I am one full week into my Clarabelle 90 Day Challenge and I am delighted to share with you today that my Clarabelle Music App has officially gone “live” today. The App is free to download and it is automatically linked to my blog, facebook, twitter and YouTube accounts, so you can get all the latest up-to-date information as and when I post. Here is the link to the Clarabelle Music App, if you wish to download it for free:
It is with great pleasure that I introduce this next Guest Blogger to you. Her name is Debbie Hollingsworth and she is a wonderful friend of mine and Strategic Business Partner. Debbie is an outstanding Executive Coach and Leadership/Management Trainer but she also has a special talent for writing poetry, which I only fairly recently found out.
Debbie Hollingsworth, Business Mentor and Professional Coach
Here is a little more about Debbie (extract from her Website):
What should I know about you?
I have been a professional coach since June 2006. I work with executives, business owners and their teams. I also work with private coach clients in aspects of their personal lives.
What did you do before you were a coach?
I ran my own travel business, before that I managed other peoples and before that I travelled the globe as a sales executive and trainer.
How did you become a professional coach?
The story how I found out about the coaching world is a little long to tell here, but if you want to know I will share that with you sometime!
I have been a professional coach and trainer since 2006. I trained with a global business coaching franchise and also as a life coach. I left the franchise in 2009 to focus on developing my own business and products.
Why are you a coach?
Being a coach is my way of making a difference in the world. I have never experienced job satisfaction in anything I have ever done to the same extent that I get from coaching people. Nobody ever came up to me when I sold holidays and said “Debbie, that trip to Barbados changed my life”. But they do say that about the work I do with my clients now.
What life experiences have you had?
I have been impacted by adoption, been married, divorced and remarried, faced infertility
issues, failed IVF, started two businesses and coped with more changes in my life than most before the age of 40!
What is your mission?
When working with anyone, whether it is 1-1 clients or groups, it is vital to me that change happens and there are positive results.
Not all results are tangible, as some are behavioural changes that must happen first of all. I have a mission, that as many people that I can influence, awaken to themselves and all that they are capable of being, doing and having.
To help people take full ownership of their lives and responsibility for their outcomes. That we focus only on what we can influence, not on what we cannot. That we realise that anything is possible.
My role is to help others to become aware of their obstacles so that they may be worked with and around, not always taken away but sometimes so.
As I said above, Debbie also writes beautiful poetry and below is one of these poems:
Debbie and her Dog, Sam
The Girl With Cornwall Hair
Who is she? Her over there, running free, running wild
Who is she? That girl in the flowing skirt, with roses in her hair
Who is she? She runs with the wind, without any care
Who is she? Sand between her toes, a smile, a laugh, a giggle
Who is she? Spinning like a wooden top, time standing still for her
Who is she? Her long, curly locks billowing behind her in the cool breeze
She is me, though I rarely feel her, see her, know her or be her
She is the girl with Cornwall hair.
Copyright Debbie Hollingsworth, 2013
Thank You
I would like to personally thank Debbie for sharing her wonderful creative talents with us here on this Clarabelle Blog, I am delighted she wanted to share her work with us.
If you wish to contact Debbie, you can do so, as detailed below:
If you would like to be a Guest Blogger on this Clarabelle Blog then please do let me know on the comments below and we will discuss it further. I look forward to hearing from you.
It is with great pleasure that I share this blog post with you today because it is about the successful completion of my third marathon since I did my first one in November 2007. Yes, we did it, my friend Jamie Haugh and I successfully completed the Loch Ness Marathon on Sunday, 29 September 2013 in Inverness, Scotland.
At the start of the Loch Ness marathon
If I’m honest it was my toughest marathon course to date because it was very hilly, much control is required at the downhills and much strength and stamina is required on the up hills and there was quite a lot of them!!
Coffee for Clarabelle, 1 hour before the start of the Marathon
It was a marvelous day though and I was very mindful of embracing the day as much as possible, as I was thinking this was may be my last marathon. 🙂
Jamie Haugh at the marathon start line
Great Spirits
Jamie and I were in great spirits before the marathon started, we had such a laugh and got chatting to some other runners….I would like to give these people a mention:
Thank you to Mo whom I met on the train heading to Inverness, Mo was doing her first marathon and I am delighted to say she successfully completed it in an amazing time.
Thank you to the other marathoners who were staying at No.29 B&B Accommodation in Inverness, we had a right laugh at breakfast on marathon morning….Frank was doing his first marathon and I am so pleased to say he did it. He has already committed himself to doing it again next year, he’s on a mission to break the 4 hour barrier.
Thank you to John Tougher, a friend from High School, whom we met for dinner the night before the marathon, John is “proper” runner and the Loch Ness was his 10th marathon, well done John on completing your 10th marathon in an amazing time.
Thank you to Martin who was doing his first marathon, I used to work beside Martin’s lovely wife Ruth and we had been updating our marathon training progress on Facebook. It was lovely to bump into Martin at the race start, amongst the sea of 4000 runners, there he was standing just in front of me. It was great to be able to personally wish each other well. Martin successfully completed his first marathon, well done Martin, you did it!!
Thank you to Gerry whom we chatted to for a while before the marathon started, Gerry had some wonderful stories to tell us, he made us laugh, I don’t know how Gerry did but he has completed many many marathons so I have no doubt he successfully completed it…no doubt whatsoever, so I will say in confidence, well done Gerry. 🙂
Thank you to all the other marathoners we had a wee chat to along the route, some really inspirational people running for some great charities and it was really wonderful to see and be part of.
Thank you to all the supporters along the route and the hundreds of people lined across the streets of Inverness leading up to the finish line, I always had a smile for everyone of you because you helped me get through the last few miles much easier. “Go girl in the orange top”, thank you to the lovely person who cheered me on at the last mile I significantly remember you shouting that at me. 🙂
And last but certainly not least, thank you to Jamie Haugh for his company throughout the whole trip, we had such a laugh, played the “Positivity”game at 13th mile and the “I Am Strong” affirmation game at the 15th mile and you kept my spirits high, you did it, your second marathon this year, what an amazing achievement and you should be so proud of yourself. Well done Jamie 🙂 🙂 🙂
Nessie at the marathon finish line
The question is on, “Will I do another marathon?”, well, I haven’t broke the 5 hour barrier yet, I am 1 minute out……it is kinda annoying me hahahah, let’s just wait and see, I am contemplating it…..contemplating!!! 🙂
I want to give a massive thanks to YOU for visiting this Clarabelle blog. Just over a month ago I was celebrating reaching 10,000 blog hits and yesterday I am amazed to say that I reached 12,000, this is the fastest growth ever to date. I want to give thanks to all the other bloggers, guest bloggers, facebook friends, linkedin connections, twitter followers and all other visitors who take the time to come and visit my blog and read, like and comment on my posts.
I truly LOVEdoing this blog, I choose to put a lot of love and positive energy into it because I am passionate about what I write and share with you. I don’t plan in advance what I want to write, I just write what feels right at the time……and I really do hope it adds value to your day.
Thank you for your full support, encouragement and inspiration and I really do mean that.
Wishing you a very beautiful day filled with true passion and love for what you do, love Clarabelle
Please let me introduce you to this month’s very creative Guest Blogger, Douglas Robertson.
Douglas Robertson
Douglas has always been interested in art but says that he hasn’t really drawn anything recently but does love photoshopping. Douglas says, “I suppose what I do is the equivalent of what ‘pimp my ride’ is to cars as to what I do to pictures/photos. I sometimes refer to what I do as ‘digi-punk’ art. Basically I either get an idea for a picture and create it by taking different parts and pieces of other pictures to create a new one.”
The other thing Douglas likes to do is turn a photograph into a ‘painting’ by using various effects and layers and many ‘paintings’ can have as many as 20 layers.
When I, (Clarabelle) went on holiday this year to Ibiza I took a photo of my footprints in the sand, Douglas then added his own creative art to the photo and used one of my original poems to add a touch of uniqueness too. Douglas says, “the ‘footprints in the sand‘ picture with poem had about 8 layers and was itself the result of several ‘halfway’ pictures to get the final result.”
Douglas also takes his own photographs with the view to photoshopping them when he gets home – a good example of that is: Photo 1 and the original photograph: Photo 2
Douglas’ Next Steps
My next step would be to actually turn my creations into real paintings by actually getting the brushes out and painting versions of them. Below is Douglas’ own caracature creation of himself. 🙂
Douglas Robertson Caracature
I am sure you will all agree, Douglas is a very talented creative individual and if you would like to see more of Douglas’ work, then please feel free to head over to his facebook page, Wiggly Beezers Arts you will also find there another creative picture of me, Clarabelle with the “City Lights” poem added to it.
I would like to give a special thank you to Douglas for sharing his creatives talents on this Clarabelle blog, it’s been an absolutely pleasure.
I would like to say a special thank you to YOU for visiting this Clarabelle blog and for liking my posts, I really do appreciate it.
I really love to interact with visitors to this blog and I want you to know that I have lots of additional “Clarabelle” updates on my Clarabelle Facebook page. If you are interested in finding out more about what I am up to on a daily basis then please feel free to like the Clarabelle Facebook page, you can easily do this from the Facebook like box on the sidebar of this blog.
Below is a real snapshot of what I have updated on my Clarabelle Facebook page recently:
Clarabelle 