Wear a butterfly tomorrow

Before you wonder the tattoo is not real but I admit I'm thinking about getting a real one still. Anyway the reason for the sudden butterfly tattoo is all for Rachel over at Mon Polkadot Cheri.

A parcel for me?

You may remember I'm part of the Secret Post Club scheme. I love it. The scheme has been on a bit of hiatus recently as poor Heather who set it up and got inundated with people joining and what seemed a small idea in principle has suddenly grown. We now use Elfster to help cut down the time Heather needs to spend organising it all.

Count those butterflies

Ok so this scheme has already started so you'll have to be quick if you want to join in. The Big Butterfly Count is underway as it started on the 24th July and finishes on the 1st August.

I love chocolate pralines, butterflies and flowers!

This is just the ideal gift for Mother's Day for me. Marks and Spencer have come up with this gorgeous chocolate praline butterflies with the packaging impregnated with seeds so that when the wrapper is planted it grows into Candytuft plants!

Found my old filofax!

I wrote a post asking "Does anyone use a filofax anymore?" back in October and it turned out from people's comments on here and on my twitter page that they do indeed still use them. I had asked whether people instead used iPhone's (and of course could be blackberry too) and the general thing seemed to be to use both.

I did have my eye on this Butterfly Personal Organiser but decided that as I already had a filofax it was silly to go out and buy another. But couldn't actually work out where it was? A couple of searches through boxes and it was found (Yay!). Mine is the one pictured above and it is Mini size, it's actually perfect as it fits in my bag and is not too heavy. I noticed at a few meetings and trips on the tube into London that people do still use a filofax! At a meeting I went to this week they were using their filofaxes AND iPhone and Blackberry.

I use the diary inserts (week on two pages - my writing is quite small but never enough for just one page for a week) and the address pages. I like to use the coloured ruled notepaper as I feel it makes me feel more inspirational! I've only been using a filofax again properly really in the last week and will update later on as to how it's working etc and what works best for me. Anyone got any tips?

Happiness is...?

It's a good question - What is happiness?

There is no real definition of happiness and I can't really tell you what happiness is, but I can tell you what makes me happy right now. This is my happiness list (in no particular order);

Eating a bag of peanut m&m's all to myself
When Manchester United win
Reading a good book or watching one of my favourite TV programmes/films
Seeing my god-children and realising how grown up they get each time I see them
Sharing a smile with a stranger
Making a music playlist
Sitting in the sunshine
Seeing a beautiful rainbow
Having a good laugh - you know the ones that make your sides hurt!
Spending time with friends and family

Happiness can not really be described or calculated - it can only be felt, and experienced. Quotes like these can give us a clue

"Remember happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think."
-- Dale Carnegie

"It is a sad thing to look at happiness only through another's eyes."
-- Marquerite Blessington

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
-- Gandhi

And, this one by Woody Allen:

"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose."

I believe the key to happiness is to stop pursuing it, to realise that happiness awaits...within yourself... in all of us.

It's about accepting yourself, your life, your situation, and enjoying all of these things without wishing for more.

It also means you accept your mistakes and have the desire to start all over again. Happiness is not perfection but learning to accept your own shortcomings. For as long as you believe in yourself, others will accept and believe in you. For as long as you know how to give love, love will be given back to you ten folds.

What is on your happiness list?

Peacock spotted!

The Butterfly that is! Not sure what I would do if I saw an actual peacock strutting about in the garden.

Butterfly Spotter

I have been watching out in our garden for butterflies and so far I've seen;

• Small White
• Small Copper
• Small Skipper
• Comma

Today, I managed to creep up on one that I hadn't really been able to have a proper look at and had only guesses on what it was. It was a beautiful Red Admiral. So pretty, made me feel kind of proud that it was in our garden. I did feel sad when I saw it fly away over the fence but an hour later it was back!

Hopefully if the weather stays good we will be off to Butterfly World next week, check out the website here http://www.futuregardens.org/

Sarah
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Taking note...

Do you use a notebook?

A friend suggested that I got one and now I can't live without it! Here's what I write in mine -

1 - Ideas for my blog- titles, ideas, draft copies of posts

2 - My idea for my story I'm writing - characters, plots, chapters

3 - Recipe Ideas I find - cupcakes mainly! Although I follow Jamie Oliver on twitter and he's always posting pictures of what he's cooked so I'm always getting recipes from his website

4 - Tips for fish care - any handy tips I read or hear. Currently researching live plants for my tank

5 - Butterfly list - Jot down any butterflies I see in the garden. On the look out for a painted lady (very rare)
 
6 - Things to do list - hate looking at this list sometimes to see how much I haven't done!

7 - Songs I hear to later buy, recommended films and TV programmes to watch

8 - My fantasy football and formula one teams

9 - Doodles - always doodling! It's the nearest I get to fine art!

10 - Any quotes I read or hear.

What do you write in yours?

Sarah
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So what have I been up to since I last posted...

Well the other blog is coming along day by day, don't want to rush it. I have managed to do a lot of planning for my story, which has really helped gain more focus about where it might be going.

I went to see Transformers (I found out the Transformer I had as a child was one of the Decepticons, the evil ones - says a lot really) Revenge of the Fallen which was amazing and could be pushing it's way into my top 10. Major criticism though was it was about 45 mins too long but the action scenes were truly spectacular. This has led me to sign up to Flixster, I haven't actually managed to write any reviews on it just yet but will hopefully do so this week.

The fish are well, have just bought some food tablets that stick to the inside of the aquarium as my oranda fish seem to dislike flake foods, my danio's love it though. Typical! Peas are a favourite enjoyed by all. All of them now come to see you when you look in on them, although they associate that with food is coming so they are left disappointed a lot!

Baking last week we made little chocolate fudge cakes, this week Button Cookies are on the agenda. I have a cupcake book arriving some time this week which will I'm sure bring new ideas for next week.

This week The Guardian ends and I will just have a once weekly fix of the lovely Simon Baker in the Mentalist! The 3rd series of the Wire is also coming to an end and will finish next Monday. Series 4 will take us further into the mayoral race from Series 3 and into the school system and a closer look at Stanfield's drug gang.
Everything in the garden is going well, tomatoes are nearly ready to turn red and be ready for picking/eating. Have put a tray of nasturtiums next to my lettuces and another big nasturtium next to my beans and peas to keep the blackfly away. Seems to be working, worked amazingly well last year. My Love In A Mist flowers have just started flowering; I have a mixture of white, blue and pink ones. I thought my poppy had died but got another 4 poppies over the weekend, I'm waiting for the poppy heads to go brown so I can de-seed them and plant again.
I have a programme clash this week where I'm glad for sky+ as Dragons Den is back and so is Who Do You Think You Are which follows Davina McCall in its season opener.
I also spotted a Small Copper butterfly in the garden at the weekend, hopefully will see some more in the next few weeks. Jonathan has seen a Small White butterfly in the front garden. In the next few weeks we will be visiting Butterfly World which looks amazing!

That's all for now

Sarah

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