LIVING LIFE WITH A SMILE EVERY DAY
So much has been happening over the last few months, and seeing I still
want to keep my blogging to one post a week, I decided to spin out my
monthly update and make it a quarterly one - so today's post is what's been
happening in my world for the second quarter of 2021 - it's the Autumn
edition (with a little bit of Winter sneaking in at the end).
My focus this year is on moving towards 60 with a positive mindset and
gratitude. Cultivating what makes my soul feel happy, and aiming to live my
best life every day. Life will never be perfect, but it's full of perfect
moments and a lot of little joys if we choose to look for them. These are
the happy moments that have popped up over the last few months in my
life.
VISITS WITH THE FAMILY
A WEEKEND OUTING TOGETHER
Because both lots of kids had visited us in the weeks leading up to
Mothers Day, we knew it would be a quiet weekend with just the two of us
for the actual day itself, so we took ourselves off for a lovely drive
through the countryside to check out some little towns that we hadn't
visited for a while. Our day trip took in Capel - Nannup - Balingup -
Donnybrook, and there was plenty to eat, lovely scenery, and good company
- you can't ask for more than that can you?
PLAYING AT BEING A 2D CARTOON CHARACTER
After seeing a few examples of the cartoon images from the free Voilà AI Artist Cartoon Photo App I had to have a play with it
myself. It generates very flattering "Disney Princess" images and here's a
few from some of my photos - it certainly picks up any extra hair colour
etc (especially my pink bits!) I think I can see myself in there somewhere
- and it gave me a fun distraction for half an hour or so.
TRYING MY HAND AT SOMETHING NEW
Over the last couple of months I've been feeling like I wanted to try
something a bit different, and a few things came to mind (and are still on
my "possibility" list) - they included.... learning the ukele, having a go
at mosaics - I'd like to do our house number sometime, the paint by
numbers artworks that are popping up everywhere on Facebook, or maybe trying out calligraphy. Then I happened upon a handlettering set and bought it.....which
led to watching a million 'handlettering for beginners' youtube
videos.....and now I'm hooked.
It's not something you learn overnight, it has structure, technique, and
precision - then you get to throw in a bit of flair when you've mastered
the basics. The youtubers say it takes months of daily practice to become
even remotely proficient, so I have a long way to go. But in the meantime,
it's a new interest and a skill I'm hoping to eventually master. I'll give
you a sneak peek at my very rudimentary efforts and maybe in my next
update in September I'll have made some progress and can do an
update.
WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING ON THE BLOG
Things have been going along smoothly in my little spot in the
interwebs. I had four lovely guest posts for my #WOTY
Cultivate
series - Deb from
Debs World wrote
about
Cultivating her Bold Streak, Angelique from
HAGS with Attitude
wrote about
Cultivating a New Direction, Jo from
AndAnyways
wrote about
Cultivating a Writing Life, and Jennifer from
Unfold and Begin wrote about
Cultivating Creativity. A big thank you to each of these lovely ladies for sharing
their thoughts and tips here. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to
contribute to the series as I'm always happy to share my blog with
other writers.
FINALLY.....
The main change with my blog is that I turned off the comments at the
beginning of June. I felt like I needed to reduce my online time and be
more present in real life, so instead of checking in all the time to
respond to comments, I've taken the pressure off and instead I'd love
you to leave a comment on my Cresting the Hill Facebook page or if you want to chat, feel free to email me - leanne.crestingthehill@gmail.com - that way we can have a longer conversation if you're feeling more
chatty. I may turn the comments on again down the track, but for now I'm
going to see how it goes and if I'm on my laptop a bit less!
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Do you have some highlights over the last few months that are making
you smile and count your blessings? Is life in general treating you
well, or are you feeling a bit swamped by some tough times? I hope
you're choosing joy where you can and that you find little nuggets of
happiness - and live your best life every day.
A FEW RECENT POSTS IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM
JUST A FINAL NOTE:
I've turned off the comments on my blog posts, but still love to hear from you. You can leave a comment on my Cresting the Hill Facebook page - or you can email me at: leanne.crestingthehill@gmail.com
If you'd like to know when I write a new post, please click HERE for email updates.
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