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11June

Take Two

Hello neglected little blog! Miss me?

Turns out, I made plans, and the universe laughed and did the complete opposite. That whole ‘less‘ thing? Yeah, the first half of 2013 has been crazy busy in my world.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I’ve been working on some super-cool projects and busy is always good for business. But in the grand scheme of things I had time to do, blogging (and actually taking time for me) fell low on my priority list.

So, what have I been up to?

I did some work for a marketing agency where I got to work on some stuff for a couple of car companies. (I wish I could be less vague, but I can’t. The most I can say is if you’re one of my sisters, you’re driving one of those cars…)

I’m working on a total overhaul of a site for a grocer in San Diego. This one I cannot wait to show off, because it is *gorgeous*. Jeff at Tribe Creative did a great job on the design and between us we have pimped the site out to do all sorts of awesome things.

I mentored at a recent Ladies Learning Code Event. I’ve done a few of the Introduction to WordPress and Introduction to HTML/CSS sessions and they are always great fun. They sell out within a day or two, so if you get a chance to go to one, definitely take advantage (they have events across Canada).

I took a full week off and did absolutely nothing. Actually, that’s not completely true. I may have accidentally gotten hooked on Candy Crush, which is probably the most addicting game ever, so I spent a lot of that week playing that. But after the crazy long days I was doing for many months, the sitting around and doing nothing was so needed.

We started decluttering the house. Turns out we have a lot of stuff (not that I’m surprised by that, but holy geez, we have a lot of stuff…), so I’m making plans to sell the big stuff (appliances, furniture) and then donate the rest.

I got plagiarized for the first time. I know I should be more bent out of shape, but the guy who took sections of my company site and used them on his own changed them the first time I asked, so in the end it’s now just something I can say, it happened to me too.

I started reading again. When I left publishing a few years ago, I stopped reading books. Mostly because I didn’t really have the time, starting a new business as I was, but partly I was just a little burnt out. Then I discovered my library lends ebooks through an app I already have and actually has more current books than the last time I looked and I got back in the habit. Contrary to what I used to read (a lot of romance), I’ve been reading a lot of biographies (Mindy Kaling, we totally need to be best friends) and non-fiction books, which is a big change and kinda fun. I’m also looking for good books to read, since I’m so out of touch, so suggestions are welcome.

And, in the coming soon part of my news, I’ll be speaking at WordCamp Hamilton on June 21st. I’ll be talking Child Themes, so if you’re in the area, I’d love to see you there!

So tell me, what’s new with you?

16January

Word of the Year

It’s after midnight, and I’m just finishing up work for the day. Yes, I started at about 10:30 this morning, with a break midday to run out for a personal appointment, but that’s still a good 11 or 12 hours I’ve spent at the computer. And it got me thinking about this year and what I want to accomplish.

I’ve noticed that a lot of bloggers are setting a Word for their year – a word that represents the tone they want to set for 2013. And while I jokingly declared this year the year of Laurie, I think I need a word to aim for too.

So my word this year?

LESS

Less time spent staring at my computer and not at real people.

Less (okay fewer, so we can be grammatically correct) missed soccer times and long walks with Oscar.

Less stuff cluttering up my house and keeping it from being the sanctuary I want it to be.

Less crap cluttering up my mind and less holding on to past hurts.

Less food that isn’t good for my body and isn’t worth the calories.

Less (fewer, again < g >) excuses for why I don’t have time to exercise or to take Laurie time.

Really, just less bad stuff and more letting in the good stuff.

Because joking or not, this is the Year of Laurie. 🙂

What’s your word of the year? Did you write a post about it? Add your link to the comments so I can check it out…

01January

A new year, a new plan

Happy New Year!

I’m not sure it was the smartest thing in the world to launch the blog and then take some time off for the holidays, but there you go.

I try not to make resolutions, because I tend to break those pretty much within the first week of January (often the first day. <g>), but I do have plans for the new year that I’m working on getting into motion.

1. The Budget
I’m a little intrigued by the envelope system that I’m seeing so many people following. I don’t really budget per se, I know generally how much money is coming in every month, and what my fixed expenses are, and I aim not to spend more than the difference, but I can be a bit of a splurger, and I would like to have a bit (okay a lot) more in the savings account than is currently there.
Scarier was realizing how much I’ve paid towards my mortgage in the past four years, and how little it’s decreased in that time, so my biggie, in addition to having more of an emergency fund, is getting that mortgage paid off quicker.
So, the big plan is a spending fast on the wants – jewellery, clothes, shoes, purses, makeup, electronics, etc – for the next three months at least. Better tracking of what’s being spent and where is also in the works, and once I know where the money is going, I can attempt a real budget to start hitting the financial goals.

2. The House
We’ve lived in this house for not quite four years, and we’ve been in a ‘we really need renovations’ place for that entire time. It started when our contractor disappeared right after I bought all new cupboards for our kitchen (fortunately, we hadn’t paid him yet), but those cupboards are still taking over the entire living room, the stuff for the kitchen is all over the basement and every room is sort of trickling down into overflow from things that need to be in other rooms.
This blog is a big part of the house plan – I’m hoping to document all the stuff I want to do here, and that putting it out onto the net will get me out of procrastinating on all the things that need to get done.

3. The Balance
I’ve gotten to a point with my company where I work probably more than I should, though I am doing a lot better at being firm about not working on the weekends. But, because I work from home, it’s a lot harder to turn off at the end of the day and there’s been more than a few nights that have found me still coding at 2 a.m.
My plan for this year is to actually use the room I have set as my office and at the end of the workday, close the door and leave work in that room. This should give me more time to tackle the house projects too, though I kind of feel like I won’t know what to do with my non-work time.

4. The Body
Oh, you know, the whole eat better, exercise more thing. 🙂 I’ve added Treadmill Time into my daily schedule (starting with tomorrow’s work day), so it’ll be a start.

So, that’s the plan. Let’s see how well I can keep it by the end of the year…