I don’t do the activities weekly so I’m not blogging about the latest assignment here. The assignment I’m currently tackling is creating a success tracker. This assignment has serendipitously come at a perfect time for me. I’ve been diligently plodding away at achieving my creative dreams for 3 months now and have recently been lamenting my perceived lack of progress. This assignment gave me the perfect opportunity to switch my perspective around and focus on everything that I have achieved instead of everything that I haven’t . When I consider the achievements in light of the bigger context then they become even more impressive.

For example, I’ve joined Deviant Art. Not something to break out the bubbly for unless I stop to consider that I used to spend hours trawling through that website in admiration of the art I found there when I probably should have been writing some dull lab report for first year psychology. So, now I’m a member of an online community that I used to admire from afar long before I had any notions of making art or selling my art and designs. Definitely something that is worthy of reflection.

Before I began this assignment I’d already created a section in my journal for a “Compliments Memory”. I created this to keep my inner critic in check. She’s a real douche canoe and can get completely out of control sometimes and even took the driver’s seat in my life for a good long while. Her favourite method of sabotage is to dredge up random memories of times when I wasn’t good enough, smart enough, fun enough, pretty enough, blah blah blah (I know: She’s actually quite dull really, so passé). Having said that she can also be quite subtle and passive aggressive – a much more insidious strategy. What she really seems to excel at is erasing all the times I have ever done anything right from my memory.

One method I tried to combat her stealth attacks was to immediately think of an alternate example when I had been good enough, smart enough, etc and so on. An excellent plan I thought. She was way ahead of me. I seemed to have mis-placed all of those moments in life that I should have been cherishing and instead expended all of that energy storing decade-old missteps and slights. The solution was obvious. Given that I can’t trust my memory to be a kind and less biased historian I decided to create an external memory completely impervious to the ravages of time and silly insecurities.

So I’ve combined my “Compliments Memory” with Andrea’s “Success Tracker” and now have a “Compliments & Achievements Memory”. It’s been going very well so far. I hadn’t looked at it in a while and got it out today for this blog post and enjoyed quite a nice ego boost. It seems obvious to say so but if you’re considering making your own I strongly suggest you don’t censor it in any way. For example, I by no means think I’m anything special when it comes to looks but my partner happens to think I’m a bit of alright so I’ve got quite a list of synonyms for sexy beast in there. So, according to my Compliments & Achievements Memory, I am a hot domestic goddess who makes sweet art with a dark twist, is extremely talented, interesting and exciting, gentle and calm, sensitive, caring, passionate and compassionate, friendly and supportive.

Wow, I didn’t know I was that cool.

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When I’m researching beautiful places to visit I’ll often do a google image search. The Mt Etna National Park in Sicily was no exception and I had in fact ruled it out based on the lacklustre results I’d found. Photo after photo of barren black lava landscapes left me less than enthused. Fortunately due to an unexpected prolonging of our stay on this small island we ended up doing a few things we wouldn’t have done otherwise. The problem with doing google image searches is that tourists, generally speaking, all go to the same place to see the same thing, and take the same photos. There’s much more to Mt Etna National Park than barren black lava flows but you wouldn’t know it looking at the travel photos on the net. Hopefully this blog post will go some way to re-dressing the balance.

In this photo I am hiking in deep volcanic ash (like very fine sand) on a nearly vertical incline (okay, not quite but it was steep damn it) – that was very very hard.

One of the things I love most about hiking up big steep things. The romantic in me will never tire of being able to touch the clouds.

Before we left Australia, one of the things I was really excited about was getting another autumn. Two autumns in one year, my favourite season! Images of shockingly colourful autumnal forests was a staple of mine whenever I would fantasise about travelling. This might sound strange to non-Australian peeps, but most of our trees are evergreen so a whole forrest full of deciduous trees makes the nature lover in me get all giddy with glee.

Until Mt Etna we hadn’t actually seen any autumn colours – a very discouraging state of affairs given that winter was just around the corner. I had no idea that we would find our autumn when we decided to give the Mt Etna national park a go. We were both astonished by the vivid colours. On our first leisurely walk in the national park I commented to Mike that just when I think I’ve seen a place so beautiful nothing could ever compare we go somewhere new and see something even more beautiful.

However, Sicily stole my heart not for it’s beautiful scenery but for it’s beautiful people. I honestly never knew that people could be so kind and open and genuinely friendly. We were treated like family by complete strangers. We were invited to stay at people’s homes, join their celebrations and were taken on personal guided tours that lasted all day and all night and then invited to do it all again. I think Mike has done those stories justice so do head over to his blog to read more.

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I’ve been thinking about my blog content these last few days. Feeling torn between all the different topics I blog about. Knowing that some of them need a bit of love while others are kinda needy and should back the hell off. I’ve been participating in a couple of online groups that have really sucked up all my blog real estate – In December it was Gwen Bells’ “Best of 2009″ and now it’s Andrea’s “Creating Dreams Come True”. All good stuff but I’ve been neglecting the art and travel posts. My partner, Mike and I have started travelling again after our 2 month hiatus in Hammamet, Tunisia, which got me thinking about how on earth I’m going to keep up with the blogging. Then, just yesterday I met two artists, gave them the URL for my blog and later realised that I don’t in fact have any of the art work I’ve created in the past 2 months on my blog! It really is a shocking state of affairs. One solution would be to simply blog more often but I actually want to live my life rather than just write about it. So, I’ve committed to keeping some sort of balance. I’m going to back off on the Creating Dreams posts and re-direct my blogging efforts to my art and travels more.

To kick this new direction off, I’ve posted THE painting that made me go oh, THIS is the stuff I want to paint. I’m a newbie in the art world and I’ve been dabbling in various styles. This piece was very much inspired by the work of groovy Italian artist Nicoletta Ceccoli. I love how outrageous she gets with her paintings and I’m aspiring to such levels of outrageousness. I wanna come up with some really weird shit. There are quite a few new paintings that I want to share with you guys but I’m going to post one at a time and comment on each.

My next post will be about our travels. I still haven’t finished posting about our time in Sicily and will have had three weeks of traveling in Tunisia under our belts by then so there’s going to be a lot of material to work with.

Overall, I think having too many interesting things happening in my life to blog about is a very good problem to have. However, with my new found direction and discipline I hope it becomes a bit clearer to everyone what this blog is actually about.

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A real sticking point I had with this exercise was the life area of “Abundance”. I suspect this is one of those words with a fuzzy definition and wildly varying connotations, depending on who you ask. I’ve never really thought about abundance before so, like a good little Bachelor of Arts graduate, I decided I needed to define it first. My definition (straight out of the dictionary) is: “plentifulness of the good things of life; prosperity”. A great inner tug-of-war ensued between the two opposing values of abundance and simplicity. On the one hand, I don’t really desire “plentifulness” but rather “enough”. On the other hand, I’ve included things on my Big List of Dreams that fall into the abundance category, such as the killer wardrobe I desire. Of course, I have “enough” clothes right now but that doesn’t mean I’m satisfied with what I’ve got. I think in the end I managed to find a harmonious balance between the two. I’m certainly not aiming to live like a monk but the mindless pursuit of more stuff didn’t find it’s way onto my list either.

You probably noticed that I only have one task for each life area (with the exception of the Creativity area which has a whole action plan). I’m going with the principle that “lack of time is actually lack of priorities”, and have just gone with one task that I think will make a big impact in that area of my life. Once I’ve achieved them I’ll add more but for now I’m keeping it simple.

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1. Found my soul mate. Fell in love and stayed in love. Made a life together.
2. Went to university. I dreamt of this before I even knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I just knew I wanted to go to uni, to live on campus, to go to lectures, and to learn important, interesting things.
3. Got a social work degree. When I did figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, it was a social worker.
4. I ended up getting a Bachelor of Arts degree along the way too.
5. I got the grades in high school to get into the degree I wanted.
6. I got the grades in my BA and the work experience I needed to get into the most prestigious university in Australia to study social work (rather ironic really, going to a prestigious university to study how to address social disadvantage).
7. Moved to Melbourne. I grew up in the country and dreamt of living in the city. I actually dreamt about living in Sydney but thankfully I grew out of that and I’m very glad I didn’t move to Sydney (because then I wouldn’t have achieved my number 1 dream come true).
8. Making art I love. I love the art I’m making at the moment and I love making it. I’m in the midst of opening an online shop to sell the collage papers I’ve designed, my paintings and my digitally altered photographs.
9. Begin painting. Very intimidating and scary and there were a couple of false starts. I finally managed this hurdle with the help of Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts – another social worker turned artist.
10. Turned my doodles into finished paintings. Actually finishing a piece was a challenge. I’ve always doodled but this is the first time in my life I’m following through and completing them.
11. Travelling the world. For as long as I can remember I’ve dreamt of traveling. My partner and I have bought a motorhome and are traveling Europe and North Africa.
12. Saved enough to travel the world
13. Got enough house sitting jobs to save on rent to travel the world
14. Organised and followed through with all the details of moving overseas
15. Found the perfect motorhome for us, within our budget, from a trusted dealer
16. Learnt how to live in a motorhome
17. Travelled Ireland
18. Went to Paris, twice
19. Went to Queensland. For Aussie kids (or at least the ones I grew up with) Queensland is THE place to go for the holidays. I finally got my wish when I went with my partner and got to swim in pristine rivers and walk through lush rain forests.
20. Drove through the English countryside
21. Experienced spectacular natural beauty on our travels
22. No longer have to worry about money. There was a time in my life when I had to ask a friend for money for a bus ticket, when I only had one set of work clothes because I couldn’t afford to buy another, when I burst out in tears after an emergency trip to the dentist’s because I’d just spent my entire fortnight’s budget and didn’t know how I was going to eat. Now I’m in a place where, even if I lost all my savings I’m confident I could get a well paid job and survive.
23. Got a social work job working with refugees. I originally went into social work wanting to work in the mental health field. After volunteering at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre I came away not wanting to work in any other field.
24. Learnt guitar. In high school I really wanted to be able to play an instrument. I took guitar lessons and ended up giving the lessons after a year.
25. Made contact with my birth mother. This didn’t go too well. I definitely wasn’t ready but I didn’t know that at the time and at least I tried.
26. Exercised my way to a bikini body. I only lasted a few months at the gym but it was just enough so I didn’t shame myself in my string bikini on the beaches of Southern Thailand.
27. Learnt how to cook (thanks to my partner for showing me how)
28. Learnt how to use photoshop to digitally alter photographs
29. Learnt how to hold a conversation with someone I don’t know without debilitating levels of anxiety
30. Am happy with my body
31. Got my driver’s license. I still can’t drive to save my life but I have a driver’s license… I test well.
32. Developed a healthier level of self respect
33. Made friends
34. Volunteered as a caseworker at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre once a week for a year and a half
35. Leading a life that feels true to myself
36. Let go of caustic friendships
37. Overcame my arachnaphobia (ok, that one’s a stretch)
38. Making connections with other artistically inclined peeps on the interwebs
39. Attended an art class
40. Doing an online photoshop course with DJ Pettitt
41. Attended a professional development course in Belfast, Northern Ireland
42. Travelled through Italy with friends
43. Learnt how to use a computer and type (unlike the rest of my generation I didn’t grow up with a computer in the household)
44. Finding my own style in my artwork
45. Survived year 12 Japanese, despite my utter neglect of the subject throughout high school
46. Started a blog
47. Putting my art work online for people to see
48. Starting a creative business

On reflection, it was a bit of an uncomfortable list to make. It meant re-visiting times in my life when things weren’t so good in order to remember what I dreamed of at those times. However, doing this I realised that I do have a lot of those things now. It feels good to be able to look back and know how I felt then about the dreams come true, how they felt so impossible or far away and out of reach and yet here I am living them. Sometimes I spend so much time feeling regret or guilt about the past that it’s a welcome shift of perspective to solely think about the things I did right. It’s definitely a more constructive frame of mind given that “when you feel like a success, you tend to create more successes”.

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Recently, I attempted to create a series of very girly pretty paintings for my new born niece’s nursery. A couple of them turned out great but one was just kinda dark and creepy and definitely not appropriate for a child’s bedroom. The above painting isn’t that one, but it’s definitely in the same vein. Although the painting didn’t quite go to plan, it took me somewhere much more interesting. I had an epiphany upon it’s completion. I’ve found my style. I didn’t produce the pink and cheerful painting I had in mind because that wasn’t what was wanting to come out and it’s not what inspires me. Interestingly, one of the paintings for my niece that did come out very girly and pretty will never adorn her nursery wall because I don’t feel comfortable putting it out in the world. I’m so aware of how much it isn’t my style that I feel uncomfortable with it, even though I’m happy with how it turned out aesthetically.

I’m really excited to create more paintings with whimsical, yet dark and creepy subjects. Think enchanted furry animals, porcelain doll ladies, hoop skirts, and little girls, all Mirror Mask-esque. I’ve got a whole bunch of these portrait style mini oval canvases that are perfect for introducing my new creations, one by one. I’d love to give them names and personalities and stories. I hope you all become good friends.

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I’m very excited to be a part of Andrea Schroeder’s new online group “Creating Dreams Come True“. Turns out, our first assignment is to start a list of 100 things we want to do, be, or have! Her theory (in direct opposition to mine) is that to come up with 100, stretches you to dream bigger and really expands your ideas of what is possible. So, in the interest of being open to new ideas and having a bit of fun, I’m going with it. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

1. Go on a hot air balloon ride somewhere spectacularly beautiful
2. Successfully sell my collage papers on Etsy
3. Successfully sell my paintings and digitally altered photography on Red Bubble and Image Kind
4. Find my community and make true friendships with other creative, kindred spirits
5. Build a wardrobe full of flattering, quirky, beautiful clothes with lots of skirts, gorgeous footwear, and accessories
6. Have several side projects that earn an income from our travelling – photography, e-books, blog, etc
7. Learn bookbinding
8. Be an accomplished artist
9. Be an excellent conversationalist
10. Own an original Heather Haynes painting
11. Learn how to make pottery
12. Learn to sew
13. Create a children’s book
14. See the aurora borealis
15. Travel Canada in our motorhome
16. Travel New Zealand in our motorhome
17. Make friends in every country we travel to
18. Accept, forgive, and let go
19. Learn the story of my adoption
20. Go paragliding somewhere spectacularly beautiful
21. Practise yoga
22. Join a lively, fun, and friendly book club
23. Patronise contemporary and jazz dance productions
24. Patronise the theatre
25. Own a cozy, rustic cottage in the hills with a studio and an open fireplace
26. Continue to travel Europe in our motorhome
27. Hike the Alps
28. Patronise classical music concerts
29. Attend the Venice Carnival
30. Experience the midnight sun
31. Live in Ireland
32. Live in Paris
33. Live in London
34. For Mike and I to meet our target monthly income from our creative endeavours alone
35. Get to know my brother’s fiance and be a part of my niece’s life
36. Practise meditation
37. Travel Tasmania, Australia, in our motorhome
38. Feel strong and powerful in my body (I totally plagiarised that from Andrea but her wording was just so perfect!)

Wow, over a third of the way there and there’s still such a long way to go! I can see what Andrea means, I really am going to have to get a bit outrageous to make it to 100!

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December 28 Stationary

When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationary find of the year?

I really like the thought of writing letters, but alas, my stationary is relegated to the purely utilitarian task of note taking and since I’ve run out of sketch book, sketching. It’s not heart melty or ink flowy. So, the prize for best stationary goes to my practical retractable pencil. I don’t know how I ever made art without it. It’s perfect for illustrating fine details and I think it would be pretty flowy to write with too.

December 29 Laugh

What was the biggest belly laugh of the year?

Mike and I had three friends stay for a couple of weeks with us in our motorhome, “Nettle”. It was dubbed the “Caravan of Comedy” during the time due to the hilarity that ensued. Good times…

December 30 Ad

What advertisement made you think this year?

The Lonely Planet dubs Tunisia a poster-child for successful post-colonial development and a model for how a moderate, secular Arab state can resist fundamentalism. Whilst here we’ve seen many billboards plastered to the sides of buildings and posters on shop walls of president Ben Ali looking smiley and warm. These have given us plenty of pause for thought when we come from a country that makes fun of our prime minister in comics in the major newspapers.

December 31 Resolution you wish you’d stuck with

(You know, there’s always next year…)

I don’t make new year’s resolutions. However, I did start an exercise from “The Four Hour Work Week” a month or so ago, which is in the same spirit as resolutions. The author, Tim Ferriss, calls it “dreamlining”. Basically you write down what you want to have, what you want to be, and what you want to do and then make a short-list of the most important ones. Then you work out how much money you have to earn each day to be able to achieve your top 4 dreams in 6 months. You start doing something towards achieving each dream that same day and every day thereon. It’s been great for me. I came away from it with clear priorities for my life for the next 6 months. I began prioritising time for art, which I hadn’t been doing before then. I started building my online creative business that very day and am at the point now where I’m ready to sell my art on Red Bubble and Image Kind and have designed 57 original collage papers to sell on Etsy. A month ago I didn’t even know how to use photoshop and a month and a bit ago I hadn’t even considered selling my art.

On a side note, whilst writing this and thinking of the dreamline exercise in terms of new years resolutions, I’ve come up with a few theories as to why new year’s resolutions fail:

1. Most people’s new year’s resolutions bore them to tears. They aim to aim to floss their teeth everyday, for example. Who could possibly get excited about that? In the dreamlining exercise the author cautions the would be dreamer to dream big, unrealistic, wild dreams. Nothing less will induce the motivation required to achieve them.
2. People make resolutions based on what they think they should change about themselves or their lives rather than what they want to change. Again, the author cautions us not to be tempted to put down socially desirable dreams like “fight world hunger” when what you really want is a shiny red ferrari. These socially acceptable but completely passionless goals won’t stoke your “I’m gonna change my life” fire either.
3. Finally, when creating the dreamlines we narrow it down to a short-list of four. Not only does this help us focus on what’s important but it also means we can do each of our dreams justice by giving them the time and energy they require to be fully realised. Remember, the dreamline is timelined – you aim to achieve your goals in 6 or 12 months. So, you focus on the most important goals and then once you’ve achieved them you get to do another four! I’m guessing most people’s new year’s resolutions lists will have more than four items on them.

Thank you all for coming to read my Best of 2009 everyone! A very happy 2010 to you all!

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December 24 Learning Experience

What was a lesson you learned this year that changed you?

1. You must live it to learn it (bumper sticker much?). Life lessons are not something we can be given. They don’t make sense on that fundamental, your gut know’s it’s true kinda way until you’ve worked your own way there. Only then will you be open to it and see the wisdom of it.

2. The consequences for a functioning alcoholic who has a family that has an immense capacity for denial is exactly zero. All of the consequences fall on the family. The functioning alcoholic does not experience shame, or embarrassment for his behaviour because of his masterful use of denial. Denial that he has a problem. Denial that the problem is serious. Denial that there is anything he can do about it. Oh, and there’s that pesky black out side effect of drinking that means he doesn’t remember anything to be ashamed of. All of the shame and embarrassment falls on the family. Like antisocial personality disorder the negative effects of his behaviour are predominantly preserved for the blameless loved one’s.The thing is, he doesn’t know any of this if nobody tells him.

3. You cannot be authentically yourself and try to make everyone like you at the same time. The two are like oil and water. They are mutually exclusive states of being:

“To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”

- ELBERT HUBBARD

December 25 Gift

What’s a gift your gave yourself this year that kept on giving?

I gave myself permission to dream big. To be impractical and ridiculously optimistic and do what excites me no matter how green I am. I gave myself permission to want more than a secure, comfortable, unchallenging subsistence.

December 26 Insight or aha! moment

What was your epiphany of the year?

First of all, can I just say that I find the phrase “aha! moment” extremely aggravating. It’s just so clunky and we already have a perfectly good, elegantly French sounding word for it. Can we all just agree to say “epiphany” and be done with it? Well, with that out of the way… My answer here is intrinsically linked with my one above. It’s funny how much overlap there has been with my answers. i guess the significant things in one’s life all share the same roots. First, some background. I’m very new to the art world. I left my social work job in Australia to travel around Europe in a campervan with my partner 6 months ago and have recently let myself dream of having a creative business. It’s obscenely early to be thinking of starting my own creative business but it’s the only thing that makes sense. I’ve read two self-helpy type books – one on creativity (“Taking Flight” by Kelly Rae Roberts) and one on lifestye design (“The 4 Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss). Amazingly, despite their vastly different scopes and styles the two books actually have many philosophies in common, which was something I didn’t recognise straight away. One of these philosophies is to dream big. So, this “dream big” message just popped into my head a few weeks ago and you know, I’m not sure I’ve ever really had a groundbreaking epiphany (or at least none that I can remember) but this probably came close. I realised that in terms of my career I haven’t been dreaming at all let alone dreaming big. I haven’t even let myself think about art in terms of a career because it’s way too much pressure, and absurdly unrealistic. But you know what, as soon as I let myself imagine doing art for my career it made sense. Saying it out loud to my partner for the first time was really hard! I felt embarrassed and vulnerable and was kind of hyper aware of his reaction. In light of this epiphany I started re-reading “The 4 Hour Work Week” and realised that that book has the same message! It was like reinforcement from the universe that I’m on the right track.

December 27 Social Web Moment

Did you meet someone you used to only know from her blog? Did you discover twitter?

I started my blog this year and I am in love with it. I get ridiculously excited when I get comments (hint, hint). I get excited when I read other people’s blogs and I feel like I could have written their article myself because it’s so in tune with what I’m experiencing, feeling, dreaming. I’m amazed at how much we all have in common. One blogger who I commented to about this replied “Ithink we all have really similar thoughts and feelings when we are being really honest” and I think she’s right. I’m continually impressed by the level of honesty and openness in the blogs I read and I aspire to that. I love how blogging has changed how I experience things in the “real world”. I pay attention more. I take my camera when I go on walks or just down the street. I reflect more. My blog is very new and I can’t say I’ve made any friends through it yet but I have hopes. Big, big hopes. I’m really excited to join twitter, something I haven’t done yet but it’s on the to do list. I’d like to join a few other creatively oriented online communities but the vastness is a bit overwhelming. Any suggestions? You could leave a comment (nudge, nudge)?

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December 19 Car Ride

What did you see? How did it smell? Did you eat anything as you drove there? Who were you with?

Oh wow, the last 6 months have been one big car ride. Since we picked up our motorhome, “Nettle”, in the Cotswolds, England we’ve driven her through a bit of English countryside, across Wales, all around Ireland and Northern Ireland, back across the UK, from the top of France to the bottom, from the top of Italy to the bottom and then a little bit of Tunisia in Northern Africa. That’s a lot of driving. Of course, some legs have been better than others. I really can’t narrow it down to just one car ride so I’m gonna go ahead and say Ireland and Northern Ireland was one big awesome road trip. I could write a very lengthy blog article just on this one prompt! I’m going to be very restrained and just dot point a few highlights with 1 photo each. If you feel an uncontrollable desire to read about our journeys in elaborate detail check out my very diligent partner’s blog.

Highlights:

• Brightly coloured flowers growing wild along the sides of the roads and clinging to steep hill sides

• The in-between bits – they were just as beautiful as the destinations we were driving to

• A spontaneous detour that took us through the Wicklow Mountains and the first place that made me go “this is why I’ve been dying to travel all my life”

• The Giant’s Causeway Coastal Tour – A driving tour described in “The European Driver’s Handbook”

• Connemara national park – stark, breathtaking, rugged

• Dingle Peninsula -You could believe in faeries and magik and elves in this enchanting place.

• The Ring of Kerry (which was actually pretty disappointing to be honest, but the second half of the drive redeemed itself)

December 20 New Person

She came into your life and turned it upside down. He went out of his way to provide incredible customer service. Who is your unsung hero of 2009.

My partner Mike, and I were befriended by a local Sicilian whilst hiking in the Mt Etna national park one day. He was on his way to a celebration of Sicily’s patron saint with his Alpine club and invited us to come along. There was much eating and singing and dancing. Our new friend and a friend of his then invited us to go see a few of the local natural sights with them another day. Of course, we couldn’t believe our luck and were more than happy to accept the generous invitation. As they showed us the sights they would point out which plants were poisonous, which were good for haemorrhoids, and which ones can crack lava with their roots. They picked various exotic fruits and berries for us to eat along the way. We were then invited to a road rally and then another road rally, dinner at a very special seafood restaurant, a trip to a food expo at Italy’s largest shopping centre with our friend’s mother and partner, and a road trip to a wetland park where flamingos were pitch stopped on their way to Africa for the winter. We’ve been invited back in the spring and summer for some special annual events and have been offered a house to stay in rent-free.

I’ve never met someone so friendly and open and generous. He has almost 700 friends in facebook and I’m not surprised. I’m so unused to such genuine kindness from strangers I frequently found myself entertaining uncharitable thoughts about what could possibly be in it for him and how this could all be a scam, an intricate long-con. I have trust issues. He certainly did come into my life and turn it upside down, as did all the other Sicilians we met who went out of their way to help us. My entire perception of human kind will be forever altered for the better for having met these uncommonly kind Sicilians.

December 21 Project

What did you start this year that you’re proud of?

I have big [for me, not world domination big] plans. I’m so excited. I’m working on them everyday and I’m loving every day. I’ve plunged myself into creating an online creative business. I’m learning how to use photoshop so I can create collage papers to sell as pdf’s on etsy. I love them so much that I look at them every now and then throughout the day. I’m painting every other day and I hope to sell my paintings on Red Bubble. When I decided I’d like to sell prints of my art work on Red Bubble I thought maybe I’d have something good enough in a couple of months. Two days later I had something I was super proud of and am more than happy to put out there in the ether to be looked at and judged and maybe rejected. I’m also learning how to digitally alter photos and am hoping to sell these on Red Bubble also. Just a month ago I hadn’t even entertained the notion of selling my art and now I have an action plan, baby! I feel so energised and things feel so right. I feel like for the first time in my life I’m doing something that I can excel at if I just give it my time and hard work.

December 22 Start-up

What’s a business that you found this year that you love? Who thought it up? What makes it special?

This is very biased of me and it’s also something that I’ve already blogged about so I’m sort of cheating.

December 23 Web Tool

It came into your work flow this year and now you couldn’t live without it. It has simplified or improved your online experience.

Since starting out on this crazy new slow travel lifestyle of ours, Mike and I have been keeping tabs on our expenses so we know how much we need to earn to feasibly do this indefinitely. We’ve been religiously using an iphone app called “iExpenseIt” – terrible name, I know, but it’s a good app. Thanks to this nifty app we know that slow travelling in expensive Italy cost us on average $48 (AUD) a day and since we’ve been in Thrifty Tunisia we’ve been making do on $27 a day. That’s cheaper than living and paying rent in Melbourne, Australia. Add a 30% buffer to cover savings and unforeseen expenses and we need to earn $62 a day (based on expenses in Italy) to continue living our dream. It feels so liberating to know how much we need to be earning and aim for that instead of aimlessly earning as much as we can. If you’re interested in this kind of lifestyle and philosophy, check out The Four Hour Work Week.

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