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…)

I’m on vacation this week & early next, & my clients are doing some Show & Tell! Today it’s Crafty Fanny’s turn, & she decided to post in video form! Must be all the videos we’ve been forcing having her do for Spring as our newest co-host (and yes, even though we were working together at the time of the contest her entry was a complete surprise!). Make sure you visit her amazeballs blog & brand new Etsy shop! In fact, Tiffany will be offering When I Grow Up readers a 20% discount on all shop items through July 20. Just enter the code “Michelle Rocks!” in the message to seller upon checkout and the 20% will be refunded through paypal. Yay!

When I Grow Up Guest Video from tiffany moore on Vimeo.

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Delicious Discounts & Great Giveaways for When I Grow Up Readers! Through July 20th: 20% off of Crafty Fanny’s shop & enter to win a virtual room makeover from Maggie Rose. Through July 24th: enter to win a custom scrapbook from  Tara Sroka. Through Aug 31st: get a $25 discount for any $250 purchase from  Tara Sroka. As Gwen Stefani would say, What You Waiting For? (more…)

I’m on vacation this week & early next, & my clients are taking over! Come back every weekday for Client Show & Tell. Today it’s scrapbooker, designer & all around sweet lady Tara Sroka’s turn!

My name is Tara Sroka and I’m thrilled to be guest blogging here while Michelle is on vacation. I am a scrapbook artist who helps people document and preserve their life’s most precious moments to tell their stories, to remember days gone by and to document all their moments big, small and in between.

Since Michelle is on vacation that got me thinking about summertime memories and making sure I take the time to document them. Summer is a fresh start more or less with more time for leisure and kicking back. With warmer weather and longer days gives us more time to get outside, more time to play with friends, extra time to hang out with family and more time to travel. These are the moments that make up our lives, that tell our story and they should be recorded to remember for years to come.

The summer is great because the lack of schedule can be a blessing especially if you are a kid. Many of my favorite summer memories are from childhood when summer meant no school, which meant no worries or stress. Summertime is all about being carefree when you are a kid, which somehow disappears when you get older. (more…)

One of Maggie office moodboards! Ain’t it super pretty pants? I just love that print!

Yay hooray! It’s the very first day of Client Show & Tell! While I don’t leave for my vacation ’til later today (off to Niagara Falls to celebrate my Ma-in-law’s 65th!), I’m busy coachin’ & packin’ today. Every day this week & into next, I’ll have a guest post from one of my clients. Ain’t that amazeballs? I gave them carte blanche to submit whatever they wanted (it is Show & Tell, after all), so expect some pretty pictures, a vabulous (like “fabulous”, but with a “v”)video, a recommended reading report & some decorating designs. I know. My clients are the awesomest.

Hi When I Grow Up readers! I’m Maggie of interior design and lifestyle blog Maggie Rose - where I talk about pretty rooms, gardening tips, my own home projects, and online vintage shop. I also tackle the big, the bad, and the ugly though my e-decorating services – an online interior design consulting service that focuses on getting the room that my clients want without spending the big bucks.

In fact, because I know a lot of you are either working from home or doing some work from home (in the evenings and on weekends counts too!), I wanted to share my knowledge and offer up one full-service e-decorating guide for a home office space to one of Michelle’s awesome readers FOR FREE. After all, it’s hard to get motivated and inspired when the room is too cluttered, disorganized, or painted drab yucky colors with bad lighting (sound familiar?)! (more…)

Black Sheep by dreamel. Love how the black sheep is dancing with a hat & cane! If he had fingers, he’d so have jazz hands right now.

Lindsay Christensen is a rockin’ interior designer who I “met” through Blogging Your Way, the awesome blogging e-course that Holly Becker of decor8 led earlier this year. It turned out that I was the lone life coach in a sea of designers & crafters, & I loved every minute of it. Lindsay & I have been reading each other’s blogs & tweeting ever since, & I was thrilled when she offered to contribute as a guest blogger! Like some of my other guest bloggers these past two weeks, Lindsay wrote about the  “scenic, sometimes rocky road” that was her journey to finding her passionate, creative career. Isn’t it amazing how we have so many similar stories, yet they’re all so different? Get the tissues ready!

Coming from a small town, I always just assumed I would do something ‘practical’ or science related. I wasn’t interested in business or English, but I was a good science student. So I had a foolproof plan; go to college, major in something science related (psychology, exercise science, marine biology?) and get a steady and secure job after you graduate in 4 years. Right? I thought I’d figure it out along the way. I didn’t know what I wanted to do right out of high school, so when I enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, I was “undeclared in Biological Sciences.” Chemistry, organic chemistry, calculus, psychology, social psychology, French, art history…all the fun (and not so fun) lower division requirements, blah blah blah. I did really love my art history class, but I didn’t even consider it as a major at the time. Come on, you can’t major in art! You can’t be successful that way! Right? After two years I was burnt out and still confused as ever, so I decided to take a break. A break that turned into a five year break. But I wasn’t doing diddly-squat during my break – I was out there in the world, living back in my home town, taking a class or two here or there, working, researching, trying to find my niche, and I also started dating my future husband and we got married…and that leads me here…

In August 2006 I had a great job. Well, it was great for someone without a Bachelor’s Degree, which I did not have at the time (but was still a goal of mine that I was not going to give up). Great for someone my age (25) who had no children, which I did not have at the time. Great pay for where I lived, meaning that my husband and I could live comfortably with my half of our salary, we had better-than-decent benefits, and it was going to go nowhere but up. I had a great boss and great co-workers. My employer even helped pay for my classes. See, I worked at the local county Public Health Department back then. But that was the month that I quit to go to Interior Design school. I started working there three years earlier in 2003 as the “Office Specialist” (aka receptionist), and after working there for two years, I was promoted to a better job within the department. I could have stayed but it was always a personal goal of mine to finish school with at least a Bachelor’s Degree, so I knew I wasn’t going to be there forever. It wasn’t enough for me, and so I wasn’t happy there. That is something that I figured out while out in the real world; that is not my personality and I won’t stay where I’m not happy. (more…)

Self Portrait by flapperdoodle. Isn’t she just the epitome of a creative entrepreneur?

You’ve already met Tara Lutman Agacayak back in my second installment of Grown-Up Gigs. She describes it below, so I’m not gonna, but seriously, click on the link & read it if you haven’t already. As you can probably guess, I was thrilled to get Tara’s submission as a guest blogger, & I think her 10 Ways are dead on. They absolutely confirmed for me that I’m a creative entrepreneur. What about you?

In one of her Grown-up Gig posts, Michelle introduced me as “Creative Entrepreneurial  Endeavor Developer”.  Though that’s a mouthful, I still haven’t decided on the appropriate title for myself.  But I do know that I enjoy seeing other people develop viable creative businesses.  For this post I thought I’d put together a list of things that I think describe what a creative entrepreneur is since the term can be a bit vague (but creatives are good with vague, aren’t we?).  So, without further ado …

You know you are a creative entrepreneur if: (more…)

A Change Might Be Just Around The Corner by wordboner

Jeremie Miller is a fellow International Coach Academy student who I met via the message boards. I forget the thread that sparked our introduction, but I should tip my hat to it because Jeremie’s awesome. He writes a kick-ass blog called Sunday Night Success & is, in my opinion, a Goal Guru – he knows how to set ‘em & accomplish ‘em & get the support/structure you need all the while. Currently, Jeremie is a life coach for Dads, but he’s been on a long journey to get there. Read below about his path, & how he consistently ditched safety for the pursuit of happiness.

Career changes have never really frightened me.

That is not to say that, when I decide to make a change, I am not plagued by the small voices telling me I am crazy, that it will all fall apart, and that I am making a huge mistake. (more…)

Today’s guest blogger is Cory Huff, who I stalked after I saw he was looking for people to profile on his website, The Abundant Artist.  I didn’t quite fit what he was looking for, so I followed him on Twitter instead of submitting myself. It must’ve been The Secret working, because Cory DM’d me & asked me to guest post for him! I haven’t taken him up on it (yet!), but he’s jumping in the ring first with this awesome post about why we should all be aspiring troublemakers. Take that, Goody Two Shoes!

Do Your Own Thing by StephanieFizer

“I’m a troublemaker, not a double taker. Doing things my own way and never giving up.” – from the song Troublemaker, by Weezer

I tend to get in trouble. I say the wrong thing at the wrong time. I do what I’m not supposed to do. When I’m being held back by people who don’t know what they’re talking about I tend to strike out on my own just to show them what I can do. I offend people when I speak truth that goes against what they believe. I’m that Gen Y guy who makes the Baby Boomers grind their teeth in frustration because even though I didn’t do it the way they think it should be done, I still did it well and it had great results.

It has worked out pretty well for me to be this way. I got lead roles in all my high school plays because I was the best. I got my wife to marry me because I asked her six times. In college I got good grades on papers by ignoring what the professor told us to do and just wrote something worth reading. At one company I worked for I was allowed to start a new department because I kept bothering the CEO & VP about social media & blogging. I was also the highest commissioned sales rep at that company because I didn’t sell the way everyone else sold. (more…)