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I am never short o’ reasons why I love being a freelance/self-employed creatrix o’ awesome – freedom, afternoon naps, being creative on my terms – but this year I’m stepping up. Oh yeah.

Check me out. In the next few weeks I’ll be launching two brand-new ventures: www.SASSYology.com and www.MissSASS.com, after the success o’ my first 10 children’s books, my first grown-up girl book, SASSY Sorcery, will hit the shelves and sprinkle girl-kind with glitter and make-life-better-ness, and as if that’s not enough goodness for one girl to possibly stand, I’ll be unleashing a series of new School O’ Sassy Arts programmes, including: Write Your Book o’ Wonder, if writing and publishing a book is your absolute thing du jour for 2012 – you are going to freakin’ LOVE this!

In order to make sure I’m the most kick-ass, stepped-up, lycra-wearing cheerleader with awesome bangs that I can possibly be, I’m amping up my inner-business-girl. Don’t get it twisted, I take what I do very seriously, but ’til now, I’ve done it in a very whole-istic, let’s-do-it-and-see-how-it-turns-out kinda way, it’s served me well, but I don’t want to fly by the seat o’ my pants anymore, nope, if I’m flying anywhere, I want it to be 1st class with a glass of pink fizz, thankyouverymuch.

I’ve recently connected with a very beautiful lady, Corrina Gordon Barnes, who recently wrote about things you can do each and every day to improve your energy for your business. As I mentioned last week, every day before I sit down to write, I light a candle ask for a li’l guidance for the day a head and get to it. But over the last couple of days, I’ve been thinking of other ways that I could really…y’know, connect. Connect with myself, with my creative muse, with my spiritual home-girls, with my intention to work, with my body…

Now, I have a few connection processes that I really love like: listening to my 3 favourite go-for-it girl songs that I LOVE to play at super-high volume because they always change my state from ‘meh’ to ‘I’m freakin’ awesome’ – I Walk with the Goddess by Kelliana, Stand Up by Jessie J and Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked, journalling three pages of automatic writing each morning to clear my head space, going for a walk in the forest, swimming and doing my pilates for indie rockers DVD, but I was really struggling to find something I could do absolutely every single day, no matter what, that would raise my energy, change my state into ‘I mean business, damn it!’ and mostly make me feel good, because really, that’s what it’s all about. When I feel good, I do good.

Now today is a coaching day, a day that I am both coached and that I coach my own clients, none of which involves actual face-time so usually, I’ll pull on a very comfy pair o’ very unflattering leggings, a hoodie and scrape my hair back in pony-tail. Dita Von Teese I am not. Seriously? Have you seen that girl at the gym? Amazing.
Anyway, while you’d NEVER catch Dita in comfies, it got me to thinking about my absolute love and passion for make-up and how the act of applying lipstick alone, is like an actual sacred practice for me. Does it raise my energy? Absolutely. Does what colour I choose to wear effect my mood and how I act? Hell to the yeah. So today, before starting work, I have applied a delicious slick of Rockalily’s Rockette Red, blown myself a little kiss in the mirror and told myself I’m foxy. Superfluous? Yep.
Has it upped my awesomeness for the day? You betcha baby!

What, if any, rituals or ready-for-work practices do you do each and every day? Would love you to share!

pic found at: http://tatielle.tumblr.com/

The promise of a new year always fills us with a sense of excitement and anticipation for what’s to come, in the same way as when I open a brand new journal, I’m all kinds of excited ’bout what adventures, thoughts and feelings I’m going to fill it with, but the last few days, on top o’ all that new year anticipation and excited- ness, I’ve been feeling jittery – I have SO many big, beautiful things to accomplish this year, that my belly flips from super-excited to crazy – underlined three times – anxiety in nano-seconds. The good news is that I’m not the only one, The Barefoot Doctor, who I’ve mentioned a gazillion times and will continue to mention a LOT mainly because I heart him x 1000, sent out a newsletter with an explanation o’ this jittery feeling – we’re totes connected.

He said: “…if you have a sense you have to raise your game and you’re wondering whether you’re up to it, seems to me you’re not alone.

The key lies in loving the jitters, then confidently forming a vision of the actual desired outcome to whichever situation you’re
thinking about, and to invest your chi and presence in that vision, knowing that what you focus on grows…”

See? This dude is THE shit.

So that’s what I’m doing. It seems that double, triple, and even quadrupole dating, my big, beautiful effalump-sized dreams and goals for 2012 is proving to be rather anxiety-inducing – clearly I would be rubbish at having an affair – so I am calling them all up individually and I’m scheduling us all a li’l get-to-know-each-other ‘date time’ on the calendar. It seems ’til now, I’ve had trouble simply dating one idea at a time, I’m an idea ho, and that’s just silly because while Lisa-love is infinite and ever-reaching, spreading myself – pun totally intended – so vast and wide can sometimes makes me a li’l, well…sloppy with the idea love. Both myself and my date lose interest and the potential of a fire-starting relationship o’ awesome love stuff turns to a mouthed ‘I’ll call you’ as I shut the door behind them on their way out, and we all know how that one ends, right?

So this year, I’m giving all my projects and ideas their own designated ‘chi time’, a time where I light a few candles and over a delicious meal of magic, inspiration and chutzpah, I’ll simply ‘make out’ with that one particular idea/project. We’ll spend a little time whispering sweet nothings to each other, we’ll whirl like dervishes together and then we’ll, y’know, get to it. We’ll do it. We’ll make the magick happen. Yes, there’s no question I will date other ideas, there are far too many delicious ones in my head NOT to, but from here on in, I will no longer entertain the concept of a daily idea threesome/foursome/infinite-some. I am now a one-idea-at-a-time kinda girl, giving every single one the dedicated Lisa-love it deserves – let me tell you, the Lisa-love is goooood shit – giving it the opportunity to unfold it’s potential, share it’s possibility and woo me with it’s wonder.

So, here in the UK, most people have gone back to work today, I on the other hand, did my ‘reasons to heart being freelance’ dance, mostly because it meant I didn’t have to go out in the storm, and Jeez Louise, it’s ragin’, but also because there was no dread in my belly, because I am so super-lucky to get up each day and do the work I love…

Last year when I moved in with the beau, he gifted me a ‘room of my own’, which, according to Virginia Wolfe, every writer-girl should have, I put in a very pretty day bed where I would daydream big plots and crazy adventures, I hung beautiful bunting, filled the space with various kitsch spiritual iconography, the beau gave me a gorgeous writing desk from his fam, and I set my laptop on it – it was quite possibly the dream room.

Except I never used it. I’d look at it, I’d peek round the door and gaze lovingly at how pretty it was, but instead of using it, I’d sit downstairs on the sofa with the laptop on my lap, because…well, I just did. Then I started dancing and my writer-girl room became a dumping room for costume material, it was as if I’d dreamed so long of having a writer-girl room of my own, that when I actually got it, I didn’t know what to do with it.

Some of the things that went through my mind were:
What if I couldn’t write words in there?
I didn’t need all that space, I’ll just write downstairs, it’s fine.
I can’t just move into the beau’s house and take over a whole room, how rude is that?

Except it was more rude of me NOT to use it. By helping me create a writer-girl room, it was the beau’s way of showing that he believed in me and what I was doing. He believed in me as an actual writer and wanted to nurture that, he understood that as a creatrix, I needed my own space, he honoured me as a business-girl and wanted to give me what I needed in order to create and grow, yet it’s taken me 9 months to actual realise, acknowledge and accept it, I’ll admit, that’s a poor show on my part, innit?!

It finally clicked when we were talking with friends just before Yule about creative spaces and how important they are. I was about to wax lyrical about how I’d love one as gorgeous as hers – it’s totally dreamy, with sunlight pouring through a big bay window – when I realised I already had one, custom-made for this very writer girl. So, over the yule period, between the frivolities and eating and love-stuff, I have spent some time in here, learning to love it. I’ve created a beautiful sacred space for me to work in, so no more typing/emailing/TV watching – each morning I now enter my writer-girl room, light a candle to mark the beginning o’ the day, pull a tarot card, whisper sweet nothings to my spiritual home-girls to ask for their support and guidance for the day ahead, open my laptop, look around me at the pictures, inspiring quotes and breathe a big, happy sigh, I’m a writer-girl, I have a room of my own and I love it.

Happy New Year, SASSY ones! Here’s hoping this year is your most amazing, kick-ass year yet, I plan on making mine exactly that!

As part o’ my 100 things to do in 2012, I’ve decided to take a photo-a-day for each and every day o’ 2012 – a pictorial journal o’ SASSYville if you will, I posted about it today on my FB page and lots o’ my gorgeous gal-pals were like ‘this is an awesome idea, we want in!’ so, because I like to think of myself as the gift that keeps giving, I’ve set up a Facebook page: The SASSY photo-a-day challenge o’ awesomeness - catch title, right?! So we can all share our moments and get a sneaky peek into each others lives during this year of complete and total amazing-ness!

Okay everyone, here’s a quick ‘how-to’ participate in the SASSY photo-a-day challenge o’ awesomeness…

1. Create a new album on your account and name it “The SASSY photo-a-day challenge o’ awesomeness” – catchy title, right?

2. Take a picture and upload it to this album.

3. Label it with the day and date and write a caption.

4. Publish your album and make sure to tag us/upload onto this page

Come join in the fun at The SASSY photo-a-day challenge o’ awesomeness - let the pictorial documentation o’ 2012 commence!

I LOVE Paris. A LOT.
The last time I went was with Miss Aimz in ‘08 – we were both single, it was new year, we kissed boys, we conceptualised Sassy Minx, we saw dancing girls, visited every lingerie shop Paris had to offer and Paris sprinkled us with it’s delicious magic…3 years on, Miss Aimz is in love with and is now living with her shaggy-haired manboi with their beautiful baby boy. LOVE.

I have written a book for grown-up girls about finding that Parisian magic every single day – out in 2012 – wohhhooo! – have met and moved in with my hot Viking beau who I love and adore, and who is now taking me back to Paris in February – ohhhh la la!

I am doing star-jumps o’ joy to actually be visiting the magickal city o’ all things bohemian, writer-y and delicious with the man I love, I’m watching the last two episodes o’ SATC, Midnight in Paris, Paris, J’taime and Amelie, reading Anais Nin and planning a walking tour round Montmatre ending in an evening at Lapin Agile, opened in 1860, where artists and writers such as Picasso, Utrillo, and Modigliani used to hang – SO excited!

So while I may not be able to fly above the rooftops of Paris ala this whimsically bee-you-tiful Sophia Coppola short film for Dior, I am, however, able to put in a call to the most awesome Paris tour-guide you’ll ever wish to meet – Miss Marine Chotard, creatrix o’ www.misssugarcane.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

Happy festivities, Sassy ones!

I think I have celebrated every single mid-winter festival this year and it has been truly awesome – feasting, rituals, family and friends – truly the most perfect-o way to spend the darkest time o’ the year and celebrate the return o’ the light – hurrah! Christmas Day, the 25th, as well as being a day where I ate an obscene amount o’ mince pies was also the start of a new moon phase, and each new moon, I pull a tarot card to guide me through the cycle, this moon cycle? The Six o’ Disks.

I have a gazillion new ideas that will be put into action in 2012, and this is the perfect-o card to support my success. I work with the Thoth tarot and as you can see from the picture, each disk has a planet on it, now if you’ve got BIG plans o’ action for 2012, you can use these planets and the lessons that they teach us as a six step formula to success in any area o’ your life…

1. SATURN: Saturn shows us that success can be achieved through discipline and step-by-step procedures – just like this one!

2. JUPITER: encourages us to be open and flexible to options and opportunities – don’t set anything in stone, keep your options open and always be aware of opportunities that have your name on them!

3. VENUS: Venus reminds us that success is sustainable as a result of following what has heart and actual meaning in your life – what makes your heart sing? Whatever it is, be sure to follow it’s beautiful tune…

4. MOON: reflects back to us that success is attainable if we remain authentic and speak our truth – this is a biggie!

5. MERCURY: the planet o’ communication reminds us that success is truly obtainable if we align the context and timing of ALL our communication – for starters, think about what you say, when you say it and how you say it – it’ll make a HUGE difference!

6. MARS: reminds us that if we put a constant and consistent flow o’ positive energy into personal and professional issues rather than sporadic over-the-top dramatical energy into random situ’s – success, sweet thing, will be yours!

I’ve often been told, ‘girl, you’re so lucky!’ Now, if by lucky you mean, the juicy good stuff just happens to appear in my lap, then no, I’m not. If however, you actually mean I dream big dreams, get focused, do the work and make them happen, then yep, I’m VERY lucky.

What looks like luck from the outside is often a deliberate combo of hard work and self-belief. No matter what field you want to excel in, Author-girl Denise Duffield-Thomas can show you how to enhance your luck in life, love and business. Which is why I freaking LOVE this book. Lucky Bitch is a cooler, hipper and much more relevant version of ‘The Secret’ for SASSY girls. Fact. It’s a totally unconventional guide for anyone who wants to embrace big, totally outrageous success and create a life you love – hurrah for that, right?!

If you’re interested in the Law o’ Attraction but not entirely sure how you can make it roll in your life, this book provides really practical steps you can take to energetically align to your goal, real life stories from ordinary Lucky Bitches just like yourself and non-wanky advice about how to feel positive every day…

I can not recommend this book enough. Denise totally walks her talk. She and her husband Mark, won this amazing competition a few years ago where they travelled the world for 6 months testing luxury honeymoons, the story as to how she made that happen, beating over 30,000 people to win, is crazy-inspiring and it’s worth buying the book for that story alone.

Go buy it now, read it over the festive season and be totally prepped to start 2012 with everything you need to create and attract awesomeness.

www.luckybitchbook.com

FREE! Denise is offering a free copy of The Lucky Bitch Secrets of Outrageous Success over at her website: www.deniseduffieldthomas.com she’s like the gift that keeps giving!

I was feeling decidedly Grinch-like about all things festive, that was ’til I spent Tuesday evening in the company of the beau and 3 deliciously lovely ladies who call themselves The Puppini Sisters! Our liaison o’ loveliness was at The Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth, and yes, there were a few hundred other people there too, but I’ve chosen to wipe them from my vision of our retro Christmas soiree.

For those who don’t know, The Puppini Sisters are Marcella, Kate and Stephanie who are a whole lot o’ 1940s close-harmony awesomeness, they play a delectable array of instruments, including accordion, violin, glockenspiel and a kazoo and most importantly, they look real pretty in glittery dresses.

These girls do Christmas fabulously. Fact.

Their vocals are impressively tight as they bob and weave along to the fast-paced jazz backing. The crowd seemed somewhat lack-luster when Marcella asked who was feeling romantic, but they won her back round with their sing-a-long vocals during Let It Snow. My particular favourites of the evening included a not-very-Christmassy-at-all rendition of Beyonce’s Crazy in Love, heavily laden with some delightful jazz scatting, a much-better-than-the-original Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas and the Hawaiian Christmas song Mele Kalikimaka which made me want to don a Santa-red bikini and drink a pina colada.

If you didn’t manage to get a long to their Christmas gig, shame, but I wholeheartedly recommend you get your hands on a copy o’ Christmas With The Puppini Sisters as it’ll be just the thing to rouse you from your post-meal food coma.

Then, on boxing day I suggest that like me, you buy their new album Hollywood and flounce around like a silver-screen starlet in fluffy marabou heels. Like me.

Meet Gypsy Starfire, my burly-girl alter-ego. She’s sassy, obv., and conjures up magick with just the twinkle of an eye.

I have a li’l bit of a girl crush on her, mainly because she took to the stage at the weekend in a sparkly bra and corset combo, and shook her frilly knicker-ed behind with her gorgeous Art in Motion gal-pals. Something I, as Lisa Clark would NEVER, EVER have dreamed o’ doing. When I signed up to Midnight Iris‘ burlesque classes, it was to learn to dance, to find new ways to move and accept my body and to have fun, all of which we do in big, beautiful abundance, but the idea of actually performing in front of people? That was NOT on my list of things to-do. Well, it turns out this list-loving lady is ditching the to-do lists, because going off list is so much freakin’ fun!

Ms Starfire is the super-hero version of me. She is totally confident and self-assured, rocks false eyelashes and fishnets and can move seductively in substantial sized heels. I am LOVING having a character, an alter-ego, that allows me to explore an even more sassier side to myself than I thought was possible. She is now my total go-to girl when I need to rock a presentation or feel belly nerves before delivering a workshop to over 100 girls – don’t fret, I won’t be shaking my tail feathers, don’t think some of the dudes in suits that I present to on occasions would ‘quite know what to do with themselves – but I will, in any situ of nerves, fear and scary-ness, now ask myself, What Would Starfire do?

Why?

Because I KNOW the answer, whatever the question, will be: kick some ass, g-friend!

Why don’t you do the same? You don’t have to go s’far as to actually perform on stage, although I absolutely, positively recommend it – it’s the biggest buzz I’ve EVER had! – but if you don’t feel filled-to-the-brim with star-girl confidence, think about the girl you would be if you did have that confidence – what is she like? How does she act? What would she wear? I’m guessing she’s pretty freakin’ fabulous, right?

So today, imagine that you’re her.

Give her a name.

Start being as happy/vampy/confident as she is, start walking tall, smile, think in the same way as she’d think, develop a twinkle in your eye.

What you put out there g-friends, will bounce right back at’cha. If you walk around with a gloomy face, moaning about how unfair life is – people will feel drained when they’re around you and will avoid you at all costs.

Instead, beam out fabulousness, beam out smiles, beam out compliments and pink glitter-filled thoughts – it’ll come back to you x 100. Promise!

My girl-crushes are wide and out-stretching, but right now, I am crushing super-hard on my gorgeous, gorgeous Goddess-gal pal, Miss Leonie…The reasons for this love fest? Well, where’s a girl to freakin’ start with this lady o’ loveliness, that would be a blog post all of it’s own, but mostly, Leonie cups my heart in her beautiful hands, holds it firm and tells me everything is going to be okay, simply by being real and true and speaking from the heart…J’adore this woman.

My main reason for expressing the Leonie love today though is because she’s the creatrix o’ my most favourite end o’ year/start o’ new year tool – the ‘Creating My Goddess Year workbook and planner’ which I spent last night charging with full moon magick…

Each year, I print it out, choose a journal (any excuse to buy stationery, although this year I’m using a beautiful journal gifted to me by my BFF, Miss Cheryl) and then stick in the pages – voila, insta-goddess yearbook!

I’m not the only person who digs my Goddess Yearbook, Grendel the cat is obsesso with my new book, sitting on it, pawing at it, clearly he’s feeling the goddess love, why wouldn’t he? He’s got me as a mumma!

I LOVE this creation o’ awesome, mainly because it gives me an opportunity to really think about, and wholeheartedly celebrate all the goodness of 2011. And ohmystars, there’s been so many – moving in with, and swapping commitment rings with my hot viking beau, my BFF having a beautiful baby boy, seaside roadtripping, celebrating all the major sabbats in Glastonbury with my gorgeous fam, taking big steps to start my generation GRR revolution – then, and this is the best bit, letting go and releasing the bullshit stuff. I ADORE this bit. I write mine out and then I release it by burning them, that’s because that’s how I roll, but just writing them out is more than cool too. Then you can move onto the juicy ju-ju – planning 2012! The workbook is filled with over 100 pages of everything a girl needs to help her dream, manifest, set intentions, plan and cultivate an amazing year!

I’m currently working on the wrapping up o’ 2011 so that over Hanukkah and yule, while enjoying yummo food, giving thanks, and spending time with friends and fam, I’ll be able to get clarity on what I want to 2012 to look like – what I know for sure is that there will be a lot o’ pink, natch., my dreams will be big and beautiful, and will involve lots o’ smooch time with my hot viking, it would be rude not to, he’s delicious – but apart from that, I have a LOT o’ visualising to do, and will be doing it in the pages o’ my book o’ wonder in a beautiful warm cave of love and laughter in Glastonbury…happy sigh.

Get your copy o’ this rainbow-painted workbook and planner combo for the bargainous price o’ $9.95 from www.goddessguidebook.com you owe it to yourself to make sure 2012 is your year o’ awesome and this is your absolute must have tool to make it happen!

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