A Happy Bloggiversary Giveaway!

Another year, another bloggiversary! Would you believe I've been blogging for SEVEN years? Woot!

I started here, where I decided to document my journey as a first-time urbanite living in a colourful 1920's gem of an apartment (I loved that apartment!). It also corresponded with my going solo after seven years of marriage, which means it was quite a journey indeed. Voici, my first every post:

Introducing ...

Hi.

I’ve joined the masses and started a blog. My intent is to document my experience as a first-time urbanite, but I suspect other things might creep in. There will likely be many firsts for me to share this year.

I’ll fill you in on how I got to be an urbanite a little later. Bottom line is: this is my first time living in a truly urban environment, smack dab in the middle of downtown. When given the opportunity a few months ago, I decided to take the plunge and start my own Urban Living Experiment and see where it leads me. I plan to document my findings here, and see where that leads me.

Enjoy.

Incredible, where it all led me.

In-FREAKIN-credible.

~~~

To celebrate, I am having a good ol' fashioned GIVEAWAY! It's my way of thanking you for joining me for the ride. I LOVE having you here!

THE PRIZE: One 8x10 print of your choice from the shop, or in the case of Giselle, one 12x12 print.

THE DEETS: Leave a comment on this post by 6:00PM EST Tuesday, January 29th and I will add your name to the pot. I'll put all the names in the giveaway basket and ask D. to pick one. I'll announce the winner here Wednesday, and he or she can send me a note through the blog's Contact page and we'll go from there.

Sound good?

~~~

A little taste of what's in the shop, to pique your interest...

What She Seeks, for the fan of all things vintage

Giselle, for the bold and the feisty

Gaia's Plea, for the earth lover in all of us

See them all here.

~~~

So go!

Leave a comment by 6:00PM EST Tuesday, January 29th, introduce yourself if we haven't met yet, and stay tuned for the winner's name on Wednesday.

Thanks again for joining me here, I hope you win!

Steph

xo

Scoutie Girl Contributions - Roundup 2012

One of the things of which I'm the most proud from last year is becoming a regular contributor to ScoutieGirl.com.

Because I don't always post links to my bi-weekly contributions here, I thought I'd gather the lot of them for 2012 in an end-of-year roundup post.

I am proud of the work I did for Scoutie Girl. Often these posts were written because their message was exactly what I needed to hear or process at the time. I return to them regularly when I need to do so again.

They serve me well. It's my hope that some of them may serve you too.

~~~

What's Your Rhythm? (Dec. 2012) - Certain times of year bring certain types of energy. Discover your natural annual rhythm and let it serve you instead of fighting it.

Five Practices to Stay Grounded During a Busy Season (Dec. 2012) - Though written in the context of staying sane and healthy during the holiday rush, especially for creative business owners, these five practices more than apply to anyone, any time of the year.

Right Brain, Left Brain: It's All Complementary (Nov. 2012) - Reason, passion, left brain, right brain - it's all good and necessary. How could you use one to serve the other?

Productivity: Manage Your White Space (Nov. 2012) - Just like it factors in good design, deliberate white space in one's schedule factors heavily in the ability to be productive. It's up to us to figure out how to best use it.

Who Are Your Possibility Tracks? (Oct. 2012) - Possibility tracks - fictitious or real - offer inspiration or proof that through commitment, action and usually with a bit of serendipity thrown in, dreams and goals can be met. Whose path, behaviours and successes would you like to emulate?

What Are Your Success Factors? (Oct. 2012) - A clean desk, uninterrupted time, specific tools at your disposal... What could you - or do you - have in place to increase your chances of meeting your goals and minimize deterrents?

A Procrastinator's Guide to Procrastination (Sept. 2012) - I confess: I'm a planning & productivity geek who procrastinates. These six tips help me circumvent panic when I've left things to the last minute, and lead me as gracefully as possible to a finished product.

Defeating Resistance: The Magical First Draft (Sept. 2012) - A powerful tool to move forward and into action when deadlines loom: the innocuous first draft. It's helped me many times in submitting these very posts on time.

Push, or putter? (Aug. 2012) - When it comes to productivity, there's a time to push and a time to putter. This post offers thoughts on reconciling planned action and firm goals with intuitive action and letting things unfold.

Defeating Resistance: Make It A Game (Aug. 2012) - Three powerful and effective productivity tools I use games I play when procrastination or resistance stop me from doing what I want to do.

The Next Right Action (July 2012) - Get unstuck by figuring out your next right action, the crux of getting things done. The most basic, yet probably one of the most powerful tools in my productivity toolbox.

On Summer Slumber and Ambition (July 2012) - It's hard to find motivation to get things done when the hammock beckons. Here are six tips to help reconcile summer's slumber-filled nature with work and deadlines.

Weekend Poetry Date - Week 4

Weekend Poetry Dates are a weekly series of posts reporting on this newbie's exploration of poetry during National Poetry Month (April 2012). See all the posts here.

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"Poetry... is ear candy. It's a blind date with enchantment. It's the first refuge against indifference."

~ J. Patrick Lewis

It's the last week! Where oh where did the month go?

I didn't quite write as much poetry as I would have liked to nor did I read as much, but I did read some and I even tried my hand at a few superficial haikus (read: I only followed the 5-7-5 rule, none of the others and I'm now just learning that I counted syllables and not necessarily ons, soooo looks like I just wrote a few really short poems, but I digress...). All of this is more than I'd done in the past several years - plus I posted about it all here.

I'm happy.

I thought I'd leave you with one of the haiku-like poems I wrote following the haiku-based 5-7-5 syllable guideline and a beautiful true haiku by Issa.*

Mine was inspired by a child's reaction to, from an adult's perspective, rather unfortunate circumstances:

Toddler stomps with glee

Father sighs and brushes car

April snow falls white

~ SG

And I leave you with this one by Issa:

Live in simple faith

Just as the trusting cherry

Flowers, fades, and falls

~ Issa

I hope you enjoyed our weekend poetry dates. I know I did.

* I discovered the poem by Issa thanks to a lovely application I purchased for the iPad called Chasing Fireflies. Combining haiku with soothing sounds and visuals, it's a delight to the senses.

Weekend Poetry Date: Week 3

Weekend Poetry Dates are a weekly series of posts reporting on this newbie's exploration of poetry during National Poetry Month (April 2012). See all the posts here.

~~~

Mud Lake, Ottawa, 2008

This weekend, in honour of Earth Day, I offer you a poem by Wendell Berry. His words make me swoon.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~ Wendell Berry

Weekend Poetry Date - Week 2

Weekend Poetry Dates are a weekly series of posts reporting on this newbie's exploration of poetry during National Poetry Month (April 2012). See all the posts here.

~~~

 "Look for the poetry that grows under your feet."

~ Rainer Marie Rilke

I haven't written any poetry yet, but I've read more in the past two weeks than I have in the past 10 years. It's interesting to see which ones grab me and which ones don't.

I haven't given much time to any contemporary poets, most of my readings are from typical introductory books like The 100 Best Poems of All Time, or Poems Worth Knowing (that last one's from 1958!). Thanks to Tingle and her amazing list in last week's comments though, I think I'll make a point of branching out into more recent writings this coming week.

~~~

This past week brought a major insight: When it comes to poetry I have no patience.

I tend to get bored easily by super long poems (Longfellow's Evangeline excepted, but that's because I'm Acadian and the story is dear to my heart). Old or complex language loses me and so do complex metaphors.

I guess I like my poetry short and I like it obvious. I didn't know that about me.

Case in point, out of the 100 Best Poems of All Time - and granted I didn't read them all - the one that took my breath away was An Old Pond by Matsuo Bashō, written in the 1600s:

Old pond—

A frog leaps in—

Water's sound.

I see it. I hear it. Can you?