Add a Little Green to Your Gifts this Season

Barbie & Ken Vintage Photos

Good gifts needn't come with a hefty price tag - especially when there are ample indie, local and artisanal gifts at the L.A. Holiday Mart in Santa Monica this weekend. The story goes that an entreprenette, artist and event planner put their heads together to make this shop soiree of handmade goods. Enjoy some complimentary coffee and cookies. I've included my top picks. 

Salvage Heart Sweetheart

Fahmina

A "Whole Life" of Writing is Just Fine By Me

For the January issue of Whole Life Times, I was excited to be asked to be featured on the contributors page. For this issue, I wrote on throwing an eco holiday party and best of green card makers in Los Angeles. I always enjoy meeting and visiting with new local movers and shakers. Hearing people's stories about starting their own businesses, sometimes from nothing (including skills), always makes me feel inspired (more than usual) and driven to go for the things, which I know I would regret not having at least tried to accomplish in life.

I know I want to continue growing as a professional writer, maybe even an author one day. But more importantly, I know that desire is not enough. Somebody at some point, once told me being a writer requires, like many professions (we'll say especially in the creative professions) much practice - if you want to be good and have work that's substantial (er, substantial enough to pull in a living wage, haha), you have to put in the work. Author and New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell in his book, "The Outliers," says if you want to become truly good at something and maybe even succesful - whether that's piano, cooking, sewing a button or even writing a magazine article - you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice. That's a whole lot of time spent writing. Well, at least that's one theory in life I'm willing to test out.

Happy Monday everyone.