Sparkle and Glitter » Making 2009 Sparkle

Making 2009 Sparkle – Gloom and Glitter

Vixel — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:19:25 +0000

How has your 2009 been, honestly? My own experience hasn’t been that great. Despite all my insistence that this was going to be my year, that I was going to be successful, have a great social life and generally be brilliant at everything, very little of that has transpired. I’m still:

In the same job, because there simply aren’t any vacancies!
Because I’m still earning peanuts I don’t get out very much, preferring to scrimp and save for the bigger occasions.
I’m not as successful at my outside-of-work activities as I’d like to be.

All this doom and gloom a little out of character for this blog? Well, yes, but I intended to write a mid-year review on which of my goals I’ve achieved etc. and I’d be lying if it was all happy and joyful.

Still, the summer is here, misery can’t be blamed on Seasonal Affective Disorder anymore, so in the spirit of resigning myself to waiting out the recession, I’ve come up with a list of dirt cheap or free ways that I intend to make the summer of 2009 sparkle brightly!

I plan to read more, preferably in the sun somewhere, perhaps the park, or in the back garden with a glass of rosé and a bowl of strawberries.
I’ll go on long, but slow (exceedingly slow and with overly-frequent breaks in my case) and rambling walks, getting to know the town a little better and hopefully discovering some hidden gems!
I’ll take lots of photos, of everything! Textures, flowers, interesting people and buildings, anything that catches my eye. I’ll go out with my camera with the specific intention to come back with lots of wonderful snaps! Now that I’ve figured out how to do it with my camera, I may try my hand at HDR too.
I’ll sit by the open window with my laptop and write whatever comes to me!
I’ll take advantage of the seasonal produce and eat lots of fresh fruit, including of course, my favourite – loads of strawberries!
I’ll make use of the huge amount of craft supplies I have, making lots of fabulous things!
I’ll write long letters in my best handwriting and send them to people.

There are loads of fabulous ways to make the summer sparkle, even when funds are low! How are you planning to take advantage of the summer season?

Making 2009 Sparkle: The Big Spring Declutter!

Vixel — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:00:03 +0000

Image by kandyjaxx

I haven’t done much with this feature for a while, but I have been inspired to resurrect it. The above image isn’t mine, but it might as well be. I admit it, I am a terrible hoarder! My attempts at decluttering never work.

The problem is, I admire the minimalist aesthetic – I’d love to inhabit one of those spaces where everything has a place, looks neat, and there’s lots of wide open space to move, but I also like stuff. These two characteristics do not go well together!

I have therefore decided to make my April – May Making 2009 Sparkle challenge to make a concerted effort to declutter my life. Until the end of May I will:

Start an selling pile, a charity shop pile and a recycle pile (the latter will be mostly for clothing too worn out to be re-used, which can be taken to a fabric bank instead.)
Get rid of at least one item for each day the challenge runs (41 days!)
Re-organise the remainder of my things including paperwork etc. destroying old papers and filing those I need to keep.

At the end of May I will make sure I take everything to it’s intended destination without changing my mind about any of it, for I also have a terrible habit of deciding that I will wear something one day after all, returning it to the back of my wardrobe, and never taking it out again!

Are you a hoarder too? If so, join in and declutter with me! We can share photos of our newly-organised spaces!

Making 2009 Sparkle: March

Vixel — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 07:30:47 +0000

Image by T.B.G

February without alcohol was surprisingly easy, I really didn’t miss it in the slightest. Sure, there were times when people around me were drinking drinks I really enjoy and I rather wanted to join in, but I didn’t miss the effects of the alcohol, just the taste, the same as passing an Indian restaurant and really wanting a curry. I’ve only lost a few pounds, but it’s a start, which brings me on to March’s Making 2009 Sparkle challenge.

I need to start exercising. Dieting is great, but without exercise it doesn’t work well for very long. Spring is in the air, my energy levels are starting to rise and it’s the perfect time to start trying to get fit! A colleague is bringing me a gym schedule tomorrow and I’m planning on going to a few spinning classes if they fit into my schedule. I don’t have a definitive plan of what I’m going to do yet, but I’ll see as I go, depending on what’s available. At the very least I’ll start doing exercise DVDs at home, and possibly get a gym ball – I really need to tone up my core muscles.

So, who’s going to join me in getting a head start on our fitness levels before the summer gets here?

Making 2009 Sparkle: February Update

Vixel — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:46:23 +0000


Image by Photo Monkey

Just a quick update! I’ve barely missed alcohol at all, in fact I daresay I wouldn’t have missed it in the slightest had my boyfriend and other housemate not been drinking port after dinner last night – a drink I very much enjoy, particularly on a cold evening. I resisted though, drank my hot chocolate and wasn’t too upset!

Weight-wise, I do appear to have lost a couple of lbs, but not very much, and the amount of excercise I had last week carrying heavy files all over the South East may have helped in that. I am however, feeling far more awake on Saturday mornings, and generally getting a lot more done at the weekends.

How are your transformation challenges and other personal development activities going?

Making 2009 Sparkle! Month 2: Booze

Vixel — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:05:10 +0000

Image by pandemia

On the list of things I find hard to resist, a good cocktail is pretty high up there, as is a nice glass of red wine on an evening, and delicious champagne – whether I’m celebrating or not! I wouldn’t say I binge drink, my first hear at university had its hazy moments but these days I like to remember my nights out, however alcohol is certainly a big part of my social life.

I have decided that for this month’s Making 2009 Sparkle challenge, I am going teetotal. This is for several reasons:

* Hangovers nowadays are far worse than they used to be (I must be getting old or something) and I sometimes get a few of the signs the morning after only a couple of drinks. I’m fed up of waking up sluggish and headachey.

* I’d like to allow my body to de-tox for a bit!

* It must be having an effect on my health, there are weeks where I easily drink more than the recommended amounts.

* There are a tremendous amount of calories in a lot of alcoholic drinks! I will measure the success of this partly by whether or not I lose weight!

Once again, if any of you wish to join in I’d love to follow your progress, so let me know!

This also ties in nicely with Gala‘s 2009 iCiNG Transformation Challenge, so if you’re participating in that this month, I’d love to hear about it! I’m following all the daily tips and inspirational quotes in an attempt to live a much healthier lifestyle this month!

Making 2009 Sparkle, Month One Conclusions

Vixel — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:31:01 +0000

Image by Neil Phillips

The photo is yet another cute little fellow that was tagged “eft” on Flickr, it’s a pretty hard topic to illustrate, I’d draw something but… I can’t.

So, my final impressions on EFT are good. My impression, from the way it worked for me, is that the physical effect of the tapping process on the entire body encourages a psychological effect. I think that because I feel more relaxed, clearer-headed, calmer and more centred because I have done the tapping, I feel better about the subject I tapped on. To explain, if for example, I’m worried about a piece of work I can’t move forward with and I use EFT concentrating on that piece of work and my desire to find some inspiration to get it done, because the tapping makes me feel physically calmer, it forces me to clear my head about the work and regain my focus. What I mean is, I do not believe it has a direct effect on whatever subject I’m tapping on, but in a roundabout way, it works. In the end, that’s what counts.

I would of course, love to hear others’ ideas of how it works!

I will definitely be continuing with EFT, I have found it works particularly well on confusion, worry and lack of motivation. It has helped me to get on with the task at hand on many occasions by allowing me to calm my racing thoughts and organise them, focusing on what I need to do. It’s also been great for insomnia, and as an added bonus all that water makes getting up the next morning if not easier, then certainly urgent! I would perhaps recommend a different course of action if you require a lie-in!

If you’ve been using EFT for the first time this month, how have you found it?

EFT Update (Making 2009 Sparkle)

Vixel — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:29:58 +0000

: Image by Nature Snooper

Apparently the cute little creature in the photo is an EFT, I think it’s rather sweet!

The first “Making 2009 Sparkle” challenge is going really well. I’ve found EFT to be particularly beneficial to my concentration and relaxation – I’ve been tapping at night to stop my thoughts racing and make me sleep, and also before doing some work in an attempt to focus my thoughts.

To start with, I was skeptical, as mentioned in my previous post on the subject. This is not the kind of thing I’m usually “into”, and part of me was convinced it was just placebo effect and would do absolutely nothing for me. To that end, perhaps foolishly, I decided to do a very simple test and try out EFT’s physical effect on the body. That’s right, I purposefully skipped the water to see what happened. With no alcohol and nothing out of the ordinary in my diet that evening, I did a few rounds of tapping and went to bed. The next morning I woke up with the headache to end all headaches, and drunk several glasses of water very quickly!

At this point, I had satisfied myself that EFT does something, i.e. it has a physical effect on the body, and I think this was my breakthrough – once I knew it was making some kind of a difference I was more willing to commit to it.

This week, I’m going to try tapping on more specific things, now that I’ve finally finished reading through the manual and the useful links that people have shared with me. I will share my final thoughts (hehe, I suddenly feel like Jerry Springer) on EFT at the end of the month, but for now, it seems to be a surprising (from my point of view) success!

Making 2009 Sparkle! Month 1: EFT

Vixel — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:30:39 +0000

Image by Pink Sherbet Photography

Making 2009 Sparkle is a series of posts which will be made throughout the year dealing with both my endeavours to make 2009 the best year ever, and any tips and information I pick up on the way! Part of this effort will be a series of posts focusing on ways to change one’s life, of which I intend to “road-test” one per month in the hope that it will have a positive effect on my life, and if so others may be encouraged to try it too. These posts will be made on the first Monday of each month, with updates given at intervals as I progress with the task.

This month, I have decided to try EFT, or Emotional Freedom Techniques as the name stands for. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the official EFT homepage states that

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is an emotional, needle free version of acupuncture that is based on new discoveries regarding the connection between your body’s subtle energies, your emotions, and your health. EFT has been reported successful in thousands of cases covering a huge range of emotional, health and performance issues. It often works where nothing else will. (emofree.com, 2009)

I originally read about EFT, like some of you probably did, in Gala’s excellent article and its follow-ups. It intrigued me at the time, but I never really got around to trying it properly. This month, I intend to make EFT my first port of call when I come across a problem (within reason of course) and see how it affects my life. I get writers’ block quite regularly so I’m hoping in particular that it will help with this, and also assist me in focusing more on my law coursework and reading.

I’d love to hear the experiences of other people who’ve tried EFT, so if you have, please let me know how you found it! Also, if anyone feels like joining in and trying EFT for the first time this month, please keep me posted on how it goes! It’d be awesome to have input from others! If you do decide to join in, as well as downloading the EFT Manual, try watching Gala’s video in this post, in which she explains a great technique to get started with right away. Her follow-up posts, “More EFT Information” and “EFT Tips and Tricks” will also no doubt be essential reading and I’ll be looking back on them at regular intervals to make sure I’m not missing anything.

Of course, if I find EFT to be as life-changing as Gala and many others say it is, and I really hope I do, I’ll be thrilled and be sure to make it a permanent part of my life! I’m looking forward to what I hope will be an amazing month of discovery!

What do you think of this feature? Do you have any recommendations for me to try out in later months? It can be anything from unique forms of exercise to dietary changes (I’m thinking of going vegan for a month at some point, though probably in the summer as I think I’ll find it easier when it’s warmer) or even a new hobby or passtime.

Wish me luck!