Girl About O-Town

Change Ain’t For The Faint Of Heart!

My dad always says “you can’t turn a ship around on a dime”, and I’m finally starting to grasp his meaning.  Ambition for change is one thing, but actually creating it is another story entirely.  It’s not for the lazy or the impatient – and trust me – this I’m coming to understand!

Change, or more specifically significant change, can take a long time – and it takes a very deliberate and sustained effort.  

In my twenties, I thought I had it all figured out.  I graduated, snagged a great gig and got hitched right out of the gate.  I truly thought I was off to the races and that my life would effortlessly evolve into something spectacular.   I mean why not?  I was smart, I worked hard, and on paper, things had fallen into place perfectly. 

But, by the time I was thirty the cracks were starting to show.  While I had been blessed by the arrival of my beautiful daughter, I was also growing restless.  I began to sense a deep need for change, and I channeled this need into my professional work.  I became fiercely frustrated, raged against the systems I had succumbed to, and looked outside to resolve problems I now know were inside.  I moved house more than a few times, I changed jobs a lot and sadly, my marriage ended.  In short, the sparkling dreams of my twenties had disappeared, and by 33, I felt like a failure. 

Finally Sailing Straight

Funny how failure works though.  It forces us dig deep and then stand up again, and it seems to have a way of setting us straight.  Since then, I’ve been working to turn my ship around, and finally – I feel like I’m sailing in the right direction. 

If you’ve been reading for awhile, then you’ve probably caught snippets of my story before, and forgive me if this post sounds repetitive.  It’s just that this blog has become an essential conduit for my ideas, and it remains central to the personal change I’ve been trying to make over the past few years.  My creative ebbs and flows can be mapped to its content, and my rhythms reflected quite literally in the statistical analysis of visitors.  Peaks in my most productive months and valleys when I have been overwhelmed by ordinary life. 

Later this year, I’ll be turning 40.  Yup.  40.  I can hardly believe it myself!   True, 39 may have been a bit bumpy, but in a good way.  And, since the ship did start turning, I have been very fortunate.  I met a fine fella.  I began blogging and then a year ago, I left behind my cubicle job to honour my hunch, and I’m pleased to report that I’m profoundly inspired to continue what I’ve started. For the first time ever, I can honestly say that I feel aligned (albeit a little less financially flush), and not a moment too soon!

Join Me On The Next Leg Of The Journey

So, dear readers, this is the post in which I invite you to join me on the next leg of my journey. 

After much muddling, I have hit upon the business model that works best for me, and I am super excited to share it with you.  From here on in, I will be offering strategic & design coaching for house hunters everywhere!  That’s right.  I’ve repackaged my services to make them accessible to wider audience, and I’m currently developing some very cool tools that will be available soon!   Please do check out my remodeled & redesigned website and read more about my revised approach.  And, tell your friends. (tee hee)

Oh, and when you do see the new site, you will probably note I’ll be busy over there.  In addition to the coaching, the DIY design, and the Housters & Co. blog, I’ll also be offering up meaningful advice for those considering a move, helpful tips for house hunters, and interesting insight into the idea of home – all via email.

If you – or maybe someone you know – wants to master your house hunt or just make peace with your space, sign up to receive great content delivered direct to your inbox every other week or so.  No spammy $*#% either, I promise.  All you have to do is click here and subscribe!

And lastly, since so many of you have been supportive and kind, I could use just a little bit of help.  I’m truly curious about what concerns you the most when it comes to house hunting (or apartment hunting)?  What is the worst thing about it?  What are your pet peeves?  Click to open this post page and leave a comment.  I’d love to hear your views!  Thanks so much in advance.

(P.S. Thanks to local design diva Kelly of JAX Does Design for pointing out my commenting problem.  It’s on the list to fix!!)  

Images via cruiselinehistory.com and ubersuper.com.

I do realize that any talk of turkey at this point might be considered “late to the game” – especially since we’ve all moved into “Healthy Eating” resolution mode – but the subject just keeps coming up in conversation.  People seem to want to know!  So here goes…

I’m very fortunate to have my family in town, including my parents, my brother, his wife and their two very young children.  While not a huge crowd, we are enough to make Christmas dinner kind of complicated.  My mother  – an amazing cook – usually takes it on with true talent and grace, but whenever I’ve tried to do a turkey myself, I’ve been utterly incapable without her help. 

My bro often goes to where his wife’s family gathers, and this year was the first year in a few that we were all going to be together.  Between schedules, budgets and child-related considerations, it was not surprising that none of us jumped forward as volunteer chefs.   Enter take-out turkey.  

Image source

Yup.  We all agreed to pitch in and share the (very reasonable) cost of ordering a fully prepared Christmas dinner, care of Michael Blackie, Executive Chef at the National Arts Centre.   Mom set a gorgeous table and tracked down a plum pudding, I brought the starter grapefruit (a family tradition of mine that goes back several generations), and then all we had to do was wait for the turkey’s arrival.  And my Dad was happy to have an excuse to go for a drive…

What was it like? Well…it turns out take-away turkey was totally easy, seriously stress-free, and quite definitely delicious.  While we did miss the smell of the bird cooking a bit, and the Chef’s yummy flavour combinations leaned towards the contemporary rather than classic, under the circumstances it was a pretty practical trade-off, I’d say.   My Mom has no need to feel threatened, since her turkey is still the best of course, but even she was able to embrace the extra time she had outside the kitchen!

So, would we do it again?  If it were just up to me, definitely yes!