Where do you work?

I have recently upgraded my office!

Well when I say I, I mean my mom did all the hard work and now I am reaping the rewards!

All the hours she put in sorting out our yard so it actually looks presentable has paid off and I'm so glad we invested in the parasol. I burn terribly so I rarely sat out. Now I can actually enjoy the yard and all the flowers and the weather is just oh-so-perfect at the moment. Give is a couple of weeks and the rainy season will be upon us. Not fun.

Most of the kids on our street are now at kindy or school, which means from about 8.00am onwards it is lovely and peaceful too but there re distractions, oh yes, the drama that goes on in the garden.

The most interesting has been the bees. We have blackberry brambles along one fence and I noticed a brown bee buzzing up and down but not collecting nectar, it was as if he was on guard duty.

It turned out that was exactly what he was doing, a little later a black bee (yes, they have black bees here) came to collect some nectar and the brown bee was not happy and started attacking the black bee. Chasing it off. A little while later the black bee would come back and the brown bee would have another go at it. We did a bit of research and it turns out that the black bee has no sting but the brown bee does.

Quite fascinating, that wasted a whole chunk of time!

And then there is Edvard and Munch, the two cute caterpillars munching their way through our orange tree. It's not a very big tree so I was a bit concerened! And Edvard was the bigger of the two and we reckoned he was about ready to go for 'the change'. We had been checking up on them every day but then we had a couple of really rainy days and.... Edvard and Munch had disappeared! We have no idea where they went, couldn't find a crysalis anywhere and no sign of the cute caterpillars. 

We are hoping that they found somewhere cool to hang out and change into butterflies and that a very hungry sparrow didn't eat the very hungry caterpillars!

We also have a couple of little lizards that come out and party when they think nobody is watching, I'm telling you, it's all happening in our back yard!

I could do with a better chair but you know, life could be worse! 

Do you have a nice place to work?

Taking Time Out

I have been quite good about not ranting like a crazy woman over here about my recent gremlin attack in the website, I have lost, I don't know how many hours to trying to figure things out - it's a curse sometimes thinking that you can fix anything if you work on it long enough.

In the end I had to admit defeat and get a man with a plan in to deal with it. He is fluent in geek-speak and so I hope he will have it all sorted in time for the doors opening for the next round of In With A Boom.

I'm really excited about running this again, I loved doing it last time and seeing the progress, the a-ha moments and the wins of my clients was just fab!

But because of the gremlin issue, everything has gone off track and I'm not scrambling to make sure I have everything set up and ready. Emails written, artwork done, videos recorded and everything else that goes into a launch.

If it's something that interests you I'm happy to break it all down, a behind the scenes peep, if you will, just let me know.

Anyway, I have been going at it pretty hard and of course it's all desk work - not good, so I decided to take a break and head out to my favourite cafe. I deliberately didn't take my ipad or laptop so I couldn't do any work. But I did take my kindle so I could read instead.

Managed to score free cake and coffee too - bonus!

It really is matter of living and work by my rules, the ones that I share with my clients, it wouldn't look good if I didn't lead by example!

In case you missed it, I'm going to be running some free training this week - the first part is what to do if you fall of the wagon and you need to get back on track - a favourite and much asked for topic!

Sign up below so you don't miss it!

Come for a walk with me…

I shared last week how I like to get out of the house once a week and work in a cafe nearby, well I'd like to take you to this weeks spot, Starbucks it is not! I leave my bike in the car park then follow the path…

Past the cars and other odd ornaments and a small shrine, if you are lucky you might see a snake too!

Then you come to the main building…

When you walk in, there is always a display of artwork or ceramics by a local artist, often there are pieces for sale…

Time to settle in with a cup of coffee and homemade cake, like my other frequent haunt, the menu is very limited. I think they have 3 dishes here, I always have the brochette and salad set - which comes with a choice of drink and cake too! It is what my husband would describe as a "ladies lunch" - in other words, he always leaves still hungry!

It is usually full over lunch time, which is quite surpassing since it is in the middle of nowhere! But once the people taking lunch are done, I generally get the place to myself…

I know some people would see this as a downside, but these cafes don't have Internet access, this works for me because it forces me to get on with the job in hand. I get far more writing done when there is no net to distract me! 

After I have done my work, it is time for a walk around the grounds, are you coming?…

There is also an old farmhouse, they often have exhibits on in there too, it was a guy with some beautiful kimono fabrics this time…

As we walk around the garden we spot some pretty flowers…

What is this? Where is it pointing to?…

 Hmm a yurt of sorts, I wonder what is inside…

It's a cat shrine!! You know how much I like cats, I'm outta here…

Don't forget to smell the flowers on your way out…

Being Location Independent…

One of my big goals is to have a completely location independent business, so that if we ever need to up and leave, we can and still have money coming in plus I want to be able to take long trips abroad and still be able to keep my biz ticking over.

It all started by changing my sewing patterns from paper to digital, I was bit nervous that people wouldn't want to buy digital patterns but how wrong I was, they soon started outselling the paper ones, it wasn't as hard as I though it would be! Although I don't do much advertising with the patterns these days, I sell them through Etsy and Craftsy and still making money every week from them which is rather nice!

My Organized Chaos is my main biz now and both the MOC course and Clear The Clutter are set up in a way that I can work on them from anywhere and that people from anywhere can join. I love that the courses are so international and I'm sure it makes it more interesting for the members because they are constantly learning new things about other countries way of doing things.

Another great thing is that we have a number of cool artisan cafes dotted about, all within biking distance, so I can go and work out of the house too. Working from home is great - no commuter trains for starters but it can feel a bit stagnant being stuck in the same place, so I like to go and work out and about at least once a week.

This cafe is my current favourite haunt, they have a simple menu of 4 different lunch dishes which they change each month, and a couple of sandwiches and they make their own pasta and bread. The food is top notch. They also roast their own beans, so the coffee is lovely too! 

The chef had come up with a new type of dessert the other day, asked me to sample it and name it! I am useless at names but it was a nice gesture!

Going out somewhere to work also means getting some fresh air, it is so easy to just stay in all day, doesn't feed the mind of the soul. Luckily my hay fever hasn't been too bad this year and the weather has been gorgeous, the change from winter to spring always happens so fast here. I must admit, it is very pretty come spring time…

So, I have the second Montessori Inspired book in the works and a small book on the go too, plus My Organized Chaos course is getting a make-over! Watch this space for more exciting things to come…