NEW YEAR ~ NEW goals to YOU

Every year I love to pull out my journals from the year before
 (yes, there are usually two or more of them).

I am a journaling junkee!

This year I created a new way to capture my journaling and my calendar in one place.
The happYmess Journal documents my todays while I plan my tomorrows.

I also LOVE the SARK's Journal and Playbook! I have one from 1996, one from 2000 and one from 2006. While many of the goals, scribbles and thoughts are similar, they still evolve.

www.planetsark.com

WHAT ARE YOU DREAMING TO DO DIFFERENTLY IN 2013?

WHAT ARE YOU LOVING THAT YOU WANT MORE OF IN 2013?

After all, we all made it through the doom and gloom of the end of the world at the end of 2012!

CELEBRATE THAT!

Last year was the year for my painting evolution. I took some great workshops through local and regional outlets.

@pauljackson @alabamaartsupply  @kellienewsom @nancunningham  @forstallartcenter
(even google evolving where these are supposed to link to these artists~ who knows! but hey, I am up for big changes and new adventures, even if on my blog!

In 2013 I explored @seejanewrite the blog a day for 30 days and made it with a few "multi blogs" along the way! Thanks @javaciabowers  @seejanetweet

SET A GOAL, ANY GOAL AND SEE WHERE IT LEADS YOU!
It doesn't have to be life changing! Just something to help you stretch and grow!

Here is a GREAT one!
Anyone with a camera on their phone can do it!  And be sure to tweet it to me
at  #artallie on Twitter!

Source: positivelypresent.com via Inger-Marie on Pinterest

This is the link to the DAILY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

TODAY! DAY ONE!  A FAVORITE! FOOD

AND I LEAVE YOU WITH SCENES FROM BARTON G RESTAURANT IN MAIMI BEACH!

@bartong

a smoking drink

cotton candy!

menu pad....

http://bartongtherestaurant.com/experience/

surf and turf~ of monumental proportions

Tuna~ 

and great friends

which is what food is all about

lobster poptarts~ 

and my seven year old's favorite~

the chocolate treasure chest with graham cracker "sand"

Treasures like this are all over the world. GO EXPLORE them~

Barton G was the personal chef for Versace. Next time you go to Miami
find this quaint restaurant tucked on a side street among gardens and find a corner table beneath the twinkling lights in the trees.

Or better yet, stay in tonight and get creative!  Find a bucket and fill it with ice cream, candy bars and top it with POP ROCKS!  Your kids will love you for it!

Blessings to CREATIVE LIVING EVERY DAY in 2013~

Allison Adams
www.allisonpadams.com

Why I Love Being a WOMAN

Monday, Nov. 19 – Why Do You Love Being a Woman? That’s a simple question, but one that most likely has a complicated answer. So let’s write a blog post about it. 

This morning I hit the ground running with my two business partners in our new venture Fluff! Designers.

After a great meeting to plan a fun Christmas party for a client we veered off to everyone's favorite meeting place from coast to coast: "Starbucks".  There were college gals meeting up in sweats. There was a woman seriously asleep on her laptop (this was at 11:00 am). There was a line of men out the door, tapping their feet, one pacing in a four inch square so as to not lose his spot, another on the phone talking into his earpiece, looking like a madman bursting into laughter then serious face.

My girlfriends and I gathered at a round table. A scrambled mom came through with a baby on one hip as she juggled keys, a small wallet that she balanced on the table while still holding the hand of a toddler. She looked over at us, "please watch this and be sure it isn't stolen" she asked us over her shoulder as she herded them towards the bathroom.

As I had prepared thought for today's assignment by doing some quick morning journaling pages, the topic was on my mind. I wondered, would a man ever take a little siesta at a table in Starbucks?  Would a man ask someone to watch his wallet while he dashed to the john, completely trusting that we wouldn't take off with it? Would a man decide to gather at the table until the line died down (which it quickly did and we went right up to the counter to order as soon as we had unloaded files and a leather clipboard)?

As we sat there going over the schedule for setup and design for the party I shared with them my motivation to complete a blog a day through November. One said, "Oh I should do that!"

The man in my life wonders why.

And as we talked about our project, one threw out another project idea to add to the mix in January, the other an idea for some products to add. Then we bounced back to a recipe, then to talk about travel plans. Wow, I felt such a sense of relief. I have been living in the land of the man for quite some time. I think I forgot that I am not the only right brain~left brain that juggles numerous ideas as well as numerous "lives". 

My other female "sista" who is practically a younger "creating clone" of me (except way more organized) called to tell me some ideas she had for my small paintings and to check on me. When she called last night I had just melted my finger with hot glue (well not really, but hey, it hurt) and she had a BETTER idea for attaching those ribbons to the ornaments I was making.

I thought about how precious my "girl time" is. And not only is it enjoyable,  if spent on a regular basis according to research, will add seven years to a woman's life. 

When I told my friends today's topic while we were headed out the door, one simply replied as she flicked her long black curly locks over her shoulder as a man was opening the door for her to exit,

"What do I like about being a woman? Well certainly, NOT BEING A MAN."

Allison Adams

www.allisonpadams.com

Girlfriends In Paris

by Allison P Adams

available on notecards

or order your own custom design with YOUR girlfriends!

#bloglikecrazy

Today begins the BLOG EVERY DAY challenge set in place by
Birmingham's founder of SEE JANE WRITE
and WRITEOUSBABE'S blog CHALLENGE.

Each day IN NOVEMBER Javacia provides a prompt to get us started~

Today, November First~ AND I AM OFF TO A GREAT START!

 It is all about intentions!

And the day I signed up back in October I had TONS OF INTENTIONS~
And thankfully I got a jump start last week on ideas for these although this one is
fresh off the top of my head with none of those being used.

TODAY~ ANY INTENTIONS I MIGHT HAVE HAD rolled
out of my agenda one by one as a sniffly seven year old and a coughing sixteen year old
showed me their throats.

And THAT my dear is why I am grateful that I can shift gears, light a fire, and
cancel my day.  (I'll get to that topic later in the week about how those of us with flexible creative schedules also struggle as much as those with the fixed work routine)

My intentions to write an uplifting blog today about all of the goals I was excited about two days ago when I wrote my "blog outline" are smothered today in a messy post halloween floor and a washing machine with a stuck door and a fault code that screams "you have to call someone!"

My intentions to start the day on the road to Montgomery to keep my very pregnant friend from having to go alone were halted with sniffles and coughing I must have picked up from the kids.

My intentions to have a recent book illustration "for hire" completed early might still make it on schedule but meeting with the client is probably out. Thank goodness for email.

So today my intentions are to take advantage of another day at home with the kids, heat up some soup, make some cookies, light a fire, and wait for their appointment time at the pediatrician, but probably, I will just be crawling back in bed and cover my head.

Not a bad plan for a sniffly, blustery November Thursday.  Looks like I should take a lesson today from the fur balls who live their lives with NO intentions!

Allison Adams

www.allisonpadams.com