Winter Sky - Seize the Day

Having grown up in the north, the cold winters we experience here in Pennsylvania are short. Definitely cold, but shorter than I grew up with. That's not a bad thing, but I really do love the winter. It makes me appreciate spring that much more.

But I love the smell of the cold air. I love it when the scent turns to snow, and you can tell it is coming. I like the how the sky turns pale and the sun turns a soft lemon color.

The trees contrast starkely with the blue skies, as the leaves are gone and the trees aren't so much one big object anymore, but many small bodies reaching into space.

The berries are so bright, in contrast.

In the summer, the bright fresh berries we grow are the same hue as the bright green grass and bushes and even the same hue as the royal blue sky. But though faded, the red of the rose hips still seems so boyant against the pale winter blue.

December 1st. Enjoy whatever it brings you.

Awesome FREE resource to help you be Creative

You know that I feel the need to imbue life - work and home - with creativity.

Well I couldn't resist sharing this giveaway I came across today.

Click HERE to go to a post by a Mixed Media Artist, Mahe Zehra Husain. I've been following her for a few years, and she has previously published several ebooks. You can find them all on Amazon by searching using her name. Most of her books are free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers, or minimal cost to everyone. One of them is The Ultimate Guide to Upcycling, a green crafts book. I love it. I have this one, but I am just too tired to look in my library to check which others I've got. I just want to post this for you to check out!

Earlier this week I saw on Amazon that she had another book, and it was listed as a cookbook. I thought, what?? hmmm...

So tonight I popped over to her site and found that the cookbook is an ebook about CREATIVITY.

I should have KNOWN! You will LOVE it.

I see some recipes in here that I've used, and some I haven't, so I can't wait to get started. She is so creative and this ebook is a great resource!

And on TOP of all this, she has MULTIPLE Free Resources

Go enjoy her site at alteredrecycling.com. You will LOVE her Christmas giveaways and more!!

Another use for the fingernail polish remover in your personal drawer

Everyone has their calendar on Outlook. Those of us in constant contact all share our calendar views.

Why would boss XX want everyone's calendar's on a dry erase board in the middle of our hallways.

We all belittled it.

But you know what? It helps!

Sometimes we take a walk across the office without looking at our calendars and end up looking through doors and windows until we remember to walk over to the hallway dry erase board and read it. It's closer than going all the way back to our desks.  And while the support staff usually look at the calendars, for some reason the management and team leaders never - ever - seem to remember they have that ability. And now that they are trained that the hall board is there, they are less likely to come bothering the support staff in our cubicles.

The calendar itself is actually three very large dry-erase boards, and one of the staff is a car-guy who suggested using car pinstriping to delineate the rows and columns.  This worked great.  Then we used Sharpie markers to write the names in the left-hand column, and dry-erase markers to enter locations during the days of the week. When new staff come, we use the fingernail polish remover from my personal drawer to erase the names and re-do the list. Perfect!

We also use a dry-erase board to re-write the car-usage calendar for the 3 company cards that we share.  Even though that is on a shared calendar as well, no one (again, except the support staff) seems to get that they can reserve it from the comfort of their own seat.  They inevitably walk the hallways until they get to the location were the dry-erase board is, in order to schedule the use of a car.

Well, we're not all rocket scientists.

And that's why they have us, Stellar Support Staff.  Because without us, they wouldn't be able to do what they do!

Creativity and Your Role as Support Staff

This summer I was asked to teach a session on creativity during a day long event for support staff.  I was thrilled!  I am a secretary, and I enjoy my job, but I am also many other things... and the organizers asked me to to this because they know me well.

At the start of my session, the group made its way around a large table that I had previously set up with tablecovers, paints, and canvases, and I introduced myself. I told the participants that I had a four year degree in Art History, and that I enjoyed putting my research skills to good use as a secretary. At least one of the women took offense at this, and thought I was kidding - denegrating her position as a secretary.  Quickly disagreeing, I explained that I was quite serious. Every day in the work I do, I use some of what made me a great student.  My ablity to think creatively, my tenacity, and my skills researching.

And this is the point of this blog.

I would like to help everyone expand their skill sets for the office! Not that I am the end all, but I will share what I know, I hope you will share what you know, and that we can ask others to join us to share what they know.

Welcome!

Reading anything good?  Here is what I'm reading today: