New Year, New Word, New Life

And so 2008 comes to a close. I was trying to think about the past year and reflect upon my successes and exciting moments and I started getting a little weepy (it can happen sometimes). Here are my favorite 2008 happenings:
-meeting wonderful women who are accepting and inspiring. oh, and they are true friends.
-Paying off a HUGE credit card balance by myself and not incurring interest
-singing my concert (and preparing for it, making arrangements for it, etc). This was big for me and something I never thought would actually happen. It built my self esteem and I felt so amazing after it.
-Reading just to read - this was something I previously stopped doing. For a while I was reading just to get better arguments for "my side" and now I am embracing knowledge and relaxing with a good story
-Preparing for my wedding and having fun with it
-fostering a fulfilling relationship with Freddy
-sticking with my 366 photo project

In 2008 my word of the year was peace. And I do feel that I was happier, full of a sense of being ok with me and my life. It was a good word and I thank it.

And now I introduce to you (drum roll please) my word for 2009: CHANGE. There are lots of changes going on in my life this upcoming year. I am getting married. I will be moving out and starting my own life in my own place (wherever that will be), I will need to change how I think about money, food, my lifestyle. I'm not going to lie, I am nervous. This will be a momentous year. And I just have to say to myself that change is good and I will enjoy the ride.

Happy 2009 filled with lots of blessings.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

As some of you know, this is my ringtone at the moment, as I seriously love Christmas time. This year has been a little different, as I decided to be more simple in preparation and gift-giving. Those I love will receive one gift (this excludes stockings, of course, but those are simple, too). Yup, my mom is shocked as she remembers the year of the gap pjs stacked in boxes (no joke) four feet high for everyone on my list. And it just isn't worth it. Too crazy to buy, too much debt to incur, and realizing it is the people that make the gifts helped me realize that it was time to change. And I loved shopping this Christmas. I loved that I was calm and smiling and that I didn't have to trek to Roosevelt Field Mall once (three years ago I was stuck there in snow with Freddy). I thought that it was actually more meaningful to find one gift per person, as I had to really hope this is the perfect gift.

Our family and friends will be spending time enjoying one another, gifts just don't measure up to the joy we share in these moments. So, here are some highlights of Christmas Prep 2008 (since I have again been a bad blogger).

My new slippers and PJs for Christmas (I know fugly slippers, but man are they warm!)


The gals at out office part-ay


At a Christmas Breakfast


Each year Mom buys my brother Christopher and me ornaments celebrating something special from the past year. I received a teapot and Chris got a kiss my bass ornament, as he caught his first striped bass...very bold choice for Mom to buy.


2 of my fave ornaments, always aranged this way (please say it out loud and giggle)


At Rockefeller Center


And skating there (scratch it off the Bucketlist)





The Nativity at St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC (I am obsessed with Nativities, may be another post)



And our new favorite tradition - The Holiday Train Show at the NY Botanical Garden. Everything is made from bark, twigs, leaves and the scenes are famous NYC landmarks.

Peace and Merriment to All!!!!

I am thankful for,,,

-my incredible family for constant acceptance
-freddy for loving me and helping me focus on the joys of life
-the support of all the incredible women in my life (chances are that if you are reading this you are one of them. You have no idea the difference you have made in my life this year and I am so fortunate, for you have been so positively uplifting).
-the gift of life, living it, and experiencing it
-faith and peace, even if sometimes the peace is only in my heart, but I'll take it :)
-my desire to constantly learn and question
-my job and the opportunities it has given me
-health
-finally embracing my voice and using it the way I should
-all the people who included me in their celebrations today. i will never want to miss a Thanksgiving breakfast with my aunt barbara and uncle brendan!
Hope you all had a beautiful thanksgiving...and enjoy shopping tomorrow! I might hit the gap...we'll see how sleepy I am!!!

ode to the iPhone

Oh, iPhone, how I love thee, let me count the ways:

1. You are pleasing to the eye and you play my music, thus pleasing to the ears, too.
2. I get my email wherever, whenever
3. I get the Today's Special Value at QVC when I need to see it, even if I am in bed
4. THE APPLICATIONS: this is the best feature of the iPhone. I have an Obama 08, to do list, birthday tracker, wedding tracker, urbanspoon, shaazam, and pac-man. The functionality of this thing makes it worth the price tag. I no longer need to drag the planner around. It is in the phone (which goes everywhere anyway).
5. The voicemail - I see who called, click their name, listen, and hit a delete key (no 7 stuff to deal with)
6. I can google anything people need to know. yup, annoyingly wonderful way to end an argument about who stared in that ridiculous movie.
7. texting: I see all the previous texts from a person on one screen
8. less to carry in a nice little machine :)

YES WE CAN

Tonight I am incredibly proud of my country. I am so proud to be an American (I don't think I have ever been more proud of this in my life). I look forward to a future filled with hope, change, and the belief that together we will make this country, this world a better place. I am uplifted, inspired, emotional (I just cried through the entire acceptance speech) and again, so very proud.

Above all, I am honored to have as our 44th President, Barack Obama.

YES WE CAN, YES WE WILL.

A Week in the Life

This is what I am starting today...documenting the week with photos and words. I am really excited to see the end result and I am loving taking shots of my routines, phone moments, tea cups, piles, etc. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in being able to one day look back and see what is important. Read Ali's Blog here to learn more about the project. And I will try to upload some daily photos and notes.

Seattle Recap

So, I am home safe and sound from a 3-day conference trip to Seattle, WA. Funky place, if I do say so myself. WARNING:PHOTO HEAVY POST!

The flight there was pretty uneventful, except for the pain searing down my neck and back from sleeping weird. Delta was very cool to fly with and unexpectedly, had tvs on board. very nice plus.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we learned that the housing dept. booked our one room wrong so I actually got to stay in my own room, which was awesome. These were the views from my room:






Any room that overlooks a Nordstrom and Jcrew is fine with me (i unfortunately, did not have the time to shop, which sucked major for me but was good for the budget.

Day 1 was travel, lunch at cheesecake factory, welcome reception (with very yummy crab cakes, salmon, and squash with corn salsa), and a trip to the SPACE NEEDLE!!! This was a very cool experience. I guess you can't go to seattle and ignore the Space Needle and it did not disappoint. We rode the glass elevator up and had incredible lighting. Here are my fave shots:






Day 2 was attending conference sessions, which was pretty good.

Then came the highlight of the trip: My pilgrimage to the first Starbucks. Flippin amazing. I asked the hotel concierge how to get there and then he told me I only had 20 mintues before the market closed and it was a 10-mintute walk. And so, I put on my race through NYC look and bounded out of the hotel on a mission with my colleagues. And made it to the market. But the Starbucks was all worth it:


It was all I ever dreamed of. The original mermaid logo (she is "exposed," unlike the current, more modest logo), the crowded cafe, friendly baristas, and new mugs. So so so so awesome. Here are my shots (and thanks to Deb for the fun ones of me looking like a kid on Chirstmas morning):











And then we walked through the market at sunset...and the creepy people started coming out. Now, I am totally cool with people wanting to be who they are, but it was just weird to watch an attempted mugging...yup, watched a kid try to steal a backpack and a skateboard. creepy stuff, and once the market itself closed, it started getting sketchy, so we went somewhere else to dinner. Here are the market shots:









and the one of mt. st. helen and safeco field in the background

And the final day was a full day of travel...blech. i did get to watch 5 hours of the Discovery Channel series When We Left Earth all about space travel. Thanks Jet Blue for letting me watch space ships explode as I fly. Truly uplifting.

At the end, I was just so happy to be home and eat some yummy pasta. It was a cool place, man, but again, I felt like it was 1996 all over again. I would take Bill Clinton, but not the dred locks :).

pjs rock

I am going on a business trip to Seattle this week and I usually get verrrrrry anxious about flying, being away from family, talking in my sleep knowing my roomie would hear. Lots of serious stuff, I know. I don't quite know how to totally combat my fears, but I have found something that makes me look forward to traveling a little more...new pjs.


Might sound bizarre, I know, but new pjs give me a little natural high and so this weekend I got Gap body's super soft tee and all I can say is eeek, amazingly soft. so go get some. they are super soft and super flattering and super stay-in-them-all-day.

being grateful

There are so many situations, people, moments, etc. where we can only see the negative, the bad stuff, the ugly. I am the type of person to harp on these things and I can let them consume me if I really want them to.

And, so I propose the idea of a gratitude journal (ok, Oprah, whom I totally wish I could be, came up with it). Here is the journal I made this weekend:

It is very simple and has blank pages. Basically it is a notebook I found on clearance at Old Navy a while ago and I decorated it. I just think that by adding one thing I am grateful for each day it can help me change my perspective about life, people, etc. I am hoping to make my lists longer to five things a day eventually, but I'm taking baby steps.

Ok, so today I am grateful for my Dad who made a yummy egg breakfast today...how about you?

Inspirational Women

I truly believe that to be positive, you must be surrounded by positive people. I so think that women need women to guide them, cry with them, laugh with them, etc and I just don't think there are many opportunities in life to do this. All too often we feel judged, misguided or uncomfortable just being ourselves, and I think I have finally gotten over needing to be overly concerned about presenting myself a certain way. I am no longer ashamed of who I am, how I think, and the way I live. I am instead embracing the exciting moments in my life and realizing that they all make me who I am.

Which leads me to my point...every Wednesday night I spend the evening with these incredible women:




I am so blessed. These women are AMAZING and are my teachers (one of whom is my mom). They have been through it all - marriage, children, some divorces, some remarriages, deaths, awesome jobs, financial struggles, finding beauty in each day, forgiving others. I could go on and on. They help me put life in perspective and teach me to just let it be. Through our weekly chatting/crying/reflection/prayer-fest (ok, sometimes we go to the movies) we are all there for one another in ways that I can't even put into words.

We all have a story, we all have experiences to share and all of us say things that are completely touching, completely insightful, and just what we need to hear. It is always so impressive that even though we may have differing opinions on stuff, we all love each other anyway and actually get to talk things through and attempt to understand one another. I am so grateful to be a part of this group. It has changed my life. I appreciate life so much more, I see goodness so much more.

Our focus for the fall will be reading Simplicity:The Freedom of Letting Go. We are each taking a chapter to present. Believe me, I really need this in my life and I am looking forward to hearing everyone's input. I have read the first chapter and it really presents the ideas simply and easily. It is so calming and I am very exctied to see where it will lead me in my journey. I highly recommend it (ok, I loooooove everything Richard Rohr does, so just read anything by him) and I think you will feel enlightened.

Peace

Seriously, this has been a cool week. I don't often have cool weeks where the crazy days and bad moments don't get to me, but this week has just been so awesome. My friends are having cool life moments and I am actually at peace with who I am.

I have been able to be creative and I have big news...my cards will hopefully be sold through Rarebits shortly. We are developing personalized cards that will be monogrammed and plan to have samples listed shortly on the site. I love this company (ok, the owners have been "family" forever, so I am a little biased) and their philosophy of loving who you are and those around you is inspiring. I am very excited because I usually don't have confidence in what I create and this has made me feel really good about my creations and me. It is a cool, natural high feeling.

So, peace blog friends :).

more cleaning and good giveaways

ok, so today I deep cleaned my room...vacuumed (even the walls), dusted, polished, windexed and mopped the floor (that was gross, very very gross). I have been feeling that I need to minimize and simplify my life. So that's what I am working on, trying to declutter and make my life comfortable and the spaces I live in spotless and organized. I am not the best organizer. Any tips?

Here is the clean room. Very clean, but yeah, I have a lot of furniture. Oh, and the Orbit gum box blocks the light from the street light. If I close the shade I loose the breeze. It's a trend that'll catch on, you watch.


And on to the giveaway. I have also gone through my handmade, handstamped cards and determined that I have sent most of them to everyone in my family. I have over 25 cards to give to my blog friends...leave a comment and I will get them to you complete with envelopes. (And Jamie, I will bring the stickers to you at the v-ball game...I didn't forget I promise).

taking time to discover

I never used to be into nature...nature meant yard work or getting dirty and I just wasn't interested. In stepped Freddy who is Father Nature. He loves animals, plants, anything to do with the outdoors and being nurturing and I have to say, that at first that was a scary thing.

Freddy knew how to make nature exciting for me, though, and that was through photography. He took me to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Oakdale three years ago and I was completely amazed. The colors, the flowers, the overall beauty of the place was alluring. I took tons of photos and really got to appreciate the beauty that was so close to home. We get to there usually every couple of seasons and we also love the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden where we are contributing members.

My love for nature took a while, but I soon got my own orchids and have taken pretty good care of them and have watched them bloom annually, which is a true gift.

Today Freddy and I made another trip to the Arboretum, the first in a while. I think it was our first at the end of the summer and we saw some beautiful dahlias and black eyed susans in bloom. I also loved seeing the butterflies and ospreys. One other magical moment of the day was chatting with a couple for over an hour. They were celebrating their 48th wedding anniversary and shared with us fascinating stories about their world-wide travels and life experiences. That was a true gift.

Here are some photos from the day:
views:







Flowers (and a butterfly):







Freddy wanting a hug from a goose:



Us under the tree canopy:





So get discovering...find a new place to check out and talk to random people. It is really enriching.

i purged

not food, but emotions and scrap stuff.

first, I have been a bad blogger and a bad flickr uploader and I do apolpgize. life has been nutty...read Jamie's blog from a couple of days ago, as she put the experience into words better than I could. It was crazy, but I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I didn't hate going to work last week (could just be I am on va-kay next week, LOL). I just realized that I have wanted change in my life and I have to start making that happen. I am very good at talking the talk but not doing any walking. So this is a baby step, but I feel great, so much more relaxed. So that was the emotional purge.

The scrap purge was insane!!

Here are the before photos: (I can't believe I am posting these...they are scary)










I spent from 11am-2:30pm and then from 4pm-10:30pm completely getting rid of papers, stickers, embellishments, and stamps while blasting Counting Crows (the new album is so good). I have an excess problem (you all know of my pen obsession) and tend to buy 2, 3, 4 of everything. I have never gone through all my scrap stuff since I started four years ago. I just couldn't imagine the task. And it was sucky. It was hours of paper sorting mostly.

Here are my to-give-away piles (leave a note if you want anything, as I have no idea where to give it. Lots of awesome paper).




And these are the after photos:







yay! I have a workspace back. It has been a while since I seriously scrapped just for me and not for the design team at scrapper's playground. I caught the bug again and can't wait to create. I am hoping to get that vision board happening.

Hope u are all having a good weekend...and I promise to be a better blogger.