happy halloween

candy andy

you are what you eat...
as a kid, i just loved to eat candy. as a grown up, i try to pay attention to that and that means not eating junk food like candy. well it is halloween season and candy seems to be everywhere. last night  i ate a bunch of candy before i went to bed and ...stomach ache most of the night. eat bad food and have bad body. ugh. i am what i eat.
please coffee do your trick.

the early bird

i got this quality from my dad...be early. my dad was the guy who got everything done in the morning. i think he liked being out and about getting coffee and the newspaper way before the masses headed out into the world. i am so the same way. i also like to tackle my agenda items before the time that i have scheduled them to be done. for instance, my today's plan was to work with a client from 10-1, do laundry from 1-2:30, and then take yoga class at 3. well at 7:22 i woke up and instead of just closing my eyes and going right back to sleep i thought hey i have time to get the laundry done before i meet my client. now 36 minutes later i am sitting in the laundromat watching the clothes spin around in the washer and am typing this blog. yes, i am even getting my blog in which i scheduled to write later tonight. so what is the motivator behind this behavior? there are a couple reasons. i love deleting items from my calendar and i like the feeling of having open blocks of time. it somehow feels like a stress release...not that laundry and writing a blog necessarily causes stress. it is more that i have things on my calendar that i know i have to do and the more i can conquer earlier in the day, the lighter i feel. so now my must do's for the day - meet client, take yoga class and do some computer stuff associated with work. yep, this is gonna be an excellent day.

a little inspiration

not much to say...thought this was inspiring - yeah, i'm tired

organizing 101

This is one of the easiest tips I have and I pretty much do this task at every home I organize. Grab a garbage bag....make it two. Go into every room and empty EVERY garbage can. While you are at it, in each room that you walk into, if you see anything that can be thrown out...do it! Every room feels lighter once the trash is empty.

where do you work?

i feel conflicted when i think about the state of employment here in sf. the new companies coming in are super cool and exciting.
i have now been to two modern offices - twitter and square. they have so many amenities from coffee bars with barristers to restaurant level cafeterias, to gyms and pools. the work spaces are unique and fun. but in the back of my head i think that the owners are trying to create  an environment that the employees don't go home. i must admit though that i am probably jaded because i work for myself. i like the idea of having 100 percent control of my product. the thought of working for a large company where there are many hands involved with several other hands on the same project - and sometimes that can be as simple as just sending out an email is just not in my thought process. sure it would be fun to take a break from work and be able to walk down the hall to the cereal bar or get a cup of brewed coffee but for me that is all smoke and mirrors. instead i want a strong hand in what the actual work is that is being done.
thankfully, i have super talented friends that are most likely going to be employed at one of the hipster companies and i can benefit vicariously through them.

quick tip

do you think your hair style needs to be changed up a bit but you don't want to spend the money on going to the hair dresser or rather you don't want to risk the "i don't like this style haircut"? here is a quick and easy tip. change the side of your part. i usually do this once every 6 months and instantly i have a new look. i am sporting a new do today. 

happy friday and i hope you have a styling weekend. 

purge

last two days i have been knee deep in kids' stuff. parents have asked me to come and organize their children's rooms. oh my gosh...kids have a lot of crap! by the time i got home tonight i was so exhausted that all i could think about was going to bed. and then...i started looking around my room and before i knew it i was emptying drawers, cleaning out closets and before i knew it i had put together giant bag of items to donate. ahhhh, now i can sleep.
good night.

7:42 pm...

it is 7:42 pm and it is pitch black out. winter is coming. i just saw a christmas tree in an apartment window. how did we go from 80 plus degree weather last week to super cold down coat weather this week? i don't know how i feel about this. dark, cold, shorter days...i'm not ready. 

i think i need to plan a warm weather vacation. hmmm...time for me to search the internet! i'll keep you posted.

ok, now time for me to retreat to my cave. winter is coming and i need to prepare to hibernate. 

the bull

my astrological sign is taurus the bull and i fully embrace it. in my mind i picture ferdinand the bull sitting under a tree looking out at the pasture. that is what i would like to do every day. even though i love what i do, i hate leaving the house in the morning. i stay until it is the very last minute possible before i have to leave. i have that feeling...right now. i have 4 more minutes and then i must put my shoes on, gather my organizing stuff and leave the house. in the back of my head i secretly wish that the client will call and cancel. i know it is silly. once i leave and do my organizing thing i am totally happy. but for right now...i so don't want to go.
ok, 2 minute count down is on.
have a great day.

lookin good

i just looked at my calendar and i have great jobs lined up this week. teaching yoga monday. helping a lady purge her apartment tuesday. organizing a 12 year old's room wednesday. meeting a new client thursday morning. but wait...oh crap...thursday afternoon and all day friday i am working with a strange client. thankfully nicoll is going to help me on the job so will help.
yep, this looks like a pretty good week.

apprehensive

today i am driving down to san carlos to organize a play area for a 4 year old. the mom uses this space also as a home office and a guest area. next week the grandma is visiting from london so the mom wants the place to look nice and neat. now it is not a big space and there is not a lot of stuff so i imagine this job taking me less than an hour. now my apprehension is that there is not much for me to do. silly i know but i don't want them to think "oh we could have done that ourselves". i am playing stupid mind games with myself. i just need to go and do the job and stop worrying what my client will think.
happy sunday.

triggers

Do you have trigger foods? I have heard one friend describe bananas as a trigger food. For some this means then consuming everything in sight. I don't have a trigger food. I have a trigger place. My trigger is Walgreens. Pretty much you could say I go to Walgreens every day. I buy everything from coconut water, to Trident gum,  to health care products to garbage bags for my organizing clients and everything in between. Walking in that store I am also drawn to the sweet (candy) and the savory (chips). Yesterday I went in to pick up a prescription and saw two little girls with their Mom wearing head bands with spiders on them. Yep, it is Halloween time. Instead of going straight to get my prescription instead I started my shopping experience in the seasonal aisle browsing holiday candy. Thankfully I stopped and reminded myself of how hard I worked in TRX class that morning and that I really did not need a Skors bar. I got my prescription and headed out the door.
Oh Walgreens how I love you but for one day I resisted your charms.

guilty treat

once a month i bring in someone to do a deep clean of my house...floors, bathrooms, dusting. i know i can do it but after working all week long organizing people's homes, i just don't have the energy to clean my house. for the most part i keep my place pretty neat and clean so this deep clean just bring things back to that special post-spring cleaning feel. now it does feel strange to sit in my back room while someone else cleans my place. physically there is nothing wrong with me except i just don't want to do it. to add to it, i usually do more cleaning after the person leaves. strange right? it is like the person cleans and then i do the extra bonus stuff.
yep, i am officially a wierdo and i am totally ok embracing my inner weird!

positive feedback

it's amazing what a few encouraging words can do for your inner self. yesterday, i took my regular trx class ( www.trxtrainingcenter.com) and was positioned next to the guy, randy who invented it. anyway, it was day two back after being sick for two weeks. yesterday's class was brutal but having randy next to me helped to motivate me. thankfully, i got through the whole class. that in itself lifted my spirits. and then...randy told me "you are looking strong". yep, play the music. my smile went from ear to ear. i managed to get out a "thank you".
his 4 words made my day.
that's right i am strong. rock on people. rock on.

tonight

i just got back from dominican college in san rafael. i went to see the author elizabeth gilbert discuss her new novel the signature of all things. my main goal was to get the book and have it signed by the author so i could give it as a gift to my sister-in-law regina.
well getting there was a nightmare - traffic, traffic, traffic. what should have been a maximum 45 minute drive took almost 2 hours. so by the time i arrived, the auditorium was packed. i sat in the last row until...i noticed two older ladies come in and just walk straight up to the stage and were seated in a couple seats off to the the side. huh...interesting. so i picked myself up, walked down the aisle, asked the usher if i could do the same and voila i was seated  market VIP seat with a perfect view. and at the end of the lecture i was one of the first 30 people to get my book signed. yeah baby. anyway, the interview was fun, interesting and i learned a few things.
elizabeth was interviewed by a critic from the new york times. i wrote down a few thoughts that i am going to spin around in my head for awhile. here they are:

- not that many novels about women who love their work
- feed your passion and your passion will feed you
- live a full life devoted to your passion
- we get addicted to each others wrongs

and the most important to me...

- people want someone who can say "i have got the way to do that"

this last statement pretty much explains what i do for a living. most of my clients have chaos and clutter and want to know how to get out of it. then i come in and say, "i have got a way to do that". one client once told me that she liked the fact that i had opinions on organizing her home and vocalized it. she said most people are pretty wish washy and i just put it out there.

thanks elizabeth gilbert for the reminder oh and yes thanks for the signed novel!

this blog

i really need to figure out what the heck i am doing with this blog. it kind of has a little bit of everything going on ...some organizing tips, my random thoughts of life and just plain old babble. so what is the purpose of this? i did have an organizing blog attached to my organizing website and that kind of fell by the way side. i also have an organizing page and a yoga page on fb. basically i have a whole lot of on line components but truthfully they are all pretty random.
so what is the purpose of this blog? originally it was just to start getting me to write. and i guess that still is the case but what is my focus? i think it is time for me to narrow this down. hmmm...i think my focus will be "andrea's life observations". then on my two fb pages those can be focused to their specific themes - yoga and organization.
yeah i like it. that works. observations!

growing

i have been tossing around in my mind the idea of growing my business. the number one solution to grow it would be to hire another person. now i have a friend who works with me on occasion but she is looking into going back to the 9-5 work force. currently, i am booked every day through the end of the month and i am still getting calls for more work. this means either they have to wait until i am available or they go with someone else. i am not exactly sure how to go about this. i guess i need to determine how many hours they would work and what is it that i am looking for. eventually i think it would be great to higher specialists in different areas - a tech person to deal with tech clutter, a finance person to help get a client back on track with their bills and finances. you get the idea.
ok, it looks like it is time for me to start doing some research.

time to get up...or is it?

good morning sunday. i am indulging in one of my favorite things to do.
today i have a 9 am appointment to organize a big home. so, what i like to do is set my alarm for 7. i get up, get ready - shower, change, get all my supplies by the door and prepare my coffee. then...i get back into bed and relax for another 90 minutes  - drink my coffee, eat breakfast,  maybe watch previous dvr recordings on tv, check email and basically just enjoy being back in bed. when the time comes, 8:40 today), i just pull back the covers, grab my stuff and walk out the door.
as the song says....i feel good.
have a great day.

i am so off

you know what i hate the most about being sick other than the obvious of being sick?  my routine is so off. i am not exercising. my diet is crap. it sucks. i just ate popcorn and jelly beans. really andrea really? i do better, eat better, live better when i am healthy. but as soon as i am sick i indulge all my crappy habits. it's kind of like, i feel bad so i can do whatever i want. i realize that perhaps that is not the best method to me getting well. huh, maybe that is why i have been sick for almost two weeks.
enough is enough. the crap starts now or well at least by monday.

friday night

don't you just love friday evening? everyone seems in a better mood as compared to say say monday morning. once you have finished your work day, dealt with your commute home then...ahhh bliss. i even have worked scheduled for saturday and sunday but i still have that friday night bliss. i am wearing pjs, cooking a pizza, baking a cake and watching today's episode of ellen. life is good for this gal. oh and i am snuggled in bed at 6:40 pm. sure i am still sick so that is added to the being in bed part. but friday is great. i love you. thank you for showing up today, right here, right now.
cheers.
have a great weekend.

i don't want to do it

i had a boss a while back who told me that the best way to tackle your day is to do the things you don't want to do first. on occasion, i practice this but for the most part those things i don't want to do get pushed down the calendar and often get pushed to another day. today, i just bit the bullet and took care of all those things first. and you know what? it really wasn't that bad. it didn't take me that long. now they are out of the way and i am off to meet some new clients.
thanks terry donahe! that was excellent advice.

client visit

i just met with a woman client for the first time. as soon as i walked in the door of her home, off and running...telling me all the things that are wrong with the house and showing me all the clutter/chaos. what i found is like so many others who feel disorganized. 3 words...too much stuff.
it seems that we live in a time when people's stuff exceed the space they live in. i love the saying, "everything has a place and everything in its place". in this scenario there are not enough places for all the things.
want to get organized? it is plain and simple...GET RID OF THE STUFF!i

de-clutter

went back to work today. i helped a mom organize her home office that she shares with her husband. they have a beautiful home in sonoma. in the house resides mom, dad, one son, two daughters and one dog. the mom is tired of all the clutter in her home and decided to start the attack with the office. like so many of us the bottom line is we just have way too much stuff. i don't know the reason for it but is truly the commonality amongst most of us. we have more things than we will ever need or use. it's kind of crazy. thankfully my client has hit the wall and wants to make change. we emptied out the space of 15 giant trash bags and now it is ready for some productive use.  less is more people...way more.

still down for the count

i would like to say that i am feeling better and well, that would be a lie. i know this because i cancelled all of my work appointments for the day and i am not cleaning up around the house. there's trash in the cans, dishes in the sink, dust on the shelves but i just can't deal. it makes me ponder my clients homes when they turn into a place of physical clutter and chaos. there is a sickness in the house. after i reorganize, de-clutter it is like a prescription to healing. sometimes the sickness gets ahead of us and we can't get ahead of it so we need help. i am so lucky that i can help with that healing. i found from meeting a family yesterday the healing can start by just me listening to my client. they don't feel heard and my listening ear is the start of mending the wound. this is powerful stuff.
ok now back to my own healing...aka time to take a nap.

p.s. i apologize if this post makes no sense. i just don't have the energy to re-read and edit.

sickness continues

still ill...so yoga funny instead.

sick day

not feeling well so i am reading inspirational stories. here is one...

Peace of mind

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. This was in the initial days. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there.”

The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!” So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.”

After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be ... and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water... Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”

What did Buddha emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless.” Having 'peace of mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside. It spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling that peace and grace.

house cat

i got a cat on my lap and she is just purring away. she keeps looking at me with her cute little face and her tail is waving. it is the classic story. she's adopted to add that animal love to the family. well then two kids are born and the cat has been moved to the bottom of the priority list. thankfully gets don't hold grudges or seem to care. but right now this cat is feeling the love.

i have a cold

i have a good old fashioned east coast cold. i don't know, living in california it rarely happens but when i lived in the east it was a common occurrence. so i am taking on some suggestions that i have read from friends on Facebook on best ways to treat the cold. of course fluids, decongestants, but the trick i have heard forever about and never done ...slather vicks vapor rub on feet and then put on cozy fleeze socks. my feet do feel tingly. i so hope this works. i don't feel like being sick. i am not in my own home and i still have two more days of fun visiting with people.
time for bed to knock this cold out.
good night.

yuck

i am now all tucked in bed at my friends liz and anthony's home. i am sleeping in their daughter poet's bed. that means i am looking at a fairy princess tent, a baby doll in a crib and a panda pillow staring at me. yes, poet is a little girl. i am super tired and want to go to sleep but you know me and my goals...gotta get my daily blog in for the day. so what to write about? i don't know. how about random thoughts?
elizabeth gilbert's new book just came out. she is the author of the book eat, pray, love. 13 years later she has written a novel. it's getting great reviews. i'd like to read it but i already have so many other books on my kindle that i have to read first.
i am sniffling. think i caught a cold from my mom. not too pleased about that. hoping my exercise routine tomorrow knocks it out.
and of course now other thoughts are coming to me but i am just too tired. time to crash. sorry. hopefully tomorrow i will be a little more clear headed to write. over and out.