Every month The Calm Space has a theme.  Each week, 3 or 4 of the contributors add some more food for thought on the month’s theme. As the month progresses, the roots of the theme get tickled and tackled. Opinions arise, stories develop, and sometimes controversy takes the stage!

This month’s theme is “purpose”.

Now, I’d argue that purpose is a bit of a new-age, coach-induced phenomenon.

And I’m a coach – kind of!

If the Calm Space is about moving “from stress serenity one step at a time” then I reckon purpose should be given a good kick in the backside!

So I’m reluctant to add having a purpose to the relationship “shoulds” that hang like boulders around our necks.

I figure that just like you learn to pick your battles with your adolescent children, there are other more important relationship “battles” to attack, than having a purpose! [more]

What do you think?

Oh by the way, Karen offers an excellent e-course to get you helping yourself.  Called A Month of Me Time it’s an excellent freebie.  I suggest you try it!

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If you’d rather, we can meet up on Facebook. All you need to do is become a Fan of Pink Apple on FaceBook.

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Chris Owen is Pink Apple and a bubbly Aussie Relationship Expert.

If you want a better relationship, but don’t know how to get it, then why not follow the beating heart in sidebar of this blog and take the Relationship Mojo Test?  You’ll receive Chris’ free E-Book  Your Relationship: From Mojo to Marvellous to help you improve your relationship.   Oh and there are other bonuses to be found on the other side of that beating heart!

What's more, all of the funds raised from the many prizes, auctions and donation envelopes will go to support the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009,

You
see we're all Melbourne women, feeling powerless to change the
devastation that last weekend's fire storms had on people living in
Victoria. 

Many of those killed and left homeless are from the
very outskirts of our city.  Most people know someone who has lost
loved ones, friends, or property in these areas.

So rather than just feel powerless, we decided to take action and RAISE MONEY amongst our favourite people – other Women.

We're inviting ALL women (businesswomen and stay-at-home mums) to join us for The Phoenix Lunch.

About The Phoenix Lunch

NEXT THURSDAY 19th February 2009
from 12-2.30pm

AT Box Hill Golf Club,
202 Station St
Box Hill Victoria

Cost $35 to cover cost of 2-course meal and wine and tea/coffee (paid in advance)

RSVP TUESDAY 9am 17th February  (YES BOOK RIGHT NOW)

All enquiries can be sent to ThePhoenixLunch@gmail.com

Bookings

There are two registration options and three payment options.  You need to book AND pay.
To pay (ESSENTIAL so we have numbers for our venue)

1. Direct Debit $35 to
   BSB 013 – 247, Account No 4870 58027
   Whitespaces Management and Marketing Services P/L
   PLEASE mark payment as Phoenix and ADD YOUR NAME.
   (The $35 for meal etc. Fundraising is with donations, raffles, auction etc)
2. Credit Card
   (Complete your details on the attached Registration form and fax to 03 9877 2138 or scan and attach to email at ThePhoenixLunch@gmail.com)
3. Credit Card Phone Transaction
   Ring Janet Powell on 0411 091 419 to complete your transaction by phone.

To Register (ESSENTIAL so we can match you and your payment) 

1. Complete the Online Registration (I'm no geek, so it's not very pretty but it's functional)
2. Complete the PDF Registration Form and fax it back to 03 9877 2138  
   Download The Phoenix Lunch PDF

What's In It For You?

Well apart from lifting some of that
sense of powerlessness and warming the cockles of the heart because
you've made a difference …

There is:

• Some Networking Development led by networking expert Brenda Thomson of Networking World. 
  We'll all learn how to use our BEST WOMANLY SKILL – networking.  That's
  to our advantage as both businesswomen with products and services out
  there in the marketplace, and as consumers seeking great products and
  services.
• Finding out about the amazing array of women's services from the inserts in your take-away goodies bag.
• Lots of Fun, Laughter, and the very important ESWB (Exchanging of
  Secret Women's Business, of course!!!)  It should be good for meeting
  new people, finding new ways to make our lives easier AND a bit of HOT
  gossip as well!

How Will That Help Bushfire Victims?

A Senior CFA
Representative will give us some insights on what lies ahead for our
state and where our donations will need to be funnelled.

We'll
get you opening your purses/wallets for Donation Envelopes (receipts
will follow), Auctions, Raffles, Door Prizes, Spot Prizes.  All these
prizes are being generously donated!  (Can you Help?)

IF
you feel the need to bring goods for the victims (Red Cross tell us
money is best) then please limit the donations to new-only, female,
health/personal products and cosmetics and bring them along on the
day.  There’ll be a box for those donations.

So Are You Coming?

We
want to fill our venue with 150 talking women.  Can you help us?  Can
you MAKE TIME to join us at this important charity event?

Even if
you live interstate, you could still join us.  Why not consider
it?  The Cause is worth flying for and worth every flying dollar!

A Community in Ashes

For overseas readers of this blog, you'll know Victoria (Melbourne is where I live) has been beset by devastating bush fires in this last week. 

While
the death toll is officially 181 the real toll will definitely be much
higher!  1800 houses have been lost and 7000 have no home.

As I
looked at the blood red sun going down last night and rising again this
morning, I join other Victorians in fearing that the returning heat of
this coming week might mean we have more bushfires to deal with. 

The fire front is still massive but better contained.

Like you, Pink Apple and my colleagues Angela Esnouf of Creating Order from Chaos, and Janet Powell of Mentor Maestro have been horrified by the impact of the bushfires.

Like all of you, we felt powerless.

Like all good small business people, we decided to take action.

How?

Well what else but get women together to talk to each other?  We've called it The Phoenix Lunch.  A Women's Networking Lunch in Support of the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009.  

Our target is 150 bums on seats.  (That's how many the venue will hold.)

Can YOU help?

• Can you come along to enjoy a great lunch, donate some money, meet some marvellous women, win some stunning prizes, and help reach the 150 target? 
• How many of your contacts can you share this invitation with?
• When you think about all the people you know, can you ask any of your contacts for any of the things on our wish list?(see below)
• Can you or your business offer any goods or services to the prize pool? 
• Do you or your contacts know any entertainment or sporting celebrities (especially women) who could help raise the profile of The Phoenix Lunch?  (We desperately NEED a professional media person to MC the event!)
• Are you interested in promoting your business
  with marketing materials or offers to be included in the guest’s
  goodies bag?   If you can’t attend, but you'd like to market to these
  women, then you’ll need to donate $50 to the Bushfire Appeal. 
  (Attendees and donors of prizes with a value of more than $50 can
  provide promotional material for free.)
• all enquiries or offers can be sent to ThePhoenixLunch@gmail.com

Our Wish List

• A Weekend Getaway
• Wines
• Jewellery
• Women's Clothing
• Mobile Phones
• Electrical goods
• Leathergoods
• Books and CDs
• Office goods and equipment
• Business coaching and Marketing Consulting
• Dining Vouchers
• Pamper packs (including massages, day spa passes, facials, manicures and pedicures)
• Personal Services (personal training, personal concierge services etc, household cleaning, )
• ANYTHING that might be appealing to women or women in business!

For Details

…of The Phoenix Lunch and to book check out the details here.

Of course, not all women get that amazing sexual drive in pregnancy, and for some the thought of sex is a bit ho-hum. But it's worth perseverance ladies, it's a critical time in BOTH your lives.

As your baby will impact on your relationship, filling up the emotional love tank while you're pregnant is a good idea.  There'll undoubtedly be a period where that will be difficult in the early stages of a new baby so it's super important to look after the relationship while you have some time.

Lovemaking is one way to do so.  Over at Momlogic, there is an excellent article full of advice from an obstetrician about some of the practical issues about sex and pregnancy.

When I get asked that question, you know the magic wand one, I always say "If I had a magic wand, I’d like to be serene!"

Friends say that if I was serene I wouldn’t be me, and I suppose that’s true and maybe even fair enough.  But the occasional bit of serenity wouldn’t go astray!

So to help in my endless quest, I make it m business to seek out methods for achieving a calmer me, and people who have serenity about them.

That’s probably one of the qualities I like most about my friend Karen Wallace over at The Clearing Space.  She has an infectious calm and serenity about her, even when things are whirling wild around her!

So it’s only right that Karen’s latest venture -an online monthly magazine – would be called The Calm Space.

It even looks serene!

Along with an array of contributing authors focusing on organising, spirituality, the digital world, reading, relationships and even breathing, the Calm Space is like walking into one of those wonderful indulgence havens.

Karen describes The Calm Space as

… like a virtual day-spa for your senses… decadent, informative,
relaxing, a real no-mobile-phones-allowed kind of escape where you can
chill for a minute or an hour and emerge refreshed and ready to face
anything your day throws at you!

It’s a rare woman who doesn’t succumb to chaos and madness at some
stage during her busy week. Whatever your particular life situation,
and no matter how your day is going, you will find respite within the
spaces here.

The Calm Space is an online, monthly magazine – written by a team of
amazing, real-life women who are living their passion with a purpose
and a focus.

What you see in this magazine is not ‘reporting’. It is information,
hints, tips and inspiration direct from those in-the-know. We write in
our own unique voices, and tell it like it is.

Now I’m letting MY Readers in on the secret of The Calm Space very early!  It was only launched last night with the odd glass of bubbles!

Subscription is FREE though I doubt it will remain that way!  There are also monthly prize draws,  This month’s is a gorgeous coffee-table book, by the equally gorgeous-looking landscaper extraordinaire Jamie Durie.  The book is called  INSPIRED – The Ideas that Shape & Create my Design

And for a very limited time, there is also a chance to receive for FREE, Karen’s e-book How to Find The Pause Button For Your Life.  Having read Pause Button, I can DEFINITELY recommend it to you!  And you MUST go get it now, because I know that it will be selling on the site VERY soon.  It’s one of the benefits of being an Apple Tart reader that you get to know about this very LIMITED OFFER!

I don’t see ANY disadvantages to popping over to The Calm Space, taking a deep intake of Calm and registering for competitions, e-books and to receive the monthly mag in YOUR Inbox.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

However I did want to let you in on the secret blunder I NEARLY made in setting up this separate and broad-ranging squint at the world according to Chris Owen.

Many of you would know that I describe myself as an outrageous extrovert!  Those of you who see me frequently know how true (and sometimes exhaustingly true) that is.  (Even I find me exhausting some times!)

So in trying, ever so independently, to get a good name for this special blog I did something that I should know better than to do. 

I brainstormed for a name all by myself. 

Now I have debates with friends on how creative (or not) I am.  But I have KNOWN for YEARS that I’m at my most creative when I’m bouncing ideas around with at least one other person!  Conversely, you could reasonably suspect that I’m at my LEAST creative when left to my own devices.  Yes!  I am grateful that I am surrounded by friends and advisors I can call on!

Take A Bite (the Pink Apple blog) was created and set up by
my good friend Leah MacLean. The name Take  A Bite was a name I plucked out of … (let’s be nice and just say -thin air).  It fitted with apples and I figured it would do to start with!

So then when I wanted another blog, I decided that as Leah is a
busy lady and I’m a bit prone to feistiness and independence, and an over-inflated opinion of my abilities, I 
 decided to do it myself. (She says proudly, only dimly
aware of how foolish that might have been.)

Or should I rephrase that as "plunged in where angels fear to
tread".

The first glitch hit when I decided that I wanted to call it
Aussie Extrovert and shortened the domain name to www.ausextrovert.com.au.

I’d finished creating the blog and was trialling it, when a colleague kindly
pointed out that the word SEX stood out, (like dog’s balls!) loud and proud in the middle there,
and I might get some dubious visitors!

After much weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, and MANY unrepeatable expletives, I got over it, and got on the phone.  Why?  To do what I should always do!  Brainstorm with others! 

This time Karen Wallace at The Clearing Space got the gig!  We sat late one Friday afternoon, each with our end-of-week, celebratory glass of vino in hand, and came up with Apple Tart!

Phew!

And you all like it! 

How lucky am I to have friends who’ll tell me when I’ve stuffed up, and others who’ll help me get out of an ugly bind?

So can I raise my glass to all of my friends, advisors and readers?  I wanna tell you how glad I am to be able to be the real me and have you tell me what you think!

I appreciate you all.  (Especially Karen for this one)

Endlessly I try to soothe and remind myself that my short term memory can only hold 6-8 pieces of information at one time and with the arrival of one more – something has to go!

But still you keep wondering – is THIS it?  Am I losing it?  Am I gonna turn out like Mum?

So when I received this hysterical little video I Knew I had to share it here on the Tart!

Download Remember.wmv

Here in Australia, a long time ago (in a land, far, far away – oops sorry went all fairytale there for a moment!) there was an ad for a non-alcoholic mixer drink called Claytons.

The drink was pretty bloody awful as I remember, but the advertising campaign saw to it that Claytons (the drink you have when you’re not having a drink) entered and REMAINED in the language.  At least for most of us BabyBoomers!

Well let’s get off non-alcoholic drinks and on to a networking event I went to last night. And no! I had NO wine!

Clever Chics Night

Clever Chics, has a BAG (Big Audacious Goal).  Clever Chics aspires to be the biggest women’s networking group in the world!  I like a group who thinks small.    That’s why I joined!

Currently they’re growing into the Melbourne Networking market and last night’s event was a Makeover Expo.

Catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones was mild in comparison with the highlight of my night – a makeup makeover!

The Big Reveal

But before we got to the lovely Jane Iredale makeup, Christine, from Cutters Club in Newport, applied an amazing Bags-Under-Your-Eyes-All-Gone kinda product. 

This stuff is called Eyesential and I was stunned.  I’d seen it being reported on one of the more tabloid-type current affairs programs and had been very dubious. 

Shut Up about the Vanity, Guys!

Now for you blokes who poo-poo the kind of shallow, female, vanity that would have people worrying about bags under their eyes, I’d like to tell you I saw a couple of blokes sit down to have this stuff applied to their bags, and smiling as they looked in the mirror.  So Raspberries to you!!!!!

The Sceptic Worm turns!

As a consumer, I’m often persuadable.  However one area where I’m pretty resistant and strongly sceptical is the cosmetics front.  As anyone who’s seen me in my track-pants (sweats) would have noted, I’m not all that bothered about what I look like.   My morning makeup routine is very limited, and usually I’m lucky to get some lipstick on.  So my cosmetics budget is pretty low! 

But , once I’d seen just how much the shelves under my eyelids disappeared, I was SOLD!  This time a little box of precious stuff came home with me!

Now for the drum roll,

Just before I left, the biggest makeover of all came my way, I won a door prize.  (Yes another prize, I have done well this year.)   

This was a voucher for BOTOX treatment.

(Ok, friends you can stop laughing NOW!!!)

The irony is amazing.  Me and Botox were not exactly a mix I’d EVER have considered!

Will I use it?  We’ll see …

Here’s where you’ll come for everything that ISN’T about relationships!  If you’re after relationship stuff, then go to Take A Bite. 

Why Apple Tart?
Well the Apple bit’s obvious I’d have thought.  But in case you don’t know, my business is called Pink Apple. 

The Tart bit?

Well anyone who knows me well would tell you I can have a bit of a sharp edge, and particularly a sharp tongue.  I CAN be a bit tart!!  But like all good tarts, I’m pleasingly tart and tangy!

Note I said TART not TARTY! 

However a few friends have even been known to call me a tart!  But in a caring and sharing way!  (I think!)

So on Apple Tart what you see is what you’ll get!  The real me!
I’ll talk about some of my personal musings, business stuff, amusing events, networking I’ve done, good connections I want to share, blog posts that I’ve found intriguing (for reasons nobody else might get!) 

Generally, a BIG swirling ECLECTIC mix!

Bit of sugar. bit of spice, bit of ranting, bit of musing.

MOSTLY funny!

So feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed in the middle of the right side of this page, or just above it in the box, put in your email address so you can receive new posts by email.