Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive,
I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.
I am going to use all my energies to develop myself,
to expand my heart out to others;
to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
I am going to have kind thoughts towards others,
I am not going to get angry or think badly about others.
I am going to benefit others as much as I can.
(Dalai Lama)

Happy Friday to you, my lovelies. Are you looking forward to the weekend? I try to mix fun to-dos with necessary chores to keep my weekends happy & productive.

This week I’m looking forward to spending time with my Mister, blogging & reading blogs, flipping through the big stack of February magazines on our coffee table, and grocery shopping for the Bonus! Week 4 of the Whole Living 2012 Action Plan.

Do you have anything exciting planned for the weekend ahead? The following list of ideas and creative weekend to-dos are intended to inspire. Consider this a friendly reminder to seek out little delights and exceptional joys in the days ahead. I invite you to share your plans in the comments below!

embrace these 10 real-talk blog tips
make new playlists for yoga & running
set up external hard drive for MacBook
sort through Google Reader & add a few new blogs
run 2 miles on Saturday, 3 on Sunday
finish reading Style Statement
watch an inspiring manifesto
download new podcasts

I hope that you find yourself happy and enjoying some time for yourself this weekend, however you end up spending it. See you here again on Sunday for another Good Eats & Gratitude post!

Image Credit: 16-05-10 Last Of The Summer (Wine) via Bethan

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Today’s Truth, Love & Insight interview with Carolyn Rubenstein is touching, honest and filled with inspiration. I hope Carolyn’s words give you a sense of joyful calm to carry through your day. Last week’s feature of Micaela Maxham was absolutely delightful. Have you had a chance to read it yet?

I’ve followed Carolyn on Twitter for awhile now. She’s a brilliant, busy and positive gal who always seems to be doing something new. I really enjoyed her collaborative project Spring Inspiration. Here’s a little more about Carolyn, in her own words:

I’m Carolyn Rubenstein, author of Perseverance: True Voices of Cancer Survivors (How Young People Turn Fear into Hope and How They Can Teach Us To Do The Same); non-profit organization founder; authenticity advocate; Huffington Post and Psychology Today blogger; believer in resilience, gratitude and respect; and graduate student.

That may sound a bit heady, and maybe it is. So I’ve created A Beautiful Ripple Effect to be a place for great conversation, and for providing you with tons of fresh, inspiring content for your downloading and sharing pleasure. Together, we’ll uncover truths, persevere on our quests and inspire one another as we take a stand against life-as-usual. (And, you know, talk about the things we love, big and small. The things that make us smile, squeal, sigh. A couple of mine: awesome quotes, yoga, and my dog, Lila Rose.)

A Beautiful Ripple Effect celebrates the essential journey we’re on, encourages questions, fosters understanding.

1. How did your blog get started?
My blog got started with a quote. The words by Christine Mason Miller helped me realize that I needed to begin opening up about my personal journey. At this point in my life, I felt very alone, and I craved involvement in a community where I could be completely and imperfectly me. This quote gave me the nudge to start a simple blog; it had no design, no “about” page, just posts, and my story has grown organically from that place.

When we focus our energy towards constructing a passionate, meaningful life, we are tossing a pebble into the world, creating a beautiful ripple effect of inspiration. When one person follows a dream, tries something new or takes a daring leap, everyone nearby feels that energy, and before too long they are making their own daring leaps and inspiring yet another circle.
(Christine Mason Miller)

2. What motivates you to continue sharing your story with the web?
My main motivation is completely selfish—sharing my story is incredibly therapeutic for me. It allows me to examine my life from a different perspective and to avoid a state of analysis paralysis. The second reason is a total cliché, but it’s true—I wanted to inspire others to unveil their authentic selves (first to themselves, then to others). My story is just getting started, so I think my blog is in its infancy; the best is yet to come! I can’t wait to see how my inspiration unfolds and the community grows.

3. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself as a budding blogger?
There is no “right” way to blog. Allow yourself the freedom to create your own blogging journey. Remain true to your voice and recognize the importance of sharing it with others. Treat your readers as individuals—don’t take anyone’s presence for granted. The journey ebbs and flows, so hold on tight and enjoy the ride. If you do fall down, get back up and keep going!

4. If you could go forward in time, what is one question you would like to ask yourself? How do you imagine you might answer it?
Q: What about blogging lights you up and fills you with incredible happiness? How do you focus on that work and not get overwhelmed by all the little details that can overwhelm the sparkling moments?

A: The process of writing (actual pen to paper) lights me up and makes me giddy. I love creating, especially creating something tangible—seeing my words and handwriting filling up journal pages. I also love connecting with others, especially the people who read my blog.

In the future, I hope that I have learned how to focus my time and energy on these two aspects of blogging and am able to spend less time on the digital administration of blogging (which completely zaps my energy)!

5. What are your favorite creative resources?
Pinterest is a huge creative resource for me.
Blogs are my second creative resource—I try to read a large variety of blogs to gain different types of inspiration.
And of course, my huge collection of books. Sitting in a big comfy chair with a stack of books is my favorite activity.

6. Who inspires you online? Offline?
I am inspired by people not afraid to show their scars and their unfiltered stories. I can’t connect with people who try to create a world that is always sparkly—although I do adore The Glitter Guide (and definitely consider myself a *glitter girl!*).

If you’re anything like me, you want me to name names… okay, just this once! But please realize this list is far from comprehensive and doesn’t include people without hyperlinks. And one more note of caution—the list got a bit unwieldy, so I forced myself to pick just a little sample from my ever growing inspiration list!

Gwen Bell
Marissa Bracke
Havi Brooks 
Jess Constable
Kaileen Elise
Aby Garvey
Charlie Gilkey
Carolynn Giordano
Chris Guillebeau
Hope Wallace Karney
Brandon Ledford
Tiffany Moore
Tobe Reed
Julie Reif
Allie Rice
Kendi Skeen
Jess Swift
Michelle Ward

7. How do you make every day an extraordinary adventure?
By focusing on the present moment and in particular on gratitude. It’s in these ordinary moments that I notice myself smile and sparkle with happiness. And a splash of glitter always helps!

Image Credit: via Carolyn Rubenstein

Dream on it.
Let your mind take you to places you would like to go,
and then think about it and plan it and celebrate the possibilities.
And don’t listen to anyone who doesn’t know how to dream.
(Liza Minnelli)

Hello lovelies! I hope you have a cup of tea in your hand and a smile in your heart wherever this post finds you. Today marks two years of writing, sharing, celebrating, discovering & blogging here on KaileenElise.com. It’s been an amazing journey.

Thank you for standing by me through the tough times, for joining me on this path, for diving in along the way, for dropping by daily or every once in awhile to say hi. 

You are my muse.

Time has stood still. Flew by at record speed. We’ve skipped through puddles. Bathed in sunshine. Flipped through magazines and shared our favorite tunes. Shared how-to’s and to-do’s. Become friends, soul sisters.

These past 2 years.

Most visits:

• Fall in Love with Autumn
• Enjoy the Little Things
• 10 Websites I Adore
• My collection of Quotes
• A Creative Weekend To-Do List

Favorite projects:

• The Joy Diet Book Club
• Guest blogging for Kimberly Wilson
• #Reverb10 HQ
• Summer Tribe on Roots of She
• Creative Weekend To-Do Lists
• Holiday Love & Good Karma swaps
• Celebrating with 32 Days of Sparkle
• Truth, Love & Insight Series

Looking ahead.

I’m excited to see what the future holds. Sign ups for my Sparkle Swap end today—a delightful way to kick off my 3rd year of blogging. There are so many things that I want to try. Collaborative projects, personal challenges. Muse memos. Seasonal swaps. More to-do’s, inspiration and love!

Image Credit: 2010-CONFETTI via teapotqueen

My will shall shape the future.
Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own.
I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me
or I can be lost in the maze.
My choice; my responsibility; win or lose,
only I hold the key to my destiny.
(Elaine Maxwell)

Happy Friday, my lovelies! How are you? I’ve had a great week—beginning with a holiday on Monday and wrapping up with my 2nd blogiversary this weekend.

I am overjoyed with the excitement around Sparkle Swap and am really looking forward to seeing new friendships unfold. Registration closes tomorrow, so make sure you sign up soon if you want in on the fun!

A special thanks to Micaela Maxham for sharing her Truth, Love & Insight this week. I just adore Micaela & her readers who are so incredibly creative, sweet & amazing.

The following creative to-do’s are intended to inspire happy weekends. Consider this a friendly tap—or slight tug—towards exploring little delights and exceptional joys this weekend. I invite you to share your creative to-do’s in the comments!

celebrate 2 years of blogging amazingness
remember special moments with a sweet diy
meet up with a girlfriend for coffee
journal, meditate, or think on this
play with new Sephora finds
write snail mail love notes to friends
cook spicy fried veggie deliciousness
switch out to fall wallet & purse
send out Sparkle Swap surveys
snuggle up & watch a movie
go bowling with friends on Saturday night
find a pair and shop for a good cause
 clean house & get ready for another amazing week

Image Credit: Francesca via Astrgony

We cannot live for ourselves alone.
Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads,
and along these sympathetic fibers,
our actions run as causes and return to us as results.
(Herman Melville)

Hello my sweet friends. I hope the beginning of September is treating you well. My 2-year blogiversary is around the corner and to help celebrate, I am hosting a Sparkle Swap!

This swap is all about bringing cheer to a fellow blogger. Send a package with 4 unique gifts — a bit of sparkle, a treat that soothes, something sweet, and a surprise. In return, you will receive snail mail love from a new friend.

To participate, sign up by leaving a comment below with one thing you’re looking forward to this season.

Some key details:

• The swap is comprised of 4 gifts — a bit of sparkle, a treat that soothes, something sweet, and a surprise that your buddy will love.
• To participate, you must have a blog + need to be willing to ship internationally.
• Registration ends Saturday 9/10/11 at 5:00 pm EST. Leave a comment to join!
• Please mail parcels by Tuesday 9/20/11.
• Open, enjoy and blog about your package when you receive it!

Once registration is closed, I’ll email surveys out to collect addresses, likes, dislikes and anything else you want to share with your swap partner.

By leaving a comment below, you are agreeing to the details outlined above. Let me know if you have questions or special requests.

Are you lovelies ready to start swapping? Let the sparkle, delight & snail mail love begin…

Image Credit: Meet me in outer space by Misserion

The more you praise and celebrate your life,
the more there is in life to celebrate.
(Oprah Winfrey)

Hello lovelies! I hope you’re having a great week. I’m enjoying the slightly cooler weather and am excited to share some big news with you soon (perhaps tomorrow). Until then, I hope you gain some creative inspiration from today’s Truth, Love & Insight interview. My previous TLI feature of Lisa Thiele was full of beautiful photographs + her fascinating story. I highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t already.

Today I’m excited to feature Elise Blaha. Her blog is filled with thoughts on leading a healthy, lovely & crafty life. I truly appreciate Elise’s creative style and honesty. Not to mention, her recent site redesign is unbelievably gorgeous! Her posts, tweets and pins are delightful! Just a little more about Elise, in her own words:

My name is Elise and I write a blog, have a shop and teach online workshops. I live in San Diego, California, my favorite city in the world.

1. How did your blog get started?

I started my blog over 5 years ago when I was a junior in college because I thought I had something to say. At the time, I wrote a lot about what I was thinking (more than what I was doing) and I am so happy to have that record. Overtime, my blog grew into something much more craft and project focused, but I have tried to always keep the personal stories as well.

2. What motivates you to continue sharing your story with the web?

More than anything, habit. Writing almost daily has become such a routine. I am always crafting blog posts and I think I would really miss the outlet if I stopped.

3. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to yourself as a budding blogger?

Sort your posts into categories from day one. And write for you, never for readers.

4. If you could go forward in time, what is one question you would like to ask yourself? How do you imagine you might answer it?

My husband is currently deployed to Afghanistan. I wish I could as myself how I got through the next six months gracefully. I can’t imagine how I would answer it yet…

5. What are your favorite creative resources?

By far, Pinterest. I loving being able to save ideas, projects, color schemes and more in one place. I also love using the search function because the results all have pictures and are curated by others.

6. Who inspires you online? Offline?

ONLINE : Kal Bartestki & Erin Loechner
OFFLINE : sort of everyone but mostly my parents.

7. How do you make every day an extraordinary adventure?

I allow for DO NOTHING time when my only goal is to doodle and think.

Images via Elise Blaha

The dream was always running ahead of me.
To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it,
that was the miracle.
(Anais Nin)

Hello hello. I hope you’re having a great start to your week!

Things are turning around here after a couple really tough months. I am rediscovering my very simple, yet completely extraordinary, life. Things have been crazy, but I knew we’d make it to the other side. I think we’re nearly there. It’s the calm after the storm.

Maybe you’ve experienced this before?

Not so serious things.
Yesterday I flipped through magazines and watched romantic comedies while my Mister studied for his first exam. (Sending very smart, A+ vibes his way right now!) For dinner, I made roasted potatoes and veggies on the grill. A lazy Sunday’s simple pleasures.

It’s called cohabitation. 
After living together for nearly two months, we’ve settled into a nice rhythm. I load the dishwasher & he does laundry. We are easing into shared financial responsibility. Our DVR has ESPN’s PTI for him and Bravo’s Flipping Out for me.

Friends trading tea.
I’m joining in on Melita’s 3rd Annual Tea Trade. It combines some of my favorite things – meeting new blog friends + drinking tea + giving/receiving snail mail! I highly recommend you get in on the fun and sign up!

Image Credit: polka dot tea party via Shandi-lee

It’s amazing how much a home is like a puzzle, with so many pieces and just one way that it all fits together. We’ve finished the outline and are now working on filling in the picture. The toughest part is done and we’re left with fun things like picking out new sheets, picture frames and candles.

Recently I put out a call for guest bloggers and I was overjoyed when Jenn Gibson offered to share her wisdom on balancing work, play, and passion.

Jenn believes in dreaming big : she’s the creator of Roots of She. She loves yoga and the beach, is a photographer & writer, and isn’t above stealing snuggles from Bean the Boy Kitten. Daily parts of her life are paper journaling, talking to her dear sweet momma & sky-gazing. You can follow her on Twitter and visit her often over at Roots of She.

In art and dream may you proceed with abandon.
In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.
(Patti Smith)

And sometimes, may you proceed with all three at once.

In order to make my life work, I cultivate each of these things.

Abandon: This is how I choose to live, with abandon. I embrace each moment with bright joy and drink it down.

Stealth: When faced with a challenge, I move with stealth. Unobtrusively, I observe how I’m feeling, what I’m thinking, and go from there.

Which leaves us with balance, the trickiest of Patti’s trio.

Finding symmetry for balance and abandon is almost always a delicate thing, and rarely an easy thing. It’s something I keep coming up against and that I’ve been working on in my life, especially where it relates to the intersection of work and play: my job and my passion.

My job: I work for a nonprofit, and my main focus there is on social media strategy and creating original multimedia content. I’m always on the computer — Tweeting, updating Facebook, researching new social media platforms, editing videos, drafting questions for interviews.

My passion: I run Roots of She, a collaborative project that tells the stories of the female experience, in all of its shapes, sizes and forms. The site launched a little over six months ago, and it’s now in the third cycle of contributors.

My relationship with social media and technology is evolving — the more my job and passion become integrated with the social web, the more I need to ensure that things stay light and fun. That there is balance between work and play.
Which leads me to this:

Tools and tricks of my trade, or: some of the practices that help me find balance

• E-mail: I check my e-mail once a day, normally in the afternoon. It’s so easy for me to fall into the rabbit hole of rapid replies and obsessively refreshing my inbox. Putting gentle boundaries around this gives me the freedom to enjoy responding to the notes that come my way instead of having it become stressful and rushed.
• Auto-reply: I have an auto-reply on my e-mail that lets people know that I’m only checking e-mail once daily. This lets them off the hook for waiting for a quick reply, and it affords me the space to not be constantly checking my e-mail. It removes the obligation of a quick response, on both sides.
• HootSuite: This program saves me — one of its features is message scheduling. I can schedule tweets and messages days or even a couple weeks in advance, so when I log onto Twitter or Facebook, it’s all playtime — catching up and being silly with friends, checking out interesting links. Engaging with people in a mindful way: being present with them and not think ‘Oh I need to tweet this post’ or something along those lines. And your presence is powerful.
• Unplugging: I recently decided on a no-Internet after work policy. I don’t turn on the computer, I don’t even open it. I went so far and removed the Facebook and HootSuite apps from my Droid. I have to tell you, it’s a lot quieter now. I’m not constantly checking to see if the little LED light is blinking at me, instead I’m rooted to my yoga mat or writing in a paper journal or sharing a conversation on the phone. I’m connecting with the people, things and dreams that live in my heart.

Because I know that when I practice these things, I feel calmer and more centered, I’m not drained or fatigued. I know that then I’m giving you the best of me, the best of what I am. You deserve no less than that, and neither do I.

Image Credit: Balance, originally uploaded by PiscesDreamer

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things
we crave most in life — happiness, freedom, and peace of mind — are
always attained by giving them to someone else.
(Peyton Conway March)

I’m welcoming summer with open arms.

The first half of this year has been rocky, but I can feel change coming. The shifting seasons and passage of time bring a reminder that everything we experience is fleeting. Moments of joy, heartbreak, struggle, celebration—all temporary. It is both a gift and a curse. It is the magic of this experience we call life.

I’m welcoming summer with open arms.

The next few days I plan to cultivate my ideal outcome for the next 6 months. When the year comes to a close, how do I want to feel? Who do I want in my life? Where do I want to be? What do I want to have accomplished? How much money do I want in my bank account? What goals do I want within my reach?

I’m welcoming summer with open arms.

From the silly to the serious, I am ready. This is the season of fresh roots & uprooting. The season of trying new things and embracing old favorites. My mister and I will celebrate his 27th birthday and our 3rd year together. Family will visit. Our closest friends will become parents to a brand new baby boy. We will see summer blockbusters, sip wine, lay by the pool and enjoy the warmth of the sun.

How are you welcoming summer?

Image Credit: My Rainbow Has Fallen Down by Scarleth White

Love life and life will love you back.
Love people and they will love you back.
(Arthur Rubinstein)

Hello my lovelies! I hope you had splendid weekends and happy Father’s Day celebrations. My Mister and I took it extra easy. We relaxed, watched movies & slept a lot more than normal. It was a PJs-all-day kind of weekend. The super loungey mood provided a perfect opportunity to work on my blogger’s to do list!

Take  a look around — if you’re using a reader, click over to view in your browser. I have new pictures, an updated About Me, a fresh list of daily reads + Twitter list to match, new archive access, and a complete index of 200+ quotes.

I would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and questions as I continue to work through my list! Have you seen anything (or done anything yourself) that’s totally amazing & needs to be part of my blog’s new updo? Let me know!

Image Credit: to do list via This is Glamourous