Day 22: Sharing a gift

Last week, one my Passion Parties team members asked me how I was able to book so many parties. After emailing each other back and forth with tips and questions, I decided, why not hold a conference call? I could share my tips with any team members who wanted to join in. That call was tonight.

On impulse, I also invited our PP coaching group's teams to come onto the call. I was really scared. What if all of them called into the call? (Not that would happen). What if what I had to say wasn't valuable enough? What if no one called in? (That's happened before) What if they listened and didn't try any of my tips? All of these doubts crossed my mind as I hit the send button. Some of these doubts I knew weren't rational, but I was scared/worried all the same.

Luckily, I was too busy today to stress over the call. I didn't even have time to work on my notes for the call until the last minute. Hubby had to work late and I didn't know that when I scheduled the call. I had more callers than I've every had.

It was a great call! When I hung up, I felt totally jazzed. That's why I'm still awake. LOL. I gave them a challenge, and I hope they give it a try. Handing out your business card to strangers can be scary. But if you attach a sample to them, you are giving out gifts. I never give out my business card expecting to get a party booked. I really do enjoy seeing others' faces light up when I give them a little unexpected gift. People are so busy, they sometimes forget to stop and enjoy the moment. I hope I do that for them when I give them a sample of bath salts. Or maybe it's the potential to be able to slow down and use those bath salts.

Today's
begins Earth week. It's also the last week. Can you believe I made it this far? I am. Earth is about connecting with your physical self. At last week's Moms Inc meeting, Laura Levengard, who's a personal trainer, shared some easy ways to add a workout to your routine. Things you can do while you walk up the stars or while you wait for waiter to boil for tea (or coffee to brew). That way you have no excuse not to do it. You don't even need any special equipment to do her exercises. After listening to her presentation, I was motivated to give it a try.

I find the parallels of soul coaching and the events in my life are so timely. I had a physical last week, even got a tetanus shot (my arm is still swollen). I know that I'm pretty healthy. I'm not perfect--I love a good steak. I do know that I need more exercise in my routine. Being aware of it is the first step I guess. Laura gave us another great tip. She gave us a sheet of metallic star stickers. You know, the ones you used to get in school for doing a great job. By putting these stars in places around your house, you'll be reminded to do those exercises. The bathroom mirror for when you brush your teeth. Cool her? I'll be sticking up some silver stars tomorrow!

photo by assbach

What a Blitz!

Photo by flickr member ron.richardson

Tonight we had a huge Passion Parties Booking Blitz. It's where a bunch of us get together and make as many phone calls as we can in one hour and see how many parties you can book! Sometimes picking up the phone can be intimidating, even if I know the person on the other end is happy to hear from me. So having such a supportive environment helps out a lot.

Tonight was such a success! I booked 4 parties for August, so in addition to the ones I already have booked for August, that's almost a full month for me! My team has booked 20 parties so far. I'm very proud of them.

Did you know that Thursday is the last day to join my Passion Parties team at the most amazing special we've ever offered? If you want more info, just contact me.

So to celebrate the success my team is having, I'd like to extend a special discount if you want to shop from my website. Just enter the code BLITZ upon checkout for 15% off your entire order! (This discount is not valid retro-actively or for parties) Hurry, this code is only good until midnight EST, July 31, 2008!

I'll Take an Iced Mocha Injection, Please

I just joined a great Yahoo group for art journaling. This is one of my first pages. The group was started by Rice Freeman-Zachary. I love her blog. Warning, it's not for the weak. LOL. Lots of fun F-bombs on her blog.

I had a weakness for iced mochas that I had to give up while I was pregnant. Then after that, they seemed a bit too extravagant to buy from the coffee shop. So I started making my own cold brewed coffee. It's so easy! It takes me about 5 minutes prep time, but that's only because I fresh grind my coffee beans.

Update on BurdaStyle MiniChallenge: Well, I made the muslin on Saturday and I was underwhelmed by the pattern. I knew it was going to be baggy but it looked like I was a muumuu with saggy boobs. (Sorry I was not going to take any pictures of that). Plus the dropped shoulder wasn't looking so hot. I thought about raising the shoulder a bit but decided to take a nap. I think that I'd rather make a dress that fits well and makes me feel good that to use the Anda pattern just so I can participate in the challenge.

On to the recipe. I'm not really a measure-er (is that a word?) except when I'm baking, so just eyeball it.

Cold-brewed Iced Mocha Vietnamese Style (mocha optional)

Ingredients:
Filtered or bottle water
Your favorite coffee grounds (medium coarse is preferred if you are grinding yourself. I use my good old favorite from home, Community Coffee. Mom sends it to me)
A large jar (I re-use a spaghetti sauce or applesauce jar)

The ratio to this 4 parts water to 1 part coffee. I just fill the jar with coffee until it looks like 1/4 of the jar. Fill up with filtered or bottled water. I used filtered. This is going to make a very concentrated coffee so you want better tasting water. Set in the fridge overnight. Now I've read that it can take as little as 2 hours but I forget about stuff so overnight works out great.

The next morning, you'll strain the coffee. The method that works best for me is a coffee filter in a funnel set over another jar. This can take a bit of time. So I just fill up my funnel and then come back to add more. Voila, now you have cold-brewed coffee! It will keep in your fridge for a few days because it's so yummy you'll drink it all in a few days!

This coffee is really strong. So you'll have to thin it out with water. How much water you add depends on how strong you like your coffee. You can add your sweeteners and creamers as you would normally. You can also put it in the microwave to have hot coffee too. But with this heat, iced is the way to go!

Mocha, Vietnamese Style

If you like Vietnamese coffee, you'll love my version of the mocha. Take a tall glass (I use a pint glass). Add about 2 tsp of your favorite chocolate syrup. Then, add 2-3tsp of sweetened condensed milk (this is the Vietnamese party). This will replace your creamer. Add your coffee (about 1 1/2 shot glass worth, but don't measure, just pour!). Add a little water. Stir until combined. Add more water and ice.

Stick a straw in it so you feel like you're at Starbucks. Enjoy the buzz.

The search is over

Being a bit of a perfectionist, I decided that I would use a glue stick to assemble my Anda pattern instead of taping it. I figured this way if I needed to iron the paper pattern (which I like to when I pull it out of storage as I fold my paper patterns up to fit in envelopes). That way the tape won't melt when I iron the pattern.


When I was in college, this guy that worked in our costume shop (who incidentally was married, but I swear, I thought he played for the other team, if you know what I mean. Heck most guys I meet who work with costumes for the theatre play for the other team.), would iron those Big Four tissue patterns so they would fit back in the original envie, just like when you bought them. Now that's anal retentive.

Anyway, so I sketched out how I'm going to change the pattern for the Mini Challenge. I went to JoAnns today to look for fabric and you know, their apparel fabric selection stinks. I ended up pushing a sleeping toddler in her stroller, wandering around the home dec section (I like making clothes from home dec fabrics) . I did find some gorgeous drapery fabric but didn't want to pay $30 a yard (even at 40% off) since I needed about 3 yards.

Hubby came home early and took the toddler to the park so I got to wander around this fabulous fabric store in Langley Park called Sarah Fabrics. It's a little hole in the wall and you can barely walk around it, there's so much fabric. After walking around the entire store (no small feat for not so skinny moi), in the last batch of fabric, I found this beauty. Yep, it's bright green and purple. I'm going all out, baby! And the purple satin is going to be a sash and band for the sleeves. (No, the Anda pattern doesn't have sleeves, but it will when I'm done).


I can't wait to get started! I know I'll have enough fabric to make Sophia a dress too. A mini-Anda dress, anyone?

Ready for some late nights?

A big HI to all you visitors from Jessica's blog. I hope you come back to visit.

Instead of complaining that I can't find cute big girl clothes (=plus sized) when I'm clothes shopping, I'm going to make myself a new dress! I think. I'm joining BurdaStyle's new mini challenge. It's pretty easy. You just take the Anda pattern (which is a free!) and make it your own. I'm printing it out as I type this. The only caveat to a free pattern is that you have to print it out and tape the pages together. But how's that for instant gratification? I don't have to drive to fabric store, drag around Sophia (who wants to see everything) and fight traffic to come back home and then find time to cut out my pattern pieces. I'll get back to you later on that after I tape all 30 pages together. :)




What do you think? Give it a try. It's an easy to sew pattern (there's only 4 seams, shoulders and side seams. If you can sew a straight line on your sewing machine (or not so straight, this pattern is forgiving), give it a go. I'm not really sure how I'm going to alter it yet, but look at the cute things other BurdaStyle members have done with it.