1.27.14 excited about: future

I haven’t posted in months. All I can say is that I experienced a huge wave of change in the office that has kept me extremely busy over the past several months. Too busy for much else. (Insert many parental lectures about the importance of work/life balance. Yep - of course, they are right.)

I’ll keep this brief, but I am super excited about my future. I’ve begun by making changes (hopefully for the better). In the meantime, I hope that this new year has begun on a very positive note for you as well.

If you’re not - do something about it:
Dive in deeper (invest fully in what you want to accomplish) and expect more of yourself
OR
Ask yourself what else you might pursue - and then Go After That.

As my husband (pictured above) has been saying for a while now,
“Life is too short. Don’t have regrets.”

excited about - flats with a point

I’m a sucker for cute shoes, but lately - I’ve been gravitating toward styles that some might 

refer to as “comfortable.” I don’t care because I really don’t feel as though I’m sacrificing style for comfort.

On the weekends, except for church services, I been living in my Tretorns, my Birkenstocks (which as of this summer are a new thing for me  - and I’m really LOVING them) and running shoes. It’s intentionally a low key wardrobe and - yes - very comfortable.

I’ve purchased these pair of simple flats for the office/church - and I’m pretty excited because while they are flat, and simple - they really do work with most outfits (even pencil skirts!) and still feel elevated. I think the simplicity of the style actually adds to the total professional vibe. There are zero embellishments other than the pointed shape and the shine of the patent leather.

They are completely comfortable - although I had to purchase a half size up from my typical shoe size from this brand. They are available in two other colors - an orange shade called Burnished Rust, and a neutral blush called Soft Desert. I wish there were more colors available, such as a Navy option. I would snap them up quickly. Just sayin’. I am a VIV fan.

J.Crew VIV Patent Flats, item 71801 $188 

Photo from jcrew.com

so much fun!

One of my favorite parts of my job as the creative director for a beauty retailer is the model shoots. I don’t work in an environment that has a coordinator for these - so I basically get to meet each model at the model call, then I work directly with the agency, the wardrobe stylist and the hair and makeup stylist. 

Over the years, I’ve been really fortunate to work with industry experts and I’ve learned so much from each shoot. I love the talent that we get to work with. Each shoot brings new challenges, new hair and makeup looks and really fun personalities. 

I simply can’t say enough about Sara Domi, who owns a salon on 5th street in Austin. Whenever I can work with her, I jump at the chance. She is beyond talented and FAST. Another huge bonus is that she’s just a really nice person and very open to new ideas. She always brings fresh styles and usually knows our products so well, that she brings out the best in them. 

Although it’s a lot work to produce at shoot - which usually occurs in a very short amount of time, it’s just a lot of fun. When the shoot is over, I comb through all of the amazing images to determine which ones are the absolute best to select for post production and usage. The models are so talented, they make this part of the project really difficult.

There are days when I come home from work and just realize how fortunate I am. I always feel this way after a big shoot. I hope you have an element of your daily gig that brings this much fun and excitement to your work. If not, try to find some new opportunity within your position where you can do something a little fun. You’ll shine in the opportunity if you are enjoying what you’re doing. Go for it!

new tools: fresh perspective

I had decided before going on my vacation that these two books would be my beach reads. I heard about them from my friend Jen at work. Neither of them are very racy. In fact, I’m sure that to most, these would be pretty sad options for a summery, breezy day - but I knew that I needed to recharge and rethink some of my work habits. These are just the perfect books to help with this.

One book was called, “Making Ideas Happen” by Scott Belsky.

The other was called, “Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind” by Jocelyn K. Glei.

I really enjoyed both books. I gained a lot of inspiration and good tips about organizing my thoughts and daily routine, keeping the creative ideas coming and then understanding how to process the ideas that are worth pursuing. 

In this day and age with all of the possible distractions and time wasting activities (but who DOESN’T love to play a word search game on the ol’ iPad?), it felt great just to get into a good book and complete it and feel like I learned something from the contents.

These books pushed me back into a good mentality - and I needed that. I needed the break from the work stress, but then I also needed the good kick in the pants (so to speak) from the “I don’t have time for myself” pity party. The “Manage Your Day-To-Day” book especially helped with this.

If you’re stuck like chuck, and need that extra push - read these books. They will inspire.

Monday: back to reality

So - we took last week off for a nice beach getaway. 

I really enjoy just sitting and losing myself in a good book while feeling the ocean breeze and listening to the waves. SO relaxing. I don’t need anything else other than an umbrella and tons of sunscreen. This vacation was almost perfect. Perfect is when you can completely leave and be unreachable from the office. I was (of course) completely reachable. Still, we enjoyed a really good vacation. Good and important to get away and rethink daily life.

I love summer. I love that I think it’s slower than school year time - but really it’s not. Our daughter took a class this summer to get ahead of her high school requirements. Our kiddos both are involved in sports that keeps them busy even in the summertime. The main difference is that there isn’t as much homework or school projects in the works; parent meetings at school or required weekend plans. It just seems slower (even if it’s not).

During this summer, the house has been cleaned out of clothes that don’t fit, beach towels that were worn or torn (from the tug of war games with our wet chocolate lab), old toys that weren’t being played with anymore or were broken, and old kitchen items that needed to be tossed or organized.

Today, we’re back to reality. The kids start school today which means that football practice begins for our boy (6:00am at school!) and our girl will be a freshman in high school (TIME FLIES). She spent our vacation reading “To Kill A Mockingbird” for her English class.

Change is in the air at my day job with new leadership coming in and questioning “the way we’ve always done it.” This means a lot of fresh perspective, new ideas, interesting projects, and creative opportunities. I’m excited for the adjustments and can only expect that the hard work with smart thinking will crush the new objectives.

I’m excited for my Monday. I’ve read most of the September issues and have my favorite trends all picked out for inspiration of upcoming projects. I’ve shopped online for some items to help freshen up my “fall standards” (even though it’s still hot outside, it’s ALWAYS freezing at the office). I’ve changed the pedicure from the minty blue polish to a dark shade and went with the same color on my nails just to announce my "fall is here" attitude. 

Thanks to the books I read over my vacation, I’m rethinking parts of my daily work schedule and organization techniques (yes - these are the types of books I read when I’m on vacation!). Pretty excited about being much more action oriented and yet continuing to store my ideas for future purposes. 

So much to too. It’s definitely MONDAY. Let’s change that connotation to a carpe diem type sentiment. Let’s go!!

Show you care

Thanks to Denise for the reminder of where to buy heart-shaped balloons! They make the PERFECT Valentine’s Day gift. 

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Make it special! 

You look marva-what?

What was for dinner last night?

When was the last time you worked out - REALLY hard?

When was the last time you walked into work with confidence about yourself and your ability to exceed all expectations?

The way we look usually translates into how we feel about ourselves - and how we feel about ourselves usually translates into how we perform at work.

I’m a sucker for watching shows such as “You Are What You Eat” on BBC America or NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.” Even I’m surprised that the common storyline for these TV shows - people treat their bodies badly and ‘the road to recovery and rediscovering who they are’ - continues to interest me.

For BBC America’s “You Are What You Eat”, the nutritionist will display on a large table literally what their obese subject will have eaten for a week, prior to her arrival. The food and beverage always appears disgusting with no redeeming health qualities, whatsoever. Her typical comment has to do with the smell of the room. She goes pretty far into explaining to them what that poor nutrition is doing to their health and then she gives them an entirely new diet plan and exercise plan to follow at home, in their typical daily schedule. When they stick to it, they are shocked at just how amazing they look and feel. It’s pretty cut and dry - she doesn’t get very emotional about why the subjects gained the weight in the first place. It’s basically a case (each episode) of, “you eat terrible, never work out, and if you use my diet and exercise plan, it will fix you.”

You may be more familiar with NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” which includes a group of obese contestants who work out their bodies, and work on their nutrition and emotions on The Biggest Loser Ranch, away from their home and families. The show’s trainers have become celebrities because they seem to care more about the emotional state of the contestants (which always plays nice in TV land). The understanding is that these contestants spend most of their waking hours in the gym working out - while eating a healthy diet - and we’re always happy to see how that much effort transforms their bloated, distorted bodies into healthy, happy people with each week’s very dramatic “weigh in.” 

These shows demonstrate with every season that the healthier we are, the happier and emotionally stable we are. When a person is overweight, they feel less confident about themselves and confidence is a key element to performance.

So, think about how you’re treating yourself. If that nutritionist were to come show you literally everything that you’ve eaten this week, how embarrassed or how proud would you feel? If “The Biggest Loser” celebrity trainers were to show up and give you an amazing free “Last Chance Workout,” how impressed would they be with your ability to perform?

How good do you look and feel when you walk into work each day and how confident are you in your performance? The mind and body are connected - so the best way to improve your confidence and feel better about your performance each day on the job is to take really good care of your health. 

It’s Friday!

• skip the free donuts that someone will bring in to the office to celebrate the end of
  the work week
• think about what you’re putting in your mouth (keeping a food journal would help)
• work in a work out to your schedule, makes you feel SO GOOD just to MOVE!

Look good. Feel good. DO good and BE CONFIDENT!

Mornin' routine

When my awesome husband is out of town - the typical routine looks completely different:

Let’s start from when I get home from work (and he’s gone):

• Home around 7:15 (much earlier than usual, so I can relieve our afternoon tutor for B&B)
• Grocery store run (because someone needs something for some class)
• Make my dinner (yep - usually the hubby makes me yummy food, but not tonight)
• Eat dinner and watch some TV with kiddos
• Put kiddos to bed
• Evening call to out of town hubby, to catch him up on the evening
• Make lunches for tomorrow (while catching up on TIVO’d TV - so it takes at LEAST two times longer)
• I go to bed, but I don’t really because I turn on the TV in the bedroom (STAY UP TOO LATE WATCHING THINGS I GENERALLY HAVE NO TIME FOR, such as Project Runway All Stars)
• 5:25am: alarm goes off for the morning workout, but I snooze because I’m stiff tired from being up too late the night before
• 6:15: actual up & shower, etc
• 6:40: wake kiddos up
• 6:50: kiddos actually get up
• 6:50 - 7:15: morning blog time for Paperclip
• 7:12: kiddos come down for breakfast, while I finish getting ready for work
• 7:25: start telling kiddos to get in the car to leave for school
• 7:33: actual time we leave for school drop off
• 8:20: arrive at the office (about 20 minutes earlier than when my husband is here)

No complaints - this is just how it goes when he’s out of town.

MUCH different from when he’s here and does a LOT of the typical routine tasks (like making lunches and taking kiddos to school).

Much respect to the single parents out there - who ALWAYS have all of the responsibility of making everything run smoothly.

Lovin' the green!

So - as I struggled to think of something thoughtful to give the members of the team for Christmas this year (yes, I ended up giving good ol’ reliable Starbucks gift cards), Jaime found just the PERFECT gift and she was generous and got one for everyone . . . a nice green plant for our individual workspaces.

At first, I was VERY afraid that I would kill it, like I’ve done several times before. (Yes, Amy, I know - I was very very sad). Let’s just say that I don’t have a very green thumb. Jaime assured me that she gave a form of cactus plants in order to be very low maintenance. Good thinking! As you can see, mine is still alive - and it’s been a month!

I love plants - and our office is so much nicer looking with everyone having a cute little touch of green on their desk. We’re all committed to keeping them very alive and well. I’ve even had folks remind me to water before leaving for the weekend.

I’ve been thinking of a name for him, like “Mr. Green Jeans” (in honor of Captain Kangeroo’s sidekick soooo long ago). This was a really terrific holiday gift idea and would also be very appropriate for an officemate’s birthday.

Thank you Jaime! Mr. Green Jeans and I are getting along just fine!

Sometimes . . .

So - I was talking with some friends over the weekend about work/life balance.

We talked about the fact that sometimes we become completely engrossed in our work - and it’s all-consuming. 

But sometimes . . . we take a step back and we wonder if this job is really the right job. Sometimes - we’re just not into our jobs. After working in the same position for a while, you feel like you’ve learned everything there is to know about it and the work is not stimulating anymore. 

My friends were talking about the importance of a happy life because you start to realize that the work you do is funding the fun you can have outside of work, such as the latest decorating project, or the upcoming vacation that you’ve been dreaming of taking.

Even when we aren’t feeling completely inspired by work, we can feel inspired by what our work is helping us accomplish or support elsewhere in our lives. Then we can respect what we do and keep us on track - without slipping into a feeling of frustration. 

So, even if this Monday morning has you less than excited about going into the office, you can remember that you’re doing what you need to do in order to afford your life. Your office needs you and wants you to perform your best when you’re there. 

And about that lack-luster feeling about the job? Give yourself some time - either some new project will come up, or some new opportunity for a promotion might occur and you’ll feel inspired and motivated by your work again, or you’ll feel led to search for a new job. In either of these situations, time will be your friend. Give yourself time to realize what’s going on in respect to your feelings. Doing your best job gives your employer a good reason to assign you the new important project which puts you in the position for a promotion. And if you’ve decided to search for something new, time allows you to think about what type of new job to look for and develop the skills you might need for a new role. 

Sometimes, a steady job that’s not too draining of your energy or schedule is a good thing to allow you to pursue other interests outside of work. In the end, the fulfilled life is the ultimate goal. The best part is that you get to define “fulfilled” and what that means to you.

how's the year going so far?

Here we are - almost a month into 2012 and I’m curious, what are the little things of everyday office life that bring you joy?

Things I’m LOVING:

Evernote and using my iPad in meetings. I like NOT having the issue of pencil or possible pen marks on my hands from taking notes in my usual notebooks anymore. I also like having my notes synced to all of my devices. I’m just saying - it’s GENIUS!!

Getting back to my usual lunch salad. I feel less tired, less “stuffed” and more free to enjoy my little M&M “fun pack” size later.

New Milly bag. PERFECTLY sized for daytime. (Another post on this to come!)

My RED iPad smart cover. So Much Better than the cream one I first had that looked dingy very quickly!! (The more you use it . . the less pristine that cream looks!)

The new touch of green on my desk - a plant that I shouldn’t be able to kill. Happiness everyday. Thanks to Jaime!!

Open discussions. What’s working, what can be better, what can I do to help. Three questions that I’m talking at lot about these days. VERY HELPFUL.

Hearing more laughter in the office. Things are just as busy, but we’ve just been having more fun getting it all done!

New knowledge. Lynda.com has got to be one of the BEST investments we’ve made. I’m addicted to it - makes me wish there were more hours in the day. Learning has never been easier or more tailored to an individual’s interests. It’s fascinating.

How’s your 2012 going? What are you doing to make it great?

Dare to impress . . .

I remember when my dad would come home from work and when my mom would ask how his day went, he would say (sometimes a little sarcastically), “Well, I got an ‘atta boy!”

That “atta boy” was code for “great work” or “good job” or any other generic “way to go” phrase that you can insert. Even as a kid, I know that even if he was being sarcastic in how he would mimic the way in which it was said to him, my dad secretly liked knowing that what he was doing was good.

When is the last time that you decided to impress someone with your work?

I can hear (even from myself) the reasons why it’s pretty hard to do these days:

• they expect so much from me, in such a short amount of time
• well, if I only had the resources . . . 
• pretty tough to “impress” when I’m barely getting what I need to do finished, completely

And then there’s the:

• the last time I impressed someone, I ended up when many more “initiatives” assigned to me
• impressing is tough to do when the end goal keeps changing
• how do you impress people who don’t really know what they want?

Well . . . 

The number one person that you need to strive to impress is - yourself!

We’re our own worst critics. You (and I) KNOW when we’ve done a really good job with something, and when we’ve just basically mailed it in.

When you strive to impress yourself, then ultimately, you’ll find more happiness in what you are doing - because doing great work makes us feel So Much Better about what we do. You’ll gain knowledge and confidence by actually pushing yourself to be better at what you’re doing. You’ll actually CARE MORE.

When you mail it in, it’s kinda like how you feel when you cheat on your diet All The Time. There’s no commitment there and you ultimately don’t have your heart in your efforts. How can you possibly expect that half-hearted work to impress anyone? You’ve been given talents and specific skills - and deep down, you know when you are wasting your time and your talents.

So - beat the odds. Do the great work, despite the reasons why you shouldn’t be able to. Impress yourself. Get all of the extra initiatives that you can possibly handle - VOLUNTEER    for them even!!

Make your work be heard - most importantly, by you.

And then, give yourself an “atta boy.” Make yourself proud.

(p.s. This is dedicated to anyone who needed a boost in their spirit today.)

what's on my iPad?

Let’s see:

565 notes in Evernote

Yes, it goes with me to every meeting. I try to keep everything digital and avoid handwriting notes as much as possible. Sometimes, it’s more practical to write my notes - when there are huge, multi-page documents being reviewed or discussed, but other than that - I put the info in Evernote (which is also on my phone, as well as on my work and home notebooks!). These notes sync like magic!! With the ability to create different notebooks by topic, and also “tag” individual notes within a specific notebook - this app has absolutely revolutionized the way I work and keep track of everything.

36 books (reading through about 5 or 6 currently)

5 sample books (just deciding if I want to buy them or not)

18 magazines in Zinio

20 magazines in Newsstand (LOVE the new WWD app!!!)

(9 issues that need to be downloaded)

a Bazillion apps (always fluctuating thanks to my kids sharing my iTunes account)

(4 apps that currently need updating)

several games (thank you kiddos) - but my FAVE is Backgammon

Twitter (of course) and Facebook (but I’m more active on Twitter for some reason)

Pinterest (just getting started with this new social phenomenon) 

camera & video (iPad2 - YES) - so lots of videos and photos

9 movies!

1 TV show - Million Dollar Decorators (SOOOOO good last year!)

1 music video - I Am A Gummy Bear (thank you, son)

1457 songs

2 podcasts

75 unread emails (whoops!)

NO telling what else, but I’m curious - what’s on your iPad???

Check YOU out!

When I imagine the most ideal professionals, they always have a super smart wardrobes and are on top of their game in the office. The women have fantastic hair, perfect manicures and a slim fitting, smart outfit complete with really yummy shoes. The men have crisp shirts and nice watches or pens.

I don’t know why I associate these particular attributes with the genders, but I do.

In making my new years resolutions, I literally wrote “Amp up office style.”

Last week, one of the executives at work mentioned a fellow employee and the conversation literally shifted into a moment of style appreciation. Basically, this particular employee was looked upon in a very favorable light because they give a lot of effort in their professional appearance at the office (as well as being very talented in their position) - ESPECIALLY on Fridays, which are “business casual.”

Say what you will about performance, but the style you bring to work each day will get you noticed.

The question is - are you being noticed for how great you look (and make the company look) OR are you being overlooked because you don’t stand out in a really good, pulled together, “I GOT this,” type of fashion?