When life hands you lemons.....

Today was the AWE Awards ceremony. Last year I was a nominee and was blessed to receive the Woman of Merit Award. This year I set up a table for Keen Bean Design and met some amazing women (and potential contacts - score!) Anyway, we sat down afterwards for the lunch and heard an amazing lecture from a sef declared "mom-preneur" Cena Block. Her business is Sane Spaces and she gave the most amazing, inspiring speech on how women do it all and get through it shining bright. Talk about inspiring! Did I mention, shes a yogi? AHHHH yes! Anyway, I asked for some excerpts b/c they were insanely informative and I want to share them with you.

• Clarifying Your Perspective and determine whether it serves you
• Understanding Your Self and What’s Important
• Finding your sense of Personal Motivation repeatedly
• Minimizing your own Limitations and barriers
• Aligning Actions with Greater Cause – Making a Personal Contribution

And the four "sanity" dimensions to assess and address are your:

• Spaces
• Systems
• Self 
• Support 

To end her amazing speech I "borrowed" her inspiring yoga image, See! a well balanced business woman!

Ok, onto personal things.... Im learning so much about people and how to feel and to react. I have always worked in fields where acceptance is required. Your clients need to accept your work or you wont be paid, essentially. I carried that feeling into my personal life and really just realized (and found out through the small town grapevine), some do not support me and although it hurts..... its ok. I have an amazing support group of friends and have a more than amazing team to support me & KBD through business. Not to mention the people who do support me outweigh the ones who don't. Recently my feelings have been hurt and I had my emotional moment and then stopped. Its good to feel, but better to get over it. The results of today were not the one negative piece of feedback, but the dozen pieces of positive and amazing feedback! Not to mention, I felt great i my red patent heels!

One thing Cena mentioned, that I have always believed, you need to find time for you. To balance your life. My kids, my husband, my friends and my work are my life. But my hobbies and interests are my glue. Lately as motherhood and age have crept in, I noticed I am taking a new viewpoint. “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” - Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy 

Im confident in my love, my success, my feelings, my responsibilities and finally my choices. It took 36 years to acknowledge that but I am most grateful. For that I will end my post with some candids of my heart: 

EDITED TO ADD: It is OK to feel "not so great" about parenting, work, life in general. And it is OK to talk about it. I share my feelings to let others know - your not alone. <3 Namaste!


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inspired by: new beginnings and love
cheers, meg

A Clean View

Its amazing how productive and positive and energized I feel after organizing and cleaning up my surroundings. The babies are growing and are amazing little lovelies and with that comes a trail of toys, granola and sippy cups. My once calm and organized surroundings is cluttered and messy. The last few days I have been organizing - and am not done yet - but the difference in my personality and thought process is amazing!

Have you had a chance to organize your surroundings? I find I practice meditation & yoga more, am more creative, productive and have more energy with clean surroundings and smells. I keep lavender in every room for peace and keep incense or candles lit when possible. I keep my inspiring items at hand - like my yoga mat, books, and yarn. It makes for a wonderfully inspiring place! Target has amazing plastic bins at affordable prices to keep toys at bay, bins to pack seasonal clothes away. Crate and Barrel has great mini items - ironing board (for under the bed) shoe racks (that adjust in size and are uber strong) and glass jars that mimic Ina Garten for your coffee & sugars. It feels amazing to look at a clean space. Even my desk, organized with file folders and rack. Major OM!!!

Im back to yoga too - some therapeutic classes at Body Dynamics but also at home. 6 Sun Salutations a night + acupuncture, physical therapy and a few new vitamins and probiotics has helped me significantly. I thrive for a peaceful body.

Here are some happy pictures that give me breathe - and maybe you as well - Namaste

Ice Cream & 1st Day of Preschool




Creekside Butterfly Gardens




Mobile Smiles

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inspired by: organizing
cheers, meg

A place for guidance

At 35 I think I have done a lot, at least for my bucket list.

• worked in some amazing fields in amazing places
  
• found a great husband
• had 2 beautiful wee ones
• built 2 businesses from scratch
• gotten some great acknowledgments for them
• found my crafty side and love it!

But now time is a rarity and my mind is a flutter. I recently started a new business - Keen Bean Design - and it has boomed! No complaints at all... except..... between KBD, the kids, their schedules, house hunting, maintaining our house, running countless errands, running Kiss My Style and breathing ... I have no time. I want to do so much more - Yoga for one. I never have time for it daily. My nerves are shot after my 4 year old questions me all day "why, what, when, where? did i mention why?"

So I call to all of my crafty moms - yoga divas - multitasking ADHD ninja women.... Please help me organize better so I can fit in sewing and yoga and cooking and playing and walking and breathing and enjoying life!!!!!

On that plea I will end with 2 pictures that make me smile....

Guidance please! :) xoxoxo

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inspired by: making everyone happy - even me :)

cheers, meg

A bit of honesty with a fresh start

Happy 2011! It's been a bit of a while. A lot has happened and changed and the break was well needed. After having baby #2 I went through a really rough spot. I wasnt working FT anymore (I had been a member of the working society for 20 years!) and I was home with 2 kiddos, one being a sick baby and I think I had post-pardum. I felt tired, useless and a lone a lot. I knew I needed to make changes. Here's what happened:

I took a yoga class. The place that had it fit in perfectly with preschool time and they had free baby care in a clean space. So I went. The sitter asked if i was advanced at yoga. "NOPE". She said "Oh, your class today is Vinyasa, it's pretty advanced." I wanted to leave. You see I was never one for doing things on my own in strange places, let alone taking a workout class - an advanced one at that! But I stayed. And oh.my.goodness. The instructor was amazing. I sweat like I hadn't sweat in years. I felt amazing. Truly amazing. That's all it took. I was hooked and every Tuesday for the last 6 weeks I have been there.

Then the bug bit some more. I started to think about intentions and positivity. i started to do sun salutations at night before bed and send out positive thoughts. I started chanting in my mind "Do you want to LIVE or do you want to EXIST." LIVE! Viva Life! Then I started doing the breathing techniques from class at home, downloaded a great Yoga app for my iphone and began adding pre made practices to my weekly life.

So what is the result?

• I feel wonderful.
• An old friend that I had a falling out with came into my life again. I had missed her and out of the blue, she contacted me.
• I began to knit for love again.
  
• I started a business, Keen Bean Design, with my husband and it has taken off beautifully.
• I was told I was unanimously voted by a committee to win an award for top 25 women in business.
• I have made 2 new amazing, creative friends that I enjoy spending time with and look forward to watching the friendship flourish.
  
• My upper back pain that has been so hard for me is lessening.
• I have motivation, inspiration and desire.
• I appreciate and love my time with my wee ones more than ever.
  
• I have delight in my life again

Yoga isnt everyone's solution, but for me, it has changed my life. In 6 weeks, I feel.... good.
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inspired by: yoga, figuring it out, peace, love, positivity
cheers, meg