The Secret Corridor

Small Fortune

2009-10-24T17:17:00.008+01:00

My latest blog widget won't cost you a small fortune...in fact it's FREE!

Free Fortune Cookie
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Good luck!

Creative thinking

2009-09-16T09:05:00.003+01:00

If you are a creative like me, then I am sure this will touch you deep,
as it did me.

Desiderata

2009-09-07T17:06:00.000+01:00

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

It's a kinda magic!

2009-08-29T13:34:00.009+01:00

Here's another little secret for you:

Magic 8 Ball
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Does it work? I'll let you be the judge of that.

Goodbye Jim

2009-08-22T17:34:00.012+01:00

I returned home from holiday recently to discover a Facebook friend of mine had died the day before we left. I thought it was strange that I'd been thinking about him during the holiday...made sense why when I heard the news.

He wasn't somebody I'd ever met in person, in fact he was from the US so I was never likely to meet him. I still classed him as a friend though, and I still enjoyed his company in our crazy Facebook playground, and I still shed a tear when I discovered the news on a mutual friend's wall.

It's my first facebook death, or at least the death of someone I knew 'personally'. It was hard to take in at first, double-checking it was our mutual friend they were talking about and not some ancient celebrity with the same name . When I looked on his wall the confirmation was overwhelming: pages and pages of tributes left by friends, some like me whom he'd never met, all devastated by the news. He was only 41.

I hope his account will remain for many months yet, so we can all still visit from time to time. Who needs a creepy grave when such a wonderful tribute has risen naturally from the hearts of his friends.

This is the beautiful side of facebook. This is the caring, sharing side of facebook. This is the side of facebook I wish the doubters could see.

Like being blind

2009-08-22T04:14:00.050+01:00

About five years ago, my roller-coaster ride took a sharp turn left. Trapped inside a loveless marriage, with two children we were both committed to, I had no place left to go. So I took refuge inside 'The Cloud', this crazy playground we call the internet, and from then on everything started to make sense to me.

I simply adored this new dimension I'd fallen into. I loved the way I could go anywhere, talk to anyone, BE anyone. It made perfect sense to me why I felt so at home inside this world...people actually liked me!

It's easy for me to see why this was, and still is the case. I find it's always the absence of something that brings clarity, and for me it's the absense of speech online that makes it work. It gives me a chance to think before responding. In fact, I can leave it days before posting a reply and not be considered rude, whereas in life each time I open my mouth I run the risk of making another enemy.

Just like a blind man 'sees' in a totally different way, those of us with vision who interact inside the Cloud are 'listening' in a totally different way...because it's just silence, isn't it? But what makes the internet so exquisite for me is that you will never know if the person you are 'talking' to is blind, deaf or black, unless they chose to tell you. Inside the Cloud we have no bodies, just our hearts and souls.

If this man didn't tell you he is blind,
would you know?

Nobody is forced to interact with anybody online. If you don't like what you are seeing or reading you can simply walk away, often without offending. Some will have already given up reading this for example, and I am flattered you're still here. Thank you! Unlike any other place on the planet, the Cloud gives us total freedom of choice, and a tremendous sense of worth when people do pay attention to what we have to say.

Common interests bind us and define us online. In the outside world, stereotypes force us all into little boxes we don't want to be in, but inside the Cloud we chose our own box. That's why it's so bloody comfortable, and why so many of us are drawn into it daily like moths round a lamp.

To me, the Cloud is a pool of perfect sense. It is inevitable, and I will explain more about that another time when I have the head for it. If you're still interested in what I have to say then why not follow me?

Want to know a secret?

2009-08-18T04:26:00.083+01:00

Peg Solitaire

Thought Cards

Knight's Move

Share my secrets
Copy any, or all of my Secrets to your own website or blog...they're free!

coming soon!

Welcome to my castle of illusion...

2009-08-12T02:40:00.017+01:00

Those of you who've been here before probably won't recognise the place. That's because the last year changed me more than I could ever explain with words, so I had to reflect it some other way.

Those who have known me for many years will see immediately I am not the person I used to be. She's still in there somewhere but she's not coming out again until she loses the chintz!

Those who don't know me are about to discover a person I've only just met too. So if I take any wrong turns on this next leg of my 'journey of discovery' then I apologise. Remember though, nobody is making you follow me, but you are more than welcome to if you want to. It's nice to have the company :o)

Peg Solitaire

2009-08-12T02:25:00.015+01:00

play the game:
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customise your copy:
(coming soon!)

Pay attention to the little things

2009-08-10T04:59:00.028+01:00

Many years ago I had this crazy idea about creating a craft group. I called it the Craft Shop and geared it towards craft sellers like me, and for a while it was successful.

Then circumstances beyond my control left us without a suitable venue to showcase our wares, and so the group naturally evolved into something different.

These days it's just a bunch of friends who happen to meet online. I still have big ideas if the truth be told, but right now I'm so grateful it is what I need it to be. Just friends.

The Craft Shop is not currently accepting new members. I'll let you know as soon as that changes :o)

I'm on a mission...

2009-08-10T03:00:00.009+01:00

I'm on a mission to turn nothing into something.

Today I've got about 2 months before the anniversary of this blog, and so far I haven't proved a thing.

Hell yeah, I can do it!

Knitting Needle Conversion Chart

2009-01-20T22:51:00.008Z

How many times have you googled 'conversion chart'? I know I have many times. Maybe you already have one bookmarked in your favourites? Well now you can convert your patterns from the comfort of your own Blog, and your visitors can bookmark YOU!

What really matters...

2009-01-13T17:18:00.007Z

In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take, the relationships we were too scared to have and the decisions we waited too long to make. There comes a time in your life when you realise who matters, who never did and who always will. So don’t worry about the people from your past because there’s a reason why they didnt make it to your future.
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Thank you Bollinger x

Our Craft Shop's Blog Brooch

2009-01-01T01:41:00.036Z

To celebrate the move to our brand new group, I have designed this Blog Brooch so everyone can find us. Help yourself to your free Brooch, and help our sellers grow!

Copy this code where you want your Brooch to go:

Thank you!

NEW GROUP OPENS: 1st January 2009

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DAY ONE: Advent Diary

2008-12-02T04:11:00.028Z

Advent Diary

Like many things I do, my Advent Diary has a far deeper meaning to me than I could ever explain on here.

When I started mine last year it was just creative inspiration, fed by my wonderful friends in the group.

Today, as I read back over where I was then, it's a poignant reminder of how far I've come in a year. And my wonderful friends in the group helped get me through it.

I do hope you share in the experience with me this year, and the next. It really is...erm, wonderful!

Grab your copy: Craft Shop Advent Calendar 2008
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Knights' Move

2008-11-22T01:40:00.011Z

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Advent Calendar 2008

2008-11-12T09:45:00.050Z

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Santa Curtis can be found at The Avenues Mall in Jacksonville, Fla. or online HERE. If you live anywhere near Jacksonville and bump into our Santa, be sure to give him a BIG HUG from me!

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Is he coming already..?

2008-11-07T23:28:00.007Z

snag

Just a thought...

2008-11-03T19:48:00.011Z

Inspire your readers with a different thought card each time they visit. Just copy this code where you want your cards to go:

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Bring it on!

2008-11-01T01:45:00.018Z

Here's my two this evening. It was just us walking round in the end, but it was great!

I had hoped for more of an event for them, but it seems everyone around us had their own plans, which didn't include us.

Maybe it never occured to any of them that we might actually need some support on this first 'special' day after...you know.

Or perhaps they knew that the three of us would do just fine.

Now this is what I call Pumpkin Carving!

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The perfect move...

2008-10-24T08:58:00.064+01:00

I've spent years tearing my world apart looking for love. I ripped out pages and pages, then stuck them back into perfectly symmetrical patterns, constantly searching for that elusive yin-yang balance.

Logic told me it was there somewhere. You only had to look at our 'handmade with love' kids to know it must be there. All I needed was for him to remind me what it looked like so I could remember how to love him back, but it didn't matter how loud I shouted he just would not listen!!!

Then all of a sudden...silence. Not the deafening silence I was used to, but one that comes from watching someone else tear your world apart looking for love. It's a silence that totally overwhelms you, because that's all you've got left when you're robbed of everything you believed in.

Click to play now, and grab a FREE copy for your own blogs!

With nothing left to tear apart, life became perfectly simple after that. Everything started falling into place, all those little cliches started making sense, and right there in the ruins I finally found it. Bummer!

Oh well, maybe a shining Knight will come and shuffle it all back the right way for me one day. You game..?

The rules are simple, and mastering the game is easy when you know how: try to always give and take, and if it crosses the line don't go back.

Time to move on...

2008-10-20T02:27:00.033+01:00

There I was trying to work out if this is the end of an era or merely the beginning, when I realised I would never know that until I started moving forward.

That's when I decided if I can't prove it to him I'll prove it to the rest of the world instead. Except I haven't a clue what I want to prove yet!

So I figured this is as good a place as any to find out, and you've all been nagging me for long enough anyway, so why not start the marble rolling with a blog.

Click to play now, and grab a FREE copy for your own blogs!

And here's what I've managed to dig up so far...the total sum of all my creativity wrapped up in a nice little game of solitaire. Quite appropriate don't you think?

OK, I suppose I should acknowledge if it wasn't for him writing the loop that stopped me going loopy this game would never have made it out of my head. It did only take him 5 minutes to write though, so that's all the credit he's getting.

The important thing is, in those 5 minutes he didn't just do me a favour, he showed me where I was going wrong, and I am grateful. That little bit of code has served me well too so watch this space, cos' there's plenty more where this came from!

And today? 10 months on...