10 of marc & angel's best life hacks.

i guess i'm way behind the self-improvement-blog curve,
but i just discovered marc & angel,
a too-cute california couple blogging with the maybe-overinflated,
yet-aspirational mission: "to inspire."

marc & angel hack life is a self-described
"personal development" blog featuring posts on,
well, lifehacks, as well as productivity, health, wealth,
technology & overall happiness.

what captured my attention is the quintessential
blog-post-title format marc & angel invariably use;
i think you'll see what i mean once you peruse
my personal picks for a marc & angel sampler:

:: 30 things to start doing for yourself
:: 30 things to stop doing to yourself
:: 40 extraordinary things happening right now
:: 50 questions that will free your mind
:: 30 challenges for 30 days of growth
:: 60 ways to make life simple again
:: 12 things happy people do differently
:: 10 simple truths smart people forget
:: 10 commandments for a good life
:: the 30 most satisfying simple pleasures life has to offer

thanks, angel & marc [give that girl a little top billing!] –
extremely inspirational!


image source: tara winona @ etsy.com.

name that blog.

notice anything different about my blog, careful readers?
anything new at all?

no, it hasn't lost weight.
no, it hasn't changed its 'do.
no, it hasn't begun posting with greater regularity.
[snap. dang!]

ok. it's not that big of a deal,
so don't feel bad for not noticing.

i changed my blog's explanatory subtitle.

it was: because feminism isn't the f-word.
it is: notions of a suburban feminist.

why the change?

i simply wanted something that more accurately
explained what this blog is.

it is woman-centric.
because i am a woman, &
because what i want this blog to do is connect with women.
so skirting the issues still applies.

but i felt the former subtitle
might have implied a politicism to my content
that definitely emerges from time to time,
but that is not what this blog is all about.

this blog is all about life, work & the world
from the perspective of

a 40something
woman
mom
wife
entrepreneur
sister
daughter
friend
texan
american
democrat
people pleaser
emotional eater
& control freak

working toward
physical health
financial well-being
a happy nest
consistent creativity
balance
peace
more sleep
less diet coke
respect for mother nature
& yes, equality for women.

so, what do you think?
does notions of a suburban feminist cover it?
got other thoughts?
please feel free to share . . .

& while you're mulling, enjoy
this slice of inspiration pie
a la the feminist majority:



"the idea was never victory and defeat.
the whole idea was,
you should pardon the expression,
equality － that we're actual human beings,
& that was it.
i know it sounds radical,
but that was it."
~ gloria steinem, explaining the concept
of feminism to stephen colbert.

image source: me + instagram.

new views for blogs.

growing weary of scrolling linearly through blogs??
well, sure. who isn't?

well, thank goodness for blogger's best-kept secret,
its dynamic viewing options.

seriously, this is pretty cool.
[even if you're not miley cyrus. which i'm not.]

you can view any site powered by blogger –
such as the one you're at right now –
five different ways: flipcard, mosaic [my fave],
sidebar, snapshot or timeslide.

click here to see skirting the issues in mosaic.
as you roll over the photos, the post titles will show;
click on a photo, & it expands to show the whole post.

see? pretty cool.

use the top right drop-down menu to change views.
use the left title drop-down menu to change blogs.

call up dynamic viewing options for any blog
by entering the regular url followed by /view.

special thanks to jessica jones' how about orange blog,
who let me in on all this pretty coolitude.


image source: blogger.

a couple of swell finds.

i always experience mixed feelings
when i come across a new website or blog
to love.

yay! online awesomeness!
boo. more methods of time-suckage.

nevertheless, i've recently discovered
a couple of swell sites i've just got to share with you.

& i accept no responsibility for your time-suckage.
you're on your own.

#1. life lift – the oprah blog.

this blog – not authored by ms. o herself,
but by several of her magnificent minions –
launched late may & is chock full o'
the good stuff – in its own words,
engaging news coverage, fresh inspiration &
the straight talk you've come to count on.

today, for example, life lift has posted
a thought for the day, a holiday recipe,
a book review, some ideas for something "fresh" to do,
a touching video of a graduating-sister-marine-brother reunion,
& yet another new website to love.

a couple of my favorite features of life lift
are mondays' the 35-second aha! moment
[my fave from last monday: a quote from
comedian louis c.k. in the season premiere of louie,
breaking down the rules of fairness for his daughter –
"the only time you look into your neighbor's bowl
is to make sure they have enough.
you don't look into your neighbor's bowl
to make sure you have as much as them."]
& fridays' gratitudes
[because i love me a reminder to practice gratitude!].
i also came across the above amazing video
of floating lanterns over poland at life lift.

anyway, for the daily dose of fresh oprah you may be missing
since her talk-show exit, you might give life lift a go.

#2. pinterest.

this website is a huge time-suck . . . & i love it.
in fact, it's become my internet time-suck of choice.
[sorry, facebook. somebody's got to be the understudy.]

so, what is pinterest? again, in its own words,
a virtual pinboard –
a place where you can create collections of things you love
& "follow" collections created by people with great taste.

the best way to check it out is to try it out for yourself.
just go to pinterest & search –
"july fourth," or "baby gifts" or "quotes" or what-have-you –
& see what comes up.

if you like love, then megan's sortacrunchy blog features
a great beginner's guide to pinterest –
definitely see what it's all about once you choose to become
in with the pin crowd.

as she sees it [& i agree], pinterest isn't
just another lovely float in a neverending parade of time-sucks;
it offers beauty, humor, useful information, unexpected connections
& above all, inspiration.

& who can't use more of all that stuff there?


image source: pinterest [of course!].

why i blog.

consider how fish swim & birds fly.
they do so because it is in their nature.
for it is the swimming & the flying
that makes them fish & birds.

likewise, it is the speaking of one's heart
that makes a human being human.

for even if no one hears us,
it is the act of speaking that frees us
by letting the spirit swim & fly
through the world.

~ mark nepo, the book of awakening ~


image source: rachel ann austin, birds & lupine.

a violet-eyed fury worth remembering.

here i am again, binge bloggin' the backblog.
& i'm not sure why.

i've got plenty of blog fodder backed up
& ready to be written.
i just haven't gotten around to it.
& i'm not sure why.

sure, there's the whole "full life" thing,
but . . . well, it's full. & it's good.
& i love it [mostly].

& i love my blog, so here i am. again.
prepare for a parade of posts.

let's begin with a bang －
an homage to a woman whose whole life was one big bang
[no double-entendre intended].

dame elizabeth rosemond taylor.
[please don't call her liz. she never liked it.]

she was larger than life & just as beautiful.

born in 1932, to american parents on british soil,
giving this violet-eyed girl dual citizenship
to match her double rows of eyelashes
[a genetic mutation that sure worked for her].

she moved to los angeles at age 7,
made her cinematic debut at age 9,
& shot to stardom at age 12 for her role as velvet brown in national velvet.

her last adolescent role was as amy in 1949's little women.
her first adult role was as kay in 1950's the father of the bride.
her game-changing role as a dramatic actress
was as angela in 1951's a place in the sun.

she won best-actress oscars for 1960's butterfield 8
[starring opposite husband #4, eddie fisher] &
for 1966's who's afraid of virginia woolf
[starring opposite husband #5/6, richard burton].

she was nominated three other times.

she was the first hollywood star
to earn a million-dollar paycheck,
for 1963's cleopatra.

at 50, she transitioned from screen to stage
for the 1982 revival of the little foxes.
the following year, she reunited with burton,
professionally, to do noel coward's private lives.

[insert obvious "private life" segue here.]

eight marriages, seven husbands &
who knows how many in-betweeners.

the official lineup:

1. conrad "nicky" hilton, jr. － married 1950-51.
she was 18. he was an heir. he beat her. she left him.
2. michael wilding － married 1952-57.
english actor 20 years her senior. they had two sons.
3. mike todd － married 1957-58.
producer 23 years her senior. her first true love. they had one daughter. his plane, the ironically monikered lucky liz, crashed, leaving her at widow at 26.
4. eddie fisher － married 1959-64.
popular singer, a friend of mike todd's & the husband of debbie reynolds. disregarding the scandal, elizabeth converted to judaism for him, & stayed a jew the rest of her life. her jewish name was elisheba rachel.

5/6. richard burton － married 1964-74 & 1975-76.
welsh actor & her greatest love. they were both married when they hooked up on the set of cleopatra [he was marc antony, natch]. their romance was a decade-plus-long headline of brawls, booze & bling. they adopted one daughter.
7. john warner － married 1976-82.
u.s. senator from virginia. the rather lonely life of a political wife didn't agree with her, & triggered her struggle with weight.
8. larry fortensky － married 1991-96.
construction worker. they met at betty ford & married at neverland ranch. clearly, a doomed union from the get-go.

she amassed a collection of jewelry worth over $150 million.
she received some noteworthy pieces from mike todd,
but richard burton was the man who gave her
the 33.19-carat krupp diamond,
which she wore as a ring the rest of her life, &
the 69.42-carat pear-shaped taylor-burton diamond,
which she eventually sold, using the money
to build a botswana hospital.

she designed a line of perfumes that grosses about $200 million annually:
passion, white diamonds, black pearls & violet eyes.

she was among the first a-listers to come out
in the public fight against hiv/aids.
she helped launch the american foundation for aids research
[amfar] in 1985, &
in 1991, created her own organization,
the elizabeth taylor aids foundation.

the academy honored her work in 1993
with the jean hersholt humanitarian award.
queen elizabeth ii appointed her in 1999
dame commander of the order of the british empire.

she loved animals.
her first horse's name was an iteration of her own: betty.
she always had canine companions.
she once had a pet chipmunk named nibbles.

she was the voice of maggie simpson,
uttering the baby's one & only word: "daddy."

she arranged to be 15 minutes late for her own funeral.

she survived
five back breaks
three hip replacements
two bouts of life-threatening pneumonia
two stints at rehab
an emergency tracheotomy
meningitis
a benign brain tumor
cardiac surgery &
skin cancer.

but finally, at the age of 79,
she fell to the congestive heart failure
she had been fending off for seven years.

she left behind her four children,
ten grandchildren & four great-grandchildren.

she tweeted under the name dameelizabeth.
among her final twitter posts was this:

give. remember always to give.
that is the thing that will make you grow.
that is the thing that will give back to you
all the rewards that there are.
don't do it for yourself, because then it becomes selfish.
because then it becomes about yourself...which is wrong.
giving is to give to god. helping is to help others.
every breath you take today should be
with someone else in mind. i love you.

elizabeth taylor knew what she liked & she went for it:
working. loving. sparkling. smelling good. giving.

she lived with passion.
she lived with compassion.

she lived, sister, she lived.

& she made our world more beautiful.


image sources: cinematic passions, harpers bazaar, childstarlets.com, thefashionspot.com, fanpop.com, manolo's shoe blog, flixster.com, aarp.org.

dalai mama.

ok, you know that professional organizers' rule
about tossing unread magazines older than six months?

well, i don't do that.
i know. i'm a rebel.

not that i've never done it,
but honestly, i typically subscribe to a mag
or pick up an issue at the newsstand
because it interests me & i want to read it.

goodness knows i've got shelves of books
i've yet to get around to reading,
but i'm not going to just toss them.

my life, as i've mentioned, is full.
& i'm trying to spend more time reading
& less time catching up on the series criminal minds,
but for now, i'm not blindly tossing reading material.

so there, napo members.
put that in your coupon wallet &
forget it at home when you go to the grocery store.

[whew. i showed them, eh?]

all of which is to lead up to my new writer crush.

so, i was reading my premier issue of wondertime magazine
[display until may 15, 2006],
& came across an article titled "dalai mama: a busy mother
learns to get her mind off the to-do list & into the here & now of raising kids."

well, we all know i'm all about this sh*t, so of course i read it.
& i loved it.

it was the perfect blend of the daily grind & the spiritual miracle of parenthood.

it was where the poopoo & the woowoo meet.

oh, & it was funny, with a completely relatable voice.
just amazing writing, really.

for example, love this:
all my life I had been waiting for this, this little being.
& yet here he was & already I was missing it somehow,
preoccupied instead with the frantic tedium of our lives.

which mamas among us haven't felt exactly that
at one point [or many]? show of hands?
mm-hm, i thought as much.

so the author is a woman named catherine newman.
which rang a little bell for me. where had i heard her name before?

& i realized she's written several other articles for other publications i love －
like o, the oprah magazine & whole living [formerly known as body + soul] －
articles i had ripped from the binding & saved,
simply because they spoke to me so very strongly.

so, naturally, i googled catherine newman,
my new writer crush [too stalky?],
& discovered she's still writing a dalai mama column
for wondertime.com . . . it's now food-focused [called "dalai mama dishes"],
but still wonderfully written.

& thank my blessed aunt, she has a blog,
named for her children, ben & birdy,
which i now follow [too stalky?].

her birdy just turned eight, just like my little boy.
& her ben is twelve, just like my big girl.
gee, it's like we're separated-at-birth twins.

maybe someday, we'll be reunited.
& all because i saved － & READ － a 5yo periodical.

[ok, too stalky. got it.]


image source: real simple.

binge bloggin'.

hello, dear readers.
i've missed you, & i hope you've missed me.

has it really be two full weeks since my latest post?
golly. my apologies.

the truth is, my life is full.
& rather than letting it's fullness
overwhem me & flatten me underneath it,
i've [at last!] been feeling up to
turning my face toward it,
rising to welcome it, &
basking beneath its glow.

because a full life is a good thing.
mostly.

but my bloggy baby has been rather neglected.
[in a full life, i'm realizing, something is ever neglected.
the key is to make sure it's not the real stuff of life,
like your health, your spirit, your relationships.]

so i've carved out a little slice of time
to catch up on my blog backlog.

my backblog.

i hope you can spare a little slice of time to catch up with me.

spring [at last!] is upon us, dear readers －
let us sit together & let the sunshine wash over us.

inspi-roll-tional.

a bright, cold late january tuesday.

i don't know for sure,
but if i had to hazard a guess,
i think just about now is when

the resolute hordes at the gym begin to thin,

the partyers among us figure just one more
cig or swig won't hurt,

the shopping sorts retrieve their charge cards
from the deep freeze for the boots
they can't stop thinking about [debt be damned], &

folks committed to spending more time
with family & friends remember
why they don't spend more time
with family & friends.

maybe the shininess of the new year
has dulled a tad for you, too?

let me humbly suggest some fellow bloggers
i'm finding fresh & inspirational lately ~

click through & renew!!

bits & pieces
this is the blog of celebrity scrapbooker [yes, virginia, there is such a creature] cathy zielske, but her posts are rarely about scrapbooking. cathy's a gifted designer & a talented writer, & she covers the ephemera of the everyday － from momming to weight loss to, yes, memory-capturing, plus a smattering of random sh*t － with authenticity & crack-me-up-on-a-regular-basis humour.
good post: move more eat less 2011...an invitation to you.

how about orange
i stumbled upon how about orange when some other blogs i love referred it as a blog they love, so i figured if i love them & they love it, then i should love it, too, yes [dang － did i just do algebra?]? & even though i'm not much of a crafter/diy-er, this is another humourous-designer blog －which features creative tutorials, free downloads, useful resources & fun time-wasters － i've been digging.
good post: quiz...what's your design style?

(in)courage
a self-described "new home for the hearts of women," this is an online community of christian women i find more women-centric than heavy-duty christian. some posts are too god-y or organized-religionish for me, but many posts are simply － or deeply － spiritual, & often thought-provoking or perspective-changing.
good post: winter wonder.

the journey
renée trudeau is a personal friend, an amazing woman, a wellspring of inspiration & a guiding light in my life & the lives of many, many women worldwide. this is her blog, based upon the revolutionary concept of self-care for mothers, which she dove into in her awesome book, the mother's guide to self-renewal. renée's weekly posts are consistently effective reminders of the necessity of feeding of our bodies, minds, hearts & spirits.
good post: i love my body.

ordinary courage
this is the blog of brené brown, a texas mom, researcher, writer, speaker & activist who professionally studies & personally explores huge life stuff － like authenticity, courage, shame, fear, love, belonging & living with a whole heart. the fact that she can be a wonky scientist of some kind of woowoo subjects & still be a concrete, conversational & yes, witty [sensing a theme yet?] writer means her blog makes me think & reflect & laugh.
good post: contributions, criticisms & courage.

simple mom
simple mom [life hacks for home managers] is the brainchild of tsh oxenreider [not a typo], & it's the bomb. from intentional living to feeding your family to your marriage to taking care of yourself [& beyond], tsh & her cadre of contributors span the spectrum for us mom 2.0ers. & this bomb has exploded into several spinoff blogs, too, covering kids, bites, organic & homeschool.
good post: the truth no one admits about new year’s resolutions.

young house love
meet the petersiks, a darling young couple with a passion for home design & diy projects. i'm not a big fan of tv home-reno shows, yet i've become strangely addicted to the yhl blog. i just love their decor style, their writing style, the plethora of before/during/after photos & videos, & their budget-consciousness . . . john & sherry actually make me believe i can do home-improvement projects my own self. & their baby, clara, & chihuahua, burger, are darling little bonuses [bonusi?].
good post: glad that's out of the way.

so, whereabouts out in the blogosphere
do you wander for giggles, notions, etc.?


image source: fake ginger.

are you there, reader? it's me, grateful kristen.

reveal: i don't believe anyone reads this blog.

ok, not anyone at all －
occasionally, someone will click over
from one of my facebook posts about my latest blog posts
& comment about it on fb.
or i'll run into a friend who says something nice
about my blog & how they enjoy it.
or once in a blue moon, someone will actually comment here.
a few times, it's even been someone i don't already know.

but i've got no evidence to date to indicate that
anyone really reads this with any sort of consistency.

maybe i've just got an audience composed of
thousands of lurkers.
but i think i'm mostly just out here on my own.

[cue anthem from fame.]

[god, i'm old.]

i always say this blog is a labor of love,
something i do just because i love to do it.

i love to write in my own voice
about stuff i'm interested in.

but to be real about it,
i want people to read me.

i want to create a blog that gives
information
inspiration
affirmation
confirmation
& little slices of everyday joy
[whew － i was beginning to sound
like reverend jesse jackson for a minute]
to readers.

so i'm exploring how to get there from here.

i'm boning up on blogging
& how the people who do it so well
do it so well.

& a couple of times already, i've come across
this piece of wise counsel:

thank your readers.

& i immediately realized i've never
ever thanked my readers

because i didn't believe i had any [remember?].

so now, here －
like the children of the book/movie
"the polar express," who can hear
the jingle bell ring only if they believe －
i'm choosing to believe you're there,

& i'm saying thank you for being there.

thank you. thank you. thank you.

& if i hear the faint tingaling
of a whispered "you're welcome,"
then at last, i might really believe
you exist.

& it will be like magic.


we're always proving who we are
always reaching for that rising star
to guide me far & shine me home
out here on my own


think pink:

helzburg diamonds has designed a line of jewelry － called love, help & hope － especially for people connected to breast cancer [& who isn't somehow, nowadays?]. some of the pieces are quite lovely, & for the next year, helzburg will contribute $5 of every purchase to susan g. komen for the cure, with a $100,000 minimum guaranteed.


image source: funcards@etsy.com.