I’m so excited to be featured in a giveaway via photographer Liz Cook’s sweet blog for Love & Laughter Photography. What a great business name, right? It’s clear from her site that she carries that theme throughout her business and life. How cool!

Liz is celebrating her love for pretty paper by giving away a great gift set of stationery items that includes a $25 gift certificate to The Sweet Unf0lding at Etsy! It’s one of the nicest giveaway packages I’ve ever seen on a blog and I’m thrilled to be included. If you’re a stationery lover, this could be your chance to score. Stop by Liz’s blog and leave a comment about some of your favorite things for a chance to win.

In related news, I am loving the In Touch Clutch from downstairs Designs that’s also part of the giveaway! Cute!

Good luck!

Image copyright by Sprint (I would image. I did not actually look this up, because, really…).

Exciting news for me today! I’m featured on life coach Michelle Ward’s delightful blog as part of her Grown-Up Gigs series, where she highlights individuals who are living out their dreams. Do you know how happy it makes me to be considered just such a person? Bliss.

You’ll remember Michelle from her fabulous interview here. She’s such an inspiring person and I was thrilled to feature her on my blog. What an honor that she asked me the same thing! Thanks again, Michelle. I had a blast!

Perhaps you have noticed that I’ve been absent for awhile, breaking what started out as a good run of consistent blogging. Most notably, I have not been posting my Teaser Tuesdays entries featuring a snippet from whatever book I’ve been reading. The reason: I recently became a 14-year-old girl and I’ve been hiding out because of it.

Yes, I have discovered the Twilight books. Well, discovered isn’t the right word because I do live in the modern world and you can’t avoid knowing about Twilight. But I had zero interest in reading them and never gave them much thought beyond a quick marvel at how they’re suddenly everywhere. And then one afternoon I was faced with two hours of free time with someone else’s bookshelf and a decision to make. I could either spend my break with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road or Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. While I’d like to say I’m so intellectual that slogging through a grim but important book like The Road is how I spend the precious two-hour break I have from work, frankly in those moments I’m looking to lighten the load. So, it was Twilight for me. I opened the book and will admit, I was hooked. It took me 5 days to read the entire series, which is more than 2,000 pages long. And I’m a pretty slow reader (a real problem for someone with an English degree, let me tell you) so it involved a total lack of basic essentials like food and sleep. Side benefit: I lost the 5 pounds I gained during the holidays. Probably not the healthiest method, but one of the more enjoyable.

The thing is, I haven’t been able to stop reading these books. Every now and then I get caught up in a book and re-read it over and over and unfortunately, this time the book happened to be 1) a pop novel series geared toward teenagers; 2) not exactly a literary, English major-y book; and 3) really, really long.

Anyway, I’ve been kind of hiding away here in the Twilight world, partly because I didn’t want to admit that I, too, had crossed over into the obsession with teenage vampire lovers and also because I didn’t want to leave the cozy little universe that is such a nice reminder of the first flutters of true love. I’m not saying I’m coming out of the closet as a Twi-hard or anything, but I’m willing to re-emerge into real life in Chicago with enough honesty to admit that I’m a fan.

And a member of Team Edward.

I am thrilled to post this fabulous interview with Michelle Ward of When I Grow Up. Michelle is a life coach and her blog is one of the most inspiring reads around! I hope you enjoy this interview with her as much as I do. Thank you so much for participating, Michelle!

1) I love the energy and enthusiasm you share on WhenIGrowUpCoach.com. Please tell us a little more about When I Grow Up and your role as a life coach. Y’know, I’m still a bit stuck on how I really describe When I Grow Up accurately! I call myself a Creative Career Coach, as I coach creative people into finding passionate careers, & because I’m big on helping my clients move into creative careers! The worst thing I can think of is putting a creative, artistic spirit into a “box”. Y’know, those boxes that existed when we were little & were told we should be X when we grow up (a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, etc). Now it’s 2009, & there’s a guy out there that makes a great living being a LEGO artist! It’s true! So When I Grow Up is there to help creative people discover out-of-the-box careers that they can be passionate about. It’s about asking yourself, as an adult, “What do I want to do when I grow up?”, finding that, and honoring it. But hey, if it is an accountant, that’s cool too.

2) What motivated you to start your own business? Wanting to be a coach! It’s funny, because I decided to be a life coach from the exercises I did during a career change workshop I enrolled in at NYU’s School of Continuing Ed. I had finally admitted to myself that being an actor didn’t align with my grown-up values, & I wanted to find a stable job that I could be passionate about. Of course, I left the class with another unstable career path! But, of course, I do it because I love it, & ultimately I know that working for myself is going to allow me to build relationships the way I want to, & will allow me to succeed on my own terms. I took the hint that my passionate careers have all been self-starting, & maybe I shouldn’t be fighting that.

3) What has been the best aspect of running your own business? What has been the biggest challenge? The best aspect of running my own business is all of the relationships that I’ve created since I started. Even when I was in sales & customer service, that was still so limiting to me. Now, because I can blog & go on Twitter & connect on Facebook without feeling like there are a pair of eyes (or three!) telling me what I can & can’t say…I can’t tell you how many amazing people I’ve “met” virtually that I now consider my cheerleaders & friends. What a wonderful way to extend your support network & learn & grow from others! Also, the sessions I have with my clients give me an amazing amount of energy, & that is just above & beyond what I thought I’d be able to do to earn a living.

The biggest challenge is being a one woman band, especially since I’m still at my day job! Not having someone to delegate the unfun stuff to - like accounting tasks, data entry, etc - certainly takes it’s toll, especially when I’m working with a finite amount of time. I also have had to learn to accept the fact that I am a one woman band, & that some ideas that I want to execute will just have to wait. I don’t think I have an ounce of patience in me!

4) We’re tapping into your expertise as a coach! What advice do you have for others who want to start their own creative business? Keep the safety net! The more I work with creatives, the more I hear about The Leap: of being scared to take it because it might not work out & then their family will go hungry & then everyone will be out on the street. But there is no law that says that starting your own creative business needs to be a leap! It can be a series of little, itty, tiny, bitty baby steps. I’m all about creating Action Plans with my clients, so that the net can be taken away slowly, slowly, slowly until they’re standing on their own two feet, comfortably & triumphantly.

5) What is in store for the future of When I Grow Up? I can’t promise anything in terms of timing (see my answer to #3!), but I can guarantee you that there will be a plethera of low-cost group coaching available (in fact, I have 3 spots open right now in Operation: New Life Design! starting Oct 7th), an e-course chock full of career change exercises to do on your own, an e-book & maybe, just maybe down the line, a “real” book too. I’m also planning on doing free workshops both via phone & in person in NYC. As always, I’ll continue to blog a few times a week, send out my newsletter twice/month, & tweet all the freakin’ time!

6) Please list three random fun facts about yourself that you’d like to share with us. Only 3?! I’m so full of randomness, this could be 300 (1) I start every weekday with a dose of Judge Judy justice. Yup, I DVR the episodes when they air at 4p (if I watch them then, I find I don’t like ‘em), & watch them when I’m getting ready for work. It gives me the kick in the butt I need to start my day! (2) I would love to be featured on Public Eye in Time Out New York, because I want to answer the question, “What do you categorize your style as?” with “A grown-up Punky Brewster.” Yes, I used to wear two different shoes & two different socks in 4th grade! She was my idol, & I definitely get my love for color from her. And my Mom. (3) My husband and I were delivered by the same doctor, even though he’s 16 months older than me & we grew up far, far away from each other! Of course, our Jewish mothers discovered that without 10 minutes of first meeting each other. So cute.

Ugh. I’m disgusted over the whole NBC vs. Conan thing. I love Conan. He’s such a stand-up guy — he personally paid the salaries of the entire “Late Night” staff while the show was on hold during the writer’s strike. He deserves the best. Now that his departure from “The Tonight Show” seems to be a done deal, I hope he moves to a network that backs him up.

Just had to show my support.

Image by http://sirmikeofmitchell.com

Always with thanks to Style Me Pretty!

Thanks again to Style Me Pretty!

Inspiration Board photos and technology courtesy of Style Circle.