 |
| photo from Fat Mum Slim |
Click here to buy and play along! The graphic designer Emma lives in London, Chantelle lives in Australia, and I live in the US...so for me, including shipping, it's right around $20 and simple with PayPal.
{scatter} love,
me
Showing posts with label while surfing around. Show all posts
Showing posts with label while surfing around. Show all posts
The Scatter Love Project
I've talked about how much I love real mail (who doesn't?) and how much I specifically love Postcrossing. Well, in a similar vein, I've come across the Scatter Love project. If you're an instagrammer you probably know the mastermind Chantelle as @fatmumslim, who also create the #fmsphotoaday challenge. At any rate, the concept behind Scatter Love is a set of 10 beautifully designed postcards meant to spread joy across the world. Why not? As you send them out and/or receive them, photograph it/you and tag #scatterlove. How fun to see these little cards travel across the planet!
Click here to buy and play along! The graphic designer Emma lives in London, Chantelle lives in Australia, and I live in the US...so for me, including shipping, it's right around $20 and simple with PayPal.
{scatter} love,
me
Click here to buy and play along! The graphic designer Emma lives in London, Chantelle lives in Australia, and I live in the US...so for me, including shipping, it's right around $20 and simple with PayPal.
{scatter} love,
me
Where To Travel in 2014: A Roundup
'Tis the month for lists. We know this. They're everywhere. Every blog post you see starts with a number, then proceeds to tell you what you simply cannot live without. Well, for those of us who simply cannot live without travel, I rounded up my favorite "to see in 2014" lists.
Luxuriate in the possibilities, the wish lists, the wanderlust.
An experiential travel guide, and one of the coolest travel planning apps ever, AFAR proposes the following destinations...
Uruguay? Awesome. Iceland? Why not? Travel + Leisure thinks you should make your way to these 27 locations....
In stunning full-screen photo format, The New York Times proposes 52 locations that are must-sees. And they would know. I mean, right? Don't we all dream of posh Manhattan dinner parties at which, after being regaled with Roberto's adventures, our assistant books our flight to New Caldonia straight away?
The Guardian weighs in with a top 40 list. Also, holiday. Can we all agree to discontinue use of the word "vacation" in favor of taking holidays? Okay, cool.
Rwanda. Argentina. National Geographic even thinks it's time we explore Iraq. I'm down.
Top 10 cities, top 10 countries, top 10 regions, and sights to make you feel small. Lonely Planet knows what they're talking about.
This roundup could be endless, but we'll pause the inspiration here. Where are you traveling this year?
Love and frequent flier miles,
me
Luxuriate in the possibilities, the wish lists, the wanderlust.
An experiential travel guide, and one of the coolest travel planning apps ever, AFAR proposes the following destinations...
Uruguay? Awesome. Iceland? Why not? Travel + Leisure thinks you should make your way to these 27 locations....
In stunning full-screen photo format, The New York Times proposes 52 locations that are must-sees. And they would know. I mean, right? Don't we all dream of posh Manhattan dinner parties at which, after being regaled with Roberto's adventures, our assistant books our flight to New Caldonia straight away?
The Guardian weighs in with a top 40 list. Also, holiday. Can we all agree to discontinue use of the word "vacation" in favor of taking holidays? Okay, cool.
Rwanda. Argentina. National Geographic even thinks it's time we explore Iraq. I'm down.
Top 10 cities, top 10 countries, top 10 regions, and sights to make you feel small. Lonely Planet knows what they're talking about.
This roundup could be endless, but we'll pause the inspiration here. Where are you traveling this year?
Love and frequent flier miles,
me
The Cult of Done: A Manifesto
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| created by illustrator James Provost (click for links to purchase the print). |
A few years back, Kio Stark and Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot and leader in the 3D printing industry, created The Cult of Done Manifesto. If you're not familiar with it, I want to share it with you. If this is old news to you, you're welcome for the reminder. This is good stuff.
As I'm working my way back to a creative mindset and creative set of habits throughout this year, I find myself getting stuck at familiar road blocks. And by "familiar road blocks" I mean to say paralyzing perfectionism. If it can't be a perfect end result right out of the gate, then it's not good enough and I need to stay at the drawing board, as it were. Lame, I know. Not very not present-minded, either. Eckhart would be so disappointed in me. While this pattern is engrained in my DNA, and it's not easy to shut that off, The Cult of Done Manifesto is an excellent slap in the face. Thirteen slaps, actually. Ready? Here we go:
The Cult of Done Manifesto
- There are three states of being: Not knowing, action, and completion. {tweet it}
- Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done. {tweet it}
- There is no editing stage.
- Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
- Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
- The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done. {tweet it}
- Once you're done you can throw it away.
- Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done. {tweet it}
- People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
- Failure counts as done. So do mistakes. {tweet it}
- Destruction is a variant of done. {tweet it}
- If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
- Done is the engine of more. {tweet it}
Whether it's long-range creative pursuits or motivation to empty the dishwasher, this manifesto is so packed with wisdom.
Love, number eight, and cheers to done,
me
If I'm honest about my dreams...
On the heels of my previous posts about studying and implementing the Structural Dynamics model of Robert Fritz, I feel compelled to take a public step toward owning my desired reality, to use Fritz's term. I've been mulling over these dreams to some degree or another for years now. In fact, people who have read this blog for any length of time will already know where I'm going with this. I've eeked out bits and pieces of these dreams along the way. However, not until this moment in time have they been so clear.
Because of my 2013 Happiness Project, since January I've been able to crystalize previously vague-ish longings. The pubic aspect of sharing on this site, versus another offline brunch convo with my besties, serves a number of important outcomes: 1) Vulnerability isn't my strong suit (says the girl with a mostly-personal blog, I know) and I need to get over myself in that regard; 2) Accountability, perceived or legitimate, to anyone other than my own thoughts; 3) Support, because I know I'm far from alone in the pursuit of bold visions; 4) Culmination of these resources outside of my elaborate Evernote folders and tags. Consider this a meta bookmark of a small fraction of the ah-ha moments I've had recently; and finally, 5) I sincerely believe that all of these resources are "the magic" - in referencing again the work of Robert Fritz:
So here's the deal: I want to live abroad (ahem, Denmark) and enjoy a creative career and travel a lot a lot a lot. I was passionate about my current career for more than a decade. To be fair, I still am passionate about it in many ways; however, I've finally accepted that it can no longer sustain me in the way I want to be sustained and engaged in my life. Between the lines: I can no longer slug out 50-hour weeks and 6 hours of meetings every day that ultimately contribute to mere incremental, non-systemic change and a 1% cost of living raise every 3 years. I need creativity. I need flexibility. I need a career that fills me up and inspires me instead of draining my energy nearly every day. I need to wake up and take photos before checking my email on my own schedule in a coffee shop in Argentina.
Huffington Post's Third Metric project has been reporting on the trend of professionals leaning back from their current careers (as opposed to the now-infamous Lean In strategy a'la Sheryl Sandberg). The premise of the Third Metric conversation: "All the talk of "leaning in" at work ignores one reality: Many people in early stages of their career want flexibility and ownership at their jobs, not just a big job title or paycheck. Is it time to stop chasing promotions, and start enjoying life?" In the video below, Kim Dinan is particularly inspiring to me. I'm already half way through her book and I only bought it last night. I also love the conversation about money near the 15:00 mark. Here's a shorter snippet of the video, only highlighting the quit-your-job-and-travel guests.
Through the internet rabbit hole of clicking and stumbling, I also came across the gorgeous video embedded below. There are so so so many blogs, people, twitter accounts, and examples of bravery and wanderlust online. It's totally overwhelming. When I really think about it, though, even before all of that was reality I remember watching Long Way Round in 2004 and Long Way Down in 2007 and thinking: I need this. My first international trip to Russia in 1996, for that matter, set it off. Why I'm only just now getting serious about it, I don't know. Regardless, my RSS feed is now stuffed with blogs and travelogues of people who have gone before and lit the way, as it were.
But what does it actually look like to take on this dream and make it happen? What does it really mean and how do I make it work? All the artsy vimeo videos in the world won't actually get me there, so now what? I know Robert Fritz would tell me to stop focusing on The How and instead only hold tension between where I am now and where I want to be, but damn. It's difficult to not at least try and answer The How of it all. I suspect that The Wireless Generation documentary, soon to be making the festival circuit thanks to a successful Kickstarter, is a giant nudge in the right direction.
Okay, Magic, let's go down that road then. I've been saying for quite a while now that if you mashup my key passions and skills - then try to assign them to a career - it basically comes out as some version of a traveler/writer/photographer/designer. Throw in a BA in English, a MA in Community Leadership, and 11 years as a project/program manager turned higher-ed administrator...and...okay. So. Start there. Even with a wealth of online resources to make it happen smoothly, the idea of freelancing unfortunately scares me to the point of near paralysis (clearly something I need to get over, and quickly). Paralysis in tow, I still can't shake this desire out of my system: Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel (Rolf Potts). The idea of digital nomading feels so right to me. The Life Almost Fearless blog shared a post outlining the history of this career niche. That made it feel almost doable. I've read the post like 20 times at this point. Truth be told, I really just want Andrew Evans' job. I mean, come on. National Geographic's Digital Nomad? *sigh* The inspiration is endless.
Now...what can I do about all this? I suck at being idle, and I think I might have been bored once for five minutes in 1989, so this has been percolating long enough. This guy seems helpful and I'd give him my money in exchange for his nuggets of wisdom. These two make it work, and the price is right, so I'll set aside the fact that they make me feel like a grandmother and probably try their course. But even those leaps feel premature. I think I found my next step in the Matador Network, specifically Matador U. I plan to pinch my pennies and take both the travel writing and the travel photography courses. Also, similar to the crowdsourced travel guides of Matador, I've been obsessed with AFAR for a while now. I have an application in hand to become the first (and for now, only) Local Expert for Salt Lake City. There's a meta intersection with all of this and I'm just trying to say yes, yes, yes to it all. While it has felt like an organic progression to this point, I also know I need to stop thinking and researching...and just do.
Love and magic and hard work,
me
Because of my 2013 Happiness Project, since January I've been able to crystalize previously vague-ish longings. The pubic aspect of sharing on this site, versus another offline brunch convo with my besties, serves a number of important outcomes: 1) Vulnerability isn't my strong suit (says the girl with a mostly-personal blog, I know) and I need to get over myself in that regard; 2) Accountability, perceived or legitimate, to anyone other than my own thoughts; 3) Support, because I know I'm far from alone in the pursuit of bold visions; 4) Culmination of these resources outside of my elaborate Evernote folders and tags. Consider this a meta bookmark of a small fraction of the ah-ha moments I've had recently; and finally, 5) I sincerely believe that all of these resources are "the magic" - in referencing again the work of Robert Fritz:
The resolution of the tension, and the action steps needed to move toward the desired reality, will all define themselves organically simply because you're holding the tension. You have to leave room for magic. Your job is to hold tension, and then say yes.
So here's the deal: I want to live abroad (ahem, Denmark) and enjoy a creative career and travel a lot a lot a lot. I was passionate about my current career for more than a decade. To be fair, I still am passionate about it in many ways; however, I've finally accepted that it can no longer sustain me in the way I want to be sustained and engaged in my life. Between the lines: I can no longer slug out 50-hour weeks and 6 hours of meetings every day that ultimately contribute to mere incremental, non-systemic change and a 1% cost of living raise every 3 years. I need creativity. I need flexibility. I need a career that fills me up and inspires me instead of draining my energy nearly every day. I need to wake up and take photos before checking my email on my own schedule in a coffee shop in Argentina.
Huffington Post's Third Metric project has been reporting on the trend of professionals leaning back from their current careers (as opposed to the now-infamous Lean In strategy a'la Sheryl Sandberg). The premise of the Third Metric conversation: "All the talk of "leaning in" at work ignores one reality: Many people in early stages of their career want flexibility and ownership at their jobs, not just a big job title or paycheck. Is it time to stop chasing promotions, and start enjoying life?" In the video below, Kim Dinan is particularly inspiring to me. I'm already half way through her book and I only bought it last night. I also love the conversation about money near the 15:00 mark. Here's a shorter snippet of the video, only highlighting the quit-your-job-and-travel guests.
Through the internet rabbit hole of clicking and stumbling, I also came across the gorgeous video embedded below. There are so so so many blogs, people, twitter accounts, and examples of bravery and wanderlust online. It's totally overwhelming. When I really think about it, though, even before all of that was reality I remember watching Long Way Round in 2004 and Long Way Down in 2007 and thinking: I need this. My first international trip to Russia in 1996, for that matter, set it off. Why I'm only just now getting serious about it, I don't know. Regardless, my RSS feed is now stuffed with blogs and travelogues of people who have gone before and lit the way, as it were.
But what does it actually look like to take on this dream and make it happen? What does it really mean and how do I make it work? All the artsy vimeo videos in the world won't actually get me there, so now what? I know Robert Fritz would tell me to stop focusing on The How and instead only hold tension between where I am now and where I want to be, but damn. It's difficult to not at least try and answer The How of it all. I suspect that The Wireless Generation documentary, soon to be making the festival circuit thanks to a successful Kickstarter, is a giant nudge in the right direction.
Okay, Magic, let's go down that road then. I've been saying for quite a while now that if you mashup my key passions and skills - then try to assign them to a career - it basically comes out as some version of a traveler/writer/photographer/designer. Throw in a BA in English, a MA in Community Leadership, and 11 years as a project/program manager turned higher-ed administrator...and...okay. So. Start there. Even with a wealth of online resources to make it happen smoothly, the idea of freelancing unfortunately scares me to the point of near paralysis (clearly something I need to get over, and quickly). Paralysis in tow, I still can't shake this desire out of my system: Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel (Rolf Potts). The idea of digital nomading feels so right to me. The Life Almost Fearless blog shared a post outlining the history of this career niche. That made it feel almost doable. I've read the post like 20 times at this point. Truth be told, I really just want Andrew Evans' job. I mean, come on. National Geographic's Digital Nomad? *sigh* The inspiration is endless.
 |
| A drop in the bucket in my sea of my RSS feeds. |
Now...what can I do about all this? I suck at being idle, and I think I might have been bored once for five minutes in 1989, so this has been percolating long enough. This guy seems helpful and I'd give him my money in exchange for his nuggets of wisdom. These two make it work, and the price is right, so I'll set aside the fact that they make me feel like a grandmother and probably try their course. But even those leaps feel premature. I think I found my next step in the Matador Network, specifically Matador U. I plan to pinch my pennies and take both the travel writing and the travel photography courses. Also, similar to the crowdsourced travel guides of Matador, I've been obsessed with AFAR for a while now. I have an application in hand to become the first (and for now, only) Local Expert for Salt Lake City. There's a meta intersection with all of this and I'm just trying to say yes, yes, yes to it all. While it has felt like an organic progression to this point, I also know I need to stop thinking and researching...and just do.
Love and magic and hard work,
me
Owning the Fear.
I've been reflecting a lot lately (off-line, mostly) about fallow versus fertile creativity and also about fear. I think my brain is gearing up for a post, but for now, watch this video from Kate Swoboda of Your Courageous Life. It's resonating.
I recently participated in a workshop series with four of my girlfriends. I mentioned it only briefly on this site, but those thoughts have also been brewing into a post that will come soon. There's something to be said about oscillating patterns of behavior that keep you from advancing success upon success upon success...and what Kate is discussing in the video below is a close cousin to that idea. I like that she calls out our usual list of excuses as nothing but fear. I've been working a lot this year on understanding that everything - absolutely everything - basically breaks down into love or fear, abundance or scarcity. Naming scarcity and fear helps set us on a different path to getting past our own bullshit.
Anyway, all of that is percolating. More soon. For now, enjoy Kate!
I recently participated in a workshop series with four of my girlfriends. I mentioned it only briefly on this site, but those thoughts have also been brewing into a post that will come soon. There's something to be said about oscillating patterns of behavior that keep you from advancing success upon success upon success...and what Kate is discussing in the video below is a close cousin to that idea. I like that she calls out our usual list of excuses as nothing but fear. I've been working a lot this year on understanding that everything - absolutely everything - basically breaks down into love or fear, abundance or scarcity. Naming scarcity and fear helps set us on a different path to getting past our own bullshit.
Anyway, all of that is percolating. More soon. For now, enjoy Kate!
Love and more love,
me
15 Ways to Earn Money While Traveling
I've always been driven to travel as much as I possibly can, but this year I've spent time researching what that could possibly mean in a full-throttle-this-is-my-whole-life kind of way. I'm overwhelmed with a litany of blogs by people who have some version of that life, but finding specific how-to details are trickier to come by.
A friend posted an article to my Facebook wall that sparked some creative thoughts for me. Some tips are obvious (write articles, sell photos, work in a hostel), some are scary (participate in science experiments, gamble online, rummage trashcans for aluminum), some awesomely adventurous (work on a farm, attend festivals and hock your wares, work on a ship), and some are completely absurd (act in a movie, work as a model). Work as a model? Really? Oh, I mean, sure. Why didn't I think of that. No problem. I'll get right on that movie actor thing, too.
Love and cheers to practical dreams,
me
Link Love Friday
Here are some of the most interesting bits of internet I stumbled upon this week:
"I want to be a travel writer…" Okay, great. What the hell does that mean? This article talks about how real life travel bloggers bring home the bacon.
Ever since I discovered the Fearful Adventurer blog - through the book tour I participated in by posting about my own fearful adventure of conquering Denmark - I've fallen deeper and deeper in love. Not only is the design of the site total perfection and inspiring, the content is stellar. I suggest reading all the posts submitted for Torre's #myfearfuladventure book tour. It's great stuff.
Speaking of fear, the Your Courageous Life site (and video series) is an excellent find. Love.
Some day I'll end up in Bali, painting with Flora Bowley. Just you wait.
This site is sexy and affirming and so smart. Curves are hot. The end.
This stuff infuriates me. Our culture is so backwards. We're paying all the wrong people to do all the wrong jobs. Take even the title of this article and the implied message: "These careers might make you happy, but fail the tuition ROI test." It's everything that wrong with our rat race. Happiness is secondary so long as you make money and consume. It makes my blood boil.
An excellent article about street photography. This came from a new friend who's enrolled in the Candela photography course with me. It's been such an inspiring experience to move through that course. The next session starts 07/31. Get on it.
With the evolution of my Happiness Project and recent meditations on abundance, this struck a cord. Danielle LaPorte explains why self-improvement makes you neurotic.
In case you live in a cave, DOMA is unconstitutional, by the way. Love always wins.
On that note, happy surfing. If you're a pinner, my Link Love board on Pinterest is loaded with all these goodies. Share away!
Love and links,
me
Who am I? #throwbackthursday
For my first Throwback Thursday post, I clicked way back into the archives and selected a post at random. The first post that pulled up was a photo meme that went around the web in the summer of 2008. It was about answering a set of standard questions by selecting a Flickr photo. Your answer was the search term and you picked a photo to represent it. Some of the questions I would answer in exactly the same way. Some I can't even remember how I answered, even when trying to job my memory with the photo. I thought it would be fun to share the 2008 photo and answer the questions again.
1. What is your first name?
2008: gail.
2013: still gail.
2. What is your favorite food?
2008: I think I was going for curry?
2013: I still love Indian food.
3. What high school did you go to?
2008: Timpanogos.
2013: No way to change that.
4. What is your favorite color?
2008: Don't know what I was going for there.
2013: Turquoise.
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
2008: Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal. Yes, both.
2013: Ditto, and so many more.
6. Favorite drink?
2008: Some sort of smoothie?
2013: Lots and lots of cold, cold water.
7. Dream vacation?
2008: Paris.
2013: Denmark.
8. Favorite dessert?
2008: Flourless chocolate molten cake with house-made gelato? Sounds like me.
2013: Salted caramel anything and/or berry pie.
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
2008: Now this is fascinating to me. I don't know the exact answer I had, but the fact that it pulled up globes shows me how late I am to this party. I've blogged A LOT recently about my shifting perceptions around success, my career, creativity, etc. I'm slowly owning the fact that I want to write and photograph and travel for real, like for a job, forever. I've always felt that way, but it took until 2013 to realize that may actually be possible sort of maybe to upgrade that from a hobby to a life.
2013: Passionate and tuned in. See above.
10. What do you love most in life?
2008: Travel.
2013: Travel.
11. One Word to describe you.
2008: Did I say balance? Peaceful? Calm? I'm not sure but I also find this fascinating. This post would've been when I was a program coordinator, pre-grad school, and traveling either for work or pleasure every couple weeks or so. Turns out that's more balanced, peaceful, and calm than the tailspin grad school left me in as an executive director who travels whenever she can but it's not nearly enough.
2013: Creative.
12. Your flickr (or other online) name.
2008: fourthirtyam.
2013: fouthirtyam, which I've had since the internet was born + my madeleines since 2007.
Love,
me
 |
| Left to Right, Top to Bottom. |
1. What is your first name?
2008: gail.
2013: still gail.
2. What is your favorite food?
2008: I think I was going for curry?
2013: I still love Indian food.
3. What high school did you go to?
2008: Timpanogos.
2013: No way to change that.
4. What is your favorite color?
2008: Don't know what I was going for there.
2013: Turquoise.
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
2008: Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal. Yes, both.
2013: Ditto, and so many more.
6. Favorite drink?
2008: Some sort of smoothie?
2013: Lots and lots of cold, cold water.
7. Dream vacation?
2008: Paris.
2013: Denmark.
8. Favorite dessert?
2008: Flourless chocolate molten cake with house-made gelato? Sounds like me.
2013: Salted caramel anything and/or berry pie.
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
2008: Now this is fascinating to me. I don't know the exact answer I had, but the fact that it pulled up globes shows me how late I am to this party. I've blogged A LOT recently about my shifting perceptions around success, my career, creativity, etc. I'm slowly owning the fact that I want to write and photograph and travel for real, like for a job, forever. I've always felt that way, but it took until 2013 to realize that may actually be possible sort of maybe to upgrade that from a hobby to a life.
2013: Passionate and tuned in. See above.
10. What do you love most in life?
2008: Travel.
2013: Travel.
11. One Word to describe you.
2008: Did I say balance? Peaceful? Calm? I'm not sure but I also find this fascinating. This post would've been when I was a program coordinator, pre-grad school, and traveling either for work or pleasure every couple weeks or so. Turns out that's more balanced, peaceful, and calm than the tailspin grad school left me in as an executive director who travels whenever she can but it's not nearly enough.
2013: Creative.
12. Your flickr (or other online) name.
2008: fourthirtyam.
2013: fouthirtyam, which I've had since the internet was born + my madeleines since 2007.
Love,
me
Pint it!
I'm following through on a goal I set for myself after attending Alt Summit. Building on the energy of creating my editorial calendar, I also created Pinterest boards associated with each day and/or theme. Check out the revisions I made to the editorial calendar and you'll get all the links you need to re-pin and play along. Because how much do we love Pinterest? So much.
For example, I have a board called Wanderlust where the photos and resources from my Travel Tuesday posts will be pinned. You'll see the photos from yesterday's post on Castine, Maine already pinned and ready to go. Re-pin and spread the love.
There's a board for Denmark research, my Happiness Project, creative feats, link love goodies comin' at you every Friday, my photography, and more, plus the boards I already had before the blog was integrated (i.e. mostly dealing with my interior design obsessions).
The beauty of Pinterest is the collaboration, the community of pins and re-pins. Help spread the word. {click to tweet} #mymadeleines blog is now rocking Pinterest: globetrotting, photography, feats of creativity, design, & food porn! http://bit.ly/13tAnvl
Love and pins,
me
Nope, I didn't. | The Blog Dare Day 15
{PROMPT} You didn't expect that.
Should you type today's prompt into YouTube, this is what you'll find. And for that, I am sorry.
Love,
me
This post is part of The Blog Dare series.
Should you type today's prompt into YouTube, this is what you'll find. And for that, I am sorry.
Love,
me
This post is part of The Blog Dare series.
My Creative Cocoon | The Blog Dare Day 9
{PROMPT} Taking steps to fix it...
I've written a lot about creativity lately. Like, a lot. Summary: I've come to the conclusion that creativity cannot be a luxury in my life. Creativity is in fact a very necessary way through which I interact with this world and I need to intentionally cultivate it every single day. Creativity is not a passive thing for me or something that will just happen without a plan. Something that happens without a plan is called hulu.
When I wrote about enthusiasm for The Declaration of You book tour, I jotted out a little laundry list of ways I'd recently invested in rebuilding my creative mojo. With the Blog Dare prompt today, it seems an appropriate time to cultivate a more thoughtful list of bits and pieces and random goodies that are helping me get my groove back. I'm a bit of a magpie right now. I'm running around like crazy collecting shiny objects...all in the name of building a new creative home for myself.
Brace yourself, Reader, and get your clicker finger ready for a litany of link love. I discovered much of this goodness because I gave myself permission to get lost in link after link after link. Eventually I ended up weaving a big cocoon of creativity for myself (my magpie nest is now a butterfly cocoon, try and up). I feel like I'm absorbing so much right now and I will eventually bust out with something awesome (I'm now an exploding sponge). I'm not sure what will come of all this, but that's not the point right now. For me to even say that and now break out in a panicked sweat is a big big deal.
Here are the goodies I've rounded up so far...
Kelly Rae Roberts
She's my muse. As in a Greek goddess of inspiration sort of way. Her work, blog, book, e-book, and general existence on this planet is what first cracked open the door and let a dusty sliver of creative light peek through. So much love.
Radical Self Love
No nonsense, ballsy, funny, smart, radical self love brought to you by Gala Darling. She may be wrapped up in sticky sweet girly pink bows, but this shit's for real. Her e-book/audio book is called Love & Sequins. I mean, come on. To listen to her read it in her cheeky Aussie accent is pure delight.
Mapping Desire(s)
The fabulousness of Danielle LaPorte is overwhelming, to be honest. Completely overwhelming in the most beautiful, terrifying, spiritual, profound way. Somewhere deep down inside I know that The Desire Map will change life as I know it. I haven't started that journey yet because I want to get a better footing with all this before I tackle it. It's going to be a doozy. For now, I stalk her on social media and get her Daily Truth Bombs in my inbox (sign up on her website).
Color. Color. Color.
One of the authors of The Declaration of You, Jessica Swift is not only a full-time artiste extraordinaire but also the author of her own book, Jump Trust Repeat. I haven't read it yet, but I have purchased her colorful brainstorm/planner/inspiration guide of sorts. I love playing with it and synthesizing my Happiness Project goals. I also receive her daily color + words of inspiration in my inbox. Worth it. Do it.
Writing with Light
Along with my creative soul sister Jen who lives in Portland, I'm enrolled in an online photography course taught by Laura Valenti Jelen. I just blogged about it right here. Reconnecting with my passion for photography - in a more intentional way that simply Instagramming all day every day - has been an awesome exercise for me.
Owning My Badassness
Jen Sincero's book needs no annotation. Read it. Just trust me. Four of my girlfriends are now reading it and they told me to tell you to do it.
Getting Sensual
Sign up for Susannah Conway's monthly newsletter and, for free, you'll receive her 74-page ebook about exploring your senses...all with a creative end in mind. She also has a (free) planner/calendar/reflection workbook (similar to Jessica's) that is an awesome way to intentionally move through the year. I want to take this e-course about blogging from the heart, this e-course about photography, this e-course about writing your dreams into reality, and this e-course about unravelling 'it all' and then putting 'it all' back together. Want want want.
OM
One of the primary barriers to me manifesting all this creative moxie is the fact that my life moves too quickly. It's like, really fast. Every day. I'm trying to change that. I'm redefining what success means to me and I'm allowing myself to fill slower spaces. Deepak is helping me. So is Oprah...with Deepak. My friend Cristina also emailed a ginormous list of Hay House hippie resources, but I haven't had time to work my way through that message yet. Oh, irony.
Go Mighty
Is it silliness to put "make a life list" on my bucket list, where it's waiting patiently to be crossed off? Because that's what's happening with me. The awesomeness of Mighty Life Lists is a lot to get my head around. I also want to go to Camp Mighty. For now, I just follow Maggie Mason around and dream of the day that I'll dare to do this. Seriously. Poke around this site. Be amazed. They recently posted 31 profiles of incredible people living out their life lists (the profiles are on tumblr, so you need to scroll and dig a little bit).
When I Grow Up
Michelle Ward is the other author of The Declaration of You and a creative career coach. I haven't hired her as a coach (whether I was ready for it or not is irrelevant because she's booked solid due to her awesomeness), but I do subscribe to everything she puts out there and it's awesome stuff. Sign up for her newsletter and you get access to her Dropbox site packed full of free resources! She has a bunch of books that are on my wish list. She also interviews inspiring grown-ups who have smashed the creative career glass ceiling and made it work (scroll down to the archive section toward the bottom for free access to all the videos).
There's more, but this will do for now. Welcome to my world as of late. It's pretty in here, huh?
One meta comment about all of this: Like attracts like. It's true, people. It's true. Attach whatever New Age terms or ancient philosophies you want to this fact, but it's true by any name. It's a very simple and also very complex truth that as you raise your frequency and tell The Universe what you want (in my case, for now, proactive creativity), The Universe will respond. Immediately. Once you really mean it. It's like drinking from a firehouse, so be ready for whatever it is you're asking for (and be clear and specific) because it will come to you. Truth.
Love,
me
P.S. What did I miss? What do I need to know about? What links should I be clickety clacking? Post in the comment section and join the conversation.
This post is part of The Blog Dare series.
I've written a lot about creativity lately. Like, a lot. Summary: I've come to the conclusion that creativity cannot be a luxury in my life. Creativity is in fact a very necessary way through which I interact with this world and I need to intentionally cultivate it every single day. Creativity is not a passive thing for me or something that will just happen without a plan. Something that happens without a plan is called hulu.
When I wrote about enthusiasm for The Declaration of You book tour, I jotted out a little laundry list of ways I'd recently invested in rebuilding my creative mojo. With the Blog Dare prompt today, it seems an appropriate time to cultivate a more thoughtful list of bits and pieces and random goodies that are helping me get my groove back. I'm a bit of a magpie right now. I'm running around like crazy collecting shiny objects...all in the name of building a new creative home for myself.
 |
| Kelly Rae Roberts |
Brace yourself, Reader, and get your clicker finger ready for a litany of link love. I discovered much of this goodness because I gave myself permission to get lost in link after link after link. Eventually I ended up weaving a big cocoon of creativity for myself (my magpie nest is now a butterfly cocoon, try and up). I feel like I'm absorbing so much right now and I will eventually bust out with something awesome (I'm now an exploding sponge). I'm not sure what will come of all this, but that's not the point right now. For me to even say that and now break out in a panicked sweat is a big big deal.
Here are the goodies I've rounded up so far...
Kelly Rae Roberts
She's my muse. As in a Greek goddess of inspiration sort of way. Her work, blog, book, e-book, and general existence on this planet is what first cracked open the door and let a dusty sliver of creative light peek through. So much love.
Radical Self Love
No nonsense, ballsy, funny, smart, radical self love brought to you by Gala Darling. She may be wrapped up in sticky sweet girly pink bows, but this shit's for real. Her e-book/audio book is called Love & Sequins. I mean, come on. To listen to her read it in her cheeky Aussie accent is pure delight.
Mapping Desire(s)
The fabulousness of Danielle LaPorte is overwhelming, to be honest. Completely overwhelming in the most beautiful, terrifying, spiritual, profound way. Somewhere deep down inside I know that The Desire Map will change life as I know it. I haven't started that journey yet because I want to get a better footing with all this before I tackle it. It's going to be a doozy. For now, I stalk her on social media and get her Daily Truth Bombs in my inbox (sign up on her website).
Color. Color. Color.
One of the authors of The Declaration of You, Jessica Swift is not only a full-time artiste extraordinaire but also the author of her own book, Jump Trust Repeat. I haven't read it yet, but I have purchased her colorful brainstorm/planner/inspiration guide of sorts. I love playing with it and synthesizing my Happiness Project goals. I also receive her daily color + words of inspiration in my inbox. Worth it. Do it.
Writing with Light
Along with my creative soul sister Jen who lives in Portland, I'm enrolled in an online photography course taught by Laura Valenti Jelen. I just blogged about it right here. Reconnecting with my passion for photography - in a more intentional way that simply Instagramming all day every day - has been an awesome exercise for me.
Owning My Badassness
Jen Sincero's book needs no annotation. Read it. Just trust me. Four of my girlfriends are now reading it and they told me to tell you to do it.
Getting Sensual
Sign up for Susannah Conway's monthly newsletter and, for free, you'll receive her 74-page ebook about exploring your senses...all with a creative end in mind. She also has a (free) planner/calendar/reflection workbook (similar to Jessica's) that is an awesome way to intentionally move through the year. I want to take this e-course about blogging from the heart, this e-course about photography, this e-course about writing your dreams into reality, and this e-course about unravelling 'it all' and then putting 'it all' back together. Want want want.
OM
One of the primary barriers to me manifesting all this creative moxie is the fact that my life moves too quickly. It's like, really fast. Every day. I'm trying to change that. I'm redefining what success means to me and I'm allowing myself to fill slower spaces. Deepak is helping me. So is Oprah...with Deepak. My friend Cristina also emailed a ginormous list of Hay House hippie resources, but I haven't had time to work my way through that message yet. Oh, irony.
Go Mighty
Is it silliness to put "make a life list" on my bucket list, where it's waiting patiently to be crossed off? Because that's what's happening with me. The awesomeness of Mighty Life Lists is a lot to get my head around. I also want to go to Camp Mighty. For now, I just follow Maggie Mason around and dream of the day that I'll dare to do this. Seriously. Poke around this site. Be amazed. They recently posted 31 profiles of incredible people living out their life lists (the profiles are on tumblr, so you need to scroll and dig a little bit).
When I Grow Up
Michelle Ward is the other author of The Declaration of You and a creative career coach. I haven't hired her as a coach (whether I was ready for it or not is irrelevant because she's booked solid due to her awesomeness), but I do subscribe to everything she puts out there and it's awesome stuff. Sign up for her newsletter and you get access to her Dropbox site packed full of free resources! She has a bunch of books that are on my wish list. She also interviews inspiring grown-ups who have smashed the creative career glass ceiling and made it work (scroll down to the archive section toward the bottom for free access to all the videos).
There's more, but this will do for now. Welcome to my world as of late. It's pretty in here, huh?
 |
| You know who. |
One meta comment about all of this: Like attracts like. It's true, people. It's true. Attach whatever New Age terms or ancient philosophies you want to this fact, but it's true by any name. It's a very simple and also very complex truth that as you raise your frequency and tell The Universe what you want (in my case, for now, proactive creativity), The Universe will respond. Immediately. Once you really mean it. It's like drinking from a firehouse, so be ready for whatever it is you're asking for (and be clear and specific) because it will come to you. Truth.
Love,
me
P.S. What did I miss? What do I need to know about? What links should I be clickety clacking? Post in the comment section and join the conversation.
This post is part of The Blog Dare series.
Whimsical tunes for your weekend
If you're anything like me, you take yourself too seriously far too often. I get obnoxious about it too, particularly musically. I get all self-righteous and preachy about pop music, lament the fact that top 40 tunes are destroying the creative potential of the human race, and love/hate when I realize (while a passenger in a friend's vehicle because I haven't listened to commercial radio in over a decade, re self-righteous) one of my fav bands has become common knowledge.
Whatever. It happens.
This also happens...
Between the band's affirming message and the whimsical feeling you get when listening to them, it's like Glee and her life partner recruited the It Gets Better campaign as their donor and the baby is a barefoot summer music festival at which I'm dancing with the hottest man ever. Who is very dark and tall with unruly curly hair, btw. Oh, and we're making out in a muddy rainstorm. That. That's what this album is like. Pure fun. Pure positivity. Pure in-the-moment. Pure pop.
Have a joyful weekend.
Whatever. It happens.
This also happens...
Between the band's affirming message and the whimsical feeling you get when listening to them, it's like Glee and her life partner recruited the It Gets Better campaign as their donor and the baby is a barefoot summer music festival at which I'm dancing with the hottest man ever. Who is very dark and tall with unruly curly hair, btw. Oh, and we're making out in a muddy rainstorm. That. That's what this album is like. Pure fun. Pure positivity. Pure in-the-moment. Pure pop.
Have a joyful weekend.
An invitation
Hi Reader,
Two things I want to discuss with you:
No.1: If you're reading this in an RSS feed right now (it's likely most of you are), take a moment and bounce over to the full my madeleines URL. I spent time in January completely redesigning the site and I'm happy with how it turned out. I found a cleaner, more direct way to integrate my photography blog, instagram, flickr, facebook, twitter, pinterest, yelp, tumblr, and more. Take a peek.
No.2: If you're a facebook user, join other readers on the my madeleines page. RSS feeds are convenient, but they're also quite solitary. I want the chance to interact with people and create a community of blog readers. That won't happen with each of us in our own RSS silo. I invite you to like the my madeleines facebook page and start a conversation with other creative souls who live for travel, photography, design, food, and cultural adventures.
Two things I want to discuss with you:
No.1: If you're reading this in an RSS feed right now (it's likely most of you are), take a moment and bounce over to the full my madeleines URL. I spent time in January completely redesigning the site and I'm happy with how it turned out. I found a cleaner, more direct way to integrate my photography blog, instagram, flickr, facebook, twitter, pinterest, yelp, tumblr, and more. Take a peek.
 |
| If you're not in an RSS reader right now, this photo is so meta. |
No.2: If you're a facebook user, join other readers on the my madeleines page. RSS feeds are convenient, but they're also quite solitary. I want the chance to interact with people and create a community of blog readers. That won't happen with each of us in our own RSS silo. I invite you to like the my madeleines facebook page and start a conversation with other creative souls who live for travel, photography, design, food, and cultural adventures.
 |
| facebook.com/mymadeleines |
Waterboarding. Naked Mormon Missionaries.
Huh. Of all the posts I've ever posted...my blogger stats tell me these are some of the most significant.
I quit.
A note from my past
Back in August I told you about a website I stumbled onto called Future Me. You write an email to yourself and the site will deliver it on whatever future date you specify. The only rule is that it has to be at least 90 days in the future.
So...way back then...I sent an email to myself as a test. I completely forgot about it in the meantime, and was surprised when my message was delivered last week. Now that I know it's legit...it's game on. I'm going to send all sorts of notes to The Future Me. I absolutely love this idea. The Future Me might get sort of annoyed with The Past Me...but whatever.
Totally addicting waste of time
So over Thanksgiving weekend my dad showed me his virtual cafe and virtual apartment, encouraging me to become his business partner and neighbor. He introduced me to the Facebook apps Cafe World and YoVille (they're like SIMS lite, more or less). Up until two days ago, I was completely unaware such apps existed. I scoffed and ridiculed him for indulging in such low-brow time wasters. Important people have important things to do, I explained, and I couldn't possibly find the time to play these silly games with him.
That's a screen shot of the living room in my YoVille apartment. Yeah, I know.
And that's a screen shot of my cafe (aptly named: my madeleines). I know, I know!
Well, about that.
And that's a screen shot of my cafe (aptly named: my madeleines). I know, I know!But dude, seriously. He tricked me into this addiction by letting me remodel his cafe. He had taken all the starter furniture items and done nothing to the cafe, focusing only on the food served leading to the bottom line dollar. Pssh...that's where I come in. I rocked a remodel and his business went through the roof. "Money well spent," he said as I drained his bank account from over $30,000 to $500. You gotta spend money to make money, I always say.
No. I don't actually say that. I'm not even sure I know what that means.
But I do know what it means to design and decorate. Blame it on the Libra genes or some other inherent esthetic, but I've always been good at it. After remodeling my dad's cafe I held out as long as I could (about three hours) before caving, downloading both apps to my Facebook account, and proceeding to establish my own little virtual empire.
I find it kind of annoying that I have to play stupid games and cook food and work and stuff in order to get enough little gold coins to do what I want to do; which is to say shop and decorate. It's also all well and good that I worked ahead with my homework and had time to indulge this weekend...but I don't wanna think about the mess my little virtual world will be in when work hits the fan tomorrow morning. We'll see if I bother to maintain my addiction or decide to detox.
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