Tuesday Treasury - Christmas Baking!

'Christmas Treats And Holiday Baking' by shemonster31

Only a week left until Christmas! That means it's time to get baking, so let's bake in style with hand-made and vintage holiday items!

Chevon Red GREASEPROOF ... SweetsTreatsBo... $3.75	Milk Glass Pedestal Cak... BarkingSandsVi... $95.00	Sprinkles Cupckake cake... ThePinkPepperc... $4.99	copper cookie cutters, ... trashtownvinta... $26.00
Vintage Wooden Rolling ... Tparty $12.90	Mini Cupcake/Pie/Browni... TreasureiTbyDo... $32.00	Recipe Box - Eat, Drink... exquisiteinks $65.00	Christmas Trivets, Hand... WexfordTreasur... $14.99
Retro 80's Betty Cr... ecofriendlyfre... $20.00	FREE Shipping CHRISTMAS... ClassyCookApro... $55.50	Vintage Santa's Mag... windhillantiqu... $8.95	Printable Holiday Bakin... VLHamlinDesign $1.00
Vintage Pyrex Mixing Bo... Hindsvik $12.00	Kitchen utensils made o... UnnaVintage $15.00	Vintage Hand Mixer / Eg... VancouverVinta... $10.00	Green Christmas Ornamen... madebyemily $22.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Seven Paths: Lesson 1

Curtis Rivers

Curtis Rivers wrote a book called Seven Paths to Freedom which will be out sometime next year. He also has a free seven day course with the same title. 

I thought this course may just be the ticket to help me on my journey to inner peace and happiness.

I am blogging about this because I want to share it with you in the hope to inspire those who also want to make some positive changes in their lives - who want to enjoy living life with passion, having the courage to transform dreams into reality. Even if you don't follow me, you can check out the site, Seven Paths to Freedom.


The title for Lesson One From Curtis Rivers FREE online course, Seven Paths to Freedom, is "What do you really want?"

At the end of the lesson, Curtis asks us to "Write down a list of just seven things that you REALLY want."

He then adds, "Avoid writing 'win the lottery' or 'marry a millionaire' - ask yourself, if money were no object, if you never had to work another day in your life, what would you do." Well, I'm sure that is what most people wish for and it doesn't go much further than that. I know the law of attraction doesn't work like that. We need to know exactly what we want and make the message clear.

I have pictured what I would do with a lot of  money but I have not imagined what I am actually doing. 

www.branthaven.com

Let's try again.

I see myself walking up to my house and into the front door. There is a large brightly lite entry way. I have a huge smile on my face. 

Faith, comes running up to me and gives me a great big hug. She is excited and tells me about what she did while I was out. 

www.branthaven.com

To my right is expansive sitting area and to my right is a staircase to the second level.

I continue walking to the back of the house and look around the kitchen. Nicole, Christina and Beth are there with their daughters baking cookies. They all look at me, smiling. My granddaughters are chattering away for me to look at what they are doing. I feel so blessed.

www.livingdesignhome.com

There are some white fluffy towels on the floor because the girls were swimming again. We have an indoor heated pool. I promise to go for a dip in the pool with them after supper.

I walk upstairs to my bedroom and change into some casual clothes. My room is so relaxing - a true retreat to unwind.

After taking a few minutes for myself, I work my way downstairs to my art studio/home office/rec room/exercise area.

 I check emails and stop myself there because it is the weekend and I promised my girls to spend time with them.

I look around and feel so grateful. I have large canvases holding paint that I put there. Someone has already bought that picture. 

www.minimalisti.com

Over in the corner is a work station that my girls and I sit at and create all kinds of fun items. 

In the opposite corner is a area dedicated to exercising. Everyone in the family takes advantage of that space.

The walls are covered with pictures of my family and the trips we have been on. 




There are awards and letters of gratitude for my volunteer work at various charities. My daughters insisted on framing and hanging them. 

I go back to the kitchen and they are cleaning up. I look out the window at the four nearby houses that belong to Beth, Nicole, Christina and my Mom. 

I walk past the great room on my way out the patio door to the garden. Gary is sitting there with my son in laws doing whatever guys do.

From picasaweb.google.com

My garden is huge and well groomed. We have all kinds of vegetables and flowers. My granddaughters love watching the plants grow. They love picking and eating the fresh veggies. The cucumbers are doing great this year.

Is that seven? Is that what I am suppose to do?

Let's recap:
1. Spend time with my family.
2. Volunteer my time for different causes.
3. Blog. Write.
4. Garden.
5. Paint.
6. Travel with my family.
7. Swim and exercise.

What was your interpretation of this assignment?

You can sign up for Curtis Rivers' Seven Paths to Freedom Course at http://www.curtisrivers.com/products.html.

Seven Paths to Freedom by Curtis Rivers

Curtis Rivers

Curtis Rivers wrote a book with this title which will be out sometime next year. He also has a free seven day course with the same title. I thought this course may just be the ticket to help me on my journey to inner peace and happiness.

I am blogging about this because I want to share it with you in the hope to inspire those who also want to make some positive changes in their lives - who want to enjoy living life with passion, having the courage to transform dreams into reality. Even if you don't follow me, you can check out the site, Seven Paths to Freedom.

So why aren't I where I want to be? Let me think this one through. 

Hey. I am pretty much where I wanted to be at this point in my life. I have a lovely home, a job I love, a nice car, wonderful friends, a loving family to share my life with . . . What else could I want? 

I want to up my "standard of living" so I can spend more time with my family, time to pursue other interests and finacially help friends and family. 

I want financial freedom. Everyone's dream, right? Not exactly. As a teenager I wanted to live in a house that I owned, have children and a job doing something I enjoyed.

I got what I wanted. Didn't I? Of course I did. But I got a little older and a little wiser I hope. 

Now I want something else too. And that's okay. People change and their needs/wants change right along with them. 

I want financial freedom. So what is stopping me?

There are so many barriers to my destination and I know it can be a difficult journey. We all have preconceived perceptions and fears to overcome. 

For instance, I was raised to believe that money doesn't bring you happiness. But I beg to differ. We need money to survive in this world and to maintain happiness we need at least enough money to pay our bills, put food on the table, get us from point a to point b and provide some of the niceties in life. Without the money for all these items, we are filled with stress, unhappiness, depression, low self esteem. You get the the picture.

Perhaps my Mom taught this to me because money was tight when she was growing up. And after my father died money was tight for us. She learned how to get by and make the most of it. Her mother lavished her with love and attention and my Mom did the same to us.

Tobacco Sucker Between
Stalk and Large Plant

I also grew up thinking you have to work hard for your money. Not  a completely true statement is it? I know there are many people in the world that do have to work extremely hard for their money. 

Tobacco Flower

As a matter of fact, I remember working very hard, as a child, along side my mom and younger sister. My little brother was somewhere playing by our feet. We suckered tobacco and broke off the flower tops.



The predominant thought back then was yuck and gross. We wore kerchiefs to cover our hair and over sized clothes to protect us from the sticky, tarry build up you get from the leaves rubbing against you. Our hands were black from the tar. I call it tar but I'm not sure what it really is. It is almost black in colour and it covered us from head to toe. 

Tobacco Caterpillar

Yes the tar was gross but accidently squishing a tobacco caterpillar instead of grabbing a sucker is really gross. I can't even say it without distorting my face in disgust. Just the thought makes me want to jump up and do the "oh my gosh that is so disgusting" dance.

My mom says we also picked strawberries and tomatoes but I don't remember that. 








I do remember picking apples.  My sister and I picked what we could reach on the trees while standing on the ground and we put them into a small basket which was dumped into a large wooden bin. I think Mom got twenty dollars a bin back then.


We also picked the "grounders" which were the apples that fell from the tree and sat in the long grass basking in the sunshine. I can almost smell the strong aroma of fermenting apples. 

Grounders

It didn't take too long before my sister and I were begging for gloves. So many of the apples were rotten, even moldy. Poking your fingers through an over ripe apple was not a favorite pastime. And actually we had to fight with the long grass to give up the apples because it would be entwined all around the fruit.



On the funny side, you never knew when gravity would pluck an apple from the tree and toss it to the ground. Bombs away!

Tobacco. Apples. Hard work. Very little money.

www.findingdulcinea.com

Now on the other hand, once I became an adult I learned there are people in this world who love their jobs, who do not think of their jobs as work and some actually make a nice living. I often wonder who those people are, where they are and what they are doing? :)

Another perception is that people who have "money" are stingy, self absorbed, maybe "stuck up." 

The rich get richer. That's because they rip people off, take advantage of the poor and weak. So you don't want to have loads of cash because you will become one of "them." Ebenezer Scrooge is not the kind of role model you aspire to become when you grow up.

My debit card for my bottomless bank account.

Fears. Most of us fear failure. We are afraid of what people will think about us. Having to start all over again. Afraid of the dark. Afraid of crowds....

I want to be a money magnet. Money comes easily and frequently! I want to fulfill my dreams and desires. I want to be happy. I want to break free from this small confined space I have boxed myself in. I want to enjoy everything that life has to offer!

I am ready to make a change! Are you?