by Tish MacWebber | Feb 14, 2018 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
Hello Treasure Seekers, this week I am stopping to reflect on what is good in my life right now. I recently got some bad news, and I am discouraged. I am taking a breath, and thinking again about what I have to be grateful for in my life. If I dwell on the negativity, it will not bode well. I have to deal with what happened, and then I need to move on from it. Reflections on what I have that I am grateful for; that is what I am going to dwell on, instead.
I am not going to share the details here, it was not life-altering news, just run of the mill bad news. Something I wanted didn’t work out. It happens. Being on the receiving end of bad news is not something that you can control. But how you react to it and move on after the fact is absolutely in your control. I choose to feel what I need to feel for a few, quiet moments, and then I have to move on.
There is no point in dwelling on it. If I did, I would slip into a deep depression, if I let the negativity win. What you put out into the world is what you get back, and I am trying so hard to stay positive and keep moving forward. Sometimes I slip and catch my footing. Sometimes I fall down. But I get back up. I am trying to look at the big picture, and remember that things happen for a reason. I wish I know what the answer was, so I could just get things to be better than they are now. What they are now is good.
I have a home, with a mortgage. I have a car. I have a loving husband, who supports me in most of my crazy adventures. I have friends and family that cheer me on, both in my real life and in the online world. I have the bills under control. I have food, clean drinking water, heat and electricity. I have cable TV and the internet. I have a medical plan which helps me to maintain my diabetes. I have a brain, and I am able to use it for good. I am writing a book. I have this blog and this website. I have my jewellery business. I have dreams and hopes that reach way farther than anyone can imagine. I have faith.
Sometimes, even I don’t really know what I am truly capable of. I am still learning so many new things that I amaze myself. This is what I am holding on to, that things will get better and if they don’t go the way I want them to, well I am going to keep pushing, and praying and trying different things until I do get something to go in the right direction. I am the woman that picks up and goes in a slightly different direction than the flow because when I make up my mind, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING are possible. I just have to continue working towards my goals, and never give up.
I am seeking my own treasures in this life, and I am going to keep working on my goals until I achieve them. I have to. It is why I am here. To write, and shake things up along the way, while laughing and spreading as much joy and optimism as I can. To create beautiful, quirky, funky, whimsical jewellery, and share my gifts with the world. I am feeling better already. Time to go tackle something while I am in the right frame of mind. I know that I am in charge of what direction I am going in, and sometimes I veer to the left, but I am always on the right path. Mine.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Treasure Seekers. If you are alone, treat yourself to something nice, and count the blessings that you have, whatever they may be. Share them below in the comments, and we will keep the positivity going from our hearts and minds out into the world at large. I believe in myself, and I believe that if we stand together, change can happen, and it can be for the right reasons. Try something new. Surprise yourself. I am glad that I did, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Share-the-Love-and-Positivity-this-Valentines-DayTogether-we-can-change-the-worldone-heartbeat-at-a-time.
#TreasureSeekerTuesday (on Valentine’s Day)
by Tish MacWebber | Dec 11, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
I am feeling a little stressed about getting my list of things done this weekend. I had Wednesday off, this past week, and I worked yesterday to make up the missed time. I usually have 2 days for a fun-filled weekend, and this week I was only able to work with one. Let’s review Friday and today, then.
Friday there was a potluck at work. I was up into the wee hours early Friday morning preparing for both the potluck at work and the TGIO (Thank Goodness It’s Over) NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – November – An annual challenge.) So I made it through work, had a successful potluck, and rushed home to cut the cheese! I planned cheese and crackers for the party.
I was really surprised that one of my guests brought along a bottle of Writers Tears Irish Whiskey to try. I loved it. I will be buying some to put in my flask that friends brought me as a gift from Scotland. It is in a pink and purple and blue tartan holder. It is adorable, and a really good effort at matching the MacWebber Tartan I designed. 😉
The party was small, with only 2 guests. The other guest brought art supplies, and we all sampled the whiskey, listened to music (I introduced them to the Screaming Goats Christmas Album before going to my mixed tape list) and we got crafty.
I decided to make the characters of my book, the main 5 cats, for the sticky sticks. The end result of my artwork looks like this:
From left to right we have Dude, Lucy, Rascal, Missy, and Simba. These cats are the main characters in my book, From Where I Am Sitting A Collection of Cat Stories by Tish MacWebber. I am still writing it and will update when it is ready for publishing.
Yesterday I worked for 8 hours. Then I came home and worked on my #Momentum18 Challenge. I am getting things done, and other things are brewing in my mind. I had to creep the Facebook walls of my ideal customers, to find out what they are interested in, and to share it. Thankfully, most of them enjoy humour, sarcasm, and wit. I can keep working with that in mind, and know that they will laugh with me. 😀
Today I have spent at least another 8 hour day working on the social media platform. We ran out to the store for an hour, and have settled in for the night. I made a new Facebook Live video for my contest, and plan to film every evening this week. I have other projects on the go, but I am quite tired after a very busy and way too short weekend. What did you do this weekend?
#WeekendWarrior
by Tish MacWebber | Dec 4, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Friday after work I got the car. I do that sometimes. I get my co-worker to drive me to where it is parked, and I call it “Grand Theft Auto” even though it is my car and I have the keys, and my husband knows I am going to use it. I have to go and get him at the end of his shift at his work, so I don’t usually get the car on other days unless there is a reason I need it.
I found food and then went to Shoppers Drug Mart. Again. This makeup thing is starting to get a little serious. I got a fourth mascara and a blending sponge. I had found out that I was sold the wrong type of facial toner, so I bought the correct one and I got a double glow facial mask, that I tried Sunday. I am only supposed to use it two times a week. I will let you all know how I do with it. The skin care is Vichy, I like their products. I got another eye makeup remover, too. I do not like the ones I have. The products that I bought that are wrong for me will be offered to a friend that might be able to use them. I am thinking about a new Blog category. It is not going to be weekly, it will likely be monthly. I am thinking Makeup Monday (coming soon!) will be what I call it. I will then review different products, and maybe I will be able to do that in an official capacity when I launch the website.
I have had so many thoughts relating to the website this weekend, my head is spinning. I am going to work on it this week, with the million other projects I have on the go.
On the way home, I stopped in to see friends. They had told me not to buy a photo box for taking pictures of my Treasures aka Bling for the website. They had a DIY version, and they wanted to show me how to make it. I am sure I can make it, but I am still not sure how it will work. Once I have the box, then I will have to work on optimizing the pics from the camera I have; or find a new camera. I am watching the cell phones to see what one has the best cameras. I will be aiming for a new phone in 2018.
I stayed for a visit with my friends. We had a lovely evening, just chatting about makeup, cats, NaNoWriMo, and my book writing. My friend has gone a little further than I have into the land of makeup, and I appreciate learning all that I can.
Saturday was a slow start to the day. I got to sleep in, which was nice. I did a little work on the social media and got ready for a party. I am a Member of the Fredericton Science Fiction Society (FSFS). It mainly consists of a core group of friends that used to have official business meetings, and now just plan potlucks and events. I brought the ingredients to make your own big mac salad with me. People liked it. There were other treats and pop to drink. The Christmas FSFS party has a Ferengi Swap, for gifts. We also had a trivia contest, and a Sci-Fi themed ‘Pictionary’ game. It was a lot of fun, even though somebody I am married to didn’t want to do anything. LOL! Majority ruled!
I sometimes go swimming at these parties, as they are held at a hotel. This year I would have had to go alone, so I chose to stay with the group. We had a fun time, and there was a door prize that was not actually a door.
Sunday I continued with my challenge, and then participated in an online chat with the Happy Writing Group, both on twitter and facebook. I have been learning how to use twitter with this chat, and I think I am getting the hang of it.
That wraps another weekend up nicely in a bow. What did you do this weekend?
#WeekendWarrior
by Tish MacWebber | Nov 29, 2017 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
Hello Treasure Seekers. I am cutting this one close, but I have a good reason. I have been writing the book, again. I have just written 20,063 of the 50,000 word count goal for November. I only have a few days left, and I am going to do the best I can. I don’t think I am going to win, but as my own superpower is surprises, I might surprise myself and pull it off. (The theme for NaNoWriMo this year is “Superpowered Noveling” hence the reference to my own superpower).
I am dividing my projects this week. I am also working on #Momentum18 Week 1 of 4; another Jennifer Kem challenge. It is already pushing me outside of my comfort zone. The week had us start to develop a freebie offer. I have done this before, in the Scavenger Hunt for Tish’s Treasures earlier this year.
I am going to run a contest in December for a beaded snowflake, made by yours truly. It will be run with facebook live videos, on the Tish’s Treasures Facebook Page. It will also be in The Tish’s Treasure Seekers Group on Facebook. I don’t know if I will do more to promote it. Yet. I will be running more contests for the Bling, no worries there. I am going to have a Bling section on my website so there will be more to promote there, in time. If the website was ready, that would have been a great project, to launch it. I am going to have the website ready for 2018, sooner if I can get it ready. I needed time to process what I want to do with it.
Which brings me back to my challenge this week. I decided that I will make a checklist. I am not sure how to do that, but I want it to be, “downloadable and totally printable.” I may need to ask some friends for help. Want to know the hilarious part? I decided to create a checklist for how to start conquering the feeling of being overwhelmed. On day 4, I was lost in the details of the launch for this idea. Do I need to make the checklist before launching the page to announce it? It is meant to be a common sense checklist of things anybody can refer to when they get overwhelmed. I am going to test drive it before writing it, I guess. Only me, right?
I know there are a lot of topics that I could choose, and I know that I want to help people. I am not going to claim to have all the answers or to be an expert on anything but thinking, writing, and living. One thing I have learned from this year long blogging adventure is that I am capable of inspiring people. I was told this when I started Zumba, by the instructor, who is now a friend as well. I didn’t believe her. I am just me, nothing special, just geeky me. Who happens to love dancing and music.
I am starting to believe in myself, and when complete strangers read my words and comment that I am inspiring them to do things in their lives, I believe it. When people I know tell me they want to start a blog and ask for advice, I believe it. It is a part of what makes this writing adventure meaningful. I am writing from my heart, and people are getting something out of it.
Someone once told me that I should do something very simple to help me believe in myself more, a long time ago. Admittedly, I never followed that advice, but stick with me here, I have a point. They said to start every day, writing your name down on a piece of paper, and underlining it. That’s it. Do you know why it was supposed to work? Because people underline important words when they write them down. This simple habit helps you believe that YOU are IMPORTANT.
So when I think about my reactions to all of the comments, both from people telling me and people writing them down, it stands to reason that the written comments seem more real to me, even if they are coming from strangers. If you are one of the people that took the time to write a comment to me about this blog, thank you. I may not know you outside of the internet, but I consider you a friend. If you have contacted me asking for help to start your blog, that is a very high compliment. It means I am doing exactly what I am trying to do. I want to make people think about what I write. I want them to get something out of it. Ultimately, I want them to buy my books so I can write full time. And much to my own surprise, I want to inspire them to do what they are passionate about.
I don’t have my launch page ready. I may have to bow out gracefully this week when it comes to winning the prize for the challenge. That does not mean I am giving up. Not by a longshot. It doesn’t mean I need it to be perfect to put it out into the world. What it does mean is that I care about the quality of what I am putting out there, and I won’t do anything halfway just to beat a deadline. I need to work more on the concept. That is what I can live with. It doesn’t mean I can’t or that I won’t, it means I need to figure out how to do it because I can and I will. When I am ready. I have a lot going on in the next few days.
It is similar to the NaNoWriMo for me. I was inspired, but I had to figure out how to write a book based on that concept. I have written more at this current moment on the NaNoWriMo novel than I have for any previous attempt to write a book in my whole life. I can do this too. When I have an idea that grows over the length of time that I am working on the project. I have been writing down ideas for the fantasy novel. I am getting that off my shoulders by working on it when I think of things. When I get back to that after I finish the NaNoWriMo novel, I will have building blocks to work with. I needed to find out what my process is for writing books. NaNoWriMo helped me start to learn how I need to write to make the concept develop into an actual book. I may not cross the 50,000 word count before Thursday at midnight, but in my mind, I am calling this an unofficial win, regardless. I have a solid foundation for this practice book, and people want to read it. So I will have to finish it, just based on the bits I have shared with a few people as they are very supportive of my writing this book. There you have it. My superpower strikes again. A book about cats, really? Yes, really. Because I am writing it, in the way only I can. Surprise!
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
Treasure Seeker Tuesday: Photo by Tish MacWebber; Photo Edited by Noa Price
by Tish MacWebber | Nov 19, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Here is another weekend, wrapping up. Not close to being finished what we are working on, but we are going to get up and go in a few minutes to keep getting the living room reorganized.
I am happy to report that I was busy this weekend, it was relatively quiet, and mostly at home, so I got the downtime I needed after the excitement earlier this week. I also did some writing, which I had not made enough time for, and I was stressing over that too.
Friday night I came home and decided to join in some writing sprints for NaNoWriMo. There is a time set and we all write on our own. When the time is up we share a bit and tell our word count totals. Between Friday and Saturday, I did four of these, and I got over 10,000 words written for the novel. Editing will be necessary later, but the point of Nano is to get the word count. I am finally moving in the right direction again.
That is my highest word count on any novel writing to date. I am so pleased that from here on out I am beating my own personal record with EVERY SINGLE WORD.
I have spent time shredding paper in the living room, to have less clutter to deal with as we reorganize the living room. We have been planning to do this for a while, and it is finally happening. There may be pics next weekend as it should be done by then.
Today I started with a movie and breakfast out after. I wasn’t impressed, so I am not going to write about the food. I enjoyed the movie. We went to see Justice League. It was better than the critics are leading people to believe. We all enjoyed it. They are making me a fan of Wonder Woman all over again. Aquaman was well, um, yeah. Nice.
There was a new Deadpool trailer before the movie, and in typical Deadpool style, it was totally hilarious and had not too much to show about the movie. If they can duplicate the success from the first one in the next one, I am going to be very happy. But don’t bring your kids. Deadpool movies are NOT for kids. I am a fan, however, and I plan to go.
As I still have a list of things to do here this weekend, I am going to get back to it. I am feeling like we made enough progress that I want to keep the momentum going.
What did you do this weekend?
#WeekendWarrior
