Here be Dragons….
It’s a simple project and only involves a couple of steps: pop off the backs of your jeweled earrings/broaches with wire cutters, then attach a magnet with super glue. Presto! You’ve got yourself a blinged out fridge magnet. Mega impact for the absolute minimum amount of effort. Or, in other words, my kind of DIY project.
Curated from Curbly
I love finding ideas for upcycling broken brooches into something else you can use everyday, like this.
I read Les Miserables last year. It was a long book. I am writing a review of the book on Squidoo and found this wallpaper while looking for images to post. I like the words at the top. Inspiring for me as I try to make changes to myself and get back to running my sites again.
I started swimming at the YMCA, once a week so far.
I found this on Facebook and I love it! This is what I wish I could say to every young person from the age of about 10 up to the age where they understand and believe these words are about themselves. People may be 90 and still need to hear and understand these words. Teenagers may be those this was directed to because they are at a time of life where they don’t have a set purpose yet like children to look after, a house to pay for, or a job to show up for everyday. These are the burdens, challenges which scare us and yet give us a purpose and direction – something we have to do each day.
Young people can be in a middle ground which can be an oasis or no man’s land. (Look up no man’s land if you haven’t heard that phrase before). Just because you don’t have a purpose yet does not mean you are not needed and can not find yourself a unique purpose and direction each day. Choose something and do it. Choose something wisely, something which will make your world a better place, something which will make you happy and feel accomplished. Little things mean a lot so you don’t have to reach far to find something valuable to do.
The world loves you, especially you, our teenagers who have so much to give, so much life and so much greatness yet to come.
This post dedicated to Zack (my favourite teenager of them all).
The service rep was very nice, spoke well and so. However, an appointment was made to install the TV service for this morning. I waited home until noon when I phoned to see if the tech was running late. No one phoned me to let me know. I was told I had no appointment for the install. Yet I do have a confirmation # which the rep looked up and apologized for the problem. I was not especially surprised as this is at least the THIRD time Bell has done this to me. I was left on hold to be transferred to someone who would help me today. However, I waited on hold about 10 – 15 minutes and then the call was disconnected. Not by me. At this point I was feeling pretty angry but when I phoned back I did my best to be polite. On this second call I was told I would be phoned by someone TODAY to confirm the order they were supposed to actually be here to install TODAY. I do not have a cell phone so I have waited here all day now for NOTHING!!! Bell has not phoned me about anything, certainly not about confirming the order or apologizing for screwing up. Yes, the Bell reps speak well and are polite. But, I am so extremely tired of the screw ups and so really fed up with platitudes which mean nothing to me. Actions speak louder than words. Bell charges me $2.00 each month just to get a bill from them. This aggravates me, especially when there are ads included. So I am actually paying to get spam from Bell. I doubt an actual human being is reading this. Likely it is just a computer scanning words. Bell does not care about customers obviously. I don’t know why I’m giving Bell more of my time. I will be cancelling the TV order tomorrow when I am less upset and angry. I may cancel everything – it would save me a LOT of stress. No other company I deal with has been this difficult with misleading me, lying to me and all the rest. I like Bell’s actual service. But, having the service is far too much stress and has caused me to lose time at work which puts my job at risk each time Bell makes these non-existent appointments and then expects me to just take another day off for another appointment after they screw up. If an actual human being is reading this would you want to be a Bell customer if this was the day you had today? Not me.
Sorry for the block of text. I could have fixed it when I decided to post it. But, it kind of suits the block format. Like a blockhead in a trap.
It’s almost 4:30 now. Too late to expect a call from Bell. So, just more misinformation or can we just call it a lie because it feels that way to me.
Five Manifestos for Life | Brain Pickings .
How a numbered list can start a personal revolution.
Some days everyone needs a little extra encouragement. The words or lines or colors don’t want to come , or worse, we don’t even want to sit down to create . That’s when we turn to these inspiring manifestos, any one of which is guaranteed to give our uncooperative creativity a sharp kick in the pants. Here are five of our favorite contemporary manifestos that nudge ideas out of your head and into the hands of the world.
RIGHT BRAIN TERRAIN
We’ve long been fans of the amazing work of Frederick Terral, the creative visionary behind design studio
Right Brain Terrain
. His “Alternative Motivational Posters” have in fact adorned our walls and desktop wallpapers for some time. But the love affair really began at the words behind his whole operation:
You may not be a Picasso or Mozart but you don’t have to be. Just create to create. Create to remind yourself you’re still alive. Make stuff to inspire others to make something too. Create to learn a bit more about yourself.”
We can’t imagine more sound advice. And charming, too: Terral’s manifestoappears online in its original form as scanned notebook pages, complete with sketches. Happily you can support all things Right Brain Terrain, and surround yourself with life-affirming statements, by purchasing limited edition prints from the studio’s gorgeous selection online.
THE CULT OF DONE MANIFESTO
Guidelines to get you from Point A to finished product, The Cult of Done Manifesto was written by tech guru Bre Pettis (of MakerBot fame) in collaboration with writer Kio Stark in 20 minutes, “because we only had 20 minutes to get it done.” Following that same parameter, their manifesto consists of 20 truisms borrowed from hacker culture. To wit, number four on the list:
Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.”
With iteration at the heart of its process, The Cult of Done Manifesto will banish your inner perfectionist (and its evil twin, procrastination).
HOLSTEE
We first featured the
Holstee
manifesto
over a year ago
, and our fondness for their sustainable social enterprise has only grown since then. Whether you’re raising a family or venture funds for your new business, rallying cries for creativity don’t get much stronger than this:
This is your life. Do what you love, and do it often. If you don’t like something, change it. If you don’t like your job, quit. If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV. If you are looking for the love of your life, stop; they will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love.”
You can buy these bracing words in poster , card , and even bib form, so that every time your baby throws a cup of peas on the ground you’re reminded of the things that matter most in life.
WORK IS NOT A JOB
It’s no coincidence that three out of the five manifestos featured here come from design-y entrepreneurial ventures, since as a discipline design takes a “fail forward” approach to creativity. Our number-four favorite was written by Catharina Bruns, the German-born designer and illustrator behind
Work Is Not A Job
. Bruns’s
raison d’être
is effecting “a paradigm shift in how people approach ‘work’ not as your 9-5 job but how you individually contribute to the world.”
Empower yourself and realise the importance of contributing to the world by living your talent. Work on what you love. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.”
In addition to design-for-hire, Work Is Not A Job also offers products , from hoodies to fine-art prints, to keep you inspired on the daily.
DO THE WORK
We’re over the moon that author Steven Pressfield has a new release out this month. Part of Seth Godin’s e-publishing experiment
The Domino Project
(which
we featured
earlier this year),
Do the Work
is intended as a companion guide to Pressfield’s earlier text – and one of our all-time favorites on the creative process –
The War of Art
. Where that book was almost Zen-like in tone, containing koans about art and life that have had us returning to it for years,
Do the Work
focuses on practical methods and tools. Still, Pressfield doesn’t pull any punches, getting right to the point about what’s at stake in whether or not we create.
There is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognize this. This recognition alone is enormously powerful. It saved my life, and it will save yours.”
Even better, Do the Work is free(!) until April 20th, so do yourself an enormous favor and snag a copy now.
Whatever you do, we hope this list of manifestos helps you manifest your passion; and if you have other favorite creative directives leave us a link in the comments. Now go forth and create!
Kirstin Butler
is writing an adaptation of Gogol for the Google era called
Dead SULs
, but when not doing the work spends far, far too much time on
Twitter.
She currently lives in Cambridge, MA.
There’s a commercial that comes on for a Canadian made TV show about the rodeo. In the commercial one of the rodeo cowboys says, “If you love something you should be ready to die for it.” That may not be an exact quote as I had to type the background information and lost track of the exact words.
Anyway, I think that is a bit silly. I’m not ready/ prepared/ eager to die for anything. If you die you become dead. You don’t get to hit restart or re-do. You’re just done. If I was going to die for something it would have to be for more than just love. Oddly enough, I want to be here the next day to be with the people I love, do the things I love and just generally stick around.