Radishes + Rapunzel

As seen over at covet garden

A teeny-tiny Danish radish

I definitely consider myself more of a vegetable person than a fruit person. I can't think of any vegetable that I don't like in fact! I discovered my love for radishes a couple years ago and frankly, I don't eat them often enough. Back in September I saw this simple little recipe for radish tea sandwiches over at the covet garden blog, and I finally got around to trying them yesterday. So simple, so good! I will definitely be making these again. One could even add roast beef, I suppose, for something a little heartier.

On a side note: radishes always kind of make me chuckle because whenever I eat them I can't help but picture Shelley Duvall in the Faerie Tale Theatre version of Rapunzel eating them like a mad woman. When I start having dreams of killer radishes I will know I have had too many!

Working Around Other Creative Folks

I grew up in a household that was, to put it nicely... bonkers. With seven kids in the family, there was always someone around to talk with or drive you nuts (depending on how you looked at it). I guess that really rubbed off on me, because when it comes to my working style today, I enjoy a healthy mix of quiet solitude and interaction with other people. People who are doing things... people who think big... people who are using their talents to make things happen really inspire me.

It is for this reason that I enjoy attending conferences, conventions, and being in places in which people are talking about and practicing their craft. I also enjoy working in a coffee shop, although I do less of that now that I am in Europe where that sort of thing isn't really practiced. I would love to someday have an office in a creative collective such as the newly formed Makeshift Society in San Francisco. Even though my projects (thus far anyhow) are ultimately solo endeavors, I know being in that sort of environment would be a big motivator for me. Someday! For the moment, this sort of interaction has turned pretty much virtual, but I hope the future will bring more opportunities to soak in other people's passion and apply it to my own creativity and production!

Does working around other creative people inspire you
or do you like to work in complete solitude?
The above photo is from a comic book in a night event I attended quite a few years back in Indianapolis with a dozen or so other people hurriedly drawing comics. As you can see, I was still able to concentrate (well, thats how I remember it anyhow!) despite the frenetic environs.

Constantly Learning - Harnessing Time and Staying Focused

Illustration from a timely (excuse the pun) post by

Katie Evans and Bri Emery over at

DESIGNLOVEFEST

You would think that after 28 years on this Earth I would have this time management and staying focused thing under control, right? Nope! You too? Yeah, time is tricky like that. It flies by just when we need it to stay still, and there never seems to be enough of it! I feel like I used to be pretty organized and efficient, but lately, my staying focused skills have been lacking. I can chalk it up to all the big life changes of late, but really, I know I need to take responsibility and accept the fact that how I currently work is well... not working!

Back when I first started blogging over at my primary blog, Sequential Crush I pretty much stayed awake as much as possible to cram as much research, blogging, publishing, and networking in between my full-time day job and all the other life stuff. It was amazing and exhilarating and I don't regret a minute of that period of hard work and dedication. But as awesome as it was, my severe lack of sleep took its toll. Since then I have learned that sleeping at least seven hours a night along with eating healthfully, exercising, and staying hydrated are major factors in being productive. Now that I seem to have that stuff down (more or less) I need to work on the staying focused aspect of things. For me, this means not checking my email every hour, getting sucked into my bloglovin' feed, watching puppy videos... you know how it goes. Since my time working on my projects is relegated to evenings and weekends, I really need to get better about staying focused and making the best of the time I do have. There will never be any more minutes in the day, but I do have the power to manage how I use those minutes!

How about you?

Do you have problems staying on task or managing time?

Decor8 Blogging Your Way Bootcamp!

Despite things being pretty rough for me lately, I am so ready to get back to having drive, creativity, and hard work as part of my daily routine. To jump start this pledge to myself, I have decided to enroll in Holly Becker's Blogging Your Way Boot Camp! I haven't ever taken a blogging class before -- blogging is just something I taught myself and learned through trial and error over at Sequential Crush. Even though I feel like I have a pretty good handle on all things blogging, I am never opposed to learning more! I am really hoping that this course will help invigorate me and inspire me to step up my blogging both over at Sequential Crush and here, my personal blog! I can't wait to see what happens!