Housekeeper's Carousel!

Housekeeper’s Carousel

Loookkkkkk! Squeeeeelllll!! I am throwing exclamation marks around like confetti because the dear old Housekeeper’s Carousel has rolled back in to town and I have got one hundred and one things to share with you, so rather than waste your time dilly-dallying shall we just dive right in?
First up: Leonie’s workbooks have arrived! I rave about these workbooks every year because they are the VERY BEST way to really drill down and focus on what on what you want to get out of the year ahead. And this year the range has expanded from the life and biz books to include a wall planner and (oh joy!) a diary! As a member of the Shining biz and Life Academy I have received the e-book versions of both the life and the business goals books free and I can tell you that having been completely re-invented they are even more insanely useful than they were and last night I spent a happy hour or three printing them out and getting ready for a truly lovely, and oh so valuable life+biz planning day in December…
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I could go on and on about these workbooks, but for today I will just say that if you want to live a soul-centred life or run a heart-centred business then Leonie truly understands how to help you make plans and set goals for the best year of your life… just remember though OWNING the books isn’t enough: you have got to USE them in order to really inspire a difference.
Next up: I loved this post (rant?) from James Altucher about why it is financial suicide to own a house.
Now: your thoughts on the great Kindle and PDF Dilemma from last weekend. Thank you so much for your comments and emails, they are so very appreciated. I have decided that the way forward is to do as some of you suggested: to save the pretty for my interactive downloads, like the planners and to produce “READ” versions of my written works, so that they are legible… with (of course) a few pretty pictures thrown in! Though House Rules must be starting to seem like something of a myth to all of you, I will have my READ version out in a few days. Apologies for the delay. I always get there in the end, I just like to drive myself all around the houses with uncertainty first.

Next: a book. In a year when we have all become rather obsessed with the very notion of Hygge, a book that tells the sweet story of a woman who goes to Denmark to discover why the Danes are often described as the happiest people in the world seem just the thing. I am downloading it as we speak, ready to enjoy with a cup of tea and good old-fashioned Danish butter cookie.
A Few Scrumptious Links: Ten meals from a $3.00 haul? Mind-blowing.|  Like spooky stories? Eight women share their own ghostly tales.| How Lean In Get’s It Wrong – one woman’s truth about career, marriage and parenthood.| I love the idea of a 100 Day Project don’t you?| The PERFECT veggie burger recipe?|
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Don’t forget: that there is still time to enter the hunt for the most inspiring home-maker. This m’dears is surely right up our street. Learn how to take part here…

Love: Maira Kalman. Loved this peek at a week in her life and her attitude of gratitude.
Also love: Skeem Mahogany Candles.| This BLESSED sign from Junk, Love & Co.| And Womankind magazine.|
And finally a poem: Because there is ALWAYS a poem. This one, a poem that so enchantingly captures the golden moments in the hours after the kids return home from school.

After School on Ordinary Days

After school on ordinary days we listened
to The Shadow and The Lone Ranger
as we gathered around the tabletop radio
that was always kept on the china cabinet
built into the wall in that tenement kitchen,
a china cabinet that held no china, except
thick and white and utilitarian,
cups and saucers, poor people’s cups
from the 5 & 10 cents store.
My mother was always home
from Ferraro’s Coat factory
by the time we walked in the door
after school on ordinary days,
and she’d give us milk with Bosco in it
and cookies she’d made that weekend.
The three of us would crowd around the radio,
listening to the voices that brought a wider world
into our Paterson apartment. Later

we’d have supper at the kitchen table,
the house loud with our arguments
and laughter. After supper on ordinary
days, our homework finished, we’d play
monopoly or gin rummy, the kitchen
warmed by the huge coal stove, the wind
outside rattling the loose old windows,
we inside, tucked in, warm and together,
on ordinary days that we didn’t know
until we looked back across a distance
of forty years would glow and shimmer
in memory’s flickering light.

By Maria Mazziotti Gillan.

Have a wonderful week Housekeepers…

[su_box title=”Source List” style=”noise” box_color=”#ff6699″]1. Grab Leonie Dawsons printed or virtual workbooks, planner and diaries right here.
2. Sign up to join The Shining Life and Biz Academy here and get going working through more inspirational resources than I can even begin to list. I cannot recommend this group highly enough.
3. Buy The Year of Living Danishly on Amazon.Com here and on Amazon.Co.uk here.[/su_box]