Category Archives: Women

A Day with the Aunts!

One of my FAVORITE days of the year is my annual Christmas AUNTIE DAY!! This is a day that myself and my two favorite Aunties – Alice, and Flo (HEY GIRRRLS!!) get together to do some window shopping, having lunch, chatting, laughing, and ooing and ahing at all of the Christmas sights!!!!! These ladies are such a strong support system in my life, I don’t know what I would ever do without them!!! Well, yesterday was NOOOOO exception!! We spent the day on 23rd street in Portland, and HONEY, we had SOOO MUCH FUN!!! I came home with more treasures than I actually expected – I did a little more actual shopping than window shopping this year! 😉 An oversized Gaudy-Fabulous ring, a chocolate brown hat with a flower/brooch, a couple of goodies from the MAC store – I just LOVE that place, and some other miscellaneous baubles!!!!

With that said, during our lunch yesterday one of the topics of conversation was my insane addiction to collecting stuff and the show Hoarder’s! Ok, before you get the wrong idea I am not THAT bad, but I did do a self-analysis last night and realized that if I wasn’t careful, I could be!! SO, today I have spent a LARGE portion of my day posting DVDs and books up on E-bay! I am not sure if any of it will sell, but I have to tell you that opening up my mind, I mean REALLY opening up my mind to the idea of getting rid of the excess and I realize that as I started posting objects, it just got easier and easier and actually quite…what’s the word???? FREEDOM!!! Ok, let’s not go too crazy here, I only posted 31 things – that does not a full decluttering make, but it is a GREAT start, and I can feel the momentum growing!! I will be on the lookout for more things to get rid of, and hopefully get some of this out-of-control-ness in control!!! 😉

I will keep you posted!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

Getting REAL!!

Good morning! I  did my weigh in this morning and am up .2 pounds from yesterday, which is frustrating because the weight was falling off so quickly before, and now it seems to be inching up a little every day. UGH! I am not really sure what adjustments to make – I am counting every calorie, exercising more, stress level is down, and I am making sleep more of a priority – I am not sure what else to do. I pray for wisdom in this area, because I am a little stumped! I just don’t want to have weight loss surgery! I want to know that I did this without such invasive medical intervention!

Anyway, I am loving taking the time to tap into my creativity every day! It has really taken the edge off of my sometimes stressful life.

Also, I have started, along with my partner at work, Chris, walking through the Willamette University campus for about 45 minutes every day. Willamette University has such an electric and creative feeling atmosphere – that feeling is VERY CONTAGIOUS! When I was in both Junior and Senior high schools, I had always dreamed about going to Willamette. It has always been so prestigious and the grounds are both stunning and architecturally MAGNIFICENT! I just wanted, and maybe still do, to be a part of that school’s history! Well, for now, I will just have to be satisfied with my daily walks!

Can I confide in you? I am having a health issue and normally I would let it go, but this issues has really become a problem. The thing is, is that I am menstruating seemingly all the time, which can really make it difficult to feel normal, not to mention clean and absolutely un-GROSS! My mom had a total hysterectomy at 32, I think, and here I am at 35. My doctor suggests getting a DNC done, which she warns will be very painful! I have ALWAYS been a BIG BABY when it comes to pain! A DNC is basically where they go in and scrape out the lining of your uterus! SHUDDER!! That sounds HORRIBLE!!! I think my hesitation, besides the pain, is that I hear that it can make it more difficult to get pregnant; like we need ANYMORE issues in that area of our lives! My husband and I have been together for 16 years and we have NEVER even gotten pregnant. That is REALLY rough because I have always known that I was born to become a mom, and Jason would make a FABULOUS daddy!! It is really hard to not be constantly jealous of my friends and family who have kids; ESPECIALLY those people who you come across in life who either ignore, or take their children completely for granted – that has been REALLY ROUGH! Anyway, one way or the other, I am going to have to get myself to my physician and get this issue taken care of, OR I will have no other choice but to invest in Kotex – since I may be SINGLE HANDEDLY keeping that company in business!!! LOL! 😉

Has anyone else ever had a DNC done? I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject in the comments above! Is it really as painful as I am thinking it is? Were you able to have children after having one done? Anything to help fill me in on the details would be EXTREMELY appreciated – thanks!!! 🙂

ON A SIDE NOTE: I hear that is supposed to be some kind of AMAZING show of shooting stars this evening! If the weather cooperates I will have to check it out!

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

30-Day Makeover, Day 3!

Day 3: Go Gather Your Dream Team!

Welcome to Day 3 of our 30-Day Life Makeover!! How is everything going?? Were you able to do your Kaizen activity today?? I would LOVE to hear in the comments section up above, what types of things you were able to write down today!! I had all sorts of things written such as brown bagged both breakfast and lunch today (health & finances), swam for two hours with my family (health), and read an article on the benefits of being self-employed (self-employment). These may not be too impressive on their own, but if you were to gather 30 days of these activities – how far could you go????

Now, you know what you want, you’ve made some big decisions on where your priorities are going to lie for the next 3 months, and you have a new simple way to track your daily progress. Next comes a task that I can honestly say, is probably my FAVORITE!!

It’s time to GO FIND YOUR DREAM TEAM!!!

To create the life of your dreams, and see your goals come to fruition you are going to need a support group. These are the people that are going to listen to you your dreams and idea, give you honest constructive feedback, pick you up when you fall down, cry with you tears of joy when you have days of success, laugh with you when you are busy laughing at yourself, and these will be the people who will at times believe in you more than you believe in yourself. Everyone knows that two heads are better than one when it comes to solving problems or creating results. So imagine what you could accomplish if you were a part of a small group of five or six people meeting on a regular basis for the purpose of problem solving, brainstorming, networking, encouraging, and motivating each other. Mountains are moved with this kind of effort.

In all of my years of reading self-help books, and listening to all sorts of motivational speakers, this step is the one that I probably hear most being repeated over and over by some of the great minds of our time, and those that have gone on before us.  Jack Canfield, Anthony Robbins, and Napoleon Hill are just a few who all have their own version of how to go about making your dream cheerleading group, although I am pretty sure that is NOT what they call it, but whatever you call it, just make it fun, and a win-win for everyone involved!! 😉

Creating Your Dream Team

Start by enrolling a friendly, on-purpose, like-minded individual, or two to join you, then and start meeting with them on a regular basis. I recommend meeting once a week, or at the least every other week, so that you have something positive and encouraging to look forward to; and knowing that you have a group of people who are going to want to hear about what kind of progress you’ve made will encourage you to keep going so you have something positive to report. After your initial mini-team is all onboard, decide as a group what other like-minded individuals you could add to your small group. You will want to make sure that any additional people get along with everyone on the existing team, because remember this will be a team that you will want to feel comfortable enough to be able to be yourself,  speak freely, and feel comfortable enough to dream out loud. You and everyone on the team should be there for the good of each other and for the good of the group – this is essential!

  1. Your Dream Team should consist of 4-8 people. Most people find that 6 is the ideal number. Once the team gets much larger than 6 people, start thinking about someone in the group becoming a leader and breaking the larger group into two smaller groups, to keep the growth process going, and to share motivation with as many people as possible. Once this happens, make it a point to host some kind of a larger get-together at least once a month, or quarter that involves all of your mini-groups, so everyone has the chance to get to know everyone (not to mention all of the networking, and additional brainstorming, and support that would provide!) Sounds like fun!!!
  2. Meetings should be an hour to an hour and a half. This meeting must be held sacred as a life-enhancing priority. The meetings should be upbeat, enriching, encouraging and beneficial to each individual and the group’s purposes. I always start our meetings with a prayer or an invocation. You could also start with an inspiring story.
  3. Each member must agree to play all out — to openly share ideas, support, contacts, information, feedback, and anything else that will help advance the individual and group goals.
  4. Start by having each member share something positive and good that happened since the last meeting.
  5. Next, have each member share an opportunity or problem they have experienced since the last meeting and ask for whatever support they would like on it. Appoint a time-keeper to make sure that everyone gets the same amount of time. This is important if you want your group to last. Everyone must get value at each meeting.
  6. End by sharing appreciations and acknowledgements.

You’ll find one of the real values of a mastermind group is the accountability factor – other members checking up on you to make sure you meet your stated commitments. It’s one way to ensure you’ll accomplish a lot more!

This is such a FABULOUS idea, that I challenge you to get a hold of at least one person to communicate this idea to, and see if they would be willing to commit to being a part of your Dream Team – you’ll never know unless you ask, and maybe your Dream Team will be EXACTLY what that person was searching for. This if practiced consistently will literally change your life for the better.

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this, please feel free to comment up above!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Monday Night Book Night!

Tonight is book review night, and the book that I chose to review is called, Nesting it’s a Chick Thing. This book is such a fun read, and I highly recommend it anyone who wants to laugh, cry, and just learn more about living a FABULOUS life! Trust me on this, pick this book up!! It is like reading a creatively chic blog in paperback!!! FUN! FUN! FUN!!!

But why listen to me? Here is an editorial review from Publishers Weekly:

While Beanland and Terry do care about having a nice home, throwing fantastic parties and whipping up fabulous dinners, they have better things to do than polish the silver. The coauthors of It’s a Chick Thing: Celebrating the Wild Side of Women’s Friendships throw Martha Stewart-esque caution to the wind in this lifestyle guide with attitude, irreverently addressing the “four pillars of nesting”: decorating, entertaining, cooking and gardening. In each section, they give a basic overview of how to approach the task at hand, and then delve into the nitty-gritty, with sidebars, lists, pull-out quotes from celebrities and quirky clip art, all with a can-do, girl power mind-set, evident in the inclusion of such lines as “I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house” (from Zsa Zsa Gabor). Among other tidbits, readers will find cocktail recipes, flea market shopping tips, party invitation ideas, suggestions for creating a garden that suits their personality and reasons to give Martha some credit (“the chick can carve a pumpkin 200 ways and make 65 recipes from the seeds alone!”).

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Friday Night Movie Night!

It is Friday night movie night, and I just enjoyed a most enchanting movie, Coco Before Chanel, starring Audrey Tautou.  This is a French movie subtitled in English, so there will be no multi-tasking during this movie, which I am prone to do.

The movie opens in 1893 where little Gabrielle, aka Coco,  is dropped off by her father at an Orphanage; and we proceed to watch Coco’s life before she actually becomes the fashion extraordinaire that we all know and love, Coco Chanel.

Coco Chanel was a woman who although from a distance seemed to have everything; she was a woman who lived a hard life, went against the grain during an age when women did what was expected of them, and she fought and labored to acquire all that she had. The most tragic part of her life is that what she most desired was unavailable to her – her one true love.

Watching this movie, one can’t resist falling in love with all things French. French fashion, French architecture, French interior design, and the French landscape, etc. What I wouldn’t do to be able to walk into the movie screen and just take it all in for a day. Hmmm…Sounds scrumptious! This movie truly is a feast for the senses.

There was a quote that seemed to resonate with me that was spoken during this movie, so much so that I had to replay the section in the film just to make sure I wrote it down correctly. This line is spoken to Coco by the love of her life, Boy:

“An exceptional future awaits you. You’re like no one else. You have to trust yourself”

Isn’t that a message that we could all benefit by taking away with us?

Coco Before Chanel is simply charming, and will be a movie that I add to my video library to watch again and again for all things inspirational. Click here to watch the movie’s trailer.

Have a FABULOUS evening!