I love what I do and today I am really loving being a nonprofit ninja!

Why?  Read on.

Did you know how powerful the nonprofit sector is?

Nonprofits in the U.S. generate $1.1 trillion every year, which is more than the entire economies of Saudi Arabia and Sweden combined.

Here’s a great piece of video from Philanthropy Reports to play the next time you need to let someone know you mean business.  Big business.

I saw this on a recent post by Adam Huttler of Fractured Atlas who I always enjoy reading.  Now, if we rethink our organizations as businesses, we need to recreate ourselves as CEOs.  What does a CEO do?  Funny you should ask!  Fred Wilson, who writes about venture capital and technology addressed this topic with three no nonsense answers:

A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.

Ninja/CEO

Takes multitasking to a new level.  Actually, in my mind it is all about balance.  Which is why the slash intrigues me the most.

I am open to suggestions about what you think a CEO does.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Ivory leather lace up with polka dot sole

Why should Nicholas Kirkwood have all the fun?

He is, of course, wildly inventive and his shoes for the Rodarte collection featuring the famous candle drip heels only affirm his genius for creating desire in a 5 inch heel.  Since my shoe art class,  I have been obsessed with the idea of designing shoes that can convey not only me – but can also confer power and magnetism.  Shoes that elevate you off the earth can also bring you closer to the stars.

I ask you, why walk when you can move heaven and earth?  How can you change the world unless you change your perspective?  Elevate your worldview in a stacked heel.  Reward those second looks with a painted sole.  Stride rhymes with pride, move accordingly.

Mustard suede with a stitched heel and blue sole

Once I realized I could make my own fabulous shoes, there was no going back.  I cannot trust my stature to the store bought.  I feel strangely connected with Q from the James Bond movies, you know, the white haired genius who creates all of those cool spy gadgets for 007.  I design shoes to serve uniquely different moments and purposes.

So, these shoes I am designing in my head are designed for specific Wow! moments such as:

• Sitting as a panelist in front of a group of people, painted soles visible.
• Striding into a stunning arts event.  Add drink, mingle.
• Lobbying.  Actually walking through lobbies en route to meetings in government buildings where the dictatorship of nondescript greys, blues and other nicht so fabelhaft colors reigns.
• Setting off that little black dress that Every Woman in New York  owns and wears.

Are you passionate about what you do?

Walk this way.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

if you liked this

• Wow! Making Your Own Shoes on Channel 7
• My Beautiful Handmade Shoes
• What My Shoes Know: A Style Note for You
• You, Yes You, You are an Artist
• She Wolves in Shaved Soles

Eddy, Sky & Rob at the Beach 129th Street Block Party

We lived on Beach 129th Street upstairs from Sophie and her family before we bought our house on Beach 124th Street.

Our kids grew up with her kids.  The Laczynski kids and the Krakauer kids.  Somehow we were all family, all Polish – even me, and all Rockaway through and through.  Although we don’t live on there anymore, we are still part of the annual block party in August.

Beach 124th Street

Anyone who is anyone on Beach 124th Street will be parked on the beach under their own personalized beach umbrella.  I can catch up with everyone on the block, have pizza delivered from the boardwalk and feed all the kids, and even leave all my stuff and walk home to start dinner.

I have lived in this beach community for over twenty years and to some locals I will always be “the new girl”.  But I too, have sand in my shoes all year round and share a fierce pride in wearing my flip flops way into December to show how beach proud I am.

This is a small town in the sense that friends and neighbors don’t move away.  Seth’s family and our neighbor Mrs. Murray, the crossing guard, have known each other for close to four generations.  My kids have friends they have known since they were 18 months old.

I feel grounded here with a sense of place and identity.  One generation ago, my parents left that sense behind them when they stepped foot into this country and slowly recreated a life for themselves and for us, their children.  Perhaps the pragmatic approach to living should be the acceptance of place as something you create for yourself no matter where you are.  Place then becomes internal.  It can be projected outwardly with your personal energy which inevitably influences your immediate environment.   I am very aware of what I bring to the everydayness of my Rockaway life and consider it a privilege as well as a responsibility to honor my place here.

So, every morning that I drag myself out of bed to run on the beach I think to myself,  “You are in your beautiful space.  Enjoy the sunrise you are so fortunate to see.”

Where do you belong?  Where is your beautiful space?

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

if you liked this

• Breezy Point on Bicycles
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• The Network Ninja of Rockaway Beach
• A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives #1
• Do People Like to Talk to You?

Common wisdom says, “Mind over matter.”

Now exactly what is that supposed mean when we are talking about artful living, the goal of the next step of the Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives?

How do you live artfully?  If your brain is artful, does that make your body artful too?  What does that look like?

So glad you are asking such fei cheong (Cantonese for extremely) fabelhaft (German for fabulous) questions.  There is absolutely an art to living well and the key to that is creating a healthy lifestyle mindset.  Without the right attitude and behavior, diet and exercise are a dreary duo to live with.  If you feel like you’re running on empty energywise and inspirationwise, here are some simple ways to follow:

8 Live artfully

- the next step in the plan.

Drink water in style

Toast your day with a glass of water in the morning.  Continue throughout the day to prevent dehydration which causes fatigue.  I like to drink water in a fancy glass with ice and a slice of lemon.  It creates the illusion that I am having a cocktail and it fools my system into thinking it is full.

Imbibe an infusion

Fancy schmancy way to say “drink tea”.  However, it is a well known fact that chamomile will soothe you, jasmine increases beta waves, which make you more awake and alert and peppermint will aid in digestion.  There are many herbal teas with a multitude of benefits.    Enjoy a cup after a meal and before going to sleep.

Embrace exercise

Burn calories!  Daily exercise, whether you are running 5 miles a day like yours truly,  taking the stairs whenever you can or walking, increases your muscle tone, diminishes your appetite and brings a tremendous sense of accomplishment.  You try getting out of bed at some unGodly hour to be out running by 5:00 am and see if you don’t feel like you’ve done something.  Trust me, your body will love you for it.

Listen to your food

Stick to foods that are good for you, eat reasonable portions, finish eating dinner early.  Balance your food intake so that your body does not have to work so hard to break it down especially later in the day.  If you feel your creative energy ebbing away, especially between three and five when most people feel a need for a doughnut and coffee, go for popcorn or a piece of fruit.  Remember what they say about databases is true for diets;  garbage in, garbage out.

OK, all of you Restless Creatives who are jumping on board, here are the steps you missed:

1 Get over yourself

2 Get off the grid

3 Get local

4 Bring on color

5 Avoid vampires

6 Read like a writer

7 Stop the frenzy

And for the rest of you, just remember, today is the first day of the rest of your body.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

a notions store on 39th Street

These last few summer days are kite-tailing into September with cool backhanded breezes and I am tangled in my lists of summer reading, new marinades to concoct, my next knitting project.  Letting me loose in the garment district with time on my hands can only mean more stuff, less closet space for Seth, and even more designs for artful living.  But as I headed home, I began feeling that there is so much more on my list that I haven’t done.

Did I have a full summer experience? When am I going to take surfing lessons? There’s still so much sunblock!

What about you? Are you angsting over your late summer goals? I hope it isn’t just me.

I wrote a post a while ago about doing less with more, something I believe in deeply. You can check out my video on the art of doing less, too. While this may seem at odds with me frantically waving a fistful of lists, it really isn’t. Doing less of what is not important and doing only what is always results in a short list. Now if you do things in a way that yields double results, you really win! Here are a few examples from my not so short list:

Lose weight, gain closet space.
Clean closets, gain space.
Write 2 posts instead of one.
Say no, hear yes.
Hear no, see opportunity.
Accept the invite, write the thank you.
Write when you’re up, rote when you’re down.

Adapt excellent design, become adept.

Speaking of getting things done, here is Gideon Shalwick in a video about productivity that I like very much for his way of simplifying priorities for multiple projects without freaking out about having the perfect shiny tools to do so.

I read a great opening line for a recipe remake by Amanda Hesser.  Can’t remember what the recipe was for but here’s what she wrote, more or less:

“Trends arise not from inspiration but from indignation.”

For me, the following adaption really nails it:

“Artful living arises not from inspiration but from indignation”

Is that great or what?  I find myself in a state of indignation most of the time, when it comes to well thought out life design.

Are you indignant, inspired?  If so, I am asking for your suggestions to add to my short list.  Do you have a creative way to live artfully?

Please let me know!

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

if you liked this

• A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives #8
• A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives #7
• A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives #6
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