Motivation Monday - Feel the Beat!

I woke up this morning to a Sunny SUNNY day. I got dressed in jeans and a fitted tee and hightailed it out of the house to find that it's CHILLY!!!!!

I am sitting at 'The Fall Cafe' and it is almost one in the afternoon on a school day. Today my only obligations are self-imposed! To fill my cup, a. biker out the window just blew me a kiss. I feel like breaking out into song.

In blissful celebration of this holiday I find that perhaps I never have any cause for upset that isn't slightly motivated by job-job. A day off seems more a gift of the gods than a typical American holiday.

I hope this day finds you full of bliss and radiating happiness. I am pretty sure they can feel my joy in Antarctica today.

This weekend my top-five friend, JenMO asked "What gets in your road?" I LOVED this bit of phrasing. It's so much more effective and visual than 'What are your road blocks?"

On this day of lovely days, I suggest clearing the things that get in your road with a bit of distraction. If something isn't working, do something else! When I am a grump, or things are sucking, my quickest way to shift gears is to listen to something that lifts me up and puts some pep in my step.


Here are a few songs that transport me to here, sitting at 'The Fall Cafe' sipping a cup of mint tea and cozying up to everything I want to do - even when I am some lame place that makes me cringe.

Glee-Halo/Walking on Sunshine mashup from Lacey Albin on Vimeo.

OH man SO feel good.

If you've got a frown, turn it upside down with Bonnie Tyler. Man, this girl's videos motivate me into laughing no matter WHERE I am! Keep an eye out for the neon whip! This video was Apple iPod commercial motivating, 20 years before her time.

I saw Lenka open for Missy Higgins at Terminal 5 last year. I was girl crushing on her from the first chord. I think that if my art were music it would be THIS music. As we all know, my art is pretty dang happy.

This is the kind of beat that pulls me out of a funk. What music plays on your life soundtrack? Share those happy beats here on this post. Have a motivated week of and march to a blissful beat!

Motivation Monday - Live Under the Sun

Love under the stars...

This month marks my 10 year NYC-a-versary. I've known this day was coming for ages, but it still feels like a 'pinch me' kind of moment.

I'm a Brooklynite now. I think maybe I've always been one, dormant at times, but forever moving towards this place that was always meant to be my home.

I delight in the little moments that are quintessentially Brooklyn.

Lately I feel a push towards the beyond. I wonder at the fact that I've managed to stay put in one place for so very long. That doesn't seem like me at all. Yet here I am. I keep wondering at where I'll be in years to come. I won't lie. Part of me can't ever imagine shopping at one store for everything I need. I think in my snobby NYC way, 'what a waste!' Food is meant to be gathered at the local bakery, the local vegetable store, the specialty cheese shop. Wine from a grocery store seems like a joke. I know that eventually time will pull me from this magical place, but regardless of where I go, or IF I go, I know that Brooklyn, will always be my adopted home.

When I got back from the magical and tropical paradise that was the Bahamas a earlier this month, I actually felt my pulse slow, my body calm and my lungs sigh a deep whisper of relief and peace to be back in my beloved Brooklyn.

Ten years ago I snapped this picture outside of my second story dorm room in Pantas Hall at Pratt Institute. We couldn't find a plane ticket that would get me in New York in time for school unless I went two days before official check in. Without a cell phone and too scared to scamper to Myrtle Avenue for phone cards I'd managed my first really truly all alone night alone. I woke up to find the campus full of newbies. I grabbed my little disposable camera and froze that moment of endless possibility as the sun came barreling up over the Arc.

I look at this photo ten years later, almost to the day, and I marvel at everything that girl was, more complete than I'll ever be again but so infinitely fragile.

That girl had never really been alone, never really been in love, never had the kind of friends that are family, never knew what it is to make hard decisions, or to suffer or delight over the result of those choices.

I sat on a park bench in Carroll Gardens on Sunday with my buddy Ashley. She highlighted a truth that I've been feeling but not quite able to put into words.

'We're in a place right now, where we can make decisions that alter the course of our life, and we can make them in five minutes flat!'

I remember what that feels like, it feels like being a freshman in college. So maybe I am still as brave, and a little less scared, but mostly so much stronger and just happy to be here.

While I feel the need for a change... I look back on this decade with wisdom, love, and so much gratitude. Awww...Brooklyn, I'll love you forever.

Who knows what I'll feel when I look back on pictures from this month ten years from now?
I hope they draw a smile.

My motivation this week is being drawn straight up from the ground. For this entire week I push myself - and you, to pay attention to the world around you. Take the time to find little surprises of joy in your day to day. Step off the beaten path and remember your ten years ago self. She deserves that token of reflection. End each evening with a deep sigh of thanks for where you are and where you are going.

I hope it brings you the kind of happiness Brooklyn has brought me, the kind that fills your soul.

Motivation Monday

An NFL Football Player and some sweet birthday candy.

A while back, Amber started a weekly Pow Wow with her friend Sandra. They call it "Motivation Monday". Each week they set goals and then check in on each other to make sure that they accomplish them. Sometimes they get together in person, but more often than not it is done on the phone and the internet. Something amazing happened. They started crossing things off of their TODO lists.

So that is what this big ol NFL football player is doing on this pretty little stamping blog.
 He is here to remind us to build those muscles.
 Get Motivated to push toward failure.



It is the same on the football field or in a stamping studio. Push yourself to failure. BAM. You get better.



And now for something sweet...and look...you can't get much sweeter than this:

HIGH 5 To our Rockin' Torchbearer THANH. She is having a birthday and being the INKredible working girl that she is, she is sharing it with us and giving away AWESOME CANDY! You know what that means? That means that she will have the best birthday EVER!! Smart Girl. Now go get some candy and wish Thanh a Happy Happy Day. YAY!