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.

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

Hike down down down to Penobscot Bay #traveltuesday

Dyce Head Lighthouse | Castine, Maine

Castine, Maine is a quaint fishing village settled in 1613. I'd never heard of it before I spun the proverbial globe and asked a friend where I should take my next vacation. Her mother-in-law summers in Maine (as do many New Yorkers who use "summer" as a verb) and she gushed about the charm of Castine. She specifically recommended the Pentagoet Inn (B&B), which did not disappoint. Sight unseen, tickets were booked and off we went.

Castine is surrounded by the Penobscot River/Bay. Perched on the tip of the peninsula is the Dyce Head Lighthouse. The grounds (private residence) are beautiful, but the real gem is the footpath that leads to the water. First you walk through the rolling green yard, hike through dense woods, and finally pop out onto a steep wooden staircase leading straight into the bright blue water. Well, straight onto a rocky cliff. It's perfect for adventurous souls to climb around and explore, but when the tide comes crashing in it's not for the faint of heart. If you're up for it, it's breathtaking. {click to tweet and share the adventure}

I will never forget the sunset that night on the rocks, water crashing as the tide rose below. Only in the deserts of the Southwestern United States have I ever experienced the deep silence that also surrounded us that night on the cliff in Maine. It was one of most peaceful vacations I've ever had.

Love, 

me


This travel highlight is also featured on AFAR.com. Feel free to add it to your own wanderlist.

These photos are pinned to my wanderlust board. Re-pin and spread the love of adventure!

Retiring The Blog Dare. Introducing my editorial calendar.

purchase this gorgeous calendar on etsy

UPDATE: My editorial calendar is currently under revision. I recent posted about the exciting opportunities coming my way, so stay tuned for all that! For now, I can at least say that this is the direction I'm headed. Come back soon. It's gonna be awesome.

* * * * *

I started The Blog Dare at the beginning of June fully intending to use the daily prompts for an entire year. Well, guess what? It served its purpose. Already. And I'm thrilled that it ran its course. I'm shifting the energy that that exercise created into an editorial calendar. This experiment, like the dare, will no doubt be a work in progress. Here's my first crack at it, with excessive allieration:

{ Monday Meditations & Declarations }

I want to kick it off right and set intentions to carry me throughout each week. When The Declaration of You book tour is officially over at the end of July, and now that the book is released, I plan to go through the activities in the book and continue (re)working the declarations I posted initially. This may also be a day to share thoughts surface in my new mediation practice. The creative collaboration I'm launching with Alexander also fits snuggly into this Monday theme. 

Declaration posts are pinned to my Happiness Project board on Pinterest. The collaboration with Alexander, and other artsy projects, are pinned to my Creative Feats board on Pinterest.

{ Travel Tuesday }

This day could go in a number of different directions. I'd like to share more of my travel photography and globetrotting memories. I want to work on creating AFAR wanderlists and this will hold me accountable to that. I could also end up sharing travel plans, resources, anything in the vein of wanderlust.

Travel posts are pinned to my Wanderlust board on Pinterest with the hashtag #traveltuesday (the same hashtag used for these travel-related posts on Twitter). 

{ Whatever Wednesday }

Exactly what it sounds like: A free day to be random about whatever is on my mind. This would be a great time to share my random creative projects, updates on My Happiness Project, the research I'm doing about my Danish family history, assorted goodies on YouTube, you know, whatever. 

Random creative projects are pinned to my Creative Feats board on Pinterest. You'll find happy posts pinned to my Happiness Project board on Pinterest. Denmark research posts are pinned to my #FindYourJoy Denmark Pinterest board. All other randomness is pinned here. 

{ Throwback Thursday }

Flashbacks to some of my favorite and/or most popular posts. For example, to get this out of the way, of the more than six years I've been blogging at this URL, this stupid post about naked Mormon missionaries gets more hits than anything - a.ny.thing. - I've ever written. Ever. I should just embed the code to that link in every future post. Take that, SEO.

{ Link Love Friday }

Let's be honest, Fridays can be a lame day in the office. I'm going to make the assumption your productivity is shot and send you a love letter full of links and insights into my wanderings around the internet. Follow along if you'd like, add awesome stuff I missed in the comment section. 

Awesome goodies found on all the links posted here are pinned to my Link Love board on Pinterest. 

{ Saturday is my day off }

Peace out. Let's all recharge. And likely play on Pinterest. 

{ Sunday: The Week in Photos }

Primarily intended to be a round-up of my Instagram adventures over the past week, this may also end up becoming a forum for more intentional photo walks and curated series. Remember Candela, the online photography course I've been in and that you should sign up for right away? Well, it has blown my photographic world right open. There is good stuff coming your way. Stay tuned!

My photos, and related inspiration curated from all over the web, are pinned to my Photography board on Pinterest.

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Love and intentions, 

me