Miss Modish- Mojo Maker

CAR-MA: Maintain

{photo by my Mr, drsmoothdeath}

Kitty Photo Friday!

We just moved our bed over to a different wall, and I don't know much about feng shui really, but woah! It's like there's a whole new energy in here, it's really weird. It just feels better now. The cats seem to like it pretty well too! (they're easy to please tho really)

Now we have to still paint in here, add pics and some shelves and other stuff. The bedroom was the last on the list of rooms to put our personal stamp on since buying the house, ya know, since no one else really sees it, but I'm feeling like the time has come! Consider this a before picture! First a new bed placement, then... the world! hah :)

Well I, for one, am pleased as punched that the weekend is almost here. After spending last weekend around way too many people for this introverted girl, I can't wait to just spend the next couple days with the mister, my garden and a pile of magazines that have my name all over them.

Hope you have a great weekend and I'll meet ya back here Monday!

<3 jena

Truthy Tuesday: Self care thru quick daily "restarts"

{We do this weekly feature over on The Maven Circle called "Truthy Tuesday", where we share our real experiences around different topics each week. We'd love to have people post their experiences around those topics on their own blogs too, to encourage more truthiness around blogland and openly talk about some of these things!

This week I'm doing my Truthy Tuesday post here on my own blog, in hopes you'll do one on your blog too! We'll link back to it from the MC blog so that we can all check eachother's posts out.}

We're talking about "self care" this week, as in how do we take care of our own health and wellness? It doesn't involve getting mani/pedis and sitting around eating ice cream all day, although that sounds like a totally awesome and worthwhile way to spend a day here and there :)

It's more about, how do we give back to ourselves? Keep our personal wells full so that we can be our most awesome selves?

I'm feeling in need of some serious self care right now after an exciting, inspiring, but honesty exhausting weekend spent at WDS.

I normally take weekends OFF from work stuff. As in, I don't open up my laptop on a Saturday. I rarely check my email on the weekend and don't reply to any until Monday, unless it's a really rare something that can't wait. I might do some work on a Sunday evening if I absolutely have to, but it's only the most relaxing, fun kind of work that I can do with HBO on in the background- nothing too thinky.

I do all this in an effort to give myself a break, a relief from analyzing and organizing in my brain all day, a chance to really feel removed from work thoughts and present in what's right in front of me.

So having no brain time off at all this weekend made it really hard to jump back into this work week with much gusto. My brain feels like a computer with too many windows open that hasn't been shut-down for far too long and the RAM is all clogged up. My spinny rainbow pinwheel thingy is spinning for a long-ass time between each click of the mouse, and the only way to fix me at this point is to shut down, and reboot.

But the weekend isn't comin for a many more days, so I'm going to have to incorporate little "restarts" throughout each day to keep me chugging along.

Here are some of the ways I make quick "restarts" to come back to present and take care of my own mental & physical wellness throughout a busy day:

• fetch break with bobohead out in the yard everyday
• walks around the neighborhood with my camera in hand
• a 20 min break out in the garden to weed & prune (yes I like those things), cut flowers or just gaze
• a mid-day shower to clear my head, brainstorm and re-energize
  
• meditating- a quick guided meditation recenters me in less then 10 minutes
• if one of my cats is lookin' cute, best be sure I'll break to take some pictures
• exercise isn't half bad if you find something you really like- I do kundalini yoga videos at home 2x a week & group training work-outs outside at the park 2x a week (which are super awesome!)
• meeting friends for breakfast or a happy hour cocktail- sometimes an hour convo with a good friend is all the therapy you need
  
• take my brain-on pills and a multi-vitamin every day
• drink many large glasses of water each day, starting first thing in the morning which helps me keep it up all day- taking vitamins helps increase the water intake too!
  
• have breakfast every morn, even if it's small- helps keep my metabolism up & helps me eat throughout the day (instead of starving myself til dinner cause I was "too busy" working to eat, like I used to)
• make a mean green smoothie which takes 5 min and is always an energy booster
• listen to music really loud and dance around like the dork-fantastic
  
• do self-hypnosis downloads to relax and stay motivated- 15-20 minutes to help stop procrastinating? I'll take it!
• take 20 min to watch a video, read a couple articles or a book chapter on something I want to learn about, to help my biz or myself
  
• and my favorite easy breathing technique which can help me refocus and destress in a minute or less

That's most of what's in my self care bag, and I'll reach in and pull out what I need, when I need it, throughout the day.

Sometimes I need to take many tiny self care breaks during the day to keep my energy and enthusiasm up, sometimes I only need a few... but it's all about listening to what your body and mind needs in the moment, and giving yourself that, so you have even more to give to your work, your people and the world around you!

I hope this list can give you some ideas of how easy it can be to add in self care to your day 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. What are some ways you take care of yourself throughout the day? Or do you forget to add yourself to your own "to-do" list? 

Share in the comments below, or on your own blog & leave me a link- we'd love to hear your stories & tips too- love talking about this stuff! 

CAR-MA: Team Up

{photo by my Mr, drsmoothdeath}

One thing that stuck with me from the World Domination Summit is that groups have a lot of power, and that even bigger, greater things then you could have imagined can happen when you team up. 

Kitty Photo Friday!

The kitties got this teepee for Christmas a couple years ago but never really slept in it- I recently moved it over by the window, added some fluffy stuff to lay on, and now it's one of their favorite cuddle spots!

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Well, I'm off to my volunteer duties for the World Domination Summit which starts tonight and goes through the entire weekend- are you going to be there? If so, say hi if you see me! I'll be wearing a bright yellow WDS ambassador shirt and have bright orange curly hair- can't miss me ;)

I'm so excited for the whole experience- will share more about it next week and in future posts. Hope you have a wonderful summery weekend and meet you back here on Monday!

<3 jena

Take a Summer Stroll with me (Part 1)

It's finally feeling summery around here! Story goes summer really starts on July 5th in Portland, and that certainly seems to be the case this year.

It's blue blue and warm finally and feels so good out there! I went for a long walk with my camera and took a bunch of photos around the neighborhood- I have too many favorites to share in one post, so this is part one of a summer stroll around the neighborhood. Come along with me!

I have more awesome skies, trees and houses to share with you next week. Happy summer! 

<3 jena

CAR-MA: Show what you're made of

{photo by my mister, @drsmoothdeath}

Kitty Photo Friday

Such a lady, this fluffmonster. She makes me laugh everyday!

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Thanks for all the well wishes for my family this week- spirits are lifting, uncertainty will be remedied by next week hopefully and then some relief will come as it all settles into place, wherever it may. I really appreciate the kind thoughts, I can feel the energy (yeah, I'm a hippie, I know) and I'm sure they can too.

Also, I've been making some small changes around here! Going at it little by little or else I realize it'll never get done. I changed a ton of post categories, including oldie but goodies like "outfitted", "project healthify" etc to narrow everything down to a few 5- anything that's personal/my thoughts/my life is now under "Dear Diary". You can find all the categories over on the right hand side with new pretty category labels, woohoo! ------------>>>

I also combined my navigation for my blog & biz site so that I have only ONE about page instead of two, one testimonial page instead of two... duh! These are the types of things I recommend to my clients, and it's hard to find time to take my own advice, but I'm doin it! ;)

I also updated my about page! I have more plans in the works for it, but I realized my about had not much to do with what I'm doing right now... I just hadn't updated it in so long. (psst: is your about page up-to-date? and is it speaking to your ideal customer?) So, I worked on the copy so far but there are more fun things to come on that page.

And I have a freebie in the works for dose of mojo subscribers! So much in the works, really... well off I go- yes, to work! ;)

Happy weekend,
<3 jena

June Flowers

{delphinium- so blue it's hard to even capture on a camera!}

{lily}

{roses!}

{a litle bouquet of roses & peonies}

{poppies!}

{mountain laurel}

{potato vine flower}

{lavender}

...........................................

Oooh, there's lots of color in our flower garden this month. Some of my favorite flowers are blooming right now- the poppies were ridiculous! Those are tops in my book, but they're all so beautiful. Which flowers are your favorites in your neck of the woods right now?

Can't wait to see what July brings! There are lots of little green arms reaching up right now, more good stuff to come. I love perennials- it's like seeing an old friend again, every season. 

Well I'm a bit distracted today as my thoughts are with my dad, who is in the hospital for the next 5 days or so for a heart related procedure- no fun at all. And my aunt & uncle from Colorado Springs had to evacuate their home last night due to the crazy wildfires out there! I'm so glad they're ok, but I hope their home will be as well, and everyone's homes! So scary.

If you have any extra thoughts of love and positivity to send their way today, I know they could use the extra boost and I'd appreciate it too. 

Reachin' a little further to find the mojo today! Going to soak up some sun- I think that'll help :) Hope you're having a good day!

<3 jena

CAR-MA: Get In Gear

{photo by my mister, @drsmoothdeath}

Vroom Vroom!

Kitty Photo Friday!

It's Friiiiiday! Yippeee! And it's summer now, double yippeee! Although it doesn't feel summery here today, it's grey and a high of 66! I don't mind tho, I still feel that relaxed summer mood kicking in and it feels good.

Wishing you a happy, relaxing weekend and I'll meet you back here Monday! <3 jena

Take a Walk With Me to Latourell Falls

The mister and I felt like taking in a little greenery this past weekend, so we headed east to the Columbia River Gorge, grubbed on some veggie burgers and then took a walk down to Latourell Falls!

{photos 5, 9 & 12 by the mister, @drsmoothdeath}

There's so much energy in the water as it plummets into the rocks below, crashing and lifting into a misty breeze that you can feel on your skin.

And as you stretch your neck way up to see where the water spills over the edge, you remember how small you are, such a tiny, but integral, piece of the whole puzzle.

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By the way, I'm giving away 4 copies of my Tip-Top Pitch Kit over on Handmade Success today! Stop by to read my post on how to take the fear out of pitching, and enter to win a kit!

And we have the wonderful Susannah Conway as a guest over at The Maven Circle today sharing how to survive the crash from loss, and some of her beautiful photos.

Hope you're having a good week!

<3 jena

CAR-MA: Think Big

{photo by my mister, @drsmoothdeath}

Kitty Photo Friday!

Naptime kitty pile up! It is a pretty cozy chair.

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Hope you've had a good week! Phew, it's been a busy one for me and I think they're only going to get busier from here. But I'm having lots fun with everything I'm doing right now, eventho there's a lot of it, and that's all I can ask for!

I have come to the realization that I'll never get my dream week to just stop everything else so I can catch up on personal projects. So I just have to fit the personal projects (like making videos, book planning, updating my website!) in when I can, slowly work them into the routine, and little by little they'll get done.

I tend to set up impossible timelines and expectations for myself and then get disapointed when I don't meet them, but that makes things so much harder in long run. I want to actively practice cutting myself some slack!

While I'm at it, I'd suggest you cut yourself some slack too! We can all be so hard on ourselves sometimes.

Well, enjoy the weekend! It's going to be bright and warm here for the first time in a long time and I can't wait to soak up some sunshine! See you next week.

<3 jena

CAR-MA: Keep an Open Mind

{photo by my mister, @drsmoothdeath}

Kitty Photo Friday!

copy cats

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Ah, it's Friday, which means tomorrow- sleeping in!

Eventho I could really get up whenever I want, I try to be an earlyish riser so I can get more done- on weekdays I get up between 6:15 (that's when the Mr. leaves for work!) and 7am. So we sleep in every weekend and I relish it.

We wake up 9 or 10ish, get croissants and scones and strawberries for breakfast (which is usually brunch by the time we eat) make some coffee and laze our way into the weekend... Saturday mornings are the only time I feel completely free from thoughts of work and I love those bits of distance, time to relax and just be.

How bout you? Do you like to/get to sleep in on the weekends? Do you have a weekend ritual of somesort? 

Hope you have a great one! See you here Monday with some CAR-MA for your week!

<3 jena

Been spending my days lately....

...doing lots of this- this is my real home office- couch patrol. Any other home worker couch dwellers out there?

psst: you can snag that desktop wallpaper for free at the Maven Circle. Check out today's video on being a beginner while you're there!

...lots of this- working on a new e-book! very beginning stages :) Also writing some guest posts for Handmade Success and Oh My Handmade Goodness- those will pop up next week!

...some of this - filming a new Dose of Mojo video for next week! This time I'm answering a reader Q about how to find your ideal client- look for it next Wednesday er, make that Thursday! Videos take a long time!

I'll get the swing of weekly vids someday- just not quite happenin' yet :)

...a little bit of this- for next week's video (you can see it in the shot up there) All to be revealed soon :)

...some of this- thank goodness for this guy who gets me outside everyday, come rain come shine, no matter how busy I am.

...and as much as I can of this- stopping to smell the roses, and peonies in the garden!

What have you been up to lately? All work and not much play, like me? Although my work feels a lot like play these days :) What projects are you cookin up? Do tell!

CAR-MA: Weather the storm

{photo by my Mr, drsmoothdeath}

It's a rainy day here so this seemed fitting today. Whether it's rainy in your physical world, or emotional world right now- just remember, you can get thru it, you can weather the storm.

Quick & simple stress reliever I use everyday

Dang, video editing takes a looong time! But man, it feels like a world of relief when you're finally done. Woowee!

So, I'm a couple days late (and interrupting kitty photo Friday, I know- back next week ;) but finally here with my first Dose of Mojo, on video!

It was a big leap out of my comfort zone doing this- and took a few failed attempts to even work my nerve up- but it's something I've really been wanting to do for a long time. I'm excited to get the first one done and out there and get the momentum going- ya know? Yay for momentum!

For my first video, I decided to share a super simple stress-reliever that I use everyday to cool my jets, calm my nerves, get focused and relax. It's an easy breathing-technique that works wonders in just about a minute and is something you can do anywhere, anytime.

Ready to get your de-stressin' on? Hit it!

I really hope this helps when you feel that inner tension start to bubble up! When I remember to use it, it always makes me feel relieved and helps calm my reactions- another bonus! 

Let me know what you think in the comments below! Did you try it? Feel the calm? Think you'll stick it in your pocket to pull out when you need it? Is there a quick stress-releiver that works wonders for you? (another one of mine is dancing around like a fool!)

<3 jena

CAR-MA: Get Out There

{photo by drsmoothdeath}

Be brave, be adventurous, face your fears- get out there!