10 on 10 { may 2012 }

Hey! Guess what? It's the tenth of the month! You know what that means, right? Yep.... ten photos in ten hours!

I worked from home this morning because I had repairmen scheduled to fix the toilet (that had been running non-stop) and the other to fix the dryer (that had developed a squeak!) so I thought maybe I would be better equipped to take photos of something different than the usual workday. Sadly, that was not the case. But ... for better or worse, here is my day.

Started my day having tea with Nelson (ha)

Then the repair guys showed up .. both within 10 minutes of each other. And thank goodness the toilet guy had a quick fix. The dryer guy was here for a while and had the whole thing torn apart. I thought about photographing that mess, but I don't think the repair guy would have appreciated that much.

Finally wrote up a little card for Mom for Mother's Day. Had to pop it in the mail in order for it to get there by Saturday! Hope you enjoy what's inside mom!

Phoebe was in rare form today. She was all over me, super lovey dovey. Too much travel I suppose. She misses her mommy.

Still working from the home office - bookended by kitties.

Finally made it into the office just after lunchtime. The cute little desk ornament I ordered on fab.com arrived. I'm starting a little "shit" desk collection. I took a little break from photos for the next couple of hours .. spent in a chair on conference calls. There is nothing to photograph there. Nope. Boring!

After work I headed to a new tanning salon. (for spray tanning!) I have been so fed up with the problems at my salon, and their super old equipment, that I decided it was time for a change. I googled the VersaSpa and found there was a salon not too far! I have to say, it's a much more pleasant experience. The girls were super nice and happy to be helping me. The salon was big and bright and clean! The VersaSpa machine is super cool - love that it's a light mist and not dripping down my body when I'm done. Heck, the machine even dries me off! Will have to see how the color works out, but so far I think I may be onto something!

Stopped at a RedBox on the way home to pick up a couple of movies. I have completely switched from Netflix to RedBox. I didn't think I would like having to pick up and drop off, but the boxes are everywhere making it totally convenient.

Just a quick photo of my new "gratitude" bracelet from Bali. I picked it up at a cute little shop/yoga studio in Charleston. The woman who owned the place was fabulous and had such good energy... I had to see if I could get a little bit of that to rub off on me!

Now I'm off to watch my movies. Night!

236 virtual office

Me and the boys : Chicago, Seattle, St. Louis. We are loving the new features in our project management tool, Podio, now that Citrix purchased them!

50 Lessons I Wish I Had Learned Earlier « Positively Positive

Now that I’m old and gray (but not quite in my rocker yet!), I look back on my life and think about things I wish I knew earlier. It would have made my life so much easier if I knew then what I know now. Here’s my list of things I wish I could turn back the hands of time to tell my younger self. Maybe it’s not too late for you.

You’re stronger than you think you are.

Mistakes teach you important lessons. Every time you make one, you’re one step closer to your goal.

There is nothing to hold you back except you.

You can press forward long after you can’t. It’s a matter of wanting it bad enough.

No matter how much progress you make there will always be the people who insist that whatever you’re trying to do is impossible.

You are limited only by your own imagination. Let it fly.

Perception is reality.

Your instincts can be trusted.

There is only one question to ask yourself: “What would you do if you were not afraid?”

It’s often hard to tell just how close you are to success.

The only mistake that can truly hurt you is choosing to do nothing simply because you’re too scared to make a mistake.

Never let success get to your head, and never let failure get to your heart.

You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life.

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

Do what you love, not what you think you’re supposed to do.

Laughter is the best medicine for stress. Laugh at yourself often.

If you want to feel rich, just count all the great things you have that money can’t buy.

Forgiving yourself is far more important than getting others to forgive you.

If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, you’ll often find that you’re right.

Be nice to yourself.

For the most part, it doesn’t matter what people think. Follow your own truth.

No education is wasted. Drink in as many new experiences as you can.

Making one person smile can change the world.

Don’t forget to enjoy your journey!

You never know how strong you really are until being strong is the only choice you have.

Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

You cannot change what you refuse to confront.

Crying doesn’t indicate that you’re weak. It doesn’t always solve your problems either.

No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

You can learn great things from your mistakes when you aren’t busy denying them.

Give up worrying about what others think of you.

When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.

You have to accept that some things will never be yours, and learn to appreciate the things that are only yours.

As Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.”

Don’t be afraid to move out of your comfort zone. Some of your best life experiences and opportunities will transpire only after you dare to lose.

Giving up doesn’t always mean you’re weak, sometimes it means you are strong enough and smart enough to let go.

You’ll rarely be 100% sure it will work. But you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won’t work.

Don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future for too long. Right now is life. Live it.

No matter how cautiously you choose your words, someone will always twist them around and misinterpret what you say. Just say what you need to say.

Not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of good luck.

If you are passionate about something, pursue it, no matter what anyone else thinks. That’s how dreams are achieved.

If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.

What lies before us and behind us are tiny matters when compared to what lies within us.

Don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.

It’s not about getting a chance, it’s about taking a chance.

If it were easy everyone would do it.

Be vulnerable.

A problem is a chance for you to learn.

Regardless of the situation, life goes on.

via positivelypositive.com

A great list don't you think?

248 make a statement

instagram app processing

VSCO app processing - I am totally loving bw #2 with a little bit of grain

Can I tell you how happy I am that it's the weekend? I am SO happy! It was a mess of a week - running a project in Montreal from Chicago that has four different suppliers involved is just a hot mess. I can now put that behind me and move on to a relaxing weekend! Wheew!

On another note ... I donated a photo that I had printed on canvas to a school auction and, for the first time, had to write an artist statement. Um... yeah. This is not an easy task for me because I am not much of a self-promoter. I find flaws in myself and my work way too easy. Honestly, I would make a terrible 'artist.' Continually talking about myself and my art would bore me to death. I give huge props to people who have that unabashed confidence about their work.

I reached out to a couple of people to pen a little something for me and ended up with the image/statement above. (you might have to click to view bigger) What do you think?

251 PT

Started back up with physical therapy... This time for my back. It's just not been the same since my long flight back from Hawaii so I decided it's time to figure out how to make it feel better. And I have a fabulous PT! Feeling better tonight already!!

254

Had a positively lovely Saturday! Woke up to the sun streaming in and just lounged around catching up on some DVR in bed. I love it when I don't have early morning plans!! Once I got myself up and going, I finished two photobooks - a groupon I had purchased that actually expired (oops!) and they gave me two more weeks (yeah!) to complete my books.

Then it was off to the resale shop to donate FOUR bags of clothes that have been piling up forever. I keep thinking I'll take them to a consignment shop to get a few bucks out of them, but never seem to make it there. So, today, I decided to part with them once and for all. It actually felt good.

Last up I headed downtown for the earlybird dinner at Quartino's with the Pittman crew. Dinner was delish as was the company. We had to eat before Bella's last chess game of the day, which she won! Way to go B!! I walked back to the car so that I could snap a few city pics. Enjoy!

Sloane was cracking me up making funny zerbert sounds - she's such a happy baby!

260 moving day

I have decided to move my blog back to Blogger. I have been struggling with the what to do since they announced the acquisition of Posterous to Twitter. I truly hope they keep the Posterous site up and running (because I love it), but they have been plagued with problems in the last few weeks and no longer respond to help requests - not a good sign.

It has been a very difficult transition. Posterous does not allow for exporting. WordPress.com is supposed to import Posterous blogs, but I found it only pulled data from 2011 to present. Not sure what I will do with my posts that go back as far as 2009. Hopefully when Posterous does go under, they will provide us with a way to keep all of our data.

Initially I I thought I'd use WordPress.com, but I cannot stand their interface. It's clunky and does not consistently pull data from other sources - I had photos of all shapes and sizes and no idea how to get them the way I wanted without removing and re-uploading. No thank you! So, it's back to Blogger. I am still on the fence about self-hosting via WordPress and may go that way someday, but since I follow a lot of Blogger blogs, I thought this might be the easiest way to go. Seems funny to come full circle - I started my first blog on Blogger back in 2004.

I will likely continue to post here till it goes belly up, but will officially move to yf.yffoto.com. Please come visit me at my new home!

easter { take one }

Ahh Easter weekend. I drove down to Indiana for the weekend to hang with the Pittman crew. Three Easter egg hunts in a single day - now that's fun. I met up with the gang just in time for the second hunt at the Country Club. The kids got lots of candy and scooped it up at record speed. Impressive really!

Then it was over to Friendship Park for the egg drop - yes, 20,000 eggs dropped from a helicopter in the middle of the park for the kids to snap up. Now this was interesting. They did indeed drop eggs from a helicopter, but it took a very long time and it was just a few eggs at a time. The helicopter came back by four times to drop all of the eggs. And the heigh from which they were dropped meant the contents often spilled out or turned to mush. But, hey, it's all in good fun, right?

Then it was back to the homstead for a few minutes of rest and a little Sloane photo session. Don't you just love those blue eyes??

266 { 8 hrs }

Determined to get eight hours of sleep every night this week!! Night. Night.

... via iPhone ...

276 { 39 }

Hello 39! How you doin'? Today was my birthday. I arrived to the office and the new girls had filled my workspace with balloons and my belly with sweet treats from Fraiche. The s'mores bar was simply to die for!! They even sang to me. Ha! Then it was off to dinner with Robin and the Robinson's (sounds like a band name no?). We had a great time catching up and I didn't even let the little waiter snafoo get to me... no worries on a birthday, right? So many sweet treats and sweet wishes from friends all over the globe! Here's to a great new year!

** update ** sadly I did not win the MegaMillions lotto tonight, so it's back to status quo and wishes for two more KU wins!

... via iPhone ...