Lattes & Laundry

Hobby Time

Leslie — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:02:50 +0000

As a hobby, and an affordable means to achieve my son’s addiction, I started making cake pops. I was first introduced to these little treats at Starbucks. After researching them online I discovered Bakerella.com, the founder of cake pops. I purchased her book, Cake Pops, because it offered tips and tricks which I knew I needed to have since I don’t cook, at all. Turns out, cake pops are easy, fun and a great way to be creative. These are some of my favorite creations:

Pumpkin Pops

Owl Pops

iPop

Carrot cake pops

“One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.” —Iris Murdoch

It’s All Work.

Leslie — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 06:22:07 +0000

I started this blog as a motivation tool and reward for myself. I told myself to just get through the work…homework…housework…and once you’re done you’ll get to do something fun. Typical me though turned a positive into a negative and every day that has gone by without a new post I’ve felt like a failure. I forgot along with the homework and housework, I also need to work on me. I struggle with feelings of anxiety and stress and when I don’t work through those feelings everything else becomes harder and nothing gets done. So I am taking a breathier, working on me and rewarding myself with this post.

Andrew Carnegie said: “Anything in life worth having is worth working for.”

Aww…that was nice.

Teamwork

Leslie — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:45:57 +0000

One trick to finding time with a busy schedule is probably less a trick and more of a blessing that’s been taken for granted. Teamwork. As I write this post, dinner is on the stove and my husband is mowing the lawn with our son. My husband and I are a team and the only reason I can manage to work, go to school and do all of the other things I love to do is because of his support. I’m pretty sure any new hobby, sport or activity would be a whole lot more fun when you have someone to share it with. If you’re still on the fence about signing up for that yoga class or painting lesson, find someone to do it with you. The support will help you follow through and have more fun. In case you’re one of those people that always talks about starting a hobby but you’re not sure what to try, here’s some ideas to consider:

Bikram Yoga and Hot Yoga – It’s Yoga in a room that’s heated between 95 -100 degrees.
Baking Cake Pops – A personal favorite of mine and toddlers LOVE them. Bakerella.com offers a ton of easy tricks and tips to help you get started.
Turn your junk into vintage goods and sell them – The “junk revolution” is really hip right now, made popular by the TV show Picker Sisters. You’re trash could be worth hundreds of dollars!
Start a Blog – You can write about whatever you want, whenever you want which is pretty cool.

Another trick to finding time to do what you want is scheduling. Here’s a bit of trivia you may not know, I didn’t just write this post. I wrote it when I had the time and scheduled it to post when I wanted. There are tools out there to help you do what you want, now go have fun!

Where’s My Rosie?

Leslie — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:55:23 +0000

It’s 2011, shouldn’t we all have a 45 year old robot by now that not only adores us but also cleans and cooks? The creators of the Roomba had the right idea, I want someone (or something) else to do my housework! Disregarding all future robot labor laws and rights aside, sometimes it feels like life would be a little easier if there was a robot in the kitchen. Unfortunately, it appears we still have a while to wait before personal robots can do the dishes. In the meantime, check out my Pinterest board, “A Robot Kitchen” for inspiration for “futuristic” living.

Finding Time

Leslie — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:11:12 +0000

I originally wanted to call this blog “Finding Time” since I anticipated a majority of the future posts would be about finding time to do the things you love. Instead I decided on “Lattes & Laundry” which is suppose to represent my life as a working mom. Also almost every combination of “Finding Time” was already taken on WordPress. Anyway, not too many years ago I remember working a full time job as a Marketing Coordinator and feeling like I never had the time to do the things I wanted to do. Then several years later I took on the position of Marketing Director for a Casino and a year later had a baby. In retrospect, I had all the time in the world when I was childless with a job that had no employees reporting to me. Today I am the mom to an amazing 2 1/2 year old boy, I’m still the Marketing Director for the Casino and I’m also half way through an executive online Masters in Business Administration program. As I pile on the responsibilities I realize, the less time I spend stressing over my lack of time the more time I have! So I’m moving forward with a new outlook on life. I can make the time to do the things I love if I really want to. I’ve started baking cake pops because my son adores them and I adore him. I’ve finally purchased the camera I’ve always wanted and I’ve started this blog. You have 24 hours in everyday. That’s plenty of time to find what you love and do it.

My first blog post here, but not my first blog.

Leslie — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:56:17 +0000

Welcome! Once upon a time, when I had more time, I use to blog regularly. Throughout high school and college I had a variety of blogs with topics that ranged from movie reviews to first person posts from my dog’s perspective (kinda looney, I know, but this was at the time when Dogster was HUGE so the dog blog was very popular). Now that I have almost NO time I’ve decided to try to blog again. Part of my reason for blogging actually because of the stress I feel by being so busy. Blogging has always been an escape for me. A great tool to relieve stress and connect with others experiencing similar journeys in life. I’m married with one son who is 2 1/2 years old. I work full time as a Marketing Director but I am also going to school full time to get my MBA. Trust me, that is enough to keep me busy but it also makes me stressed. Adding this blog to my list of to-dos is somewhat like going to therapy (which I also do twice a month). I am looking forward to the escape this space will offer me, if only for a few minutes each day.