RSSCategory: Outside The Box
Prince Edward Island Summer
July 28, 2010
Regular readers will know that I come from this very small and magical island on the East coast of Canada. I will be here for a short while. Posts on AGT will begin again in early August. How could one be in this place and not see life as it could be? It reminds us [...]
Read moreRoad Trip Highlights
December 31, 2009
Until someone thinks of something better, a bus dragging a trailer must be the perfect family trip vehicle. Inside the bus would be the same number of sealed Plexiglass chambers as there are family members. Each would have its own thermostat. The chambers would be soundproofed so we wouldn’t all be subjected to the squelching, sucking, soggy, and altogether disturbing sounds of Pirates of the Carribean 2.
Read moreChristmas In Full Colour
December 24, 2009
We’re off on the family road trip to PEI yet again. Someone may have to ride on the roof to make room for all the hair products. We’ve blocked all the Christmas carol radio stations. Bill hasn’t gotten over the Bananaphone cassette episode and that was 15 years ago. The back of his seat is [...]
Read moreGifts from Real People 2
November 28, 2009
Ours in not a family that can give $250 watches as gifts, though the magazines tell us that we’re supposed to give them and expect to receive them.
For those of us, which includes most of us, who shop at our local malls and box stores, how about these?
Gifts From Real People 1
October 23, 2009
Here we go again. Every magazine is showing gift suggestions. There are some lovely ideas but if you live in Canada, if you live in a small town, and/or if you can’t spend $50 on each person (nevermind the $250 bar set), what do real people give? What do real people want?
Read moreSonja’s Chicken Soup In A Flash
October 15, 2009
I LOVE soup. It is my favorite food after cherries. This recipe is a favorite. The simplicity is so pleasant and undemanding. It just feels good.
Read moreComments Disabled
July 5, 2009
We’ll be making a few changes with the blog this week. Actually, I will be thanking Heaven every day for my excellent site maintenance friend, Rick Beckman, who will be making these changes for us.
As the site gets more traffic, there are times when a Traffic Overload message restricts access. Rick is aiming to correct that.
Comments are temporarily disabled because newer comments may get lost in the process. The next post is Makeup Model : Cool Winter, due to publish on July 15.
Choosing A Business Name
May 27, 2009
It feels very cleansing to get rid of half the stuff you own but you need a good reason to get to it. The Color Analysis studio is taking shape. It needs a name.
Have you ever tried to name a business? or a website? Essentially the same thing nowadays. It ain’t easy.
So I started with
Color Compass or Clock CA (Color Analysis) – because the color wheel is a circle, and the hands point to a position. But too navigational.
Stopwatch CA , also a clock, but with a “lock-and-load”, “you’ve arrived” connotation; this might be better for a line of anti-aging gimmicks creams.
Color Path CA - it’s a journey of self-discovery… yadayada, what isn’t?
ColorWorks CA – here is where I realize that the word “color” is being repeated too much.
There’s way more. It makes my head swirl.
EnergyWorks CA - that’s a yoga studio.
Rainbow Energy CA – Can you see doves being released in the background and hear music playing?
Image Accelerated CA – hardly restful.
New Confidence CA – too generic.
Chroma CA – how many people know what Chroma means?
YDS Definition CA - YDS is for Your Deeper Self ; first question people have is, of course, what the heck is YDS? or did you say YSD? is it all one word?
Precision CA – sounds like a tire balancing service but I liked the sciency- ness which appeals to my analytical nature.
Perfect By Nature CA – because you are; that’s the whole point. But it sounds like a line of organic yogurt.
Organic CA – to convey the innate, unadorned truth of the colors you were born with, but all I can picture is yogurt.
Natural Selection CA – like, what has Darwin got to go with this?
Exclusively You CA – a dress boutique, a rather standard and expensive one at that.
Imagine CA – my daughter’s favorite, after Tie-Dye CA. Why, yes, she is very creative, now that you ask. For those who know me, why, right again, it is the middle child.
Imagine Perfect CA – insert here sound of celestial voices raised in song to convey excessive New Age-ness. Might as well call it “On Your Own Wings”.
Very nice. I’m more this guy.
I had a Hungarian mother, see.
Picture Perfect CA – a children’s photography studio. Or maybe pets.
First Impression CA – too common.
Experiment with Success CA – better as a tagline on a business card.
Power Source CA - too scary.
Intentionality CA – what???
UAccelerate CA (I’ve seen Star Trek twice and am going back again and again; it has me thinking in terms of forward momentum and exploration, though I felt Command Center CA was a bit much for all of us) ( and I figured iColor was copyrighted).
Envision CA, probably my favorite; it goes with other cool words like Engadget and Encarta. And Enterprise and Energy. Is that auspicious? And Entertain. It speaks to me about imagination and possibility, 2 things I like a lot.
Enlighten CA (my sweet children tell me the last 2 sound like “where Jesus gets his colors done” ; they told me I might as well call it Lamb Of God CA, the little turkeys).
Into Focus CA – boring name, though that is what happens. Our eyes don’t lock onto other people’s eyes because the person is not in focus. When your colors are right, the gaze doesn’t keep wandering all around because the edges aren’t smudged anymore. People look right at you. And you look right back.
Color Specialist CA – feels too self-promoting. Maybe you have to get used to that when you run your own business.
The Colors Within CA – repeats the word color again.
Accent on Color CA – too broad. Sounds like a Home Decor place.
Full Circle CA – from the color wheel but rather general.
Cycle of Seasons, or something about Season Flow – sounds menstrual. The tagline could be Menopause and Makeup.
The Key – to suggest unlocking. The Key sounds like a spy agency. I asked my children for another word for “unlock” and they suggested “Alohomora”, which is Harry Potter for unlock. Special.
Transformation CA – synonymous with The Biggest Loser.
Yes, I know that perfect is the sworn enemy of good and it’s not that important. If you have any inspiration here, dearest readers, please help me out.
I’m better at taglines and slogans. I found Businesscardland, a great site where you can print your own business cards. I can use a different color combination and tagline with every run.
End the uncertainty.
Stop wondering.
Imagine knowing for sure.
Imagine 60 Perfect Colors.
-->It feels very cleansing to get rid of half the stuff you own but you need a good reason to get to it. The Color Analysis studio is taking shape. It needs a name.
Have you ever tried to name a business? or a website? Essentially the same thing nowadays. It ain’t easy.
100 Best Wellness Blogs For Women
April 24, 2009
Sifting through the many good blogs to find the great ones requires more time than many of us have. We often find them by accident.
Take some time to browse through this list. There are some real gems here that you’ll visit often.
10 Ways To Tell That Your Husband Hates Malls
February 5, 2009
There are no day trips I love better than going to the United States. I don’t buy a lot. I just like being there. I don’t need to go to a mall, though I always prefer it. The people are very nice and so wonderfully pleased to be themselves. It’s infectious. The Canadian angst about having too much fun fades for a day. You can just abandon yourself to being completely happy just being in the world. Americans suffer no inner torment about having too much fun.
Photo by christopher.woo
Unfortunately, and much as it irritates my empowered woman self, I cannot overcome my fear of driving in their cities. The roads are a spaghetti junction of choices, construction, and detours. I need my husband to drive me to the mall of the day. He has a built-in compass. I mean that quite literally. Watches stop ticking within 2 days of being strapped to his wrist. He can slow a computer down too so I keep mine in a room he never goes in.
… but then, I wish he could enter a suspended animation till I’m done. I’m jittery. This is how I can tell he wants to leave :
1. He wants to sightsee and take his time on the drive to get there. I want to speed and get jacked on coffee on the way.
2. He orders the same thing at Tim Horton’s and at Starbuck’s. Psychic barristas that they hire at Starbuck’s, they know better than to get into Venti and Grande with this guy. It’s “Large, black”.
3. If you go into a store together, he takes one trip round and asks “See anything you like?”
4. I get him to take the kids for lunch so I can have an hour alone. I return, sweat running down my back, to find them all lined up on a bench. I told him there was an Apple Store, an EBGames, but alas, no. All lined up on a bench.
5. He is impervious to the word Sale, and a little worried about my reaction to it. The amount of money he sees me changing at the border has the same effect (the worry part).
Photo by Saudi…
6. He has a phobia of dressing rooms and bathrooms. Both represent nothing but a huge inconvenience. This is why all his clothes come from Mark’s Work Wearhouse. He goes in twice a year, hands the girl at the cash the tags he’s ripped off his previous season’s selection, stocks up, and leaves. I must pretend not to notice, so inconceivable is it to me.
7. He’s not interested in the architectural details of the mall construction, skyways and such. I think the whole mood of a mall is very much influenced by the design details. I observe these things. He might notice if the benches were heated.
8. I try again to get 15 minutes alone. I return to find, you guessed it, all 4 of them lined up on a bench. And the kids are hungry. They’re in a Food Court !! How is it possible?
9. There is never anything he wants to buy. JCrew could be giving away merchandise and he’d walk right by.
10. He seems to have developed a new love of people-watching. He’ll sit there for 2 hours, till I cannot stand it anymore and it’s me that’s insisting on leaving.
-->Much as it irritates my empowered woman self, I cannot overcome my fear of driving in US cities. The roads are a spaghetti junction of choices, construction, and detours. I need my husband to drive me to the mall of the day… but then, I wish he could enter a suspended animation till I’m done. I’m jittery. This is how I can tell he wants to leave.
Read moreGet daily makeup and colour updates. Join the 12 Blueprints Fan Club on Facebook! A Click on the box will take you there.
-
A Greener Tea
Web Maintenence by Rick Beckman
