You may be familiar with the name Jess Crawford from my recent 2021 planner launch. Jess is the inspiring artist behind the abstract artwork on the cover of one of the 2021 planners.

ABOUT MY GUEST

Jess lives with her family in picturesque Crystal Brook, South Australia where she paints up a storm in her beautiful studio.

Jess’s  artworks bring brightness and light to the world with their vibrant colours and inspiring imagery.

Recently Jess has been using her artworks to bring objects to life too so that her clients can take that joy with them wherever they go. It is so important to see the beautiful colour in life that surrounds you and to feel that joy in your heart when you see it!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A planner is an essential planning and organisational tool for anyone who wants to achieve more, improve their time management and reduce general overwhelm and stress in their lives.

You only need to walk into any department store or stationery store to be spoilt for choice when it comes to diaries and planners and it can be confusing to try and choose the perfect planner if you’re not quite sure what to look for or what you need.

Everyone is busy.

I hear people talk about being a ‘busy mum’ or a ‘busy working mum’ or a ‘busy stay-at-home mum’ but the actual fact is that everyone is busy.

Everyone has responsibilities, goals and actions that they need to complete and although some people seem to bubble along keeping their plans all in their mind, most of us need that special place to write down and record what we need to achieve and plan for success.

It’s tempting to just pick something with a pretty cover (and by golly are there heaps of those). But from experience, when you choose something beautiful over something practical, you end up putting it up on the shelf and never using it! And that’s just a waste of money!

Scheduling and time-management is my gig, so here are my top tips for choosing the perfect planner, no matter who you are or what your circumstances are.

It is with much excitement that today I will be revealing the covers of the 2021 planners.

I can’t help but reflect on the opportunities we as women, have in 2021  in following and achieving our dreams. I think back to my grandmother as a young woman and the brave and deliberate decisions she made,  all of which were unusual for her time. By unapologetically breaking the mould of the traditional housewife, she has paved the way for my mother and I to follow our dreams.

This year you'll notice that my signature floral design is unlike anything you've seen from another brand. It is unique. It's not on trend. It is vintage and it is very special to my heart. This tribute proudly links the dreams of my maternal heritage to the dreams that I have been able to achieve today, because  of her, and to the legacy I want to leave for my daughter.

My grandmother was a progressive woman for her time. She worked hard her whole life on the things that lit her up. As a wife of the 1950s, she refused to be boxed into the stereotypical role of the housewife and instead, pursued a life of passion from book keeping and banking (at a time when few women were able), to farming and art.

She referred to cooking and cleaning as a 'mug's game' and forbid my mother to study home economics at high school, which mum defied. It was later in her life, in her 50s that she pursued a long-time interest of painting. She painted beautiful landscapes and florals on canvas and eventually ceramics and I have chosen to use one of these floral pieces as the signature floral cover for the 2021 planners.

Today's episode is with Ange Sibley from Ever So Homely and we are talking all things MEAL PLANNING! This is a topic that I'm super passionate about and if you follow me on the socials, you'll know that meal planning is one of those things that saves my butt day in and day out.

Now although I'm an avid meal planner, Ange really kicks things up a notch in this episode. Not only does she talk about meal planning, she shares her secrets about bulk cooking, freezer meals and repurposing food across several meals!

Ange Sibley is the ultimate homemaker and your HOW TO girl for all things home. She aims to help, inspire and motivate her followers to transform spaces in the home to make it... Ever So Homely.

Ange believes it makes such a difference to our lives and mindset when we reduce the amount of clutter around the home and in turn, making it a place we love!

Ange focuses on home improvements with a DIY approach with lots of tutorials, blogs, and videos to help you gain confidence on the tools. If the tools aren't for you, not to worry, you will find some great inspiration to decorate, declutter, and organise your home with the help from Ange!

Not only that, Ange LOVES to cook and has a love for bulk freezer cooking. She has recently created an ultimate organisation e-book to make your time more intentional in the Kitchen! MEAL PLAN MADE EASY. By using this step by step guide, you can save money and time, re-purpose meals, and it also includes all of the templates you will need to get meal planning off the ground!

By making small changes in the home will have a big impact on the life you live!

How to Stop People Pleasing

Pleasing others comes pretty naturally to me and you might be a little bit the same. People pleasing is a habit – one that we likely picked up in our childhood or thanks to our personality type. Awareness is the first step to overcoming people pleasing and my guest today is a wealth of knowledge on this topic, because she too has lived and breathed people pleasing.

Lizzie Moult is a spiritual business & life coach, serial entrepreneur, speaker, world traveller and a modern-day wild hippy.

Raised as an honest country girl, Lizzie broke all the rules and created a life based on passion. Now with her trusted laptop she is living off-grid in a subtropical rainforest in Australia.

Dedicated to the journey of self-exploration, Lizzie helps people to ditch people-pleasing and feeling small, by harnessing your unique essence, so you can speak your truth fully and freely. Infusing spiritual practices with down to earth simplicity, she values honesty, integrity, self-expression and fun. Lizzie has numerous online courses and also offers bespoke coaching.

With over 15 years of experience working online, Lizzie has a passion for empowering others to stand up for what they believe in, to do life & business their own way and to create a solid foundation of self where head and intuition work together. She is an expert at creating compelling brands, implementing systems and processes to support businesses to grow and what it takes to be a rock star boss.

If you know any of those women who just seem to be able to 'do it all', and wondered how they do it.... this is the episode for you!

In this podcast interview, I chat with Rebekka Battista about how she manages the multi-faceted demands of life, motherhood and work.

Rebekka Battista, a local Lismore girl who currently is the Our Kids Fundraising Coordinator. Based at the Lismore Base Hospital, Rebekka has been instrumental in raising awareness about the need to improve the health services for our children in the Northern Rivers area and the importance of raising funds with the help of the local community, she has inturn raised the funds to purchase $2 million of paediatric equipment for our local hospitals. Rebekka is passionate about building community and giving back.

Also a qualified chef Rebekka along with her husband ran the Left Bank for 12 years, and a mother of two boy Isaak and Nathan, Rebekka also has studied with Youth With A Mission in Sydney and Denver ,Colorado.

Rebekka is also Director, Secretary and Fund Raiser for Our House which is a $5.6 million 20 unit purpose built accommodation for cancer patients, families and their children who come to Lismore for treatment.

Rebekka is one of the Pastors at Centre Church and heads up the Women’s Ministry at as well as on the Eldership team of Centre Church and a leader in the music team, plays piano on team and preaches. She has also ran the Beautiful program which is a value based course run in Lismore High Schools and is organised the Combined Churches of Lismore for 5 years. Rebekka has served both in Nepal and Uganda helping to build orphanages.

Rebekka has served on many boards including:

Rebekka and her husband Gianpiero also have a network marketing business based on Health products and their motto is to Live Life Well, Body , Soul and spirit.

Most recently Rebekka had the privileged of giving one of her kidneys to her son Isaak…. Both of which as doing well.

What is mindful living? And how does it look as a family?

My guest today talks us through all things connection, harmony and living mindfully as a family. The recent isolation that we have all been in has been both challenging and connecting and it's through this connection that we can begin to create a mindful and connected way of living as a family.

ABOUT MY GUEST...

Kerry is the founder and creator of the very successful Kids in Harmony a Family Enrichment and Wellbeing Program in Townsville, Queensland, Australia.  Her life’s work and true calling began in 2001 after the birth of her child as she wanted a program that nurtured the heart and minds of children as well as the whole family.  With her commitment to parent support, family wellbeing and teacher mentoring Kerry has authored several mindsets, values and mindfulness resources; Harmony Cards for Kids, I Love my Body, The Little Book of Harmony, Harmony Bliss and Happy Songs CD’s and her Kids in Harmony Collective online platform for parents and teachers.

Kerry takes a value and mindfulness-based approach to all of her work and has had the privilege of supporting over 20,000 families as well as teachers, daycare professionals and schools Australia wide.

It's that time of the year again when kids are returning to the classroom after their 2 week Easter break.... hang on a minute! No they're not!

If you're a parent of a child aged between 5 and 18, chances are that you've been facilitating remote learning at home towards the end of term one and are about to continue in this way for the next few weeks. 

While some parents have loved this challenge, many have struggled with this transition too. Never in our wildest dreams could we imagine our children learning in this way, for so long.

As an educator AND parent myself, I am seeing both sides of these crazy times. When I'm on site at school I'm teaching and when I'm working remotely from home, I'm supporting my students and families, as well as teaching my own daughter by facilitating her remote learning timetable. 

In this episode, I chat with another educator Tiffany from Inspire Learn Teach. We break down the different ways that you as a parent can set yourself and your children up for a successful day of learning from home. There are no two children who are the same, or learn the same and in this episode we acknowledge this along with the varying routines and systems that may be helpful to support our little learners during this time (while keeping you sane too).

Tiffany is an early childhood specialist now working within the high school arena. She has followed children right from the start of their formal education, working within baby rooms in child care; right through to teaching senior subjects. She is passionate about working with parents to take the notion of child led learning from the fringes, and place it at the heart of life long learning. Through her website, Tiffany inspires mamas to find learning in play and works with them to build their child’s independence allowing mamas to not only make a coffee but to enjoy it HOT!

For so many of us, life has drastically changed over the past few weeks. We are suddenly home... a lot! And life isn't like anything we have experienced before. Recently I saw a meme on Facebook that has inspired this post. The meme read, 'why did I buy a 2020 planner' and part of my giggled and part of me got sad.

In this episode I hope to inspire you get your planner out, dust it off and start using it to create a scaffold for your day. I'd also like to inspire you to work through tasks you've been wanting to do around the home for ages and also connect with yourself during this time.

This episode also has a bonus free printable download, with specific ways for you to use your planner every day during isolation. 

Slow living is the new way to live the old way. Purposeful. Fulfilling. Intentional. With ease.

In today's episode, I chat with Rachelle Glendon from How to Live Slow - a Youtube channel (and soon to be podcast) designed to help modern mums find the antidote to overwhelm and instead create the intentionally slower family life of their dreams. Rachelle is a qualified life coach, reformed busy-holic and mum to 2 boys. She's obsessed with personal transformation and believes that slowing down is as easy, and as hard, as making different choices and creating new habits.