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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Putting it into Practice

This last week I was thinking about ‘acts of kindness’ whether random or thought out. I thought about people that have touched my life over the years with an act of kindness. It doesn’t take much to reach out to someone, to brighten someone’s day but do we do it often enough? That got me to creating a list of 50 Acts of Kindness. I’ll share the first 25 ideas on my list with you here, if you’d like to view the entire list you can see it here. The night after I finished my list I started to take notice of where I could execute my first thought out act of kindness. Lo and behold three city workers showed up in our cul de sac to replace some dead trees in several of the yards. It was pouring rain and cold out, I made three hot chocolates and took them outside to the workers. I motioned for one of the guys to come to my front door and offered him the mug, he had quite a shocked look on his face. I carried on a conversation with him for a few minutes as he thanked me. I left the two other mugs with him to give to his co-workers. It was a simple thing to do but enjoyable to pass on an act of kindness to these young guys.

1) Bake muffins or a loaf and take to a neighbour
2) Write a note of appreciation to a friend or someone who you appreciate
3) Bring someone's garbage cans/recycling bins up to their door or step
4) Gather up your spare change, put in a container and leave on someone's door step. Add take that says 'recipient of act of kindness'
5) Tip your newspaper delivery person
6) Invite a neighbour over for coffee
7) Help someone carry their groceries to their car
8) Buy a coffee for a co-worker
9) Offer do some house cleaning for a senior
10) Give a random person a Starbucks or Tim Horton's gift card

11) Give your empty cans and bottles to a homeless person
12) Clean out your closet and donate your clothes to a thrift store
13) Wash a neighbours vehicle
14) Leave a hamper of food on the doorstep of someone in need
15) Offer to babysit someone's children for nothing
16) Cook a meal and deliver it to someone who is sick or who has a sick family member
17) Buy a bouquet of flowers and leave it on a random person's doorstep
18) Hand out bottles of water to holiday shopper's coming out of the mall
19) Walk a neighbours dog
20) Let someone else have the parking stall you were waiting

21) Drop off a dozen or so donuts to your local fire station or police station
22) Tape a row of loonies to a hospital parking meter
23) Buy 10 scratch and wins and stick them on the windshields of 10 random vehicles
24) Rake leaves for a senior
25) Bake muffins or cupcakes for church staff

Well there is half the list. Have you recently done an act of kindness for someone or been the recipient of one? Please do share! 

I’ve been keeping busy marketing my store for the Christmas season as well as designing new products as often as possible. Pop by my shop to see what’s new…

 

Keep Calm and Run Coffee Mug

   
Cozy Home with Saying Aprons

   
We've Moved Cozy House Design Postcard

   
Tree of Hearts - Kindness Matters Stamp

   
Snowman with Saying Shirt

   
Cartoon Baby Monkey iPad Mini Cases

 

Sunday, November 18, 2012

December Preparations

As we near the end of November and December sneaks up on us our thoughts are turning to preparing and gearing up for Christmas. How do you celebrate the season?  Christmas for our family means celebrating the birth of our Saviour. A big highlight for us is attending the Christmas Eve service at the church we attend. A great evening of singing Christmas songs and hearing the Christmas message. Afterwards we usually head home to have some appetizers and goodies and watch a Christmas movie before I get busy filling the stockings for our boys. The guys may all be older now but they still like to open those stockings on Christmas morning.

I love to decorate our home for the Christmas season and the Christmas tree is a big piece of the decor. I usually choose a specific color theme for the tree. This year along with shimmery gold tones, chocolate brown and bronze I’ll be adding in a rich shade of purple. I can’t wait to see how it will look. 

I’ve written several pages about Christmas Decorating Tips and Ideas that I love to share. Here are a few of them for you to see…

Elegant Christmas Decorating Made Easy

Decorating with Ornaments and Glass Bowls

Classy Christmas Decorating Ideas

Decorating Christmas Wreaths

Elegant Purple Christmas Decor Ideas

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Do you have a big list or have you cut it down over the years? I’m about 1/2 way through my shopping now. Hope to finish it up before December. Then it will be time for some decorating and holiday baking and so forth…

I’ve been busy creating designs of all kinds for my store and adding them to appropriate items. Please come by anytime for a visit, you never know what you’ll find that may work for someone on your shopping list.

Sweet Snowman Christmas Ornament

 
Weight Lifting Snowman Square Sticker

 
Weight Lifting Snowman with Saying T-shirts

 
Snowman Let it Snow iPhone 5 Case

 
Cute Penguin Couple with Hearts Christmas Ornaments

 
Electric Guitar Business Card

 
Pretty Packages for a Special Teacher Christmas Ornaments

 
World's Best Music Teacher Ornaments

 
Chocolate Wedding Cake Save the Date Announcements

 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Pushing Through

Do you have those days when you know you need to hit the gym or go for a run but are having a hard time mustering up the energy? I think we all have days like that. I’ve learned that pushing through those tough workouts actually will benefit you in the long run. Even a light workout can help boost your mood, ease stress and put you in better spirits. If you’re having a hard time staying motivated to keep up your exercise routine there are ways you can change it up to continue maintaining your fitness. Scheduling it into your day, even putting out your exercise outfit the night before can be just the push you need too!

Whatever your age, fitness level or even if you’re just beginning a fitness routine there are ways to make it fun and enjoyable so you’ll continue doing it. Try doing something a little different for your cardio. Perhaps change cardio machines at the gym, seek the help of a personal trainer if you’re intimidated by these machines. Add light weights for muscle toning, grab a skipping rope or stability ball and use these to perk up your workout. If you’ve never joined a fitness class maybe now is the time to give one a try. There’s yoga classes, cardio and dance classes, spinning classes and other fun classes to try. Don’t forget the great outdoors, walking whether at a regular pace or fast speed can be another great exercise to keep you moving. I mean really, the main thing is to keep moving right, nobody stayed in shape and felt great by sitting on the couch munching on chips! So I want to give you a boost and motivate you with these words to keep on a moving! You know the saying ‘move it or lose it’ so let’s keep going! 

Well the busy season is fast approaching and shopper’s are coming to the store to see my new creations… so here’s a sampling below, come by my store see what else I’ve been working on.

Cupcakes - Taste Tester T Shirts

  
Cute Snowman Christmas Ornament

  
Christmas Cartoon Penguin Postcard

  
Snowman with Sweet Saying Apron

 
Surprised Cartoon Penguin T Shirt

 
Pink Tiger Baby Shower Stamp

 
Purple Designer Cake Business Card Templates

 
Classy Ornament Photo Card

 
Classy Blue Christmas Decorations Magnets

 

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Becoming a Successful Networker

To become a successful networker in business these days it takes a lot of hard work and patience. It isn’t something that happens over night it can take a great deal of persistence to be a success at this.

First off, you should find a great business  platform that will become your main channel for building your network.  Of course, one can join many networker sites but I personally like to have one that I check in with every single day. You’ll know it’s the right one for you when you are receiving advice and worthy information from fellow networkers as well as adding your own valuable content to help others grow. A good mindset of a successful networker is to be encouraging and willing to help anyone you can. Building trust and gaining respect from fellow networkers goes a long way in business.

I’ve chosen IBOTOOLBOX as the business networking platform where I can share and build my business. This platform is ‘free’ to join, no payment required! No hassling or pushing requests in your face to spend money on this platform. It offers amazing tools to help new and mature business owner’s grow. You can advertise your business or opportunity and get your business in front of 300,000 plus visitors a day. IBO Toolbox offers a social networking site as well as the business site so has great potential for connecting. So yes, if you’re looking for a business networking site to join, where you can add value and gain knowledge to grow your business this is a place I recommend. You have nothing to less and everything to gain!

Well as the busy shopping season starts to take hold, I’ve been working hard on adding new designs and products to my store. Please stop by and them out, great Christmas gifts and everyday items too!

Pretty Holiday Bow

 
Purple Whimsical Christmas Trees Stamps

 
Whimsical Christmas Trees Coffee Mugs

 
Classy Christmas Decorations Magnets

 
Keep Calm and Add Coffee Mug

 
Wide Mouth Frog in a Festive Hat T Shirt