Saturday, April 21, 2012

Happy Earth Day

Today is Earth Day! This is supposed to be a day when we recognize the earth and all that it gives us. I think this is a great idea. Today, I want to go for a nice long walk and just get immersed in God's beauty again.

I wrote a poem today called, "Oh Earth ... Oh God ... A Poem About Earth Day." It's about taking advantage of the things that God gave us on this earth, and being grateful. Our earth is messed up but I think the answer lies in turning back to the one that created in the first place. I am "preaching" to myself, most of all. So often I worry about the problems and forget to thank God for the gifts. 

Sometimes (often) I get so caught with writing that I forget to take the time to actually enjoy all that I have been blessed with. Writing is a profession where you are not moving. You are sitting. And while you write about amazing things, you can't forget to do amazing things. To me, that's a balance I haven't found as of yet.

What about you? Do you feel your life is a good balance between the doing and the "talking about doing?" If so, what do you do to achieve this balance?



Thursday, April 19, 2012

Organizing Inspiration -- What Inspires You?

I love to read organizing and cleaning blogs. I need the inspiration! I recently wrote an article for Hubpages outlining my favourite organizing blogs. If you like, check some of these women out. They are amazing, and I would consider them to be my mentors when it comes to all things domestic.

Here's the list! If you want to read more about each, check out The Best Cleaning and Organizing Blogs to Read.

  1. Clean Mama
  2. I'm An Organizing Junkie
  3. Clutter Busting With Brooks Palmer
  4. I Heart Organizing
  5. Clutter Clearing
  6. Clutter Bug

Another awesome place to find inspiration is Pinterest. Are you on Pinterest yet? If you aren't, send me your e-mail and I will definitely send you an invitation. Pinterest is like one big inspiration board where you can "pin" things that you like -- books, crafts, decor ideas -- whatever you like. The only stipulation is that it has to be an image, in order to pin it.

Just to give you an example, I will show you a couple things I pinned lately on Pinterest. These are ones that I pinned unto my Storage and Organizational Inspiration Board: 

First, an idea for storing small items. This is paper clips but it could be hair elastics, or safety pins. Can you think of anything else small to go in these? Love this idea! This is from Apartment Therapy (link is always below the image.)



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And here is another one I found for storing earrings. I always have a hard time storing my earring, and always lose them, so I love this idea. It's a rain gutter guard from Lowes, or probably any home improvement store. I've never bought a rain gutter guard but for $2.97, I can start!



And one more cool thing. This is one is so easy I think I might actually do it. It just involves buying an ice cube tray at the Dollar Store. Again, for organizing small stuff. Here it is:



Isn't that cool? So, what blogs or other things inspire you in keeping the house clean and organized?

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Hubpages 30 Hub Challenge is Very Challenging!

This month, April, I am attempting the famous 30 Day Challenge at Hubpages. This is a challenge where we try to write 30 hubs (or articles) in 30 days. Now, this is harder than it sounds.
My Mom -- circa 1968

Writing a hub is a little different than just straight text. It usually involves finding photos, sometimes videos and other modules. You want to make sure all  your facts are accurate and that you make sense. So, I find it takes me a while! I am trying to become a faster writer, though, and did some research on the topic.

My favourite article on how to write faster is written by Patty Inglish on Hubpages. She gives some really good tips that I have been trying to incorporate in my practice, including doing all the research for a piece beforehand, doing an outline and getting that into your capsules and also finding the pictures first. That way, when you are ready, you can just sit down and write. I have found this to be faster for me.

So far, I have written 12 hubs in 18 days, so I am quite a bit behind right now. A good thing about this challenge is that I am cleaning up my INTENSIVE list of unfinished hubs. I finished this one about my Mother that I had actually started last year but never finished. It was so good to get that one done. It is a personal hub, in honour of my Mother.

Well, I have 18 hubs left for this challenge and quite a few half-finished hubs waiting for my attention. This challenge is truly challenging me to write faster and push myself.  If you are interested in writing for Hubpages, it is free to sign up and lots of fun.

Do you have a time when you felt pushed to write more and better? What inspired you to improve your skills as a writer?


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Hospital Refusing To Hire Heavy Women

Today, I am going to have  a "Beautiful Wednesday," post, although I am not sure if Blogger might recognize this as Thursday, instead.  This is about body acceptance and image.

Did anyone read about that hospital in Texas that is refusing to hire fat people? Wow, talk about making overweight people feel like second class. I think it's horrendous, and what makes it even worse is all of the comments that people are leaving on various sites. People are actually agreeing with this.

I first read this on Digg, a social sharing site, and I felt violated just reading about it. Professionals who spent thousands of dollars on their education and years gaining relevant experience, can suddenly be excluded because of their appearance. And the reason given? It offends the older patients!

Wow. Didn't we go through this with women in the 60's, and decide it was illegal to discriminate because of appearance. Why is it illegal for visible minorities by colour, to be excluded, but not visible minorities by body type. I hope someone files a lawsuit, and but fast.

This was hurtful to me, too, because it made me aware, once again, of the invisible prejudice that really seems to exist out there towards heavier women. It's there and it's wrong.

What do you think? Did you hear about this incident? What was your reaction? 

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Interact Media Review -- Updated

The main place that I write now, other than revenues-sharing sites, is called Interact Media. I really enjoy writing for this site. Interact Media is a place where companies ask for blog posts, one at at time. 

Photo by Mantasmagoria, via MorgueFile
As a writer, you then have the opportunity to choose to write this content, within a certain deadline of one or two days, depending on the length of the piece.

I like it because the work is varied, the pay is not bad, depending on which pieces you choose, and the clients that I have worked with seem quite reasonable. So far, I have written about furnaces, city events and a few other things.

To write here, you have to pass their writing test. From the test results, you are given a writing rank of 1-5 stars. I am a four-star writer. I would encourage anyone to apply who is looking for a place to write for cash. The payments are done through PayPal two times a month. They have always been good about paying me.

Note, written December 15, 2015: I am much more hesitant to recommend Interact Media as a place to write these days, because the pay is so low. There are many listings for 0.7 a word. 

From what I have heard, the only way to make decent money is to get some direct assignments from clients themselves, instead of taking jobs from the job board. This is do-able, but I believe it would take a while to build up to that point.

If you are looking for some quick money, the Interact job board may be okay for a little while, but I now recommend finding some good-paying clients that will allow you to have a sustainable business. If you do work for Interact Media, try to get direct clients who request you. These should pay a lot more. 

An excellent resource is the Freelance Writer's Den. I am a member now, and am really learning about what it takes to be a freelance writer. (This is an affiliate link.)

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Beautiful Journal Choices

I wanted to share my latest article from Hubpages. I wrote about journals that are beautiful and luscious. I have always loved journals; like most writers a new journal is an extremely pleasurable experience. I was amazed at how many absolutely beautiful books are out there, and it was so great to share them.

It's funny how many journals I go through in a year. I have dozens of these diaries from over the years. Many times, they kept me sane in difficult situations and allowed me to vent when I needed to vent the most. Other books were just for listing things or recording things. I find I can never have enough notebooks and my challenge is finding a way to keep them organized.

I had an interesting comment on the article where a reader said that she felt a conflict when getting a beautiful journal because it felt too lovely to write in.

How about you? Have you ever left a notebook in the cupboard, saving it for a better day?

Here are some of my most beautiful finds, all from the elegant Punch Studio Design Studio: