How To Write a Better Goals List

This time of year, a lot of us talk about and contemplate a list of all the things we're going to do in the new year. We often freely toss in tons of things onto our list, unrealistically thinking we can accomplish them all, and we declare new year's resolutions that often end up being empty promises to ourselves, which we don't follow through on and later make us feel like failures.

An article by Martha Beck* and a video by Marie Forleo, recently left me inspired about how to write a better list of goals.  How to (1) clear out the things from our lists that waste our time and drain our energy, (2) add in the things that nourish us and make us feel fulfilled and content, and (3) make our goals happen. Below is a summary of tips I learned from them.

Edit down your list by scratching these things off : 

• Things that aren't spiritually profitable - things that won't feed your soul
• Things that, for the most part, are just to feed your ego
• Things that revolve around toxic relationships
• If it's a business goal, projects that don't make sense financially

Filter Questions to Edit Your List:

Does this goal make me feel joy and excitement?

Do I want to experience the activities involved in this goal, whether or not I achieve the milestones associated with it?

Do I want to do this to feel superiority toward people who haven't done this thing?

Do I want to have this experience even if no one else would ever know I had?

Would I be thrilled to do this even if everyone thought it was weird or stupid?

Does this goal involve trying to change something that can't be changed?

Am I leaving out certain things from my list because they aren't socially considered as "important things"? What things am I leaving out because I feel guilty, like I'm not allowed to have/experience/achieve them?

What little things could add more joy to my everyday?

What things can I do to be more appreciative, present and purposeful?

What business projects will be both spiritually and financially profitable?

Making it happen

Schedule it!  Things will just be empty promises if you don't take action towards them. Make a plan by listing the actionable steps of each goal and scheduling the first steps. This will create momentum.

What do you think? Do you find these tips helpful?

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Image above: home of Anna Liesemeyer, photograph by Chelsey Heidorn

*Article referenced is: "To-Do List, or Not-to-Do List" as seen on page 45 of the November 2013 issue of Oprah Magazine

Round-up: Stylish 2014 Planners, Diaries and Agendas

Do you use a paper planner?  While I use an electronic organizer to manage my daily to-do's (more on that later!), I like to use a paper planner to jot down workroom weekly notes for my biz, and another one as a health and wellness diary. If you haven't gotten your 2014 planner yet, check out my round-up below of the most stylish ones out there:

1- Black Stripe Day Designer, 2- White Gold Metallic Leather Desk Diary, 3- Parisian Chic Weekly Planner, 4- Luggage Robinson Agenda, 5- Classic Kraft Planner, 6- Leopard Desktop momAgenda, 7- Blush Buffalo Diary, 8- Pink Postman's Lock Pocket Book, 9- Black Perfect Bound Planning Calendar, 10- Gold Mini Three-Ring Binder for use with -> 11- Weekly Planner Sheets, 12- Dove Grey 2014 Fashion Diary, 13- Peach Leather Diary, 14- Red 12M Planner Daily, 15- Silver Gunmetal Tab Jacket for use with -> 2014 Planning Diary

Travel Tips

With the holiday travel season upon us, I thought I'd share with you a few travel tips I've learned, including some from our most recent trip to San Francisco (pics here). Hope any of you who will be jetting off soon find them useful!

the view from my airplane seat, arriving to San Francisco

Accommodations

Instead of booking a hotel for our trip to San Francisco, we used the website Airbnb to find a place to stay per the recommendation of one of my husband's co-workers.  Through the site, we found a cute apartment in a great location and paid less than we would have for a hotel. This was our first time using a site like this and because we had a good experience, we will probably use it again for future trips.

Luggage

Suitcases with four-wheels, a.k.a. spinners, are awesome. When I was in college I worked at a Samsonite store one summer and learned about all the different types of luggage. Ever since then, I told myself that the next time I was in the market for luggage, I would for sure get one with four wheels.  I ended up getting a hardcase spinner and loved it.  So much less annoying to travel with than those with two wheels.  A four wheeler can be pushed alongside you instead of having to drag it behind you, and it doesn't topple over when left standing. Check outlet stores and discount stores like Marshalls, Ross and TJ Maxx for good deals.

Things to Take

Checklists are a great way to make sure you pack all the essentials.  Ideally write one out a few days in advance. Doing this will allow you the time to add to the list additional random things that will inevitably come to mind later on. With checklist in hand, come the day before your trip, you won't be worrying that you're forgetting something.

Clothes & Accessories

Stick to a color palette and bring pieces that coordinate well with each other allowing you the option to mix and match. If possible, wear your bulkiest items on the plane so that they don't have to take up valuable suitcase space.

what I packed for my trip to San Francisco this past weekend 

Cash

Don't forget to bring cash! I'm so used to using my debit and credit cards on a day-to-day basis that I forget that when I'm outside of my normal routine/area, there may be cases in which I need to pay with cash.  While traveling, $1 bills come in handy for things like tipping and riding on public transportation.

Water Bottle

While you can't bring water with you past the security check to carry on, you can bring an empty bottle with a built-in filter that you can use at the airport, and anywhere else you go during your trip.  Do this and you won't have to spend money on overpriced water.

Snacks

While waiting to board the airplane to head back home from San Fran, I was hungry and ended up buying overpriced not-so-good-for-you snacks to stave off hunger.  Needless to say I wish I had brought more snacks along with me.  Raw almonds, trail mix, and apple chips, are a few favorite healthy options I'll be taking along with me on my next trip.

Flight Delays and Cancellations

Keep your eye on your flight status. Ours was supposedly going to be delayed 2 and a half hours and so we went to go eat breakfast.  It ended up being cancelled and had my husband not been keeping an eye on it, we would not have known and may have likely missed an opportunity to rebook on the next earliest available flight.

If your flight gets cancelled and the next flight is fully booked, book what you can and while you're waiting, hang out at the gate of the flight you'd like to get on. While we were waiting for our 11am SF flight, my husband and I hung out at the gate of the 10am SF flight. We sat close to the boarding area and service desk. After everyone boarded, the guy at the service desk came over and asked if we were on the 11am flight, said they had a few seats available on the 10am, and if we'd prefer to get on that flight.  Yeeessss!

Getting Around

When we weren't walking or taking public transportation, we used a taxi to get around the city. The app Uber made getting one super easy.  It detects your location and allows you to request a taxi (or fancier car) to pick you up within minutes.  You pay with your credit card through the app, so you don't have to stress if you're not carrying cash.

Hope you found these tips useful. If you have any travel tips of your own you'd like to share, please share them in the comments section below!

*In case you're wondering, Airbnb and Uber did not pay me to include them in this post. 

Inspired By: Blue Print

While reading the Domaine feature on Cynthia Collins, I learned that aside from being an interior designer, she is also co-owner of Blue Print - a store in Uptown Dallas.  I clicked on over to the store website and immediately fell in love.  They sell handpicked antiques, original artwork, accessories, and high-end furniture, all inside a really charming and architecturally beautiful old home:

They do such a beautiful job with styling:

If I ever go to Dallas, I'd love to visit the store. Looks like such an inspiring place!

All photos via Blue Print Store

Cynthia Collins Home Tour

So delighted that our Raja Embroidery pillow was featured in Domaine Home as part of the 'Get the Look' portion of their post on interior designer Cynthia Collins' home tour. Cynthia's home is absolutely beautiful and her design aesthetic definitely resonates with me.  Each space is bright and airy, yet cozy, with just the right dose of color.

Photographs: Courtesy of Collins Interiors

A Glamorous Dressing Room

Absolutely loving this beautifully organized dressing room from the home of Rita Hazan:

 Shoes are neatly arranged on white open shelves (from Ikea!) and beauty essentials are on a glamorous mirrored vanity

A stylish modern black platter helps keep things organized.

 Such much goodness here - the big window with floor to ceiling drapes, the tufted daybead, the unique gold wall studs, the brass glass pendant...

A patterned tray corrals jewelry and pretty objects.

See more of Rita's home here. 

photography by Brittany Ambridge and design by Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent

Two Ideas for Organizing Clutches

Hold them in a lucite tray, like Kelly....

or file them in an acrylic letter sorter, like Mackenzie...

Both great ways to keep clutches beautifully organized!

Stress Free Weekly Dinner Planning

I previously wrote a post on how I plan dinners for the week.   Since writing that post, I've added an extra element to my little system, that has made dinner planning even easier. I was finding that on busy weeks when my husband and I had limited time to actually sit down to think through what we wanted to eat that week, browse through cookbooks, online recipes, etc., we would end up just rushing to come up with ideas last minute on Monday mornings right before heading off to the grocery store. This would often result in us just deciding on the same few go-to meals over and over since those were what we could think of off the top of our heads.

To add variety and help make things as stress free and easy as possible, I decided to take the time one day to list out as many dinners as I could think of that we know how to make and love, as well as a few new ones we've been wanting to try out.  I then typed them all into a business card template (one dinner per box) and printed them on business card paper (I used this because it had a nice decorative border).  Once I had everything printed out, I grouped the dinner cards by category (photo above left) and used little post-it tabs to create category dividers.  I put all the cards in a business card holder (photo above middle), which I adhered strong magnets to the back of (photo above right), so I could stick it up on our fridge - a convenient accessible spot that's right next to the pantry where we keep our dinner planner sheets.

So now, when it comes to deciding what we want to make for dinner on any given week, we can grab the cards, quickly look through them and choose one (or two) card(s) for each day. Once we've picked our cards, I fill in a dinner planner sheet with all the ingredients I need to shop for, and then stick up the cards up on our magnetic weekly board. If we change our minds in regards to which dinner we'll make on what day (which often happens), we can easily move the cards around without having to erase and re-write things on the board like we used to.

There are several things I like about this routine. It makes deciding what to make quick and easy so it doesn't feel like a chore.  It eliminates the dreaded "what should we do for dinner?" question. It helps us eat more healthfully since when we have our dinners planned out and all the ingredients on hand, we're less likely to order take out.  It prevents multiple last minute trips to the market, so it saves us time. It helps us avoid getting into a dinner rut by putting into rotation all the dinners we know how to make and love - not just the ones that seem to come to mind most easily.

It does take some effort to set things up, but once you have a system in place, and you use it a couple of times, it'll become habit and you'll find that it makes life a bit easier. For anyone thinking of setting up something similar, here's a list of what you'll need:

• Magnetic board with the days of the week - the one I have in my home is this one by Three By Three Seattle
• Magnets
• Several copies of the Dinner Planner (free printable!)
• Something to hold and store the planning sheets in a convenient spot - I have a transparent pocket adhered to the inside of my pantry door.
• Business card paper to make the dinner cards - index cards folded and cut in half would also work well
• Filing tabs to label and separate your categories
• A business card holder to hold your dinner cards - if you'll be adding magnets to it like I did to stick it up on the fridge, be sure to get one that has a flat (non-slanted) back

Tips:

• For recipes you don't know off the top of your head how to make, include a note of where you found the recipe on the card (for example, the name of the cookbook and the page). That way, you can easily find it the day-of.  You can also write on the back of the card the key ingredients for that recipe that you don't usually keep on hand so that you can easily and quickly fill in your dinner planner/shopping list.

• Keep a few blank cards on hand for adding new recipes

• If you usually go to more than one grocery store each week like I do, when writing out your shopping list, use different colored pens for each store.  In the dinner planner shown in the photo above for example, I used an orange pen to write ingredients I wanted to get at Trader Joes and a purple pen to write the ingredients I wanted to get at Ralphs.  So when I was at Trader Joes, I just had to focus on the items in orange, and when I was at Ralphs, I just had to focus on the items in purple. I was able to go in and out of each store quickly.

• Choose a convenient day of the week that you can integrate dinner planning into your routine.  For me it's Sunday so I have my list ready for when I go grocery shopping Monday morning.

To follow the system:

1.  Browse through your dinner cards and pick out a card (or two) for each day of the week that you plan to cook at home

2.  Fill in the dinner planner sheet.  Dinners go in the furthest left hand column then ingredients you need to shop for go in the appropriate columns to the right (Produce, Dairy & Refrigerated, etc).

3.  Stick your dinner cards for the week up on your magnetic board.  Assign a card to each day keeping in mind you can always easily move them around later if you want.

4. Grab your dinner planner sheet and go shopping.  Note that the columns on the sheet correspond to the aisles of most grocery stores, making it easy to shop down each column.

5.  Feel good knowing you're prepared for the week!

Let me know if you give this a try. Hopefully I explained things well enough. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section below.

This post was brought to you by Office Depot.  All thoughts, ideas, and opinions expressed here are my own. Thank you for supporting Arianna Belle sponsors!

Chic Leather Storage Tote Baskets

Two recent finds for stylish organization:

gildem Leather Storage Tote 

byAMT Leather Strap Large Basket

Perfect for holding current reading material like books and magazines and stylish enough to integrate into the decor of a space. Can't decide which one I like best!

My Stylishly Organized Drawer

I recently gave one of my drawers a little makeover with a clear organizer and a roll of duct tape. I used the organizer, which I picked up from Ikea, to separate all my items. It has lots of little compartments that make it easy to designate a spot for each thing. When everything is in it's place, I can quickly find what I need.

As for the duct tape, I used it to create a stylish drawer liner.  3M has a great snake print tape from their new Expressions line that can be used in a lot of creative ways.  Kelly of Fabulous K recently used it to cover a photo frame and Megan of Honey We're Home used it to cover a mousepad and a tray.  To make my drawer liner, I simply measured the bottom of my drawer, cut a piece of poster board to size, covered it with strips of the duct tape and then fit it inside the drawer. Super easy. Looks great and as a bonus, it helps protect my drawer.  If anything spills, I can easily wipe it off. This is what I see when I open my drawer now:

What do you think? Not too shabby huh?

If you're thinking of using snake print tape for a little project of your own, use this coupon for $1 off.

This post was brought to you by Office Depot.  All thoughts, ideas, and opinions expressed here are my own. Thank you for supporting Arianna Belle sponsors!  

How I Organize My Magazine Clippings

Even though there's undoubtedly an abundance of inspiration and information available via digital magazines, blogs, and Pinterest, which I all love, I still very much enjoy receiving printed magazines in the mail that I can physically flip through and rip pages out of, while settled in a comfy seat with a big cup of coffee in hand.  It's a relaxing treat at the end of the day.

As much as I love printed magazines though, I don't like the physical clutter they can create. If you're like me and have several subscriptions, you know how easily and quickly magazine piles can grow and get out of hand if you don't periodically toss them or do something to tame and organize them.

Today I thought I'd share with you my system for keeping my magazine collection in check. While I do keep some magazines in their entirety and treat them as books because they're filled with a lot of visually rich and inspiring content all throughout, what I try to do with most magazines is selectively rip out the pages I want to keep, and organize those pages into binders.

A few of my magazine clippings binders made pretty with simple matching covers

As I'm reading through a new issue, as soon as I identify content I'd like to save, I rip out the page.  It may be an article that I found informational and want to reference in the future, or a city guide for a place that I'd like to visit, or an image with a beautiful color story that I find inspiring. I set aside the pages I've ripped out and (temporarily) put them in what I've designated as a magazine clippings box, because lets be honest, most of the time after reading a magazine, I'm in relax mode, not in organizing mode.

When I'm in the mood, usually on a different day, maybe while watching TV or something, I'll take my magazine clippings and separate them out into the following categories:

Action - things to buy, recipes to try this week, sites to bookmark, etc.

Business - advice, resources and inspiration for my biz

Cleaning & Home Improvement - how to's, tips, guides, reviews for appliances and other home products I don't need or can't afford right now but possibly will later, etc.

Decor - inspiration, products, guides

Dream Home Inspiration - home ideas that I absolutely positively love and dream of  incorporating into my future home

Entertaining - tablescapes, ideas for the holidays, etc.

Fashion - outfit ideas, guides

Food - recipes, cooking tips

Hair & Beauty - ideas and guides

Health & Fitness - informational articles, guides, how to's

Organization - inspiration, ideas, products

Travel - interesting places I'd like to check out, city guides, travel tips

Someday Maybe - projects I might want to try sometime, book lists, movies I'd like to watch, etc.

Wisdom - articles regarding balance, happiness, spirituality, perspective etc. (helpful for getting out of a funk or getting through a depressing time)

With the exception of the Action category, which I have a tray for near my desk (more on my office trays later), I created a binder for all my categories. Each binder is filled with clear sheet protectors and tabbed dividers (for sub-categorizing).  To organize the magazine clippings, I simply put each into a sheet protector in the appropriate binder and under the corresponding sub-category.

My Travel binder with clear tab dividers labeled with sub-categories: Local, Weekend Getaways, National, International, Travel Tips

Here are my tips for anyone who may be interested in doing something similar:

-Go through one or two issues of each magazine you subscribe to, and take a look at the pages you've torn out to help you come up with your binder categories

-Assess your needs before going out to buy supplies.  I personally go through a lot of magazines and tend to tear out a fair amount of pages, so I determined that I needed a separate binder for each category to neatly fit everything in and leave space to add more.  If you're someone who doesn't subscribe to a lot of magazines and/or doesn't tend to tear out that many pages, you may decide you can organize everything into one large binder or maybe combine two or three categories into each binder.  If you need to, you can always expand later.

-Keep in mind also that not all your binders need to be the same size.  Most of mine are 1" but for some categories, like Fashion and Decor, I have 3" binders.

-Make sure you use either extra-wide dividers, or dividers that are specially made for use with sheet protectors (like these). If you get regular dividers, since sheet protectors are wider than regular letter sized paper, you won't be able to see the tabs.

-Label the divider tabs with a label maker for a neater look (if you don't have one yet, I highly recommend getting one, it's so handy!)

-If you want to downsize and organize a collection of back issues you've accumulated over time, do it in batches.  Trying to organize them all at once can be overwhelming.  Plus the process is more fun if you let yourself do it as a leisurely project :-)

*This post was brought to you by the folks at Office Depot.  All thoughts, ideas, and opinions expressed here are my own.  Thank you for supporting Arianna Belle sponsors! 

How to Write a Better To-Do List

I've been reading the book Getting Things Done by David Allen and have enjoyed learning about his approach to productivity.  One of the things from the book that I have started putting into practice and have found useful is to ask myself, "what's the next action?" when adding things to my to-do list.   Here's a look at what a few items on my to-do list would have typically looked like prior to me considering the next action question:

• replace broken steamer piece
• recover sofa chair
• buy file boxes
• get boots fixed

At first glance the to-do's seem fairly straightforward but, when I would look at items like this on my list, for some reason I would find myself resisting them.  They'd often get pushed back and continue to remain incomplete. Why? Mr. Allen explains that most actionable items require some quick thought and planning steps before we can precisely define what has to happen to complete them. Do you need to research something? Gather certain information? Contact someone? He says that the thinking exercise for each item is something that has to happen at some point or another and it's better to complete it early on because "if you haven't identified the next physical action required to kick-start [an item], there will be a psychological gap every time you think about it even vaguely." (pg. 130)

Here's the same list re-written after taking the time to think about the next physical action required for each of my items:

• get model number of steamer for replacement piece
• research fabric options for sofa chair
• measure optimal size for file boxes to go in closet
• research shoe repair places on yelp

In order to replace the broken steamer piece, I have to first get the model number so that I can contact customer service with that information.  Before I can recover my sofa chair, I first have to find the right fabric.  Before I actually go out and buy the file boxes, I need to first measure the space I'm putting them in so I know they'll fit and I'll know what to look for when I'm at the store.  To get my boots fixed, I need to first find a repair place to take them to. The idea is to have all my thinking completed about the steps of an actionable item so that when I have a window of time to get something done, I can use the tools I have (computer, phone, etc.) and the location I'm in (at office, at home, out running errands, etc.) to cross more things off my list, having already defined what exactly there is to do.

To be honest, I don't always write my to-do's this way.  It's a habit I'm trying to develop. Sometimes I'm in a rush and write down something non-specific because I just need to quickly dump things out of my head.  If this happens, I try to look back over my list when I'm not so rushed, and re-write the vague things on my list to make them specific next-action items.

Have any of you read Getting Things Done? I'm working on putting other recommendations from the book into practice and will report back here letting you all know how it goes.

photograph above by Yvonne Bauer of the blog Fraeulein Klein

Stylish Workspace: Sugar Paper

Sugar Paper is a high quality paper goods company started by Chelsea Shukov and Jamie Grobecker 10 years ago.  Late last year they outgrew their original small space and moved their studio to a large warehouse in West LA. These photos give us a peek inside:

Gorgeous right? As a young entrepreneur I find this so inspring.  Perhaps one day I'll get to move my company into a similarly large and beautiful studio :-) Gotta dream big right??

 Photos via 100 Layer Cakelet and Sugar Paper's Instagram Feed

--Another inspiring workspace here.

Living Room Update: Media Storage

Remember the media unit I shared a photo of in this post? Well when we first purchased it, our initial idea was to add two lower drawers for closed storage.  After trying out the drawers though, we didn't like how they looked and opted instead to keep the unit open. That meant though that we had to find alternative options for out of sight storage.

I kept an eye out for stylish boxes and bins and found some at Office Depot that were the perfect size and a lovely creamy neutral color. I went with three box bins for the upper right shelf and two document boxes for the lower left shelf. The bins now hold my husband's Xbox games, controllers, etc. out of sight while keeping them easily accessible.  The boxes hold various card and board games.   Here's how it looks:

Where do you like to store the entertainment stuff you prefer keep out of sight? Is someone in your household a gamer? Where do you store all the games and gadgets?

More home updates to come!

p.s. In case you're wondering, we don't really keep any DVDs in the media unit because most of the movies we watch nowadays are via Netflix, Zune or Blockbuster.

The folks at Office Depot sponsored this post.  All ideas/opinions/thoughts are my own.

Stylish Workspace: Tara Guerard Soiree

It's no surprise that a stylish event planning company like Tara Guerard Soiree, who regularly puts together magazine worthy weddings, has equally magazine worthy offices. Check out the photos below of their clean, tailored and bright workspace:

Sets of matching boxes and binders on custom floor to ceiling shelving provide plenty of storage and help maintain a clean uncluttered look.

An bulletin board above Tara's desk serves as a catchall for photos that inspire ideas.

Large windows flood the conference space with natural sunlight

The tall spacious white table in the central workspace provides a perfect morning meeting spot for the team.

Definitely saving this as inspiration for when my I (hopefully!) have a larger company office space!

photography by Julia Lynn for Lonny

Home Office Decor Update: Greek Key Tray

The newest decor update in my office is a big beautiful tray that Paloma of La Dolce Vita recently sent over from her Joy & Revelry shop for a White Box Challenge. I decided to put the tray on the surface of my Expedit shelving, which I have right behind my desk, along the back wall.  It has been great for containing things that I like to have within arms reach but off my desk.  Here's a look:

Things tend to look neater and more stylish when corralled within a tray, wouldn't you agree?

If you haven't already, be sure to check out Paloma's shop, and to get 10% off, use code LDV_WHITEBOX_10.

Hunting for a New Lighting Fixture

The dining room is one of the spaces I've neglected in our home and is in need of a little attention.  It's a small little space that is open to the living room.  Since moving in, all we've done is bring in the clear chairs we had from our previous home, a white tulip table, and white curtains. The owners of the home (we're renters) left their chandelier and we've left it up because, well, it's functional. It's not really our style though and I've been itching to change it out.

I've been keeping an eye out for light fixtures that I like (and aren't ridiculously expensive). Below is a round-up of what I've found so far.  Some of them aren't right for the space but thought they were worth sharing here, for any of you out there who may also be on the hunt for the right light fixture.

1- Five Arm Chandelier, 2- Marmont Pendant, 3- Brass Pendant, 4- Modern Pendant Light, 5- Brass and Glass Globe Pendant

#1 is beautiful but it's probably a bit too fancy for our home. #2 has a fun vibe to it, though I'm not sure if it would emit sufficient light. #3 is a strong contender - I love it's simple elegance. #4 is clean, simple and my husband's favorite. There's also this one, which is similar and I like.  #5 is really cool and I love that it's handmade by a fellow small business owner.  It's also the most budget friendly. Given the current chairs we have though, bringing this in would probably be too many clear elements in the space. Perhaps if I got new chairs... (haha I wish! ...not in the budget right now)

If you happen to come across a light fixture you think I'd like and is reasonably priced, feel free to send it my way. I'm open to options.