Gratitude | My LA Blog

Archive for the ‘gratitude’ Category

It Doesn’t Mean I Don’t Appreciate Him

Friday, May 9th, 2008

But I just had to throw the flowers away. I waited until last night to tell him so he wouldn’t be surprised. He knows that they’ve been messing with my allergies this whole time. I just couldn’t take it any more. So when the early blooms started dying I told him that I was going to toss them.

So sad too since they still looked so pretty. I was tempted to just pull out the dying ones and keep the rest. But then I remembered that the mere touching of the beautiful (and the dying) flowers would likely make the allergies worse still.

But I still love him and I still appreciate my flowers. I even have photos to remind me of just how beautiful they were.

Here’s to non-sneezy, non-teary eyed days…

Posted in gratitude, love, the hubby | No Comments »

Not What I Was Expecting

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

But wow! I just had my first, full-fledged phone call with a public relations gal. She was pitching me her clients (and one of her best friends) and wow, they’re some fun and interesting women. Now I have to sit down and figure out just how to reach out to them and utilize their expertise for my site. We’re talking a cook and multiple cookbook author, skin care line creators, kid clothing and bath products, you name it.

I’m also reaching out to a batch of authors that I’ve recently become aware of. Hopefully I’ll get some cool interviews out of it. I have to say, without blogging, I don’t believe I’d have learned about so many new products and new authors. Totally awesome!

I’m really excited. It could even be giveaways galore! This is an amazing opportunity I’ve got. Now I need to create a plan on how best to present it to my membership. Whew! It’s amazing what can happen when you focus and well, just ask.

And speaking of good authors with some great advice…have you heard about Wear Clean Underwear? It’s a book on estate and family planning - half story, half guidebook. Perfect for moms and dads to use to ensure that they’re doing all they can to care for their kids should something happen to them. It’s not the easiest topic to talk about, death, but it’s still something that needs to be done. So check out her book - if you buy now, I believe she still has some amazing gifts ($1000s worth) available with proof of purchase.

Posted in biz, books, gratitude, launch | No Comments »

Friends

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

I’ve been thinking about friendships a lot over the past few days. I’ve decided that honestly, I’ve got the best group of friends that a gal could ask for. That includes my old friends, my new friends, my online friends and my biz related friends. Each and every one of them are just wonderful.

In the past six or so months, I’ve really had some awesome support from my friends. When I went through that crazy stalking shit, they were right by my side. When I started my own biz, they were there to support me. And now that my friends are going through some things of their own (separation pending divorce, new business jitters, being up for an entreprenurial award) you better believe that I’m right there for them!

I think my favorite part of friendship is when we can get together (or over the phone or blog or email or whatever) and just share ideas. To just talk about what’s going great or might not be working in our lives or our business, and share those out-of-the-box ideas…awesome. Nothing can pump this gal up more than chatting with her friends.

A week or so ago I reached out to a newish, biz-related friend (a fellow LWLer). I had a question about being an expert (Millie) at our upcoming LIVE event. When she replied to my email, she not only addressed my particular question, but she also said that I should give her a call because she had some ideas about my business. She had unsolicited ideas to help me make my business a success…Come on, how great is that?!?

I think it’s a great thing when we can all stop thinking about others as our competition and just show support when we can. There’s more than plenty to go around. I like to tell folks all the time that if they like me, they’ll like my friends. Expanding on that, if you like the way I do business and help you, then you’ll also like how my friends do business and help those they know.

There are so many little things in life to be grateful for. At the top of my list…my friends!

Posted in friends, gratitude, launch | 3 Comments »

WooHoo!!! Gotta Love Twitter!

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Thanks to Twitter, I’ve made some new business friends. In particular, I really enjoy reading and learning more about Guy Kawasaki. If you haven’t yet heard, Guy and his friends have started up an awesome blog aggregation site called Alltop.com. Within the site itself, various blogs are divided up between different categories. The categories are then even further divided up.

Well, take a bold step (and doing something totally out of character for myself), I shot Guy a DM (direct message) on Twitter and asked if it would be possible to get my site listed in the Women’s section of Alltop. I just received confirmation that he’s accepted and it’s done!

I’m so excited by what this will mean for my site. I mean so many more people that until now have never heard of my site will now be reading it! And as one would expect, there’s a trickle of fear involved as well. Hello…I need to have some good content on there if I expect folks to keep sticking around. But I’ll just throw that out into the Universe - good content, good writers, good commenters & good giveaways - and know that it will be provided for me.

Heck, I don’t doubt that this all came from my recent cleaning and organizing trend. Not to mention the focused intent I’ve had going on lately. I’m so grateful that things are moving forward like this. I just love knowing that you get what you ask for. As Michael Gerber said a while back in a teleconference I was listening to…if not me, than who else? So why not me, right?

Posted in biz, gratitude, launch, manifestation | 2 Comments »

Songs Birds Serenade Us to Sleep

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

We noticed it for the first time last night, beautiful bird songs after we turned off SNL. Funny thing, we all noticed it at once, including the boys. Then they started up again tonight around 11:30 PM. Again, both boys lifted their heads to listen and then looked to us as if to say “huh? What’s that?”

See, we don’t even have song birds during the day. We have pigeons. We have crows. From time to time we even have ducks and doves. Oh and once I saw a hawk or a falcon or some bird eating prey in our front yard (we’re close enough to the mountains). But nope, no song birds here. At least until now, that is.

I don’t know what made it so sudden. I don’t know why we’ve never heard them before. But I will say, it’s the most amazing and peaceful sound - something to be thankful for. The calls change up and I can’t really tell if there’s more than one or just one looking for their mate. But either way, it’s beautiful. And yet another thing to love about living in SoCal (in NM, we had roadrunners and well, they didn’t even say “meepmeep”).

Wishing you all beautiful songs to serenade you to sleep or equally beautiful songs to wake you each day…

Posted in gratitude, life | 1 Comment »

Cleaning the Office…Finally

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

This was a long time in the works here. Besides the piles of boxes of wine, there was also the piles of papers that needed to be shredded. On top of all of that, there’s still the fact that I need to empty out last year’s files and actually file this year’s files.

Did I mention the bags full of swag? There’s still stuff from the husband’s trip to SXSW both last year and this year. And NAMM. And the leftover Grammy week stuff that was passed on to me. Yes, we have bags of free shit just lying around. Don’t be too impressed, since most of it (like SXSW & NAMM is mostly crappy CDs and press-related stuff). But um, there’s, well, bags full of upcoming Christmas gifts lying around as well since I shop all year for the friends that I know well (and again, the swag that I tell myself I’m saving for Christmas gifts).

Which of course leads us to the mass amounts of CDs that we have in this house. My husband can get anywhere from 5-15 CDs a week between here and his office. Complete with their PR packet. The majority of them sit around unopened. Sometimes we luck out and find a band that the nieces or nephews are into (about 6 or so months after the CD has been lying about collecting dust) and we can pass it along. Most of the time, not so lucky. It sits. And sits some more collecting dust. Eventually, it gets moved into the office to join the other piles of dusty CDs. Yeah, that’s the plan - not the most effective plan, mind you.

Let’s not forget the guitars. I believe he has six lying around. Granted, due to the crazy old lady that lives next door he can barely plug in the electric ones, but that doesn’t stop him too much. At least there’s only one broken one in the office. That one I could squeeze in the out of the way space between the bookshelf and the wine rack. How do you ladies with kids manage?? Seriously.

Oh yeah, and then there are the books. Books that I need to ship out to contest winners. Books that I still need to read so that I can interview the author for my site. Books that I still need to give away. Books that I’ve read. Books that I’ve yet to read. The books the husband is using. The books he no longer needs and just wants me to get rid of. Well, just books, piles of books (in all the rooms, but more so here in the office).

But back to the issue at hand. Both yesterday and today, the focus has been on cleaning up this back room already. I’m totally clearing away the clutter to open the channels and energy to bring us something more fun, exciting and fulfilling than, well, clutter and junk. I figure if I can get this room into shape, it will be a lot easier to keep things clean down the road (especially when I get the cleaning lady). I have high hopes for us.

Between cleaning out my closet & drawers, cleaning up the rest of the living spaces and now the office…hoorah! I’m opening the door wide open for something amazing to come along, I tell ya. So watch this space because I’m sure it’s going to be BIG (and good…very, very good!)

Posted in biz, gratitude, life, manifestation, the hubby | No Comments »

Okay, Now I Have Something To Say

Sunday, April 20th, 2008

So I registered for BlogHer a while back. I’ve been anxiously awaiting the agenda and have been checking every couple of days. I’ve also anxiously been awaiting some activity on the room-share board. Well, turns out we’re now all fucked.

The BlogHer room deal is already sold out. Now all that can be found through Starwood are $350+ rooms. That’s a per night fee! For three nights! Three hundred and fifty fucking dollars a night!!!! Um, legitimate business expense or not, I won’t be staying there.

This sucks for a few reasons, first of which, I’m really not a fan of San Francisco (I know, I know, I’m just not a city kind of gal and well, that place just freaks me out!). And it kind of sucks that since I’ll be going alone I won’t be staying where all the action is. I want to be part of the cool kids crowd *wahhhh*

Okay, no worries. The husband remembered the last boutique hotel we stayed at while in SF. Turns out it’s right across the street from the St. Francis. And it’s $150 less a night than the St. Francis (and includes the internet fees and tea time). So I’ll be staying there instead and will still be close enough to be part of the cool kids crowd. Since they were sold out of doubles already I just said fuck it and got a room of my own.

I’m thankful that’s all done. All I have left to do now is book my flight. I’ll wait until things get closer to do that though. Heck, we have other flights and rooms to book still in late May and early June. July just seems so far off still.

Posted in gratitude, life, travel, work | 3 Comments »

Help! I Need a Tortellini Salad Recipe ASAP

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Well, maybe it’s not that big of a deal that I need to be all ASAP, but you I do need a recipe. I’ve got book club tomorrow in Santa Monica - no I didn’t read the book, but I did mean to - and I’ve decided to bring pasta salad. I have the cheese tortellini and can pick up anything else I might need, but really, I’m at a loss here.

Normally, I just use tri-colored pasta, add in some chunked veggies, some cheese, maybe some chicken or ham, and toss it all with some dressing or another by our good friend, Paul Newman. But this time around, I’m kind of stuck. I’m thinking that maybe something with a more creamy than vinegary dressing would be nice. But then what veggies? And no cheese because the pasta already has cheese, right?

Obviously, I’m going to flunk pasta salad making 101, so please, feel free to add any suggestions or ideas. Maybe I am a little desperate after all (it’s not like I can change my mind and bake something…we’ve got a forecast of low 90’s today and that means no oven!). So please, help a gal out…I’ll be your new best friend (she says in a sing song voice!) and I’ll be very, very grateful

Posted in eat & drink, gratitude, recipes | 3 Comments »

We Have My Wedding Ring!!

Monday, March 24th, 2008

Not that I was hoping for a new one or anything (heck, I barely wear this one), but was a part of me thinking an upgrade would be nice. Shameless, I know. But really, the landlord just laughed and said it happens. I just needed to clarify that while I did actually throw it down the sink, I wasn’t intending for it to go down into the pipes.

I was actually trying to put it someplace safe (ha!) and threw it over the glass doors knowing it would land in the sink. Too bad I forgot until a couple of hours later that we don’t have our drain covered! So yep, down the drain and into the elbow it went. I’m sure if I wasn’t so sick and therefore halfway out of it, I’d probably have been fuming, cursing mad. But hey, it happens. The hubs misplaced his a while back too (when he dad was in the hospital with cancer) so now we’re even. So to speak.

And yes, I’m sick. Again. I was so proud of myself for not getting my husband sick those four weeks I had the sinus infection. Of course, he can back from SXSW with a cold. And of course, my body said “what fun!” and turned it into yet another sinus infection. Joy of joys!

We’re trying a different antibiotic this round since it had only been a week and a half since my last two and a half weeks worth of meds. Here’s hoping this round kicks it out ASAP. ‘Cuz let me tell you, I’m sick of being sick dammit! And tonight I have a LWL meeting that I’m really hoping I’ll feel better for. Until then, it’s nap time!

Posted in gratitude, life lessons, love, the hubby | 4 Comments »