Hello, and welcome today’s blog. I want to talk to you about something that
we, as humans are always looking and striving for. This is a series, but I want to let you know
that I am going through something.
 |
| Pixabay |
I am preparing to be a great aunt. My nephew and hopefully
my niece in law to be (a nicer way of saying that they are not married) are
expecting a little girl in March. For
privacy reasons, I will not disclose the baby’s name, but I love the name, in
part because it has my middle name in it, and the mother’s middle name for her
middle name. This is a trend. I kind of wish the name was after one or both
their mothers’ or after my mother, or something like that, but this is their
baby, and as long as I can spell and pronounce the name, I am okay with it.
My brother, who lives in the next city is the grandfather,
and he, of all people, is the one who suggested that we throw a baby
shower. I want to throw in what makes a
good baby shower in preparation for anything we do in life. Yes, this is
also the way that you can set a
goal as well.- The project.
Now, this is the easy part. You have to know what you will be working on
or the end goal. In this case, it is to
have at least a decent baby shower without no fussing or fighting among the
host(s) or guests. For my task, it is a
baby girl shower.
- The date.
Finding a date is hard. By hard, I mean finding a date that works for
at least half of the people you want to invite.
The best way I found that works are to ask the guest of honor (my nephew
and niece) what day works for them. They
both work jobs that do require the weekend and long hours. My nephew works primarily in the afternoon to
around 6 pm, while my niece works most weekends. Her hours have been cut due to the pregnancy,
which also means flexibility. From there, schedule a date far enough in advance
so that if a person is working, they can ask for time off. This is what it means to RSVP a date. It is to let the host know if this is a good
date to come or a bad date.
- The list.
Not everyone is suitable to be in
attendance. I suggest inviting people
who are close. I choose close church
members and family who live in town for my part of the list, while my niece
chooses the people she works closest too.
her parents do not live here. I
am not sure who my nephew's choice, and I will find out today.
- The food.
This is equally as hard. Why?
Because everyone has different tastes.
I will advise on one thing:
finger foods. Do not stress over
a big pot of Chicken and dumplings. We
are having the following: meatballs,
subs, fruit tray, veggie tray, cupcakes, and a candy bar. What is a candy bar? Well, you will have to come over to At Home
with Tricia's Baskets to read about it.
Speaking of which, by now, you are probably wondering why I would have “How
to Host a Baby Shower” in this blog. No,
I have not lost it, and there is an analogy between hosting a baby shower to
writing and preparing for a journey.
Keep reading….
- The Decorations and games.
In order to entice a person to come
to future parties, there must be some fun.
After all, this is a celebration of a birth to come (or in the case of a
friend of mine, a birth that arrived before the shower). The decorations make the place look festive
and inviting. Since we have a theme
(baby girl), the color is pink (the mother’s choice). If this was a gender reveal party (which is
gaining in popularity due to advancements in technology), then the colors would
be both pink and blue (or green and red-oops wrong celebration). I bought and printed this little cutie, and I
have a table with the words, “Sweet Baby” on it. I had one mishap which is the baby will not
stay on the sign.
Games are another feature. “So what do you want to talk about” does not
work in this setting. In order to engage
a person, you must have something to do that is interesting. We played games such as ”What is in your
purse/wallet (yes there were some men-my father, brother, and nephew at the
time), The clothespin game (you cannot say “baby” or you will lose your clothes
pin), the right/left game (you pass a prize around every time the reader says
some form of left or right), and my personal favorite, the baby food game
(guess the flavor of the baby food).
- Presents for the baby
This is self-explanatory. The new parents open up gifts that the
guests brought for the baby. They got
mostly diapers and other practical things for her, but they also got the love
and the support from all who attended. A
friend of mine could not make it, so she gave me a present at church today.
Now, all of this is for preparation for the birth of my
niece. Once she is here, the new parents
cannot say, “we need diapers” or “we need a crib”. Nope, not at all.
What does all of this have to do with writing or creating a
blog? I will show you, but first here is
a hint: most of it was highlighted in my
last two posts, “How to start a Blog” and “What the heck is Well-nigh and other ponderings”. Here are the steps once again to prepare for
the task at hand:
- The project
Instead of preparing for a baby
shower, you are preparing to become a freelance writer or a blog writer. It may not be this particular project, it may
be started a podcast. Whatever this project,
you name it and claim it, as they say at my church. Get yourself a notebook or binder, and write
it down. Name your project (My Ambiance
Life Blog), and say that you are going t do it.
Let me give you this little tip:
Tip: You have to commit to this project. You cannot start a project than stop it
anytime you, please. You may go at your
own pace and you may have moments that you are stuck, but stick to it. Do not give up or give in to insecurity. Have an accountability partner if you must,
which is a trusted person who is going to keep you on task, but do not give up.
 |
| The key to your journey is preparation-Pixabay |
During this time, you must plan out
your project. What steps are you going
to take with this project? I am
currently working on my craftroom makeover project. The first thing I did was the name that this is a
craftroom project. Next, I did some research
on the project. What is the point of
this project if I did not look into the furniture to hold my supplies and
project areas, work areas, and labeling system?
It would look a mess. This
included looking at crafter blog posts, vlog channels from YouTube, and
planning out my budget. Also, look at where this craftroom is going. I want it in the second bedroom, but it is occupied
by my nephew and niece, so I have to keep it in its current position, in the
dining room area. I also have to get one
piece at a time because the area is small, and I may have to wait until they
move out.
- The date
Yes, you will need a start and end
date for your project. Do not say “ongoing”
or you will never see the end of your project.
If you must say ongoing, divide your project up into smaller pieces,
like this:
·
Organizing the embossing folders and dies-
January 20, 2020 end date.
·
Organizing the stamps and inks-January 25, 2020
end date.
·
Organizing the 8.5 x 11 paper and 12 x 12 paper
pad- February 3, 2020 end date.
Do not hold to that date if you are
behind. If you need to stop that section
on that date and get back to it. There
are all sorts of ways to do it without beating yourself up for not finishing
the mini-task.
- The list.
In this case, list everything you
have to do in order to complete the task.
Again, you may have to divide and conquer because you may not be able to
do everything in order.
- Decorations
Now we are in the fun part, you are
going shopping if the project calls for that.
For example: In my case, I do two types of shopping:
Online virtual shopping and online/offline actual shopping. With virtual
shopping, you will need an online store with a wish list. Use this to your advantage. Take the items from your list and look them
up in the store. If the online store has
a wish list or allows you to leave things in your cart, place the items in the wish
list or shopping cart. I do this to Ikea
and Amazon all the time. DO NOT CHECK OUT! REPEAT, DO NOT CHECK OUT! If your
bank has online banking, check your balance.
Why? If you have automatic
payments, the bill payment department may have taken the amount of your bill
out of your account, and when you go to pay for your stuff, the money may not
be there. If your bank in the United
States like I do, that charge may go through, even if you do not have the money
in the bank, and this would mean an overdraft fee. Not only that, the second reason is you may
not like it, and now it is coming to your house. Some stores may make it
impossible to return it.
“what if I am just writing a book”? You do not have to worry about this step,
unless you are shopping for new software or a new journal to write your notes
in it, then it applies, but not as detailed.
- Presents
I like to call them rewards for
your labor. You get a published book or
blog, or in my case, I get a complete craftroom or I get to go to Disney. Whatever you are preparing for and you are
persistent with your task, you will get to see the end results.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please comment below. Thank you.