Serendipity

After writing yesterday's post about Post Cards I went to my Post Office Box, only to find a post card from my god daughter Isabella from France.

Here it is ... a picture of a pirate ship, with the skull and cross bone flag and all.

I love the Island with the palm tree, but I especially love her drawing of the Australian flag.

Thanks Isabella. If you double-click on the picture you can make it bigger. You are a fantastic artist.

FreePostcards

Not sure if the phenomenon is anywhere else ... but all the best cafes and movie theatres have free postcards these days. In a rack, with advertising on them SOMEWHERE, but many are really cool and the advertising is no more than a line on the back. For those that have heaps of verbiage on them, they are often still worth picking up for the picture on the front.

These picture postcards are really handy for quick notes to a friend to say thanks .... bloggers are probably amongst the worst when it comes to sending hand written notes, and people love getting things in the "real mail".

I also use them as bookmarks, for covering books and boxes, decorating and just plain note taking ...

Look out for some near you! Of course if you're crafty, hand made ones are really cool too. Here's a great web site where I found this book.

Pepys ' Diary On-Line

Historians, writers, readers, students of literature will probably all know of Samuel Pepys - his famous diaries about life in London in the 17th Century were published and are now often referred to as 'the' journal to demonstrate that journals/diaries are a significant form of literature.

I love the internet ... having a 17th Century Diary
at my fingertips? WOW.

Now while I know this might not excite ALL of you ... it's worth sharing that the full version of Pepys Diary is not only available on line, but Phil Gyford has it set up so you can do amazing things with it ... like read a diary entry for today's date (every day!) and search it for topics.

Journals for Everything!

Since I started my research on journals and journal writing (including blogs), I heave learnt so many uses for the many beautiful notebooks I own!

As a self confessed addict, the answer to the "what do you want for ... (eg mother's day!)" question ... is always a notebook or journal. I'm kinda past the standard kind of thing and do like something a bit arty or different these days ... but then the resurgence of journal writing has seen many stationers design some really beautiful mass produced ones as well ...

The thing that never ceases to surprise me is what people use their journals and diaries for ... I learnt yet another new one yesterday

... no longer do we write of the Bridget Jones' style of "Dear Diary , today I ...."

(tho many people still do that of course) ... it is more a shift to notebooks and recording handy things as well as thoughts and feelings ... I have at least eight on the go at a time, and most writers I know do seem to have an extraordinary collection of the things ...

So what do you do with yours?

My Elmo!

Mother's Day is on its way ... and I just wanted to say how great it is to be Mum!

Happy Mother's Day (for Sunday) to All the Mummy Bloggers!

I love my two kids like nothing else on earth ... and hey why wouldn't I when my ADULT daughter gives me an Elmo as a present? Life couldn't be any better could it? He sits on my desk reminding me to have fun ... and when the puppies are getting bored sitting around with me in my office? I turn him on to do the "Birdie Dance" and love to watch the dog's inquisitive reactions ...

And then of course I get back to my work ...

How Many of Me Could The World Handle?

Need an excuse to dabble and procrastinate on the net for a minute?

Try this :-) Means nothing of course. Not even sure why I did it. Beats "goggling myself" I suppose!

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Shhhhhhhhhhhh! Listen

A client asked me the other day ... "What do you think is the most important gift we have as humans?"

I believe it is the ability to listen.

Whatever it is you are hearing today ... really listen. Whether it is your own thoughts, the voice of a tired friend, a stressed child, or a loving spouse ... whether it is a song, or sounds of nature ... whether it is silence or din.

Really listen.

It changes everything.

Technorati Authority

Good old Technorati are shaking it all up again! No seriously, this is an interesting one. For those of you with a blog registered with Technorati (and if you aren't then you should ...)... Technorati no longer has that "blogs that link here" status for member, but rather an 'authority' status. It is pretty much worked out the same way, but relies more on currency of links. Here's the link to a description of the new authority thingy ....

The implications? All the more reason to link to each other when you are interested in someone else's blog

... keep the blogging conversations active ...

surely it was one of the things that brought you to blogging in the first place?

One for the Mommy Bloggers

There's a new Q & A at the e-zine for mums motherinc. I pitched the idea, name and all, to the editor at motherinc ages ago and now they have it set up for Mums looking at returning to the workforce which is fantastic. I'm the first guest advisor so check it out ... there's lots of other useful resources for parents on the site too.