Personal Style

Fess Up: When Was The Last Time That You Did Something Just For The Heck Of It?

/ Ally Bean / 16 Comments

DSCN1954

I don’t know if arty is the right word to use here.

Maybe what I did by cutting out images from catalogues and then placing them in a stylish way upon our dining room table isn’t arty.

Maybe it’s just plain goofy.

Or maybe it’s just an example of nostalgia.   You know, the sort of thing that we used to do when we were young and had time on our hands and there was no Pinterest.

Yep, that’s the explanation that I’m going to go with here.  This inspiration board is RETRO.

Something that I did just for the heck of it.  

Like when I was a girl with an eye for graphics and design– but didn’t know that was what I really was doing when I made my inspiration boards.   

Or, as in this case, like an adult trapped inside the house courtesy of frigid temps, looking for ways to “refresh” & “make a statement.”      

A Book Chat [Sort Of] About The Three Books That I’m Reading [Kind Of] This Month

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

[This month I’ve read three books.  Well, to be more accurate– I’ve been browsing through, glancing at, skimming across three books.  Because these books are not my usual fare of novels, histories, memoirs, I didn’t feel like I needed to read them in a linear way.  Kind of fun to read like this, btw.]

~ • ~

•  For Christmas I received a copy of Giada’s Feel Good Food by Giada De Laurentiis.  The book is mostly a cookbook with a few pages of personal details every so often.  Over the weekend I sat down to read the personal parts of the book and found this quote on page 198: “I have curly hair, so I always brush it in the shower.”

This makes no sense to me.  I’ve always been told to never brush my curly hair when it is wet.  Yet here is Little Miss Accomplished & Gorgeous telling me to do this.

I’m confused.  More than normal, that is.  Why is she doing this?

~ • ~

•  A business acquaintance gave me a signed copy of Bring Your Superpowers To Work by Darcy Eikenberg, ACC.  As some of you know, I have a love/hate relationship with self-help books.  A few of them I’ve found to be useful, but most of them I find to be stating the obvious, poorly written and ultimately defeatist.

That being said, I love this book.  Darcy is a life coach who knows how to write and provides practical ideas about how to become a better version of yourself.  My favorite witticism of hers is on page 51: “affirm the squirm.”  Meaning that if you’re intellectually uncomfortable with a new healthy behavior, then you’re growing a superpower & going in the right direction for you.

I’m still working on my Superpowers List;  but when I complete it, I’ll be epic.

~ • ~

  •  I’d forgotten all about Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg until I found a copy of it when I was reorganizing our home office after the new desk arrived.  I decided that reading bits & pieces of this book, in no particular order, would be a great way for me to jumpstart my writing career.

To wit, the piece that I’m currently enamored of is on page 119 where she talks about making writing sweet:  “… always associate learning with sweetness.  It should be the same with writing.  Right from the beginning, know that it is good and pleasant.  Don’t battle with it.  Make it your friend. “

Isn’t this a lovely thought?  Who doesn’t need more friends?

~ • ~

Of Blogs, Beans & Bears

/ Ally Bean / 16 Comments

All the cool kids are telling their stories about how & why they chose the names that they did for their blogs.  Read this.

Naturally, I want to be a cool kid, too.  So here’s my story of how this blog came to be named, The Spectacled Bean.

~ • ~

SHORT VERSION:  I am nearsighted and wear eye glasses (aka spectacles) all the time.  My blogging nom de plume is Ally Bean.  Ergo, I am The Spectacled Bean.

LONG VERSION:  I knew that I wanted to start a blog, but was dithering around about the whole thing.  I kept thinking that if I could figure out the perfect name for a blog, then I’d do it.

Well, one sunny winter’s day Z-D & I went to the zoo.  Many of the animals were at their best, loving the coldness.  As a result of this, we stopped to watch some animals that until now I’d never paid much attention to.

One of said animals was the spectacled bear.  He was moseying around his enclosure and looked rather dapper.  Reading the information* about him I knew that he was just the sort of animal that had the right attitude.

I was smitten– and in a moment of divine inspiration I realized that by using a modified version of his name for my blog’s name, I could describe myself.  Hence, this blog is called The Spectacled Bean.

~ • ~

{ source }

 

~ • ~

*  Often described as small, adaptable and elusive, spectacled bears  can “… while away the hours in treetops, occasionally feeling the urge to become productive when they build huge platforms out of broken branches, to help them get at out of reach fruit.”  

I’m Going Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

/ Ally Bean / 15 Comments

•  To review, on Friday I presented you, my gentle readers, with 5 Truths & 1 Lie.  Since then many of you have hazarded a guess about which of my statements is the lie.

Also, many of you have suggested that I’m a good liar.  I’m still processing that idea.  I don’t know whether you say it to flatter my ego;  or to cover your butt if you pick the wrong statement as the lie.

•  Be that as it may, the lie I told was:

“4.  I DRIVE a gray SUV.  I named him Bullwinkle because of his color [which Lexus says is blue, but they’re wrong].  He’s not a new vehicle,  but he gets me where I need to go.”

This is a lie because I DRIVE A WHITE V-6 HONDA ACCORD COUPE.  Named Olivia. Rather old.  She has a snazzy decklid spoiler and sports leather seats with wood paneling stuff inside the car.  Plus she gets fabulous gas mileage.

Yep, that’s the way I live.  I’m more Nancy Drew in her little blue roadster than Shirley Partridge in her funky van.

•  All of which brings me to the only reason, I suspect, that any of you are still reading this post.  Thanks to all who took the time to comment, but the few gentle readers who guessed correctly are:

•  And now I will leave it up to the winners to tell me if they prefer to be a guest poster here OR have me write a haiku about you that I’ll post here.  The choice is yours.  I await your decisions.