Monday Monday.

This week my agenda is completely full with post-its added to each page to fit in more to-do's & appointments. May is always this busy. It's like we all realize that the year has flown by & we want to use May to catch up. Or maybe that's just me.

I'm spending the week relearning schedules & routine. I've inadvertently gotten out of the habit of prioritizing what I actually need & want to get done & do. Giving too much to everyone else & having nothing left for myself. I've been so scattered this entire year, like I'm chasing it. So I'm taking the advice of Twyla Tharp in The Creative Habit & forming routines. It feels against my nature but it's working. I have more room for creativity. I'm slowly adding something to the routine every week. I've added morning workouts & blogging the past couple of weeks. This week I'll be adding actually following what I write in my agenda instead of going with the urgent items that seem to always pop up. I'll fit those in, but sticking to my agenda is top priority. There's so much to do & I want to be able to do it & have time for a real life. Gotta make those goals. Let's do this! GO Monday!!

XX, Jamie

31.

31. I'm in an almost unbelievably different place than I was when I turned 30. China. I would have never guessed. I should be writing more down here, it's so different. I wonder if I'll come back different. So much of being 30 was evolving & growing. I hope 31 is more about using what I've learned & settling into myself. I don't want to do another goal list, 31 to do before 32, or is it 32 to do before 32? Either way, that's too overwhelming for me & disappointing when I don't complete the goals. For 31 I wish & hope.....

-to take life a little more slowly. to savor. to enjoy.

-to not over think. to just do. to fail & find myself on my feet again.

-to trust myself. i've listened to so much advice & i've read so many articles & now it's time to listen to me. i realize that much of what they say isn't anything at all. i know it already & i know what does & doesn't work for me. time for some trust & confidence.

-to move past who i feel i'm expected to be as a designer. to create my own definition of interior designer. i've never been like anyone else. now is the time to finally embrace that.

-to forget society & the expectations of a 31 year old woman. to be the person i am, i don't need fixing, i'm good as i am. flaws & scars are part of the package, they show a life well lived.

-to remember that it matters. everything matters. don't phone in time spent with people i love. remember to create magic moments from everyday. don't be lazy.

-remember, 1 thing at a time. multi-tasking is for another type of person. focus. don't worry if other people do it differently or seem to be getting better results. 1 thing at a time, keep moving forward.

-to show everyone i love that i love them, i want them to know how amazing i think they are. at the same time i want bring more creative types into my circle while letting go of the people that are there only because we used to be friends, knowing we know longer have anything in common or really care what is up with each other, uh hem Facebook. (that's for another post;))

-to know what i want & where i want to go. to stand up for that, to live in line with it. to acknowledge that some people will push & push to get their way & take advantage. to systematically remove them from my life. "set your intention so that nothing but positive energy can come within your sphere and nothing but positive energy will go out from you into the world." -AC Ping

This year will hold another trip to China, a trip to Amsterdam & Germany, a sweet anniversary trip back to New Orleans,  HOPEFULLY the income & time for a trip to California to see all those that I love there. Somewhere in there I MUST fit in a trip to a state I've never visited (a life goal, visit a different state every year till I've been to all of them- so far I'm ahead of the goal). I will run another full marathon, this time training like I mean it & hoping beyond hope my knee cooperates. I will use my cameras more & experiment with different types of photography. This year I will spend magical times on our front porch, biking our neighborhood, enjoying the amazing local restaurants around us, savoring my food. I will show that man how much he means to me in everyday ways. I will devote myself to this site & my business. There will be a site redesign. I will do my best to give my clients all of the service they deserve & pay for. I will relax & enjoy the process...this is a hard one.

Most of all, I want to settle into who I am. I want this site and my business to reflect that. I want to give more.

Thank you from my heart, for being there.

Jamie

(in that sweet package above was the most beautiful necklace that my guy purchased for me from Dinosaur Toes. I am so blessed.)

Designer in China

"We haven't got a plan so nothing can go wrong!" -Spike Milligan

I have been working this entire year, devoting nearly my entire life to this project. I'm in China now to "complete" it. However, by the photo above you can guess that's not going to happen anytime soon. I'm designing 2 homes in Wuxi, China. They are in a residential development similar to US subdivisions, but they are called Villas. This is phase one of this developement & I am designing the interiors for the clubhouse & 1 model. The NY Times did an article about the very type of developement I'm working on, which you can find here. The difference is these homes are not modern or contemporary, they want French/Italian/American style;)

I have so much to tell you about this project & working in China. As the end of this article says... “You want to avoid clients who don’t know anything about building,” he says. “They won’t respect you; they’ll try to change things along the way". This isn't exactly the issue here, the issue is the budget, which doesn't have a real life figure, but rather one that appears anytime it's time to buy something. This may be the ideal that pushes me out of my mind;)

The culture is considerably different, so many websites are blocked so it's hard to work let alone read blogs. Blogger & Typepad are blocked, well blogger is, I just can't see any images on Typepad. Youtube is blocked. There is a snippet from Lost in Translation that I desperately want to show you. It's the scene where Bill Murray's character is being shot for the whiskey advertisement, the photographer goes on & on in Japanese & the translator tells him something like, "smile nicely". Bill Murray says, are you sure that's all he said, I'm pretty sure he said more than that & the translator says, no that is all. Then it turns out it wasn't because he's not doing the poses like the photographer wants. That's my life here. Tangled & lost in translation.

I'll have more pictures & a more interesting post sooooon!!

Jamie