Archive | June, 2015

two tip thursday: lynda + pretty pegs

25 Jun

happy almost-friday day!

i’m still in las Vegas as I’ve been all week attending the promax conference.  i’m fresh into a new job-opportunity and absolutely loving it.  but excited to head home today.  i miss these two faces:

on to the tips.  very random today.

tip #1: lynda.com

Screen Shot 2015-06-25 at 6.08.29 AM

are you familiar with this one? it wouldn’t surprise me to be late to the game on this first tip.  wouldn’t be the first time, friend.  but everyone needs to join and join today.  i don’t care if you think you know everything already, your brain is wired to learn and learn all the time.  too busy?  i call bullsh*t on that.  i get more done between 5am and 7am for myself than any other time of the day.  go to bed early, wake up early and treat your brain.

Screen Shot 2015-06-25 at 5.59.44 AM Screen Shot 2015-06-25 at 6.00.54 AMthis is what i started watching here at 5am this morning.  outstanding stuff:

Screen Shot 2015-06-25 at 6.07.39 AMbut more than stuff like this, you basically can learn anything from the best in their industry.  very technical things like specific photoshop classes to more general business classes.  i’m digging in and digging in deep.

tip #2: peg legs for furniture

in a nutshell, turn furniture (namely ikea furniture!) into your own with these really cool peg legs for furniture.  i first heard of this through on of my favorite blogs: simply grove. 

Screen Shot 2015-06-25 at 6.16.47 AM Screen Shot 2015-06-25 at 6.16.58 AM

she did this with her daughters room.  amazing! who thinks of this stuff?  i don’t know but i’m in awe.  they aren’t affiliated with ikea at all but inspired by customizing some of their furniture.

as an added bonus tip (mainly because i just stumbled on to this myself…) is houzz.com videos.  love this…

Tags: , , , , , ,

happy happy friday!

19 Jun

10463041_10152968372979498_1830222183456824396_n

i’m excited for this weekend.

first,  ROF comes home after being gone all week traveling on business.  (yea!)

second, we are taking my mom on an overnight trip here to celebrate her 74th birthday and mothers day.  i treasure this special alone time with ROF and my mom.  we’re going to get facials and massages and maybe float the lazy river.  maybe not that last one.

you might remember when the three of us went to chicago a couple of years ago and had a blast:

Screen Shot 2015-06-19 at 9.50.35 AM Screen Shot 2015-06-19 at 9.50.52 AM

yep, we’re celebrating mom on father’s day which is totally appropriate for us!  you can read more on that here.

 

have a great weekend!  XXOO

Tags: , , ,

two tip thursday: beck + privacy on facebook

18 Jun

IMG_7868

in today’s brief, i’ve got two random tips for you.

one you are going to love and one is a bit controversial so take it or leave it.

tip #1: listen

Screen Shot 2015-06-18 at 6.46.10 AM

 

beck is my age. which, to me, says that you can get cooler as you get older, not just older.  this is promising.   he is <hands down> the coolest artist i know.  well, i don’t really know him.  personally.  but you know what i mean.

the tip today with beck is to listen to his new song, dreams.  listen to it super loud and get ready to dance.  this is so unlike the music on his last album for which he won album of the year this year – which is – one of the best albums ever.  you can listen here.

the other cool thing about beck is this:

“Feeling like “a total outcast”, Beck dropped out of school after junior high.[13] He later said that although he felt school was important, he felt unsafe there.[10] When he applied to the new performing arts high school downtown, he was rejected.[14] His brother, Channing, took him to post-Beat jazz places in Echo Park and Silver Lake. He hung out at the Los Angeles City College, perusing records, books and old sheet music in its library. He used a fake I.D. to sit in on classes there, and he also befriended a literature instructor and his poet wife.[14] He soon began a stream of menial jobs, including loading trucks and operating a leaf blower.[13]  (excerpt from here)

tip #2: be careful on facebook

as social media becomes more and more ingrained in our daily life and part of just “what we do”,  it’s important to not just mindlessly move through social media.  it’s important (yes, preach it sister!) to pay attention to what is going on.

the red flag i have on social media – namely facebook – is kids photos on there.  it’s just a red flag  – you know one of those things that flies when your subconscious tells you something could be awry.

here’s why i think what i do.  because facial recognition technology is being mastered and built by facebook.  don’t believe me?  read it here in fortune magazine.

Screen Shot 2015-06-18 at 7.13.16 AM

Screen Shot 2015-06-18 at 7.14.07 AM

my second tip is to just please read this article and come up with your own pov on it.  as technology grows and collects and is saved – think about what you’re putting out there!

that’s it for today.  over and out!

 

Tags: , , , ,

what i made this weekend. beans, popsicles + shrimp scampi.

15 Jun

IMG_7867

i was feeling very domestic this weekend.  there is something i love about making and building – and just doing – things.  i guess it stems from staring at a computer screen all week.  i was very pleased with myself this past weekend with everything i got done.

first I bought and planted this lilac bush by the pool.  i love it.  i hope it doesn’t die.

IMG_7837 IMG_7843

then i made the pioneer woman’s black bean recipe.  just a sidenote on that… probably didn’t need to make the whole recipe.  she cooks for a family of 6 and i cook for 2.  these took 2.5 hours to make and I have, like MILLIONS, of beans.  if you’re reading this and live in dallas and want some good beans, call me.

IMG_7858 (1) IMG_7862

for dinner, Sunday night, we had grilled shrimp scampi, a bobby flay recipe.

shrimp-scampi

lastly, i made one of my favorite blogger’s recipes for blueberry popsicles.  they were SO GOOD.  Blueberries, milk, basil, honey – YUM.

Screen Shot 2015-06-15 at 9.52.48 PM

i hate to say that i remembered to take a picture of mine too late – already ate half of it so check out her blog.  i guess i have some work to do before i’m a professional blogger!

 

 

 

Tags: , , , , ,

two tip thursday

11 Jun

gesture-422566_640

hi. i realize i’ve been more absent than usual on the blogging scene.  i changed jobs and am in a whole new industry – moved from advertising agencies to the media world – a media holding company.  my concentration has really been on that.  i’ve also been struggling with revamping this blog… but that’s another post.   this is about two tip thursday.  a new series i’m bound to keep up at least through two thursdays (alas making it a series…)

and they are going to be random tips.  because that is me.  random.  for those of you that know me, you know that i have self-diagnosed ADD and tend to move on in the conversation faster than the other person intended.  therefore making things RANDOM!

here are two things i know that i want to share with you today.

1.  MONICA LEWINSKY KICKS ASS.

wow.  if you haven’t seen this yet, watch it now.  is it odd for me to say i’m so proud of her?

“Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop,” says Monica Lewinsky. In 1998, she says, “I was Patient Zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously.” Today, the kind of online public shaming she went through has become constant — and can turn deadly. In a brave talk, she takes a hard look at our online culture of humiliation, and asks for a different way.

2. LISTENING IS MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU THAN JUST BEING POLITE. 

today, try listening more than talking.  i’m just as guilty of this as the next person so this isn’t a “i’m more mighty than thou” tip here.

Others listen only long enough to figure out whether the speaker’s views conform to their own, says Bernard Ferrari, author of “Power Listening” and dean of the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, in Baltimore.  Still others interrupt to spout solutions—often before the problem has fully been identified, Dr. Ferrari says.

this article in the wall street journal says: The failure to listen well not only prolongs meetings and discussions but also can hurt relationships and damage careers. However, it is possible to improve your listening skills—first, by becoming aware of the ways you may tune others out.

i learned how to listen from a couple of different sources.  the biggest was becoming a stephen minister ten years ago.  this was intense training on listening to people who are going through huge life changes.  from the death of a loved one to a divorce to a loss in a job.  but the other source was improv.  i talk about that here a little.  but you can’t keep a scene moving unless you are listening.  in fact, you can look super stupid if you don’t listen to your team on stage.  read more about that here in this article.

we all remember that linda wasn’t listening too well, right?  take it from our boy:

Tags: , , , ,

appreciating this: be good to yourself, for once

8 Jun

anyone else need this reminder today?