[ mooooooooo ]

My set of MOO MiniCards came in the mail today! Oh joy, oh joy. Ten perfect little minicards. All for me. I love them, I love them, I love them. Yay!







TIATF:

MOO! I was a little skeptical of how the quality would be, but I am insanely impressed! And these are beaaaautiful. And decently priced. YAY!

[ new goals strategy ]

Can it be? Two posts in one day? Am I totally screwing myself over? It is posssssible!

Anyway, as some (most? any?) of you know, I've been working on a 101 in 1001 list of goals. And my 101 in 1001 goals list still only consists of 39 goals. Yeah, not quite right. I was thinking about it today, and I realized that I'm treating it too much as a long-term goal list. There's really no reason I can't put a goal on there that I want to accomplish in the next month. Or week, really. But to me, a list that extends over two and a half years in the future is a long-term goal list. Therefore, I've come up with a new strategy for keeping myself motivated.

I'm going to work on a week-by-week basis. Sure, I'll have some long-term goals, but I will only state goals that I want to accomplish within the next week. Today, I will post my first list of goals. Next Sunday, I'll post about how well I did accomplishing those goals, as well as post a new list of goals. I'm going to choose seven goals per week. One goal per day.

To me, that is doable. That is something I can wrap my mind around. That is something I can totally grasp and attack.

Some of my goals may be smaller steps in a larger goal. They may be as simple as remembering to go to the bank that week. They may involve several steps. But the point will be, to move forward on seven (or so) things, every single week.

And so I proudly present,

Seven In Seven

1. Design at least five cards for Mom's gift list
2. Hang the shelves we bought about two weeks ago
3. Get Christine's proofs up and email her
4. Organize my Mail folders into a system that actually makes sense
5. Design and order Hanukkah cards for Jesse's family
6. Work out a design for the wall art project I want to do
7. Create promotional materials for FiveGoodGoats, including pricing lists
   

Join me if you'd like. Let me know what your goals are, and if you accomplish them. Have fun with it. Become more productive. Become more motivated. Help motivate me, and I'll help motivate you.



TIATF:

The creator of 101 in 1001. I don't actually know who started it, but I've seen it all over the place. It's a great idea, and definitely the inspiration for this plan, but it just doesn't seem to be for me. But that doesn't mean I'm not thankful for it existing!

[ i'm from peoreighwich ]

If you've seen the new AT&T commercials that have the "I need a network that works where I live, a place called Delapragacago," and you find them humorous, this website is for you. You enter three cities that you are from, and it creates the tongue-twister city name for you. You can put it on a t-shirt, coffee cup, tote bag or sticker. You can then add a funny slogan to it, that comes with a fun little cartoon. You can then buy the product, which I won't be doing, but it was fun to play with!

Here's mine:


I'm "Taking My Lumps in PEOREIGHWICH." The cities I put in were: Peoria (where I live), Raleigh (where my parents and sister live) and Sandwich (where I was born and raised). I'm not sure you can tell in the picture, but my cartoon is a little sugar lump with boxing gloves. Hilarious!

Try it out!

Let me know where you live. Maybe you can come visit Peoreighwich!



TIATF:

Hilarious cartoons of sugar lumps gettin' ready for a showdown. I laughed really really hard.

Oh, and Animal House on USA. That movie never gets not-funny.

[ epson salts and beer ]

TIATF:

An epson salt foot bath, beer and frozen pizza covered in red peppers and mushrooms.

I worked another wedding tonight, and for whatever reason, my legs were exhausted when I got home and my feet were killing me. Add to that the fact that I had barely eaten anything since breakfast.

The perfect remedy: an epson salt foot bath, beer and doctored frozen pizza. And my fabulous boyfriend. And some good movies on television.

Gooooooooooood night.

[ photography secrets ]

So I'm watching 'The Shot' on VH1. And it's extremely interesting to a photographer who doesn't work in the fashion industry at all. And it reminded me of a website I found a while ago, about images taken of some celebrity women without makeup or retouching. The women still look beautiful, but then you read the descriptions of the images, and you see why they still look perfect.

Check it out: "Look Ma, No Photoshop."

And it's so true. I know that when I'm editing images, one way to instantly make someone look younger is to brighten the entire image. If the entire image is bright, blemishes and wrinkles fade. It's rather incredible.

Anyway, I hope you find this interesting. You too can take model-esque images of people, just by bumping up your exposure.


Also, I've been meaning to ask if anyone would appreciate small photography lessons here on the blog. I'd totally be up for compiling some tips and reviewing some basics for anyone who wanted them. Let me know!


TIATF:

Shows like The Shot. They are incredibly interesting to me. I love to watch shows like this and America's Next Top Model. The drama completely bores me and is annoying. But the behind the scenes of photo shoots is completely and totally fascinating. I love watching how shots are made, how amazing photos are made. Awesome.

[ the quest to live green ]

Well, hello there. Welcome to the first post I've ever planned out in advance! I've been wanting to write about my efforts to live green for a while, as well as get ideas from other people. Sooooo, here we go.

Living green is one of my 101 in 1001 goals. I've become more and more concerned with trying to live as green as possible. There are some things I do, some things I could do, and some things I can't do. And I'm sure there are ways to live green that I haven't even thought of. So that is the point of this post. Telling you what I've done to live green, and hopefully getting some feedback on how others live green.

What I Do To Live Green:

• I have CF bulbs in most of my lights
• I always bring my own bag & crate to the market
• I recycle all my plastics, newspapers, paper & cardboard
• I'm a vegetarian (well, almost... I do eat seafood, but not super frequently)
• I turn off lights when they're unnecessary
• I turn off the water when it isn't necessary (like when brushing my teeth, washing dishes, etc)
• I rarely eat out
• I never use plastic utensils or paper plates
• I turn the a/c to a higher temperature
• I use the fans in our apartment
• I dry most of my clothes on a line
• I turn my computer off when I'm not at home or sleeping

What I Could Do To Live Green:

• Put CF bulbs in all of my lights
• Walk to the grocery store when we only need a few things
• Unplug my chargers and printer when not in use
• Take my canvas bags to all stores, not just the market

What I Can't Do To Live Green

• Carpool
• Take the bus or bike to work
• Any new appliances
• Any major home changes, as I rent

So now, I need your help. What else can I do to live green? Thanks in advance for any and all ideas!



TIATF:

All the information on living green. And the move towards living green. And how living green or trying to live green no longer automatically categorizes you as a dirty hippie.

[ more networking ]

I went to another networking event tonight. It was a much smaller group (only about 8), but everyone was very nice, and everyone was involved in different lines of work. I think I got a couple good leads out of it.

Again, with the lame-o post because I'm tired. I'll try to make up for it tomorrow.



TIATF:

Meetup.com.

I found Ladies Who Launch and this networking group through it, and I'm sure I'll find more. I highly recommend checking it out.

[ photo post ]

Just some images today. Beautiful Arizona skies. Love 'em more and more every day.







TIATF:

Photography.

It gives me peace. It gives me passion. It gives me memories. It gives me motivation. It gives me clarity.

[ right now i'm reading ]

Right now, I'm reading a book called The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History. Really f'ing long title, huh?


So far, I'm really enjoying it. It's a lot of fun, with people such as Midas, Santa Claus, Robin Hood, Godzilla, Luke Skywalker, and more. It describes how these made-up characters have shaped American society. It offers some fun anecdotes, lots of further reading, and a lot of "Oh, I never really thought of it like that" moments.

My favorite section so far (I'm about a third of the way through) is about Cinderella. Mainly because, it kind of shows Cinderella as, if you really think about it, what she really is: a whiny, pathetic princess.

Cinderella is pathetic, but we fall in love with the idea that the meek will triumph in the end. To this purpose, a fairy godmother provides her with elegant clothes so that she can attract the eye of the prince, who happens to be looking for a girl to marry. Decked out in her finery, Cinderella gets his attention at a ball where she is nothing but a clotheshorse. She has earned nothing. She deserves nothing, except perhaps back wages at home. And yet, she gets the prince to marry her. This is not the lesson we should teach our children. There are more important values than good looks, fine clothes and expensive trappings -- intelligence, independence, self-esteem, responsibility, and self-motivation -- none of which characterize Cinderella.

So very true, but you never think of it like that. It's always, "Oh how lucky Cinderella is. How amazing that she finally got what she deserved." But she didn't really work for it. She happened to fit a certain shoe size.

Makes ya think.

Anyway, the book kinda reads like Chuck Klostermann, who I love. Ironic, and witty, with truth put out in plain view. I recommend it.



TIATF:

My love of reading. Without it, I don't think I would have been half as successful in my life as I have been. I certainly wouldn't have been such a good student!

[ image from amazon ]

[ color inspiration ]

I haven't done one of these posts in ages. I actually completely forgot about. Color inspiration, coming your way!

For some reason, I have recently been loving the green of highway signs. I've never particularly enjoyed it before, but recently, against the blue, blue sky, awesome.

Sunsets are always full of color inspiration. Hot yellows, pale oranges, fading into blue-grey skies. Awesome.


Dusty blue-grey truck, against the baby blue bottom part of the truck. Please ignore the nasty nasty pollution evident in the picture. That is NOT inspirational! Although, I guess it is... because it has definitely inspired me to keep working on living green!

Another sunset, but blurry and crazy. Looks like a painting. And I love the color of the headlights against the pavement. Pavement has never looked so pretty.



TIATF:

My little Canon PowerShot camera. It's small enough that I can slip it in my purse, so my only excuse for missing a photo opportunity is being too lazy to get it out.

(I have a new strategy for my TIATF. If it's part of a regular post, it will be in some way related to that post. If not, it'll be whatever I want it to be. That is all.)