You Never Forget Your First...Sale!

Can you imagine my surprise when I checked my Etsy account yesterday and discovered that someone had purchased one of my Letterpress Prints?!

I was in shock…I couldn’t stop smiling for five whole minutes!!

Upon investigation, I discovered that Sacha from Through the Orange Door had purchased the print AND posted a very sweet write-up on her blog!

The fact that someone had connected with my message and liked the design enough to purchase the print made my DAY. And that vote of confidence and validation gave me a boost of adrenalin last night that kept me up to 2am…which did not seem like such a good idea this morning when my alarm went off, ha!

At this very moment I am putting the final touches on the package and will be shipping it “across the pond” (as my mother would say) tomorrow morning. I can’t wait to hear that it got there safe and sound!!

The Etsy Shop is OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

Yup, it’s official.

My Etsy shop is finally open!!

I am so unbelievably excited and proud at this moment (and just a wee bit nervous). I’ve dreamed about taking this next step for sometime now and I can’t believe it’s actually here!

And it’s great timing because I want to leave my job…like yesterday…and this Etsy shop is the first place where I can start showcasing and testing my business ideas.

And it means I am just that much closer to finally start giving back because 10% of each and every sale on Etsy will be donated to Rikki’s Refuge – an amazing animal shelter who rescued my precious Wylie and Sami and a lot of other deserving animals.

For years I’ve wanted to make a difference (especially in the lives of animals in need) and I am beyond excited for the chance to finally start doing that! And it’s only the beginning because philanthropy is one of the cornerstones of Live Love Life Now™ and I have lots of ideas for how to keep giving and giving…and getting others involved too!

I’m starting out slow with just a few products but I plan to get back into production mode soon and I can’t wait to start designing again!

Also, many thanks go out to you, my most faithful supporters and encouragers! Your amazing and motivating comments have meant so much to me and I hope to do you proud!

So without rambling on any further, please go check out the shop and let me know what you think! And I would be ever so appreciative if you helped me spread the word around the blog-osphere!

Pretty please…with a cherry on top?! xo

Breaking Point EQUALS Starting Point

Is it a red flag to spend the first ten minutes of your day looking up anxiety attack symptoms to see if they match what you’re going through?

Yeah? I thought so too, but unfortunately that’s how my day started.

For awhile now I’ve felt like I’m just barely keeping up with all of my responsibilities at work and with Live Love Life Now® and it’s made me feel a bit frenetic and on edge. And ironically, my frustrations at the office make me feel even more stressed about moving too slow with LLLN because that’s my ticket out.

So after a rough 24-hour period (highlighted by the fact that I started crying last night while brushing my teeth for no good reason…yikes!), I was very much anticipating my yoga class tonight because I needed a major dose of relaxation and calm.

But my “breaking point” came when the class was cancelled yet again without apology or notice (I will not bore you with all the details, but these persistent problems go back almost a year!) and I finally decided that I was going to stop the cycle and take control over my sanity by getting myself out of these high stress situations (i.e. my office and the gym).

So "THE PLAN" is to cancel my gym membership and work really hard on my Etsy store so I can accomplish my goal to leave my job by the end of the year.

Those are scary words to write but it’s also thrilling to finally make some decisions and put a deadline out there finally! It’s time that I again take back control over my life, my stress level, my happiness and turn my “breaking point” into the starting point of my life!

Have you ever experienced a breaking point that turned into the beautiful start of something else?


P.S. I apologize for being so absent on your blogs. It is yet another thing that has been weighing on my mind and stressing me out…but you all are always in my thoughts and I will be back soon!

Ten Ways I’m Going to Kick Ass in 2011

So it’s already mid-March and I’ve just realized that I never posted my list of goals for the year!

Last year I set ten goals for myself to help me break my bad habit of procrastinating my life away. Today I am very pleased (and maybe just a little surprised) to say that I actually achieved a lot of them and in the midst of accomplishing those personal goals, I ended up creating a habit out of living life!

Of course, filling all my free time with fun activities has one downside and that is that I haven’t been left with a lot of time to focus on starting Live Love Life Now™.

And since I have fully acknowledged that self-motivation is not one of my greatest talents, this year’s To Do List will incorporate a lot of business goals to help me break the meddlesome procrastination that lingers when it comes to pursuing my business dreams.

1. Finalize Trademarks
2. Open an Etsy store
3. Sell my first Live Love Life Now™ product!
4. Collaborate with at least two artists
5. Go on a road trip
6. Interview people who inspire me
7. Experience new cities
8. Sign up for a dance class
9. Do more volunteer work
10. Partner with Rikki’s Refuge and give back thru Live Love Life Now™

What's on your To Do list for 2011?

Quote of the Day

(© 2006 Graphique de France – wall calendar)

“Life was meant to be lived.” - Felix the Cat

Okay I’m sold! Felix is one smart cat and I’m going to heed his advice by grabbing life by the horns and getting the heck outta dodge! To Nashville, TN to be precise.

Sound familiar?

Well it should, it’s on my goals list for the year! One of my good friends moved down there a few years ago and I’ve been planning to visit ever since. Perhaps planning isn’t the right word since that would make it seem as if I had done more than just think about it.

But I’ve been meaning to go for the last three years and with the year winding down, I knew I needed to make it happen fast!

So I booked myself a ticket on Southwest (a cheap one thanks to a gift certificate I was saving for the occasion) and I’m heading down today for the weekend! I’m looking forward to seeing a new city, catching up with my friend and, of course, taking some time off from work.

And it’s also momentous because I never travel by myself anymore. The last time I did so was back in college when I flew to visit my boyfriend. So it feels good to be doing this on my own and I look forward to sharing some pictures from the ‘Music Capital of the USA”!

My Happy Place: Horseback

On any given day when the sun is shining and there’s a nice breeze in the air, I wish I were horseback.

Yes, I was that cliché little girl who was obsessed with horses. I read horse books by the dozens, collected toy horses and took riding lessons.

Even though the lessons eventually stopped, I never outgrew my passion for horses and I still dream of the day when I'll have my own horse to ride whenever I feel like it.

Committing to the schedule and cost of taking riding lessons again isn’t feasible right now but I do treat myself at least once a year to getting back on the horse for a trail ride with the family. Last year my sister and I had the ride of our lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico but this year we kept it local at one of our favorite trail ride establishments in the Blue Ridge Mountains – the Marriott Ranch in Hume, VA.

The staff is super friendly and the cost for a ninety-minute trail ride can’t be beat! Plus you get to leave the city for some time out in the country. It always amazes me how quiet it is out there…I miss that.

But for ninety minutes this past Saturday, I soaked up the quiet, the sun, the smell of horses and the gorgeous landscape. It was pure bliss and I got to check off another item on my goals list.

It was the perfect escape from these past few hectic months and I could have stayed out there all day!

What happy place do you picture when you’re feeling worn out and stressed? How often do you get there in real life?

Breaking the Pattern: A Status Report

Unbelievably, it has been six months since I started this blog.

And it seems as good a time as any to step back and review the list of goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year:

1. Go ice skating √

2. Go on a road trip

3. Learn to rock climb √

4. Go snow tubing √

5. Visit my out-of-state friends (specifically in Pittsburgh & Nashville)

6. Sign up for dance classes

7. Go horseback riding

8. Experience new cities √

9. Do more volunteer work

10. Get out of the house more √

Not too shabby!

As hoped, putting the list ‘out there’ has really kept me focused on my goals. And now that I am open to doing new things, the Universe is responding with so many more opportunities and experiences than I had ever expected.

Plus it feels great to finally do some of the things that I’ve talked about for years! Snow tubing will always be one of the funnest experiences of my life and one of the reasons why I won’t be as sad to see summer and fall end this year.

It’s been so much fun working through the first half of the list, I can’t wait to get started on the rest!

Plan B: Hanging Tough

Remember that cute poster of the kitten hanging from the tree branch with the motivational header “Hang In There!” underneath? Well that came to mind today when I crossed off the third item on my goals list – learn to rock climb.

Initially the plan for today was to play hooky from work and go snow tubing. Unfortunately, the recent bout of unseasonably warm weather made that impossible (global warming strikes again!).

Luckily, we had a Plan B. Which is why this afternoon I found myself taking that kitten’s advice to heart and hanging on for dear life to the side of a faux rock wall.

Initially I had felt confidence while watching the guys in our group easily make it to the top of the wall on their first attempts. This quickly turned to panic when it became my turn. It wasn’t a fear of heights that was getting to me though; it was a fear of failure. I had waited so long to rock climb that I was worried I wouldn’t be able to live up to my own expectations.

But instead of letting the worry of failure paralyze me, I let my sense of pride take over. Since there was no way I was going to let a couple of guys show me up, I quickly hauled my scrawny butt up that wall and slapped the top in victory!

The lesson learned today was that even though I ‘failed’ to make it to the top of the wall on every line we attempted, I didn’t feel one ounce of failure in myself. Instead I was proud of myself for making the attempt and taking action to do something that I’d always wanted to try.

Three down – seven to go!

Is Snow Tubing a Viable Job Occupation?

Two down – eight to go!

I started this blog to hold myself responsible for the things I said I was going to do in order to start living life, because I knew that I wouldn’t let myself fail on seeing them through.

But this is also the reason why I started to panic last week when I realized that there wasn’t much time left to get snow tubing crossed off the list. I know it’s barely March, but they don’t call it global warming for nothing!

Ironically, it turned out to take little effort at all to rally family and friends for an afternoon of snow tubing and by noon on Saturday we were all headed to Ski Liberty. By four o’clock, all of my worries and stress had disappeared; I had regressed to my inner eight year old and was having one of the funnest afternoons of my life.

I went to sleep that night with a big smile on my face and couldn’t wait to tell everybody about my weekend adventure. And I am already making plans (can you believe it?) to go back in a few weeks!

Ten Ways I’m Going to Break the Pattern this Year

Truth be told, I’ve been avoiding this post for a few days. And yes I get the irony in that statement.

See, I have a love/hate relationship with lists. I’m super organized so I like to make them but once they’re finished, they taunt me by pointing out everything that I still haven’t done…which I hate.

But in this case it’s necessary that I make a list of goals for this year, of things that I’ve talked about and put off doing for years. I just haven’t wanted to post the list because I worry about not coming through with it and facing failure on a much more public scale. But the advantage is that once this is out there, I will feel a certain amount of responsibility (aka guilt) to actually make them happen. At least that’s the hope.

But before I reveal the list, keep in mind that we’re in a tough economy and money is tight…so I’ve put things on my list that I can afford to do. And I’m hoping that by staying realistic, I’ll have a greater chance of actually accomplishing them!

1. Go ice skating

2. Go on a road trip

3. Learn to rock climb

4. Go snow tubing

5. Visit my out-of-state friends (specifically in Pittsburgh & Nashville)

6. Sign up for dance classes

7. Go horseback riding

8. Experience new cities

9. Do more volunteer work

10. Get out of the house more