My new hobby – Furniture Restoration!

I’ve recently fallen in the love with the idea of refurbishing furniture! I love it for many reasons. Primarily, I reuse furniture that would otherwise be thrown away. AND I get a fresh piece of furniture …for free (well, almost)!

I have a few pieces I’ve already refurbished and will update this blog with the finished product. Regrettably, I didn’t photograph before, during and after! But I will begin to do so!

For now, I leave you with my 4th refurbished piece, the bookcase!

I took a crappy old bookcase (very ugly) and tore off of the cardboard backing. I primed the shelves with a primer (Zinsser!) and painted them a toasty taupe. I then cut pallet board wood (mega job!!) to line the back of the shelves – in replacement of the cheap cardboard. And Ta-Da! I love it! It is sturdy and you can see the pallet wood behind the books – very rustic. Stay tuned!

The pallet wood shows through for a rustic country look!

Make it Count

I recently came across this awesome video that has lifted my heart and reminded me what is at the core of our lives – or mine at least. The video producer was asked to make a movie about what it means to “make it count”. His response is to travel around the world until the money runs out. 10 days later…

One of the cool things about this video are the quotes.

Life is either daring adventure or nothing at all. – Helen Keller

Buy the ticket, take the ride. – Hunter S. Thompson

You only live once but if you do it right once is enough. – Mae West

Above all, try something. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

I never worry about the future, it comes soon enough. – Albert Einstein

One who makes no mistakes makes nothing at all. – Giacomo Casanova

Do one thing everyday that scares you. – Eleanor Roosevelt

In the end it’s not the years in your life that count it’s the life in your years.  – Abraham Lincoln

If I’d followed all the rules I’d never have gotten anywhere. – Marilyn Monroe

Action expresses priorities. – Gandhi

Now get out there and make it count!!

Pinterest.. the new “it” site?

I recently came across yet another social site that lets you share all the things you love on the world wide web. I finally got on Twitter and am just learning about Tumblr when along comes 

I found out about Pinterest through a friend on Facebook. What drew me to Pinterest is all the pretty pictures. Seriously! Check it out and have a look at all the cool things you can see on one page. Granted, it is a bit girly as there is a lot of fashion, food and home decor.

Pinterest reminds of the wedding blog site StyleMePretty, “for style obsessed brides” (yes, that is the official tag-line). I cherished this web site while I was planning my wedding. All the ideas! The photos! It gave me inspiration and I spent countless hours scrolling through wedding after wedding.

How Pinterest works: Once you sign up (it oddly takes about a week to get “approved” by the Pinterest staff), you install the “Pin It” button which lets you grab an image from the web and add it to any one of your “pinboards”.

Check out my.. See anything you like?

Meditation

I’ve always been drawn to meditation. I believe the merits of proper mediation can bring about positive change. In my efforts to start meditating I came across some useful tips I thought I would share…

Start with posture. Your posture must be very comfortable and allow you to stay perfectly still. Ideally, legs are crossed and fingers clasped. Close your eyes. Now if you can… stop the mind from thinking. For me, this is often the most difficult part. And finally, relax. Totally relax.

When we cross our legs and clasp our fingers it allows our energy circuits to flow. And since eyes are the doors to the mind, so should our eyes be closed. It requires my full concentration to perfectly relax. Relaxation is one of the most important aspects of meditation because when the body relaxes the mind can “travel”.

If this is all starting to sound a bit too hare krishna, remember that meditation is a mental journey. According to vibrantenergy, the mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts and the trick is not to go behind the thoughts. But rather cut the thought, and come back to the breath..

Always. Witness. The. Breath.

To witness the breath means allowing the natural inhalation (or exhalation) happen on it’s own. This also helps with the whole relaxation process. At this stage of meditation I’m usually done my session. Which begs a final question: How long do I meditate? The meditation guru suggests you meditate for as long as your physical age – if you are 25 you would meditate for 25 minutes.

Happy meditating  🙂

The Art of Creativity.

To be creative is a task worthy of mastery. How does one become creative? I spend more time reading about how to be creative, and watching You Tube and TED videos on creative people than being creative myself. There are a heck of a lot of creative people out there.

Take Halla Tomasdottir for example, the Icelandic entrepreneur who started a financial services company in the midst of the greatest financial hardships Iceland has ever seen. Click here to watch how and why she is doing it.

Another creative genius lies in Elizabeth Gilbert’s address (watch here) on the intricacies of finding creativity and how to keep it; and most of all, whether it even belongs to us at all.

And I could not list my favorite creators these days without mentioning Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits. Besides advocating a simple, minimalist lifestyle Leo taps the creativity keg by believing the merits of creativity can be summoned by doing fun things you love every day. Shake your creativity tree! – Leo says. Blog! Listen to good music! Dance! Cook!

And go easy on yourself when your creativity is not flourishing. To live a creative life is to find fun when things start to feel stale. Finding new ways of doing things when the same ‘ol becomes routine and monotonous.

Creativity is not a spectator sport, it’s time to join the game. If only I could stop sticking inspiring notes and quotes on my fridge and actually do something creative… that would be something original!