Image from Google Images

I’m on vacation early this week, & my clients are doing some Show & Tell! Today I have the talented & adorable Jamie House, a virtual interior designer, helping you pick the best colors for your home. Where was she 8 months ago when we moved into our new apartment? Thankfully I can still use her tips as I keep decorating my new abode!

Having a hard time selecting paints?

Hi I’m Jamie of Jamie House Design! I’m so excited to do this post for Miss Amazing Michelle. I’m an interior designer & also an e-designer, which means that I work with you to design your space, online. We never meet in person, but I provide you with a room in a box essentially, everything you need to pull together a professionally designed space yourself. It’s fun to be able to work with people around the country! Ok….I’ll get on with it!

I love selecting paint colors! It’s probably my favorite part of being an interior designer. It’s also completely nerve racking. What if it’s different than I expect, what if they don’t like it….oohhh it can be stressful. But it IS the easiest way to change the look of your home. Here are 5 tips to help you! (more…)

I’m on vacation this week & early next, & my clients are doing some Show & Tell! Today it’s Jessica Nichols’ turn, who photographs beautiful beautiful beautiful (beautiful!) images, sells ‘em in her shop, Sweet Eventide &  blogs under the same name. I’m so pleased to feature one of her newest photos, the inspiration behind it & what’s coming from it!

Lulu’s Succulents by Sweet Eventide

I was recently visiting my sister-in-law’s house and her little pot of succulents caught my eye. My current home is severely lacking in curb appeal and I am an extremely visual person who is sensitive to my environment. So I feel quite a bit of grief every time I pull into my driveway. Being a rental, that I know is going to be torn down after we move out, I have been extremely hesitant to spend any energy or money on the house even though I live in it every single day and it is my home. Well, I am now inspired to take on a little Curb Appeal Project. It doesn’t matter to me anymore if the house is going to be torn down. It is more than okay to make a little effort on my own behalf. I don’t want to feel sad every time I come home anymore. I do have to thank my mother-in-law for her offer to help me, her enthusiasm and her vast gardening & construction knowledge. It’s time for me to come home to something pretty like Lulu’s succulents.

I think some of my new courage to do this project comes from my work with Michelle so far this summer. With her guidance, I am slowly learning to honor my creative heart and trust in it, even if it feels very scary at times because I don’t know yet where my path is taking me. Somehow the Curb Appeal Project symbolizes the career crisis I have been having for the past few years. So what if this house is not my perfect, forever house? A little paint, some reed fencing and pots of beautiful succulents will remind me every day that I am worth it. And I am worth the career struggles I have been facing because somehow, some way, I have to end up where I am supposed to be. (more…)

Before I worked with Creatives, I was one. OK, I am one, present tense. And little ticks me off more than the Myths/ Untruths / Blatant Lies about being a creative person. Whether it’s your career or “simply” a hobby, the world at large tends to think that:

1. Creatives are stupid. Yup, I graduated NYU in 3 years. Yup, I was a theater major. That does not make it “easier”. Thank you.
2. Creatives are broke. Well everyone knows that you can’t make a living being an artist, or an actor, or a dancer, right? We must hate things like retirement & health insurance. Yuck.
3. Creatives are self-absorbed. Here’s a joke: How can you tell if someone’s Creative? By their big fat head! Here’s another: (Person 1) Knock knock……uh, knock knock……KNOCK KNOCK! (Person 2, the Creative) Oh, were you talking? I didn’t even see you standing there! I get so distracted by mirrors & my beautiful reflection. Wanna hear me belt a High C?
4. Creatives need to be told, constantly, that it’s “hard” to be a Creative. When I was pounding the pavement for 10 long years, & mentioned to anyone that I was Broadway Bound, I got one response, overwhelmingly: “That is such a hard life. Wow, so, so hard. You must have it so hard. It must be so hard for you.” I usually didn’t get that all at once, but it sure seemed like it. And my response, with a smile, was always, “Yup!” Um, I’m living it, idiot.
5. Creatives are lazy. This makes me more angry than any of the others, probably because my mission statement is to help Creatives that will not settle for a career that’s devoid of passion. To do that, there is major, major work involved. Major. And there is major, major drive & major, major motivation that goes along with it. Take Carmen Torbus, a client of mine who is a mother of 2 with a full-time job but is also an artist who leads workshops, writes books, blogs & contributes to a katrillion publications. Yeah, she’s just sitting on the couch eating Bon Bons all day. Puh-lease.

So, here comes that list of all the awesome things that Creatives are. I knew you were waiting for it. (more…)

“Venturing out of your comfort zone may be dangerous, yet you do it anyway because our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.” -Twyla Tharp

When I decided to read The Creative Habit right after The War of Art, I have to admit I gave myself a great big pat on the back. The War of Art was great in helping artists recognize & identify where & why Resistance (that pesky Vampire!) stops you from doing That Creative Thing You Do, but the phrase “A Practical Guide” at the bottom of the cover of The Creative Habit made me think that it would address the “how.” Sure, The War of Art really hit home with that beloved phrase, “Just do it (Every day. No matter what),” & while that’s simplistic & powerful in so many ways, the artist & life coach in me wanted more. I was hoping The Creative Habit would deliver it, and it did – to a point.

The Creative Habit is divided into chapters that formulate a foundation for Tharp (Spine, Memory, Accidents, etc). She delves into personal anecdotes & advice, always followed by a suggestion of different exercises to further you along in your discovery & personal interpretation of that idea. For example, Twyla speaks often of “scratching”, or the process of “digging through everything to find something” – an idea, an image, anything that’ll turn into a tangible idea that’ll spark your creative endeavor. One of the most memorable exercises comes at the end of the chapter, where she encourages the reader to take a handful of coins in any number & denomination & toss them onto a table to see how they fall, & then rearrange them into a pattern again & again & again, like “a musical chord resolving.” I can see how it helps her, a world-renowed choreographer, come up with new configurations for her dancers. I can see, also, how it helps me, a creative person looking for a new perspective, to see infinite possibilities in something that I usually wouldn’t look twice at.

Tharp also offers great stake-wielding stuff to slay the Vampires that hunt all of us Creatives. She lays it out on the table (i.e. “Somebody’s done this before!”) & then knocks it down (i.e. “Honey, it’s all been done before. Get over yourself”). She also speaks of the joy of planning (not overplanning!) & imperfection, how to determine if you’re in a rut, how to keep your groove going & how to deal with failure. Her advice is comforting & inspiring, all the while giving me new perspective & allowing me to feel that I wasn’t alone. It’s no mistake that rarely do 2 pages flip by that aren’t marked by my highlighter. (more…)

A poem by moi, inspired by The First Day of Spring, which is tomorrow (also titled Damn You, Wool Hat – Never Again!) & my Last Day of Corporate America, which is today (also titled Damn You, Cubicle – Never Again!):

Let’s pack up a picnic & go on our way! Today is such a wonderful, beautiful day!

Isn’t today just perfect to play? Whaddya think, whaddya say?

I might go to the beach, oh I just may. Today is a spectacular, fabulous day! (more…)

…drumroll please……

…now the violins….

….and then the cowbell….

…now drumrolls louder…. (more…)

From left to right: Custom stationary that Sarah makes on The Sweet Unfolding’s Etsy shop; a gift box of spa wonderfulness at Matilda & Mae; The Sweet Unfolding logo, which has all your wedding needs

I met Sarah Schultz via Etsy, when I hired her to design custom stationary for a blogger who was super sweet to me. My blogger friend loved her gift, & it started a chain of emails between Sarah & I that led to us asking each other for mutual blog interviews (mine’s here)! As a creative entrepreneur that designs stationary, has her own spa line & has virtually opened a wedding boutique, she was meant for Grown-Up Gigs.

1. What did you want to be when you grew up? I always knew I wanted to work for myself doing something creative. My ideas of how that would play out have changed a lot over the years—they’re still changing, I think—but working for myself and creating has always been my goal. I say on The Sweet Unfolding site somewhere that starting my own business has long been my favorite dream, and it’s so true. In all the various stages of my past, whether in school or at any of my previous jobs (I used to work in advertising and as a writer for nonprofit organizations), working for myself was the dream I kept coming back to. Even though it’s been tough at times, I feel really fortunate that I have the opportunity to work on turning that dream into a reality.

2. As a creative entrepreneur that designs stationary, has a spa line & has virtually opened her wedding boutique, how the heck did you come to dip your pen in all of those pots? I think it’s because I have a short attention span! And I also just really love to design. If I see something that inspires me, whether it’s a cute little bottle or a pretty quilt or a pattern on a tea set, I almost immediately have an idea for a product, followed by ideas for the packaging, product name, etc. I always end up really wanting to see the idea come to life, so oftentimes I’ll just go with it and see what happens. My thought is I can’t lose anything by trying; even if something doesn’t work at least I’ll know I gave it a shot. (more…)

“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are & become it.” – Steven Pressfield

It’s the first in my monthly Rousing Reviews series! OK, it’s technically the second (I reviewed The Renaissance Soul in June of ‘09, so that totally counts, right?), but it’s the first on a consistent basis. Let’s face it, our lives sometimes get in the way, & it’s tough to sit down with a book that you know will do ya a world of good, both for yourself & your fans/readers/followers/clients. So yes, this series is absolutely a structure I set-up for myself to make me accountable to read the books that I’ve been tagging along the way. See, I life coach myself sometimes! And duh – obviously I do this for you kids, too (say it with me: “Awwwwww!”).

I wanted to start off the series with The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield because it’s really a hell of a title. What artist wouldn’t want to go into battle, break through their creative roadblocks, & emerge victorious with the Writer’s Block Vampire’s head on a stick? And while I’d like to say that that’s what this book does, I can’t. Not to say it won’t help slay that Vampire, but it’s more about discovering all the ways the Vampire’s likely to attack you & instilling yourself with the mojo to make it not only not bite you, but to get it to leave you the hell alone, at least until tomorrow.

Let me explain. The War of Art is split into three books: Resistance (Defining the Enemy) Combating Resistance (Turning Pro) & Beyond Resistance (Higher Realm). As you can tell, Resistance is the Vampire here. The long & short of it is that every single thing that causes a creative person to shelve their creativity – whether it’s perfectionism, addiction, procrastination, or the million other excuses a creative person gives themselves to not do – is a direct weapon of Resistance.  For me, Book One was eye-opening, powerful, & worth the price of the book a few times over. When I flipped the page to Book Two, I may or may not have clutched it to my chest & said to myself, “You will be beaten & dog-eared when I’m through with you.” And then I may or may not have kissed it. I couldn’t help it – hearing about all the different Vampires that get in the way of making Art, why, it was a wonder that any Art exists at all! The whole reason Resistance exists is to “shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work” & “the more call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel towards pursuing it.” How evil is that? It’s so evil that the more we discover something that’s authentically us, that’s calling us to do it, the more it attempts to stop us! That is so, so evil that I not only wanted it’s head on a stick, I wanted to chop it up into pieces & then stomp it to double death! Seriously, it pissed me off. (more…)

The long & short of my mini-life-crisis last week was that I was bogged down, overwhelmed, and couldn’t see where to go. I’ll write a longer post about this over the weekend, but wanted to share with you a big culprit of my frazzled brain and lack of time:

Blogs.

I know, I know, you’re thinking: “Blogs? That’s it? That’s what made you crazy? Seems a bit….anti-climatic.” I know you used the word “anti-climatic” instead of saying a much meaner word, and I appreciate that.

But yes, I admit it : I was blog-crazy. I thought they were the answer in showing me how to build my business, and find potential clients, and see what interests me on a personal level. I found dozens of blogs that did one of those three things, and some that held me captive on multiple levels. I thought I was handling all the posts well when I broke the blogs down into categories (thanks delicious!) and read each category on a weekly basis. Well, that backfired when there were more than 3 blogs in 1 category and I committed myself to reading 3-4 categories a day! Turns out I didn’t learn – or even enjoy – anything! I just rushed through each post because I had to get to the next one. No good. (more…)

Squidoo’s Lens of the Day introduced me to Your Life Sentence: 6-Word Memoirs or Quotations. It’s really an amazing way to write your autobiography – and have people want to read it!

Here are some of my faves:

“Revenge is living well, without you.” -Joyce Carol Oates

“Wasn’t born a redhead: fixed that.” -Anonymous (more…)