{ new year, new you }

It's a dream until you write it down, and then it's a goal.
– Anonymous

Here's a great way to set goals for the new year, 5 years & 10 years compliments of Lululemon. I usually do 3 in each area {health, personal, career} and list associated action steps. They give an example of a smart goal and not so smart...

Example:
I will be more physically active. NOT SMART
I am running 3 days a week and doing yoga twice a week. SMART

Don't forget to review your 2007 Accomplishments before embarking on the new year goals. Let me know what some of your goals are for the New Year!

{ New Year's Noisemakers }

Fun, simple craft to make with the kids today - - - -

We used cardboard toilet paper tubes...flower packing tape to tape off the ends...crepe paper attached to one end with a rubberband...stickers to decorate the tubes...and unpopped popcorn inside the tubes. Voila!

{ my life is an incredible opportunity to... }

What is your VISION of your life? Write it down and work towards creating it everyday.

Here are some excerpts from my vision...one that I am continually striving for.

Personal:
"My life is an incredible journey with lots of opportunities - to play, laugh, love & give back."
"I enthusiastically jump out of bed every morning, well-rested, full of energy and excited to start the day ahead."
"I will commit to self-care everyday, not just when I get sick, tired or burnt-out, but everyday."
"I take care of my body everyday by exercising or practicing yoga."
"I take care of my mind everyday by taking quiet time, meditating, reading or practicing yoga."
"I do my BEST each day...anything less is lazy."

Family:
"To build a life together with Will filled with the laughter or children, family & friends."
"I will plan & prepare healthy meals for my family everyday, starting off with breakfast together."
"I am a wife my husband is proud of and adores, a mother my children love as well as feel inspired by."
"I do something fun with Sam everyday...not just on special occasions. Continue to include the extraordinary in the ordinary."
"To teach Sam that happiness comes from within."
"I am a dynamic, inspiring friend to those I love and I let go of relationships & friendships that drag me down."
"My family is financially free, physically fit, spiritually fulfilled and emotionally close. We have lots of fun. I never want to say, wish I did, wish I did... I could lose everything tomorrow. I want to give my family & my life my all."

Business:
"I only work 3 days a week and I adhere to a strict Computer Free Fridays."
"My organized office and well-managed time allows me to work 3 days a week and take 12 weeks of vacation a year. We take 3 day weekends every week, not just during federal holidays."
"My days are spent helping people reach their fullest potential - helping them be organized; live well and stay sane both through LobotoME and Gravity Play Sports adventure events."
"When I go to sleep at night, I sleep soundly, knowing that I helped make the world a little bit better and that I became an improved version of ME in the process."

{ living your values }

In gearing up for the New Year, I thought I'd take you through a few life planning exercises I do each year...about what's important to you, what your short term & long term goals are and what your life vision is...

So, what are your Values? The question to ask yourself is this: "What is truly important to me in life?" Values are priorities that tell you how to spend your time, right here, right now. It is challenging to live your values everyday. We often get distracted with how we invest our time and energy. However, the clearer your values are and how important they are to you, the easier it is to make decisions in your life - big and small. By discovering how much you honor them, you can get a snapshot picture of how true to yourself you are being.

Take 10 minutes and list them out (10-15 is a good number to work with) and then prioritize them. Are your values present each day? Honoring our values brings us harmony. Dishonoring our values brings us disharmony, angst and disease.

Inspiration to help you get started from a great Lululemon ad...

Find your wings and fly. Find your calling. Find your passion. Find your moment. Find your peace. Find your friends. Find your soul. Find your purpose. Find your reason. Find yourself. Find your love. Find your youth. Find your past. Find your future. Find your present.

Next, we'll look at defining your Life Vision and then setting 1, 5 & 10 year goals & doable action steps to align with your current values and vision.

{ kids mini valises now available }

The children's miniature valises that we began using for retail shop displays are now available for purchase in my etsy shop. I only have a few brand new sets left in each color {tangerine, chocolate and pink}. They are great for gift packing, kids displays, kids travel, etc.

{ holiday reading pleasures }

The Family at Home...Love. Life. Style. Great design ideas, wonderful photography, inspiring homes, simple living well tips & fun recipes.


Mom-A-Licious Cookbook....Excerpt from the Mom-a-licious manifesto: "Get out of any ruts and get moving. Not exercising enough, watching too much TV, or going through the drive through for dinner? Make the needed changes and live your best life, today." Here are some recipes from the book.

{ christmas redux }

christmas eve...ready for santa & the reindeer.

making christmas cookies...yum.

making gram's swedish coffee cake...it took 6 hours...

the dress up clothes...a huge hit.

the requested gift... a baby "but not a real one, mama, just a pretend one."

an adorable handsewn paper stocking filled with goodies from my friend alli {sew creative}.

the dress up clothes & rack {filled with a bunch of my old dance costumes my mom saved}.

christmas morning fun.

someone was a good little girl this year.

{ and to all a good night }

All of that preparation for Christmas and then boom, it's over...So, take advantage of the kids still loving their new toys and the departure of the guests, and take a few minutes today to breathe...make a cup of tea and relax on the couch with a good book, unroll the yoga mat for a few poses or bundle up and head outside for a brisk walk. Just breathe and be grateful for an abundant and happy celebration...and forget that there are only 364 days left until the next go around! :)

{ merry & bright }

This is how Samme filled out my planner for this coming week. I am going to take her cue and take a break from posting until after the holidays. We’re busy with our advent activities, Christmas busy-ness, solstice celebrating, getting ready for company, baking more cookies, making gingerbread houses, last minute wrapping & creating, etc.

So, instead of feeling swamped as in "I need to take a picture of this to post to my blog," or "I wonder what is up in blog land today," I’m just going to give myself a break. I'll be back after Christmas with posts on setting a vision for your life in 08, getting organized in the New Year, setting obtainable & fun goals for a happier & healthier YOU and a BIG LobotoME giveaway on DesignMOM the first week in January.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all you out there in blog land. I treasure the blogging friendships I’ve made in the last year and have learned so much from all of you. I hope your holidays are merry & bright!

{ i luv you samme }

photo by: Todd Newcomer

{ it's beginning to look a lot like christmas }

{ weekend recap }

Gingerbread mobile inspired by Martha...made by me & Samme { with a bit less success than her staff at MSL! }


A hot cocoa break with Samme mid-morning.

The pile of dishes created during our cooking frenzy.

{ all is calm all is bright }

So after a busy week of getting re-nested and catching up on emails, orders, laundry, Christmas stuff, etc....I took a yoga class today to help me remember to just breathe this holiday season. Take some time today to just relax with a cup of tea and a good book, or do some sun salutations by a window, or go for a hike or snowshoe. Here are some additional tips from Kimberly Wilson for keeping calm and taking care of yourself this holiday season.

Spent a fun afternoon baking gingerbread cookies with Sam & my mom and made a martha inspired mobile. Pics later this weekend. Off to a Big Hat Party tonight! Hope you are all having a joyous weekend!

{ mexico video here }

{ KIDdley ornaments }

So, these are the ornaments (I've been using them for gift tags too). { note random glued eyeballs in upper left! } that I made with Sam as part of her advent calendar goodies. I printed them out from Kiddley and cut them up and put them in her stocking with glue, buttons, string, eyeballs, markers & fabric triangles & strips.

Hope you all have a great day!

{ free party invites & ideas for all of you slackers }

For those of you who didn't get it together and have Alli at Bird Dog Press whip you up some authentic, letterpress, one of a kind invitations to your holiday soirée...you can download these, courtesy of Yum Sugar.

For some holiday party ideas click here.

{ holi-DAZE }

So things are in a bit of a frenzy over here trying to get stuff done... I am no longer allowing myself to procrastinate.

I keep getting all of these sweet emails asking how I am so organized, so together... I just laugh because I think, if only you knew! To make all of you feel better and to let all of you know I too am HUMAN, here is a picture of Sam's playroom stacked with gifts that still need to be wrapped, packed and shipped. And here is my Christmas To Do List (not included on there are daily things like work, shipping orders, feeding the family, catching up on laundry from our trip, cleaning the house, responding to dozens of email, exercising, and having FUN, etc.)

Feeling better already aren't you?

{ advent calendar adventures }

So I finally got Sam's advent calendar up (I know, I know...super late)...But it is still cute and jam packed with gifts and coupons & letters. Of course, when you are gone half the month, you have less pockets to fill {evil mommy}... :)

Here's whats in there:
- Make decorations for the tree (more on our results later)
- A new apron & a coupon to bake cookies with mama
- Go out or sushi together coupon and some new kid chopsticks (Will's contribution to the advent calendar!) :)
- Wee journals & new colored pencils.
- A trip to the Children's Museum.
- A treasure map to a new book (too large for the advent stocking)
- Make paper snowflakes (white paper & silver glitter)
- Have pancakes for dinner with new snowflake mold.
- Dance like crazy to music ON the bed (my ipod in the pocket with new dance music recently downloaded)
- A mid-day tea party with new tea set
- Go food shopping and bring it to the food bank (brown paper bags for Sam to decorate to put food in)
- A love letter to Samme with a stone heart.
- Go out on back deck & star gaze & drink hot chocolate (mini marshmellows & hot chocolate in pocket).
- Read the Grinch that Stole Christmas & go see Christmas lights in the neighborhood (22nd)
- Camp out around the Christmas Tree with our sleeping bags & make gingerbread house. (on the 23rd)
- Read Twas the Night Before Christmas & leave Santa and the reindeer cookies, milk & carrot sticks. (24th)
- Disposable Camera (25th) so Sam can document Christmas as she remembers it.

Here it is as a spreadsheet/list.

{ and the PROcrastination continues }

Check out SMALL Magazine {an online, hip, independent kids design mag }...

{ ideal bite ME }

LobotoME's momME planner { made with recycled paper } was featured in today's Ideal Bite Recycled Calendar's tip of the day.

Ideal Bite offers bite-sized ideas for light green living. When you sign up for Ideal Bite's e-mail newsletter you'll receive easily digestible and practical tips for making your life a bit more green. With the premise of just doing one green thing a day, you're introduced to a number of ways in which you can take easy, baby-size steps to make your world a little greener and healthier. Click here to subscribe to Ideal Bite's newsletter.

{ making lil books }

These would make great stocking stuffers and are eco-friendly because they are using paper you already have. Here is some more info on making little books/journals from Soulemama's blog.

To Make:

With a stapler via How About Orange.

With a sewing machine via Angry Chicken.

Or To Buy...already made books from Dick Blick (set of 20 for $20)

{ all i want for christmas is less stress }

If this sums up your wish list, check out Come2Order2Day's 2007 Holiday Guide available for $5 here. It has 50 pages of great ideas from everything from:

• BUDGET—Techniques for budgeting money and time.
• GIFTS—Online and catalog resources listed by category, along with last minute gift ideas.
  
• ENTERTAIN—Tips on how to throw the perfect party- cleaning, cooking, decorating advice in addition to purchasing resources and downloadable forms.
• BAKE—An encouragement to keep the tradition alive.
• CONNECT—Simplifying the process of sending holiday cards and alternatives if you‘d rather not.
• PROCESS—Step-by step instructions on how to create a holiday binder that will keep all of your holiday information at your fingertips.
• And more...
  

{ found }

So, I'm thinking about buying this sewing machine...yes, it looks like a kids one (fine with me) and it doesn't have a million advanced features (again, fine with me). It seems as though because it makes me smile looking at it that sewing might make me smile too. Plus its on sale for only $80 at Target.

And this will be great for wrapping gifts. Buy it at Jordan's etsy shop here.


And yes, I'm still procrastinating. :)

{ PROcrastinating... }

I'm doing a pretty good job of that today...I have piles of mail, presents to wrap, lists of things to do; loads of laundry to numerous to even begin...and now that we are back and have internet access I am going through gobs of emails (not so fun) and blogrolls (really fun) and all I've come up with is a list of new blogs I like (but shouldn't); some new craft ideas to make (but don't have the time too) and a growing, off the charts, to do list... And no, you aren't supposed to feel sorry for me because I did just get back from the beach and I am tan.

But, back to the procrastination shall we?

Fun blog... How about Orange

And a great book I picked up at the bookstore the other day...Bend the Rules Sewing. The author Amy Karol has a fun blog too...Angry Chicken.
I've been trying to decide what to make for my friend Maureen for our sew-off (basically our very own competition to MAKE each other learn how to sew)...What I'm going to make her this weekend is coming out of that book.

{ lobotoME luv }

While I was away, a few sites featured LobotoME products.

Tutus & Turtles
Tangled & True
Outblush

It's not too late to order LobotoME products for your friends or family! We are shipping everyday via Priority Mail. We will also do free gift wrapping & gift cards, just send us an email with what you want wrapped and for whom.

** Don't forget to send me your used planner page and if I feature your crazy week on my blog, you win free prizes!

{ i'm back }

We are back from our whirlwind few weeks away...SO glad to be back home nesting again. We had a great time in Mexico and have a lovely Thanksgiving with family & friends in Boulder but are glad to be back getting into the holiday swing. More on both trips later - suffice for now to say that in Sayulita it was 90 degrees and sunny and driving over Lizard Head Pass near Telluride, CO it was negative -12 degrees. We are having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the winter weather! :)

Just wanted to say hi! Be sure and check out my posts later this week on tranquil holidays, last minute gift ideas, and fun activity ideas for the kiddos while school is out!