Sunday 30 June 2013

Usual Sunday BS - Checking In and Moving On

This week has been pretty good - I've set up the bones of what I want to cover day to day - one of the main things in store for this coming week is getting my 'branding' sorted out.  And the theme for the week is to be 'using what I've got'.

And throughout the week:

I was loving the content over at Bentlily, especially Monday's piece on absence rather than presence - I am so in touch with the need to tune out.

I guess I have a thing for poetry this week as another favourite would be the Silk Worm by Jalaludin Rumi over at OCG.

Loving all things needlework related right now.
So for the weeks to come this blog now has a format
Monday is for Making
Tuesday - for tuning into the invisible stuff
Wednesday - for Wishcasting on Whensday
Thursday - the Thoughtful Thread
Friday for some Fashionable Authenticity
Saturday for some Silent Sunshine and Smiles
and
Sunday for the Usual Sunday BS.

Got the structure set up - now I have to work on the aesthetics, branding is key.
From Lifewithoutpants.com

Have a wonderful week
Namaste
Catherine
xxx

Saturday 29 June 2013

Saturday - some silent sunshine and smiles...

Namaste
(You can follow the pinterest links back to the original source - or just enjoy the moment of sharing this smile)

Friday 28 June 2013

Friday will be Fashionably and Authentically Fit


Introducing Alice
Friday is going to be Fashionably and Authentically fit from here on in.  


catherine@whenatthemacsx.blogger.com
When I initially started The MacsX I had an Ebay shop featuring quality recycled fashion, the true intention was to 'upcycle' rather than recycle  wanted to add my own twist, but never quite got round to doing that.   Whilst I had rave reviews  for the quality of the pieces and for my customer service there was always something missing.  The customisation, the upcycling and the styling.  So I closed the shop and whilst I still love shopping for pieces for myself that was as far as it went.

In keeping with using what I've got and doing what I 'say' on a Friday I'm going to feature some authentic fashion.  And I'm going to start with me.
'Alice' is my mannequin.  She didn't actually have a name until we moved house last year and the removal man asked where I wanted to 'put Alice'.  One of the pieces I had used when covering my mannequin, on the right hip, was for 'Naughty Alice' he just read that and so the mannequin with no name has been 'Alice' ever since.  Over the next few weeks I'll be using Alice to restyle my wardrobe and to use my creativity to do some upstyling.  After all if I can't do it for myself how can I be expected to help anyone else.   So Fashionably and Authentically Fit starts here.

Fitting Authentically is a whole other side of the coin and one that I'll cover on another day.

Keeping my phone handy to keep updated and 
a little glass of wine to start off the weekend.
Have a great one

Catherine
xxx

Thursday 27 June 2013

Thursday's Thoughtful Thread

Catherine@WhenatTheMacsX

In keeping with the redesign – and my one day at a time deal – I’ve decided to make Thursday the day of the Thoughtful Thread.  Mainly because I want to combine my love of words and creativity and create some inspirational canvases.

Today’s piece, inspired by my chosen word for the year, is a bit of a cheat as I’ve pc’d it together – for next week I will create a needlework piece.  In fact I might well pop over to Molly Mahar’ssite and kill two birds with one stone, create my entry for her PinterestContest.  Combining my love or words, needlework and Pinterest – how much more inspirational can it get.

Time to get busy...
Catherine
xxx

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Wednesday is for ...

Wishcasting on WHENsday


Just because I'm re-organising doesn't mean everything has to change.  I like the idea of Wednesday Wishcasting and so popping over to Jamie Ridler studios on a Wednesday for now is a keeper. Albeit Jamie seems to be short, or late on wishes today.

I'd already chosen my wish for this week without a prompt - I found it via the OCG project with an edited version of Bob Perks 'I wish you enough'

From TheOCGProject

I am learning daily about the beauty of enough, and wish everyone enough. This past year my son has been suffering from, what we now know to be, pseudo seizures.  They are scary enough to watch and I can only try to imagine how scary it is on the other side of them.  We had a really good day at the beginning of last week where he got up, and went for a walk round the park before going to school.  I had been giving some thought to defining happy - and that was 'enough'.  My hopes and wants have scaled back tremendously over this past year.  To have some happy, healthy, quality time with family - that is ENOUGH - in fact it felt almost overwhelmingly more so.

May all your wishes be cast into the world and bring back ENOUGH.

Catherine

xxx

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Tuesday is for Tuning In


To the “Invisible Stuff”

Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.
Found via Google Images
There are few phrases more frustrating than “I can understand how  frustrating this may seem”.  Feel the double whammy of the slap in the face when closely followed by “these tests have come back negative so we can rule out serious illness a, b, and c”.  In the meantime life has been on hold for the best (or worst) part of a year or more as it would seem every life threatening illness has been eliminated.  And still the pain and suffering continues.  I don't say this to look for sympathy I say it to emphasise the futility of dealing with physical conditions with a psychological base.

 Given a name for our condition 'pseudo seizures', but no guide to treatment, I finally done what I had avoided for so long - I googled it.  
Found on Meme Generator
There was a whole minefield of information, some disturbing, some completely negative and pitiful and some positive and helpful.

One of the best pieces I viewed was on You Tube by a girl named Laura, who has been very brave in sharing her experiences.


Is it just me, or is there an overwhelming need to put a label on things?  Rather than actually dealing with symptoms and getting on with some healing, labelling seems to be key.  One of the pieces I read focused mainly 
on naming the condition and whether or not names were suitable.

Personally I believe that 'Pseudo Seizures' is a misnomer as there is nothing 'pseudo' (artificial or false) about these episodes. 

One thing that rang alarm bells throughout my look around the net was the length of time it seemed to take to figure out what the underlying symptoms really were  - yet this does not seem to be a complete unknown.

It is a sad reflection of modern life that more and more people suffer these 'invisible' conditions and they seem to be hitting them younger and younger.      Not wanting to seem like an old twat but I think the pic I seen recently on facebook sums up the whole information overload.
Via Scottish and Proud

I believe that the more we talk about the 'invisible', unexplained and misunderstood workings of the human mind the more we will come to understand it and perhaps be able to focus on treatment rather than labels.

Apologies if this seemed like a bit of a ramble.  Sometimes it helps to put a whole load of 'stuff' out there to find some clarity.  Hopefully in tuning in on the coming Tuesdays things will become clearer and life simpler.

Here's to a mindful and peaceful week

Catherine
xxx

Monday 24 June 2013

Monday is for Making



So, this week I’m organising things here at The MacsX, even looking at name changes.  And a some simple branding changes.
I’m restructuring, or should I say finalising the structure of my blog.  I’ve been examining why I set this blog up in the first place  - ultimately it was to decompartmentalise everything and to make a difference.

As of now, Monday is for Making.  I love checking out all the creatives over at Handmade Monday, and I love being creative and working on building my Portfolio and increasing the stock in my Etsy Shop.  Giving some focus to all this on a Monday can only add positives – structure – dedicated time – consistency.


I’m hoping you’ll be encouraged to stop by and see what’s going on.
This week I’m loving the latest Crafty, I feel like I truly know a whole lot of the contributors this month.  If I were to get published in one Craft focused magazine this would definitely be my first choice.  And I’m working on some more Unique Ribbon Jewellery, using this and next seasons key colours.

And so –


To work.

Happy Monday

Catherine
xxx



Sunday 23 June 2013

Usual Sunday BS – Checking In / Moving On - What week?

That was the week that was _over a week ago_

Monday 10th I'm creating a procrastination list, I really enjoyed this take on procrastination when I was reading Free Range Humans and would have added this to last week's post but....

The week’s discoveries/rediscoveries:

Springforest Healing Fest - I started this journey but once again let life take over, I really need to work on that.  The key  things I took from this were that western medicine is a passive healing, it's not preventive and looks only at the symptoms and not the cause of the illness - treating the whole person is the way of quigong.
energy is effected by - emotion - nutrition - changes in weather/season - environment - wrong medication - injury
To experience this healing energy go into the emptiness
keep everything simple
use your consciousness
elements - breathing, postures of body, mind and sound
faith, confidence, call upon the master's energy, visualisation, focus, consistence
love, forgiveness and kindness
Life is for happiness
When it is time - it is time
xoxo
Pinterest I pin to share as much as to remind myself of the idea.  Am I the only one who finds myself going to repin something of mine that someone has repinned - because I like it, still.


xoxo

I'm loving the Intention Video from Apple:

xoxo

Loving these definitions/descriptions:
A great description of meditation:
Meditation, the way he described it, was a way to stop running. You sat still, and watched your thoughts and emotions and desires and aversions come and go, and you resisted the urge to try to flee from them, to fix them, or to cling to them. You practised non-attachment, in other words. Whatever came up, negative or positive, you stayed present and observed it. It wasn’t about escaping into ecstasy – or even into calmness, as the word is normally understood; and it certainly wasn’t about positive thinking. It was about the significantly greater challenge of declining to do any of that.
The importance of routine:
[T]he daily rituals and working routines of prolific authors and artists – people who really do get a lot done – very rarely include techniques for ‘getting motivated’ or ‘feeling inspired’. Quite the opposite: they tend to emphasise the mechanics of the working process, focusing not on generating the right mood, but on accomplishing certain physical actions, regardless of mood. Anthony Trollope wrote for three hours each morning before leaving to go to his job as an executive at the post office; if he finished a novel within a three-hour period, he simply moved on to the next. (He wrote forty-seven novels over the course of his life.) The routines of almost all famous writers, from Charles Darwin to John Grisham, similarly emphasise specific starting times, or number of hours worked, or words written. Such rituals provide a structure to work in, whether or not the feeling of motivation or inspiration happens to be present. They let people work alongside negative or positive emotions, instead of getting distracted by the effort of cultivating only positive ones. ‘Inspiration is for amateurs,’ the artist Chuck Close once memorably observed. ‘The rest of us just show up and get to work.’
Via Austin Kleon

And Danielle La Porte has some pretty profound stuff to say The real you emerges.Because it’s already there — beneath beliefs, and untruths, and fatigue, and wonderful experiments.  DLP

xoxo
 I was especially taken with Seth's making a point:
Seth Godin - 'making a point' via Miss Swiss
"ideas that are free spread faster and ideas that spread win"
xoxo Is it sad that I really want to send myself a Burberry Kiss

xoxo

I found the magic of space held by the Yoga Mat via Jamie Ridler I just need to find my Yoga Mat now!


xoxo

I realise this is all a bit 'bitty', it's a reflection of life around here recently.

Still, over the next week I intend to get organised, get things in order, finish stuff I've said I'll finish and move on.

Here’s to another week
And to using up lots of stuff

Catherine xxx

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Wishcasting on WHENsday



Pondering over which one to pin at I Am The Lab, resisting the urge to pin all - it suddenly struck me it's WHENsday.

I just love the whole I AM THE LAB concept



Wishcasting on WHENsday
and
Storytelling for Change


I originally started writing this post a few weeks ago.  I had planned on tying together the Storytelling for Change Labs I've been doing and what I really want The MacsX to be.

As I put my necklace on this morning I had that ‘aha’ moment.  That’s the story I want to tell.  What I like to call the story of WHEN.

I’m sitting on the top deck of a London bus looking through the window.  And then I stop looking through and start looking in.  Etched in the window is the word WHEN.  And it’s as if that window is speaking to me – bear in mind that I am on the edge of a major melt down – WHEN?  When does my life start? when do I get what I want? When do I get off?(and I don’t mean the bus).  There were a whole host of other questions that really needed to be asked.  But it was if I were hearing my own voice for the first time in a very long time.  Really hearing me. And really recognising that I was not happy with my lot – sure I had loads to be grateful for but I hadn’t found ‘it’.  What I wanted to be when I grew up – ‘happy’.  That one word etched in the window in August 2004 was the beginning of a monumental journey, which I take a new step on each day.  I am Catherine McAtier and in finding my authenticity I hope to light the way for others.  And NOW is WHEN.

That was how the day started then life took over and I got kind of derailed.  This is the first Wednesday in what seems like forever I've been able to get back to focusing on the MacsX.

Working my way through my Feedly stuff I was delighted to see my #ImaPiece jigsaw piece included in the Craftivist Collective post today.  My piece is end right on the middle row.

My contribution to #imapiece

And the when messages just keep on coming, I especially love the 'dispel the "I'll be happy when..." myth' over at Kind Over Matter This  was posted on Monday but I'm playing Feedly catch up today.


So, today I'm finally getting back to some semblance of order - and getting to use what I've got.  I have a whole host of info on Feedly, I seem to be finding pins worth looking at over on Pinterest and I'm looking forward to getting my Etsy Shop back on track with a new improved look (more later...).

And finally over at Jamie Ridler Studios it's back to Wishcasting Wednesday - Today's prompt is What Do You Wish to ....


Me, I want to discover my Authentic Life, I've been doing some work in the background between life's interruptions and hope to put all my discoveries together very soon.  So far my moon board is kind of moon oriented but over the next week or so I'm hoping to add some wishes.
In the meantime I wish everything my fellow wishcasters wish for themselves and may they discover their wishes in the way and at a time that is best for them.

Today is a Good Whensday

Catherine
xxx

Sunday 9 June 2013

The Usual Sunny Sunday BS to brighten up Monday

I'm keeping this week's post short and sweet:

I'm not a cat lady - but lately I keep posting them


Last week’s discoveries/rediscoveries:

I finished reading Free Range Human this week - and started reading about writing - I really need to start doing stuff. 

Found a great quiet place

Here’s to another good week
And to using up lots of stuff

Catherine xxx

Sunday 2 June 2013

Another Sunny Sunday and the usual BS

And the weeks just keep getting better and better..... 

by Catherine at When at The MacsX

One of the first things I read this morning was the Dottie Angel Post about little things.  Certainly over the last few weeks I have really learnt to embrace the ‘little’ things, to make the most of a sunny day by having lunch in the park, by ‘being there’ when it truly is the place to be, even staying down for a ‘little’ while when you fall just to draw breath and gain perspective.  Yes, I did fall over this week.  I have the skinned knee and bruises to prove it and the peace of mind that I can be 90% sure that nothing is broken.  I’m using blind faith and gut instinct for the other 10% because I really do not want to have to spend any more time in A&E.  I’m going with the positive tude and a little r and r to get me through.

I finally finished my International Craft swap this week, it is now wrapped and on its way to Australia.  I really want to show it off here but feel it wouldn’t be right, not until  Valerie gets to open it up.

Can you see what it is yet?

I also finished reading the draft of Marcella  Chamorro‘s new book – and can’t wait until she releases it to the world.   It truly is beautiful , you can pre-order it here.  And I promise to write more about it when it is fully revealed.


So, I can smile and say that I have made some positive little steps this week, and I’ve already set out another in my diary for this week coming re Storytelling for Change – Somehow serendipity seems to be at work again as this will be the week where my story comes together – time for the great reveal?  To say I'm doing some editing would be putting it mildly, the surprising bit is I'm putting back the 'not so fun parts' and making it
truly authentic.

And this week’s discoveries/rediscoveries:

Learning not take things personally, highlighted on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday with Don Miguel Ruiz.  I'm definitely taking in that whisper.


And I am loving Beth Beulow's message of "view and hold others as whole, capable, and resourceful."  I believe that this is key to overcoming the whole 'victim' mentality and is a whole post of it's own making.

Keeping the creativity going and maintaining connections I intend to complete the Artists in Blogland - Colour this Quote June Challenge.  I'm loving the message ( "May there be peace and prosperity within your walls."  Psalms 122.7)and the creative accountability my committing to this brings.

Here's to another productive week - and one full of lots of little blessings.
Take Care
Catherine
xxx


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