When Plans Change It Can Still Make For Some Good Times

Several things were planned for this weekend but lucky for me a few plans changed which gave me some unexpected free time.  It was wonderful to have fewer scheduled activities and more time to catch up on a household tasks and errands, meet up with a friend for a trip to the movies and a chance to gather with a few friends for an afternoon gathering.  The afternoon gathering was at my girlfriend's condo with the spectacular view.   Thought you might like seeing a few photos of her beautiful condo.  Several of the snapshots are upside down and if I can figure out how to correct them for posting I will add them later. 

Since I’m on the topic of décor I have to boast about  a fellow blogger and my cousin, The Milkweedpods.  She’s a DIY blogger and recently some of her projects have been popping up on The Pottery Barn blog!  Check out my cousin’s blog here.

Aren't the dogs adorable!!

This weekend the Cathedral Antiques & Tour of Homes kicked off and I’m really hoping to attend the Miles Redd lecture and tour the Inspiration House in the coming week.  It's going to be a great week!

Still Thinking About My Resolutions

Starting the new year with a rainbow.

We’ve Only Just Begun – And I’m Pooped! - The New Year kicked off a bit too fast for me this year.  Work was already in high drive for the year and already this month I’ve:

-       Attended an all-day board retreat and two half-day planning retreats for organizations;

-       Volunteered at the Alliance Française;

-       Helped produce an inaugural radio program for visually impaired children that will be airing monthly (the program aired yesterday-I’m so proud);

-       Prepared for our annual A Day On, Not A Day Off MLK Day volunteer event (it is going to be a great one!);

-       Hosted an event for the Latin American Association’s legal community;

-       Planned a nonprofit board training event in Dallas being held this week;

-       Organized a music benefit event for the GeorgiaInnocence Project (an amazing and very moving fundraiser event);

-       Worked on a firm-wide celebration...whew! I'm tired!

A Word of the Year  -  With all that has been going on it’s almost as if there was no room for thinking about anything but the tasks at hand at the beginning of the month but I was amazed at so many bloggers that were setting goals and making changes in their lives with just one word. The My One Word movement looks interesting and I did see some bloggers posting really good words like BETTER, EXCELLENCE SIMPLICITY but my favorite word is NO.  If I had to pick one word, NO would probably benefit me the most.

Visioning - So here we are near the end of the month and I’m ready to work on my plans for the year and I’m so thankful to be a part of a circle of women who come together for personal planning. For the past couple of years I’ve been working with these women not just in creating a vision for the things we want to achieve but holding one another accountable. Here’s how it works.  Our group comes together with magazines, poster board, glue sticks, etc., with the purpose of sharing our goals with one another then illustrating our goals on our vision boards.  Then mid-way through the year we meet up to talk about the goals we set and how we are progressing towards those goals.  The process is amazing.  It’s also fun because this group formed casually and most of us didn’t know one another very well but we’ve developed a very high level of trust and support for one another.

Vision Boards Go Paperless! So next Sunday is our vision board session and this year instead of using poster board to make our vision board, we decided to use cork or a magnetized board. (We will be photographing our boards as they change so we have an easy way to track our progress). Finding the right board has stressed me out!!! It’s a great idea and it gives us a lot of flexibility in creating our board but have you shopped a cork board or memo board lately?  After much looking around I decided this adorable magnetized board by Curly Girl Design.  

We will be visioning at my friend’s home – a gorgeous apartment in a high-rise with this amazing view. 

A great iPhone picture from her balcony.

How did she end up with such an amazing place?  It was part of her vision planning process two years ago and if I hadn't been a part of the process to see how effective visioning can be I wouldn't believe how hopes and dreams can become reality.

It’s a great new year with plenty of opportunity ahead.  I’m excited!