Let Go

Running a home and trying to start a business is like running a lil helpless country..

Kevin Rudd is trying to convince the nation taxing Carbon emissions is a good idea, meanwhile in the land of Team Treadwell, Katri is trying to convince the team Treadwell population that naps are a good idea for the benefit of all (for mummy to get work done), coming up against lots of oppositions from one half of the population of two…

Which made me think about the importance of healthy relationships and my role in the relationships I'm actively involved in. Being the emotional begins that we are (keeping in mind I'm not a professional on the matter but just a casual observer of the world) 90% of our personality, character and choices are an indirect or direct influence of how we have or have been related to by another person. It starts of how our parents have related to us, how others then relate to us.

Hurt people hurt people and loved people love people. So how then do we break the cycle, do we just stop caring what others think, and even that decision is influenced by someone and most of the time comes from a hurt in our lives, where we build up defences. No relationship is perfect, so to minimise damaging influence from a relationship we need to first understand ourselves, who we are, what are our boundaries.

Sift through our world view and find out what's us and what's the influence of others (keeping in mind some things people impart into our lives are good, others not so good), we need to know ourselves in order to sift through the good the bad and the just plain nasty and not just turned aside to every wind or doctrine because we don't know what we believe.

How do we do this? I don't know I'm not a professional. What I do know is that in order to be happy and fulfil our dreams, we do need to get to that place where we aren't so caught up in others our lives we're like a tissue in the wind tossed too and throw and never able to stabilize or accomplish anything.

Then when we get to that place of understanding ourselves better, we are less affected by negative thought others have of us. Like so what if someone doesn't agree with you or laughs at you from another car while your singing at the traffic lights *hangs head in shame*.

It's always easier to keep hiding behind masks but then no one will ever know the real you. Like the time I played the mascot cow for a milk company, it was so easy to put the suit on and be ridiculously silly, dance, hug people, be stupid (everyone thought it was a man, cos women cant be silly in cow suits lol) because no one knew who it was, but I never got the credit for tackling the giant carrot in another stand because no one knew it was me.

So questions are who's affecting you today? And what masks are you wearing to cater for criticism?

Katri x

Ps- if anyone has any feed back on my logo design, please let me know :)

Colour...

As a Designer I am always aware of the colour surrounding me, colour choices people make for themselves and their environment says a lot about a person. Here's a list of colour meanings, keep an eye out for colour choices today…

Red

Red is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. Reds spaces are passionate, daring, intimate and comforting

Orange

Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation. To the human eye, orange is a very hot color, so it gives the sensation of heat. Nevertheless, orange is not as aggressive as red. Oranges spaces stimulate creativity and are warming and cozy.

Yellow

Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness and stimulates mental activity. Yellow rooms are welcoming and sunny.

Green

Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money. Green is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Green spaces are calming. Green is often used as a neutral colour to balance a room.

Blue

Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith and truth. Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. Blue rooms are relaxing but can also feel cold.

Purple


Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic. Purple is a popular colour for feature walls and feels warm in a space.

White

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence and purity. It is considered to be the colour of perfection. White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. White opens up a space; it reflects light and is easy to mix with most colours

Black

Black is associated with power, elegance, formality and mystery. Black is a mysterious color associated with fear. Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, elegant, and prestigious color (black tie, black Mercedes). Black should be used minimally in a space; a few black pieces are good, black lounge some black pillows or ornaments, too much black makes a room feel over crowded

Katri x

Busy Dreams

So in an effort to keep myself networking I've been working on my social skills. I don't know about you, but I find it hard to talk about nothing, not 'nothing', but just the "general life chit chat". Never really sure what interests people. So the conversations go a little something like this;

Other person "Hi Katri, How are you?"

Me: "Yeh good"

OP: "What you been up too?"

Me "not much, you?"

OP: "oh I've been Busy"

So running through my mind is 'are you really interested, and if you are what are you interested in, do I tell you about the nappy I changed an hour ago, the assignment I just finished or the new pair of shoe I brought last week?'. However, give me a topic and I'm all hands on deck. Love topical conversations, lets discuss something. A long sigh of relief when someone says "did you read this in yesterday's paper", ah a topic, alright I can work with this, even if I know nothing about the topic, give me five minutes to form an opinion and full steam ahead lol.

I've also noticed that everyone is always Busy. People are always telling me how busy they've been and when I ask "what have you been doing" a lot of the time no one can remember what specifically makes them busy they just know they have been. I guess in a mums life women can feel like their always busy because you're always doing things but nothing specific, so when you reflect its kind of like "I don't really know where my day has gone, but I know it's gone", so I understand that. I guess I never feel like I'm busy, because I don't really understand what feeling like your busy is, I feel like I exist and I do things while existing, on full day I may have half an hour in the car where I'm just existing, or an hour for lunch etc, so what stands out to me when I reflect is all my free time, no matter how little that is so I always feel funny saying I'm busy, but it's a matter of perspective. I have recently adopted the 'I'm so Busy' mentality and its seems I'm on par with the world "I've been so Busy" get a more understanding response then my usual "Oh yeh i don't do that much" as long as no one asks "so what's been keeping you busy" then we're back to square one, do I tell them about the nappy's taking up my time or the classes I spent three hours in? And all I can think about is all the stuff I haven't been doing.

I am however very interested in other peoples lives, what drives them, how they've been, and all the nitty gritty details of every story. I love hearing people's visions and dreams for life. It seems everyone has so much to give and too little time to live. Some of the amazing ideas I hear, I wish I had a million to invest into every idea I hear. But it is hard to get something of the ground. To find the right support team to get your idea going. Sometimes all Dreams and Ideas aren't for straightaway, like a beautiful friend of mine recently wrote a book. When I asked her about the idea, she said she had the dream years ago but it wasn't time to do it then, and only recently dusted of the idea and felt the need to bring it out now and finish the dream. That's a good sure fire way of knowing something's a real passion, bury it for a while and if it's still pulling at your heart a year or two from now, you know it's a dream you just have to for fill.

So in between changing nappies and assignments I've been working on a little chunk of my dream, and a website (very slow learning), hopefully I'll have this little part done by the end of the year www.katri.com.au

So if your passionate about something go pursue that thing, even if you start just by writing down a few ideas and talking to someone about it.

Katri

Right First things First

OK, so Monday today. This morning i was reading an article on the the benefits of early morning exercise. exercising in the morning supposedly increases your brain activity, kick starts your day, increases your metalolism and has great psychological and physiological benefits. With that in mind I've decided to start walking/jogging every morning at 5am which is when i wake up to give my youngest girl her bottle. It's true when you wake up early, and excercise, meditate, pray or whatever, you feel like you get more out of the day, your body and mind are ready.

Jogging is the most popular form of exercise in America and seems to be good for public image. The presidant jogs, our Priminister 'Kevin Rudd' can be found jogging from time to time. All the stars embrace the early morning jog and make sure they get photographed when their out too.

A new craze called celebrity jogging is sweeping the world, People are taken on a celebrity jog hunt, combines exercise with everyones desire to see someone popular. The organiser takes you on a popular route known for celebrity inhabitation, so you can jog past a few celebrities (if your lucky). I dont think thats for me, I'd be too red, hot and weazy to pay attention to anyone, celebrity or not, and good luck if you want to make a good impression on the famous, wont have much luck with dripping sweats and flushed face.

Like its not enough to walk, jogging just has that extra edge it says, "I'm slightly more motivated then your avarage person" "See my back sweat stain as i jog past you slack walkers you, now you see me, now you dont"

Whatever form of exercise you want to start, Start now, Procrastination is the enemy of anything you want to achieve. My biggest weakness, "I'll do it tomorrow, just finish this large fries and stop eating junk food tomorrow" wont happen, NOW, now is the time to start.

Update on my business, Today I'm working on my website :)

Not what they appear

Things aren't always as easy as they appear or what they appear to be. You can go into something, thinking one thing and come out of it thinking something completely different, not necessarily bad but just different.
Like the time my friend got stuck in a drain pipe with a dead cat. We had been working on a cherry farm that summer and she had left her handbag outside during a freak flash flood. We figured her bag must have washed away so we went searching for it, only to finally spot something inside one of the drain pipes that looks remarkably like her hand bag. after crawling in We heard a muffled "Aw Yuk, it's a dead Animal" Followed by "Oh My God, I'm stuck.. I'm stuck in here with a dead animal". My other friend and i were outside the pipe in fits of laughter, which had me rolling on the grass. We eventually got her out and she forgave us and saw the funny side (thank God).
A bit like today i woke up thinking I'd be productive, work on my website and building Design assignments, but my girls didn't get the memo and instead Ive spent most of the day so far, holding my 8 month old who is going through a very demanding time and kissing hurt body parts on my wild and beautiful 2 1/2 going on 12 year old. But They go to bed at seven so being the night owl that I am, looks like work I will put of work till then.
When your a stay at home Mum, everyday is different you need to be flexible enough to work around the children's needs. I would go crazy trying to fit them into my schedule, unless you have crazy amounts of help, like every second Man and his Dog is offering to baby sit. It's not easy.

Stepping out

So Back track a little...

"So what do you want to be called?"
I could see she didn't want me to take over her title, despite working well together there was still a little unspoken competition between us. "well.. Didn't we already decide" i replied
"do you even have qualifications for that" she repeated quickly. I wanted to say "what are you talking about just as qualified as you, what are you trying to prove.." but instead I said "yes"
"just wanted to make sure we can call you that, so what qualifications do you have?" she repeated, tongue in cheek.

That was my first real experience of being involved in a business with someone else, since i started this 'trying to establish a home business venture' last year. Turns out it's not that easy to work with just anyone esp a friend or someone you haven't known very long. That fell through pretty quick but i learnt a lot.

"Well baby I'm glad your not working with her anymore" declared me supportive husband Dan after I told him the working together idea fell through. "I think your better of on your own, you can do it right?" Yeah maybe I thought at the time, but i find it hard to do things on my own, I'm much better at bouncing ideas of someone, working with somebody.
"Well I still have the Building design to keep my mind occupied over the next four years" but even that idea felt a little threatened at first, because i was worried about how Dan was going to go having to stay home with the girls a few nights a week while I'm studied. "Yeah one day at a time" said Dan, probably thinking the same thing.

Where to now? Monday need to ring 'IP Australia' to talk to someone about amending a patent application for an innovative patent application i filed. and this week market research, hm. but where to start, if i had lots of money could hire people for stuff like this. Like someone once said "your only as successful as your ability to delegate", sounds about right but for now there's no delegating, just me.

This week i realised I love driving with my windows down instead of using the aircon. There is something about the wind blowing through your hair and the gentle stroking of breezing fingers around your neck that just screams, refreshing and alive. Aircon is too controlled, we live in a climate controlled society, not to hot not to cold, just right. Everything has to be just right, everyone is on a mini power trip over their environment. No wonder people stress easily, if we want control over the smallest things, how do we cope when something really dramatic happens in our lives. relax a little, try eating a piece of fruit without a napkin or driving with your windows down, don't be afraid of messing up your hair or getting a little sticky and dirty in life, learn to embrace the winds of change.

Katri :)
copyright

5 Years to Something

Ohh No, Here she is again.. How can no body else find this funny, a sixty something lady in my gym class wearing a G-string leotard? I could feel the laughter bubbling up inside, i tried to suppress it, being over tired doesn't help. cant believe I'm so immature, no one else thinks it's funny, besides it's rude to laugh at people.

Suddenly all the hilarity of the week just gone begins to flood my mind like a wave of funny stuff. The wedding we went to where the best mans name meant something a explicit in my native tongue "Finish". I couldn't help my little snicker and jolting when the minister said "#@*# pass the rings" or the emotional reception speech "We'll miss you #@*#". Managed to look like i was crying for that one by keeping my head in my sleeve and only raising it every now and then to say "how beautiful".

Nooo... Here it comes, Once again I burst out laughing in the middle of my gym class, sitting alone on my bench unable to hold the weight of my bar any longer, people must think I'm crazy or at least very rude. The instructor ignored my hysterical chants and continues with the class.

"right everyone, lets do squats, spread your legs.."

I love to laugh, it's one of the many things my parents have blessed me with, a good sense of humour. I come from a family of strong laughers. Even my grandma, who is serious at the best of times (you'll be lucky to catch a smile) laughs, she goes strait from stern to a hearty laugh to stern. We managed to catch her regular smile on camera last year, now just waiting for the opportune moment to bring out the picture. The down side to this is "the awkward situation laugh" I inherited from my mum; put me in a room of serious people and a serious situation and I'm almost guaranteed to laugh. Why? Well I don't really know, must be a defence mechanism or a nervous thing.

However I'm glad i can laugh, laughter sooths the soul, it's like a beautiful healing balm over a tired mind. Laughter takes you to a place where worries seem less and fond memories are made. Have you ever met people who don't laugh? I know some non laughers in fact i often wonder if they've ever really laughed. The kind of laughter that cant be switched of easily , childish uncontrollable laughter. These people just chuckle a little before going strait back to serious again, it's like they don't know how to laugh, they put on a fake, on Que for jokes or situations but just as easily as they bring it (chuckle) just as easily switched off. What a sad life without uncontrollable laughter. Search your funny side, humour is one of the many mysteries of life.

I'm a Mum of two beautiful girls and laughter flows even more freely now because most of the time I'm either over tired or just can't believe some of the ridiculous situations i find myself in. Most of the time with spew on my shirt or a run in my pantie hose. It's been a long and interesting road from Single to married to Mother. No one could have prepared me for motherhood, and while the following saying isn't true for every situation it's true for being a parent "you'll never ever know if you never ever go". It's a different world all together full of different emotions that cant be replicated in any other life situation. There's a new kind of love that can only be discovered when you have your own children, not to mention a new kind worry stress and frustration. But if you haven't had children yet don't be put off by that, the new dimension of love is the greatest feeling.

So.. for the next five years I've decided to commit myself to staying at home and looking after my girls till they start school. I am also going to use this time to try and start a business from home. I remember when i was younger, I used to say "I'll make my first million by 21", well that didn't happen so now pushing twenty five, I've changed my target to thirty. That gives me a little over five years. The world at the moment in 2009 is climbing out of the worst economic collapse, with most western countries in a bad recession, Australia reported to have dodged the recession with a positive quarter, I'm pretty sure it takes two negatives to officially be in recession, so that's a plus since I'm hailing from Australia at the moment. No better time to start then now with the world at rock bottom, it's only up from here. Plus many new opportunities and ideas come from the hardest of times.

Katri :)

copyright katri treadwell