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Posts Tagged ‘Style Notes’
My inner Buddha is fahrklempt!
I am on a voyage to space, the final frontier – in my closet. What I crave to have in my possession is space. Less stuff, less options, less stress.
I have to tell you about this fabelhaft challenge I just discovered:
Can you live with just six things in your closet for 30 days? Lingerie and shoes not included.
Some people who have attempted this have stumbled upon some surprising insights. One woman was delighted to realize that she really didn’t need everything in her closet. Another woman was slightly annoyed that her husband didn’t even notice she was wearing the same six pieces for 30 days. I liked the guy who found a creative approach to the challenge – reversible shorts!
As you know, I am all about less so this sort of lifestyle overhaul is just the kind of thing I was looking for. I especially like the forgiveness clause about shoes. But really, think about what this can reveal about you, your relationship with your stuff and your buying habits.
How much of what you own owns you?
What six things are important to you?
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?
A version of this post appeared on the Queens Council on the Arts blog.
One of my favorite quotes in the world is by Agatha Christie who said,
“Conversation reveals all”
And she should know.
The Grande Dame of Whodunit has built an empire of mystery novels of assorted murderers, scoundrels and thieves who have been undone by conversation.
I prefer to keep company with other types of people less deadly but just as fascinating. For me, the best place to do this and to have a conversation is over lunch.
How do you get to know someone?
Spending an hour with a person over a sandwich and coffee is a great way to start a relationship. Breaking bread is usually followed by breaking the ice. If you are a skilled conversation artist, you will find yourself listening a lot more than talking. If the food is exceptionally tasty, this is not difficult to do. People like to talk and share stories about themselves.
I think of lunch the same way I think about weddings.
Who is the wedding for, really? The bride and the groom? Guess again. It’s for everybody else. You guys are just animated versions of the cake figures.
Who is lunch for? I’ll give you a hint:
The most important letter in the word “lunch” is u.
U, as in you. Not you, the other you. The other person.
Three great places for lunch
I have three places for you to have lunch in Queens, the borough of great food.
In Jackson Heights, you will love Espresso 77, an artsy cafe just off 37th Avenue. It is owned by my friend Afzal Hossain who is an artist as well as the owner of this delightful neighborhood coffee bar. You can relax with a cup of coffee and a sandwich among work on the wall created by local artists.
In Flushing, there is an oasis of a restaurant in the Queens Crossing building called Mulan. This place has an interesting dining area in the center of the restaurant enclosed by the illusion of a waterfall. Nice place to chat with a board member or a prospective client over elegant Asian cuisine. Here you will find yourself surrounded by art from a roster of international artists.
In Long Island City, a new spot I have recently discovered is Testaccio on Vernon Boulevard. Hearty handshake from Ivan, the owner and handmade pasta too! What’s not to love? Their roof garden will be opening soon and they have several smaller dining areas in the back, perfect for a small gathering of artists, a staff lunch or a tete a tete with a colleague.
Bon appetit!
Lunch is about everybody else, if you really want to get to know people. When you invite someone to lunch, ask them to bring their appetite. You bring your ears.
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?
I am perfectly serious about this.
All of you amazingly busy and creative people out there – stop what you are doing and relax, for crying out loud! It is summer in the city of your soul and time to take a much deserved vacation.
In a recent post, I introduced the first step of my Twelve Step Plan for everyone like me who needs to be accomplishing things all the time and asked you to help me create this. Thanks to everyone who responded with great ideas for the Plan!
I always believed that one of us can be so much smarter with all of us.
OK everyone, the first step to get you in the right frame of mind is:
1. Get over yourself
Here is the next step
2. Get off the grid
This is really scary.
It works better if you accidentally jump in the pool with your phone in your pocket, but for the rest of us who lobsterclaw our phones in our sleep it may be more difficult to let go. If you must must must have your phone with you, shut your ringers and alerts off and try getting used to the silence. After a while you will start to feel disconnected, a little bubble drifting above the rest of us. Suspended.
Like floating on your back in the ocean, suspended between sea and sky. A sunrise, a fading moon.
Have a conversation with the universe. No data plan required.
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?
photo by zizzybaloobah
Every morning, for about 2 hours, I pay myself first by researching, reading, and writing blog posts…before I dive into email hell
This is from a post about how to think about your blogging by Jeremiah Owyang that tells you to pay yourself first. Why is it that we head first to the inbox where we can lose ourselves in responding and reacting to what other people want?
Take charge and take that time up front for yourself!
Do what you want to do, then do what you need to do
Get to your thinking, reading, writing first while your mind is fresh. Makes sense to me.
What do you think?
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?
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I am at the sweet spot of the summer.
Early summer, just after the Fourth of July weekend, lazy wide open days ahead of me.
So what does any self respecting nonprofit executive director/momspy/artspy/nonprofit knitter do – angst!
That’s right. I am frantically scheduling relaxing moments and down time into my Blackberry with alerts to remind me to calm down, take deep breaths, wear sunscreen, read, exercise and lose 10 pounds. God forbid I forget to do something.
Another couple of things I have added to my evergrowing List of Things I Must Accomplish are blog related tasks. I want to write, write, write and accumulate a cache of posts. Then I want to work on some sketches, videos, guest posts, reviews – just a few thousand other things.
Sound familiar?
Why do we do this at a time when we are supposed to be on vacation from all of this? Simple. It’s a habit. We are in the habit of overachieving and addicted to the challenge of being ahead of the game. Since we do this more than we are on vacation, it is difficult habit to break especially if we don’t have something else to replace it with.
What we all need is a plan.
This is what you should do. I will give you the first step and then I will need your help in completing this list that will make us happier:
A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives Like Me
1. Get over yourself
You are not as irreplaceable as you think you are. If you go off the grid, believe me, everybody will somehow get along fine without you.
If you feel that the world will explode without you being part of everything, you are a bottleneck, not a leader. Shared decision making infuses your team with an increased sense of responsibility. You can delegate someone the authority to sign off on say, decisions revolving around purchases under $500. Or all correspondences to committee members. If it is something you need to weigh in on, have that someone evaluate the options and make a recommendation. That way you can simply agree or disagree and move forward.
Get addicted to the gradual distancing between you and every little thing that has to be taken care. Design a better system that removes you from doing it all. This is a habit we can get used to.
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?
