{best} Case of the Mondays: Amber Sagester

 We all know Mondays suck. 

Each week, I will feature a Monday in the life of someone who can provide some comfort/humor/inspiration to the start of your week. 

HOWEVER. This week is different. And it's my mom, so I have to kind of tweak the rules. 1. It's actually Tuesday. And 2. She can do what she wants because she's my mom. 

Meet Amber Sagester! 

Amber is wife, mother, sister, step-daughter, niece, cousin, amazing friend and a child of God (not necessarily in that order). She is a substitute teacher by day (some days), and a closet do-it-yourselfer and repurposer!  She travels as much as she can with her husband and loves to visit her grown children whenever they will have her... Oh yeah. And she's my mom.  

My Monday before Christmas is busy and beautiful and is the culmination of about 6 months in the planning.  Our family goes to the beach for Christmas.  A tradition started in 1997 and absolutely treasured and looked forward to every year.  There have been as many as 18 at our gatherings, and we take lots and lots of pictures. Having said that, this trip takes some planning, coordination and some serious packing strategy. 

8 AM

It's our first full day in the Outer Banks, and we don't dilly dally. My sister-in-law get to work making breakfast for our hungry army. 

Meal planning is a great adventure...we have 1 vegetarian, one gluten free, 1 deathly allergic to chicken turkey and all things poultry!!!  We generally break up the dinner meals assigning a different group to various nights but we always have a low country boil on Christmas Eve and the traditional turkey/ham dinner on Christmas Day.

10 AM

Make list of groceries that we did not purchase during our MARATHON trip to the store. Literally took us 1.5 hours. 

12 PM 

Go on walk to the beach look for shells and driftwood. It's a BEAUTIFUL day -- cannot beat a 70 degree day in December. 

4:30 PM 

Prep for dinner and watch the sunset over the sound. 

5 PM 

This year we have added a cocktail competition! [Editors note: More on that this week].  Don't put any of us in a competition because we take these very seriously.  I had to taste test my concoction several times to make certain I had a winner. Unfortunately the testing was before 9am last Monday-- made for a happy morning followed by a nap around noon.   

I am first up with my "Felix Navidad" cocktail -- a hearty mix of tequila, cranberry juice, orange liqueur, orange bitters, aromatic bitters, seltzer and lemonade. Erin says more to come on that later this week.   

5:30 PM

Taco Dinner and birthday celebration for my sister-in-law Terri! 

7:00 PM 

Movie in the theater room. Great time to spend together!

9:30 PM 

The family is spread out throughout the house -- watching UNC Basketball, Washington Capitals hockey -- and I'm cozied up reading the new Shonda Rimes book. 

Midnight. 

Lights out and looking forward to the rest of the week -- lots planned. We have a Christmas picture with assigned color coordination--this year black and white and a gift swap we have lovingly named a "Yankee swap".  Hundreds of emails have passed between us, texts have zipped back and forth, dogs have been boarded and we have mostly all gathered together for another blessed week of family togetherness, making memories and driving each other crazy!

The days will be spent eating drinking laughing and enjoying the most important part of my life--family.

Want more {best} Case of the Mondays Series? Click HERE to read all the past entries. 

{best} Case of the Mondays: Madeleine Forbes

So. It's been a while. 

Life is busy. Blah blah blah. 

No excuses. Let's get back with it. 

 We all know Mondays suck. 

Each week, I will feature a Monday in the life of someone who can provide some comfort/humor/inspiration to the start of your week. 

Meet Madeleine Forbes! 

Madeleine is a writer who helps ambitious, creative entrepreneurs create compelling website copy and client communications. 

8:00AM 

I grew up in London, but in 2014 my husband and I relocated to a tiny off-grid farm in Central Portugal. Now I’m sinking into a really seasonal rhythm. So these days, I wake up late, just as sunlight starts to stream into the bedroom. I often wake up thinking about the work I have to do that day so snuggling with my husband and our sleepy, furry kitties first thing is a good reminder that really all I need is right here.

8:30AM

I get up and put a pot of coffee on the stove for both of us. Then I open the door and let our two dogs in – their beds are in the workshop outside and they greet me as though we haven’t seen each other for YEARS – all licking tongues and wagging tails. I step outside and take in the amazing view and the fresh air. Then I wander down into the garden and let our chickens out, checking to see if there are any eggs in the nest box. The valley’s beautiful in the mornings, mist rising up from the river and buzzards circling in the sky with their distinctive mewing call.

9:30(ish)AM

Bundle up in socks and warm clothes and step into my office. I start by checking my paper diary and noting priorities for the day. Then I check email and get stuck in. I’m most creative early in the morning so I try to start the day with writing first drafts of blog posts or website copy.

10:00AM

Late breakfast and more coffee. I like to eat something warm at this time of year – toast, cooked on the griddle pan, with butter and homemade jam, or porridge with local honey. Then back to work, with a tall mug of hot water and lemon to keep me war and hydrated.

11:00AM

I take a break to head outside and stretch. If the sun is out then this is when it lands on our terrace, looking out over the valley. Since moving here I don’t have regular yoga classes to attend like I did in the city, and at first I really struggled to motivate myself to keep up a practice. Then I took an e-course by one of my amazing clients, Ellie Coats. It really helped shift my mindset around my personal practice and understand that my body knows what’s right to do. With the pressure off, it’s something I manage more often than not these days.

12:00PM

I often have a Skype call around this time, either catching up with an existing client or exploring a new business story to share. I have a handful of long term partnerships plus copywriting for one off webpages or e-courses. I try to keep Skype calls to one a day if I can, to give me the space I need to be creative and truly present when I connect.

1:00PM

I love cooking so making a proper lunch is one of the main things I love about being self-employed. Almost invariably it involves cheese and carbs. Lately I’ve been really into bread, local sheep’s cheese, homemade chutney and some leaves from the garden (and an edible nasturtium flower or two!). Nick joins me if he’s not out running errands.

2:00PM

I try to keep my afternoons for editing, admin and scheduling. I’ll do any final checks needed on writing that has to be done by a deadline. 

3:00PM

I work alone so social media is my “office” – a place to unwind, connect with colleagues and like minded people. I aim to hang out on Facebook and Twitter for half an hour or so daily – share things I find interesting, or my own blog posts; support others in the various writing and business groups I’m in.

4:00PM

My final email check, just in case anything urgent has come up that a client needs help with. I draw up a list of what I want to do tomorrow and make a mental note of when I need to wake up, in case I have an early start.

5:00PM

Hopefully I’m finished for the day. I don’t have a smart phone, so when my laptop’s closed I’m offline completely. It’s one of the biggest contributing factors to my sanity J Time to walk the dogs; it’s a nice way to end the day by getting back into nature. I wander down to the river and watch them snuffling about in the woods, keeping my eyes peeled for mushrooms to forage…

6:00PM

As evening falls, there are night-time chores: Closing up the chickens, feeding the dogs and cats, lighting the wood stove. We might walk over to our friends’ farm for dinner; they’re a twenty-minute walk down the dirt track we live on. Otherwise we’ll settle in for a cozy evening.

7:00PM

A glass of wine (or two) finishes the day. Either our own wine with grapes from the farm, or red from our local co-operative, which is cheap, fruity and drinkable. Nick and I chat while we make dinner. He gives me business advice, or we’ll talk through current projects on the farm or share dreams about the future. We take it in turns to cook, unless one of us has a particular urge. We never ate much meat, and now I’m vegetarian it’s rare even for Nick. We’ll eat what’s fresh from the garden, or seasonal produce – right now cabbage, beans, root veg (beetroot is my favourite) and the last of the tomatoes, plus lots of beans and pulses. Nick has a sweet tooth and we usually finish with a few squares of chocolate, or a pudding if one of us has been baking…

8:00PM

We like to watch series online; we’ve been catching up on Sense8. And we love podcasts – lately it’s Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History for gruesome historical events and battles which I find weirdly relaxing. If the internet connection’s not great or we don’t have enough electricity stored in the batteries, we’ll read, play scrabble or talk.

10:00PM

Now the nights are getting longer we’re usually in bed by 10pm, like old folk, with the cats. I like to take a mug of Rooibos tea or lemon and honey to sip as I read. We snuggle up and read with our solar lights before drifting off around 11 or 12. Going to bed that early means I usually have to get up and pee at least once, which means pulling on shoes and heading out into the cool night air (our bathroom’s outside). I look up at the amazing stars through the pine trees and listen to the owls hooting and the rustles of the creatures who live around us. How lucky we are.

For more information on Madeleine Forbes, check out her website and more information on her farm. 

Want more {best} Case of the Mondays Series? Click HERE to read all the past entries. 

{best} Case of the Mondays: Ashley Wells

We all know Mondays suck. 

Each week, I will feature a Monday in the life of someone who can provide some comfort/humor/inspiration to the start of your week. 

Meet Ashley Wells! 

Ashley is a Senior Graphic Designer at a large design & print company in Central Florida. 

For the longest time I always assumed people know what graphic designers do, but over the years I’ve found that’s not always true! I went to school for design, so I learned how, why, and when to do particular things that pertain to design. I know why you should use this color instead of that one, which font will suit your job, and how to prep it for print, among a million other skills design school teaches you. My areas of expertise are color theory, typography, editorial and environmental design, and photo editing/manipulation.

 

5:45 am

My first alarm goes off, but I hit snooze twice before I finally get up at 6. I shuffle to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth.

6:15 am

I feed my pets and give my cat his morning medicine before taking my dog outside. (My cat has asthma and hyperesthesia, so he gets a puff of his inhaler and some liquid anti-seizure medication mixed into his food.)

6:30 am

I was lazy last night and didn’t wash my hair, so I spritz in some dry shampoo and put it up into a ponytail for the day. I also put on my makeup, a task I really enjoy doing since I love makeup and have drawers full of it. My boyfriend and I text back and forth while I’m doing this, too. He’s gone on an away rotation for med school and we try to say hello before our days begin. 

7:00 am

I pack up my lunch (a salad, greek yogurt, and a mozzarella cheese stick), get dressed, and head out the door.

7:20 am

I have a 30 minute commute to work, most of which consists of me sitting in heavy traffic on the interstate. My exit is backed up for two miles today, so there’s lots of sitting and waiting.

7:55 am

Most mornings I stop at a 7-Eleven by my work for coffee, since I rarely have time to wait in the long lines at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. This morning I get a cafe con leche and a banana.

8:05 am

I pull into my parking space at work and get myself clocked in for the day. I spend an hour or so reading emails and checking on the status of my job tickets. 

9:00 am

We bill most design clients by the hour, so we clock in and out of each job through an online time clock. I clock into my first job of the day: revisions on a 32-page conference agenda for an insurance association. I make some minor text edits before sending the final proof back for one last review. The job is finally going to print today, too. 

10:00 am

I send final artwork and dieline files to an outside printer that is taking care of a job I did for a bank.

10:30 am

Time to start on a new job. One of my recurring clients is a local Catholic church that has me update and theme their monthly petition slips.

12:00 pm

Lunch time! I’m not very hungry and I’ve got plans to meet friends for dinner, so I only eat half of the lunch I brought.

12:30 pm

Back to work. I have to visit another computer in the building because a client sent us a Quark file to pull information from. We haven’t used Quark (a desktop publishing and design software) in a long time and only one computer in the building has it - I guess for instances like this.

1:00 pm

I revisit the Catholic church petition and finish it up. As I’m exporting a proof, the insurance association gets back to me and gives their latest proof the thumbs up. Off to print it goes! I print a hard proof and fill out some paperwork before handing it over.

2:00 pm

I read through some emails and notice a client has emailed me to say they loved the work I did on my company’s recent Halloween self promotion. It’s always nice to get compliments from clients, especially when it’s not even on their own projects!

2:30 pm

My desk is piled in proofs and random pages of notes, so I clean it up and do some filing. I like to keep samples of all my print projects so I can put them in my portfolio. I’ve got that on the forefront of my mind because I’ll be looking for a new job in the spring. In March my boyfriend will get matched into a residency program and I’ll be moving with him. We’ll have no idea where we’re going until match day! Residency begins in July, so we’re moving in June, which means I’ll have 4 months to find a new job in our new city. I’ve put off updating my portfolio before and won’t be making that mistake again!

3:00 pm

I revisit a community map job for a home builder and add in schools, restaurants, stores, parks, etc. to help entice buyers. I use Google Maps to find their locations and place them on the map I made. 

4:50 pm

Time to go home! It takes a bit longer than usual because of more heavy traffic. It’s not been a good day for commuting. 

5:40 pm

I feed my pets and take my dog out for a walk.

6:30 pm

I meet my friends at a Chuy’s, a tex-mex restaurant for dinner and drinks. We sit there for hours, chatting and catching up. They’re my best friends and we normally have dinner together once a week.

9:00 pm

I’m back home and force myself into the shower before giving my pets their nightly medicines and walking my dog one last time.

10:15 pm

I collapse into bed while texting my boyfriend. It was one of those days where we didn’t get to talk much. We usually FaceTime every night, but we’re both exhausted so we skip it tonight. I turn on my white noise machine (I like rain sounds) and fall asleep within minutes. 

Want to learn more about what Ashley has going on? 

Check out: 

Entirely Ashley

@entirelyashley on Instagram 

Want more {best} Case of the Mondays Series? Click HERE to read all the past entries.