Inspired by other bloggers

Do you find inspiration from other bloggers? Since I started blogging, I keep finding interesting blogs all the time. Fashion, interior decoration, photography, drawings, beauty, lifestyle...you name it, I add it to my blog roll . Who knew when I created this blog a couple of months ago than in such a short time I would be spending so much time reading other people's blogs?

Often, these other bloggers write something that inspire me to take action. Take this post about new gear from She left on a Monday, for instance. That caused me to look for a new and better lens for my camera, like this one from Sony - a 50mm 1.4.

(Photo by Sony)

It's on my shopping list when going to the US. There it costs approx USD 370. Here it's a little less than the double. Good thing I saw that post and started craving better bokeh before my trip, as the lens becomes so much more affordable. Hopefully, my readers will also get to enjoy nicer photographs. Of course, great images don't all depend on better gear, but it helps. At least if the photographer finds interesting motifs...;)

 

(My hair, circa December 2007)

With regards to the upcoming trip, I also found a great tip on the blog of She Wore It Well, when she wrote about her New York memories. Posting a mouth watering picture of a fortune cookie dessert from restaurant Tao I just knew I had to visit that place while there. Looking it up on the web, they advised to book a month in advance as it's so popular. Now that my booking is confirmed,  I can't wait to have that chocolade mousse filled fortune cookie. YUM!

The latest one to inspire me is Struggling to be stylish. Her post on Keeping it going versus making it better caused me to think about how I'm finding the balance between keeping things as they are when I'm running short on time or energy, and making progress in all my projects whether in the home or otherwise.

As a side effect of chemotherapy, I'm suffering from something the doctors at the Cancer Centre call Chemobrain. Some of the symptoms are being unusually disorganized, fatigue and taking longer than normal to complete routine tasks. That means getting started on things and/or finishing them often feels like trying to climb an insurmountable wall. Add that to the usual lack of time when there are more projects than one on the list, and you get my drift.

Eh...where was I?

Oh yeah, right...Over the course of the last few years, I've had to adjust my  normally busybody and impatient personality from "everything's gonna have to happen right here and now " to "one thing at a time". So if I feel tired after washing half the floor, I take a break to reply to mails or read some blogs before I wash the other half. (OK, being entirely honest here - sometime it doesn't get washed until the next day. But that information is strictly off the record, just so you know it. I blame it on too many interesting blogs. Besides, who knows if I should happen to find one with tips about how to get the floor to clean itself?)

If I have to choose between visiting a friend for a nice evening, like I did yesterday

and get my bike ready for a spin on ice free roads, I do the bike later, like today:

Somehow, the important things get my priority, while the not so important can wait. While everything is no longer happening immediately, whatever needs to be done eventually does happen in due time.

Every now and then, though, I get a real burst of energy. That feeling of being ready to take on whatever is one I make sure I take advantage of for all that it's worth. So while the pleasant night with my friend last night amounted to a great way of spending one's time, it also recharged my batteries, giving me an energy kick. Thus, I not only did the bike today, I also took on my terrace:

Old flower pot ready for the bin, accompanied by unwelcome greetings from doves 

Cleaning the whole terrace, taking the furniture out from winter storage and trying to scare the doves with a homemade scarecrow.

Checking out my gardening efforts from last fall, hoping they will have survived the winter and become like this:

while waiting for spring for real so it all can turn into this:

I know it's not always easy, but my way of balancing it all is trying to think: Relax. Stay cool. The world won't come to and end if I don't get around to do everything today. Always try and prioritize what's most enjoyable or what will eventually give you the greater satisfaction having accomplished. There's much truth to the saying "Life's too short", if you know what I mean.

Today's outfit:

 Spring cleaning couture. :)