I think that one of the coolest things about being an adult is having so many choices that effect your daily life- especially in your experience at work. At the same time, I didn’t realize how much flexibility I had in how I managed my time and tasks until I’d left a traditional work environment. Once I had to invent my own system for doing things, I realized how useful they were and saw how much more fun they would have made my previous work life.

No matter what kind of work you do I think there’s a creative, dynamic way to build it into your life- and sometimes something as simple as having a good system can be a big part of that. I wanted share a few applications and tools that I’m head over heels for – and that aren’t just for creative types and mac users - in case you fall in love with one of them like I have…

These are smartphone friendly apps and tools you can take on the road.

Scatterbrain

This is the jot note app of my dreams! It lets you write quick notes, categorize them… and then schedule reminders for the future! I’ve been using calendar and alarm applications for this for a very long time, and none of them work properly at all. Scatterbrain is intuitive, beautiful to navigate, easy to use on the fly and has a really cool category system that adapts for anyone’s style. It’s better than the “note” function on an iPhone and is a must add in my books.

Price: Free   Works on: iPhone +  iPad   Read More: Here

Beejive

This is a mobile chat application that’s fabulous. It’s important for my business that if something’s going wrong my clients and the Freckled Nest designers can get in touch with me quickly, and since many of us live in different countries this app is my favourite. It lets you sign into multiple chat accounts, choose an individual status and availability settings for each account (or one for all), and sends you chat messages like they’re text messages. It gives my design clients instant, constant access to me and is perfect for catching up with blog friends. Love it! :)

Price: $7.99   Works on: iPhone, iPad, Blackberry & Android   Read More: Here

These apps and tools will follow you to the moon and back. Wherever you are? They’re right there.

Google Docs

I know that you know about this, but if you do any online collaboration Google Docs are a fabulous way to keep documents in a central place with minimal fuss. I love having a shared doc open with a client when we have a live chat to make sure we keep meeting notes or don’t miss an important topic. It’s the only tool I used  to plan my wedding, and Jesse and I use it to manage our budgets in a place we can both access. It’s love :)

Price: Free   Works on: Everything!   Read More: Here

Evernote

Woah my gosh, this app rocks my world. With one Evernote account you can gather up inspiration, reserach, images, text, PDFs- anything that has content you want to flag for later. You can automatically clip selections, whole web pages, images or text to your computer anytime you see something great and want to remember it. And the categories go on forever. Best of all, you can use it as a computer program, smartphone app or by logging into their website. I use mine to gather style inspiration for clients, and to keep my blog ideas on hand and easy to update.

Price: Free   Works on: Everything! Read More: Here

These are apps and tools that are desktop based and serious about getting the job done.

Pomodoro

The Pomodoro technique is an anti-procrastination tool that works really well- it’s a little eerie, actually! It’s a way of putting meaningful, solid amounts of time toward what you’re trying to get done while still taking breaks and not time tracking in a traditional sense. You can use a fancy app or a kitchen timer and piece of paper, you just need to learn the basic idea behind it.

Price: Free, but I use a paid desktop app for my timer   Works on: A piece of paper!  Read More: Here

TweetDeck

First things first: This is really worth putting in a few minutes to learn. The first time I downloaded it I thought that it took a fun, simple idea (see: Twitter) and turned it into fast scrolling columns in a dark colour scheme. After hearing lots of people praise it I gave it another chance and in reality, Tweetdeck is kind of wonderful. It’s a powerful and sleek way to get updates from everyone you follow or just the people you really adore, it can be in your face or in the background, it tracks your lists in real time and offers cool features like badge notifications when you gain followers, and it even has a way to mute users. All that, and it delivers scheduled tweets on time! You can even change the colour scheme ;) Really amazing tool for bloggers and social media butterflies.

Price: Free   Works on: iPhone, iPad, Desktops (PC + Mac), Android, Google Chrome Read More: Here

I’d love to hear what’s been working for you, share your tips in the comments!

It might sound strange, but I don’t think happiness happens by accident. I think it’s a practice like any other skill, and that it’s one I try to work on everyday. Every now and then I like to share some of the small things that are making my life better at the moment, so if you want to try some new ways to make you life a little more lovely, these are some things that might do the trick…

It’s all kinds of lovely to get praise from the people around you- but you don’t have to wait around! Sometimes I don’t realize that my internal monolog has been dragging me down until I check it with a few moments of encouragement. It’s a tiny way to start working on changing your world view to be a little kinder, because if you struggle with trusting and valuing yourself it’s really hard to extend those things to others. Even if it feels silly at first, imagine what would your world look like if every time you poured yourself coffee or brushed your teeth, you reminded yourself of some of the natural gifts you posses just by waking up and being yourself?

When I’m stressed out, caring for myself becomes a top item on my priority list because it’s one way that I can really make sure I’m caring for myself. Taking a bubble bath before work is such a luxurious and frivolous thing that it’s one of my favourites, hands down. No matter what’s going on in my day, if I had a giant bubble bath to start it off, life really can’t be that bad!

Sometimes the daily grind can wear through your imagination, which makes it harder to be a creative problem solver and to pinpoint the fun that can be had in an every day situation. A fun way to bring yourself back to a creative place is to create backstories for everyone you cross paths with. Maybe your bus driver is cranky because she was out late with her drag king friends the night before and lost the papers to her 1964 Plymouth after a tense game of mini golf. Maybe your new manager is raising her lover’s baby after he was killed in a tragic storm chasing accident, making her huge cyclone back tattoo now more bittersweet than ever. Who are you to say these things aren’t going on? It’s a fun game, I promise.

Confession: I watched the first season of Survivor and then decided to opt out of reality TV. For over a decade. Last summer fall I started watching the occasional episode of Millionaire Matchmaker, and eventually I started watching Sister Wives. Since then I’ve been a goner, and I have been so happily addicted! Having a great guilty pleasure is amazing, and it can be anything from leaving work to have lunch alone in a quiet place and listen to podcasts to having a day a week when you get into your PJs as soon as your day is over and watch a great 80′s movie. For me it’s watching any entertaining reality TV that’s aired since 1999, while I eat breakfast. As long as you revel in it? It totally counts.

We all have our specific insecurities, but sometimes they’re things that we’ve held onto for so long that they don’t really make sense anymore. Try choosing one of the things that really scares you – a “people will think I’m weird if I _________” kind of thing, and then be the weird kid for an afternoon. Wear that dress you never make it out the door in, strike up a conversation with a stranger, do your grocery shopping without make up, ask a cute boy for his number… whatever it is that you shy away from? Try owning that part of your inner weird kid in an out loud, public way for an afternoon. The world might turn out to be kind, you might turn out to be strong, or it could just be an afternoon of quiet bravery. Either way I bet it will be a great story.

It’s easy to complement someone on what they’re wearing, but it takes a lot more guts to tell someone you admire how they approach life with a sense of humor, or that their selflessness makes you think about ways you could try to be more like them. It’s easy to fall into the habit of addressing surface level things- and don’t get me wrong, there’s a place for that – but it’s refreshing and surprising when you tell someone what you appreciate in their character. I love looking for opportunities where I can stop being polite in favour of telling people what they mean to me. Try it out, it might be your new addiction too.

Lately I’ve been… getting excited for a little end of summer road trip with my besties, and a trip to Mexico right after New Years 2012 for a friend’s wedding. For the next two years I won’t be traveling much, but these two trips are going to be big highlights for me and they make me want to dance. Just a little. Okay, maybe a lot!

Lately I’ve been… hearing a lot about how Winnipeg is getting its NHL team back. The team might not have a name yet, but thanks to a friend who had season tickets to the previous team, we’re already season ticket holders! Jesse is through the roof and I’m looking forward to see some real hockey games with him, without the 8+ hour drive to Minneapolis.

Lately I’ve been… fascinated by the idea of parallel cultures- as brought to us by reality TV! This week I was hooked on watching the Sister Wives move into a typical Las Vegas neighbourhood, and discovered My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Both shows are baffling and fascinating to me at the same time, and I can’t get enough.

Lately I’ve been… working on some fun non-website design projects, and on guest posts too- I just designed a piece for my client Whitney Lee that she imagined as part of her site’s design and made it into a project for her DIY column. It’s an adorable prop sign project that was just featured on Offbeat Bride last week!

Isn’t she the cutest? I want her dress and the sign- and now I can’t get the idea of making a shop sign like this that could be displayed in the Freckled Nest studio window!

Lately I’ve been… working on some really fun and unique blog design projects- I have so many client sites that will be launching in June, I can’t wait to unveil them! I’ve been having so many new ideas, stretching my concepts further and branching out into juicier colours- I think you’re going to be surprised and I kind of can’t wait to share them with you.

Lately I’ve been… trying to carve out more time for myself, for reflection, and for planning and working ahead so there’s a little more fun and a little less rushing about in my day to day life. I want to make sure there’s room to get things done, be spontaneous, and know that my espresso addiction is a luxury instead of a requirement for when I open my inbox. Right now it feels like a lot, but I bet it’s not too much to hope for ;)

What have you been focused on lately?

One of the fun things about having a business partner is that (in our case at least) we’re always together. Because we have so much on the go we’re always running into funny situations and problem solving them together. As a result of one, we have a silly running joke: when something good happens we call it a burrito, and when something bad happens it’s a fondue fork.

“Burritos” are named for our favourite lunch meal (Winnipeg’s Burrito Del Rio!) and “fondue forks” are named for a really unfortunate lunch, where after a disappointing meal and a few very weird interactions with the waitress LA opened a door that was propped open by a fondue fork and tripped into the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, fondue fork in hand! She could have killed someone… with a fondue fork! It was an absurdly weird end to a very bad meal, and the strangest part is the restaurant didn’t even serve fondue!

I wanted to share a few of the things that are making me really happy right now, and maybe a couple of little fondue forks :)

My Current Burritos

I’m turning 26 on May 23rd, and on Saturday I wanted to make my birthday more special so I made sure I got some of the things I really wanted and needed by investing in my wardrobe. The exciting thing is that by 3:00 pm on Wednesday everything had arrived! Apparently shipping to Canada has vastly improved since I last shopped online, and everything I ordered is miraculously beautiful and fits perfectly. It’s going to lead to some awkward fashion blogging soon, just you wait!

I’m really loving the blog world right now! I’ve been making an effort to have blogging be a special, reflective part of my day and it’s made a big difference in how I approach it and the things I want to write about. Right now I’m feeling inspired by My Girl Thursday‘s positivity and fashion posts, Katie from Skunkboy Creatures‘ sunny posts and adorable baby photos, and The Veda House‘s amazing vintage finds for her upcoming shop launch.

I just discovered reality tv (this is a post in its self for later!) but I’ve just found Kelly Cutrone through The Hills, and have been totally fascinated by her! After a little googling I found her book, If You Have To Cry, Go Outside (and other things your mother never taught you) and I’m really excited to read it. I started it yesterday and so far I love her attitude, strength, and thoughts on listening to your inner voice.

I changed schools a lot growing up and until high school was always the weird, new kid. Then in high school, my school’s message was very clear: your grades = your worth. While I love all the things that make me quirky and different now, they were very hard to navigate when I was growing up and I love that Kelly has a platform to encourage young women to find their people and stay true to themselves and follow where that leads them.

This winter an ice dam the size of a shetland pony fell on my car, causing almost $4k of damage to the body and windshield. Don’t worry, thanks to insurance I only pay $200 (Yay Socialism!) but to repair it my car is finally going into the shop… for 3-4 weeks! Luckily we just had my bike repaired, and while I’m a commuter cyclist by necessity, I’m in love with my cruiser. Jesse and I went for a big ride last night and it was fun cardio perfection- which is hard to find in my books.

A Couple Fondue Forks

1. The Leigh-Ann shaped hole in my days! Leigh-Ann and I started working together on a daily basis in early December, and since then there are very few times when we haven’t spoken multiple times a day. I’m so glad to be the reason she can take time off for the first time in a long time, but it’s so strange to be working alone again. I’m excited for her to return :)

2. Tattoo Nerves – I’m in love with my three quarter sleeve, but there’s one problem: I haven’t told my grandparents yet. I really want to stop having to consider which cardigan is long enough to cover my arm, and while I know my grandma will be fine with it my grandpa is old school Ukrainian. He doesn’t mind my crazy glasses, my nose piercings or my stretched ears, and I know he’ll be alright with it in time. I just wish I could come to my birthday dinner looking exactly how I want to without offending him or seeming confrontational, but breaking the news between now and Monday seems rushed and awkward. Any advice?

I hope your week so far is all burritos and very few fondue forks :)

ps – One of my blog best friends turned real life best friend Nora has a weekly series called wine and love that you might like, this is an unofficial entry :)

Yesterday morning I thought it would be fun to do a photoshoot and share some things about me you might not know…

I hope you’re having a great week so far! Mine is a little crazy, today is Leigh-Ann‘s last day before she leaves for Elsie’s wedding so we’re tying up all of our loose ends and I’m getting ready to run the day to day part of our business on my own.

Or rather, with the help of my dinosaur desk mates :)

I don’t have cravings very often, but every now and then one hits me hard. It got me thinking about how I have comfort food of all different kinds- especially when it comes to the first blogs I read.

My Comfort Blogs

I first got addicted to blogs when I was working at a summer office job where I didn’t have a lot to do and had lots of times on me hands. After listening to an entire Harry Potter audiobook and nearly dying of boredom I got totally addicted to two blogs: Nothing But Bonfires and City Wendy in the Windy City. I loved reading about Holly’s travel, and hearing about Wendy fall in love with Drew and get her job as a columnist. I used to comment on both blog’s every time they posted, and while I didn’t have a blog I got a big thrill from the idea that they might read my reactions to their posts. I was a total fangirl, and about once every year I remember them and can’t help but check in. It’s like visiting an old friend, only that friend doesn’t know me and the relationship is entirely one sided. Because before twitter the internet wasn’t so much about bringing people together ;)

My Comfort Music

Confession: I was a weird teenager, and didn’t ‘get’ a lot of the music that was popular when I was in high school. I was just more into books and movies. My taste in music is really varied and I love more bands than I can count (mostly indie rock or anything Pitchfork-y) but no matter what I always come back to The Rolling Stones & Bob Dylan catalogues. They just sound like summer to me, and I’ve collected enough of them that I can just let them play for days.

My Comfort Movies

Flat out, my relationship with The Royal Tenenbaums is probably a little unhealthy. I’m not sure how many times I’ve seen it, but it’s definitely more than 20 times, and if I’m being honest with myself that number might be closer to double that. I love the use of silence in it, I love the relationships and the tension. It’s kind of obvious and probably a little cliche to love it, but one of those movies that feels worn in and familiar to me, and I can’t help loving it for that.

Runner up? My romantic heart can’t help but still have a soft spot for Before Sunrise. This movie was the chance meeting I always wanted to have with the cute, talkative boy on a European train I always wanted to meet, followed by the all night conversation I always wanted to have with that cute boy. The first time I watched this movie it struck me… to the point that while I own it, I’ve only watched it twice! I’m afraid that it hasn’t aged well, and while I can take “Reality Bites” Ethan Hawke coming off as jerky to me in subsequent viewings, I really wouldn’t fair well if I “Before Sunrise” Ethan Hawke lost his shine for me too.

My Comfort Books

Without contest: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. I discovered Vonnegut in junior high, and read everything of his that I could get my hands on for over a year. I’m thankful that I bought most of my favourites and can re-visit them when I need inspiration! I’ve read Cat’s Cradle an alarming number of times, and it’s fun to take more out of it as time goes on.

Second to Cat’s Cradle, it’s a tie between almost anything written by Hunter Thompson for his inventive use of language and rhythm and Chuck Palaniuk for his imagination and making me uncomfortable as a reader- in a good way. I have very boyish taste in fiction, but I’ve been on a run of interesting business and memoirs recently and I’m really enjoying what I’ve found so far.

& My Comfort Food

Haven’t guessed it from my picture yet? Mr. Noodles! I lived on them in high school, and have just rediscovered my love this week. Runners up? Chocolate Pocky and any of the salty/sweet candy you can get in Mexico! My high school was a boarding school and lots of my friends were from Mexico and Japan- those tastes snap me back in time immediately.

What’s a ‘comfort food’ for you that never gets old?

I’m trying to start the week – and every day – with the right mind set, so I keep my priorities in mind and I’m always acting from the right place. For me that means…

I feel like if I could just keep these things in mind, no matter what happened I would have an amazing week.

I’m going to try my best until it’s effortless. I’m aiming for annoyingly upbeat + positive ;)

Do you have a wish for this week?

{image sources: ferris wheel by Noel C. Hankamer; forest mushrooms by Wilheln Fyles; Clarence and Grace Hinze – 1940 by tmat1075; tiny cupcakes by ohskylab; editing by me}

The past few weeks have been evaporating underneath me faster than I can express, so much has been happening that I haven’t had time to blog about some things I really want to share! I can’t wait to set some time aside soon to take all the photos I need to show you :) In the mean time I thought a little photo list update would be fun, so this is what I’ve been up to on this brink of spring…

edit: click on photos to view source :)

Wearing my little leather jacket on warm days & feeling so excited for the weather to change…

Loving the sweet moments in daily life, especially the ones that include Nutella crepes!

Adoring my new Mannequin nail polish (almost a little too much)…

Planning crochet and knitting projects for before the weather changes…

Having the most incredibly vivid dreams that sweep me away to the distant past every night…

Working on making my body opt-in to daylight savings…

Intending to eat healthy while Jesse’s out of town and then eating pizza for dinner instead!

(the fact that it’s “stolen pizza” that I shouldn’t be having just makes it taste better!)

What have you been up to this almost spring?

Recently Leigh-Ann & Kelly Ann posted their six confessions, and I couldn’t resist! I had to jump in, so here are mine (only I’m done five- one for each heart in my picture!)…

1. After two years of never even seeing her leave the house, I recently made friends with the crazy cat lady who lives down my street. She has purple hair and feeds squirrels from her kitchen window… and she’s awesome! We have back lane chats and she’s really funny, and after the first time I met her I was so excited that I called Jesse- after two years of wondering who lived in the hoarders style house up the street it was like meeting a celebrity!
2. I’m a nap monster. I love working super hard for 4 hours and then curling up into bed and drifting off to sleep for a while. I have my work/nap schedule every weekend, and it’s my favourite treat.
3. Speaking of weekends, I’m a little weird about accidentally falling into routines that I like. My most recent lunch craze was having quesadillas every weekend from September… until December! I guess I just know what I like?
4. I just caught on to streaming TV online, and I’m getting way too addicted. After years of rolling my eyes at the Kardashians? I watched the whole second season of Kourtney & Khloé Take Miami this weekend while catching up on my e-mail. I don’t know if I love them or hate them, but someone needs to pull me away from the computer!
5. I haven’t spent an afternoon knitting since before Christmas, and I miss it! This Sunday I’m having a knitting marathon with beautiful crazy neon colourful yarn, and I can’t wait to post about the results.

Your turn! :)

ps – Since it’s Valentines Day & love is in the air, I’d love if you’d click on my new Google Friend Connect widget! It adds my blog to the “Blog’s I Follow” section of your blogger profile &  shows your avatar on my blog- I would love to have you <3

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Jesse’s travelling with work again this week, and I’ve been trying to make the time fly by as quickly as possible! I thought it would be fun to would give you a peek into what my solo week has been like…

I had fun outside! The prairies got so warm that it was beautiful to be out and about- finally!

I worked on big projects for Freckled Nest, and was so excited to be announced as a guest teacher for Indie Business 3.0!!

I ate pizza every night! I’m addicted to super yummy spinach pizzas that we have in the house. So good!

I had a skype slumber party with Leigh-Ann, we stayed up late chatting and working on projects…

( ….and being geeks together :] )

My new tattoo’s outline started healing really beautifully, and I’m all kinds of in love with it!!

I cuddled my sweet puppy dogs, who slept outside their kennels for the first time (!)

I became more than a little addicted to teen mom. (It’s no sister wives, but I’m loving it!)

I got hit out of the blue with a few days of depression + anxiety & wasn’t excited about dealing with it…

…but I dealt and it passed, so I treated myself to lots of Starbucks and cuddling with my Kindle to celebrate :)

How has your week been so far?

(I bet a little kitchen dancing would make it better!)

{images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}