erm… I’m not living in the Outback though

Hello my friends!

So I just want to give you an update on my life so you know what’s going on with me. I’m very excited, but I’m also very overwhelmed at the moment!

First of all, we had an awful, rainy, June and July up here on the west coast of Canada. The weather has finally turned for the better, but it feels like summer has only just started, when in fact, it’s almost over! I can practically feel the chill in the air this morning!

As you may know, I’ve been working full time this summer at a kayak rental company. This is my fifth summer there, and believe me… it’s a great job. I love getting to be outside in nature, and there are usually excellent people who work there with me. It’s fun. This summer, I got my boyfriend, Luke (who is an Australian), a job there as well and we’ve been living in our cute little cabin in the woods for the last four months.

Living in The Stone Ages – No Internet at Home!

The problem has been that… well… yes, I know this is 2011, but we couldn’t get the internet at our cabin. All of the internet gets beamed by line of site to the tiny fishing village I live in, and it wouldn’t penetrate the trees to my house. So I’ve been blogging at cafes and sneaking into my workplace after hours… getting onto it at any chance and opportunity.

If you’ve been following my blog for long, you know that I consistently update the blog every other day with a video or an article. To be perfectly honest, this hasn’t been easy at at all. I spend all my time off from work blogging, and it’s extra difficult because, sure, I can make videos and articles offline and then put them up, but the internet is so useful to research the things I want to talk about! Not to  mention I’m now doing extra guest videos for High on Health on top of my own, and of course, I want to be able to answer all your emails and comments quickly. But if I miss a day, the emails pile up like crazy. Things are starting to get stressful!

Anyway…. our jobs at the kayak shop are ending in September, and then the winter looms. What are we gonna do for work? Where are we gonna live?

Most of you may realize that I want to make a living from this blog. Not an outrageous living or anything, but the facts are – I LOVE the blog, and I love helping you guys, and doing something fun and creative for myself, but I absolutely couldn’t be doing it to this quality and consistency for much longer if I was expected to also work a full time job at the same time. There’s just not enough hours or energy in the day!

So here’s the thing: I’m not making a living from the blog quite yet, but I don’t want to get another job so that I can fully concentrate and put all my love and energy into helping you guys get clear. But Luke needs a job. We also have quite a bit of debt to pay off. Wages in Canada are also pretty crappy, I find. Soooooo…….. what are we doing?

We’re Moving Down Unda’!

After much deliberation, mostly over money, we’ve decided that we are going to move to Australia (for four or 5 months anyway… we’ll be coming back to Canada next summer). I literally bought us both plane tickets an hour ago.

The catch is that we have to live with his parents though :/ It will offset the cost of the plane tickets, I’ll be able to focus solely on the blog, he’ll be able to make a better wage than here in Canada, we can pay off our debts, and then get ahead so that we never have to mooch off our parents again. Can’t argue with that, right?

Sooo yeah. I’m a little nervous about this whole thing… I haven’t actually met his parents yet (you know… since they live all the way across the Pacific Ocean). They sound like lovely people and I’m sure everything will be fine, but this brings up all sorts of personal fears and issues (mostly surrounding food)… but that’s another blog post altogether!

So here’s the deal: We’re leaving in one month. September 10th is when the flight is booked for. Since we need to save money to pay off our plane tickets, I’m working a crazy amount this month. We also have to move out of our house and tie up all sorts of loose ends. Basically, all I’m saying is that posting may be patchy for the next few weeks. I mean like… maybe sometimes it’ll be THREE days between postings. And maybe it’ll take me longer to reply to your comments. Yes…. nothing serious.

Things Will Be Right Back to Normal…

The good news is that after that, things will be right back to normal, and I’ll be able to take things to a new level, with renewed zest! I want to develop some kind of group coaching course, and set up personal, one-on-one consultations.

My favourite idea of all though has been to develop some kind of …. “positivity challenge”. I know that dealing with the emotional side of acne is extremely difficult, and while I tell you that emotional turmoil contributes to acne, it’s obviously REALLY hard to just turn it off. I want to host some kind of video course… seven or ten days of positivity and tools to help you change your emotional outlook, while also opening a forum for those of you doing the challenge at the same time to chat and support each other.

Is this something you guys would be interested in? What sort of in-depth course, or book, or product do you think people would find useful for their battle with acne?

And aside from that, do you guys also have general blog post or video suggestions or questions for me? It may help me get through the next month or so if I have some ideas on hand!!!

Thanks everyone, I love you all so much!

And by the way, a thousand thank yous to anyone who has bought my book so far. I had a lot of fear of ‘selling’ that I had to get over in order to put that up for sale, but I have to remind myself all the time that I am helping people and enhancing the lives of others. I really hope you are all enjoying it! xoxo

photo by Jurgen Lison