Archive for flowers
Simple Pleasures Are Often the Best!
I was recently looking for a particular book, when I instead stumbled across a book I’d purchased as a wee gift for myself just after Christmas, from the delightful Mary Ryan bookstore in Toowoomba.
This book, called A Book of Simple Pleasures
The words are beautiful, but it’s the photography that makes me swoon.
Rich, luminous photos of glass bowls of flowers, close-ups of cosy soft furnishings, and panoramas of beautiful settings in nature. Many of the photos focus on the details of domestic pleasures, and invite us to relaaax and sink into sensory pleasure.
Have a look around your home. Is it set up, in a way that’s personal and true to you, to make you feel good?
Is there beauty in your midst?
Do you actively make time to connect with yourself and with others, to create rich experiences?
If you haven’t already read this book, I’d highly recommend it. It’s full of pithy quotes, ideas for easy entertaining or for lifting your mood, and personal anecdotes from contributors.
The ethos of this beautiful book is summed up by one of its contributor’s quotes (Amelia Barr):
It is always the simple that produces the marvellous.
So pare back, and focus on what matters to you and what brings you joy!
Gratitude Friday – 10 February 2011
Hellooo! Yep, another week at RRR Central. It’s been a whirlwind of a week, and I have a few ‘gratitudes’ I’d love to share with you. Be sure to share yours, too, in the comments below.
- My girls settling well into their new classes in this bright, shiny new school year.
- Having a fabulous chat with a dear friend over the phone.
- Having a lovely friend over to my house for a special lunch.
- Spending a couple of hours at a coffee shop, chatting animatedly with yet another friend who had returned from a few months overseas (SO MUCH to talk about).
- Receiving the first in a yearly subscription to Mindfood magazine, a Christmas gift from another friend!
Certainly a very sociable week, with lovely connections with dear friends. I really feel so fortunate.
Have a wonderful week, and be sure to share the ‘things’ that you’re grateful for, in the comments below.
PS I’m also grateful for the intoxicatingly fragrant David Austin roses that adorn my desk this week (see the photo), from my children’s first-birthday rose bushes.
Flower Essences Teleseminar
I had a fascinating interview today with flower essence therapist Kellie Beverly (that’s Kellie in the pic above).
Kellie revealed what flower essences are, and how we can use them to emotionally heal, and thrive.
If you’d like to download a recording of our call, simply head here to register:
www.richradiantreal.com/teleseminar-sign-up
This call will be available for a couple of months, because it’s the final Rich Radiant Real teleseminar for 2011.
And did I mention that it’s free?!
If you’ve heard of flower essences but have always wondered what they are and how they work, then you’ll love this call!
The English rose…
The English rose greets the summer garden with a profusion of colour and perfume and our doors and windows are thrown open to allow the season’s intoxicating atmosphere to envelop us and our homes.
Sydney A Sykes
I love this quote! It may not quite be summer here, but our roses are in full bloom. We gave our twin daughters ’1st-birthday roses’ a few years ago, and we’ve enjoyed their beautiful blooms ever since. Above is a photo of our daughter Evangeline’s rose, which is the David Austin ‘Evelyn’ rose. So gorgeous (you should smell it!).
Arabella has the David Austin ‘Mary Rose’ as her special plant – I’ll post a pic of that soon…
I hope you enjoy this splash of rosy-ness, and that you can almost imagine ‘the season’s intoxicating atmosphere’ in your home! I’ve certainly been enjoying these beautiful flowers. Ah, ain’t life grand?
Spring has Sprung!
I just wanted to share this beautiful picture with you.
My husband Darren took this photo at Ballarat’s Botanical Gardens yesterday. My daughters wanted to snap a shot of this cute little bee, and Darren managed to capture him, even though the little critter kept hiding!
The gardens are looking simply gorgeous at the moment.
Can you tell that I just LOVE spring?!
Enjoy the photo, and have a wonderful day, won’t you?
Much love to you…
A Penthouse in Paris
You have GOT to watch this amazing video! The amazing Megan Castran, of Jewelchic, is a manifestor extraordinaire!
Not only did she have Oprah come to her house for dinner (‘taco night’) on Oprah’s recent tour of Australia, but she continues to attract truly spectacular experiences – such as an upgrade to the penthouse suite at the George V Four Seasons Hotel in Paris!
The best part about it is that she is SO excited about the upgrade, and has such incredible appreciation.
I tell ya, when you live in a state of super-high vibration – which Megan certainly does – you naturally attract amazing experiences and people into your life. She radiates so much happiness and enthusiasm, so she can’t but help receive that (and more) in return.
I actually feel as though I’m sharing this incredible experience with Megan in this video, down to tasting the raspberry chocolate! Watch, and be utterly inspired… (PS Check out the view from the bathroom!)
Absolutely Beautiful Things
If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I like to go on (and on) about surrounding yourself with beauty. It’s very good for the vibration, my dear!
I’ve been following the blog of Brisbane-based interior designer Anna Spiro for a few years now – her blog is so uplifting, and beautiful. I go there for a hit of beauty, whenever I feel in need of a boost.
This week, Anna launched her very own online store! You can purchase all sort of lovely things for your home through the site, and there will be changes every season. Right now, there’s a winter (for Australia) selection available. I have my eye on the sumptuous silver boxes…
If you’d like to browse the store, simply head here.
Ah, here’s to beauty!
The Last of the Summer Blooms
I just wanted to share this photo with you, to show you just one of the beautiful things I’ve noticed around me today.
We pruned our roses back fairly hard before our house move in January, so that the removalists wouldn’t be pricked by sharp rose thorns.
Slowly, and in spurts after days of rain, their greenery has come back, and there’s one bud on my rose. It’s my 30th birthday rose – the Sharifa Asma David Austin rose.
I wasn’t sure that we’d get another round of rose blooms, what with it being autumn already, but my gorgeous rose bush has decided to bless me with at least one more.
I can’t wait for it to open and release its fragrance, and to unfurl its breathtaking petals. My rose makes me feel so good! I’m going to enjoy watching it from my kitchen window, and breathing in its aroma when I hang out washing.
Do you have a special plant whose flowers you adore?
For the Love of Luxury Part II
Luxury – don’t you love the way that word just rolls around in your mouth? Luxury… Mmm. It feels like smooth chocolate, or smooth, cosy sheets.
I do love luxury. If you missed Part I of my mini series on luxury, head here.
The lilies in the photo above graced our kitchen/dining area recently for about a week, and it gave me a boost every time I passed them by.
But I don’t have any flowers in the house this week. I absolutely love having fresh flowers around me, but sometimes I like to have a break from them. Sometimes I like to have ‘nothingness’, a space. Then, when I bring in flowers again, I appreciate them all the more. Both ‘ways of being’ feel luxurious – the space, and then the filling of space.
I think that luxury is a relative thing – I remember when Darren and I went camping around Europe in the early ’90s, and after a 4am ferry ride from Dover to Belgium (the cheapest rates were in the middle of the night!), we slept a few hours in our car, and then rocked up at a campsite. After pitching our tent (on ground that could have been concrete), we headed to the shower block, put our money in the slots, and had the most LUXURIOUS seven-minute hot shower each. Do you know how good that shower was, after our lack of sleep, and sleeping uncomfortably in the car?! Honestly, I can still remember it – it was the best, most appreciated shower of my life!
This is the ‘contrast’ that Esther and Jerry Hicks talk about – when you experience discomfort, you certainly notice and appreciate comfort all the more! You also get very clear on what you really do want.
I think that, at its heart, luxury is about comfort. It’s about living in a sensual way. One of my favourite books of all time is Sensual Living
All luxuries. All within your grasp. All there, just waiting to be experienced, savoured, and appreciated.
Why not give yourself the luxury of declaring your list of luxuries to the universe, by leaving a comment below? I’ll share a list of my luxuries in the next part of this series.
The Joy of Jacaranda
We’re in the midst of packing up our house, and I’ve been saying goodbyes to much-loved aspects of our current home.
I’ve been out in the garden snapping photos of the beautiful plants that I’m going to miss, the plants and flowers that have made me feel so good.
Our jacaranda tree is in bloom at the moment, and although its blooms are slightly battered after all the rain of recent weeks, it still lifts my spirits to glance upon them.
I hope this photo of our jacaranda’s flowers makes you feel good, too!
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