Discover Your Bliss

Halloween's almost here...are you ready?

Just to let everyone know that Halloween is almost here - are you ready?  

Sometimes time flies so quickly that holidays and important occasions - just slip up on us. 

I thought I'd take a moment to remind everyone that Halloween is just a hop, skip and jump away - so start now so you can be ready and not have to do everything the last minute.  

How do you celebrate Halloween?  What do you need to do in order to get ready for the day?  Make a costume?  Create a plan?  Decorate? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Unread magazine project - part 2

Last week I talked about my Unread magazine project regarding my unread Martha Stewart Living magazines and my plan to get through them in one year's time.

I have to say that I had my doubts - in myself.  I wasn't sure if I could do this.  I thought, If I went all this time and didn't look at these magazines, then what makes me think that I'm going to do it now?

Thankfully, I did not follow, nor believe that thought. 

A few hours after that post, I gathered all of my Martha Stewart magazines and sorted them into piles according to month.  Most months had four magazines, some had three. 

I reorganized the magazines so that the upcoming months would be closer at hand and put the August, July, June, May and April magazines further out of reach.  

My first month to tackle - September - with four magazines.  Hmmm...

 

On Friday, I decided to start looking at the first magazine (from 2003!) and had an instant realization - I love, love, love Martha Stewart Living magazine. 

You might be wondering why that was such a realization.  I'd built up in my mind that getting through a Martha Stewart Living magazine ranked up there with pulling teeth or climbing Mount Everest.  Not so. 

I forgot how easy it was to go through the magazine and how much I enjoyed reading it.  Before I knew it, I'd finished magazine number one.  Yippee! 

Magazine number two quickly followed and I'm currently working on (playing on) magazine number three. 

The unread magazine project has also resulted in a few fun side trips as well. 

I found three recipes in magazine number one that I wanted to try, so on Sunday, I bought the ingredients at the farmers market and spent the majority of the afternoon making roasted vegetable soup (majorly labor intensive, yet good) and honey walnut cake.  Jon approves of both so the recipes took up residence in my recipe book.

What started out as a dreaded project has turned into a fantastic adventure.  What bliss!

What's something you're dreading doing that might result in an adventure?  How can you use adventure more in your everyday life?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.   

  

Unread magazine project

I love magazines.  I read tons of them and I love them. 

The most challenging aspect of loving magazines (for me) is keeping up with them month after month and not amassing a huge pile of unread paper.

I have a great system for this - when I'm finished with a magazine, it goes to the bottom stack (my read and unread magazines have a dividing point - so I know where one ends and the other begins).  As soon as the unread stack reaches the top of my chair, then I call the magazine lady and give them to her. 

Now if I have such a great system, why am I writing this?  Martha Stewart Living. 

I love Martha Stewart Living magazine, yet for some reason I went months and months without reading them.  They kept getting pushed to the side and put in other places. 

I have some of those nifty plastic magazine holders that have my subscriptions of past years and I've decided the I will no longer keep them for reference (I haven't referenced them and most stuff can be found online) - however - I do want to read them all before I let them go. 

Thankfully, I no longer subscribe to Martha Stewart Living - so I'm not adding to the unread magazine pileup.  And that's the only reason I no longer subscribe - my unread magazine pileup. 

I've created a plan for myself that will take one year to complete - yet if I decide to shorten the plan, that's also okay. 

I am going to gather all of my Martha Stewart Magazines by month and read them accordingly.  If I start reading one and realize I've already read it, then it will go in the rotation of my nifty plastic magazine holders until I have completed the year and at the end of that year I will give them away to someone that wants them.

Here are my ground rules: 

1.  Read the magazines by month - since this is August, I will start with the September magazines - my fantasy goal is to read the September magazines between Aug. 15-Sept. 15 and then start in on the October magazines Sept.15-Oct. 15, etc. 

2.  If, for some reason, I need until the end of the month, that's okay, yet the minute the month changes - that's it - the magazines are headed to my nifty plastic magazine holders to await their eventual give away. 

3.  I have one year to complete the challenge.

4.  If I take less than one year - that's okay.  

And the big bonus at the end of all of this?  I will have more stuff out of my home!  Clearing clutter opens up more space for good things!  And that's a good thing (to borrow from Martha Stewart). 

Ready, set, read!

What challenge would you like to create for yourself?  How will you keep yourself motivated, accountable and on track? 

I'd love to hear your insights and discoveries. 

How to organize your vacation pictures part 2

Ready to get those vacation pictures closer to the world of organization?  Read on to discover more tips. 

From last week's post, we learned the first three steps in organizing your vacation photos:  delete, rotate and create folders. 

Assuming your goal is to create a photo book from you vacation pictures, the following steps might support you in achieving your goal in a more timely fashion.

I prefer Shutterfly over Snapfish or other online photo retailers.  I am not getting a kickback by Shutterfly for saying this - I love their quality and ease of photo book tools. 

Please note that these tips are for digital photography.  If you prefer to print out your photos and physically scrapbook and organize them, then many of these step will also apply.

Uploading Photos

Instead of uploading all of my vacation photos to Shutterfly, I prefer to do a bit of pre-organizing prior to upload so I don't get overwhelmed by my choices - plus once you've uploaded your photos, you might not be able to see them as clearly since they will not appear as large on your computer screen. 

I work on one day of vacation photos at a time in order to make the process simpler. 

Step one:  grab a scrap sheet of paper and pen so you can write down which photos you want to upload.

Step two:  decision making time - go through one day's worth of photos to determine which ones you want to put in your album. 

You might think that they all should go in your album (and that might be the case) yet with some careful comparison, you can weed out any repeat and not as interesting photos. 

Let's say you took several photos of the Washington Monument.  How many of the photos do you use? 

I prefer to use one or two - max (unless there is something spectacular about your photo subject or you have a certain theme or style you are creating).  One of my photos would be of the full-sized monument and the possible second photo might be of a detail or special angle. 

What if you took several photos of the Washington Monument, then took several more that also included your husband?  Choose which one looks the best and only include it as your "main" photo focus. 

Constantly ask yourself - Is this photo important to my book?  What's the value of my adding or excluding this photo from my book?  

The more you do this, the easier it will get for you to determine which photos will work best in your book. 

Step three:  write down the photo numbers/jpegs/names that you want to include in your ablum so it will be easy to upload when the time comes. 

Step four:  once you have your day one photos selected, then upload them to Shutterfly (or similar site) so you can select them for your album use.

Step five:  After you've added the photos to your photo book project, then you can start building your book...one day at a time. 

More great vacation photo tips to share next week. 

What's your process when tackling large projects?  Where would you like to ask for support? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.  

How to organize your vacation pictures pt. one

So you just got back from vacation and with that - you now have hundreds, possibly thousands of photos to organize.

Sound fun and exciting?  Well, for some people this is a HUGE chore that never gets done simply because it feels too overwhelming after a week or more of vacation time. 

Never fear, help is here.  I will be sharing my easy-to-follow tips and tricks on getting your photos organized so you can share online, in print or create a photo book.

Step one:  Delete, delete, delete. 

I'm assuming that by now everyone has a digital camera - yet this can also work for traditional film cameras as well (it was much harder for me to do this with traditional prints in the beginning). 

Go through your photos and delete anything that's isn't usable.  Horrific lighting.  Heads cut off.  A stranger blocking your subject. 

The one exception to this rule:  don't delete that blurry picture you took of the Loch Ness Monster or big foot - for some reason no one can get a clear shot of either one.  

If this task feels too overwhelming, then give yourself a set number of photos to go through each day until you get this all-important task complete. 

By deleting first, you will save yourself time and frustration later. 

I would have uploaded examples of my bad photography, yet I've already deleted it - so go me!

Step two:  rotate all photos into their proper upright position. 

This step is important for two reasons:  1.  it will save the necks of your viewers - so they're not constantly turning their heads from side to side to see you standing in front of that ferris wheel.  2.  yet another time and frustration saver when you re-visit your photos or use them to create an online album.

Step three:  Create individual day folders for your photos.

Step three is optional and can be accomplished in a variety of ways.  Basically, find a way to group your photos so it will be easier to find a photo or create projects. 

I do this step as I upload my photos to Shutterfly.com so I can create an online photo book that I can order for myself as the ultimate souvenir. 

An example of this might be:  09 7 14 Beijing day 1 (I put the date first so it's easy to search)

Remember - step three is optional, yet might be a life-saver at a later date. 

Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to accomplish each step and break up your work into short spurts of time so you don't get vacation photo burnout on the first day. 

You have one week to delete, rotate and categorize your photos.  Part two to follow next week.

If you need support with this task - please - by all means - ask for it. 

For me, nothing feels as good after a vacation like a finished photo album...except for another vacation!

How does breaking down a big task into small steps support you?  How do you know when you've reached your daily, weekly and monthly limit with a task before it is no longer productive?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Go Shopping in Your Home

The next time you need something - consider shopping in your home.

Please ignore this idea if you need new milk or dog food.

Shopping in your home is a creative way to reduce the amount of stuff you bring into your home by finding a new use for something you already have or re-discovering what you already own.

For example, I wanted to figure out a way to put the business cards I collect from others on my computer. At first, I thought about what programs might work on my computer and how much I wanted to spend.

Then I realized that I owned "Neat Receipts" - which has a business card scanning feature - problem solved.

Need a container to put on your kitchen counter to hold your utensils? Pause before you buy something new. There's a million different ideas within your own home that can serve the same purpose - a flower pot, an extra-large mason jar, a washed and cleaned fruit jar, a random basket you have in your closet.

The idea is to get creative and use what you already have. It's one of the first steps in saving our planet.

What's something that you might need to purchase that you can "shop" your house instead? How can you expand this idea with neighbors, relatives and friends?

I'd love to hear your discoveries and comments.

Rate Your Password

I found something interesting that I'd like to share - a password checker.

Now this password checker doesn't decode or create a password for you.  What it does do is measure how easy it is to figure out your current password and rates it from easy, medium, strong and best. 

Check out the Password Checker to figure out how your passwords rate.  There's even a link that shows you how to create a stronger password that is more challenging for others to hack. 

Worried that you won't remember this "best" password?  The link gives you tips - like taking a phrase or sentence that you know and using only the first letter of each word. 

Take the phrase:  Those that do not study history are doomed to repeat it.  Your password might look like: ttdnshadtri - pretty challenging to hack - yet easy to remember (for you).  Throw a few numbers and capitol letters in the mix and you've got a rockin' password.

How does breaking away from the "comfortable" support you to take risks?  What would it look like to add one additional risk to your week?  each day? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries!

Bathroom Still Under Repair...And Loving It

Well, I'm not exactly loving that my bathroom is still under repair, yet I've found many silver linings to this cloud.

The challenge of where to put everything in my bathroom and how do I carry my "must haves" back and forth during this whole process has been full of struggle and daunt in the past.  Now, I'm finding new and creative ways to approach this formerly despised task.

I found an old triangle-shaped colander that my grandma gave me in the back cabinets of my kitchen.  The colander provided just the right amount of space, functioning and fun that flipped this dread into fun and function.

How can you flip a "not-so-exciting" task to fun?  What does it look like to infuse ease and grace into areas of resistance? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.    

Want to Prevent Identity Theft?

Call 888-5OPTOUT to remove your name from credit issuers' mailing lists. 

After a five minute chat with a computer, you will soon reduce your identity theft "opportunities." 

How?  Credit card companies will exchange any "pre-approved" credit card offers complete with application with a letter.  This simple step will cut your risk of someone stealing your mail or going through your garbage and applying for a credit card in your name. 

Because we're talking credit bureaus, you'll have to provide your Social Security number.  It's okay in this case.

How can reducing your "identity theft" vulnerability support your peace of mind?  What would it look like if you received only the mail you wanted? 

I'd love to hear your discoveries and comments!

Do You Have the 411 on 911?

Do you know when to call 9*1*1? 

911 is solely used to report emergencies.

What Is An Emergency?

An emergency is when IMMEDIATE Police, Fire Department, or Paramedic Assistance is necessary to protect life or property.

To give you a better idea of  when to use 911 here some examples:

Call 911

• To report a fire
• To stop a crime
• To save a life

Don't call 911

• Delayed reports where a crime has occurred and the offenders are no longer on the scene
• Nuisance calls (i.e., barking dogs, landscape and construction noise)
• To obtain information from the police department
• To speak with an officer
• Non emergency situations
• I've also learned that it is not necessary to call 911 when there is a non-injury accident (car)

Why does any of this matter?  It is important to know who to call if 911 isn't appropriate.  Also, it is also important to know where the nearest fire station, police station and hospital is located in relation to where you live and work. 

Do you know?  Are you prepared? 

You might want to keep a list of important numbers on your refrigerator for easy access. 

How does "being prepared" increase your bliss?  What does it look like to have a plan of action in the case of an emergency?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries!