Australian Friends

I love @ClareLancaster simple but elegant newsletter layout. http://bit.ly/fIrsH1
I was able to connect via twitter with a girl named Clare Lancaster.  I really enjoy her newsletter's I get via email as they have news about business that is local to Australia and then business that is directed to the World at large.

I like how she starts off talking about what's news On the Internet and takes meaningful quotes from websites that have links to people's stories.  Then on to reviewing what's news On Twitter and she lists four different interesting comments.  She finishes up with talking about what is news On the Blog.

Here is her Behind the Scenes for the month of December...
http://www.womeninbusiness.com.au
The blog turns 1 on the 12th of December and oh yes, I will be toasting to it.

Before I leave your inbox  for the year I want to say thanks to you, one of 1,781 people who receive this email each Friday.

Collectively, you're all clever, creative and brave enough to take the path less travelled. Individually, you inspire me each and every day.

Thanks for reading, have a safe holiday time with lots of love and laughter.

Cheers,
Clare.

P.S. I'm taking an extended break to work on some things behind the scenes and get ready for a prosperous new year. I'd love for you to check in on the blog as I'll be sharing what I'm up to sporadically.









I find the Mailchimp newsletter program she uses a delight and easy read.  I look forward to the new year and the future newsletters from my friend Clare.  I call her my friend as I have emailed her and received her permission to post this blog about her business.  I hope she enjoys it!

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year !  And Happy 1st Year to you Clare!


Cheers,
Nicole Flothe
An Adventure awaits, one small step is all it takes to begin the journey!

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/What-You-Need-to-Know-About-Oprahs-Australian-Adventure

The link above helps explain why Oprah is in Australia.  Today she is doing an interview at the Sidney House.  For those that live in the US, it's pretty interesting how we are connecting with our Talk show host in the land down under.  Some people love Oprah and others not so much.  I love what she can do when talking with someone and how the conversation seems effortless and engaging.  She has a true gift and talent. 

http://bit.ly/OprahgooglesearchAustralia If anyone is looking for a Google search of Oprah in Australia here is a link. Interesting!

I will be watching the tivo of the show as I love getting closer to my Australia visit.  I was almost planning my first trip to Australia on January 7th but Christmas is here and Family is my first priority. My family will be coming with me so it looks like the future is bright!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays for this Year of 2010~

I have recently had a makeover and believe that it has improved the way I feel about myself.  When I put time into how I look and get a nice haircut my attitude improves.  I have been attending Sam Camp and have a Buddy that lives in Australia.  We skype each other weekly or more and have committed to each other to exercise daily to work on our body makeover.  Today I did some reviews of websites, one was Become.com and the other was my friends Oasis Skin Beauty site. 

My friend Amanda's company can be found online at www.oasisskinbeauty.com and I just love what she does for others when they are looking for a makeover!  I love her and would highly recommend you stopping by her office when you visit Queensland.

I did some research online and found another website called www.become.com they offer great items to help with makeovers too.  They have a few shampoos that I researched,  Grey hair shampoo , Keratin Shampoo and Tea Tree Shampoo  These shampoos are a combination of what I could use as I am starting to have a few grey hairs, I use Keratin to help soften my curls and my husband loves the smell of Tea Tree Shampoo.  The other thing I'm looking for is a nice hair blow dryer that will dry my hair and provide a temperature to not dry it out to much.  I like the website Become as I can price shop right on the site and review the offers.

Here is a great Blog link I wanted to share on my Blog, enjoy!
The Byron Life: In Pictures :: Donna's Art House: "Hello. Today you are invited on a tour of the colourful home-studio of one of my favourite North Coast artists; Donna Sharam. Last week..."

The above blog link is worth taking some time and enjoying the vibrant colors and beautiful fun art of Donna Sharam. I met her on facebook and really love her style and just recently chatted with her about what she's up to lately. I was interested if she did art work for children's books. Here is her message to me I received that gives an insight into how busy she is and a bit about her life.

Hi Nicole,
Hope you guys are all doing well.
You asked me if I do any paintings etc for story books - so thought I'd answer through our personal message.
I have actually just written a picture book - about 30 pages ..... and I will be doing the illustrations / paintings for each page - it is just about having enough time!!!!
At present I am also working on 2 large paintings commissioned by people who want a specific painting - one is the Sydney Harbour and the opera House ....the other one is the waterfall view from the clients holiday house ...... I am also working towards - 18 new large paintings for an exhibition in Feb next year - ....I think it will be called 'Lying under Trees' ..... hence the new work you will start to see pop up on my visual art page ......
How is your Visiting Australia Blog going ????
Feel free to use my Sydney Harbour Bridge Painting to post on your blog if you want.....it is called 'Flame Trees'.
Cheers,
donna 


You can visit her site below
www.donnasharam.com


So fun to make new friends that can share in the beauty of art.
xx (as they do in Australia) or xoxo (as we do in the USA:)
Nicole

Here is a Guest Post from my Aussie Friend Grant Woodward, Enjoy.

I was speaking with an awesome friend from Naples, Florida ( Nicole Flothe in fact)  on skype the other day and a few words or phrases popped up (arose in conversation) that we had a laugh at because of the difference in phrases between ozzies and usa’ies. Thought I would share a few .

Aussie                          USA

Ice block                       popcycle
Knackered                     tired
Jetty                             dock
Bottlo                            drugstore
Bushwalking                  trek in the woods
Ankle biter                     young kids
Amber fluid                    beer
Schooey                       schooner glass 425ml
Arvo                              afternoon
‘avago                           to have a go at doing something
Out the back o burke      a long way from wherever you are
A barney                       an argument
Call it a day                   finish up work
Dogs eye                      meat pie
Dead horse                    tomato sauce
 Zebra Crossing            Pedestrian Crosswalk
For heaps more aussie jargon try http://www.aussieslang.com/slang/australian-slang-a.asp


Grant Woodward
Abundant Constructions
Mob: 0411 228 475
Fax: (02) 8544 8155

grant@abundantconstructions.com.au

www.abundantconstructions.com.au
 

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

So I know New Zealand is not Australia but I hear from many of my Aussie Friends that it happens to be so close that they spend a lot of holidays there.  I made this quick video on Animoto from my friend Grant's photo's he sent me on his trip to New Zealand with his wife Nicole and friends. 

My boys just finished watching the Lord of The Rings series and would love to visit Hobbiton.  They have that on their plans as a trip of a lifetime.

My daughter and I have been watching books on youtube each evening that people read to us and yesterday we found this video on how to draw a Waussie character.  I've included the video and the story below.  They have a drawing contest so if you have an interest submit your character to them.  It looks like a lot of fun and the book has a great message to help our friends!



The author, Jacqui Taub, shows kids how to draw the Waussies characters from the Waussies children's book series. Watch Jacqui draw the characters and tell their story. Kids can participate by sending in their drawings for the Good Deeds Gallery. More information is available on the website: http://www.waussieproductions.com/goo...

The Waussie characters are from Australia. Through their humour and nonsensical situations, the Waussies help teach children to be kind, thoughtful and loyal. The books are for kids, ages 3-7. Little ones will love the fun colorful characters. The books are suitable for first time readers who will find the text easy to read along with the fun illustrations.

All six books in the series are are available at Amazon for pre-order. http://tinyurl.com/yfay24x

For more information on the Waussie children's books, the author, or the Good Deeds Gallery please visit http://www.waussieproductions.com

During my course I took with Klemmer I shared that I met some amazing Aussie friends and one was my partner for the Day Nicole Woodward.  We had to go around the city of San Diego together on a mission and so our hearts are joined as sisters for ever more.  On the final day of our seminar I was talking with her husband Grant and he was looking to get his company Abundant Constructions off the ground and running when he returned to Australia.  I asked him if he had a website and he said not as of yet but he was looking to get one done.  Since I have a love for websites and all the gadgets blogs have to offer I told him as they are family to me now that I would do one for him free of charge.  His company is my first Australian website that I have been working on for the last few weeks.  You can see the site at www.abundantconstructions.com.au

We also connected him with social media and now he is on twitter and has a facebook business page.  I wanted to post a few of his videos here as one of them is him chopping wood, the old fashion way to get a great exercise.  The others are of his brother's farm that raises blue tongue water dragons and green tree frogs. 

I found this video on youtube that shares how Olivia Newton John and Keith Urban got together to create a song about Australia. I thought it captured the fun journey they took and fit perfectly with my last Guest post from Melissa Williams.
Enjoy!

I am Australian born and lived most of my life in 11 different towns and cities mostly in the North East state, Queensland. I agree with Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ when she said "There is no place like home." Of course, she was referring to the fact that she would never leave home again. I, on the other hand, have left Australian shores to explore other parts of the world more times than I can remember and now reside in the USA. The part I agree on about her famous line is that there is something ever so neat about 'home'. At least it is for me... especially when 'home' refers to Australia.

Australia is very unique. As a continent, and not an island...by the way!, Australia is pretty uninhabitable. Most people live primarily on the coastline as the interior is, for the most part, made up of deserts with no water source to support survival.

An interesting fact about our country is our people... or lack there of. The population of California is close to 37 million yet all of Australia's has not even reached the 22 million mark! With so few people in such a large land mass it is makes sense that we have a lifestyle that is unique to our own. We love the outdoors, much like the Canadians I guess, and enjoy a slower pace than the USA, for the most part.

What I love most about Australia is our attitude toward life. We really are very laid back and easy going. "Don't worry about it mate." "She'll be right." "No worries." These are all pretty common terms you would hear from an Aussie. I also love how you can be on the beaches of the Gold Coast (i am a Queenslander!) with beautiful golden sand and blue, blue water with palm trees and then jump in your car and drive about 2 hours to Toowoomba where even on the way you will see gum trees and kangaroos. Actually, there are a mix of gum trees and palm trees and kangaroos right on there on the Gold Coast come to think of it!

I am equally fascinated by the fact that we really don't have many different accents like all other countries! There is the distinct "ocker" accent and then there is pretty much just the Australian accent. I would say our accents are more depicted from ones class as apposed to where one lives in Australia. We don't have a distinct 'southern' accent. Or an accent from the 'east'. Or a 'Brisbane' accent like you would find in the UK if you were say from Liverpool, where you would have a 'Liverpool' accent the rest of your life.

As for our food, we do not "throw a shrimp on the barbie"! Given our outdoor lifestyle we actually do barbecue a lot. We just don't call them shrimp.. they are prawns. And we really don't barbecue prawns that often. We do however, throw a couple 'snags' on the barbie. :) Our food is still relatively fresh and a lot less processed than say the united states. We don't have cheese in a can and it's not orange.

I have lived in the USA for less than 2 years and hope to have a house downunder as well as up here on the other side of the pond. However, I will always call Australia my home, even though I won't always live there. I am an aussie girl and always will be.

I love you Australia!

Melissa Williams












I love a sunburnt country - by Dorothy McKellar in 1908:

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded Lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens,
Is running in your veins;
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.


I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

The tragic ring-barked forests
Stark white beneath the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
An orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the crimson soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart around us
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold;
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown Country
My homing thoughts will fly.

http://www.randomactsofbrightness.com  I came across this website from my friend Melissa Williams and have enjoyed the beautiful mission they want to share with the world.  It is amazing when you do random acts of kindness how it can change a person's day.


After I read the website I wanted to put the idea into practice.  I do random acts of kindness but I haven't just randomly gone up and bought someone's lunch.  So the other day I went to a new restaurant TOAST here in Naples, Florida and had lunch with my friend and daughter.  I treated her to lunch and then two nice police officers walked by our table and said some kind words to my daughter.  I got up my courage and went over to their table and asked if I could buy them lunch.  They agreed, and then one of the police officers began talking to my daughter about turtles.  He said he had the largest turtles at his home.  I started thinking about my best friend June Edwards and her story she told me about a year ago of her family going to a friends house and seeing huge turtles.  She had even sent me some pictures and a video.

I asked him if he new a lady named June Edwards and he said yes they go to the same church and that Tamara Edwards her daughter had helped them in a rally and they were good friends.  It is amazing how we are all so connected.

So I hope this inspires you to go out and do your random act of brightness today.  This company is also based out of Australia so it fits perfectly with my blog.  Click on the link above to visit their site.  Have a Bright Day.

I found this website viddler.com and did a search for videos that related to the iPad. I enjoyed this one so I thought I'd post it using their share feature. Will continue research as we Love our iPad.  I can also use it to read my books and save my sites so when I do go to Australia I'll have a portable guide all ready.

I received an email from my friend Alan about a city he is going to be visiting soon to see some of his family.  The name was cool, Toowoomba so I thought I'd look it up.  It sounds very Aboriginal.   I found a nice website that has great pictures of the city and some interesting information.  www.toowoomba.org  



I also did a search on google as this is my first place to find great pictures and the results showed Toowoomba as the Garden City.


I checked out the Parks and Gardens and there are more than 200.  The name Toowoomba is thought to have originated from the Aboriginal meaning "The Swamp" and the place was settled back in 1827.  It sounds like September is a beautiful time of year and they have an annual street parade with a Carnival of Flowers.  Would be a fun place to take photos of all the different types of flowers and see the pretty landscape.  As per my son, we always have thought of Australia as being dry and sandy and we are finding out that it is lush and green.  I guess that is what research and exploring is all about - Discovery!

I think Facebook is an amazing place to keep connected with others and what is happening in life.  Since the time difference can separate people from wake up and sleep hours it provides the ability to check in.  The other day I was browsing my friends facebook page and I found a link out to Jim Rohn's page.  I love Jim Rohn and didn't know he had a fan page.  I quickly liked the page and then began reading some of the comments people were making on the page.  One was from this interesting profile picture of fun art and so I clicked through to her site and started reading about her artwork.  I became a fan and found out that she is from Australia.  When I became a fan she sent me a nice message and so I thought I'd share a bit about her here since I'm collecting resources for my future.

I also found this nice quote -  Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process. - Jim Rohn

I thought I'd write a short review of my friends website called Your Dreaming Place.  This website is a place that helps people find their purpose and a unique set of strengths. They have workshops and seminars that are uniquely designed to assist people to find their purpose and the vision to play out that purpose. "Without vision people perish."

I was fortunate to meet Melissa Williams at Klemmer Heart Team 30.  Melissa had volunteered to staff the leadership conference in San Diego and during one of those busy moments I helped her when she was swamped with sharing Michael Jr's great tools.  She is a beautiful woman and shined in her ability to direct when things got busy.

During my conference I was blessed to connect with many new friends from around the country and from Australia.  It so happened that Melissa was originally from there.  After I returned home to Florida I went on to Facebook and began connecting and found her.  She is the founder and CEO of www.YourDreamingPlace.com

I visited her website and love her passion she has for dreaming.  Her dream is to provide the space for others to dream and live the life they were purposed to live. She does that with her company. Check out the next YourDreamingPlace.com dreaming session.


I also enjoyed this quote from her website, "As we choose and move with new stories we will then have more and more evidence of success and therefore more and more confidence in ourselves. Leaving the old stories to be replaced with new ones." - Melissa Williams.

I'm starting my dream here today to someday travel the world with my family and eventually make a long stop over in the land down under.

It's Mother's Day today and we celebrated with flowers and cake.  Happy Mother's Day. It has been a great weekend and I have received some nice emails from my friends and family.  One friend asked if we celebrated Mother's Day on the same time as Australia.  I have to say I wasn't sure so I looked it up and yes we do although Mother's Day happens sooner in Australia because of the time difference.  I found this holiday list from wikipedia that has the Public Holidays, could be useful when making plans for a trip someday.  Here is the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Australia

 

There are so many actors from Australia if you do some research that have become internationally successful.  I found this list in wikipedia that has done a great job of capturing all the names in one location. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Australian_film_actors

I think for me the most prominent actors that come to mind are Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman.  For those that want to go to Australia spend some time watching the amazing actors movies.  We are going to the movies tonight to see Iron Man 2, I know it's not an Australian movie but should be a lot of fun.

I found this video on www.youtube.com that has an Australian teaching others
about the words that are unique to their accent. Some of it is
helpful to those that don't know all the slang words. Like the word
ankle bitters means toddlers. I'm sure there are many more words but
it was a good summary of the basics.

• The Super Pit (huge, open-cut goldmine at Kalgoorlie)
• The Sydney Opera House
• The National Gallery of Australia
• Australian Alps,
• Great Barrier Reef
• Uluru/Ayers Rock
• Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach (western Queensland)
• Fraser Island
• Daintree Rainforest
• Kakadu National Park

I found some Fun Facts via a google search http://bit.ly/cKflpY

 *The name Australia comes from the Latin Terra Australis Incognito which means the Unknown Southern Land.

*You can find some great information about the Largest Gum trees at Famous South Australian Trees

*Kangaroo - The name for the Australian marsupial Kangaroo came about when some of the first white settlers saw this strange animal hopping along and they asked the Aborigines what it was called. They replied with 'Kanguru', which in the native language meant 'I don't know' .

*Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.

*Kangaroos need very little water to survive and are capable of going for months without drinking at all. When they do need water, they dig 'wells' for themselves; frequently going as deep as three or four feet. These 'kangaroo pits' are a common source of water for other animals living in the kangaroo's environment.

*Long fence - The 'dingo fence' in Australia is the longest fence in the world, and is about twice as long as the Great Wall of China.

*Great images of Australia can be found like the one above from www.davidwallphoto.com


*Purple wallaby - The Purple-neck Rock Wallaby [Petrogale Purpureicollis], inhabits the Mt Isa region in Northwest Queensland. The Wallaby secretes a dye that transforms its face and neck into colours ranging from light pink to bright purple.

*The Australian Lyre Bird is the world's best imitator; able to mimic the calls of 15 different species of birds in their locality and string the calls into a melody. Also been known to mimic the sound mobile phones.

*Australia was the 3rd country, after the US and Russia, to launch a satellite into orbit. It was for the British, using a 'Blue Streak' rocket

*Dropbears - Dropbears are an evil species of koala that fall from trees and attack humans. The evil strain of koala don't actually exist. The story was created to fool Americans.

This website is a place for research and information about Australia.  I never had any Australian friends until this last trip out to San Diego.  My life was blessed with many new friends and some amazing people from Australia.  I hope to be able to share what they do in their lives on here and how we can connect to each other all across the world.  So far I went to google to gather some information and the websites are endless.  A fun one we are visiting now is for kids to color the australian map, you can view it at here.  Here is Jake's version of the Map...












I'll keep updating this site but for now we are going to color the map.


Cheers!

Nicole