, care and guide me along this life with kindness and compassionate. A reassurance that people are generally good.

Hope you get some sweetness in your world today too.
Happy Sunday.
Love to you and yours.

Celebrating love.

Valentine's day is upon us. Such a beautiful day to celebrate with the mister. A gentle reminder for us to appreciate the love and support (without any judgement) we receieve from our love ones. Celebrating the respect and the ability to adapt to each other's difference with the qualities of kindness, compassion and trustworthiness.

The most amazing feeling is knowing he is gonna be there for me. I can just say anything to him and i know i will be understoo...d. Vera and i just absolutely adore this surprise Valentine's roses bouquet from my mister. He even style and took this photo for us.

Happy Valentine's Day!
I hope it's a sweet one for you and yours.
Until next time, stay warm and safe.

in the holiday spirit

Hard to believe the year of the Goat is already over. It was a pretty great 365 days. There were of course the challenging parts ~ some days are just harder than others, although looking back i'm grateful for the hard days too. Thank you so much for dropping by throughout the Goat year -- it has been fun sharing bits of my world with you. I'm looking forward to another year in this space.

This year for the Chinese New Year holidays Vera and I are doing things a little different. We're on an adventure to visit the sweet mister. Our plan is completely open except for a couple of musts : sleeping in way later than usual and taking our sweet time eating every meal. I will continue to savor the slow, stay in your pajamas a little longer days of holiday hubbub.

Vera is quite fond of my new adorable socks slippers booties.

Wishing you and yours many beautiful moments in the year of the Monkey.
Taking it easy this week.
Be back soon.
Stay warm, folks {I'm freezing over here}.
Love to you and yours.

Ta da!

The photo below is definitely not the usual way one would show off a completed sewing project. But today is my day to wear this whimsical party headpiece and eat cake. Remember the felted pastries and sweets i mentioned during the New Year Holiday post? Well, it is finally complete. I whipped up a little party headpiece gift for me. I love this little party headpiece so much. Good times in the sewing room

Today is also an appreciation day for all that you (papa and mama) did to get me into the world on this day so long ago. It's hard to believe, ive been chuggin' along for all these years now. It has been a beautiful adventure. I've had the privilege of traveling to faraway places, eating great food, laughing a lot, getting a wonderful education and finding the sweetest man. Thanks for everything, Papa and Mama.

Having a birthday land on a Friday is perfect because it easily becomes a Birthday Weekend. It's fantastic so far. I see all kinds of good things in my immediate future.

Thanks for reading, friends!
Happy Janunary 8th to you! I have always loved Janunary 8th.
Love to you and yours.

 

 

Happy 2016

Hope 2016 is off to a great start for you and the people you love. So far so good here.

2015 was quite a wild tide but it was an excellent year. As with all years, it has it's ups and downs but most of the time it was damn enjoyable. There were hard days thrown in ~ the ones with tears and ugliness, the ones with words slipping out of my mouth i wish i had never said. Good thing we can ask for do-overs. I think i'm gonna try better at saying, "mind if i have a do-over on that?".

I've done some thinking about goals for this year. Would my list be qualified as goals if they were the same each year? Honestly, all i really want to do is work to be kinder, tactful, mindful and be as open and positive as possible to what comes. That, and love my people and myself with everything i've got each and every moment.

Now would be a good time to say thank you for reading all these years, and of course for every one of the kind comments and likes you've taken the time to send my way. I am excited to share this year with you as there is quite a lot in store. I look forward to seeing it all unfold.

As always, thanks for following along.
Happy New Year! May this year be exactly what you hope for.
Onward and forward.
Love to you and yours.

 

 

I'm still here.

I hope your Thanksgiving was full to the brim. I feel so much gratitude for every moment -- even the challenging ones, of which there were plenty.

We're savoring the wonderful lazy days of the weekend. Naps have been very popular around here and a Christmas holiday tradition ~ pulling out our handmade Macaron ornaments out of the box and decorating the little Christmas tree. The crafty corner is starting to shimmer and twinkle. My sweet girl, Vera and her bear, Sofia, took part in decorating. Sofia was quite fond of the Macaron. And ALL the Macaron must be used. That is a rule here. Not mine, theirs. Vera's, actually. The second order of business is Christmas gift countdown. Back to knitting for the Mister.

Hope your first day of Advent was fun, friends.
See you in December. I do like the sound of that, don't you?
December, i adore you. 
Love to you.

On the cusp to fall loveliness.

We just returned from spending a week at Ceylon. It was the best of times. This trip helped me completely understand the meaning of live simply, be grateful and give love. It's crystal clear -- when you find something that works there is no reason to look elsewhere. It's silly to admit but the outdoor and spontaneous adventures with my mister might have been my very favorite thing about this holiday. It was such a beautiful experience, one that... pushed me far out of my comfort zone and gave me the opportunity to see some parts of the world and my place in it in a much different way. I gained so much from traveling and will always be grateful for having the privilege of taking such an unforgettable journey. It was such a great time. So happy we made the trip.

I had captured quite a few simple, special and extroardinary moments that i want to pause, savour, remember and share ~ let's call this "On the cusp to fall loveliness" series.

I hope your weekend was full to the brim with wonderful adventures.
I think Fall is starting to make an appearance.
Keep warm.
Love to you and yours.

The power of silence.

 I am still feeling a little under the weather and it's wonderful to be able to sit still and have some quietness inside. Nadia, Sofia the bear and i are appreciating the nature of silence and loving how beautiful it is this restful Wednesday. I remember as a university student, when i was feeling tired and when life was a little overbearing, i love to visit the campus church just to sit quietly on the bench and not to worship anything but silence.

I've learned that quiet spaces allow the problems of life to just subside long enough to allow us to see what needs to be done. A place that allow us to just be, relax and allow the natural wisdom of our own minds to come forth and show us just what we are crying for is a small thing and there are solutions that will soften the pain and tears in life. It's as if there is wisdom all around us and as if it's just right there for the taking. But sometimes when there is too much noise, we just can't hear what life is teaching us.

Silence teaches me to listen to myself, to my heart and to life..
This, i will continue to practice.
Have a beautiful Monday.
Love to you and yours.

The little Missy Monster series part 3 and 4.

It took some time, but i'm finally getting around to showing off my little Missy Monster again.  I will do a part 3 and 4 together. 

This is my newest Blythe carry case that i fondly named Little Missy Monster. I created her just for fun and mainly because i was going through a serious softie admiration phase and wanted to try creating a creature of my own. I created the pattern through much trial and error, so there was (as there always is) a bit of fudging involved. Lucky for me it fits really well. The best part for me was gathering all the fabrics and accessories from my creative corner and sitting down to decide what i wanted to use. In the end everything came together just fine.

Little Missy Monster is cute and soft and full of personality. Lucky for me, Ryan was willing to model this little Missy Monster Blythe carry case for you to see. I love this little Blythe case so much. It's such fun to whip up. I plan to make a few more in different colors perhaps to send out into the world.

I have to show some close up of her little details mainly because i love how beautiful she turned out. Here are the details: 

i added 2 security belts inside to keep my girl in position, 
gave her a changeable hearts blouse, 
a removable leather handle (in case you wanna just hug her),
and finished her with a painted white Blythe pull charm for flair (and to match her fur).

I wanted to thank each of you for all the sweetness about my little Missy Monster series. It was such a fun series for me. I know i've mentioned it here loads of times, but i really do have the most wonderful friends. It makes me a little misty just thinking about it.

I am down with a nasty sore throat. I'm keeping my finger crossed that my self-prescribed combination of ginger lemon tea, movies and many long naps will contribute to a speedy recovery.

I'll say hello again soon.
Happy merry Sunday.
Love to you and yours.