Hoop Mania!

[ 6 January 2009, 14:25 ]

Okay, everyone who follows me on Twitter is probably aware that I have been hooping almost constantly for the last 3 days. (2 hours on Sunday, 3 hours on Monday, 2 hours so far today.) I am really obsessed! I can hoop to entire songs without the hoop falling down! AMAZING!

I am having so much fun with this $6 piece of plastic. I think it might even be a child’s hoop, but I am totally beyond caring. It is kind of all I can think about right now, even though I know I should be organising things (I’m going to Auckland tomorrow & will be there until Monday)!

Next step? Tricks. Major silliness. More internal bruising of my abdominals. Sparkly holographic hoops. Oh yes!

GOD, I LOVE IT!

Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala

Comment [34]
Tags: gala, video
Share this! + Email This + Del.icio.us + Facebook + Stumbleupon + Technorati

    Looking for a flat iron? Misikko's got you covered! Check out their chi flat irons - They have the best prices on a pink chi flat iron. Free 2-day shipping on orders over $50!

Questions On A Postcard: He Loves Me More!

[ 5 January 2009, 11:43 ]

Dear Ms. S.,

What lovely penmanship you have!

In my experience, relationships are always somewhat unbalanced. Regardless of the situation, whether it’s marriage or a summer romance, one person is always more invested than the other; that’s just how it is. It keeps life interesting & maintains that deliciously ridiculous merry-go-round effect. If you have to be in one position, I tend to think that being the person who is more loved is preferable, but of course it does put you in an awkward situation. It’s a sort of stasis. There are feelings of guilt. You wonder if you’re both wasting your time. You think, ‘Maybe I should let this person go so that they can find someone who loves them as much as they love me’.

What you do about the situation is entirely up to you. I can’t say what is right for your life, & plus I have faith that whatever you do will be what you were meant to do. The universe has your back.

What I will say is this. Even when we do our best to seek out a more magical & meaningful existence, life is full to overflowing with average things & mundane realities. Dull jobs, exams, corporate attire, standing in queues, early mornings, tired eyeballs & many, many interactions with the great unwashed. There are all these things which fill us with a vast nothing. Love should not be one of them.

The fact that he is “nice” is not enough to keep you together. Plenty of people are nice & good. That doesn’t make them lover material. That doesn’t mean they are the person to whom you should “hitch your wagon”.

Learning to make yourself happy should be one of your primarily preoccupations. If you feel more joy when you’re by yourself than when you’re with him, then you know it’s time for something to change. The thing with learning to make ourselves happy is that sometimes it takes a leap of faith. Sometimes we have to break up the status quo with a big hammer in order to get there. Sometimes it’s more of a demolition derby, but hey. You gotta do what you gotta do.

There is a period of malaise in every relationship. The initial sparks & fabulousness begin to fade, & it’s just night after night of getting takeaways, watching television, etc. Some people feel that once they get to a certain age, it’s easier just to settle down with someone who doesn’t make them want to commit mass homicide, so they do. But some people would rather be in a relationship with someone who makes them feel electric. You get to choose which camp you’d rather summer holiday with.

If this boy doesn’t make you want to explode with joy & excitement, if thoughts of him DON’T dance like sugarplums in your head, if the mere mention of his name doesn’t fill your body with fireworks, if you don’t spend hours daydreaming about your future together… then you’ll be happier doing your own thing, sugarplum.

Take that time that you spend together, twiddling your thumbs, & invest it in yourself. Cold & calculating as it may sound, your returns will be far greater. & who knows — in that time, you might just meet someone who really captures your imagination. Someone who you could love more than you ever imagined possible.

Fingers crossed.

Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala

Comment [48]
Tags: advice, inspiration, life
Share this! + Email This + Del.icio.us + Facebook + Stumbleupon + Technorati

Carousel -- Week Ending 2nd January 2009

[ 2 January 2009, 10:18 ]

I think I have decided that I love Dallas Clayton (& Sri for introducing me!). You should totally subscribe to his blog. He writes stuff like this.

GETTING QUIT

When was the last time you painted your face?
Not for any reason, or special day,
just for fun, to look like an animal you appreciate
or to give yourself a cool moustache
or a teardrop, like a prisoner who has killed someone.
How would your boss feel about that?
He’d probably think it was awesome and give you a raise.
And if he didn’t?
Well, that’s not the kind of place you need to be working anyhow.

& this.

BEST

Just before bed
I kiss my son
and ask him what he thinks he will dream about.
He responds:
“About a forest, with a big pond, and rainbow, and there are unicorns there
under the rainbow and they are playing tag with me, and my dad is there too.”

I consider this a victory for the forces of good.

...Once you have subscribed to his blog, you should read An Awesome Book by him. I’m telling you, it’s an excellent way to kick off 2009. It starts like this.

University of Pennsylvania’s Authentic Happiness site has lots of tests you can use to measure your satisfaction in various areas. Honestly if you’re not sure where to begin this year, or what to tackle, these tests might help you out a lot. Props, Dr Martin Seligman! You are awesome!

Ahoy, I spy a saccharine beast!

Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. An oldie but a goodie.

Nice things & good ideas: LOVE Revolution. Really good… see?

I want to start a revolution. Not the kind of revolution we’re used to; not a loud one, not a violent one, not one that makes headlines or one that leads to fame and glory. I want to start a revolution in me, and you, everyone who reads this blog, and your family and your friends and the people you meet every day from now on. I don’t want a lot from you, it doesn’t take a lot, it only takes love.

Faking Fashion is a cute Livejournal community (you’ll need to join it) with lots of fashion editorials. I like this Lingerie shoot from A4. It makes me think of a wide-eyed girl who has just moved to the big city & is in her first apartment.

Your Astrological Sign May Not Be What You Think It Is! Hmmm… I do have a lot of Leo traits. How about you? Does shifting back a sign make more sense to you?

Want to go raw in 2009? Raw Food Blog is an awesome resource for absolute beginners. The group blog at We Like It Raw is fantastic too!

Tarotscopes by HiC for 2009. I love HiC, he is amazing, & his tarotscopes fill me with wonder, excitement & hope.

How To Feel Like The Incredible Hulk In 2009 from Tim Ferriss. In 17 minutes, he explains exactly how he conquered his fears of swimming, language learning & ballroom dancing by questioning “obvious” guidelines & dogmatic teaching. Woo woo! Use his knowledge to achieve your own amazing goals this year.

Ever wanted a t-shirt of Obama riding a unicorn? I know you have! Chris Bishop has got your back!

Oh my god! AUDREY PUT HIS BLOG TOGETHER! YAY! I know you’re all excited, & for god’s sake, please pass the URL on to the boys you know who need his help. Boy Therapy is the new jam.

A girl went through a break-up & made a three-part mixtape: sadness, bitterness & acceptance. You’ll need to join the community to see it, but it’s worth it, I promise!

I love Ellen Von Unwerth.

69 Questions To Ask To Review Your Blog. Thanks, Darren! We bloggers LOVE you for all your hard work & extreme awesomeness.

Check out your horoscope at AstrologyZone! I LOVE Susan Miller’s horoscopes, they are SO GREAT, & my one for January almost gave me palpitations from excitement!

Her Balloon Happiness is the best Flickr pool ever! Ever ever! Sometimes I wonder if it was started by a fetishist, but who cares, it’s cute & it makes me smile.

Balloons & Fireworks is a good one too.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, Windows users! There is now a version of Poladroid for you! Just what you need to tide you over until you get a Mac… Hee hee hee… Evil plans!

Steve Pavlina just wrote two mind-blowing posts about his marriage — which he has been in for 15 years — & his decision to explore polyamory. I like him even more than I did & I think he is completely awesome for sharing all of this stuff with the world. He is not the only person who is in a committed relationship & feels like that, so I think he is doing the world an enormous service by being so open & authentic. Check out 2009 Focus – Intimate Relationships first, & then Polyamorous Relationship Q&A. I am so excited for him having made this decision & I’m really looking forward to reading about how it’s all going. Maybe next year when I see him at the Blog World Expo he’ll have five women on each arm, like a true spiritual player!

“The truth is that I love connecting with Erin physically and emotionally, and I want to enjoy that kind of connection with other women too. I can use self-discipline to try to deny those feelings, but that would require turning my back on the principle of Love, which is a big no-no. In this case I have to follow my heart.”

A new year’s wish from Neil Gaiman.

Tim Ferriss writes about Things I’ve Learned & Loved In 2008.

Okay, that’s all I have for you today. I hope it keeps you busy this weekend! Big love!

Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala

Comment [67]
Tags: carousel
Share this! + Email This + Del.icio.us + Facebook + Stumbleupon + Technorati

Things I Love Thursday

[ 2 January 2009, 00:16 ]

We missed one last week; I know. I got swept away with Christmas fever but I was sending deliriously happy tremors out to the universe all day, so I think I did what I needed to do! Let’s make this week’s list a humdinger to fill the gap, huh?

2009! I am unbelievably excited about this year. I have so many magical plans in the works, & I am totally hyped (& a bit scared) about putting them into action. My new year’s eve was awesome too — I got to see everyone I wanted to, & there were lots of hugs & heaps of laughter. At about 5.30am I looked up at the sky & decided it was time to disappear. I watched the sun rise over New Zealand while I talked to my taxi driver & sent text messages from the back-seat. It was a great, great night. I hope yours was too!

Skype! What a magnificent invention! It’s all good, all the time. Even in little ol’ New Zealand, where I thought my connection might be too slow to handle it. I have been Skypeing like a nut, talking to cute excitable girls (& their excellent Virgo boyfriends) in Los Angeles & frozen icicle boys in Minneapolis, as well as seeing more than enough CATS on camera! (Chicken & Monster, respectively.) My (literally) sweet friend in Melbourne is next on my Skype agenda. Yes she is. No pouting allowed!

Good music — Some weeks sound better than others. This one has been a goodie. I’d like to thank… Antony & the Johnsons; The Replacements; RZA; Does It Offend You, Yeah?; Mogwai; Tv On The Radio; Dillinger Four; Explosions In The Sky (Jake says, “If the time lapse of life had a soundtrack it would be Explosions In The Sky”); The Hold Steady; Doomtree; Built To Spill; Al Green; Murs; Brother Ali; Bell X1; Common; Yo La Tengo; The Mountain Goats; Blue Scholars; MC Shan; The Weakerthans; Prince; Digable Planets; Company Flow; The Living Legends, DJ Concept, El-P & Spinnerette. Yes, thank you all very much. Well done.

Privileged is my new favourite show. A sweet but geeky & slightly socially awkward girl (who I think is a cross between Sarah Michelle Gellar & my friend Sammy) gets a job tutoring two spoilt girls in Palm Beach. Insanity occurs, & we get to watch it all unfold! For those of us who like our television unabashedly trashy, this show has it all.

Exercising every day — My mother & I are doing an experiment which started five days ago. We’re following a program of cardio & weight-training, & every morning we don our sexiest clothing (um, not really) to start the day off sweating. It’s not glamorous but it’s extremely satisfying! I’m documenting the process & I’m going to write it up soon! I also bought a hula hoop for $6 the other day. It is lime green & made of this awful hard plastic which smacks the bones in my feet when it falls down. It hurts. But the point is… I love it. I am getting really good at it. (Okay, not really good, but I can keep it going for a while now!) It is really fun… I put on the best music & shimmy around the living room & laugh & swivel around until I’m out of breath. I can see how people get hooked on hooping. & really, any activity which involves holographic accessories (sparkly hoops! Insane costumes!) is so me.

Yes Man — I just went & saw this tonight & I LOVED IT. I am really not a movie person normally, but it was really great. The premise is that this guy who is closed off to life starts saying “yes” to every opportunity he’s presented, no matter how ludicrous, & how that completely changed his life around. It was based on the book of the same name written by a British journalist called Danny Wallace, who did exactly this & wrote about the results. Really, I think you should see it. It made me super-happy.

Honourable mentions: Post-Christmas sales; amazing news; having a fleet of international spies of magic & mystery!; parsnip & ginger soup; my super-amazing magical unicorn shirt (you can get your own here!) which I think I have worn every day since I got it; new year’s kisses; Joy Bar ice-creams (they’re baaa-aaaack!); false eyelashes; boys who are really nervous but tell you you’re gorgeous anyway (awwww); friends who are genuinely happy for you; dancing; Auckland anticipation (this time next week I’ll be there!); catching up with old friends; hugs & holding hands & being excitable; loving your friends so much that you feel compelled to tell them every half an hour or so; chance encounters; surreptitious photo-taking & um… can I say my unicorn shirt again?!

I asked my parents to make their own contributions to Things I Love Thursday, & here’s what they said! (Why don’t you ask whoever’s around to add to your list too?)

Mama Darling: Friends & family; relaxation; sun & surf; chocolate; Jamie Oliver!

Papa Darling: People are in holiday mode & calmer & happier; looking out the window & seeing people have fun & frolicking around; people laying fishing nets; seeing the bus go by with virtually nobody on it, meaning nobody’s working; the garden’s exploding with lovely yellow roses; having all our family around us; chocolate-coated ginger; pistachio nuts; being woken up at quarter to 7 by your daughter coming home & her telling you you have “swamp-mouth”; bacon & eggs & coffee for breakfast at 11, as opposed to porridge at 6.30!

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” — Dale Carnegie

How about you? Start off 2009 the right way with a BIG love letter to the universe! Go go go!

Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala

Comment [62]
Tags: things i love thursday
Share this! + Email This + Del.icio.us + Facebook + Stumbleupon + Technorati

2009: Words Which Mean Something

[ 1 January 2009, 10:42 ]

I noticed last year that when I was writing my weekly “to do” list, & setting intentions for the week, that it was really helpful to have a phrase that I could remember easily. One thing I wrote on my lists pretty regularly was “raw power” — meaning, essentially, eat more raw food! To me, the phrase “raw power” encapsulates everything it needs to. In my head, it translates to, “Eat as much raw food as you can, but don’t freak out about it. Just do your best. You’ll look more radiant, your brain will work better, & you’ll feel happier. Okay, go!” It’s much faster to just write RAW POWER! It helps keep me on track.

Here are my mottos for 2009, all of which I am embracing fully & doing my best to live with passion & purpose! Just like “raw power” above, these phrases have multi-layered meanings for me.

What are they?

I have a copy of this stuck into the front of my 2009 Moleskine. Just like the manifesto I wrote about two days ago, it’s another way to keep myself on track this year.

Do you have any mottos to guide you in the coming year? If not, will you make some?

Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala

Comment [63]
Tags: inspiration, life, productivity, question
Share this! + Email This + Del.icio.us + Facebook + Stumbleupon + Technorati

Older