Week in Review 21-27 September: Catch Up, Check in & Design

Okay, so this week has been a sluggish one. The cold The Man had finally sunk through my usually strong  defenses, and in revenge I think I gave it back to him... (sorry honey!). It meant that there were lots of things left un-done but I also had time to just be and enjoy the moment without worrying too much about the things I couldn't do anyways.

Vietnamese beer to accompany delish Pho. I didn't think I looked that green...

• Confirmed wedding reception place and received a 5 million item wedding checklist - eeek!
• Dinner and sleepover at friends' place - i love sleepovers :)
• Birthday dinner for girlfriend, complete with incompetent (by me and The Man only) Salsa dancing
• Catch up with uni girlfriends - over 10 years since we saw each other!
• Checked in to hotel for romantic few days away with The Man to keep celebrating our 4 year anniversary! We were both sick, so it wasn't super romantic (especially not the man's night dash to 7-11 for cold remedies so we could sleep) ;) We ate our way around Sydney - Dim Sum, German, Vietnamese, went shopping for exciting things like sheets and shorts (actually very exciting - I almost wanted to go home early to put our fantastic new linens on the bed), and went into the spa - probably not great for the cold...
• Put the new sheets on bed when we got home - it has transformed the room and I so look forward to getting in to my 1000 thread count sheets each night (and occasional daytime nap). Bliss!
• Packaged and sent Life is Crafted orders
• Coaching sessions with lovely clients (and a few coughs thrown in)
• Confirmed last round of new branding with amazing designer (can't wait to share!)
• Designed and updated two of the 2014 diary templates 
• Family dog walk - just the one - The Man has been doing all the rest of them - which is the reason I'm telling myself Zander loves him more at the moment...
• Went to a bookstore (I LOVE THEM), didn't buy anything (yet) just took photos of the ones that interested me to see if I really, really want them...But then forgot to buy the one I intended to (that's why I shouldn't be lazy - I should have just carried it around instead of meaning to go back at the end...) Oh well, I'll have to get Julia Cameron's Vein of Gold next time then!

One of the books I am contemplating...

Weekend Wishes

Engagement party for friends

Should do something for the wedding (ie INVITATIONS!!)

More Life is Crafted goodness.

Life planning for a big course in New Zealand next week

Rest and read - heal body, heal! (especially because I have to get on a plane soon!)

How's your week been lovely Adventuress? Share one of your highlights - do you get as excited about things like sheets as me - or am I that kind of quirky?!

Make it as you wish

Arienne xo 

PS if you know anyone who can help with a wordpress shopping cart that needs to be set up in a relatively short time period please let me know. This is my biggest stressor at the moment and I will love you forever

Week in Review - 14-20 September 2013: Family Frenzy, Love Celebration & Braindumps

Family Time! Mum & Dad's Birthday Celebrations in Perth

I've missed my Week in Reviews! It really is such a nice habit to get into. It recaps all you've done during the last 7 days giving a sense of accomplishment and building momentum towards more. It also brings that added bit of awareness to things that have happened, in this world of rushing from one thing to the next.

My Week in Review:

• We were in Perth for some of the week with the family all in one place for the first time in years!
• Coffee date with new friend
• Planning session in park - it was great to get away from the normal surrounds and distractions and have a power 90 minutes of collecting all my scattered info and to dos and put them in one place. I could have spent longer but the parking inspector showed up and I was just about to run out of time on the meter...ahem..
• Catch up with my 'Specilista' chickie Mrs L and here hubby and growing family. Gotta love tacos :)
• Swan Valley wine tasting trip with The Man, Daddy-O and the Sissies. Such a great day and a wonderful lunch at The Riverbank - highly recommended!
• Mini Perth CBD Pub Crawl - it ended up only being two places because the weather was super shite and we didn't want to face the barrage of wind and rain between places. Great seeing a few more of our friend and hearing about Bali Wedding plans and visions of a 6 month South American jaunt
• Flew back from Perth to Sydney - so great that the little Puppy Monster can fly with us
• Courses, post office trips for Life is Crafted orders, coaching sessions
• New work routine planning and creating project folders (i love organising!)
• Thank you letter written for lovely diary customers
• 2014 Collection being planned and the first design is being finalised

Happy 4 year Anniversary!

At the Cellar Door of...hmmm can't remember!

Braindumping Planning Session in Perth Park

Weekend Wishes

Lots of catchups to look forward to this weekend - many of them long overdue!

Catch up with Miss C & Master M

Coffee date with Miss Z

Birthday outing for friend Miss L

Catch up with trio of Uni classmates - we haven't seen each other for about 10 years

Check in to lovely hotel to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary - hello sauna and spa

Your Week

If you do a week in review or something similar, leave a link to the post in the comments below!

Make is as you wish Adventuresses,
Arienne xo

September 2013 Dreams

Dearest Savvy Life Adventuresses,
Thank you to those of you who have checked in with me as I've been MIA on the blog for a while :) I'm trying to learn that consistency is key but I've allowed LIFE and LIVING to get in the way of WRITING. tsk tsk to me!

There has been good and ....not-so-good going on in my world over the last few months.

The biggest of which was the passing of our 21-year-old Kitty - Charlie-Bear. Here is the mini farewell we did for her if you'd like to read about her life.

I've also been doing lots of courses to upskill my coaching and to help me with the big vision I have. Life is Crafted had its mid-year diary range launch and I'm doing the 2014 collection now. Wedding plans have been progressing - we have a venue now! Really looking forward to the end of February 2014. We've booked our trip to spend Christmas with my Dad in Europe and to have big family time there. And of course a million and one little and amazing things have happened too.

September 2013 Dreams

1. New Logo and Branding - some of you might now I'm in the midst of a rebrand of SSS to become Arienne Gorlach - Luxe Life Adventuress - same sentiment just updated! Can't wait to share :)
2. Life is Crafted 2014 Collection
3. New Life is Crafted Website started
4. Releasing sadness - doing some emotional work
5. Fabulous Family time in Perth - 1st time in years we are all together in one place :)
6. Celebrate 4 year anniversary with The Man
7. Design Intro Evening - I'm holding an evening event in the Sydney CBD in late October - super exciting!
8. Book park for the Wedding
9. Friend reconnection - catch up with some Uni buddies after almost 10 years!
10. Work out renovation dates
11. Stick to new routine (this is an often recurring monthly dream!)
12. Design weekend retreat - possible event with some like-minded awesome girlfriends!
13. Other's calendars - I'm working with some great gals on joint calendars
14. Wedding invitations designed and sent - I'm supposedly doing them myself! Oooooooh
15. New Editorial Calendar - so I can be here and share more!

How about you my dears? What is on your radar for the rest of the month?

To the biggest adventure of all, your life,

Arienne xo

Self Care: Time for YOU!

Our lives can get really busy. We rush from appointment to appointment, squeezing our errands in between them and seeing when we can do our laundry and prepare something healthy to eat. Then we try to get to bed at a time where we will get enough sleep before we're up to get to work in the morning.

Stop this now girlfriend! Yes, we can do this for a little while but after some time we become exhausted. I know I start getting resentful of these obligations. I get irritated and almost all the enjoyment slips away.

It is better to do something before you explode. Prevention is better than cure.

Create some YOU time in amidst the busy times and you'll be able to do all the things you need to with more of a smile on your face and with a greater amount of energy.

What is on your self care list? Here are some of mine to get your ideas flowing:

• Journaling time in a cafe
• Giving myself an at-home pamper session - mani, pedi, face mask
• Getting a massage
• Indulging in a magazine together with a cup of coffee on the couch
• Doing something crafty - knitting, cross stitch or painting

What's on your list?

Make it as you wish!

Arienne xo

My May 2013 Dreams

This month is mostly about business dreams. I've already warned The Man and a few friends that I'll be pretty much in lockdown for the next 30 days. I've got a crap load of things to do for my diary/planner business.

You really have no idea what is involved until you venture into this area of production and distribution etc first-hand! But I'm truly excited. I've written a post over on Life is Crafted about how I'm kinda freaking out but at the same time knowing this is what I have to do...I love that The Man is going to be stepping up everything he already does around the house (which is heaps!) to look after me, little Zander-dog and the Charlie-Cat. Love you and thank you babe :)

I'm planning to be gentle on myself and not have too many expectations because I'll be head down bum up for most of May...

Celebrate my 32nd birthday - in a totally low key fashion this year!
Long overdue Archery session for friend's engagement present (no apples to be involved)
Get the car repaired (cracked windscreens and aircon that has a choice between off or full blast)
Make Christmas decisions
Attend real food picnic
New branding and logo for this site (maybe new website!)
Starting some facilitation training
Meet with accountant and discuss sexy biz stuff
Complete BSchool (life changing!). If you haven't already, check out Marie Forleo
Masterminding with new gal pal mistressminders
Prep for launch of new Life is Crafted range (seriously a gazillion things to do)
New LIC shopping cart
Introduce new products for LIC.
(I could go into numerous subcategories of this but I don't want to bore you...)
Start back at yoga...because it's been waaaaaaaaayyyy too infrequent...
Celebrate friend's engagement - Long overdue catch up!
Awesome Ms Y suggested a snail mail letter chain between 4 of us childhood friends that are spread out all over the place - US, Perth, Melbourne and me in Sydney - LOVE IT!

How are you adventuring into the Month ahead? Share one of your May dreams below and we can all cheer you on!

Make it as you wish Adventuress,
Arienne xo