4-week Check-in & Anniversary Goodness...

As you know Im participating in the Newlyweds on a budget 10-pound challenge to lose 10lbs in 10 weeks! Just to check in I have lost almost 6 lbs already! :) I hope that I can keep it consistent and continue to see change! This is by following (loosely) the weight watchers program and just being mindful of what i put into my body. I had originally planned to up the exercising, but my time has been quite limited this month - it's a goal to fix for the future. ;)

I still however have been partaking in yummy treats, all within moderation of course, but for Valentines day I had a wedding cupcake from lady dis with my hubby. :) And this weekend - for our first anniversary - we are going out of town to Santa Barbara. You can bet that I am not going to deny myself a celebratory sweet for making it thru year one!

As for what to get the hubby for our one year present.. I am at a loss - One year is officially a PAPER present, so I might just have to get CRAFTY for this one :) I wonder if I can enlist some help! :) hehehe. "Oh Valetta... ;)"
Im sure that I will figure something out :)

AND FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER - I am not going to plan ANYTHING! It'll be a "fly by the seat of our pants" weekend away. Much deserved as well!

Until we meet again,

Checking in...

Wow. I cannot believe that a month has passed since New Years Day. It's crazy how time flies when you are making changes!

Healthy
Just wanted to write in a quick progress report. As you all know I am doing my 10 lb challenge with Newlyweds On A Budget (See the button on the top right of the page!) and am really impressed with my results so far. Now as you know I am a pretty busy girl, but have been doing small changes to my eating habits, like portion control and paying attention to what I put in my mouth. I had signed up for WW online to keep track of what I am doing.
I am not a crazy tracker though, for example this past weekend on a conference I didn't whip out my phone to count my points at every second, but I did pay attention to my portions and my choices.  :)
So far so good! I have lost 2.2 lbs since I started the weight tracker on Jan 16! Now if only I can get the exercise portion down I will be well on my way! LOL

Green
I've streamlined my hostess packets and am working on a few new ideas I picked up at conference. Also alot of the girls said they way they are going green in their business is using a "Tablet" at their shows and emailing the receipts. GREAT IDEA... however I'm not a tablet fan - too many variables and not enough stamina - so I have modified it, I am going to bring my laptop and do it that way. :)

Business is Booming
Well January wasn't the greatest of months, but I am hopeful and determined to make a difference in my business. I have started making little adjustments and picking up the 300 lb phone ;) I am still planning to promote within Lia Sophia soon - by the end of summer, and this quote said it best...
"You've made the choice, 
          now make it happen!"
I'm working on it. ;)

Vacation Station
So we had already planned our Santa Barbara weekend for the anniversary, and now we have a few more on the docket. Santa Barbara in February, Vegas in March, Redding in April, Palm Springs in May, and San Diego in June. :) I cannot wait to get started on checking off those bad boys! :) hehehe.


Well, That's all for now!
Hope you all are succeeding with your goals!
All my best,

Ready, Set, GO!

I know that 2012 started a week ago, for everyone else but me! My career as a Creative Director keeps me busy the first week (1st - 7th) out of every month. So that means that life begins on the 8th, and pauses on the last day of the month. It's cool though, this is one of the many reasons I LOVE that I met my husband after I had my career set in stone... he's used to the deadlines.

This week has actually been pretty productive, despite the deadline!

Goal One: Healthy & Green
I used my elliptical 3 days this week, and have kept an eye on my eating patterns. I also got involved in "The Ten Pound Challenge" with several fellow bloggers this week! I know I wasn't worrying about a number, but this challenge gives me an extra incentive to stick with my goals this year. ;) Gotta love incentives!

As for being green, I ordered presentation folders for my jewelry hostesses - and have made up "Help me recycle, return this folder and any unused contents" stickers :) I am also going to laminate a few pieces that wont really change, so that they wont get weathered over time. We shall see how the girls do with that new concept. With the 'green' changes being made all over, I hope and pray that they are very receptive.

Goal Two: Business is Booming
As this is my Creative Director deadline week, I didnt get much done for the jewelry business this week, aside from the green folders above, however I did participate in my leadership call on Friday and got a few great tidbits. The homework in that class is challenging, but great for business. We were also reminded of our challenges and incentives for the next few months... :) Gotta love incentives! haha. I know, I said that already. I am usually not an incentive driven person, but its definitely nice to get rewarded for good deeds, going unseen (as they have in the past) is fine, because I KNOW that I did them - but having others notice too makes you feel good inside. I have some great parties scheduled the next few weeks, and then SUMMIT in AZ at the end of the month! :) This is my second business rally, and I learned so much at the first that this is going to be great. Plus, I love having the chance to get to know my team better. ;)

Goal Three: Vacation Smarter
Dovey and I planned our first 'weekender' vacation for our anniversary (I love that Dovey still calls it "Our Honeymoon") in Santa Barbara. It's close enough to not take forever to arrive at vacation, but far enough away that we don't feel sucked into our work vortex! LOL. Plus Santa Barbara is a romantic getaway, beachy sunsets, delicious restos... walks through downtown on State Street... itll be great!

We are also trying to plan a cohesive vacation with my parents, renting a house for a week in Ventura. It will be nice if it works out, since we exhausted our resources for Nor Cal trips last year, I went three times in three months! And the stupid Rapid Rewards credits arent working because they havent changed my maiden name to my married name yet! UGH. ((it's on the list of to-dos!))

Goal Four: Organize the Love Shack
No improvement here. Deadline week is when cleaning gets tossed by the wayside. The only thing we get done that week is laundry, and VOILA its done already. ;)

Other than that we have a plan of attack for this weeks meal schedule... and a forward thinking approach to the months to come. We chose our absolute fav restos and put them on a rotation for our date nights (every friday)... so we can hit each of them over the course of a few months. The more ritzy choices are what we rotate, so one month we will hit our favorite italian place, and the next we will hit our favorite steak place (out here.. Salt Creek is still a regular! We loved that place enough to get married there, lol.. its on the monthly regimine forEVER now. YUM YUM YUM.)

Great, now I am hungry again! LOL...
Here's to chipping away at the goal list! XO

2012... Here we come!

2012.
It's going to Epic!
Last week we worked out our resolutions. I teased you with them in my Christmas Blog, but wanted to go into a little more depth.

FIRST. 
Be healthy and more "Green".
Part One.. Healthy
I don't want to put a number on my health goal this year. I was EXTREMELY bitter about last year, where my husband and I did the SAME workouts, and he lost 36lbs and I lost 6! We figured it out that it was because he had muscle when we started, and I did not.. so I was gaining muscle (which weighs more than fat) while losing the fat, which is FINE. I definitely SAW changes, but the numbers were screwing with my head... so THIS YEAR I am just goaling myself to Be Healthy and leave the numbers at the wayside. This was a concept that Dovey had trouble grasping. He asked me HOW MUCH do you want to lose, moments after I said that I didn't care about the numbers. LOL.
Anyhow, this goal is in effect. I wanted to be accountable by documenting my results, and decided to give WW online a try. My boss at the day job has been doing this since my wedding with great results. I like that it doesnt limit you from splurging here and again, but being responsible about it.. and that fruits and veggies are FREE! No meetings, Im too self motivated, and get psyched out by others successes and failures, so I knew (from past experience) that meetings wouldn't work for me. I have downloaded the mobile app on my phone (which I love) because it allows me to look it up as I go, and started following some "Skinny" blogs that have delicious looking recipes. :) I plan to blog my favorites as I try them, too. So, be ready! I've also DUSTED OFF the elliptical and have organized my schedule so that I will be using it several times a week ;)
Part two of this goal was Becoming Greener. 
As far as food goes, we eat only whole grain and organic foods mostly, because of my fibromyalgia I follow a no preservative diet - its good for our bodies and the environment. So in the kitchen, we are pretty green. One thing I have noticed about this business is that it has quite the papertrail. I have come up with a plan for my hostesses to return their unused items so they can be reused. :) With a few other changes, we are working smarter, not harder and doing our part to keep our Earth healthy for the future.

SECOND.
My business is BOOMING. My life is IMPROVING.
As you all know, I started a business last year in September - it was a little consuming at first when I was getting the hang of it so I didn't have much blog time... (sorry about that!) but now I have a better handle on it, and foresee some business-y blogs too. ;) I have reassessed my goals for the business, and am TRULY interested in helping others find success (financially, personally, etc) through my business. I have set sales, bookings and team building goals.. and GOD WILLING I will earn my ab-fab trip to the Mayan Riviera this year, and have made enough to pay off the student loan I am goaling to kill from the bill list in 2012. When I meet my goals, the bill will be gone, we will have earned a vacation for 2013 (FREE!), I will have a team, and a consistent second income!
Lots of good things in store for our family with acheiving this goal. A new house, an expansion in our 2-man crew... AND LET ME TELL YOU - I cannot wait to leave our, (best described by a fellow blogger) LOVE SHACK. This spacious one bedroom will begrudgingly be a part of our 2012... but I ASSURE YOU it will not be included in 2013. Manda needs an office with a door, and Dovey needs a garage for his MAN STATION. Plus Little Diva (chihuahua) could use a yard to burn off some of her energy during the day in, and my Morkalicious (turtle) REALLY wants a pond of his own. Plus we could use an extra bedroom if we indeed grow our family in 2013!

THIRD. 
Vacation smarter.
We love a good vacation, and it was really nice to leave on a Wednesday, and return to work on a Wednesday for our honeymoon.. but we were definitely started to feel stuck and had worn out our 'vacation' mindset before it was time to come home. After several discussions, we decided taking several long weekend vacations would solve this problem. We get to see more places, do more things AND get a little break from our high-stress day jobs ONCE A MONTH! Instead of only having one big vacation for the whole year. I REALLY like this plan. We are going to make a plan in the next few weeks with where we hope to go and when the best time for the mini vacations are. ;) And if Dovey decides to rethink his anti-flying mentality, perhaps we can go a little further every so often.
He just decided NO MORE FLIGHTS last month when we took a weekend trip to visit my parents in Northern California. The flight home had a lot of turbulence and sadly I ended up with the WORST earache I have ever had. In the midst of this, I bit down quite hard and cracked a molar. I had to have an extraction the day before thanksgiving, followed by bridgework and implant discussions... that flight cost us SO MUCH money, and my mom had even paid for our tickets with her points! LOL. Needless to say, he wasn't happy!

FOURTH.
Organize the "Love Shack".
As I stated on my Christmas Blog.. I bought an amazing book called "Organize NOW!" and plan to implement it in 2012. It gives you week by week checklists that you tackle each part of your home, business, life to get you more organized so that your life flows more seamlessly. I REALLY love this book. I have already conquered my worst spaces, the home office and the coat closet *(aka World's Largest Junk Drawer)* and am EXTREMELY HAPPY with the results. I hope to conquer something new each week and make our lives a little saner and our house a little easier to maneuver. :) Heck I even plan to attack the scariest part of our current setup, STORAGE. Where my unmarried life has been hiding for the last nine months! LOL. God bless me with patience and perseverance while I tackle the hard ones!

Well, that's what we have so far... lol. I'm sure that it will ebb and flow a little bit each month, but by 2013 I know we will have made VAST IMPROVEMENTS in all of these areas. ;)

Wishing you all a prosperous and goal-achieving 2012!
Happy reading!

PS. Do these goals sound like any of your goals for 2012? I'd love to hear how you plan to achieve them! :)

Our First Christmas!

Last year for Christmas Eve's Eve, Dovey proposed to me at our absolute favorite Italian Resto, over a cannoli! It was pure bliss because we are definitely foodies. ♥

The following night his family came over to have a game night, and the rest of the year was a whirlwind! Complete with a Wedding, a Move, and a whole lot of commuting!

This year, we decided to start a few traditions of our own.

Tradition One: Christmas Cards! 
Being a Creative Director has its perks, like being able to design the perfect Christmas Card all on my own! lol... Now Dovey was raised sans Christmas... so that made the wording a little sticky, as well as who we could share our cards with on his side... but I was determined.

We had quite a time trying to get the photo of our family complete, Turtle didnt want to come out and play, and Little Dog was totally not having the picture day. In the end we opted for one great shot of just him and I... with a wish for 2012.

First Christmas Card

Tradition Two: Christmas Tree.
You should have seen how difficult it was to get his help... it was like pulling teeth! And the only part I needed help with was fishing it out of storage. (he was SO grumpy!) But in the end, our tree looked perfect!

First Christmas Tree as a Married Couple

I love my snow white TiGgeRs and my woodsy Christmas tree! :)

Tradition Three: Holiday Plans.
Dovey wanted to repeat last year, Dinner at Italian Resto on Eve's Eve, then Family Fun Night on Eve... Christmas just the two of us at home...
DONE!

Tradition Four: New Years Resolution Planning
We wanted to do this before the mad rush to resolutions, so we made this our Christmas Tradition. We assessed last years' plans, saw our improvement and epic fails.. (this year there werent many of those!) and we wrote our individual goals for 2012, and our family goals - which included vacations, an ideal timeline for buying a house and procreating, plans to eat better and be more Green, and lastly - making our tiny one bedroom apartment make sense since we will be here throughout 2012.... (ORGANIZE NOW in full effect!)
One of my favorite bloggers wrote a book about 'Organized Simplicity' - which I purchased and read, but found it to be a little advanced for our current family state (on the shelf until we have kids!) and in the end of the book it talked about a book called 'Organize Now!'. This one spoke to our RIGHT NOW state... so I of course purchased it immediately, read through it completely, and have been organizing my plan of attack for 2012!

Available at Amazon

I hope that all of you started some traditions this year, and that you made them your own!
Wishing you a New Years' filled with fun and friends and amazing changes for the future!

She's Crafty...

Several years ago I went to a holiday gathering with a friend and their grandmother had made these 2 liter bottles for everyone... we were awed and amazed! I remembered all this time and finally made my own! I used diet coke because I heart the juxtaposition of it all. :)

Its easy just cut the label carefully at the seam, Peel back. Cut a large C shape under the label (about four inches wide) add tissue paper to the bottom. Stuff the large pieces first, then fill with the small stuff!

I stuffed these with a small game (skipbo, left center right, and sting) a full size starburst and hersheys, Altoids, Reese's trees, marshmallow Santa, and Reese's cups, rolos and kisses.

Are you awed and amazed? At the least, its a fun conversation piece. ;)

All my best,
Madam Sawyer

Holiday Goodness...

Today is the 1 year anniversary of the day that Dovey asked me to marry him. ONE YEAR! And there was the act of planning a wedding involved but we still survived! LOL.

Right now my head is just about everywhere! I have some very close friends going through huge changes, one having a baby (AS I TYPE!) and the other getting married (NEXT WEEKEND!). Though not complete surprises, both have been a little taxing on my mental state. I wish I could be there more for both of them, but ITS TRUE, being married does add alot to your daily workload.

Instead of just getting out the door in the morning, you have to pick up a mess, feed the dog (and the turtle of course!), load the dishwasher, do the laundry... the tasks are all doubled and take twice the time. You are constantly wondering "Where has the time gone?" and its gotten even worse since I started a business.

Not that I am complaining, I just really need to get this time management thing under wraps soon. I am consistently overwhelmed by the amount of things requested of me, and the amount of things I wish I could get done!

My one hope before tomorrow evening, is that I get the craft done that I have been planning for 2 weeks but havent had an entire hour to complete it. I have EVEN added it to my schedule, and still 'life' gets in the way.

I know it will get better, I know that I will get the hang of this married thing and all that comes with it yet! LOL. It just takes some time.

I dont envy those who jump into it feet first, doing it all at once. Its nice to have some time to figure things out, make mistakes and learn from them.

Everything in life follows the same rulebook, one day at a time, minute by minute. Every change is for the betterment of you, no matter what!

May your holiday season be filled with small changes and big miracles!
All my love,

PS. I am always open to new ideas and tips on organizing my schedule and my life... got any? or books that you recommend?