Recently I asked for your input on what is changing for you in 2024 and I was amazed with all your ideas, goals, and creativity. Thank you!! There was so much I couldn’t just do a random select because it meant I wouldn’t share every comment that I found energizing. Seriously, reading them provided ideas and inspiration on ways to further shape what I want to focus on. To get it all on paper I looked at the patterns and saw some main themes emerging so I’m sharing them in that way.
Get Into The Great Outdoors…Spending time in nature, watching sunrises and sunsets, walking outside, to name some, do lift you up and give you a different frame of mind. I’ve been pulling weeds and putting down new mulch and even though that’s tedious I do get more relaxed being outside. I would think if you’re in the city planting flowers in a pot to put on a deck would give you the same perspective.
Getting Motivated – So true! Get there in bits and pieces, usually 5-15 minutes will start moving your goal into shape. Look for an upcoming post on this.
Love, Kindness, & Happiness – So true! Start with yourself, maybe the 5-15 minutes of something important to you, something that makes you happy, daily or a few times a week makes a big difference! You deserve it. Love that this came up as a theme.
Travel – Do get out and explore, it’s amazing the people you meet and things you see. I’m starting to do this where I live, exploring my city like someone traveling here to visit, kind of exciting!
Work Through Tough Times – I totally get this one and being in the middle of it feels like you’re walled in. From talking to people, reading, and going through tough times, seems like it’s part of being a person, if you get an idea to read something, talk to someone, write a dialogue about it, etc. do it-those nudges are motions that help you to feel unstuck. I have a journaling link below to use or to spur ideas. Let me know what you come up with.
Eat More Sourdough Bread – Sign me up!!
Bye for now!
If you’d like more information plus inspirational images, please follow me!
Ready to start journaling? Click to get my free journaling workbook!
I love this time of year, January! Yes, I know you start getting end of year notices from your bank prepping you for tax season, big eye roll, and it gets really cold. But, there is so much more than that with January!
For me, every year it feels like I’ve got every possible avenue open to me-the adventure is refreshing! I also get this feeling to a lesser degree in April, with the spring weather, and October with the falling leaves and chilly evenings. More on those in a minute. Think about the New Year, the previous is now only a memory so if there were less than desirable things going on it’s in the past.
With that said, what are you going to do with any remnants you no longer want to deal with and what new cards do you want to deal into your life? It’s all a choice, and with baby steps, you can make edits and shape things to better suit either the direction you want to take or how you want to face something. Nobody can take that choice from you, it’s totally yours and that to me is exciting!
So usually each January has me changing the art in my home, lucky me my Dad and brother are both painters so there’s never enough wall space for everything, and refreshing my organization, and making plans. Also each year I tend to also take a deeper look at where I am in life, things like my spiritual take on things, or how I can edit my approach and be a better listener, stuff like that. And I look into the next baby steps to bring about the things I’d like to experience and see.
About a week ago I asked for your input on how you plan on recharging for 2024 and the responses have been amazing, really I’m inspired and grateful to read your goals. I want to give it the rest of this week and then I’ll randomly pull ten to post, but it may be more because I’m overwhelmed with how great they are. If you are on the fence, I won’t post any names but I’d love to share because they have inspired me and I’d like to share the same with you.
I’m posting the two things I’m excited to work on as a recharge in 2024 and that’s looking deeper into gratitude for even the things that aren’t desirable and also partnerships and what I’m bringing to the table to be part of a team whether it’s personal or business. In April and October I’ll look to revisit what I’m working on to see what feels relevant.
Bye for now!
If you’d like more information plus inspirational images, please follow me!
Ready to start journaling? Click to get my free journaling workbook!
So, I’ve always had a fascination with the color hot pink, along with chartreuse and teal, which is somewhat mid-century for both clothing and interior design. Though I don’t count orange as a regular fave, I like adding it into the mix sometimes especially in warmer weather.
Back to Hot Pink, I love it so much my selection of last years holiday cards was made because the envelopes were that color, and besides, who wouldn’t want that much cheerfulness in their mailbox during winter season? I seriously considered sending one to myself!
Looking at how it’s getting combined with other colors online I see a lot of it getting punched up with white, which is nice during the warm weather seasons, I also see it getting used with black pumps, jackets, etc. Both options work and also keep the color front and center. But what if you used it as a color to be mixed with other very cool and on trend colors? It’s still a standout but it gets pushed in a different way. My two colors for now, because I’m still having fun playing with it, are copper and a paler green in the pistachio range; let me say this exercise was fun!
My focus was on pieces purchased together for a head-to-toe look when you want to go that direction. You know by now, if you’ve been following my Style Of The Week I drop every Thursday, that I love, love, love to pull pieces apart and play with how they can be aligned in new ways. That said, below are some ideas I came up with.
Throw in your moto jacket or denim one because that will work too. In fact, I’m slightly obsessed with the idea of the sandals and the moto jacket for late night after parties with your bikini top, especially if it’s metallic copper or orange.
Have fun and bye for now!
Margi
If you’d like more information plus inspirational images, please follow me!
Ready to start journaling? Click to get my free journaling workbook!
So, I’ve started this year obsessed with organizing, weeding out, and sorting my house. And I mean my house! I’ve got a list by room of things I will do this year to refresh and/or edit things. I’ve been going through drawers, and even looking at expiration dates on everything, including my cosmetics! Crazy? Maybe, but I’ve only dented the surface and it already feels so much better. Plus, it feels like I’m a little more organized in my head which I didn’t expect.
This feeling came on me towards the end of December, and, serendipitously, while reading through the Apartment Therapy blog, I saw their January Cure they offer annually. Each weekday, gratis, for 20 days they send an email with the coolest ideas that are super easy, and quick to do. Check it out via the link below. If you do decide to go for it, and who cares if January is mostly finished, reach out either via the comments, or on my SM, and tell me what you think.
https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/january-cure-2022-sign-up-37004167
The work I was doing organizing and restyling my house brought an awareness that I was dissatisfied with my style too. Truthfully, I’d been feeling creatively stale for awhile and it felt as if I was putting a stale version of myself out to the world. Focusing intensely, managing my construction project last year, felt consuming to the point I wasn’t aware of changing incredibly inside. I’d been changing a lot in a positive way as a person but was too busy to realize it. You’re constantly changing, even if you aren’t aware of it at the time. Change was happening to me but it was background noise due to focusing so intently for so long. My client’s comment frequently that because I do styling, having a concern or feeling off must not happen to me. I’m here to tell you, even after years of styling for film and advertising – it happens to everyone!
Organizing, sorting, and weeding through my home caused me to realize the issue wasn’t “stale” creativity, it was no longer resonating with who I was before embarking on my project.
It’s time to put an editing eye on my closet! Everything was going into the project so I hadn’t purchased anything new for awhile. But, more than that, I wasn’t putting a fresh eye to what I had. Yes, some things will no longer “feel” right and those will go to someone who will feel amazing in them. It’s time to put a fresh take on what will work, what “fits” who I am inside now, and what I still feel amazing in. Then, I’ll add new items to my closet.
So, having figured that out, I got to thinking there are probably lots of you reading this that feel the same. So, I decided to offer a promo to kick off 2022. How exciting, am I right?
Here it is, just share a question, or concern, with me, and I’ll work with you to resolve it. Just IM me or send an email. It’s that simple!
Looking forward to sharing in your New Year/Updated You adventure!
Bye for now!
If you’d like more information plus inspirational images, please follow me!
Ready to start journaling? Click to get my free journaling workbook!
I’ve been listening to a series of talks on generosity and gratitude this past month, which is timely since we just celebrated our Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. Another reason the talks are timely? The three VERY large goals I’ve been working toward this year, building a business, building a garage, and making everything else work during the pandemic, is finally moving to fruition. So, yeah, I’ve been doing my Snoopy happy dance for sure!
In going after my goals, this year has felt like a series of competency tests, one after the other, and for that reason this year has been a marathon. Those times where the goal isn’t to finish really quickly, like a sprint, but just working to finish! A good part of the challenge was a feeling that no matter what I did, there seemed to be no movement, and even, at times, it felt as if I had setbacks. Yep, even after taking action that should have given me forward movement. So this year, I’ve been doing a lot of filing in the “you can’t make this stuff up” file. Yeah, it’s funny now but there were times I was glad to have friends who let me vent my frustrations.
Because of all that, I ended up with a new tool for life, and that was the realization of feeling deeply grateful. It not only made me feel better in the moment, but also created an opening for me to figure out “what next”. And a huge part of that was my daily journaling! Listing 3 things I’m grateful for each day meant really focusing on where I have it good, especially on those days where it felt like I only had problems to solve. If you’d like to see that, get my free Journal workbook at the end of this post.
I’ve always been optimistic, and, for the most part, I’m satisfied with my life (though I believe a little dissatisfaction is a good thing because it’s one way to see where you want to experience your next adventure in the form of change). Years ago I read somewhere that gratitude isn’t a laundry list of items, a recitation, though that can be a good place to start. It’s really considering what you are very deeply thankful about, or where you are very satisfied.
Maybe because of the curves life handed me this year, and how relentless I had to be to keep things on course, I begin to feel a deeper sense of thankfulness and satisfaction. Sometimes it was coming home in the evening and snuggling in with whatever interested me at the moment. It was also sharing a good meal with good friends, or even just watching trash TV.
I’m going to do a series of blog posts on managing the long periods of challenges, whether they’re seemingly never ending tasks to reach your goal, or whether you’re facing new experiences without a “how-to” app. For those times it’s all about digging in, persevering, and taking that next step even if you feel doubt or uncertainty. Those times aren’t always easy, or fun, but sometimes it’s just what you have to do.
Bye for now!
If you’d like more information plus inspirational images, please follow me!
Ready to start journaling? Click to get my free journaling workbook!
Last year sure created a different lifestyle for us, and very unexpectedly too! While our situation was scary, in many ways I felt so alone, it was enjoyable to go online and see what people were doing to pass time. Puzzle making, knitting, growing container gardens, and probably the most popular-making bread! For me, I sewed more, did adult coloring to play with color combinations, and I started journaling.
Now, this wasn’t my first time at the journal rodeo, in fact I’d tried several times over the last ten years and for whatever reason it didn’t stick with me. Even trying different styles of journaling, such as writing free form or responding to prompt questions like my favorite book, felt off. Purchasing fancy journals, colorful composition books, and bright, colored pens didn’t make a difference-it just didn’t resonate. It was frustrating because I’d heard of the many great benefits of journaling regularly and felt I was missing out.
I’m not sure why journaling came to me last year. Maybe it was the overwhelming feeling of confusion to be without my normal routine, being without the daily contact of my friends, or maybe just finally being ready but this time journaling stuck with me and felt natural. It actually felt amazing! Plus, it gave me a rhythm, a routine and connectedness that went missing last year. Even better, I became more focused, goal oriented, and even stopped procrastinating. Bonus!
Researching the long term benefits reveal a lot of pluses, some obvious and some not so obvious, and here they are:
Information on how stress negatively impacts your physical, mental, and emotional health has been around for awhile. Journaling, along with diet and exercise, is an amazing stress management tool. Studies have shown that journaling even 15-20 minutes 3-4 times a week helps.
Journaling boosts memory, comprehension, and increases your working memory capacity. Yes, I’ll take second helpings of that!
This probably plays into the first reason, stress reduction, but people who journal regularly have discovered it helps improve their mood, and they had a greater sense of emotional well-being and joy. Those feelings will attract more positivity into your life, a big plus.
Continued journaling helps you become more connected with your inner needs and desires. You engage right brain creativity as you write and flexing this “muscle” boosts many things, including problem solving.
Hey, it’s new territory so it could feel awkward at first. Once you get a rhythm going, like anything new, it’ll be a part of your life you look forward to. Just show up at least 3 days a week, even if only one sentence is what you end up with. It’s amazing to go back a week or month later and see what was going on.
The journal system that got me going is easy and has three different segments that can easily be finished in 10 minutes. You can spend more time if you want but it’s not necessary. For me, I think best when writing so it’s all about pen and paper. Studies have shown that writing, particularly cursive, helps boost creativity, improves memory, learning comprehension, and fine motor skills. It’s your thing though so be comfortable. I’ve created a free workbook to get you started! Just download it below.
You’ll have so much fun in the morning with your cup of coffee, or winding down at night capturing everything end of day. Let me know what you think and if you come up with any cool new methods of journaling!
Bye for now!
If you’d like more information plus inspirational images, please follow me!
Ready to start journaling? Click to get my free journaling workbook!
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