Yes, it’s coming…

… and I keep on posting about it.

I am corny, tacky, cheesy and all that. Whenever I have a horrible year, I feel like new year celebrations are just what I need, they revitalize me, they make me feel hopeful, the fill me with expectations and plans, maybe it’s just a psychological thing, maybe it’s the good vibe you can feel in the air, I don’t know, I just feel better when the new year starts.

2010, has been a very confusing year for me, a lot of things happened, both good and bad, nice and ugly, happy and sucky. It’s been so heavy, stressful, happy, glorious and depressing, and there’s been so much going on, that I really, really need this year to be over, so I can feel better.

2011 is a promise, it has not started, yet I feel it all around me. I have all these plans and goals, this new journal, this new planner, and this new year I can’t wait to rip open to make mine.

So Happy 2011 (or as Gala Darling calls it, two thousand and heaven), love it, live it and embrace it.

Love

Best of 2010

I found this on TUMBLR a few days ago, and I thought it was a good idea to incorporate into the “End of 2010” posts. So here you go.

1) BUDDY OF THE YEAR?
I love all of my friends, pretty much equally (As I don’t consider a lot of people as a friend, they already pretty damn special in my heart), but this year, Gelial and I had to share a lot and we finally came to terms about our past.

2) LIFETIME SERVICE AWARD (longest friend)
My lovely Charlotte would have to go here. I can’t really recall how long has it been since we met, but damn it’s been long. This year we got to spend a little more time together than usual due to her constantly coming back from USA, and it was awesome.

3) NEWCOMER AWARD – COOLEST NEWEST FRIEND/s?
I met a lot of new people in my new school, I think I am yet to consider them friends, but there was this girl who did an awesome thing for me back in November, so I’ll say Yunuen.

3) HIGHEST POINT OF THE YEAR?
March… I had plenty other good moments, but still, March was amazing.

4) LOWEST POINT OF THE YEAR?
April…

5) BEST HOLIDAY?
My Anniversary with my boyfriend.

6) YOUR SONG FOR 2010?
Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku – Utena’s Soundtrack

7) BEST MOVIE FOR 2010?
Inception, I swear, I loved it so much.

8) WHO DID YOU SPEND VALENTINES WITH AND WHERE?
Honestly, I can’t remember, I think it was an absolutely meaningless day to me, since back then I wasn’t that sure about how serious things were between my boyfriend and I (I am that weird).

9) WHAT WERE YOU FOR HALLOWEEN?
A Girl wearing PJ’s. I swear. One of the most exhausting days in my year. My boyfriend and I went o Divymode’s party and I was literally falling asleep. Quoting her ‘You look tired and the fact that you’re wearing pajamas makes it even more evident’

10) RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR?
I think I renewed my love for Truco 7. After trying many over the year, I discover it’s better than many others and cheaper.

11) KISS OF THE YEAR?
I can’t tell exactly when it happened, but it was on a day my boyfriend was at home cooking with me, I was chopping mushrooms and we were talking, suddenly I got quiet, holding the knife in my hand and I felt like I had to kiss him, he was looking at me when I turned around and we kissed, for a loooong loooooong time. Best kiss ever, I swear.

12) BEST DECISION MADE THIS YEAR?
Go to Design School, start my own business.

13) WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR?
I’ll have to refer you to this post.

14) MOST STUPID IDEA WHEN DRUNK?
“Sure, I can walk to the bathroom”

15) TV SHOW OF THE YEAR?
Two and a half man. I started watching it this year and I loved it.

16) MOST LOYAL FRIEND(s)?
❤ Genízaros. I love them.

17) HEARTBREAKER OF THE YEAR
I did not get my heart broken this year.

18) BIGGEST CHANGE OF THE YEAR?
Easter. That’s all I have to say.

19) NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?
Then again, this post.

My daily Moleskine 2011

The last few days I’ve seen a huge amount of traffic coming here in the search of a good efficient hack for your Moleskine, and I decided that, since I am about to start working on my 2011 daily planner, I would share my method with you, this one covers only 6 months of my year, but if you get your hands on a larger notebook that you don’t mind carrying around for an entire year, you can extend it as much as you need it. So here you have it: The complete guide to my Jan-Jun 2011 Moleskine daily planner.

First things first, You’ll pretty much need:

• A 192 lined pages, ruled pocket notebook, I use Moleskine, but you can use a different one if you prefer.
• A Ruler
• Pen, it doesn’t have to be fancy since it will be your working pen right now
• A line dater stamp (no necessary, but it makes things a lot easier)
• A stamp pad and Ink (if you’re using the dater stamp)
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Post-it’s Filing Tabs (or any other brand)
• Printer

After you get all your material, you want to start by writing a list, this list should include each and every section you will need in your planner, try to be as specific as possible, since this list will help you select the space for every section. My list goes like this:

1. Personal Information
2. Calendars
3. Goals
4. Monthly planners
5. Daily planner
6. July on…
7. Projects
8. Manifesting
9. I love
10. Music/Movies
11. Article Ideas
12. Spending
13. EFT
14. Extra

Some of these take about 1 or 2 pages, but it’s really helpful to have a list you can follow. Now, these are the sections I need to sort my life out, you may not need to manifest or a monthly planner, but hey, that’s your call, really think about the things you need to have written, if you don’t need it, you mustn’t have it, the key to really make this work, is make it as personal as possible, so it can become a real tool for your life.

Decide the order in which these are going to go; for me it would go right the way you have it listed up here. Now, I am offering you a few things I made and edited for this, these are, Monthly planners, Personal information sheet and two calendars, if you find them useful, you can print them and use them, they fit a bit small for a Moleskine. I printed mine and right after my monthly planners, I started ruling my Moleskine to cover a week every 2 pages, like this:

Every day has 7 lines and the last small two are for saturday and sunday, do this for 27 weeks and then get ready to stamp your dates, or write them by hand if that’s you call. If you’re using a dater stamp, be sure you set 2011!

After you have half-year stamped, then use the rest of the space to personalize your areas, separate the amount of pages you will use for each section with a clip and then start labeling them with the filing tabs either on top or on the side, (NOTE: If you’re labeling them on top, be sure not to invade the elastic area!), and you’re good to go! You’re ready to fill the rest with your own information, I like to keep a flagging pen with my planner, in case there’s something I need to highlight.

This is pretty much how my planner works. I hope you found this useful kitties, excuse the lack of a good camera, but I didn’t want to end the year without sharing this.

Love,

 

What are you planning for 2011?

Resolutions, goals, plans, call them whatever you want, we all have them; you may hate the term ‘resolutions’ when it comes this time of the year, but truth is, we all are always planning, working, and hoping for something. Whether you keep yours as yearly resolutions or not (I do this, but actually divide most of my goals in six months plans), tell me, what is your list?

Mine is divided in two groups, Static and Ongoing. I consider the Ongoing to be the most important, it is constantly evolving and it goes pretty much like this:

• Eat more fruits – I am a terribly picky  eater, and I’m not really used to incorporate them into my diet. I’m not very tolerant of all of them, but I’ll try to eat them more. Even eating one everyday is a lot more than I do right now.
• Cut on my Candy addiction – I wrote about this on The 88 days project. Sadly I gotta say, this is one of the hardest goals for me to achieve, I have such a sweet tooth. Still, I’m not a quitter (even though this very goal involves quitting on something :P) and I will double my efforts for this
• Drink more water – I used to drink about 2 – 3 liters of water a day, but nowadays I barely drink any. I need to get that habit back.
• End my year with at least 3 important clients – Since I set my business, I’ve been procrastinating a bit on my networking, but I’m working on it already, I am working with 3 good clients right now, one of them a corporation that hired me in the past for a short project, and is willing to hire me again for a year-long project. I’m happy.
• Improve my web skills – During 2011 I’ll take a special course on this.
• Keep my life organized – I hate to admit it, but I’m one of those people who really needs to write a list of steps and plans of action to keep my life in place. This week I’ll be showing you guys how I’m planning to organize my Moleskine for this.
• Save money! – This goes hand in hand with cutting on my candy addiction, since most of my money goes on this. I’ll create a budget and I’ll stick to it. I already have a savings account.
• Try to finish one of my careers – If things go as I’m planning, this year will be my last year in school as an ‘under-pressure-student’ (meaning, my mom will finally get a title to brag about) don’t take me wrong, I love what I do, but I just want to get over with it. 😀
• Learn a new language – Portuguese to be precise. I already understand it a bit (since it’s so similar to spanish) but I want to be able to speak it, and since I was able to teach myself English, I try to do it to with Portuguese, We’ll see. 😀
• Keep the love in my life – As you guys know I’m in a relationship of over a year right now, I love this man more than I can possibly express, that’s why, I’m planning on a major relationship review soon, just to make sure everything is good and dandy. 😀
• Work out more!! – I’ve been postponing this for so long, and I need to really get my hands on it now.

On the other side, Static list involves things I just want to do and then be over with.

• Go to the dentist.
• Get out of debt.
• Buy a new camera.
• Clean my house and throw everything I no longer remember having.
• Get into as many classes as possible.
• Invest.

As you can see, in general, I think I need to pay more attention to my health, and work on school, everything else, will just come along.

To keep myself motivated and remember the things I want to do, I’ll copy this list on my Moleskine and also, my new journal and I’ll practice major manifesting (That Gala Darling podcast is seriously one of my favorites, I’ve heard it over a hundred times and it always serves a great inspiration) and EFT (One of the cool things about EFT is that you don’t have to believe in it, for it to work, so you guys should try it).

So, tell me, What are your plans?

Things here and there

I’ve been really stressed lately, but it’s not this kind of stress that you know will eventually go away, I am stressing over things I know I can’t help, stupid things if you might. Things that worry me, things I can’t quite solve myself, small and big things equally. I’ve been losing my sleep a bit.

It’s almost christmas and I still have so much to do. If you feel like you need any help (like I do right now) copping with holiday stress and such, check out the article I wrote last year Your Ringo-ish guide to survive the holidays (X-mas edition). I just read it again, and felt a bit better over things that are escaping my control.

Next year is right arond the corner and, since I’m getting all this traffic from people looking for a way to organize their lifes with a moleskine hack, I think iI’ll get my hands in one next year and I’ll document the process for you.

I am still a bit out of my orbit right now, so I guess I’ll leave it here. BTW I’m trying on a new signature, I’m not quite sure, but I’ll use it a bit and if I get tired I’ll go back to the usual one.

Kisses,