I woke up early this morning, at around 2am. Not quite enough to prompt me to leap out of bed, you understand, but certainly enough to continue dreaming and being aware of the dream. I can’t recall what the dream was about, but I was trying to complete some sort of basic task – watering the flowers or baking bread or something equally simple – and could only get to the “good bit” in the dream once I completed what I needed to do. Normally so quick to act in life, I was being frustratingly slow in my dream and being “lucid” enough to follow the dream, I decided to give my dream-land self a kick up the backside and finish the task pronto.
The dream of course then vanished in a puff of invisible fairy dust and I was left even more frustrated that before.
In the last 10 years or so, lucid dreaming has become a large and interesting part of my evening’s rest. I tend to awaken in the early hours (and this is almost guaranteed to happen if I am too cold, although being too hot doesn’t have the same effect and is merely uncomfortable) with this incredible “story” playing itself out in my head. I’m not always involved directly in the dream and think that I am more often than not, an observer with the power to intervene. It’s a bit like having an interactive audio book or video playing out in the darkness.
I often wake up fully thinking “I must remember this dream” or “I must remember to tell MWM about this, but invariably, within seconds,the dream starts to fade. I’ve considered keeping a dream journal (I’m certain that there are several best-sellers in my dreams, if only I could remember them!) but doubt that MWM would be thrilled at me switching on the light at some godforsaken hour to jot down a few probably incomprehensible dreams!
For the moment, memory will have to suffice if I think it’s worth jotting down these ideas!
A few weeks ago (perhaps even months ago), I heard about The Lucinda Belle Orchestra and loved “My Voice and 45 Strings”. Imagine my disappointment when I tried to buy the CD and discovered that I couldn’t – Amazon wouldn’t ship to the US and being “out of country”, I couldn’t download the MP3 files from Amazon either.
Fortunately, I am a resourceful individual and simply asked my dear friend Michala to bring a copy over with her when she came across the pond a few weeks ago.
I am so pleased I did. Originally, I only wanted a couple of songs, My Heart and 45 Strings being the one that I had heard several times and that appealed. Now that I have the full CD, however, I find that I love quite a few of the songs. The CD contains a mix of jazzy piano tunes, coupled with wonderful lyrics and a vocal that appeals to me on just about every level.
Although some people will immediately turn up their nose at the word “orchestra”, this is certainly not your traditional “orchestra” that brings to mind penguin suits and ball gowns.
“My Heart and 45 Strings” is a rather fun, upbeat song presumably about how Lucinda simply needs her harp and can cope perfectly without the man that she’s about to leave. It immediately signals the fun that is about to come in the rest of the album. “Northern Lights” is a bit slow, but lovely and dreamy and slightly retro, with little more than Lucinda and her harp.
“Dodo Blues” reminds me of Marilyn Monroe’s “I Wanna Be Loved By You” for some reason coupled with a bit of bluegrass and blues, which sounds odd but works brilliantly and there are times where I want to have a quick “Boo-boo-bee-doo” moment! “Jimmy Choos” is, as any Londoner will know, is all about shoes and frankly, anyone who can sing successfully about shoes must be on to a good thing.
My favourite on the album has to be “Rose Marie and Bobby McGee”, the story of a couple of bank robbers who get married and pull off a robbery on the day of their wedding. The song has a wonderful, infectious foot-tapping beat and if I can just get my voice right, this is a song that I’d love to learn to sing. This must be fantastic when it’s performed live – you can imagine the band having a lot of fun with it!
Overall I love this album. Lyrics that are sometimes haunting, sometimes retro and often just plain fun, a mix of jazz-blues-folk-bluegrass and a classically trained musician and her brand makes something quite special in my humble opinion.
I’ve been working with small businesses and running my own businesses since 2003 and one of the things that I can do particularly well is motivate others. I speak to a small business owner about what they are doing, their products and so on, and I get excited for them! Before I know it, I am helping them to develop a business plan, contributing marketing ideas and generally getting them all fired up about being the most exciting business since organised religion!
Yesterday I organised a small meetup for my creative group and met a chap who makes bags – handbags, shoulder bags and so on – out of old jeans and trousers. After the lovely Ana had left, we started talking about marketing and I realised that I don’t have many good ideas about how to market crafts and craft work. We discussed starting courses (too time-consuming, as he has a full-time job), asking local shops to stock the items (coffee shops, hair dressers), take a stand at the Boulder Creek Art Fair (or similar art fairs), get a blanket and show the wares in a prominent location and so on, but bearing in mind that for a lot of crafters, the craft element of their lives is a hobby, all this walking-around-town-flogging-wares is unrealistic.
So how to you sell crafts?
Online, I know that there is Etsy and Ebay, and perhaps, but what else is there?
Ideas welcome!
In the meanwhile, I have a particularly sexy idea to solve this. More coming soon!
No, really. I am. Perhaps I am lazy, but I do everything in my power to avoid cold calling. Cold emailing I can do, but picking up the phone and calling? It takes a day of procrastination to realise that I’ve lost yet another day.
No more! I was hugely inspired by Rosemary and Jennifer at a women’s networking meeting last week, and having spent the last few hours worrying about cold calling and faffing about online, I found this:
This is definitely my father’s approach to things. Call the CEO direct. Not sure that I am quite in that league as yet, but as of now, shall give it a go. Wish me luck!
I have been incredibly lucky to meet the lovely Moe Skaro through my BNI group here in Boulder. Moe is a fascinating individual. I shan’t go into her history, as that’s not my place, but I can tell you that she is a PUSH Therapy practitioner here in Boulder and this is a treatment that I’d not heard of until I met her.
Having just returned from my first session with her, I can only describe it as a mixture between sports massage and an unusual form of muscle manipulation that loosens the muscles, thus allowing oxygen to get to the right places and blood to flow better, the result being freedom from all sorts of pain. I visited her this afternoon at her invitation with a large dose of curiosity.
We had a dinner guest recently and rather than go out for dinner, which seems to be the done thing here, we suggested that we stay home and cook. Of course, “dinner guest” is simple a euphemism for “guinea pig” to me, not in a negative way (I have to say this because a friend in Austria really took this the wrong way!) but in the sense that I can take off a day, play with new ingredients and try something new.
That may or may not work. Admittedly, I’ve not had a “doesn’t work” situation, although there have been times when cooking time has had to be increased or the textures weren’t perfect first time round.
Anyhoo, I made Insalata Caprese for starters with some soda bread (which wasn’t very good – not sure that soda bread really excites me, I’m afraid to say!) and had intended to make Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni with homemade pasta, but came across this recipe by the Urban Chef for something much more decadent. It turned out beautifully, although I think that the dumplings need a little more flour than suggested in the original recipe, so I’ve adjusted accordingly.
I’d suggest making this on a week where weight fluctuations aren’t a problem though as this is rich and tasty and calorific! Read the rest of this entry »
This evening, when I ought to be hanging up the washing, I am instead sitting at my (beautiful) computer and conducting a vanity search. The reason? Someone contacted me to talk about cross-cultural consulting and I asked how he found me. Apparently, I am on a cross-cultural list on Twitter.
My musing for the day. Was looking at a photo of me from last year, where I actually had cheek bones! With a bit of yoga, pilates, weights and walking, plus copious glasses of vino, do you think I can think myself thin?
I am not denying that the oil spill in the Gulf is a disaster. Obviously it is. However, what I find incredible is the reaction. This is happening to a Western, primarily white, major power (who, by the way, with Canada use around 45% of the total world oil produced even though the US population is a mere +-5% of the world population, so frankly, if you insist on demanding so much and forcing greedy companies to drill in ever-more complex locations, problems will happen) and the whole world knows about the spill.
How many people have died in the US as a result of drinking polluted water? How many babies and children have been violently ill from drinking oily water? None, as far as I know. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been reading a most enjoyable book by Albert Jack entitled “Pop goes the Weasel”, which gives the apparently “secret” meanings behind nursery rhymes. One of the chapters deals with “Round and round the mulberry bush”, and he included a lovely snippet as to why how red mulberries got their colour.
The story comes from Greek mythology, and is as follows:
