A First!

This was my first foray into cooking decorating. Seemed like a fun thing to do, and my friend Christy was teaching a class. Who knew I would get HOOKED??? So now over $100 in supplies later, I will be attempting to make some summer themed ones, on my own, without Christy’s help. Maybe later this week!! Wish me luck!

Wednesday Wisdom

“If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.”

--Nora Roberts

Wednesday Wisdom

"It's never too late to be who you might have been." - George Eliot This was the quote that I sent out to my Thirty-One downline this morning, as part of my Wednesday Wisdom initiative. January is a hard month for direct sales, second only, IMO, to July. But that doesn’t meant that we all can’t reinvent ourselves in February and have an amazing month. If there is something in your life that isn’t as fabulous as you KNOW it can be, then change it. Only you have the power to make your life what you want it to be.

To Eat Or Not To Eat

Lately my hubby has been on this whole “let’s try new recipes” thing. I’m fine with this, because any night that he’s cooking is one less night that I have to try to either cobble something together or hit the drive through.

Let’s get something straight – I can cook. I’m just currently in a phase where I choose not to. I used to cook a lot – think hand-stuffed manicotti with homemade meat sauce, garlic seasoned pastry pockets stuffed with four types of mushrooms, homemade eggrolls with (also) homemade fried rice. There was no end to my culinary wizardry, nor to the time I was willing to expend to put an elegant and delicious dinner on the table. Now? Not so much. I don’t know what has changed, but right now I just can’t work up the enthusiasm for spending hours in the kitchen.

So that brings us to now. A few months ago, Perry decided that twice a week he would whip up something inventive from one of his many, many cookbooks that up until this point have mostly gone unused. Most of the time, the things he comes up with are pretty good. There was a yummy mushroom soup a couple weeks ago that I could easily have eaten nightly, for example. Also several interesting salads, and various concoctions of cheese and meat that have been pretty palatable.

Last night, Perry took things a bit too far. He prepared duck. Duck. Quack quack. Duck. Now, I do the shopping, and so I purchased said duck. So it’s not like he sprung it on me. I knew it was coming. But yet when it was actually time to eat it, I honestly couldn’t get the image of the little feathered dudes down the street in the pond out of my head. I did not enjoy the duck. I plan to abstain from duck in the future. I may even have to go take a loaf of bread to the pond as penance.

Coming up this week, we have lamb. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that, but I think I feel a little bit better about it than duck. At least I don’t drive by the little lambs every single day when I leave my neighborhood. Not sure what little woodland creatures will be on the menu next week, but if it comes down to it, I might have to take up cooking again. Maybe that’s all part of his plan.

Wednesday Wisdom

"Time is like money, the less we have of it to spare the further we make it go."
-Josh Billings

I kind of find it funny how true that is. For example, my day was insane today (hence why you're getting a 10pm Wednesday Wisdom!) - a lot of running around for a variety of stuff, and then back to back to back kid's activities this evening. If you had given me a list on Monday of everything I was going to get done today, I would have said "no way, something's gotta go." Yet somehow it all got done. How does that happen? I personally think it's because I didn't sit down and analyze everything on my list - I just got started and did it. Maybe it's when we over think things that we become stagnant, overwhelmed, and afraid to move forward.
If you have tasks you're putting off because you're afraid of what the outcome will be, or overwhelmed because they seem like too large of a task to manage, I would suggest setting a timer for just 15 minutes and starting. When that timer goes off, you stop. Even if you're not done. Even if you're nowhere NEAR done. Just stop. Because when you are giving yourself permission ahead of time to only focus on that big scary thing for 15 minutes, it becomes so much more bearable. You've taken that internal pressure off, the little voice in your brain that's been telling you "if you start this, you better be prepared to finish it." You will finish it, eventually, just nothing says you have to do it all at once. Keep repeating those 15 minute segments daily until you've tackled the task. And I promise, after awhile, it'll get easier each time.

Wednesday Wisdom

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off your bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

These are words to live by if ever there were any. Life is too short to live with the regret of "what if". Things move so quickly, you have to reach out and grab life and LIVE it while you can. Today I had to go buy a pair of shoes for my son, who is 10. I discovered that he is now in the largest kid's size - size 6. Next time I shop for shoes for him, I'll have to shop in the men's section. MEN'S! Where did my little baby boy go? Time has simply FLOWN by since I became a mom. I feel so blessed to know that I am in the position to be there for my kid's activities, their (endless) sporting events, their school functions. Thanks to Thirty-One and taking a leap of faith in myself, believing in myself that I COULD build a business, I can be there for them when they need me, and even when they think they don't. What if I had never taken that leap of faith? What if I had listened to people who told me "you're never going to make a living selling purses"? This isn't the career that I imagined for myself when I was a child, but that doesn't mean that I'm not exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Don't be afraid to dream big. It's from the biggest dreams that amazing futures can be made.

Woohoo for a good mail day!

I am so excited – new Thermal Totes and Cinch Top Thermals delivered today! LOVE LOVE LOVE! Check out some of our new patterns for Spring:










Lil Mushrooms
 











Flutter












Painted Snakeskin












Awesome Blossom












Leopard Floral












Aqua Circle Spirals
 











Lotsa Dots












Circle Spirals


Not sure yet which is  my new favorite, but I am leaning towards Awesome Blossom or Lotsa Dots! Yay! So ready for an amazing Spring!

Yes, it is tough being a woman.

So I’ve been reading this book, Esther: It’s Tough Being a Woman by Beth Moore. Admittedly not my typical reading material (nary a vampire or witch in the whole book!) but I cannot believe how much I’m enjoying it! Beth Moore does an amazing job of making the Bible accessible, understandable, AND entertaining! The way Esther is set up, you do a little study section each day, and I’m definitely finding myself looking forward to it daily. I’ll be working through this one for awhile, but I’m already looking forward to finding a similar book to tackle other parts of the Bible. Any suggestions?

Wednesday Wisdom

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential." ~Ellen Goodman

Happy New Year! I hope the first few days of the year have been fabulous thus far! I love January - more than any other time of the year, it's a time when it seems the whole world is reflecting on where they've come from, and where they want to go. Many of you have probably done the same. I know some of you have been setting your goals for 2012 - THANK YOU to those of you who have shared them with me already. I LOVE reading your goals and working with you on how to achieve them!

Let's ROCK 2012, ladies!!