Not long till Christmas!

This can be such a stressful time of year, with all the expectations that we put on ourselves or we feel that others have put on us. With end of year concerts, parties and presents to buy, it can all seem overwhelming sometimes.
My word for the day in all this is to "simplify". Not always easy to do, but often possible. I have one friend who pulled the children out of various activities they were involved in for this last school term, to help simplify things. The children are not going to suffer from the loss of those activities, but will probably benefit. Not to mention, that you can start them up again next year if they are still keen to do so.

Another area we can tend to stress about is the present buying. In my mind, it's not the presents for the kids that is a problem, but more for the adult relatives. A couple of things that we personally do to simplify gift buying for the adults, are to talk to the relatives involved and come up with an achievable plan that we all agree on. With one group of relatives, instead of buying gifts for each other, we try and go out for dinner together as our gift to each other. With another group we draw names out of a hat and only buy gifts for one couple each. Then for the children, we all know that starting early in gift buying is a lot less stressful on the bank balance, and you don't have lots of purchases all at once.

Another thing, I have started doing more and more is to shop online. It saves heaps of time walking the shops, and there are so many ideas that you may not have considered as an option, and all within budget. The important thing to remember is to get in early, so your order has time to arrive.

As far as online safety goes, you are pretty safe shopping with PayPal. If you don't have a PayPal account and don't want one, another thing I have discovered, are the Visa recharge cards. These allow you to shop online with less risk of someone stealing your credit card details. You buy these at most major shops like Coles, Woolies, IGA, AusPost etc.

This year, with our new website, UlyssesBlue, Australian, handmade goods, are high on my priority list. We want to help support Australian artists. They offer so many unique ideas, which is great for the person who has everything!

So why not give us a look in, when you start your Christmas shopping and see if we can inspire a gift idea!

If you have any great ideas on how you simplify your life during this time of year, I would love to hear from you.  Just leave a comment after this blog.

New to our website are some jewellery items, like this one.

You will find all these items and more at UlyssesBlue.com.au
Thanks for your support!
Michelle

Trials of Life

Sometimes it rains and sometimes it’s sunny. Why do we have trials in life? Why do we have wet days and dry days?

Isn't it amazing how from every situation in life we can learn something that helps us grow to be a better person.

If you look at the weather, there are seasons. It’s cold and wet. So is that good or bad? Well, neither. It is useful though. Without the rain... you know. Then some don't like the sun. Again, without the sun... So as you already know, we need the seasons, the wet and the dry, the cold and the warm, the wind.

So if you think about life. Is it best to have an easy life? Or would you say that its best to have a hard life? Again, I think neither is best, it’s just the way life is. We can fight against it, or learn from it. Each situation we come up against, has something we can learn from. Sometimes, while in the middle of difficult times, it is hard to see what you are learning. But down the track, when looking back, it all makes sense. Often the things we learn are there, so that when the next thing comes along we know how to respond or deal with it, as we have already been there done that. If we refuse to learn from the challenges we face, inevitably, we will have to face the same issue again, until we do learn from it, and who knows when the time will come for that lesson to be necessary in life. It may be that the first lesson was there so that you can learn the second lesson, so that the third lesson is possible. Just like maths. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, long multiplation, long division, fractions, algebra, etc. Or the weather. Rain, sun, warmth = plants, food, healthy animals, food etc. You need one thing to herald in the next.

Anyway, you all know this I'm sure.

What has this got to do with Ulysses Blue? I don't know, but I sure hope I'm going to learn something new from it!

Here is another item you will see on the Ulysses Blue web site.

This quilt pictorially explains some of the things I wrote about ;)

Single mums

Over the years I have come to know a few single mums.  It seems that it is often quite a shock for a lot of them to end up in this situation.  Financially it can be really tough, and many have not worked in paid employment for a long time.  One of my goals in starting up Ulysses Blue, was to give opportunity for people like single mums an easy avenue to make a bit of extra money, through creating things and selling them online.  I know this is not something that everyone would be able to do, as you need to have a bit of creativity and skill, but for some it would work.
I have been a stay at home mum for the last 15years.  It is important to me to be available to our children as much as possible.  I think this applies to most mums, whether they are stay at home mums or working mums.  But those who can find work that fits in with school hours are blessed.  Personally, I don't know how I would cope with the pressure of working outside the home and housework, cooking dinner, dealing with issues the children have, homework, sporting activities etc...  Anyway, I am blessed to be able to not have to worry about that at the moment, due to my husband having a good job.  If I was a single mum though, the choices get a lot more limiting. 
I hope that through Ulysses Blue we can help ease the pressure off some people who are financially struggling, just by giving them another avenue in which to sell things that they make. 
Michelle

Just another product from our website.

Where to Begin

Mum and I have just launched a new website called Ulysses Blue.  You can find it at ulyssesblue.com.au.  This has been a long time coming.  We first thought of the idea back in 2005, and have finally gone live. 
Mum had just finished a long around Australia trip with a friend and was telling us about all the amazing things people were making.  We just both thought it would be great to be able to come home from a holiday like that and still be able to buy the things you saw while away on holidays, from your computer at home.  Often when you are on holidays, you don't have a lot of space to pack things you buy along the way, not to mention the lack of money, due to the holiday.
Thus the idea was formed and sat dormant for a few years. 
Anyway, it has finally come to fruition, to a degree.  We are still learning how to go about making it a known site, and we are still looking for products to put on the site.  So far we have 3 wonderful ladies who have posted their products.  We have Quilts and Mosaics, and are on the lookout for as much variety as we can find.
Here is a small selection of products we have so far.

I love this photo frame decorated with buttons!

This is a cute dragonfly mosaic.

This Quilt has an esky design and would be great for picnics!

A pretty Cot Quilt.

Michelle