Let Appreciation Rock Your Socks in 5 Easy Steps

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Appreciation has powerful mojo. Not only does appreciation feel good, it can literally lead to better relationships, new opportunities, a happier life, and a bunch of other greatness. Don’t limit appreciation to the last Thursday of November or your Facebook status updates the days leading up to your turkey feast. Live appreciation on the daily and let it rock your socks.

Here are 5 easy ways to have more appreciation in your life:

1. Give Yourself a Gold Star

You deserve a gold star. Not because you've done anything noble, generous, intelligent, or good, but because you are you. You are the only you that has ever existed, and honestly, you’re doing a fine job of it. Celebrate that. It’s difficult to appreciate the things around you when you don’t appreciate yourself. You are valuable, worthy, and downright neat. There is no need to strive for improvement...just start appreciating yourself. Pronto.   

2. Open Your Eyes

Serious talk: find something in your life to appreciate. Once you find something, find another thing. Keep finding things until you snowball into a big mess of appreciation. It’s best to start with the little things that you don’t normally think about. When you start appreciating things like your toothbrush, it becomes excessively easier to appreciate bigger things...like the universe. You are living on a planet that is spinning perfectly in orbit. Better yet, the sun came up this morning and it wasn't on your “To Do” list. That’s pretty cool. Make it a habit of identifying the everyday things that are easy for you to appreciate...focus on those. Then do things that make you happy...that will lead to even more appreciation. Walk a dog, pet a cat, play with a baby, eat delicious food, look at the stars, breathe deep, drink a beer. Appreciate the fact that you are alive and surrounded by awesomeness. Life is for your enjoyment...get to enjoying.  

3. Wake Up on the Appreciative Side of the Bed

The moment you wake up, you have the opportunity to set the stage for your entire day. Don’t mess it up. The thoughts you think at the start of your morning will set the tone for the rest of your day, so be deliberate. Lay in bed for a couple minutes and appreciate things you love...your pillow, your dog, your footie pajamas. If you have to hustle, feel appreciation for the running water in your shower and the jolt of your coffee. It doesn't matter what you appreciate, as long as it feels good when you think about it. Try to stay in appreciation as long as you can every day. I pinky swear promise that when you start your morning in appreciation and maintain it through your drive to work, you’ll have a better day. And honestly, who doesn't want a better day? No one I know.

4. Feel Something*

Appreciation has zero to do with words and everything to do with feeling. If you are saying appreciative words, but not feeling anything, you are blowing smoke. Appreciation in it’s pure form feels a lot like love, worthiness, clarity, fun, passion, excitement, exhilaration. These super cool emotions are powerful and they create momentum that will move you toward big improvements in your life in a short period of time. Get excited.

*Added bonus...when you feel appreciation for your yourself, your surroundings, and your awesome existence, you find yourself totally in control of your mood. Your appreciation isn't dependent on anyone’s actions...no one has to do anything to make you feel good. You just do. And if someone happens to hold the door open for you or buys you lunch, that’s icing on the cake. Appreciation FTW (for the win).

5. Ride the Wave

Don’t force appreciation. The momentum from Step 4...ride it like a wave. Once you get the momentum going, it takes minimal effort to keep it going. So enjoy it. Don’t stop your momentum by trying to appreciate people or situations that irritate you. Keep appreciating what makes you feel good. Be easy with it and your perspective will change, your days will improve, your hold ups will disappear. It’s easy to appreciate, it’s fun, it’s beneficial. No joke...feeling good is easy and it all starts with a little appreciation.

In appreciation,

Kristina

Kristina@youimpression.com

Table Makeover - Vintage Blue Beauty

Creating a vibrant, vintage masterpiece is an exciting and creative experience. We use this table in our You Impression Studio to display our organic lavender scented goat milk soaps and seasonal products. It is the perfect combination of nostalgic beauty and spunky chic.     

First – Find a wood table that can use a makeover. It’s important to find a real wood table…you’ll be sanding this thing and making it jazzy; if it’s faux wood, it won’t work out well. We found this table for FREE alongside the road. Free is a great price and this table is octagon shaped with great details. So naturally, we snatched this thing. Fast.

Second – Clean the table and sand it. I used an electric sander on our table because my arm felt like it was going to fall off sanding it by hand. But seriously, you want to sand the finish off the table…an electric sander will work best.

Third – Prime the table. This is a pretty straight forward and unexciting step, but totally necessary. I used a Killz primer. 

Fourth – Sand the table. You’re just taking off the rough edges and making the table nice and smooth. You can easily sand this by hand. 

Fifth – Paint the table. Choose a color and have fun with it! You will always have a more enjoyable painting experience when you choose a high quality paint…it takes fewer coats and it’s easier to work with. I bought a quart of all surface enamel – acrylic latex satin from Sherwin Williams. It’s awesome interior/exterior paint and the 6767 Aquarium color is funky fun. I painted two coats and waited for the table to be super dry between coats.

   

Sixth – Add interest. If you’re like me, you’ll be super impressed with your painted table and you’ll be tempted to leave it as it is. Don’t do it. Follow the rest of the steps…you’ll love your table even more.

You’ll need some white paint (you can buy a small tube of white paint from the craft store), some glaze (also buy a small tube of glaze from the craft store), and water. Mix the contents in a small paper bowl or a cup. I wasn’t really scientific about this step, so just wing it. I probably used one part white paint, two parts glaze, and a tad bit of water. You don’t want it too runny, but you also want the white paint to be diluted enough so you can easily wipe it off. I applied the glaze with a little craft paint brush from a children’s watercolor set.

Seventh – Paint the glaze mixture over the table, starting with the cracks, grooves, and seams. This step adds depth to the table and highlights the details. It’s almost impossible to get the glaze only on the parts you want glazed. So the goal here is to apply a little glaze in a small section and wipe it off with a dry cloth, keeping the white glaze in the cracks of the table.  This step involves a lot of application and wiping, but be patient. Don’t strive for perfection here…wild, roughed up, multicolored furniture is really trendy nowadays, so don’t hesitate to let loose and give your perfectionist self a break. After glazing the edges of the table, lightly glaze the top and the base of the table. Work in small sections so the glaze doesn’t dry and you are still able to wipe the glaze off.  

Eighth – Let the glaze dry and Verathane the table. This is just a clear coat that will protect the table from wear and tear and give it a finishing touch.

Ninth – Voila! Show off your finished furniture piece; add a centerpiece and decorate it; eat brunch on your table; do whatever you want, just enjoy it. 

In appreciation, 

Kristina 

Kristina@youimpression.com 

The Good Stuff

September 3, 2003.

It was the first day of school and I was ready to take on Ferrucci Jr. High as a “sevie”.  I had flourished at orientation a few days prior, learning how to open my locker, meeting the students below and beside me, and successfully tracking down my 6 classes all over the school.  I had watched my older sister enjoy her three years at Ferrucci so I had no conscious worry about what fun, excitement, and adventure lay ahead of me in my 7th grade year. 

However, as my mom meandered through neighborhoods, driving to drop me off for my first day, I lost confidence in my preparation.  Turning into the drop off line my stomach hit the floor and my heart started racing as I saw the school buzzing with excited students heading off to their first class.  As I stepped out of our beloved minivan my brand new shoes couldn’t carry me across the lawn and into the school.

I took a few steps and time stood still.  I was in fight or flight mode with everything in my little body wanting to take flight back in the van, never to step foot on the Ferrucci campus again.  But there was a small piece inside that told me to fight the urge to run and push on to conquer my first day of school.

I am proud to say that I walked into school that day and never looked back.  It was a defining moment for me.  I am confident that few experiences have rivaled the fear I felt that morning but few times have I felt such conviction that going backwards was not an option.  To become who we are, get what we want, and truly live life according to our dreams, we need to embrace change. 

The words: Change, Variation, Evolution, Alteration, Transformation, Adaptation, Expansion…This is the good stuff!

September inherently means change: changing grades, changing schools, changing of the weather, changing your wardrobe.  Since kindergarten each September signified new teachers, new friends, new knowledge, and new school clothes.  Looking back over the years I realize how much I have embraced new experiences and variations in life- some coming easier than others.  But unknowingly, I have fallen in love with the idea of expansion.  This year is the first year I will not be heading ‘back to school’.  I have graduated onto learning my newest lessons from experience rather than textbooks, being graded by my personal ambition rather than a professor, and measuring success in my ability to grow and learn instead of beating a class curve. 

I encourage you to enjoy the good stuff! Embrace the transformation this fall holds for you and remember a saying I learned from the ladies of the American Legion Auxiliary, “Forward ever, backward never. Within ourselves our future lies.”

Delightfully,

Melanie

Welcome to Life

Today I ate lunch. A fast, easy, inexpensive $0.68 TV dinner. It didn’t take me long to realize that the picture featured on the front of the TV dinner box was not an accurate depiction of the food I pulled out of the microwave. Lesson learned; $0.68 does not buy you any sort of visual appeal, but it does provide an unusual sort of pure deliciousness. So next time I eat a meal like that, I might blindfold myself.

As I was eating my steamy mozzarella lasagna in a cardboard box, I felt strangely excited. I felt excited about doing something new. The TV dinner was insignificant, but the feeling it evoked was powerful. It was a feeling I’ve had many times before – the feeling of being on the brink of something different, embarking on uncharted Kristina territories. The feeling of something new.

In my life, new experiences have always been the most empowering. When I stretch myself, when I let myself evolve into something greater than what I was, I find my happy. I try to find my happy every day…in the little things, like when I took a kayaking class, competed in a pageant, started a business, remodeled a commercial space…when I let myself wear casual clothes, and did the YMCA on the dugout at the Rainiers Game.  

So I can rescue myself from a capsized kayak, I can walk on stage in a swimsuit, I am capable of taking big risks, my drywall patching skills are bomb, I feel comfortable wearing blue jeans with holes, and I can dance in front of crowds. I felt happy. Big whoop.

But actually, it is a big whoop…let me tell you why. All of these things expanded me outside of my comfort zone. These experiences defied the limitations I set for myself and helped me change my mind about myself. In each of those moments, I didn’t let myself fall for some bogus story telling me that I couldn’t…that I shouldn’t…that I wouldn’t. Because guess what? I did it…I had fun with it. I let go of fear, grabbed some crayons, and colored outside of the lines in my life. It was messy and emotional; it was frisky and exciting; it was scary and exhilarating. That’s called living. Welcome to life.

Through stretching yourself, you gain range. Through allowing, you experience fun. Through dreaming, you create momentum.  Don’t underestimate the power of little things and when you stop judging yourself and start enjoying new experiences, you may just surprise yourself.   

So go, get out of here and live it up. Let your life expand, let your heart imagine. Care less about restraints and be more playful. Do something you’ve never done before, even if that means eating a $0.68 microwave meal. Color outside of the lines…let it be new and different…let happy find you.   

In appreciation,

Kristina

Kristina@youimpression.com