A New Year – A New You

I’ve MIA for awhile. Reason – LIFE.
I read this and thought I’d share it as it really helps explain where I am at the moment.
Hope you had a great celebration on 31st and sending the best of wishes for 2017 to be all you hope for!

otbreflex

January is a tough month. Aside from the cold wet weather and the lack of money, a lot of us have put ourselves through the wringer over Christmas and are undoubtedly struggling to catch up (I know I already feel like this!).
Couple that with the constraints of our New Year’s Resolutions & January can be positively ghastly! It seems that as soon as the clock strikes 12 on New Years Eve, or maybe even before then, the resolutions start…A new year, a new you, no more junk food, de-clutter the house, stop sitting on the sofa, lose weight, stop drinking! There seems to be an endless list of things that we don’t want to do for the following year at the end of the current one. And although it’s always coming from a good place, the process of depriving yourself from or forcing yourself into certain things always seems so…

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A new arrival!

Well it’s taken 9 days but felt like 9 months at least.

At first it was exciting. All that expectation of what the future would be. As time went on, all the widgets, formats, templates began to feel heavy and cumbersome. I couldn’t move without questioning the sense of starting this venture.

Then I got the tingles! That feeling that starts in your tummy and builds until the whole of your body is excited!

Finally, with one push of my finger on the PUBLISH button it is born!

You’ll all want to visit I know to coo over the new addition. You may want to leave the gift of a comment so do come on over. Just click!

Julia’s Place

 

Important Information!

Julia’s Place is changing and moving!

I have decided to make this site self hosting. As a regualr visitor that will not change anything for you apart from improve your experience when you visit. In order to do this I have had to change the domain name. Don’t worry, it is not as complicated as it sounds. It just means that you will need to look for me at

http://www.juliasplace.org.uk

This change will happen on Tues 21st July.

 

Keeping your cool

Although the hot weather hasn’t arrived yet here in the UK, I thought this inforgraphic from the folks over at Dreams ‘The Sleep Matters Club’ would be of interest to you if only for when the heat wave is here!

My prize!

I have to admit to being a bit giddy here at the moment. I won a prize over at ‘Just Because I Love’ the blog run by Natalie Trice. Do pay her a visit as she writes about all sorts of things that I know will interest my visitors!

Now, the competition was easy – just had to put my name down. I’m not one for comps usually but this was for stationery and if you have been here for any time, you’ll know that I am a stationery geek. I love it and will find any excuse to buy a new pen / pencil / notebook. I think it is the teacher in me!

The prize was for a diary from Toad Dairies. You could personalise it and choose from a multitude of covers and styles. In the end I went for a note book. I put ‘Today I will…’ on the front cover and ‘…create wonderful things!’ on the back.

Well it arrived today and it is SO good! Not only is it bright and pink with yellow pages but it has some other bits. As you can see from the photo there is a handy little plastic wallet for keeping ‘all those things that need a home’. Then there is a  card with an inspirational statement that you could put anywhere. On closer examination, the insides of both covers are full of such statements from the great and good across history so I will never be lost for some daily motivation.

And why have they called themselves TOAD? Well it stands for ‘Today or any day’. I love that because I am starting a new adventure (more about that later) and my new book and my card will spur me on

‘It’s never too late to be what you always might have been’

Thank you Natalie and TOAD!

Thanks from Sir Ran!

 I got a real surprise yesterday when the door bell rang. There stood a Yodel driver with a great big cardboard box. He asked me if I was Julia Word and I said no. He then apologised when he looked at the address, but stopped when I confirmed he had the right house number. Eventually, we agreed that the box was for me so I signed that funny machine and looked at my arrival.

It was clearly flowers but who from? Hubby was in the house and was as surprised as me as he had not done anything that bad to warrant ‘delivered’ flowers! It wasn’t my birthday, Christmas or any other feast day that my son could be celebrating so the mystery continued. My first port of interrogation was the label.

Right, so there was a clue – Mrs Julia 100 word. So it had something to do with 100 Word Challenge. Now for the flowers.

Aren’t they beautiful?

…and the sender?

All becomes clear! Back in March, the prompt for Week #27 over at 100 Word Challenge was all about Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ attempt to complete the Marathon des Sables to raise money for Marie Curie, the charity that helps folks with terminal cancer and their carers.

That week, there were 1700 entries from young writers across the world who were really engaged with his adventure. The flowers came from Liz who 100WC has worked with before. It was such a lovely gesture and although I did nothing apart from posting the details, (it was the children and their teachers who did the work!) it was super to receive such lovely flowers.

Thank you all! We are always happy to help!