Indian Summer & Feng Shui

London has experienced the most amazing Indian Summer for nearly a week.

I've been lazing about in the park every day making sure to enjoy those last rays of sunshine before the rainy, grey winter hits.

Today was the first day in nearly a week when it wasn't sunny. Little did it matter since I was working today anyway.

I had been meaning to update you on my weekend but being a little bit lazy I haven't got around to it. I was invited to my best friend Hajni for Japanese food. Hajni is not Japanese, she's Hungarian. But she has a Japanese friend who's taught her how to make Japanese food and I was so impressed with her skills... I thought she'd temporarily become Japanese.

Hajni told me a while ago that she and her flatmate had been "feng shui'ing" their flat. They decided to de-clutter to let the energies flow but they didn't have the heart to throw this one fine piece of art away. I was laughing my head off when I saw this fantastic, handmade (by whom we don't know) sculpture that now sits in the bathroom and acts as a toothbrush holder.

Funny thing is that their male flatmate is really insulted by it. That makes me laugh even more.

Well, it's almost Ugly Betty-time. I shall pop my popcorn and pour myself one glass of red and enjoy.

All Angels Are Girls Because They Gotta Wear Dresses...

I received an e-mail today with the heading "Angels, By kids". It is soo funny it just has to be shared.

Gregory, Age 5

I only know the names of two angels. Hark and Harold.

Olive, Age 9

Everybody's got it all wrong. Angels don't wear halos anymore. I forget why, but scientists are working on it.

Matthew, Age 9

It's not easy to become an angel! First, you die. Then you go to heaven, and then there's still the flight training to go through. And then you got to agree to wear those angel clothes.

Mitchell, Age 9

Angels work for God and watch over kids when God has to go do something else.

Henry, Age 8

My guardian angel helps me with math, but he's not much good for science.

Jack, Age 6

Angels don't eat, but they drink milk from Holy Cows.

Daniel, Age 9

Angels talk all the way while they're flying you up to heaven. The main subject is where you went wrong before you got dead.

Reagan, Age 10

When an angel gets mad, he takes a deep breath and counts to ten. And when he lets out his breath, somewhere there's a tornado.

Sara, 6

Angels have a lot to do and they keep very busy. If you lose a tooth, an angel comes in through your window and leaves money under your pillow. Then when it gets cold, angels go north for the winter.

Jared, 8

Angels live in cloud houses made by God and his son, who's a very good carpenter.

Antonio, 9

All angels are girls because they gotta wear dresses and boys didn't go for it.

Katelynn, 9

My angel is my grandma who died last year. She got a big head start on helping me while she was still down here on earth.

Vicki, 8

Some of the angels are in charge of helping heal sick animals and pets. And if they don't make the animals get better, they help the child get over it.

Sarah, 7

What I don't get about angels is why, when someone is in love, they shoot arrows at them.

Taking Charmed Spirit to Birmingham

This weekend I've been selling jewellery at a Mind Body Spirit fair in Birmingham. Although I've lived in Britain for 14 years I've never been to Birmingham before. I didn't even know it was only a 1.5 hour train journey from London. As a matter of fact I only knew two things about Birmingham up until this weekend:

1. They make Cadbury's creme eggs in Birmingham

2. This fine fella' has his roots there

Now I know where the Council House is and what it looks like.

This is where the event was being held and it was a fantastic venue. It's a very grand building right in the city centre and it's also stunning inside.

It was a fairly small event and I didn't expect it to be too busy. Having said that I had a good weekend and after all expenses were paid I made a profit. Yaayy!!

The nice thing about small events is that there are no walls in between the stands so you can have a chat with your neighbours when it's quiet. I had lovely neighbours - Richard the Angelman, David who sold incredible Quantum Balance Crystals (I swapped a bangle for a balancing crystal), Mesma and Steve from the Messiah Foundation International who gave me an initiation of the spiritual heart which only took five minutes but was so deep and powerful it was amazing, a tarot reader and a guy talking about how to receive more abundance in your life.

There was so much positive energy in there it was lovely to be part of. It was a most enjoyable weekend. More of those, please!

http://www.charmed-spirit.co.uk/

Keep On Dancing In Spirit Swayze

Today I woke up late but when I looked at my alarm clock without wearing my glasses together with the fact that it was so dark outside I thought it was only 6am. What was I thinking? I haven't woken up at 6am in months! It's the first gloomy day in a long time and it's raining bucket loads.

Like every morning I got up, made a cup of coffee, had breakfast and logged on to read the news.

Same old as always... except for one thing - Patrick Swayze passed away last night. How I loved Dirty Dancing when it came out... and I still do!

Since a rainy day like this is for staying in it will be very fitting to watch Dirty Dancing once again and sing out loud to The Time Of My Life. That shall be it for today.

Keep on dancing in Spirit, Patrick!

To All Lightworkers

Vaz who runs the London College of Spirituality has posted so many great videos on Facebook lately. I love this one! To all Lightworkers out there... you know who you are. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNzJzHma2R8

Being In The Jewellery Trade... Oh Yes!

Last Wednesday I was still without my laptop so I couldn't report on my exciting day out at the International Jewellery Show. It's the biggest trade show in Britain and since I'm now in the trade... yep: http://www.charmed-spirit.co.uk/ , I got myself an entry pass to get in.

I learnt pretty quickly that making and selling my own handmade jewellery was not only going to be very time-consuming it's also going to cost too much if I want to get a large variety of stock.

When I exhibited at the Mind Body Spirit festival in May I was given the good advice to keep my own range but also buy ready-made jewellery from other designers. On Wednesday I was absolutely delighted to find great wholesalers and designer who's jewellery was exactly what I was looking for.

I bought gorgeous jewellery from a design company called Peace of Mind in England. The lady who owns the company designs the jewellery and has it made somewhere in Asia. I also bought ready-made jewellery from one wholesaler in England and one in Rome.

I'm in the process of adding things to my website but I want to share some of the stuff I bought from Peace of Mind. They make truly unique pieces of jewellery. Have a look.

Pop over to www.charmed-spirit.co.uk for more info. Have a lovely weekend All!

Getting My Stuff Back Together

I had expected to be without my laptop for at least the seven days the PC World tech guy told me it was going to take to fix it. Imagine my surprise when they called yesterday evening to say it was ready for collection.

Today I went to High Street Kensington to pick it up and made sure to ask the girl behind the counter how to reinstall my Norton Antivirus subscription which I renewed only a couple of months ago. It wasn't going to be any problem at all as long as I had the product key thingy, I was told.

This is how totally computer-illiterate I am: I get home and immediately want to install the antivirus because that is important, right?! Oh, hang on, where's the green internet icon I always double-click when I need to get into cyberspace. It's not on my desktop anymore. Oh well, I'll just put it back on there then... or, maybe not. Because, dear Helena, you have to reinstall your internet connection with your service provider and when doing so you need to remember your user name, password AND where you put the installation CD after you used it last time which was 3.5 years ago.

After having cursed the internet, the Chinese flippin' link I clicked that "virused" my laptop, and my own crappy memory and sat down and started to think. Thank God I'm an ex-secretary and dutifully file all papers in a huge lever arch file. Shame that I didn't put the CD where all other important stuff is safely stored away but then again... luckily I can only afford to live in a box in London so it doesn't take too long to rummage through the few drawers I have.

Ok, that was the first obstacle overcome. I then moved on to reinstalling the antivirus and this was not as difficult as I would have thought. Having said that, I had to navigate around the website for a good 10 minutes before I found what I was looking for. Of course, my order number wasn't recognised to begin with but at my second attempt it worked.

I've been saying to everyone how glad I am that I did my back up only a month ago. I had this vision of just putting the back-up CD in the drive, click "copy" and then all files would find their ways back into their old places just like magic. Well, I now know that it doesn't quite work like that! This is possibly me being a complete idiot but the way I'm going about it is that I'm opening each file (which are not named what I named them, by the way, they're called FAE74923ETESSFI592422429 and similar), trying to figure out which program to use, then see what it is. It's a little bit like Christmas. You don't know what you're going to get until you opened your pressies. After having spent the entire evening on the "back up" I have now found and saved about 1/1000 of my photos and exactly 2 word documents. At this pace this is going to take me FOREVER.

Let's just say that in the future I will continue to do the back up but I will also make sure I save all pics and docs on Cd's as I go along. As for the iPod.... don't even get me started!

Caught A Virus

Oh dear, oh dear.... my laptop's caught a virus. And it's not the H1N1. No, it's some trojan.something.something.friggin'annoying.aszy. The laptop is currently at PC World undergoing necessary care and will be back at home in seven days. It's costing me £50 which is bloomin' annoying but I know it could be worse. At least it's not me or someone else that I know who's caught the virus. It's just the laptop.

Last night was my first laptop free evening in a long while (well, except for when I went on holiday but that was different) and I actually had to think of other things to do. It was very refreshing to read a book, call my brother, make some jewellery and then chat to a friend on the phone. I'm sure this was the Universe's way of telling me to get a grip and get off the internet for a while. I'm at the library typing this but from now I shall stay internet-free until the laptop is back home. Ta da!

Make Your Own Album Cover

I found this entertaining little game on Facebook - make your own album cover. I love the title of my album: as hungry as the dog.

Here's how it works:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

What will you your album cover look like?

Summer's Over

It's 1 September.

Today the summer if officially over. Part of me thinks it's really depressing that soon I won't be able to wear my flip flops when I go out,

dresses will not only be worn with short tights, and thin cardigans will have to be swapped for winter coats very soon.

On the other hand I'm looking forward to the colours changing on the trees,

that crisp cold air filling my lungs and to be able to hide the flab under a thick jumper (but the jeans are still too tight).

I'm a Libra. That's why I always weigh the scales like this. But I have to say, at the moment the scales are weighing down a lot more on the "I hope it will be a very warm September" side.