mia

An assortment of images of life - where I am when I am MIA from here.

"plot twist"

found this floating around on the facebook - not sure of the source

The past month or so has been one of the most intense busy periods of my life thus far. Some really shitty stuff has occured, and some amazing dreams come true moments have happened.
What has struck me most is my coping. The perspective I have in the moment. Even as I am rock bottom I still have that little voice in the back of my mind saying "hey, its shitty as can be right now but it will come good in the end"

One of the biggest issues I have had in the past is being able to see beyond the emotion/situation I am in. This has obviously been a barrier to coping. Theealisation that I have gained this skill itself has been a comfort in my times of loss and pain.

It was meant to be, my finding the above image yesterday. I shared this on facebook, and today I have had some very unexpected news that some might call a setback (still awaiting details as to what direction we will take next, will fill y'all in at some point. knowing me it will be months before I find my way back here so dont hold your breath haha) so I am very much in the middle of a major plot twist of my own.
And you know what? Though I feel shitty as can be, I know that at some stage I will move on, having learn't new things about myself. Having had some major life experience, and some new stories to tell.
That being said, today calls for going home to a hot bath, then my book on the lounge under a big blanket with a cup of tea. And some shitty feelings with that perspective for me haha.

Mel
x

Hey blogger! The jerk store called...

Hello friends!

For the longest time (really only a few weeks) I have been trying to publish my posts but blogger has been a jerk and has been failing every single time. So freaking annoying when I am actually on track and wanting to blog!
Anyhow, blogger stopped being a mega big jerk it seems and randomly let me be me again so hoorah for that!

How is life these days?

Life for me is amazing, Himself is going great guns on One Man's and I am doing my part with that and living very well indeed.

x

mindfulness and being wholly alive

"Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough."

Ernest Hemingway

I am working with all of my might to breathe deeply at least once a day. To be alive with all my might, and to not skim over the surface of this life.

As a society it is all about rush rush rush - so busy, so much to do blahblahblah. So often I hear people exclaim "that is the date?! Wasn't it just christmas/easter/newyears etc? Where did all that time go?"

So often I hear myself wondering the very same thing. The time goes by while we are multi tasking, rushing, and playing on our freaking phones. Don't think for a second that I am not the worst offender of this, believe me! Every day I find myself hoping in the car to go someplace with himself and before we are even out of the driveway I am checking facebook/instagram/emails. It has become such a habit that we don't even notice our conscious mind slipping into auto.

We have become so adept at this that hours can slip by before we come to. 

Sometimes (I am totally ashamed to say this) himself has asked me a question while I am on the computer, I have answered it and after ward have no memory of the conversation.

When I was seeing my head doctor we focused big time on mindfulness, urges, and of just how good the mind is at doing its own thing. 

Some exercises sound simple - eating mindfully for example. Creating a dedicated place for eating, of turning of music/televisions, and being present when eating. This is a big one I struggle with. 

Even when waiting in line for something I feel a mild panic if I don't have my phone on me to play with. To actually be standing there with nothing to do but wait and be present is at times terrifying.  

Recently I was waiting for a train, and I forced myself to put the phone away. To not grab my book out. I just waited. It was super difficult at first, I was almost twitchy wanting to tune back out. But you know what? Once I truly let myself be aware of where I was, the smells, the sounds, the temperature of the platform - I was still okay (turns out not so scary haha)

 My thoughts began to flow, and almost the whole train journey home I pondered and looked out the window and saw things I never had before. Present and very alert. Had light bulb moments, and felt more 'me' than I would have otherwise.

My point? We are all rushing around, missing out on life, not truly experiencing the every day.

Join me, take a few minutes everyday where you would usually tune out. Concentrate on the smells, the sounds, the textures. Hear what you usually wouldn't.

Be alive with all of your might.

Thanks Danielle for linking to this.

Love those weekend links posts, I always find happies in there at the very precise time I needed to most

One Man's Trash...

For the past twenty minutes I have been sitting here with my mind both blank yet stupidly full all at the same time. Doesn't even sound possible does it? The stupidly full being that my life of late has been busybusybusy but with mostly inspiring creative 'stuff' which is awesome. The blank part comes in when I try to make some sort of sense of it in order to blog it.

So I figured I would upload a pic of lately and see what happens... (rambling on mostly haha) 

 

My life when I am not at work of late is filled with social media, networking, and product photography. One Man's Trash has been all consuming, we love it. Sharing such a creative endevour with himself is bliss, in our years together I have never seen him so inspired and focused.

The pieces we have posted on our facebook have been really well recieved, and as the 'likes' grow it is begining to feel like a community of likeminded people.

This is where I have been, and clearly not blogging, and for the first time I don't feel super guilty about it. For I am out there in the world being creative, loving, and living an authentic life - the fact that I can't find it in me to blog every few days is becoming much more okay to me. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be blogging constantly but working a full time management job, and then helping with One Man's in my 'free' time (plus family, friends, Ruby, and trying to self nuture) does not lend itself to being here all that much.

So yeah, go and like us on facebook if you haven't already (if you actually do like us/our work that is haha)

Mel x

CURRENTLY.

Linking in with the lovely Danielle from Sometimes Sweet for the first time, these prompts are really helpful to get the brain ticking over. Sometimes life moves at such a speed that I struggle to recall what is happening currently lol.

Watching: The Block All Stars and re-watching Sex and the City for the fifth time. Himself and I are hooked on this series of The Block so its fun to have that to share with one another. Also, I just super love renovation and design shows so that works haha.

Thinking about: Himself and his creative venture. We've been interested in vintage furniture, recycling, and salvaging items that would otherwise go to landfill for years. Up cycling items into new pieces, or just restoring those for our home. Anyhow, turns out that himself really loves it and he is great at it. It has begun to turn into something bigger (One Man's Trash) and I am the (self appointed) social media/marketing/retail manager haha. It is very fun, and I am so proud of him!

Also thinking about - sustainability. The way in which we eat, live, and our consumer habits. Sometimes I get horrid anxiety re:what we are doing to this poor Earth. I have been trying to get more locally, and making a conscious effort to reduce my impact.

Reading:  Animal , Vegetable, Miracle:A year of Food Life - by Barbara Kingsolver. I'm only a few chapters in so far and it is very interesting/informative regarding eating seasonally, and of just how far our food has travelled to be on our plate.  As a society we are so used to being able to get pretty much any fruit and vegetable at any time, mostly to the detriment of the Earth (fuel consumption etc) or the poor local farmers! Very eye opening indeed.

Looking forward to: Seeing Tegan and Sarah in April, regaining my fitness/health, and watching my love enjoy his work THAT much more.

Making me happy: Baby cuddles from my great niece, time spent nurturing my mind/body/and home, de-cluttering and a more organised home, my Ruby Clare and her loving, this blog and other lovelies out there - inspired :-D

Link in below so I can drop by and check out what is happening in your world.

Mel x

NY adventures Day One (image heavy)

My achiever trip to New York City. That I won (see here)

Oh my goodness. It was such a massive experience. So many firsts, massive amounts of places visited that I have dreamt of my whole life, the whole week was just so much.
If the people travelling with me had known how many times I thought "Its just like in the movies! SQUEEEEE!!" to myself they might just of disowned me lol. SQUEEEEE is my delightedexcitedhappydanceohmygawdimightdiefromexcitement sound. My trip was full of SQUEEEEE moments ;-)

The plane trip there was a really concentrated blend of excitement, fun, and wanting to pass out as I felt so horrid. This was my first visit to another country so the novelty of a larger plane was not lost on me. Having taken a fear of flying course and researched like a mofo it wasn't anywhere as an anxious experience as expected.
The Tv and movie options were plentiful, the crew friendly, and I was on my way to freaking NEW YORK CITY!
Via Los Angeles. In economy. Not a short or comfortable trip for me. My legs and feet melded into one swelled mess at around hour five or six. I found it impossible to sleep, all I wanted to do was lie down flat.
The food? Yummy as. They kept bringing it out. The food, Arj Barker live, and a gazillion episodes of hoarders kept me somewhat sane.
That and getting to stretch the legs at Los Angeles.

Arriving at JFK and the drive into the city as the sun went down was amazeballs. Seeing glimpses of the skyline as we drove in was beautiful. Even the traffic was okay. Since I was in America. In New York.

We stayed at the Park Central hotel. Having read plenty of reviews beforehand I knew I was in for an adventure at best. It was interesting. Black mould on walls. Filthy toilet that didn't flush. Glad wrap  over smoke detector.

Nice.

We asked for a new room. They didn't question why or even apologise. The new one smelt like wet feet and had some suss stains on the sheets. Yuck.

the classy view from our room

 Anyhow, we didn't spend much time in the room, we headed straight out for dinners. Mexican and the yummiest cocktail I ever did have. It was a prickly pear Margarita. Can't even remember the name of the restaurant but it was delicious and the service was incredible. Actually, everywhere we ate was about a gazillion times better than it is in Aus.

Walking up to Times Square after ward was super exciting, actually being in Times Square was pretty surreal. Lots of people trying to hustle for money though. 

At dinner we got told what we needed to wear for the next day but not what was happening. It was like that the whole time. In the weeks leading up to the trip I thought this might really bother me but I actually found it super exciting. Most times we wouldn't find out what we were doing until we arrived at that activity.
Anyhow, we got told to dress nicely as we were going somewhere fancy that afternoon.

Our first full day started with breakfast at some cute diner near the hotel (I will mention here how awful the coffee was I encountered pretty much everywhere in New York! Yuck! So watery and bitter) and walking about ten blocks to our first activity for the day...

so stoked to see a mounted policeman - those horses were obviously really well looked after/loved

Times Square sculptures

Times Square 

 ...a bus tour of downtown - super fun - I loved hearing about the landmarks, history of the buildings, and the stories of the city both new and old. 

me! on the bus, my roommate in the background - she was super gorgeous and really lovely