Your Courageous Life

It was a few months ago that Susannah was visiting San Francisco and while she was there, a small group got together for tea at the SFMOMA and she showed us some Polaroids she’d been taking. I had known about her website for awhile, even signed up for her e-course, and thought that her pictures on her website were beautiful. And yet it was when she pulled out the stack of photos she’d taken on that trip that I connected with the Polaroids and went, “Ooooh, that’s fun. I want to do that.”

I put the call out on Facebook–did anyone have an SX-70 or some other old Polaroid camera that they were open to letting me have or play with? Within an hour, someone said they were happy to give me their old Polaroid 600 camera. And it was my search for film that lead me to The Impossible Project.

The Impossible Project took over the last existing Polaroid plant in an effort to find some way to continue manufacturing the film. This year, they plan to be in completion of that “impossible” goal of producing their own version of the film. This is exciting for Polaroid lovers, and while I don’t profess to be nearly as well-acquainted with this form of photography as so many others are, I am definitely having a lot of fun with my camera.

Now, the Polaroid 600 camera (which you could probably find for $2 at your local Goodwill) is a lot of fun. But I was hungry for the dreamy vintage tones of the SX-70. So I began the arduous task of hunting down a working SX-70 on eBay (I advise that if you decide to bid on anything, make sure that the person offers a return policy, because my first camera was billed as working on eBay, but did not in fact work). My second try was better: I found an SX-70 and it worked.

The Impossible Project’s store, the PolaPremium site, sells SX-70 film but I had already purchased 600 film locally to go with my Polaroid 600 camera, and I wanted to just use that in the SX-70. 600 film can be used with the SX-70 but it’s a faster film speed, so it needs to be adjusted with an ND (neutral density)  filter. I ordered one from PolaPremium but it didn’t show. I contacted them and Anna was all, “No worries! Must’ve been lost in the mail. I’ll send another out.” Lovely service, yes?

I received an ND filter in the mail a few days later–fantastic! But suddenly, yet another one arrived! It was then that I realized that the first ND filter had been only been delayed by the mail service, not lost, and now this second one had arrived and I had two.

So why not do a giveaway? I suggested to her. And then she added the idea of throwing in a pack of film to the giveaway winner!

So, then–if you are a Polaroid lover, an SX-70 fan, someone who’s loved Polaroid photography sites such as Darlene’s, someone who would love to have a pack o’ the good stuff and an ND filter to boot to save for a rainy day when you find your own working SX-70…

Giveaway: One ND filter and one pack of 600-speed film to the lucky winner (to be determined by the random.org number generator). To enter the giveaway, leave a comment here describing either a.) the best shot you’ve ever taken with your Polaroid camera or b.) the type of dreamy shot you’d love to take!

Giveaway ends: Wednesday, Feb 24th at 6:00am Pacific Time.

Important: You’ll need to check back here on Wednesday morning to see the winner announced, and contact me no later than Thursday afternoon if you are the winner. If I don’t hear from someone, I’ll need to choose an alternate.

A thank-you to PolaPremium for the giveaway!

You’re the winner of the 2nd Keri Smith giveaway.

Contact me via email to go from here.

To everyone else…what is new? What inspires you? What’s your favorite website these days? What books are you reading? I’m on the hunt for new bits of inspiration.

Awhile back when I began doing the planner giveaways in preparation for The Courageous Year e-course, I contacted Keri Smith to see if one of her wonderfully irreverent “non-planners” could be part of the giveaways. These guys are hard to find! She sent me two. The first was sent out, and the second is being made available as this week’s giveaway.

I really love Keri Smith’s approach, which I find to be very non-commercial, authentic, and fun. This type of datebook is great for people who avoid anything meticulously planned, as well as for those who are straight and narrow planners looking to ease up in the new year.

To enter this giveaway, comment on this post (and only this post) sharing whether you think your life could use a little more planning/organization lately, or perhaps a little less, and why. What would you like to balance out these days?

Comment by Wednesday at 10:00pm Pacific and please check back to http://www.yourcourageouslife.com/blog/ by Friday afternoon to see who one and, if you are the winner, to give me your contact information. In the event of  a no-show, a runner up will be drawn.

The Blackbird, Fly camera.

I just uploaded that picture and realized how much nail-biting is visible! Ack! You now bear witness to the full extent of my anxiety over assorted issues such as moving, being sick, and getting my cat to sleep through the night (so that I can sleep through the night…), and toilets that back up when you run the washer and changing careers and the semester rounding up and more papers coming in for grading…

Just so you know, there is another picture of this camera on my computer that reveals no badly bitten nails whatsoever, and I am opting to keep this one because it feels more authentic and genuine (and honest!). I don’t want to portray myself as anything other than what I am, and what I am is a person who is courageously navigating through the fear that surrounds taking a huge risk and doing something that feeds my soul even if it doesn’t feed my bank account. And, by the way, I don’t believe that the two are mutually incompatible so much as I’m speaking into the fact that there is just more certainty being paid by a large and established institution than in working for oneself.

I’m holding another giveaway over at Your Courageous Life (and I feel I should mention that I am now opening a window to start taking on new clients starting in mid-January–appointments are being set now, and the registration deadline for The Courageous Year is quickly drawing nigh), and this giveaway at Your Courageous Life is exciting to me for several reasons. Namely, it’s a planner that comes from Cafe Gratitude, one of my favorite places to eat and the site of my dinner plans for tonight with my awesome marketing guru who inspires me and supports me in more ways than I could ever fully put into words. 

The title on the cover of the planner is: PLENTY OF TIME and the subtitle is, “It’s not what you have to do…it’s who you get to be…”

I mean, for anyone who frequently feels challenged by managing their time (I raise my hand to THAT), this planner takes a completely different approach to time management. Instead of having the hours of the day, it’s divided into seven qualities. You could theoretically focus on one quality per day, or perhaps just put in the things you’ll be doing that week that will address that particular quality.

In any event, it’s an almost irreverent sort of way to plan your time (compared at least to how most people do it). And I love that, and I love the philosophy of Cafe G.

To enter the giveaway, head over to the Your Courageous Life resources page, read the info, and enter your information on that post. A winner will be chosen with a random number generator that night!

Oh, yes, and my marketing guru has advised me to make a number of changes to help affect my ease in showing up with search engines and also streamlining and clarifying the site and what I do. I’m going to be working on implementing her changes over Thanksgiving break, so you’re likely to see some Under Construction signs and switching about around here. Thank you for your patience.

I’ll put off my musings about home decorating (!) and health care (!!) to pop in quickly and let you know that Kelly Rae Roberts is hosting a giveaway over the weekend for a free spot in The Courageous Year! 

Those of you who have already registered are welcome to enter the giveaway, too, and what I’ll do in your case, should you win the spot, is apply the registration you’ve already paid to Level Two or let you gift it to a friend.

I am really, really looking forward to grabbing dinner at Cafe Gratitude tonight. Also, looking forward to when my voice fully heals. I did some super-intense process work that involved yelling/screaming two weekends ago, and my voice has not recovered. Just stocked up on Throat Coat tea this afternoon.

More to come this weekend…

The first giveaway for The Courageous Year was a 2010 planner made by artist Kelly Rae Roberts. Once I thought of KRR, I thought next of the lovely Keri Smith. I had the gift of meeting her at a retreat hosted by Ms. Swirly a few years ago. That retreat lit up my whole life. I remember coming home so full of creative energy, I honestly wondered if it would be possible to “come down” (and, now that I remember back, that was one of the first signs that teaching wasn’t working any longer; I went in to work the next day feeling so happy and excited and then left feeling deflated completely). 

I contacted Keri, told her about what I was doing, and asked if I could purchase one of her Non-Planner Datebooks because the Little Otsu store was out–did she have any extras?

Would you believe that, generous soul that she is, she gifted two of them to me to give away? She also told me that they are currently in production to produce a new and updated version, so if you’re interested in seeing when that is available, head over to her website: www.kerismith.com and keep watch.

Again, as part of this new journey I feel floored and grateful and amazed by the generosity and support that shows up in all of these little ways. 

I’m going to space out giving the two away–so this week the first is up for grabs.  If you’d like to participate, head over to http://www.yourcourageouslife.com/resources/ and post a comment. 

Inside of the “non-planner.” Each page is different:

If you really knew me, you’d know that I’m the kind of girl who can have one perfectly functional planner, but I’ll still ogle other planners. I confess  I have an actual “thing” for office supply stores. I can cop to this oddity only because I know there are others of you out there, others of you who peruse the aisles at Office Max thinking about the different options for recording receipts, the sleek new 3-hold punchers, the latest in top-o-the-desk organization, and considering new ways of using post-its or organizing your tabbed filing systems.

So, I had this idea for the Courageous Year: To buy some spiffy planners (the kind I would want for myself) and then to give them away. 2010 = The Courageous Year = Planners. And there are so many cool planners out there, so I was actually excited by the prospect of hitting up my local Paper Source.

Then I got there and while I saw lots of stuff that was absolutely fantastic, I suddenly realized that the only thing better than doing a 2010 giveaway with cool planners was to do it while supporting artists that I have met or know or admire already.

Resolved, I decided that my first giveaway would involve a Kelly Rae Roberts planner. I have had the honor of meeting her, and found her to be sincere and sweet and full of heart–someone who lives their vision. 

Want to participate in the giveaway? Head over to Your Courageous Life’s resources page, and leave your comment there (not here).

Giveaway ends October 15th at 10:00pm Pacific time.