This weekend, I escaped to the Caledon Hills to visit friends and take part in their giant outdoor Easter egg hunt! Having not since participated in a proper Easter egg hunt since I was twelve years old, I found this mission to be quite fun. The task: find as many eggs for your team as possible. The winning team receives a giant basket of chocolate goodies.
Our team did win but of course the winnings were split by everyone. Happy Easter!
I recently came across a brilliant talk given by Shawn Achor at TEDxBloomington about The happy secret to better work. This really made me think about the kind of outlook we have and how it can affect our behaviour. I really enjoyed it, and I hope you do too.
Give it a watch.
In less than a week I will be co-hosting an event that is near and dear to me, The Gratitude Tea. Now in it’s third year, the event is an afternoon tea in celebration of the inspiring people in your life.
Attendees are encouraged to bring the person who has had a positive affect on their life to the afternoon tea service and share a short story of their influential guest.
All funds raised will go to Dress for Success Toronto, a non-profit organization that provides career development to low-income women.
The event includes: afternoon tea, silent auction, live music, specialty vendors and other surprises!
Drink tea, give thanks and be merry at the 2011 Gratitude Tea.
#GratTEA11
It’s time to get a little personal, which is something I don’t do very often on this blog. If you have ever lost someone very close to you, maybe you can relate.
It has been one year (Aug 3) since my mom died. It has been a wild one but a challenging one as well. Not just the challenge of learning how to grieve, or move forward but learning how to grow from this situation and try to turn some of the negatives into positives.
Looking back at this past year, it’s remarkable I was even able to do anything at all, considering in the first three weeks since the event took place, I didn’t even want to feed myself.
I was able to get back into a normal routine and I think being able to focus on work again really helped me put things into perspective. I can’t say I was too productive at work though, because my mind was thinking about a million things…what to do with my mom’s house, where will my sister and I live? Can I afford a mortgage or a downpayment?
Despite all the worry in my head, I tried not to get caught up in all the grown up stuff I had to take care of and made it a priority to have fun, see friends, treat myself to getting my nails done and the general stuff that would make me happy and distract me from all the negative emotions I had.
If I also did not have the support of my boyfriend I may have probably had a much tougher time coping.
I feel I accomplished a lot this year. I was still able to host another WordCamp Toronto, change jobs – which is somewhat of a scary prospect in challenging times and I was able to put on a charity fundraising event in honour of my mom, now an annual event called The Gratitude Tea.
The best thing I’ve learned from this year is that friends are really important. They will cheer you up when you’re feeling down, take you out for dinner to distract you and remind you that everything will be okay. More importantly, life will go on.
I am my mom’s legacy and I know she would be proud knowing my sister and I picked ourselves up after tragedy and continued to look forward. She was a self-made woman and I try to live by her example everyday.
Here’s a video treat I put together for people who knew my mom. It was taken at my sister’s graduation in the spring of 2009. You can hear in the video that my sister is telling me to put the camera away but I’m glad I didn’t listen. It’s the only video I have of her in recent history.
Fashion Targets and Joe Fresh Style team up in support of Rethink Breast Cancer. Starting May 1, 2010, you can visit your local Joe Fresh at many Loblaws locations across Canada to pick up your über cheap Fashion Targets t-shirt ($12) or nail polish in wine ($4).
Since it’s Doppelgänger Week on Facebook, that gave me the idea to share with you the famous person who I think I look most like. On several occasions I have been told I look like Natalie Portman, which is obviously a flattering comment. Luckily my Doppelgänger is someone who is a credible actress, pursued higher education, is a humanitarian and knows several languages.
I have posted a few comparison photos, so you can decide for yourself.
As some of you know my mother, Carol Richardson passed away last Monday at the age of 48. She was tragically killed in a plane accident in Muskoka shortly after take off. Her companion Jack Lawrence was also killed in the accident.
This is a very hard time for us but I wanted to acknowlegde my mother publicly because a lot of people have been asking how I’m coping and I would rather share my thoughts instead of keep them to myself.
My mom was the best mom anyone could ask for. I knew she loved my sister and I very much and devoted her life to raising us. It is because of her that I am able to remain strong through this terrible time.
My mom lived life to the fullest and would tell us how much she was proud of us at every moment she could.
We will miss her terribly but with great friends, family and an amazing support network, my sister and I will be just fine.
Thanks for listening,
Melissa
So I tried my Listerine Quick Dissolving Strips. During the two weeks I had to wear the whitening strips twice per day. My results: my teeth may be a shade or two whiter, but I didn’t notice any drastic changes.
I have come to the conclusion that if I want my teeth to be white I shouldn’t drink coffee two times a day.
If you would like to try these strips for yourself, click on the link and receive a special discount off your first box. www.listerinewhitening.ca/refreshinglyfree
I’m on week two of my Listerine Quick Dissolving Stips trial. I am participating in a program to try out these new whitening strips for a few weeks. I have been trying them twice a day for the last week and a half and so far I haven’t noticed any drastic changes, but that will come in time I hope.
A Toronto Marketing company has hooked me up with a Listerine Quick Dissolving Strips Starter Kit and 30 samples to hand out to all my friends.
I will update you with my progress in the next week or so.
My boss recently decided to start “Yearbook Thursdays” in our office. Everyone was asked to bring in their old high school yearbooks, no matter how embarrassing they are of you.
Last week was our kickoff week. We began in chronological order, starting with grade 9. Of all the grades to have a bad yearbook photo taken of you this grade was probably it.
If you’re like me, you began high school in the ninth grade. Coming from the same school that I attended for seven consecutive years, being forced into a new, much bigger school was very intimidating. Everyone was trying to make a good impression on each other, eager to show off those cool new clothes you bought from The Gap, or at least you thought they would be cool at the time.
Now looking back at how awkward I was, those new corderoys from Jacob Connexion I bought for the start of the school year, weren’t as hip as I thought they might be.
Grade nine for me was definitly an awkward time, hence the painful yearbook photo to go with the awkwardness of being a young teenager. However, if you looked your best when you were fourteen, then what do you have to look forward to? Being awkward was all about growing up and evolving into something better. If you don’t have those growing pains then it can’t make you the strong, beautiful person you are today. So now I look back at that grade nine photo, laugh and remind myself how far I’ve come and think it can only get better from here.
