AlyZen Moonshadow iPhoneography

I’ve blogged every day for the nearly 4 years now, give or take a few glitches and accidental deletions. To date I’ve written around 1245 posts, and used countless of my own photos or photos curated from the Internet and Pinterest. There’s 8.1 GB of data on my WordPress account.

It’s time for my yearly WordPress Premium subscription to be renewed. It isn’t cheap, at AU $129 per year, but for the…

I love these ceramic plates, bowls, spoons etc made the good old-fashioned way by artists, and not by machine. There’s been no effort to make each piece exactly the same as the next. No two pieces are alike, no two even stand or sit exactly evenly. You can clearly see all their bumps, wobbly bits and other imperfections. In fact, you could say they wear them with great pride.

That’s exactly how…

So, after years of my verandah being a junk collection of assorted pots with a variety of plants in various stages of life and death (can you tell I’m not very good at gardening?), I decided to tidy up and create a cosy coffee corner for myself. 

The lucky find of a round glass-topped table for just $10 at a thrift store was my incentive to change things around.

First, I cleared the verandah of…

Welcome To My Boudoir

Over the last 3 months, my bedroom has had a total transformation. Not an expensive, interior designer priced transformation, but rather a series of furniture rearrangements, lucky thrift store finds, items that I already owned being repurposed, and objects I “manifested”. 

First, the Queen-sized bed was turned 90 degrees and pushed into a corner. Originally, there were 2 bedside cabinets, one on…

Here in Western Australia it never gets cold enough to snow. Well, we Might get frost and hail, but very, very rarely do we get any real snow. I think it might have snowed somewhere in Western Australia a couple of years ago…but maybe it was just heavy frost, or a smattering of real snow. Certainly not enough to be making snowmen or having snowfights. 

Anyway, I sometimes wish the winters here…

I’m tired of people telling me what I can or cannot do. How to live, how Not to live. What do they know? They’re not me. How can they presume to know what’s best for me? 

Actually, I got tired of this a while back. But, having to live under the same roof as my ex, (for now, anyway), every now and then he likes to remind me of my limitations. Every now and then the ugly beast rears its head.

“You…

Pinterest Curated Images for International Women’s Day

Yesterday, I posted about Carrie Green’s phenomenal business book “She Means Business” (pure gold, get it now, run don’t walk, what are you waiting for?), which arrived on International Women’s Day. Then I got carried away waxing lyrical about the book and about Female Entrepreneurs in general, and that’s why this post is a day late.

But wait…my half of the world may be in a different day, but…

International Women’s Day + Carrie Green

Today is International Women’s Day. Today is also the day I received my copy of Carrie Green’s book “She Means Business”. It’s not just any business book. It’s a business book geared specifically towards women entrepreneurs. It’s Motivational, Inspirational and dare I say it, Fun. 

If you’re in the USA, use this link to Amazon.com to purchase your own copy of She Means Business: Turn Your Ideas…

I’m in love with the green of leaves. Right now, it’s the end of Summer in Australia (yup, this is one weird country compared with the rest of the world). It’s hard to tell which leaves on which trees will turn golden then brown and fall to the ground, and which will stay green all year round. I’m no garden expert, and some trees that I swear are olive trees are perhaps some indigenous Australian…

Land Of The Free…?

The “Scarcity” model that Society imposes upon us is one big fat lie. Society needs us to believe that there’s not enough Money out there for everyone, that the rich can only get richer and the poor poorer. That we are not beautiful enough as we are, so we need this makeup, these clothes, those shoes, that cream, go on that diet, eat this, don’t eat that, try this gym, buy this, buy that etc. 

It…

“Kate Bush”

You may have read in a previous post about my 2 Fiddle Leaf Fig (Ficus Lyrata) trees that I named Carol and Daryl, after characters in the series The Walking Dead. Carol and Daryl were repotted in plastic barrels and then left on the floor by the TV in the living room, while I figured out where to site them on a more permanent basis.

Well, I was in Big W in Kwinana, after petsitting a dog, and…

I came across this beautiful Monarch butterfly today at my local Bunnings hardware store. At first I thought it was an artificial butterfly, a fabric prop used to attract the eye towards the display of flowers. But upon closer inspection, I saw that it was real. 

What a beauty! 

And it wasn’t alone either, in appreciating the sweet allure of the pink flowers. Swarming about were several bees.…

I love books, and I love words. For me, words don’t have to be in English for them to sound beautiful, or sometimes for me to even understand their meaning. Some words are onomatopoeic and you can guess what they mean, just by how they sound.

Today I thought I’d just share some of my current favourites from my Pinterest board “For The Love Of Words”:

I came across these recently on Pinterest. Putting aside any patriotism or nationalism, for me these flags demonstrate the essence of a bohemian outlook on life. They embody the philosophy of recycling and reusing materials, and I love their spirit of insouciance and their hint of rebellion. 

Plus, of course, they are just so darn pretty. 

Bohemian, crafty, artisan, shabby chic, patriotic, prayer…

Thought I’d be a girly girl today and go all pink. 

Just because I can.

This is going to be the year I turn my life around. This year I will reclaim my life, my way. No one will ever dictate to me again how to live, what to do, who to love. I will practise Positivity, Affirmations, Visualization, Gratitude and the Law of Attraction. 

Let’s start with my Divorce, which will be heard in Court in 2…

I have a Pinterest Board dedicated to the poems of Erin Hanson, a young and very talented Australian poet. Whenever I come across one of her poems (she signs off as “e.h” or The Poetic Underground), I always save it to my Pinterest board. 

Today I’d like to share one of Erin’s poems with you all.

We seem to forget so easily that what we do is not who we are. Neither are we what Society declares…

I came across this image on Pinterest, which piqued my interest:

I found the whole idea, of miniature terrariums filled with crystals and things found in nature, rather intriguing, so I quickly created a Pinterest Board with the title “Miniature Marvels”. 

And rapidly started filling it up with images of the most sublime, beautiful pieces of miniature art. The year before last, I went through a…