Lucky

I would never have thought I was a lucky sort of person. I think back when I was fourteen I did win a plant in a raffle. And maybe $50 once on a scratchy. With hindsight, I have now revised my thoughts on being "lucky". What if lucky is not actually winning things or exceptional good fortune, but the absence of significant or catastrophic adversity. Having spent thirty plus years of my life without catastrophic adversity, I never appreciated at the time exactly how lucky I was.

Now that I have been on the receiving end of a high tide swell of adversity that was so bleak and so persistent that I felt close to drowning, I have a whole new perspective on luck. When the tide finally went out, boy did I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. And now every day without significant adversity is a lucky, lucky day.

And do you know by some freakish coincidence that supreme luck and catastrophic adversity sometimes go hand in hand? I know this because I have personally met not one, not two, but three people who have won Lotto. (I have a job where people confess all kinds of secrets) And one of those families, won Lotto in the same year that the husband/father of young children underwent a bone marrow transplant for leukaemia. I would guess that the odds of these two events occurring in one family would be around one in ten million, I wonder how they felt about "lucky".

So, now that I spend every day feeling lucky, how do I explain these prizes that keep arriving in my letter box? Lovely  Ellen Giggenbach had a giveaway of a choice of any print in her collection a while back and this is the one I chose. She makes all her  prints by hand from cut paper art  and the colours and patterns are retro-licious.

I am hoping to order this one for Miss Liongirl when Ellen re opens her shop.

With this flurry of new year sorting and organising I finally grabbed a handful of nails and threw up all my favourite prints and thrifted paintings and embroideries. This wall is going to be demolished in a short while so I did not even need to be precious about all those holes.

And there is nothing better than winning the prize of a book you really,really want to read. Elaina from A Little Bit Country NZ picked my name out of a hat for her prize of A Home Companion by Wendyl Nissen. I am about half way through but can say I feel very positively towards any author who advocates that all mothers need to escape for a few days in their own vintage caravan several times a year and if this is not possible, to at least harness a "caravan attitude" and carve some space for just themselves.

Thanks so much Elaina, this is a most wonderful and timely gift. The other books, well they were my heavily hinted for Christmas presents, this is a time of year for reading and new inspiration. The little book bottom left is indeed by the lovely Ellen who sent me the bird print, David Jones also stock some of her notecards and journals and I was lucky enough to stumble across one.

At the very start of the year I was lucky enough to win a beautiful calendar from Jodi at Che and Fidel.
Pop over to Ella Leach Designs if you need a family style calendar for this year, I thoroughly made use of mine in 2012 and they are beautiful.

And even the boys were not neglected in the giveaways this year. We were the lucky winners of a Lego City Alarm game from Em at The Beetleshack and every time Roboboy gets me on his own, we have been playing it.

Now all I have to do is find four things to send to the op shop so Betsy and I can remain in a neutral stuff balance for the year.