how to

Juls Knows A Thing Or Two About….How to Write a Thank-you Note

2 Comments

My first guest blogger…..and an international talent at that! (thanks Juls) x

Hi, I’m Juls. I’m a writer, brander, mom, yogi, runner, wife and friend. I believe that gratitude is the key to happiness, and the basis for most healthy relationships. I practice gratitude the way I’d practice at playing the guitar, if I were musical in any way, which I am not. Learning to express gratitude opens up an entirely new dimension in life, and I know a thing or two about writing a great thank you note.

  1. Handwritten is best. Written gratitude is becoming a lost art and people are truly touched to get a note of thanks in the mailbox. If you don’t have time to hand-write it, don’t skip it. Send an email or a text, or even an MP3 of yourself saying thank you.
  2. Start with how it made you feel. “Thanks for the flowers. They made me feel really loved.” Or “Thanks for the sports watch. Wearing it makes me feel like a true professional.” Or, “Thanks for taking the time for such a great lunch. It made me feel important in your life.”
  3. Mention how you’ll use it. “I’m going to wear my new sweater on my trip to New York.” Or, “Every time I see the flowers I’ll think of you and what a great time we had.” Or, “I’ll light the candle before bed to relax at night.”
  4. Skip the B.S. If it’s not true, don’t say it. Saying orange is your favorite color if it makes you look sick does not make you noble. Instead, find something you do specifically like about it. “I love the fabric. It’s so soft.” Or, find something you like about the gesture: “I love that you shopped for me. I feel so special.”
  5. Include why you’re grateful for the giver – not just the gift. “I’m so grateful to have a friend like you in my life.” Or, “I feel so lucky to have you looking out for me.” Or, “My days are so much nicer because you are in them.”

Thanks for letting me share this with you. It makes me feel like I’m really making a difference.  (and you are Juls!)

I Know A Thing or Two About….How To Make Dinner From Virtually Nothing

Leave a comment

Right, I said I’d go first so here it is. Not the most salubrious of topics, but a start none the less – and it won’t be the last. As it happens, I Know A Thing or Two about lots of things….I must…I’m over 40 for goodness sake….I just having a bit of trouble thinking of what they are right now. Anyhoo….

How often to you get home from work after a long day, open the fridge and think ‘what on earth are we going to eat tonight’? Rather than pick up the phone to dial an unhealthy take-away, try some of these tips instead:

  1. Look for eggs. You can do almost anything with eggs. And fast. If you have eggs, then look for stuff you could chuck in with them. I like to call this an ‘egg mess’. Basically scramble the eggs and toss in a bit of onion, some kind of left over meat (like ham), chopped up left over veges of any description, a tin of corn, or beans and a handful of cheese if you have it.
  2. Put together like-ingredients. I tend to have a look at what’s there and then decide whether, as a group of ingredients, they’re more Asiany-type flavours, or Italian, or salady or something that lends itself to baking, grilling etc. Once you get that in your mind, you can start to think what might be done with them….a stir fry, a pasta etc
  3. If there are no like ingredients? Then I’ll often chop whatever’s there up really small (veges, protein) so it’s almost indistinguishable, then stir fry the lot and add either some noodles or rice or something to pad it all out.
  4. Check the freezer.  I’m not sure about you, but I’ll often freeze stuff for ‘later’ and then forget all about it until months later. For example I recently found some pureed pumpkin pods that I’d made for my 6 month old baby (she’s now in her second year of school). Check what you’ve got because you may have frozen some left overs at some stage, or have some meat or veges that can be added to what you have in the fridge.
  5. Win with a tin. Tinned food is so underrated. And again, you often forget what’s there. I reckon we could live off the tins we have in our pantry for at least a month if it came to the crunch. Put something on toast, stir something through some pasta or see what you’ve got that could be combined with some fresh bits and pieces from the fridge.

So there you have it…..the very first I Know A Thing or Two About.
So who’s next?

I Know A Thing or 2 About…

2 Comments

I’ve been at a ‘brand acceleration’ seminar this morning, thanks to a good friend who’s about to blast onto the scene with her new business about detoxifying your home.  In the room were hundreds of people who all know some stuff about something.  Some were professionals who’d been hard at it for 20+ years, others are just damn good at the particular thing they do with not a clue how to get their message out there.

In the space of a few hours I heard from a man who makes art deco furniture and now has a partnership with Rolls Royce installing secret compartments, met a woman that paints Buddah and whose coffee table books are huge in Singapore and spent a lot of time marvelling at the fact that all of us know a thing or 2 about something that someone, somewhere in the world will find interesting – and could even change their life.

I got to thinking about how to harness all of those “thing or twos” into thousands or even millions of things that really could change the world- or at least give people a place to go for really good, practical advice about stuff.

Now, admittedly this is a very new idea that has only just started to bubble around….and, unlike me to dive right in and have a crack, I’m going to kick things off by inviting some of my known associates to contribute to a new feature section on chatterbrooke, called I Know A Thing or 2 About.

For example, I know people who Know A Thing or 2 About:
Helping kids read
Baking the perfect pizza dough
Getting invited to events without ever hosting one
Detoxifying your home
Making fitness fun
Cheese and perfect flavour combinations
Growing crops
Making gadgets work
Finding time for everything

I know a thing or 2 about some stuff too, and so I’ll start. But not right now.  I have to think of something I know a thing or 2 about first.