One day. I was walking through the store completely pissed off

I can't remember why I was so angry but I was seething. This little girl, of maybe 4 or 5 was walking by me, and she just kept looking right at me. Now normally, I would give her a big grin, but as I mentioned... for some reason I was completely pissed off. So I just tried to ignore her. She wasn't smiling or saying anything, just looking at me with this intensity as she came closer. Then all of a sudden she changed course and walked right up to me and stuck this sticker on me.

Shocked, I think I said thank-you, I can't remember. Then she just walked away. I took a photo this photo to remind me of the whole incident. The sticker stayed on my purse for a week until it fell off. I still have it in a box of trinkets somewhere.

That little girl is going to do big things one day.

Blue Eggs and Jam

Went to the farmers market this morning.  I was a bit late, so the lady I usually get my blue eggs from was sold out. Yup really blue eggs... I would post a photo, but I obviously don't have any to photograph. I had to get other eggs to do me until I leave fore England on Thursday. Did some running around, got my Ipod station fixed at the Source, picked up stuff at Shoppers that I need to have for when we leave. General running around stuff. Extremely windy when I got home. I decided that I should clean my makeup brushes before I leave.

 So that lead to cleaning my desk and further contemplation on the way I should hang this mirror. I am leaning towards the vertical way. I remember shopping with a friend of mine and she picked up a top with horizontal stripes... I mentioned that I don't wear horizontal stripes on tops because they make you look wider wherever you wear them. It never occurred to me that ANYONE would not know this. That's how my mom taught me the difference between vertical and horizontal..." horizontal makes you look horrible". This was, without a doubt one of my mom's top 10 life lessons :)

 

 I'm going to go with the vertical, then I can hang things like my hairdryer stand on either side of the mirror. It would be cool to hang fabric on either side of a mirror somewhere, like curtains. It would have to be the right space, and probably semi-sheer fabric... might be neat though.

 

 

I rented The Tourist from Jumbo and Am going to watch that tonight. I actually rented in a few weeks ago, they still have our old phone number, so I'm not sure if the "real" person has started calling there yet to ask us to bring it back. LOL.

The Elusive Awesome Purse Beast

OK - So it MAY have been a bit easier to find the elusive purse beast than I though. Still not sure if this one is a "go" or a "no". Liking the shape and large size as well as the double round braided Shoulder Strap. Hand to Elbow ratio is good... Just not SURE... about the bling or the cresty thing. It's still on trial! Thoughts?

By George I think she's got it!

And by It. I mean me, who I am what my passion is what I LOVE.....it's Purses... ya I know, it's not solving world hunger or the aids epidemic... but hey if I could solve the worlds water shortage with purses... I would be ALL OVER THAT!

I like, Fashion, not mainstream, not the stuff that goes down in Milan that no real person would ever be caught dead in (though I do see the importance of the inspiration these pieces create) I mean real people wear. Accessories that cost less that $25 but that can rock your Marks Work Wear house Outfit like there's no tomorrow.! Woot real people fashion, and most notably.... purses. Purses get me out of bed in the morning, they make me happy. And that's what its all about people, happiness is a choice, and so are your accessories.

10,000 hours of awesome

I've been researching consulting companies for small businesses now for quite awhile. When I decided to close my retail business, consulting with other people on their businesses was a natural direction that I was drawn to. I discussed the prospect with some highly respected business people such as Nancy Beth Guptill of Sweet Spot Marketing and Tera Hill of Barnies Inc. These wonderful business women along with a handful of others that I ran the idea by, were very encouraging. Ultimately though I just didn't feel.... well, um... old enough to be a consultant!

Jumping ahead about a year and I'm working for one of Canada's top employers, and all I can see is holes in their company... HR holes - like saying you want to hear what your employees think, but flying right to defensive when something is brought up, Quality issues, if your QA team is spelling staff members names wrong, that might be a problem, and staffing issues - if you promise the moon and then hand over 10hr monotonous shifts where your bathroom breaks are timed and result in your hole "team" loosing the monthly contest of, who can hold their bladders the longer? Please don't be surprised when people leave!

Then I got the opportunity to work with an amazing company, Barnies Inc. The owner of this company is so inspiring, so driven that I agreed immediately to work with her, even though I am still employed full time with the toilet watchers. Working with Tera has made me realize that I am ready, my suggestions are unique and helpful and worth something, and maybe you don't have to be approaching 50 to give other people suggestions on their small businesses, in fact - maybe it's better if your more along the lines of approaching 30 with 10 years of Small business ownership under your belt.

So then comes the market research and that's what really sealed the deal for me. The complete lack of new age, small business consultants. They do not exist. I actually knew this from certain points in my own career where we were on a path that was leading to an obvious fork in the road. I would have jumped at the opportunity to meet with someone that had been down said path, or a similar one to get their objective opinion. Which would have been a snap if I had about $1000 laying around. But hello, I'm wasn't a mega corporation, or the government, I was a small company with a consulting budget of about $75 - and there was no one there for me to talk to.

In his book Outliers, Malcom Gladwell says that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in your field. 10,000 hours translates into roughly - 10 years. So that's it, I've arrived... I am officially and expert. But in what you might ask? Sorry to say I guess you'll have to wait for me to figure that out...

Red Marker WRONGS

1. Wearing a regular belt as a fashion belt when said belt has no business being used as such!

2. Using excessive flash on your website just because you can. With no regard to weither or not it actually makes the site any better.

3. Replying to e-mails before you have read the in their entirety, thereby not actualy answering all the questions in said e-mail.

4. Double Standards, in anything.

5. Auto DM - You are LAZY

Got your own Wrongs? Share if you dare!

I love you exclamation point!

So What, I'm happy - Get over it!

I remember some friends in High School telling me that I shouldn't use the term "love" so loosely. They explained that you cannot love a thing and therefore I should not use "love" to describe my affections for things. For Instance " I loved my new orange shoes, and my backpack, etc.

More recently I've been scolding myself on my frequent use of the exclamation point in FaceBook, messages, texting, etc. Today I made a connection between the two. I have been judging my method of communication as inadequate, or perhaps just over enthusiastic.

Then I thought... Hell. Maybe I'm just a happy person who loves stuff and is enthusiastic about life. I think in the long run, the world always use more love and exclamation points!

Fast forward

Zip ahead to April and I can confirm that I dislike my new job with great enthusiam. Currently working on some solutions for that.

On another note, where did the owls come from? It seems that the animal of choice for decor, stuffies and crafts for 2010 has been undoubtedly owls. Dave says it's because of "The guardians Movie". This is possible, I am trying to find out what the next animal is going to be.

Also as mentioned on my facebook page I would like to make something, and then sell it. This might be a way of earning money that I might enjoy. Up until now I have only been paid to but in time (working for the man) or resold things that other people made (working for the bigger man). Maybe I would like to be the man, or woman obviously in this case.

A book I read recently said to think of what you used to do for fun when you were younger and that would probably still be fun now.

When I was about 12 I made a bathing suit and I also started making a comforter for my bed. I enjoyed making things and think I still would.

Another time after watching the Goonies I decided that I could write a story like that. So I started writing a book. I got to chapter five before I stopped. I don't remember why I stopped writing it.

Then I decided I wanted to paint a picture, so I broke into my moms oil paints and threw the Bob Ross video in the TV and I painted a picture. I think I did it in an evening, in fact I think that most of these things that I created were made in 1 night or at the most a weekend. I guess I have a short attention span.

The New Adventures of Old(er) Jen

I leave for my new adventure in 2 sleeps!! My new job training in Moncton starts Thursday - I'm leaving on Wednesday to get settled into the (hopefully) fab apartment that the Fairmont is putting me up in! Eeekk! It's so exciting and scary at the same time. It's been over 5 years since I've worked for anyone but myself... also I have to share said apartment with an unknown person... photos + drama + details  will ensue undoubtedly!


This is step 2 in a series of actions that have planned and I am now working through to craft my life into something that... well... I like.

My end goal? Supporting myself through flexible work that allows me the freedom to travel and work from various locations. The first step was letting go of my existing company, one that I worked very hard at for 8 years but that I came to realize, was not going to allow me the lifestyle I was looking for, no matter how hard I worked at it or how successful it became. A hard decision to come to - but more on that later.

Here's what the plan looks like:

Step 1 -  Stop doing what is not working.
Step 2 - Find a job that will allow me as much freedom and spare time as possible to explore the things I enjoy while earning my minimum necessary salary (determined by a budget that we did in Oct)
Step 3 - Discover what I like (art class, photography, videos, piano, travel, etc.)
Step 4 - Work on earning money through doing something I enjoy and can do remotely.


Now - keep in mind that I am a planner.

But sometimes, I plan INSTEAD of doing. I will plan and plan and plan and the planning phase uses up all of my enthusiasm. Resulting in plans never actually happening. Although I think sometimes my plans have failed to become reality because they were being planned for the wrong reasons.

This time it seems I'm off to the races.... planning is exciting, I really enjoy it.
Doing though,  as I'm coming to learn is a whole other level of excitement!

On top of the world - CN Tower 2009