zing zing zing went my heartstrings*

February is upon us!  

This year's challenge: 28 days spent celebrating those you cherish.  

That's right.  

A month full of daily random acts of love, 

big and small gestures,

to remind the special people in your life

how much they mean to you.

You're going to have to get creative.

Pull out the construction paper 

(I'm planning on doing some heart garland bombing),

dust off those mix tape skills (and your old tape deck), 

write a letter (who doesn't love getting snail mail),

buy that random something just because it is "so" someone.

The soul that walks in love neither rests nor grows tired.

we {dig}ress

it's kinda a {big deal}

The Lunchbox Buddies purchased a City Saver in hopes of scoring sweet deals at old standbys and finding new favorite places.  We were pleased to see coupons for routine stops like Regal Cinemas and Sweet CeCe's, as well as for plenty of new restaurants and entertainment activities (we're talking family fun centers...hot air balloon rides...).  Prior to making your coupon book investment, consider not only the variety and quality of deals ($5 off coupon versus buy one get one free), but also location of participating businesses.

Our inaugural dinner was at Bria Bistro on Highway 100 in Bellevue.  Great food and great service.  Shout out to Dave, Sarah's husband, who waited on us.  We will definitely be back, although Allison did comment that she enjoyed her dish so much that it will be difficult to try something new on the return trip.  

As we've put a few other stops under our belt, we wanted to offer some lessons learned.

-You paid upfront for the coupons, so be intentional about using.  A great way to do this is to keep them handy, whether in your desk at work, in your car...anywhere you will see them.  

-To decrease feeling overwhelmed by the quantity of coupons, go ahead and pull the handful for places you already frequent and then separate out another stack of places you'd like to try.  Set aside ones to use for out of town company and give away any to friends.

For Meals

-Share your coupon with your server at the beginning of the meal and clarify any fine print limitations

-Don't be afraid to ask for food suggestions, you'll be surprised by the honest guidance

-Be sure to tip based off the pre-discount total

For Activities

-Schedule an appointment, if none accepted, call to find out peak days/times to avoid

-Bring cash for tip

Happy saving, and remember, the best part of getting a deal is sharing it with a friend*

don't scrap it, scrap{book} it!

In response to Sarah's post last week about capturing and documenting life through journaling, I felt inspired to unearth some treasures from the previous year. Throughout the last 12 months, I have been unintentionally tucking away little keepsakes from my various adventures. So when I read Sarah's post about making a journal more than just words standing at attention on a diary page line, I knew these bits of paper and pictures were the perfect starting ground for a new project!

On the shelf below my mason jar of mementos, I found an unused scrapbook screaming for attention. Over the past year I had also been snipping out words and images from various magazines to use for both personal and professional tasks. I discovered I had accumulated an abundance of these clippings and thought this would great material for a collage cover. 

*looking forward to sharing the growth and progress of this venture with you in the coming weeks!

it's your thing {do what you wanna do}

I never owned a diary.  As a young girl, given the choice between a shiny diary with the miniature lock and accompanying key or a pack of freshly sharpened drawing pencils, I would take the pencils.  I loved to doodle.  This trait followed me through elementary school into junior high, where I had the opportunity to take Art as an elective.  Then, in high school, Art was pushed aside by higher elective pursuits, you know, like AP German.  But the doodling remained.  I doodled on the notes I took in class, on the corners of tests, on cards I made for friends.  It always seemed that when words would fail me, images did not.  

In college, during a particularly rough patch, I stumbled upon the breathtaking work of Sabrina Ward Harrison.   I remember literally losing my breath as I traveled through the pages of her visual journals.  They were swirls of images, words, quotes, thoughts, lists, mementos.  Loud and clear, the pages communicated that the documentation of life did not have to happen daily and begin with "Dear Diary."  I felt like I had been given permission to create my own rules to what and how I treasured my individual experiences.  That day, I went out and bought my very first journal.   

In this new year, seek the novel in the familiar; be amazed by it and take the time to record it.  Capture it all.  As Anais Nin puts it best, "It is the function of art to renew our perception.  What we are familiar with we cease to see."  Consider creating a tangible documentation of the day-in-day-out happenings, thoughts, emotions, decisions.  Tuck away ticket stubs and receipts.  Tape in pictures.  Color, draw, paint.  Collage.  Write.  Include inspirational quotes and newspaper clippings.  Whatever and however.