Kimberly Wilson's Blog, page 65

Year of Tranquility Sneak Peek

My new baby, Year of Tranquility: A Lifestyle Planner, is releasing THIS week on Amazon! Below is a sneak peek.

Year of Tranquility will be a portable softcover with perfect binding and size 8×10 with over 200 pages. Inside you’ll find lifestyle lists, pink dotted space to muse, time and money trackers, monthly moon phase prompts, 32 Tranquility Tools, 12 topics, 48 suggested practices, six plant-based recipes, full-color photography, an abundance of Savvy Sources that include books, apps, and Tranquility du Jour podcasts, and more.

And the cherry on top, everyone who orders a copy will receive fun bonuses: an online workshop, downloadable PDFs, and a playlist.

More details coming this week. Thanks for your support. I hope you’re as excited as I am to meet her! Bisous. x

 

The post Year of Tranquility Sneak Peek appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.

Year of Tranquility Status

This was me throughout the holidays: writing, editing, and sipping tea. We’re in the final Year of Tranquility design stages and it’s ADORABLE. I can’t wait to share it with you!

The 200+-page book is filled with pretty photos, plant-based recipes, moon cycle prompts, lists, essays, tools, pink dotted space (think dot journaling) for you to muse, and inspiration all wrapped up in love.

The book should be available early next week on Amazon. Stay tuned and thanks SO much for your enthusiasm about this project.

I can’t wait to connect on Sunday for TDJ Live and I’ll share sneak peeks (plus much more) then! Bisous. x

The post Year of Tranquility Status appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.

New Year TDJ Live THIS Sunday

What is TDJ Live?

This complimentary, seasonal, one-hour, live video gathering is a space to reflect, set intentions, and be inspired to make 2019 an amazing year. Learn eight tranquility tips for the new year. New Year, New Ways is our focus.

Slow down to play with your creative tools (journal, markers, washi tape, ephemera, pens) and make yourself a priority. Push the pause button on your busy life to connect with other tranquility-seekers around the globe.

When:

Sunday, January 6th, 2018 8pm ET (use this handy time zone converter). If you can’t join live, no worries, the recording will be available for a $10 instant download shortly after the event.

How:

A few minutes before start time, gather your creative tools, settle in with a cuppa tea (or bubbly), take 10 deep breaths, and click the link sent via email on Friday (or upon registration). Put your hair up and get cozy, the camera is only on me.

Connect:

Follow along, share photos, and insights using #TDJLive.

Cherries on top:

Receive a special discount code to shop locally-sewn, vegan, eco-friendly TranquiliT. Meet my rescue pugs Mookie, Belle Starr, and Gizmo. Create in your full-color Playbook (sent via email on Friday).

The post New Year TDJ Live THIS Sunday appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.

Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019

Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.—Yvonne Woon

Yesterday afternoon I returned to DC after a quick  jaunt to Oklahoma for family time. While there, Mom and I pulled out our calligraphy supplies, a sketchbook, and magazines to start my three-part end of year process: reflection, intention, action.

We lit a candle, played Bach for Book Lovers, and sipped tea for hours. Above you’ll see photos from the afternoon experience. It took us awhile to get familiar again with the calligraphy pen (I kept holding it upside down) and, once I did, I created my 2018 reflection and 2019 intention page.

I thumbed through my planner to mine those 2018 memories (more to be added) and let the ink blots become part of the process. A Rumi quote I recently found was added, “When a bird gets free, it doesn’t go back for remnants left on the bottom of the cage.” This hit me right in the heart. So much goodness in so few words.

Soften is the word that kept coming up for me and it just feels right. Our word (or theme/intention) of the year serves as a guide. When facing decision-making doubt, I’ll ask myself, “What’s the choice most aligned with softening?”

Tonight after hosting the New Year’s Mini Retreat at YogaWorks or tomorrow morning before hosting the New Year’s Salon, I plan to work on the action portion.

Below is more on the process and  audio HERE. I hope you enjoy . . .

The end of the year. Another completed chapter. Let’s tie a ceremonial bow around it and honor our evolution—highlights, lessons learned, struggles, dreams, experiences. Each of these played a role in the year’s unfurling.

Reflection

To awaken memories, set aside time to flip through places you kept notes and dates, such as your planner, online calendar, and journal. Scroll through your photos for visual cues. Pull out cards, ticket stubs, conference swag, and/or exhibit brochures (I keep these items in a shoe box wrapped in pretty paper labeled “memories”). Collect any mementos you may have tucked away from this year and pile it on your kitchen table.

According to Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big Life: Making Room for What Really Matters (interviewed on Tranquility du Jour), “The end-of-year review process is very similar to sowing seeds. When you plant a garden, you don’t sit and stare at the seeds until they sprout. You know that some will germinate and some will not, but it is not up to you to make them grow. All you can do is set the conditions for their growth with good soil, adequate water, and the right amount of sun. And that’s what this exercise does—and while you are sowing seeds during this period, you can be enjoying the fruits of the previous year’s harvest at the same time.”

Grab writing tools and paper. Sip tea and list what you recall from the year in no particular order and answer the above questions. Capture big moments (e.g. started graduate school) along with tiny ones (e.g. sipped a cherry limeade at the drive-in with Mom). Let the list flow.

Here are a few questions to help you get started:

How did you spend your time? There are 168 hours/week and 8,760 hours/year. Where did yours go? Break it down into categories such as family, creativity, work, spirituality, etc. Compare where it went to where you’d like to see it go next year.
What journeys did you take?
What were your accomplishments and disappointments?
What lessons did you learn?
How have you grown from this time last year?
How do you hope to show up this time next year?

Design a visual representation of the year by printing an assortment of photos and creating a collage. Or if you’re more techie, use an app like Collage Creator to assemble an electronic history that can be a desktop or image to share with loved ones.

Sometimes I paste a beautiful image pulled from a magazine into my art journal and list memories on it with a Sharpie. This reminds me of the year’s ups and down, allows me to express gratitude for what transpired, and honor the evolution. (This year I chose a white page and let the memories flow with a calligraphy pen).

After this process (which can take days, by the way), review your answers, images, hopes, and dreams. Light a candle to honor losses. Acknowledge how every experience has made your year unique.

Intention

Set an intention for what you hope to see unfold next year. Is there a word or theme that stands out? Picture yourself a year from today and note how you’d like to feel, what you’d like to have accomplished, what you’d like to have shed, where you’d like to be living, who you’d like to be with, and on and on.

Bring this person to life in visual format. Pull images from magazines that represent the feeling of the word you’ve chosen or the feeling of the answers you’ve written to the exercise above. Display this where you’ll see it regularly.

Action

Here’s where we bring some doing into our dreaming. In Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote, “The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers, but above all, the world needs dreamers who do.”  What small steps can you take today (and tomorrow, and the next day) to move toward that vision you have for yourself this year? List these and add them into your planner.

You Got This

Allow this process to nurture who you are and who you are becoming. Sans judgment, simply observation filled with loving-kindness. Spread your wings and fly, dear one, and don’t go back to that cage. Bisous. x

The post Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019 appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.

Saying Goodbye to Miss Lillie

 

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.—Saint Augustine

I hope you had a joyful holiday and are gearing up for the transition into 2019. Today I’m off to Oklahoma for a few days with family before returning to teach a 2-hour New Year’s Eve Mini Retreat at Tranquil Space and a 2.5-hour New Year’s Salon in my office {2 spots left}. Before we head to the airport, I wanted to share an offer with you.

In 2013 I purchased a 1988 Chevy Sprint vintage camper for a two-month Tranquility Tour across the US and Canada. Since then we’ve taken her out on annual adventures and, sadly, she’s spent most of her time in a storage lot. It’s come time to say goodbye simply because she’s not getting the attention she deserves.

This is where you come in—we’re looking to give her a good home in exchange for a donation to Pigs & Pugs Project. You determine the amount.

On Christmas we stopped by to pull out our stuff and snap these photos and video with hopes of passing her on to a new family.

A few things to note: she’s not starting (may need a new starter; it’s not the battery), the front cab AC doesn’t work (despite getting repaired multiple times; apparently the parts are hard to find) but the back AC works great when plugged in at a campsite; she has 75k miles, new tires in 2013, was last driven a year ago, has a two-burner stove, toilet/shower (we never used the shower; it’s tiny), has a table with two seats (the table can lower to pull the two seats together into a kid’s bed), has a pull-out double bed with a full-sized memory foam mattress, she would need to be picked up in Hedgesville, WV (there’s a Chevy dealer 30 minutes away in Martinsburg), registration needs renewal, Mom made all the cute damask and striped slip covers, she’s 18-20 feet long and fits in regular parking spots (huge perk). Twinkle lights sold separately (said with a smirk).

I think that covers the nitty gritty. She was so good to us during our tour and we’ve since taken her on trips to the Smokies and nearby campgrounds. If you have any questions or are interested, reach out. Again, my goal is for her to get regular use, love, and maintenance.

Writing this makes me sad; it’s the end of an era. But it’s time for me to pare down and Miss Lillie to have a new family. Bisous. x

The post Saying Goodbye to Miss Lillie appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.

Tranquility du Jour #438: Living the Simply Luxurious Life

In this week’s edition of Tranquility du Jour, Shannon Ables of  The Simply Luxurious Life and I discuss her brand new book, Living the Simply Luxurious Life, how to master the complexity of simplicity, what it means to be your own brand, and how to build community.

New to Tranquility du Jour? Learn more here.

Join me bi-weekly Love Notes and access Tranquil Treasures.

 


Direct download: Tranquility du Jour #438: Living the Simply Luxurious Life

Upcoming Events

New Year’s Mini Retreat in DC: December 31

New Year’s Salon in DC: January 1 {2 spots left}

TDJ Live online: January 6

Writing Salon in DC: January 12 {5 spots left}

4-Week Tranquility Salon in DC: Starts January 13 {2 spots left}

Tranquility in the Topics: February 16-23, 2019 in Costa Rica {3 spots left}

Tranquility in Tuscany: July 13-20, 2019 {8 spots left}

Guest: Shannon Ables

Shannon Ables is the founder and editor of the internationally recognized lifestyle blog The Simply Luxurious Life (est. 2009) which inspired her first book Choosing The Simply Luxurious Life: A Modern Woman’s Guide (2014), and her second Living The Simply Luxurious Life: Making Your Everydays Extraordinary and Discovering Your Best Self (2018).

What does living simply luxuriously look like?

“The simply luxurious life is something I believe every one of us can attain if indeed we are seeking quality over quantity, sensibility rather than frivolity, personal style instead of trendy fashions and a truly fulfilling life instead of being led around by the nose, thereby creating a life of true contentment.”

Shannon also shares inspiration and tips on how to curate your very own simply luxurious life on her iTunes podcast The Simple Sophisticate which airs each Monday, pairing intelligent living with signature style. The Simply Luxurious Kitchen vodcast (video series) began where Shannon steps into her own kitchen using seasonal fare to elevate the everyday meal.

Savvy Sources

 

Websites: shannonables.com and simplyluxuriouslife.com

Books: thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/book-2

Facebook: facebook.com/thesimplyluxuriouslifeblog

Instagram: instagram.com/thesimplyluxuriouslife/

Mentioned in the Podcast

Shannon’s previous Tranquility du Jour interviews: #340 and #210
Release of the Y ear of Tranquility book: early January

The secret to living with charm, grace, balance and joie de vivre—it’s all here in Year of Tranquility!—Jamie Cat Callan, author of Parisian Charm School

Book Cover voting: #3 it is!


Social Media



Eye candy on Instagram
Pin along with me on Pinterest
Let’s connect on Facebook
Follow moi on Twitter
Watch via YouTube


More Tranquility

Shop seasonless, vegan, locally-made, eco-friendly fashion: TranquiliT
Browse my 5 Books
Tranquility-filled E-courses
Download the Tranquility du Jour Podcast App: iPhone and Android
Read about my passion for animals

Request

Pen a review on iTunes and/or share this podcast via social media.
Pen a review of my books on Amazon or Goodreads.


Techy

To listen, click on the player at the top of the post or click here to listen to older episodes.
New to podcasting? Get more info at Podcast 411.
Do you have iTunes? Click here and subscribe to the podcast to get the latest episode as released.
Get the Tranquility du Jour apps to download the podcast “automagically” on iOS or Android

The post Tranquility du Jour #438: Living the Simply Luxurious Life appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.

Year of Tranquility Update

The secret to living with charm, grace, balance and joie de vivre—it’s all here in Year of Tranquility.—Jamie Cat Callan, author of Parisian Charm School

The past few days have been all-day writing and editing fests for my new book, Year of Tranquility. YOU chose the cover (#3), thank you. And, I received my first review quote (see above)!

Year of Tranquility is the marriage of a big picture planner with 12 months of deep diving into a variety of topics. It’s also a blend of my two creations: a yearlong online program and a pretty pink planner.

Pen your plans, explore new practices, and check the boxes (so fulfilling!). Personalize it with ephemera, colored markers, washi tapes, and your deepest desires.

Year of Tranquility will be available on Amazon around the New Year and I’m also dreaming up an accompanying program, too. Stay tuned.

In the interim, wishing you and yours a joyful holiday. I hope it’s magical and filled with family, friends, good food, warm fires, meaningful gifts, sparkly ornaments, scented fir candles, and steaming cups of tea.

To support you during this time, I’ll be releasing a podcast on living the Simply Luxurious Life and the End of Year Review process this week. Thanks for being here! Bisous.

The post Year of Tranquility Update appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.

Slowing Down with the Solstice

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.—William Blake

Dearest, I hope my latest Love Note just landed in your inbox and that you were transported to a virtual tea date. Nurturing our senses, getting real, and connecting is Survival 101 this time of the year.

I’m knee deep in editing the new project I announced last week and am so excited about it that I’m having trouble sleeping. Ever get that feeling of being so alive and engaged in something that it colors your world?

Sometimes it’s a new love interest, that coveted job you’ve been after, or, for me, a project that you’re delighted to birth. I can’t wait to share this with you in the new year!

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, the shortest and darkest day of the year. The good news? Moving forward, the days get longer and brighter!

As we transition into this new time of the year, I think of winter as giving us permission to go within. You know, hibernate. To slow down just like the natural world around us.

Looking for winter-approved activities to try over the holidays? Consider some of these below.

Enjoy a long afternoon walk. Stargaze. Put up bird feeders and keep them stocked. Make a pot of soup. Create warmth during the longest night by cuddling on the couch with a loved one. Build a snowman. Ice skate. Collect pine cones to make scented pine cones. Volunteer. Sip vegan lavender hot cocoa.

Catch up on Tranquility du Jour podcasts. Schedule down time. Light candles. Try a 24-hour digital detox. Soak in the tub with sweet almond oil. Write. Practice kindness. Choose your charities for end of year giving (ahem, Pigs & Pugs Project is amazing!). Get crafty and create handmade gifts.

Watch this 1-hour video on ways to make your holidays less harried. Begin to wind down the year with deep reflection and a long nap by the fire. Rinse and repeat.

Wishing you a joyful celebration of the Solstice and a smooth transition into this new season of slowing down. Bisous. x

The post Slowing Down with the Solstice appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.

Book Cover Voting

Dearest Readers:

As you know, your vote matters—especially to me!

Help us choose the new Year of Tranquility book cover by voting HERE (click the link to vote) on the five cover options below by Friday noon ET.

This new book is a blend of pieces from the annual Daybook released over the past six years (sans weekly layouts) with the essays, practices, and savvy sources from the yearlong Year of Tranquility program.

Optional: add your email address to the survey to be the first to know about the pre-sale bonus and late December/early January release date.

Thanks SO much for your support, input, and consideration! I’m beyond grateful. Bisous. x

The post Book Cover Voting appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.

Tranquility du Jour #437: The Power of Pie

In this week’s edition of Tranquility du Jour, author Beth Howard and I discuss moving abroad for love, the challenges of a new country, living in the American Gothic House, the practice of writing, and the power of pie.

New to Tranquility du Jour? Learn more here.

Join me bi-weekly Love Notes and access Tranquil Treasures.

 


Direct download: Tranquility du Jour #437: The Power of Pie

Upcoming Events

New Year’s Mini Retreat in DC: December 31

New Year’s Salon in DC: January 1 {4 spots left}

TDJ Live online: January 6

Writing Salon in DC: January 12 {5 spots left}

4-Week Tranquility Salon in DC: Starts January 13 {2 spots left}

Tranquility in the Topics: February 16-23, 2019 in Costa Rica {3 spots left}

Tranquility in Tuscany: July 13-20, 2019 {8 spots left}

Guest: Beth Howard

Beth M. Howard is an author, blogger, and radio commentator. She is also known for being the (former) resident of the American Gothic House, where from 2010 to 2014 she ran the Pitchfork Pie Stand. Her books include Making Piece: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Pie; Ms. American Pie: Buttery Good Pie Recipes and Bold Tales from the American Gothic House; and Hausfrau Honeymoon: Love, Language, and Other Misadventures in Germany. She has written for the New York Times, Real Simple, Country Living, and many other publications; she’s been featured on CNN, CBS This Morning, BBC, and NPR; and she has given a TEDx talk about the healing powers of pie. She blogs at The World Needs More Pie. (View full bio.)

 

Savvy Sources

Website: bethmhoward.com

Books: bethmhoward.com/books

Facebook: facebook.com/TheWorldNeedsMorePie

Instagram: instagram.com/theworldneedsmorepie

Mentioned in the Podcast:

Ted Talk: The Healing Power of Pie

Social Media



Eye candy on Instagram
Pin along with me on Pinterest
Let’s connect on Facebook
Follow moi on Twitter
Watch via YouTube


More Tranquility

Shop seasonless, vegan, locally-made, eco-friendly fashion: TranquiliT
Browse my 5 Books
Tranquility-filled E-courses
Download the Tranquility du Jour Podcast App: iPhone and Android
Read about my passion for animals

Request

Pen a review on iTunes and/or share this podcast via social media.
Pen a review of my books on Amazon or Goodreads.


Techy

To listen, click on the player at the top of the post or click here to listen to older episodes.
New to podcasting? Get more info at Podcast 411.
Do you have iTunes? Click here and subscribe to the podcast to get the latest episode as released.
Get the Tranquility du Jour apps to download the podcast “automagically” on iOS or Android

The post Tranquility du Jour #437: The Power of Pie appeared first on Kimberly Wilson.