September + The Magic Of Beginnings

This is pretty much exactly how September feels to me.

New.

Magical.

Inspiring.

It's a brand new month but it also marks the beginning of a brand new season, too.

F  A  L  L.

It's almost here... it's just at our doorstep.

You can just feel the change in the air and it makes you believe, if even for a minute, 

that new beginnings really are possible.

That anything is possible.

So that's where I am this morning.

Feeling like I am ready to tackle some of the BIG things standing in my way,

To make big changes + little changes.

To decide how I want my life to look and not be okay with it going in a

 direction I am not happy with.

To me, Fall feels more like the "New Year" than Winter ever has.

I'm really excited about it and what's to come! 

/////////////////

{ just  a few of the things I am looking forward to in this new Season... } 

Happy Wednesday to you.

Hope it's a good one! 

PS- If you have any books/blogs/writers/favorite quotes about making life changes, 

creating lasting change or creating/breaking habbits I would seriosuly LOVE to hear 

them... I would appreciate any help I can get!  ; ) 

////////////////////////////

A Million Stories

Do you ever feel like your story isn't all that important?

That you don't have anything super exciting to share... and you wonder if anyone really cares anyway?

That maybe because you don't have a hugely successful business, or you don't live abroad... 

or because you haven't been volunteering in an orphanage in another country that what you are

 doing isn't important or interesting?

I feel that way sometimes, but then I remember...

that ALL of our stories are important, all of them.

The big things, the little things, the important and not-so-important things...

all of these little stories make up our lives.

All these little moments, every day make up the story of our lives and become part of our history.

So my story might be boring... but I'm telling it anyway.

******

Happy Friday, friends.
Today is the 10th... I'm doing the Ten on Ten project again this month.
You should, too.

Lazy Girl Art :: Emily Dickinson

Oh, that Emily Dickinson.
Okay, friends-- I give you... the quickest, cheapest and easiest way to spruce up any empty corner
in your house.
This quote was written with a super-thick black Sharpie on foam board... the cost was virtually nothing.
This foam board is from Hobby Lobby and probably cost me around... $3... BUT it was actually bought and used for
something else first and then I re-used it for this.
So, basically FREE.
I'm kind of addicted to making these now.
This hangs in a corner of my living room by the front door and my other one hangs in the upstairs hallway.
You can see my other one here.

What quote/phrase/saying would you want if you had one of these?
Because I've got an idea...

>>>>>>>>

Lazy Girl Art

Check out this super easy and kinda awesome(if I do say so myself) art I made for my upstairs
hallway today.
All it took was the following items and just a few minutes. Seriously, like less than five minutes.

* 1 very large canvas
  pencil
  XL black sharpie

After I wrote the phrase in pencil I intended to paint over it but realized I did not have quite enough black paint and I was too
impatient to wait until I got more.
Anyway, I used one of those really fat, thick Sharpie's instead.
I kinda love it.
Oh-- and this canvas came from Eric's grandparent's house( his grandma used it to work on her puzzles)
so it literally cost me nothing. Not a dime.
Doesn't get any better than that.

Happy Friday, y'all.
Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Dear Patience,

Where are you?
I have been looking all over for you today but you are nowhere to be found.
How could you skip out on me on the first day of a four-day weekend?
You knew I would need an extra-large dose of you today.
Help.
I have been looking really forward to this long weekend, maybe even more than the kids,
but without you, I may not make it.
Without you,  I am a grumpy, griping, cussing-under-my-breath, moments away from the giving-
one-of-these-darling-beagles-away mama.
Please come back, I promise to be good--or better, I mean, I'll try anyway.
My children and husband will thank you and so will Phoebe and Lucy (the naughty beagles).

-Desperately Yours In Illinois

"Give light and people will find their own way."

-Anonymous

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!  Here's to a new year filled with fresh starts, new goals and new beginnings. Usually I shy away from the whole new year resolution-making business but this year I am excited about it. Out with the old, in with the new. I  came across a couple of really good articles on just thing thing and I will share some links later. But for now, it's time for all of my Christmas decorations to come down, today is the day, I am getting it done.  Hope everyone has a great first day of 2010.

* * * * * 

 "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, 

begin it. Boldness has genius, power, 

and magic in it."

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

"Without music life would be a mistake."

~Nietzsche

"I believe a joyful life is made up of 

joyful moments gracefully strung together 

by trust, gratitude and inspiration."

~ Brene Brown

"There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and 

the Great Pumpkin."

-Linus Van Pelt in "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"

 

"The Creation Of A Thousand Forests Is In One Acorn. " 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

                                                                -Robert Brault

Read. Repeat.

"EveRy day may noT be good, 

but 

thEre's soMething 

good 

in evEry daY." 

-anonymous 

Do you think that if I read this continuously today I will believe it? I have had enough of this rainy, dreary, gloomy, funk-inducing weather myself. Anyone else? Now I am going to go make some microwave popcorn, have a coke (and it's not diet but I don't care) and get over myself. And I'm adding this picture that has nothing to do with this post or my grumpy day, I just like it.