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I know. I know. It’s becoming a little too much of a trend lately, but here is another overdue review. I’m finally getting the many items on my to-do list checked off. Woohoo!!

Okay! I was sent two bottles of Girl Scouts Flavors Coffee Mate (the liquid not the powdered form) for the purposed of review. Although I was sent these items for free, all of these opinions are my own. I’m told the two flavors are still available for purchase at Target stores. Have you seen them anywhere else? Chime in with a comment!

Have a product that you want me to review too? Contact me HERE!

I’m PR friendly ?

 

If you have travel in your future I would like to suggest you use your local travel agent for all of your travel needs. In 2012, seven out of 10 travelers booked their own rooms and flights online, per eMarketer (source). Here are just a few problems with this:

1. You are working with robots instead of live people who can answer questions for you

2. You have no one to call in case something goes wrong!

3. It’s more difficult to change your plans should you desire to

4. A travel agent can make suggestions you may have never thought of

5. In booking online you are left to research everything on your own and may not even have anything but a destination in mind when you begin…

Worried about pricing? Think online sites are cheaper? Not only do many travel agents price match, they are there for you every step of your travel adventure. If you need to make travel plans, book through a travel agent, not one of those online sites that could screw you with the fine print!

I have wanted to start posting cool products and neat things I find on the internet for a while. Another blogger I follow calls her finds like this fabulous finds. I loved the idea so I asked her if it would bother her if I basically copied her idea and posted my finds as fabulous finds too…She said she wouldn’t mind a bit. After a few months, I completely forgot about wanting to post fabulous finds…that is until today when I stumbled upon this product…The Gun Box. I don’t personally own any fire arms yet, but this product is – in my opinion- fabulous!!!

I don’t want to start an argument about whether or not fire arms should be in the home, so any comments about that will be deleted. The main idea behind this post is that if you do have firearms in your home, I think this product is an awesome way to store one for emergencies. Just check out the video.

Yesterday, like so many other folks, I saw the blips begin in my facebook feed that Philip Seymour Hoffman had passed away. Within seconds of this news breaking, the opinions began because of his alleged cause of death. He was allegedly found with a needle in his arm and died of a suspected drug overdose. Some posted opinions that he was a great actor taken too soon while others immediately began posting things like:

“He threw his life away…why waste the space about him?”

Anytime a celebrity dies of an alleged overdose, it feels like there is an unfair number of people that act as though the celebrity deserved to die. This drives me crazy. How can you jump to conclusions as if you knew him?

I’m not sure what caused Philip Seymour Hoffman to begin doing drugs, but I do personally know how devastating struggles with addiction can be. To say he threw his life away and we shouldn’t “waste the space” talking about him is an unfair reaction- especially if you weren’t close to him or his family.

I know my family would be twice as devastated if they heard I had lost my life and then had to hear horrible things about me in the same breath.

Therefore, this is just one more reason I’m so glad I’m not a celebrity. To live in the public, where every single aspect  of your daily life is dissected and ripped apart and then to have your death be just as public and speculated upon- that would just be horrible.

God bless the family and friends of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I pray for your comfort in this time of grief. Rest in peace Mr. Hoffman.

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Okay, here’s The Famous Ashley Grant’s deep thoughts that have bubbled up all month and resulted in this post on this last day of the first month of this new year…

I know I want to be able to help people- truly help people. I want to enjoy my life with my husband. I want to be a traveling writer and photographer. NOTE- I did NOT say a travel writer or a travel photographer. I’ve learned that I don’t want to be a travel writer or travel photographer because I want to actually be able to enjoy the things I see and experience. There IS a difference. Traveling while writing and taking pictures is VERY different from traveling to a place with the sole intention of taking pictures of the place and writing about the place. Sure, I want to do some of that, but my main focus is the writing and taking pictures while traveling…

I also know that I have to make a certain amount of money each month to survive. My struggle as of late has been to combine all my wants into a career that will fulfill each of my wants while also satisfying that bottom line number that I have to meet.

I have felt so lost lately and so frustrated and I’m just not sure what my next step is.

How can I write and take pictures while traveling and make enough money to survive but also help people along the way?

I want to be able to give money to someone in need, buy a cup of coffee for a stranger any time the mood strikes, pay someone’s rent one month that really deserves a break, give a gift card for a mani-pedi to a mom that never takes care of herself, give a massage certificate to a hard worker I know stands on their feet all day…I have a heart filled with the desire to give, but a financial situation causing me to worry more about my own needs than those of others.

I know exactly how much money I need to be making to pay all of my bills on time every month, get myself out of debt and start saving for retirement, but every time I have a moment to myself…my mind wanders to how much I want to give to others. How do I get it all? How do I find a way to give when I keep needing to receive?

I continue to seek my answer…

I just finished a project and while sitting here I had a few things flash through my mind and wanted to share them.

All it takes is a nice gesture to make your day- I chose to get Subway for lunch. I wasn’t in the mood to cook or prepare anything and figured Subway would be a healthy enough option. The guy making my sandwich was nice and told me I looked very pretty today. I’ve never met this man. He just blurted out something sweet and it made me smile. In fact, it made my day! It made me want to compliment someone else and make their day too 🙂

I really enjoy my job- I’ve not had as much work lately as I would like, but the work I do have- I thoroughly enjoy! I love writing and taking pictures so, so, so, sooooo much. I’m so freakin’ grateful for the fact I get to do these things for a living.

I need to do more work- I need to do every single thing that has been assigned to me right away, even if is no where near my deadline. Then, I need to do more work…even things not assigned to me. I need to write more eBooks and blog posts and take more pictures. I’ve said this before, but I realized today just how crucial this is for my happiness! I’m happiest when I’m working on projects. Who knows? I might write an eBook that makes me my first million! 😉

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Lately, my inbox has been FLOODED with emails featuring all these awesome free webinars that hold “the key” to wealth and happiness. At the end of each “free” webinar I’m offered the opportunity to buy their complete program for eleventy billion dollars complete with a bajillion workbooks and if I act right now I’ll also get MP3s guaranteed to help me connect directly to the universe to put in my order for everything I want. Still not convinced? Well, they will throw in a whole bunch of videos and even send me a zip file filled with affirmations and quotes written on cute kitten pictures or a photo of a sunset. Only if I act right now though!

Now, I’m all about positive thinking and affirmations to channel getting the things you want out of life, but with the sheer magnitude of emails I’m getting offering me these promises of my key to wealth, I can’t help but wonder if many of these self proclaimed self-help gurus are just all full of shit and hoping I will buy their program so that they can finally be making the money they claim they already have.

I think I’m going to write a book about how I became a
millionaire and fill it with affirmations and quotes about the Law of
Attraction and all kinds of shit about coaching yourself to wealth and happiness and
sell it for $50 each and promote it as how I made my wealth and then
once I am actually a millionaire from it the damn book will have been
true and I will be a fraud no more!

What do you think? Am I going overboard here? Am I nuts? Or are there just waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many cooks in the kitchen of the Law of Attraction claiming that THEY actually have the key to wealth and happiness and the other cooks stole their recipe?

Okay…this is the end of my venting blog post… Thanks for reading and have a wealth and happiness filled day!

Good
rant! But seriously. Why are there so many coaches out there? I wonder
how many of them are Gen Xers who got shafted out of their careers and
needed to reinvent themselves. Also makes me wonder why so many people
are lacking interpersonal skills, emotional
intelligence, business skills and common sense to the point of needing
paid help? We clearly aren’t teaching these important survival skills in
schools and if parents don’t know the stuff, they can’t pass it on.
And finally, is everyone stressed to the point of crumbling under the
pressure, and without access to supportive friends, getting a coach?
Sorry to hijack your blog, but I really do think about this stuff…

I think about it too Pamela Settle!!! Hence the rant on the blog. hahaha! I agree, there are a lot of skills that clearly are not being taught anymore. Everyone just expects to graduate high school/college and be handed a million dollar payheck. Sorry junior, but unless you are brilliant enough to get drafted by google or athletic enough to get drafted into sports or pretty enough to be in mags (you get my point)…it ain’t gonna happen. That’s why I’m writing eBooks and then know I’ll have to ACTUALLY WORK marketing them to sell them  

This year I turn 30, and at first I was freaking out about this. There are so many things I haven’t done yet. I had this long list of things I wanted to do by 30 and I even started thinking about ways to force them into happening by August 14 just so I could say I did them on time…but I’m done freaking out. I decided I am letting go of my regrets about things I didn’t accomplish. Instead I am just going to keep working on my goals and stop worrying about my age.

Forcing myself to get these things done by 30 at this point would take some of the thrill out of a few of the items on my list. The funny thing is, as I approach the big 3 0 some of the items on my list aren’t as important to me anymore. In fact, some of the items were on there because I thought I HAD to do them by 30, but now I realize- there’s no rush.

My main goal for this year is to be debt free. Having this weight lifted will be a wonderful feeling and I’m looking forward to how free my hubby and I will feel after we pay off that last amount of money we owe. I have a plan to make this happen and I’m going to just stay as positive and as optimistic as possible this year, regardless of the fact that I’ll be leaving my twenties behind…

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I’ve had this question pop up several times since the beginning of the new year: What Would You Do if Money Were No Object?

After really thinking about it I decided I would put it in writing and share it with the universe…

If money were no object, I would be a traveling writer and photographer giving away my time and talents for free whenever the mood strikes. The truth is, I love writing and taking pictures. I want enough money in the bank as quickly as possible so that I can live off the interest for the rest of my life and just spend my days giving away my
time and talent for free whenever I want to.

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I have a few regrets for 2013 that I would like to share. It’s not easy to share regrets, but I kind of feel like airing our regrets out is the only way to forgive ourselves and move on.

I regret holding onto anger and sadness for things people have said to me- recent past and even things from long ago.

I regret not working harder towards my goals.

I regret not calling/e-mailing people I said I would keep in touch with.

I regret not spending more time with some of my family and friends. I regret any moment longer that I spent with anyone that I did not want to be spending time with.

I regret not taking better care of myself- including the things I have consumed and my lack of physical activity.

I regret some lies I have told and secrets I’ve kept regardless of the reasons for doing so.

I regret not living more in the now even after I swore I would.

There, I think that covers everything. These are my regrets. Now, I must forgive…

I forgive every single person in my past that has something negative to me or about me. I forgive every single person in my past who has hurt me whether they meant to or not. I forgive myself for bad things I may have said or done in retaliation. I want to go into 2014 with a clean slate in regards to my feelings about people and believing that there is genuine good in folks.

I now forgive myself for not working harder on my goals and intend to spend 2014 doing just that. I will take another look at the things I want in life and spend every day making the dreams into realities.

I forgive myself for not calling/e-mailing and not keeping in touch. I plan on doing a better job of hanging on to relationships and forming new ones in 2014. I will spend more time with people I want to spend time with and stop spending time with those I don’t care to spend time with.

I now forgive myself for not taking care of myself and look forward to going into 2014 with the plan to eat better, drink better, work out more, meditate more and take better care of my mind, body and spirit.

I now forgive myself for lies and secrets and plan to make things right in 2014. I will pay off my debts and free myself of my shackles.

I now forgive myself for not living in the moment. I plan to try harder in 2014 to appreciate every single moment I have and only do the things I actually want to do that will be for the benefit of my wishes, hopes and dreams.

What do you want more of in 2014? What are your regrets? Air it out and then forgive yourself!

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