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Since February is the month of
LOVE, let me ask you....what is in your life that you
absolutely LOVE? (And just as importantly, what is in
your life that you DON'T LOVE, so you can get rid of it, if
at all possible,
to make room for what you do?!)
I'd encourage you to make a list of what you have in your life that you LOVE. My phone consulting clients often tell me things that are creative blocks and a LOVE LIST is something I suggest to help them "clear the life clutter" so they have time to do the things they LOVE. To get you working on this, as an example, here's my own LOVE LIST, which changes as my life evolves: 1. My Christian faith. 2. My hubby of 27 years, Steve. Read more about our long term and a bit humorous LOVE story below as I celebrate him in the month of LOVE. 3. My two Scottish Fold cats, Monique and Beau, 13 and 14 years old, and with us since they were just babies. What LOVES as you will note by their photo below. 4. My national decorating magazine writing. I have two more articles due to be published this spring. Plus I LOVE my awesome writing and phone consulting clients from all over the U.S. You can meet about some of them below. 5. My new "island" HOME. We sold our cottage condo after much deliberation and several long months on the market, and are finally in an apartment in San Diego that we just LOVE. Our unit's windows are right in the bamboo and palm trees, with a lovely view, so I call it my treehouse, or more specifically our "Tea/Tee for Two Treehouse." (By the way, I LOVED working with my second realtor, Michael Levison, of The Alan Shafran Group because he was a total PRO, as was our moving company.) 6. My e-newsletter and blog readers who have become my dear virtual friends and clients. 7. Spa for One Sanctuary. These gals gave me TLC during my stressful condo sale. I adore their services, their beautiful spa sanctuary, and them! 8. Turning "old stuff that doesn't cost much" into fun home decorating accents for a comfy cottage style look. "Beautiful thrift" gives me a thrill. 9. The beach. The beach. Watching kids play at the beach. (Did I mention the beach? It's free!) 10. Going to B&B Inns with hubby Steve. We've stayed in 60 of them, in 17 states, since 1987. ( I call it my "magnificent obsession!" It's how we rejuvenate from life's stressors, not to mention it's been an awesome decorating and culinary school! Well, okay, I admit the culinary part did not rub off much on me!) 
I LOVE happy clients, and I
received two wonderful e-mails
this month from two of them. (Their names remain
anonymous at this time for confidentiality reasons.)
"Dear Kathryn, As my PR mentor, I thought you would like to know...I've had another positive response to some submissions. I would never have had the courage to try and contact anyone before working with you. Thanks for having so much faith in me and for all your encouragement. I really feel you've gone above and beyond and all your efforts on my behalf are so appreciated. I also wanted you to know, that as a good little PR student, I continue to send out packets each week and have even sent out 3 followup packets already. Thank you, PR maven!" "Dear Kathryn, I am over the moon with excitement and I want to thank YOU for your encouragement, your belief in me, and for being a part of this magical journey. " Here's how I can help your business! P.S. I was recently invited to be interviewed for a telesummit about PR along with some awesome well known speakers and authors. My topic: How to Get FREE PR for Your Business Even if You're on a Shoestring Budget and Have Zero Media Connections! It's FREE and my call will be recorded for your convenience. Register here.
I LOVED receiving two e-mails
this month from e-newsletter readers in South Africa.
Welcome foreign friends to my global e-newsletter
family!
Thank you for your kind words and if I have inspired
you as you say, then I am the one who is truly blessed!!
"Dear Kathryn, I just read your first newsletter of the year and was inspired to reply to your question: What about you? What about me? I live in Johannesburg, South Africa and work in a corporate environment. I have made a conscious decision to get out of the rat race. I have many ideas bumping about in my head to allow me to work from home. What I do need is that "kick in the pants" to make me do it! : - ) Between you and Carrie from The Barefoot Executive,I feel that I can take my leap of faith and leave the hustle and bustle of working for a boss. So thank you for the inspiration." Regards, Kathleen from Johannesburg, South Africa Okay, Kathleen, here's a tough-LOVE "virtual kick in the pants" from me from across the globe!! Go for it! --Kathryn-- :) "Dear Kathryn, I noticed in your latest blog post, (I love your new home and front door ideas) that you had received an e- mail from South Africa. Well, here is your second! I 'discovered' you through Alexndra Stoddard's website (I think) about a year ago. I love Alexandra's books and hints. Through your blog (I didn't even know what a blog was this time last year) I discovered Silver Bell Cottage and lots of other inspiring lives shared on blogs! I didn't imagine I could ever have my own. But my son-in-law, Ryan, egged me on and purchased a scanner and digital camera and set up my blog template. I 'launched' my own blog this week! Thatchwick Cottage. Please visit as you are part of my story too! Thank you also for all the lovely decorating ideas. I can't wait to read your chapter in the Miracles book as I also share the Christian faith. Many thanks once again. " Blessings! Eleanor Lemmer from Pretoria, South Africa
I LOVE writing about cottage style
decorating and I wrote an article last year that was
published online about
how you can create a cozy cottage style home, no
matter where you live.
Cottage Cozy in the City
I just received this dear e-mail from reader Caroline in Brooklyn, NY this month, who is making her very big city apartment into the cozy cottage style haven she loves. Yes, it can be done! "Hello Kathryn, I enjoy your e-newsletters so much and have been reading them for about a year when I was searching for cottage decorating tips online. I wanted to tell you your own cottage condo home is magnificent!! The colors are gorgeous. I read the magazines Romantic Homes, Flea Market Style, and others religiously. I get truly inspired. Thank you for making the day a little sweeter!" Fondly, Caroline Barnard from Brooklyn, NY P.S. I have asked Caroline to submit photos to me of her home for possible submission to the decorating magazines I write for. (The photo is of my fur baby Monique enjoying our new place in her very own cottage style chair!)
In this month of LOVE, I feel
blessed, because my personal prince swept me off
my
feet almost 28 years ago when he asked me to marry
him two months after we met, when we were 18 and
19 years old!
My now hubby Steve persisted religiously--it took many phone calls before I'd agree to go out with him, for various reasons that shall remain a mystery! Well, okay, I confess that one of them was my independent spirit and the other one was another boyfriend!--but finally I reassessed--logical and organized gal that I am--I made a pros and cons list! (And I told the other boyfriend farewell, since I'm a one man kind of woman!) By the second date with Steve, I was smitten, and I still am! A budding romance was not in my life plan at the time we met as I was about to jet off to the excitement of New York City, but Steve agreed that was fine and he'd wait for me to come home, (or if I didn't, he said he'd come and get me!) So the story goes, I had my little New York adventure and received at least three letters a week from him, and then I followed my heart and ....I came back home! We planned our wedding and one week (yes, really!) before the ceremony our church altar burned! We had to relocate the wedding to another church and as a young 21 year old bride when they suggested we could use paper plates for the reception, I was not amused! Because even though I'm a thrifty sort of gal, I do like elegance too, and my idea of a nice wedding was not paper plates! But alas, it all worked out, we had china plates, and now, 27 years later, I can laugh about it all! (And to think that after all that, I now interview brides about their "real weddings" for the beautiful glossy San Diego Style Weddings magazine. Just click the link to flip the online pages and you can read a story I wrote about a celebrity wedding planner on page 36 and my interview with Miss World and her beau on page 294.) Well, as our own wedding story continues, a year or so ago, we stayed in a Bed & Breakfast Inn and re-read our LOVE letters to each other from that New York summer, and laughed until we were silly! (And in the wisdom of our middle age, we also threw a few of them away just in case someone might find them! :) Dear Steve, in this month of LOVE, I LOVE you and thank you just for being you, for being my best friend and favorite person to be around, for supporting all my dreams and having patience with me, and for everything you help me with in this life...too numerous to mention, but including...handyman-ing...(is that a word?)...car fixing...(I detest auto body shops!)...business idea bouncer- offer...(you have a level head on your shoulders)... accounting...(ugh!)... flower bringer...(my favorite roses)... techie computer guru, (up 'til 2 a.m. getting my internet working recently, without a complaint)...and all around man of great LOVE and infinite patience with a wife who has a driven and adventurous spirit that is constantly brimming with creative ideas to add to your honey-do list! You're a gem! (I'm fond of saying the two of us together make one normal person!) And to all the good men out there, in the month of LOVE, who do so much for the women they LOVE, and sometimes don't hear often enough the words, "Thank you. We appreciate you." Well, hear it now: Thank you, great men, and we do! Couples Tip: I highly recommend the new book, Happiness for Two: 75 Secrets for Finding More Joy Together by my favorite author, Alexandra Stoddard. When Steve and I attended her "Happiness Weekend" at her cottage in CT in 2006, it was clearly apparent that she and her dear hubby of 30 plus years, Peter Brown, are a shining example of a true LOVE story. When we evacuated for the CA wildfires, all my autographed copies of Alexandra's 20 plus books were taken with me as they are true treasures due to the impact her writing has made on my life! I met her in 1994 and my life was forever made more beautiful and rich, enabling me to appreciate all the beauty and goodness around me, and to more easily transcend difficulties. Photo of me with Steve Christmas 2007 at the Palm Springs Tennis Club.
I do not participate in
SPAM, so if
you do not want
to receive any more of these
e-announcements or e-newsletters, please
click on the
SafeUnsubscribelink
at the bottom of this page to be
removed from my e-mailing list.
Time for a little Inn-LOVE. Hubby
Steve and I did a short but sweet one night R&R
getaway a couple
of years ago at the beautiful Glorietta Bay Inn. It's
near the soft white sand of
the long strip of beach on Coronado
Island, CA. Their breakfast room is beautifully ornate,
as shown in the photo I took of it here. It feels like a
step back in time to a more gracious era. (And one I'd
like to have been born in!) Take some
time for a little
virtual tour.
If you want to decorate your own bedroom like a B&B, read the article I wrote here.
"What the world really needs is more LOVE and less paperwork." --Pearl Bailey "One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is LOVE." ~Sophocles~ "Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing." -1 Thessalonians 5:11, The Bible
When you hire me for a
writing project
or a phone consultation, I
will feature your business in an upcoming
edition of
this
newsletter, which currently goes out to
over 500
wonderful
people from the U.S., Canada, England, South Africa,
and
Australia.
Please
forward this
newsletter on to your
friends, using the "Forward email" link at
the bottom of the page! (Yes, those are my
two "fur
kids"--my cottage cats, Beau & Monique, and
they are
fast friends!)
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