*8 Things

In mid-July I was blog-hopping: catching up with old “friends” and discovering new blogs. For quite a while I have had Magpie Girl in my reader and find her entries captivating, engaging, touching, honest, inclusive, kind and thoughtful. We enjoy similar things: reading Leo Babauta and encourage others to follow his lead and do less; participate in Susannah Conway’s “Unravelling” course, join in over at Kind Over Matter, wreck journals and a similar perspective on a variety of topics.

As anyone who reads here knows, I enjoy a challenge and found on her blog a series of *8 Things. It captured my imagination immediately and I’ve decided that around here, on Thursday’s, I will post my *8 Things: random things, thoughtful things, funny things, silly things, serious things; all kinds of things which will change from week to week.

Outlined on her blog (and exactly what I found appealing): *8 Things is a little game I made up for myself in an attempt to quiten down my monkey mind. I tend to be a little bit bipolar when it comes to creativity. Either I have a million ideas and passions, or none at all. In the times when ideas are flowing, I rely on lists. *8 Things is a way for me to keep collections of ideas, thought, quotes and quanderies on-hand for later exploration.

I can relate to her bipolar relationship with creativity, as it mirrors my experience. On many levels *8 Things is appealing: I live by my lists, I try to not “reinvent the wheel” and I’m happy to participate in a structured but unstructured meme. Because, she’s right, why the hell not?

So here is my first *8 Things:

Sites and Blogs discovered this summer: many of these may not be new to you, but they’re new to me!

1. Write.Click.Scrapbook has been an incredible inspiration. When the decision was made to cease publication of Simple Scrapbooks there was a collective intake of breath, met soon thereafter when the brilliant women of SS designed a creative collective.
2. Flickr has been around for ages and is a proven, wonderful photography and communication tool. On top of that, it is a great collection of communities and I’m very much enjoying and learning from so many over there.
3. Ella Publishing is brand new, introduced at CHA in late July. Another site developed by some of those women displaced when Simple Scrapbooks disappeared. Not just for scrapbookers, this is a brilliant site for intelligent thought and creativity.
4. TastyKitchen is the Pioneer Woman’s new cooking/recipe site. It is really incredible and useful. I’ve always enjoyed the Pioneer Woman blog, but to have this tool, who knows, I might just cook more at home!
5. The Happiness Project Toolbox site is an extension of Gretchen Rubin’s brilliant Happiness Project blog and WOW, it’s been up for months and I still haven’t discovered everything available.
6. MacTopia is my own personal IT department! I am a Mac convert with a background completely PC. So my old brain didn’t grind to a screeching halt, both mac macines were loaded with Microsoft software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) as well as the brilliant Mac programs. The best of both! MacTopia answers all of my questions so I don’t drive the poor guys at Canadian Computer crazy.
7. Leo on the Loose provides me with inspiration in much the same way as Marta Writes inspires me. I was thrilled to find it when this was posted.
8. Colour Wheel is a brilliant tool. I am confident when it comes to colour and don’t find myself in a panic over what goes with what or why, but I know a number of people get stuck on what colours to choose – for a couch, a layout, a bathroom. So, here’s a wonderful tool to make the decision making easier! It's also fun to have the wheel choose layout colours for me!
   

I do hope you get a chance to visit the sites above. Even better? Join in and let me know your *8 Things each week!