Letter to John

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0100

I want to share with you a story that pinpoints exactly why I'm so passionate about creating tons of people (a million millionaires) who have a surfeit of money so they can help others. My vehicle is ACN.

We were on the way to a style consultation/style modelling session when we saw a young boy cleaning the windows on the car next to us at a traffic light. With a big smile, he came over to us to ask to clean ours. We got to talking and it turns out that he's 13 years old and homeless.

Spam I Am

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

I suppose I should be grateful that spammers don't seem to be that keen to proofread their work, but I still find it insulting.

Take a look at this and see if you can spot the typos:

I stopped counting at thirty-five (35!) typos, not counting the fact that it doesn't use Australian spelling.

It really just puzzles me why these people bother. [...]

Creativity

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

One of my awesome clients (Thanks, Tina!) sent along this quote that inspired her. I love it!

Creativity is not something you wait for.
It is something that waits for you.

You must decide to be creative, not wait to be.
You must challenge yourself.

Pick up the brush. Grab hold of the camera. Turn on the computer. Start cooking the meal.

Get to the workplace early.
Propose the solution.
Advance the idea.
Become the answer.

I m [...]

Grammar Super Heroes

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Who can turn a man into a mane? Who can turn a can into a cane? It's elementary; it's silent e!

Yep, even letters can be super heroes. *laugh*

So, with that childhood song wandering through my mind, you're probably wondering what this post is about, yeah?

Well, it's about one of the most common mistakes that lots (and lots and lots) of people make (yep, probably even me upon occasion).

The rules that will help you come down to possession and contractions, and no, [...]

Confessions of a Pack Rat

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

So, first off, I am not a professional organiser, but I am a pack rat who is working on decluttering. I don't know if most professional organisers start out with a clutter problem to overcome, but I don't think I'd trust any that didn't for the same reason that I couldn't connect with a personal trainer or nutritionist that hadn't personally struggled with weight loss. Now, I know some people will say, ‘You don't have to have had a brain tumour to be a brain surgeon' and that's prob [...]

Impressed with WordPress

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

First of all, can I just say that I feel especially proud of my first WordPress CMS foray? Oh good!

For a while now, a friend and client, Violeta Edge, has been asking me to create a ‘site she can change herself'. Now, I have to admit to a couple of control issue problems so I did take a little coaxing, but at the end of the day, what a client wants, a client gets (within reason and within moral codes! *smile*).

So ... I backed up the lovingly and painstakingly created [...]

Sipping Sweet Tea and Memories

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Sat, 29 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

I'm drinking tea, but not the sort you'd guess, and listening to Sweet Tea by Datri Bean from her album Slow Down Summertime.

Having had the pleasure of not only seeing her in an intimate concert in Austin last month, I also got a chance to sit and have a chat with her later, under the stars, at her partner's birthday party. She's a lovely lady ... with so much talent.

This is probab [...]

Don't be spineless

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

My title applies to life in general, but more specifically to designing book spines.

We all know the old saying, ‘Don't judge a book by its cover', but we literally do that with books (and probably with people too). Basically, unless you're a known figure, it's challenging to get your book into a bookstore as it is so you will probably not have the luxury of having a huge display with your books on it, facing outwards and languishing on silk with a fresh vase of flowers next to th [...]

Fast Fajitas

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

As I sit here at 4.02 am in Melbourne, after preparing for a meeting I have in ... about six and a half hours, I've realised that I'm really hankering for some Mexican food. I've heard of a few places that I need to check out, but in the meantime, I know that I can make some pretty good interpretations of the food I had the pleasure of growing up with in Tucson, Arizona.

I decided to share one of my favourites: fajitas! This recipe will be a hit with your family as it's fast, yummy and a great [...]

Fontastic

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Let's talk a bit about fonts since I'm working on another book design and ... also, I love talking about fonts!

If you ever decide to self-publish, you will have at least some say in the font of the book. It is what your reader will stare at for the entire time so remember that it has to be above all readable. Secondly, it should suit the tone and voice of your book.

If it's a serious topic, forget about those 'groovy' fonts we all tend to love. While serif (it has the little 'fee [...]

Veggie and brown lentil curry

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Please note that the ingredient quantities have been ‘fudged', especially in the spices department, as I rarely measure. Just be creative!

Ingredients

3 roughly chopped potatoes2 carrots cut into rounds1/2 cup diced sweet potatoes1 cup sliced green beans [...]

Passages from my favourite books

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

from The Hobbit (which is quite possibly my favourite book) by the inestimable JRR Tolkien, p 1

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.

Parenting Advice from Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett, pp 92/93

Nanny Ogg never used her washhouse, since all her washing [...]

Things I learned from a power outage

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Always ...
have a pen and paper handy.keep your iPod charged.keep a light source handy: candles, flashlights and people who fill you with joy ... Oh and while we're at it, open those candles you've been saving for a ‘rainy day'.

This reminds me of what Erma Bombeck wrote when she found out she had a fatal disease.

If I Had My Life To Live Over
by Erma Bombeck

If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friend [...]

Chiron: the Healing Sign

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

I was really inspired by reading a Twitter post today by the lovely @jadecraven. In her guest blog post, she opened her ‘wound'/soul to the world and I have to say I've rarely been as impressed as I was by her absolute bravery to share her struggle with depression and anxiety.

Her amazing story reminded me of Chiron in astrological terms. It's basically a wounded part of your psyche that you have to heal not only to lead a fully, happy life, but it also gives you the opportunity t [...]

What kind of cook are you?

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

I was just in the kitchen 'making' (and I use the term loosely as I'm suffering from the flu) some soup by opening a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup and adding black pepper and parsley to it. I dunno if it's my fevered state or divine inspiration, but I started thinking about what kinds of cooks there are.

What do I mean?

Well, canned soup aside, I consider myself to be a creative cook. Even if I'm having Maggi noodles (which I don't do often, mind you), I cannot rest with [...]

Real poets

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

I doubt if I'll ever claim to be a poet, for that would be mere puffery since the passion to write does not wholly consume me. With that said, I find that when I'm reviewing poetry, I do read aloud so I wonder if 'real' poets do so as a matter of course.

For me, hearing the words helps me to follow the reason, the rhyme and the metre. When your voice falters, there is usually something there, a misstep, akin to a loose tooth when you bite into an apple. When this ... pause ... occurs, [...]

Not-so-impartial definitions

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Now, first of all, I'm not picking on the Macquarie Dictionary per se, but the definition I just read for astrology both made me smile bemusedly and then laugh.

Here goes:

astrology
astrologer, astrologist, noun. astrological /astruh'lojikuhl/, astrologic, adjective. astrologically, adverb.
/uhs'troluhjee/.
noun
1. a study which assumes, and professes to interpret, the influence of the heavenly bodies on human affairs.
2. Obsolete astro [...]

Think Pink

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

I just finished a book called SheMarketing: the science of marketing to women by Amanda Stevens. I bought it several months ago, but saw it on my shelf two nights ago and decided I should actually read it!

It's quite funny that because I'm a woman and a marketer, I probably thought at least subconsciously, ‘What can this book teach me?', but reading it helped me slow down and think about the mental processes involved in marketing. That served to give me a fresh outlook.

What I foun [...]

What is a poet?

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music.
Soren Kierkegaard

The making of words

renee@risingstardesigns.com.au — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Last night on Twitter, @midnight_writer posed an interesting question:

@ReneeBarber what's your favourite word? Doesn't have to be a word you use. ;)

Anyone who knows me knows that I adore words. They're like little friends with their foibles and personalities. Still, amidst the throng of hopefuls, no single word took hold of my imagination at that particular time.

As I turned on Twitter today, a word softly entered my consciousness: onomatopoeia:

onomatopoeia
ono [...]

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