I'm Fine...

It's not surprising that I haven't posted anything in over two months considering what my summer has been like, but i'm embarassed none the less. In my new job I actually write pretty much everyday - mat releases, pitches and that PR entails - so I find the last thing I want to do when I get home is write MORE. It also can be discouraging for me to blog because a lot of my job consists of finding quality blogs to reach out to on behalf of my clients and there are so many wonderful blogs/bloggers out there (that post way more frequently than I do I may add).

However, I realized that I miss blogging not so much because I need people read my posts and this my blog is cool, although I do love when you do, but because it serves a way for me to look back at different points to see what I was feeling/interested in. So for anyone that's still be checking in, I am alive, fine and hopefully blogging more soon.

Here we go again...

So it may not come as a big shock to some of you but in less than two weeks I will be moving back to that beautiful city that inspired me to begin blogging in the first place - Chicago. After spending the past year in Wisconsin, I've been called back to the big city to take a job that I'm very excited to start. I am of course nervous and slightly stressed about all the things I need to do to prepare for my move, but I know that this is what's best for me. So get ready Girl and the Goat, Gilt Bar and Jam because you three are at the top of my list of must-visit places upon my return. :)

Girl and the Goat 

 Gilt Bar

Jam

Pinterest

I came across the site Pinterest this afternoon and it really did "peak my interest" (pun intended). According to their website, "Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste. People use Pinterest to collect and share all sorts of things -- wedding inspiration, favorite T-shirts, DJ equipment. You name it, people are pinning it."

I poked through the site and stumbled upon the "staff favorites" section that features a number of categories that have already been populated with beautiful images. My personal favorite is the "graphic and type love" section curated by PAPERFASHION which showcases typographical art graphics and the best part in that my "pinning" the images, they are automatically linked to their native site. I've also included a number of my favorites from the section below. Enjoy!

 tumblr.com

 etsy.com

 society6.com

 youaremyfave.blogspot.com

 etsy.com

 abduzeedo.com

 tumblr.com

etsy.com

Happiness

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment. I told them they didn’t understand life."

— John Lennon (via thegreensandyellowsofhappiness)

The Difference Between 21 & 23...err 24

A friend of mine shared this post on their Facebook feed this morning and I couldn't help but re-post it here. The difference between being 21 and being 23 (or 24 in my case) really is a greater difference than you would think and this post by inindieinus is a comical realization of just how fast things have changed since 21. Enjoy!

The Difference Between 21 and 23.

Posted on April 6, 2011 by inindieinus

 

21:  College.
23:  Student Loans.
21:  I’m having people over tonight.
23:  Want to cook dinner and drink some wine in my parent’s kitchen?
21:  How am I going to get motivated enough to lose this weight?
23:  How much longer can I avoid this debt collector?
21:  Waitressing sucks.
23:  9-6 SUCKS.
21:  I’m feeling creative.
23:  I want to feel creative like I used to feel creative.
21:  I’m self-conscious.
23:  I’m conscious.
21:  My bff and I are in a fight.
23:  I think I only have two friends.
21:  I think I just need to be single right now.
23:  Everyone I’m inviting to my party is in a relationship and I am single.
21:  I’m not getting married until gays can get married.
23:  I think I’m crazy, I don’t know if anyone would ever want to marry me.
21:  Carrie Bradshaw kinda just gets it.
23:  Carrie Bradshaw kinda just gets it.
21:  I can’t wait for Thursday night.
23:  I can’t wait for the weekend.
21:  Beer.
23:  Wine.
21:  Laugh.
23:  Whine.
21:  Hung over.
23:  Meltdown.
21:  Swine flu.
23:  Nuclear meltdown.

Changing Seasons

Maybe it's because I was too in love with being in college, but ever since my freshman year I've come to gauge my growth and accomplishments for the year around the month of May aka the ending of a school session. Even though I'm no longer a student (tear), my mind has been turning to that familiar place of questioning and gauging in recent weeks...

What did I do this year that I should be proud of?
How did I grow?
How did I change?
Did I change?
What am I sorry for?
What do I still need to work on?

I've found that this year has changed me a lot - not all for the better - but it has changed me.

Good things - I moved to a new city, got a new job, new friends...umm, what else...new haircut? :)

Bad things - I lost focus. I lost the focus of staying in better contact with a lot of really wonderful people and the focus of pushing myself to be better emotionally, spiritually and physically.

I think sometimes when there are too many "news" in the mix, it's easy to lose track of some of the more valuable things about yourself. For example, I've always considered myself to be a very strong person, it's one of my attributes that I'm the most proud of actually. I'd never been scared that there was something I couldn't do or a problem I wouldn't be able to solve. However, looking back on this year I can see that I've been really rattled and as a result have lost some of my strength.

I would have thought I would have come out the other end of this year with a new and brighter perspective, but to be honest I'm just kind of exhausted. Exhausted from pushing myself and exhausted from questioning every decision I make that has come with the territory of making so many changes within such a short period of time. Even though it may seem strange, I'm definitely ready for more change and am not afraid of it - it just needs to be the type of change that's good for me in all aspects of my life...not just change for the sake of change. I feel like things are looking up though. It's one of the wonderful things about the coming of Spring - it makes me believe that good, healthy change is just as close as the warm weather. :)

This Is Your Life

I love every word of this typographical image...quite inspiring. 

via http://growingoldnotgrowingup.tumblr.com/

The thing about mistakes...

"I know it's a mistake, but there are certain things in life where you know it's a mistake but you don't really know it's a mistake because the only way to really know it's a mistake is to make the mistake and look back and say 'yep, that was a mistake.' So really, the bigger mistake would be to not make the mistake, because then you'd go your whole life not knowing if something is a mistake or not."

3 Interesting Things

So I once dated a guy that used to end every day asking me, "What are three interesting things that happened to you today?" At first, I thought it was really annoying. I hated that after a day that was either really long, stressful or incredibly uneventful I had to try to think of things that would be deemed "interesting". However, after some time of telling each other interesting things that occurred in our days I began to open my eyes more to the world around me and to be honest, it helped our conversations from falling into the "How was your day?"..."Fine, yours?" routine. Unfortunately, when that relationship ended my need to tell someone about "interesting things" ended as well. So, recently I've been trying look out for things that are noteworthy and although I do not plan to include 3 interesting things I did every day on this blog, I thought including 3 from this week might be a good start, especially since I haven't posted at all this week. So, here goes...

1. I discovered an awesome new bakery in Madison, Wisconsin called Peoples Bakery thanks to a colleague traveling in with doughnuts. They are a Lebanese restaurant/bakery that apparently has some of the best gyros in Madison, but also makes a mean jelly doughnut if you ask me.

2. Started a new art project to serve as organization for my ever-increasing scarf collection - inspired by DIY project found on Design*Sponge. I purchased a number of different off-white knobs from Anthropologie and plan to finish up my drawer hanger project next week.

3. I tried a new recipe for vodka sauce from scratch. I found it to actually be lighter than the traditional vodka sauces that I've had in restaurants. It was delicious and served as a great cold-weather treat

Career Journal

I, like many individuals, often struggle with the idea of where I would like my career to go. It's hard to know how to navigate the waters of the working world to find the next step that puts you in a position that you want to be in and advances your personal and professional goals. I was emailed the idea of creating a "Career Journal" and think it's a great idea. I plan to start working on my own Career Journal next week and hopefully within the weeks to come will have a better idea of where I would like my future to lead. I thought I would pass it along to share with those of you that need a bit of guidance as well and don't know where to start. See details below and best of luck!

Creating a Career Journal

Creating a career journal can help you move faster and more strategically from where you are now to where you want to be in your life.

If you at all struggling to figure our what's next in your career OR you have a vision of a future you'd like to achieve but no idea how to get there, a journal could be the thing to turn your dreams into solid planning.

GETTING STARTED

The recommendation is creating a Friday Update for your boss each week. Friday updates are a bulleted list of your…

… accomplishments,

… areas of challenge or where input is needed, and

… goals for the week ahead.

It's a simple exercise that should require no more than 15 minutes per week to complete, yet the benefits in communication and overall productivity are immeasurable.

Each week, set aside a small chunk of time (20 to  30 minutes) to really analyze what you've done and what you need to do to pursuit your goals. To begin, create a checklist of 5 things you want to complete this week.

Keep a career folder on your desktop, add photos from magazine, etc. for visual inspiration, it could also be a notebook, whatever works for you. Good apps are Evernote or Momento.

Next pull out your journal on Friday and evaluate your progress. Commit to doing this for one month and see what happens. 

It will take some discipline to keep your journal current, but if you do this consistently each week, you will  achieve far more progress on the road to your goals.