Free Giveaway

I promised and I shall deliver. I have had a total of 1000 visit my blog now so it is time for a free giveaway. I have decided it will be a surprise. It will be something I make and something that you are interested in.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Leave a comment if you are interested
2. Tell me what your hobbies are and favourite colours
3. In a weeks time I will draw a name from a hat and notify the winner. I will get your address from you later.
4. You can live anywhere in the world.

Good luck!

Short and Sweet

I am 9 visitors away from my 1200. If you are uncertain as to why 1200 is a significant number it is because to me it is around 1000 visitors. You see every time I post a blog it goes on the counter as one person.

Now I need to decide what I want to send as a gift to those who have been coming and reading. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Something I have made will be nice but maybe something to do with the winners interests as well.

Gotta run. Work calls (on that front things are looking quite good for now).

Social Art

This week has just flown by. Today I had Jackie and her daughter Karina (7 yrs) over for some messy art fun. We all had a great time.

Karina was very proud of her creation which is going on her bedroom door. She said it was so that people (meaning her brother) would know it was her room. He is only 2 and can't read yet but it has flowers and butterflies which means Girls Room.

When Karina mixed her colours together (purple, gold, and silver) I wasn't sure how it would turn out but the colour turned out like a dark stormy sky blue type of colour. It was really cool.

She wasn't one for ripping the paper and layering like Jackie and I did but she piled the gauze in one big lump which was perfect to sit her flower on. I love the texture in this photo.This is Jackie's creation. You can't really see the colour but she used a lot of blue and silver in hers.

Jackie wasn't sure if she liked the butterfly she had due to the holes at the bottom so I suggested she put some beads on. The beads match the colour of the background perfectly.

Last but not least she added this flower. It wasn't there in the final design but then we found a spot for it that helped to make everything else stand out more. My photo's do not do justice to Jackie's attempt.

I need to finish mine off before I take photo's of it however I did promise to show the one that I have been working on for some time. It is one of my favourites and will definitely not be sold. I do have ideas for smaller versions I will make though. I love the colour in it.

I actually found these large flat kidney bean type beads at Textile Traders and thought they would be perfect for this. They were even the right colouring to match the paint.

What took the longest was doing the wire work. I am really happy with how it all turned out.

New Boss

Today was day one with the Big A. I was called into his office on Friday where he had a one sided conversation with me about what we need to do with training. It went for 45 minutes and about 2 minutes of that was actually on training and not an ego boost for him.

I can see positives so I believe there won't be too many issues. At this stage I am integral the sales team getting paid so they are doing everything in their power to assist. I also found out today that one of the team is resigning. In some ways this is good as well because she has always been quite negative but at the same time she is also knowledgable about the product and at times would help me out there.

Off that topic and onto the weekend. I worked some more on a canvas I have been working on for a while. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week so stay tuned for pictures.

Other than that there is no other news so I will sign off.

Ciao for now.

A lot of hearsay

In the last month the company I work for has made around 30 of it's employees redundant (no warning what-so-ever). About a third of the training team went. This week I find out that I will have a new boss as of Monday due to role restructures. Talking to my soon to be old boss today I asked him how long he thought his job would last considering he was working on creating a virtual type training simulation thing-a-ma-jiggy. He estimates around 3-4 months. He then told me to seriously start looking for a new job as well. If the online training environment he creates is good then the Director's will most likely say my job is redundant. Of course this is all hearsay and I would hope that my new boss will really kick up a fight to keep me so that his sales team don't have to take on that personal touch side of training. Lord help the poor members if they do because these guys know diddly squat!

So what am I going to do? I have no idea. The thought has crossed my mind that if the training is less personal I might contract out to the members who are serious about using the program but can't handle cold training from a CD. Who knows what might happen there.

I don't want to be a Broker or a PA again. That would be like a demotion of sorts. Working for one of the Banks is also out of question. Seven years with one of them belittling my skills is enough.

I have a mortgage and a retired mother to look after. The cost of living is very high here and with inflation and interest rates going through the roof I am feeling very apprehensive about my future financial security.

I can see how God has led me to this job and it is the first one I have really thoroughly enjoyed. I keep thinking surely He won't take it away form me. I then think well if He does it means there is something better around the corner. Maybe I will develop a brain for running a small business and will be able to do something with all my crafty skills. I am definitely going to open my Etsy store on the weekend.

Be Careful what you pray for

This morning I prayed for a little motivation for both work and getting myself organised by opening an art etsy store among other things. I have been feeling a lack of motivation since I was sick and really want it back. The good news is I may just have it back, the bad news is that it came with a price. For 7 years I worked for bosses who were total idiots and didn't give a poo about the people they were in charge of. Last year when I started with this company I ended up with the world's best boss. Today I found out that due to restructures the trainers in each state will now come under the guidance of the sales team state Manager so that the National Training Manager can have more time to develop a simulation training program (which may ultimately see him out of a job). To quote an famous yellow pages add here in Australia ... "NOT HAPPY JAN!" (Only Aussies will get that one).

My new boss told me by email before my old boss had a chance to tell me. Man was he furious when I phoned to ask what was going on? The new boss then told the rest of the WA sales team before learning from the CEO to keep his mouth shut until my old boss had had a chance to tell us. Did I get an apology? NO! Reason being is because my new boss has an ego so big that I am amazed he can fit through the door.

The sales team also tend to think that I am their assistant and therefore I have to do what they say. My old boss was always there to stick up for me when they were asking for things that were just not possible. Now I have a new boss who is a sales person first and has no idea what so ever about training.

That is my gripe for the day. I'm not happy and I want my boss back. I am trying to look for the good in this but I am finding it really hard. Life is just not fair. I knew this job was too good to be true. Anyway I should not complain as I still have my job. Other states have lost their trainers. God obviously still wants me here and I need to have more faith that I will be happy no matter what happens.

Long Weekend

Thank God for long weekends because I really needed this one. Although this entry will need to be short as I have to go get some work done. On Saturday my cousin and his wife came over for lunch with their four boys. They are growing up so fast. On Sunday Mandy had organised a day for Vivian to come down for some canvas fun. Mine didn't seem to be working as much as I would have like, until the very end. I am happy with it now and it is hanging in my office (pictures below).

Today Angie and I went to see the 4th installment of Indiana Jones. It was action, adventure, romance and comedy all mixed into one. I had heard that it was all a little far fetched and about Aliens etc so I went in expecting the worst and came out loving it.

Well work beckons. It is all reports. I would rather be getting messy. By the way my fingertips are a nice purple colour now!!! Gotta love paint.