Sugar Sugar Sugar!

1. J'adore les bonbons, 2. Brigadeiro Decorado, 3. Cupcake Heaven., 4. Cupcake Heaven <3

For part of my iCiNG Transformation Challenge, I'm cutting out sugar this month, not counting Valentine's Day. This is probably going to be the hardest part for me, (as I love my Sprite and Lemonheads!) so I'm thinking of some ways to be sure I don't 'cheat'.

-Check in with D, daily. He's Mr. Nutrition, so if I scarf sugar at some point and he catches me, it won't be pretty. (He enjoys merciless teasing and practices daily.)

-Budget all my money out for other things. This is something I've already been trying to do, I need to save more for school, so if I have set amounts for tithe, savings, that sort of thing it'll be harder to come up with the money to cheat!

-Avoid Wal-Mart and Kroger. I live next to to a Kroger store (literally!) and I can walk there in 15 seconds, which is good when I'm out of milk, but really bad when I'm wanting to cut down my sugar intake. -Come up with good alternatives! I love fruit, so I'll be eating tons of it; I can buy cranberry juice that has Splenda instead of sugar (yes, Splenda is bad. I know.); and chocolate rice cakes are really sweet but have only 4 grams of sugar in them. (Awesome!)

Now I only need to figure out a way to drink sugarless coffee without gagging, and I'll be set...

Productive Creativity, Part Two

(Awesome to-do list photo credit HERE)

In part one, I covered ways to be more creative, and get out of your normal routine. Part two is going to have
suggestions and ideas to make more time for your creativity. One of the biggest things I struggle with time-wise
is procrastinating...I've done it constantly. I need to organize my days so that I can get chores, work, and
everyday boring things done and out of the way so that I can focus on increasing my creativity.
Currently, my day goes something like this- Wake up at 9:30 or 10, stumble downstairs, start devotions, eat
breakfast...junk; get on laptop, eat junk for lunch, think about being productive, stay on laptop, meet a friend, eat
more junk for dinner, get on lappy, go to bed around 11ish,take forever to fall asleep...continue.

ICK!! I also left out the part where I get annoyed with myself for not getting things done.

Now this is what I'd like my day to look like: Wake up around 7:30 or 8; do my devotions; stretch and exercise;
shower; clean or help around the house; update blog; work on letters for the Celtic Ball; eat something healthy for lunch; then read (good, not cheesy) books, sketch, update things for sale on Etsy, sew, photography...; spend time with friends, family and the boy; good dinner; veg/get ideas for future blog posts before bed around 10.

Here are some of my biggest time wasters, and ideas on how to steal your time back.

-Internet! I love my laptop, it is my child, but it keeps me from getting things done. Try cutting your time way down on e-mail, MySpace, Facebook, IMing...whatever your biggest time-waster(s) online are. Or try giving yourself a set amount of time to be online, or choose to stay away from your computer until after a certain time. I've totally cut out several different website that were MAJOR time-wasters for me, and I plan to cut back on other sites further. While e-mailing is not a big time-waster for me, I plan to use Leon's advice and limit myself to two pointless website checks though the day. (I also want to read that book he recommended!)

-Bad Organizational Skills-both with Things and Time-I plan to work on becoming more organized, and staying that way. It's a habit I really need to learn! To work on integrating more positive habits in my life, I love Steve Pavlina's idea of "30 Days to Success". The theory is that it takes between 30-40 days to really get set in a habit, and if you can start a habit with a set 'end' in mind, it's not as hard to get to the end, and then push yourself farther. It's a mind game, but it really works! Gala Darling also has a great article on how to get into a productive daily routine.

-Plain Lazyness. Sometimes the best way to combat this is to just get up and start moving. I find that if I start the hardest or biggest project first, I gain momentum and am able to keep going. Taking breaks every so often helps as well. (This does NOT mean every five minutes, sorry!) Work for 45 minutes, then take a 15 minute break; work for 2 hours and take a half-hour break. Figure out what works for you and STICK TO IT! When the break is over, get right back to work.

So what do you do to motivate yourself and scare away the lazy monster?

xoxo,
Ney

“It is unforgiveable to do what one doesn’t love especially if one succeeds.”
-Christian Dior

Productive Creativity, Part 1

Photo Taken by the Lovely Kris Atomic!


My personality is such that I need places with creative, well-designed atmospheres for me and my creativity to really flourish. (AKA, working at Wal-Mart would drive me insane.) I also need to keep being productive in the creativity department, creativity begets creativity sort of thing, and I've felt like I've been stuck in a rut lately with that. I could be cranking stuff out constantly, with my VERY lean work schedule, but I've not spending my free time as wisely as I really should and want to. I want to be more creative, while being more productive as well, and as I'm Miss Plan-Things-to-Death and a crazy list making fiend, I'm going to list ways to be more creative//productive here. Hopefully this will give you ideas as well!

-Start Project 365. The premise behind taking a picture a day for a year is that you'll view things around you with a more creative eye, as well as improving your photography skills.

-Learn one new (creative) skill a month, whether it's quilting, water-color painting, or decorating tiny cupcakes.

-Cook something new for dinner. Indian, Thai, something healthy...(gasp)

-Along that line, grab a random fruit/ethnic spice you've never tried and make a recipe with it! (The Taste of Home website has thousands of recipes on it, and you can search their entire collection by food ingredient!)

-Try doing something new and creative everyday for 30 days. They don't have to be major things, just things like sketching; learning to say something in French; trying a new type of exercise, like ballet; baking cookies and giving them to a neighbor(bonus points); switching up your hairstyle (I have double braids today!); wearing pink lipstick or navy nail polish... and so on.

-When ordering from your favorite local coffee shop or Starbucks, try asking the barista what his favorite drink is, then order it! I've started doing this, and it's pretty sweet. White-chocolate mochas with soy are actually really good.

-Switch up your normal dressing routine...wear something out of the ordinary for you. If you lean towards jeans and pants most of the time, try wearing a skirt or dress. If you tend to wear darker, more somber colors, try wearing a sequined pink dress! (I have one, and love it.)

-Look around to see what your city or town has to offer in the way of creativity. I just found out that my town offers yoga classes downtown, and has just opened an art gallery and a indie coffeehouse (which I have yet to visit!) There's also an art studio I plan to take classes at.

-Grab your camera, and some comfy shoes, and do a color study. Walk around shooting anything you see of a certain color, pink, blue, green...try doing this with different shapes, and make sure to switch up your locations.