Browsing Category: Life

How To Have a Happy Holiday

Although the holiday season is almost over, we about to hit the biggest hurdle; Christmas. The thought of Christmas and being in a house full of people can make you feel a little anxious and stressed out. I’m sure some of you already have family in-town or preparing to go out of town to your family and might already be “over it”. However, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can actually have a truly happy holiday season, if you just actually try.

So, I’m here to share some quick tips to keep in mind this holiday season and so nobody or “grinch” can kill your spirit in this joyous time and how to have a happy holiday. ready? Here we go!

  • Watch Your Words– This can definitely be a challenger when you are dealing with multiple personalities in a confined space. However, there are some simple ways you can achieve this great feat:
    • Mind Your Business – Stay out of conversations and situations that don’t pertain to you.
    • Keep Your Opinions To Yourself – Opinions are like arm pits; everyone has one and most of them stink.
    • Avoid Foolish Arguments – When you somehow realize that you are about to enter or wandered into an argument, just remove yourself and go eat and have a piece of cake.
  • Enjoy The Moments – In today’s era of social media and the need to broadcast every single thing, we sometimes miss the moments and the happiness in them. Sometimes when you’re too busy trying to picture the moments of fun with family and friends you end up not capturing the moment internally and emotionally. I’m just saying.
  • Focus On The Positives – Yes, “Accentuate the positives and eliminate the negatives” is the motto. Christmas time with the ones you love and who love you back should be filled with nothing but positive vibes. If you feel yourself wandering off the path of positivity, then stop and go back over this list to get back on. 😉

I hope you keep these tips in mind this holiday season and into the new year, because these tips are key essentials towards an overall happy life.

I must say that 2015 was a great year for me that allowed me to refocus on the path I want to be on and the people I want on that path with me. I cut a few unnecessary things out of my life and gave up a bad habit or two. Removing things and analyzing plans and goals has been therapeutic and clarified a lot of things for me. Still, I feel like I’m jut getting started and I’m super excited.

Stained Couture is taking the rest of the year off to get more inspired by life and enjoy some moments. See ya’ next year and have a merry Christmas and happy and safe new years!

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Your Personal Bartender

pesonal-bartender-stained-couture

One of the things I would like to perfect is being well versed in a solid list of cocktail recipes. I pretty confident in my bar styling skill, but when it comes to actually running a bar and mixing drinks, I’m clueless.

Thankfully, there are countless books, online tutorials, and even apps to help become an amateur mixologist. However, now the art of mixing drinks has entered a new level in the form of Somabar. Somabar is a robotic bartender and the world’s first app controlled bartending appliance that made for at-home entertaining. With a few clicks on it’s accompanying app, you can mix up up over 300 drinks. You pretty much have you own always on-call personal bartender and you don’t even have to tip him!

somabar-pesonal-bartender-stained-couture

Within the app, you scroll through the list of drinks and select your potion. You can even decide how light or strong you want it. Somabar is also has a water-flushing system that ensures that the drink you requested tastes like the drink you requested and not hybrid of said drink and the previously made cocktail.

Somabar is currently available for pre-order for $429 via a kickstarter campaign. This is going to be so awesome!

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Have A Happy Thanksgiving

happy-thanksgiving-2015
Here’s to a happy and fulfilling Thanksgiving!

Remember to give thanks for your life, everyone and thing in it. Be appreciative of your life and pray for those that may be in a hard spot and need a blessing to come to them.

If you are one of the brave souls partaking in Black Friday, be safe out there! Me? I’m sleeping in and going to wake up and try to grab a few deals online. It works for me.

Also, Stained Couture is taking quick fall sabbatical, but we’ll be back on Tuesday, December 1, 2015. The SC team has been prepping our list of gift guides. Yes, we are bringing back on our gift guides to help you find the perfect gift for some of the people on your shopping list…or you, too!

In the meantime, enjoy your holiday with your loved one and see ya next week!

Have a happy Thanksgiving from Stained Couture!

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Unique Night Lights

unique-night-lights-stained-couture

Nights were once used to help small children fall asleep and without having the “boogeyman” sneak up on them while they are in bed and parents to safely go check on their babies without disturbing their sleep by turning on a bright light.

When I was younger, I shared a bedroom with my brother who “needed” a night light on in order to go to sleep, which was usually some cartoon mostly aimed and favorited toward boys. I vaguely remember falling asleep with a soft light coming from one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles plugged into one of our bedroom walls.

Eventually, we got our own rooms (Yes!) and my brother stopped requesting night lights all together. However, now that I’m older and a little smarter, I come to recognize that adults could benefit from night lights, too. Who wants to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and stub their toe, because they can’t see where they are going? This may or may not have happened to me recently after moving my bedroom around a few hours before and forgot. Like I said, may or may not.

Added safety and navigation aside, a soft and subtle light in the background as you fall asleep can be very soothing and appreciated.

Here are some more mature and unique night lights for us adults and still appropriate for kids.

owl-concrete-night-light

I love the simplicity and fun feel of this owl night light. Plus, the modern design helps easily blend into your living space for an extra touch of decor. You can never go wrong with a laser cut design of an owl…in my opinion.

moon-night-light

Looking for a traditional nightlight without the kiddie vibes? You might be interested in this moon night light, which is very simple and very cool the same time. It looks like it can be very entrancing.

book-rest-lamp

As a pseudo-minimalist, I love when convenience, function, and design collide to create something awesome. Case in point, the book rest lamp provides a soft light to read, but also doubles as a book rest to help you never lose your page. Here is where design and creativity enters. When you place your open book on top of the lamp, it creates the look of a house! So cute!

Lumio_Product_Maple

If you are a fellow fan (read: obsessed) and avid watcher of Shark Tank on ABC, then you might remember the Lumio. It was one of those inventions that was so unique and amazing that almost all the sharks wanted a piece even with the high price investment request. In case you aren’t familiar, Lumio lamp is a portable, multi-functional lamp that conceals itself in the form of a hard-cover book and opens to 360 degrees. Not only is it functional and convenient, but so cool. It comes in various sizes, including one that’s small enough to fit in your back pocket. I want Santa to bring me one this year.

 

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Podcasts for Creative Entrepreneurs

podcasts-for-creative-entrepreneur

For the past couple of years, I’ve been hooked on podcasts. I tend to listen to podcasts at night as I fall asleep and/or use them to get through long days at work to speed up the day.

I wish I could say that I’m subscribed to only a few podcasts in a certain niche, but I’m not. Currently, I’m subscribed to well over 20 different podcasts that mostly includes pop culture and comedy stations. I usually listen to these as I fall asleep at night. Who doesn’t want to fall asleep with a smile on their face?

Currently, one of my favorite types of podcasts to listen to while at work are podcasts are aimed toward creatives and entrepreneurs. They are usually very motivating and share valuable information that I can implement in my work, creative endeavors, and life.

So, I decided to share some of my favorite podcasts for creative entrepreneurs with you. If you work/live or aspire to possess a creative lifestyle or start your own business, then you will definitely appreciate some of these podcasts. Check them out!

mattieologie-podcast

Mattieologie – Mattie James is the beautiful branding bad-ass behind the Mattieologie podcast and Mattieologie blog. In her daily podcast, she shares tips and suggestions on everything from blogging, social media, and video content creation in less than 10 minutes. No, seriously, some of podcasts are less than 5m minutes, but are so thorough and filled with awesomeness. I tend to listen her podcasts from throughout the week on Friday, while getting ready for work. LISTEN HERE!

askpat-podcast

Ask Pat – Ask Pat is a podcast hosted by Pat Flynn, who is known for helping other create and curate profitable online businesses through his blog, Smart Passive Income.  Like Mattieologie, the format of this podcast is daily short episodes where Pat answers a question from one of his supporters including questions about blogging schedules, what equipment to use for podcasts, and email marketing. I binge listen to this podcast on Sundays, on my way from church. It helps me slowly get back into the upcoming work week. LISTEN HERE!

lewis-howes-podcast

Lewis Howes – Lewis Howes is a former professional athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur that shares great life and business tips from personal experiences and also interviews with other creatives and entrepreneurs. Each episode is informative and inspiring. LISTEN HERE!

girlboss-podcast

#GIRLBOSSES Radio – So, pretty much anything that has Sophia Amoruso name attached to it automatically gets my vote, including her #GirlBoss podcast, which is named after her best-selling book that was released earlier this year. In her new podcast, the founder of Nasty Gal, interviews other inspiring #girlbosses about business, life, and everything in between. Unfortunately, she’s only released a few episodes, but they are so worth listening to and waiting patiently for the next one. LISTEN HERE!

creative-start-podcast

Creative Start Podcast – I recently found this podcast, but I really enjoyed the interviews with creative entrepreneurs who discuss how they got started with their business/careers. So inspirational and reassuring! New episodes are supposed to start soon. However, in the meantime, you will enjoy their past episodes. LISTEN HERE!

SDIHW-podcast

She Did It Her Way – She Did Her Way podcast is the reason I’ve hardly listened to the radio on my way to work the past couple of weeks, because this podcast is specifically geared toward the top female entrepreneurs who climbed the ladder of their success their way with interviews from women who’ve succeeded in various businesses. LISTEN HERE!

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