Despite feeling pretty exhausted from my quick turn-around trip to Los Angeles this weekend, I’m feeling refreshed and ready to kick this week in the butt. I love coming home from a trip feeling highly motivated and ready to push forward. So what was so amazing about a day in Los Angeles? The answer: EVERYTHING. But more specifically, spending time with some of my oldest and best friends. The kinds of friends that make you feel like you’re a kid again. As if jobs and responsibilities never existed. Yesterday, something really important sank in for me:

Good friends should be kept forever. If they’re really great, they help to make you realize what’s truly important and valuable in life. And nothing is more motivating than the pursuit of true happiness. It was so hard for me to say goodbye to the Malibu sunset I was loving yesterday, but I’m happy to have returned home and back to work feeling like, no matter what, everything is going to be okay.

Happy Monday!

*Top image via Word Boner*

About an hour ago I was finally able to jump back online after thirty six hours (or so) of disconnection. I have to admit, at first I freaked out. It went something like this, “WHAT?!! No internet? Haha, you’re kidding, right? Wait, REALLY? No. REALLY REALLY??!! NOOOOoooooo!!!!!” After I was done overreacting and pouting, I realized something from my HUGE reaction to being disconnected. I think I have become addicted to the internet!

Once I made that scary realization, I decided to make the most of my time offline and I have to say, it turned out to be the best Sunday I have had in a really long time! I know my fiance certainly appreciated having me outside of the office and next to him. And look! I even started knitting a blanket!

The best part about spending over 24 hours offline is coming back this morning and feeling refreshed. I feel like I learned something really important this weekend. Unplug. At least one day a week, completely unplug and create something tangible.. or just wonderful.. like a fond memory. Then go back to work on Monday feeling like a new person. It feels AMAZING! Happy Monday!

image via ffffound

I was super excited to return to LAMA HQ after my trip to the Altitude Design Summit conference to find a big box of cool new LAMA merchandise from Brazil! Feeling a bit exhausted from four days of non-stop design talk, all of these great new things were just the thing to get me motivated on this particular Monday.

But aside from the tangible new things motivating me today, there are lots of new thoughts and ideas about my work and life in general that are starting to create some excitement for me. Hooray for new things! I hope you all have new things in your life to motivate you. I know I can’t wait to share them mine with everyone. Happy Monday!

I’ve been in the process of going through several major changes and shifts in my life for the past year. On all fronts. And more often than not, I find myself questioning the decisions I’m making and having difficulty fairly assessing the outcomes of those decisions. Believe me, I am one tough critic. That’s why I value and appreciate the wonderful people that have showed up in my life recently to let me know that I’m heading down a good path. Sometimes all you need is some external validation from a friend or trusted someone. So for me, today’s Monday Motivation is about encouraging your friends, family, and co-workers to be their awesome selves.

High-fives should certainly be made available all day, everyday. Go ahead, reach over and give someone a high five today. It’s a great way to start a week and highly motivating! Happy Monday!

Poster via The Post Family

Today is my first day back to work after coming down with a serious something last Tuesday. I expected to be down for a day or two but certainly not six! I’m still taking things a bit slow, but it’s great to be able to start to make a dent on everything I wanted to accomplish during the first week of this new year. For me, the most challenging part about being so sick was the realization that this year, more than any other year, it’s time for me to start making some serious changes to the way I run my business. Luckily, I had some forced downtime to think about what those changes need to be. Even though I’m still feeling pretty “meh,” all I can do is…

.. and trust that I’ll get it all figured out. If you’re off to a rocky Monday like I am, take a deep breath. It really does help.

Print by Argyle Whale

As expected, this first working Monday of the new year came a bit too quickly for me. I have been offline (as much as possible) since December 24th, and I’ve kind of enjoyed it. Sure, the first few days “offline” were spent checking email on my phone every twenty minutes, but it was nice to slowly let it go in the days that followed. And now I’m back to business as usual. *sigh* But just a small sigh because, despite how challenging it was to get up and face the world via computer this morning, I am positively optimistic about this year!

I decided to maintain some level of productivity in my time away from the computer by doing a lot of thinking about what I wanted for myself, my business, and my career this year. Although some of these difficult conversations I have had with myself have only just begun, they feel productive and I’m grateful for the insight I have gained during this holiday break. While I don’t know what 2011 has in store for my business and my career, I do know that I will spend this year following and maintaining the messages below:

This poster, designed by Francesca Ramos, can be downloaded off of her site and printed out as an 11×17 version to hang on your wall. It’s a graphically gorgeous way to remind yourself to stay on the good path this year.

Best of luck to everyone this year! May all of your dreams and wishes for 2011 come true.

Top poster via The Poster List

This is it! Five very short days left until Christmas! Let’s all take a cathartic scream break (Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!) Done? Okay. Good. Now keep this in mind:

You and everyone around you will greatly appreciate it. Best of luck getting through this CRAZY week! Sorry for the short post but I’ve got stuff to do! (Ahhhhhhhhh) I needed one more stress relieving scream. Now I’m done.

*cool postcard via Hammerpress*

After my big party weekend, I had a feeling this particular Monday would come too soon. I was absolutely correct. In fact, as I’m writing this, I just overheard my fiance in the background say, “I’ve never been so tired in my life.” Good thing I’m not the only one. Just about the only thing bringing me to work and keeping me going today is the immense amount of residual love I’m feeling from this weekend’s birthday festivities. Everyone showed up looking fantastic, friends flew in from out of town, my fiance gave me the most wonderful toast, my piano was stacked with beautiful gifts, late nighters sang their hearts out at karaoke, and I had the most incredible birthday ever! The overwhelming feeling of love I feel is stronger than any cup of coffee I could have had this morning. That’s saying a lot considering I make one strong cup of coffee!

So even though I’m feeling like a semi-truck ran me over a few times, stop, reversed, and ran me over a few more times, I feel fabulous! Today…

Thanks to my loyal LAMA readers for indulging all of my party talk. Back to regular posting tomorrow!

*image via*

After taking a few days off to celebrate Thanksgiving in my native SoCal, I thought today was going to feel like one of those impossible Mondays. Instead, I’ve got a little pep in my step and I am ready to kick some ass this week! Why am I feeling so large and in charge? At the end of this week, I’m celebrating my birthday for the first time in four years and I’m pretty excited about it. You see, I’m one of those unfortunate Christmas babies. Anyone born during the week of Christmas can completely relate. It’s not the best time to have been born. As a retailer for the past couple of years, I have spent my birthday packaging and shipping out orders. While I’m still going to spend my actual birthday working, I’ve decided to throw a party for myself this weekend. It’s a big year for me… I’m turning 30! And I feel like I owe it to myself to:

To keep up the positive energy, this week I’m going to be blogging about all things party related. My favorite party gear, party eats and drinks, and of course, international fiestas! It’s a 30th Birthday Party Countdown for this little LAMA mama!

Love the illustration above? It’s by my favorite illustrator, the talented Kris Atomic.

I’ve been pretty sick since last Friday. I guess I caught the seasonal flu that’s been going around. Some people embrace a few days off of work to sit on the couch or stay in bed and watch their favorite sick day movies. Friday was that day for me. I ended up watching The Devil Wears Prada for the billionth time and, yes, I still adore it. By Saturday, my flu became completely unacceptable. Like most retailers and entrepreneurs, I work on the weekends. Because I physically could not bring myself to work this weekend, by Sunday evening I felt completely useless. Extreme? Of course! But sometimes you just can’t help how you feel about yourself or about certain situations. Especially the situations that are completely out of your control.  Luckily, my wonderful fiance was there last night to remind me that it’s okay to slow down and beyond being okay, it’s completely necessary. He reminded me that tomorrow is a new day, and Monday marks a whole new beginning to get back into the swing of things and move forward. So today, as I prepare to jump back in and make up for lost time, I have to keep in mind that all of the fear and anxiety I felt last night, well…

Though I’m not feeling 100% yet, I’m ready to move forward and get my work done. Today is a new day and the perfect day to start again. Happy Monday! Here’s to a short but productive week!

*image via*