Willo O'Brien

me & matty, take 2
Originally uploaded by Willo.

Can you believe I’ve lived here 10 years and have never taken the Land’s end walk? Crazy! So I jumped at the chance of having breakfast with one of my favorite people (Matt) and he, Laurie & I enjoyed the first couple hours of Thanksgiving together hiking, walking & talking.

Such a beautiful day… so much to be thankful for! xo

I love this photo, because the exposure I took it at makes the ocean look tropical!

View photo set from Land’s End hike.

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After stopping at the store for salad stuff (my Thanksgiving dinner contribution), I came home to this site in my neighbor’s yard:

piggy butt cheeks

Eegads, huh? I was like eewww! (but obviously could be ‘yum’, depending how you look at it. :p) Nathan was stoked. He’s a gourmand, so I was happy for him. He loves stuff like that & I’m sure it came out amazing. There’s a few more pics of piggy here if you’re into it.

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By 3pm I had made my kick ass salad, picked up Ali & off we went to our friend’s Trevor & Ana’s in the East Bay. They just moved into a sweet little place in Oakland that’s like ‘a real house’ and made me green with envy for an office space like they have! (*gah* I want a bigger place, universe – you hear me!?) Anyway, it was awesome to see them & it didn’t take long for us to settle into the spirit (aka start drinking lots of delicious wine).

Ooh & we got to see some new packaging artwork/designs for HIJK’s new CD (Trevor’s the drummer for HIJK, the band formerly known as Hijack the Disco… they just changed their name), and it looks great! *sigh* Those boys are so talented!

Dinner was delicious & then we all played a super fun game afterwards, called Mad Gab – have you played that? It’s hysterical. I wish I had some video of that, because as at one point I was crying laughing. So funny! Then, after everyone else went home, Trevor, Ana, Ali & I watched Click, but Ali & I slept through most of it. (Can I blame it on the tryptophan?)

Anyway – super fun day. Here’s a few photos from dinner. Thanks to Trevor & Ana for hosting us, and hope everyone who’s reading this had a great Thanksgiving, too!

ok, one more!
Originally uploaded by Willo.

I had a little whip cream photo session yesterday while making myself mini pumpkin pies.

Some days I just cannot believe how fabulous my life is. How truly lucky I am to live in such an AWESOME city & be surrounded by a plethora of kick ass friends. I just want to bundle it all up and give it a bear hug! I’m so grateful.

Here’s a snippet of how awesome my life is:

Sunday we had craft night w/ the girls @ Amanda’s. Actually, her & her fiancé Todd are living at his parent’s sweet apartment (while their home in Glen Park gets remodeled) that has the most breathtaking view of Coit Tower & the bay. I’m so bummed I forget to take a photo, but regardless, the company alone that evening was such a treat! Being surrounded by my supremely talented crafty girlfriends, red wine flowing, ordering in thai & listening to my new favorite band = Awesomeness.

Monday I worked all day (literally, 14 hours), but it was on a project that was very fun to do, and my client loved it! yay!

Tuesday night Ali & I were going to go see Lady Sovereign, but with such a busy week ahead we decided to go to a movie instead. We went & saw Stranger than Fiction and it was SOOO GOOD!! Seriously one of my new favorite movies. So good.

Then lastnight was supreme. That new favorite band I just mentioned? It’s a band from Australia, called The Grates, and the entire CD is so fantastic!! But the BEST part is it’s like someone knew that I couldn’t stop listening to ‘Science is Golden’ on repeat all day Sunday (automatically moving it into my top 5 favorite songs of 2006), and like *magic* decided to book them on Wednesday (last night) at my favorite bar, The Hemlock! aaaah!! Better yet, Ted got us on the list and invited me to the RightRound party (free food & open bar!) at Cafe du Nord beforehand! So I met up with him there and not only did I get to hang w/ Ted, while he DJ’d all my favorite songs, but my friends Peter & Jeanné, the Heavenly States boys and Anthony from Loquat were there, too. Not a bad way to start a night where soon after I was going to get to see my favorite new band perform in a teeny tiny room. Is it my birthday or something?! Believe it or not, it gets better.

Ted & I go to the Hemlock, where we meet up with Ali & after a drink or two, go in & get right up front to see this fabulous, fabulous band and their dynamic lead Patience play a super fun show!! Words cannot describe how absolutely super fun & fantastic this was for me. Shows like this remind me how much I LOVE music. Music that I am so moved by that I cannot do anything but let it take me… It’s my bliss! I danced and sang right along with her the whole way through. FAV!

Then when they were done and we’re walking out I see this cute boy I’ve been emailing with, who I’m pretty sure showed up after his other show to see me (aww yaaa) and then we walk out & ALL of our good friends are in the bar! YAY!

The night was seriously sooo sooo fun. I have photos I need to post & stuff, but I just had to post all this now to say thank you life, for being so damn AWESOME!

More upcoming awesomeness:
– Mario’s bday party tonite @ Lucky 13
– Tomorrow night: Courtney’s LIMN opening & then Hot Chip @ Mezzanine
– Saturday day: A crafty girls brunch (with Sarah, Mai, George and Julia)
& afterwards all going to the SF Craft Mafia Trunk show
– Saturday night: Cut & Paste & then the Laughing Squid party

Thank goodness I’m a professional, or I just might not be able to take all this fabulousness! :)

happy birthday, cutie mario!
Originally uploaded by Willo.

thank you for being so giving, loving and fun. the kid in me loves the kid in you. xoxo

beautiful flowers from sweet cameron!
Originally uploaded by Willo.

My sweet girlfriend (and show ho in training), Cameron (aka Cammalicious and at one time Pinkalicious), had these gorgeous flowers delivered to me yesterday! She included a super sweet message too, and the whole thing completely made my day!

Thank you, sweet girl. What a super fun surprise. You’re the BEST! xoxo

In the last 30 days I’ve been doing a bit of a transformation. In September I kind of hit a wall, so to speak. And frankly it was a familiar feeling, and a pattern that I do not want to keep repeating.

For those of you who have been reading for awhile, and certainly close friends of mine, know I had a tough 2005, and this year I made it my #1 goal to take care of myself. The biggest part of that was about making sure I kept up working out, eating healthy meals and not taking on too much. Part of that was also to really look at why I have my own business. What I want out of it, and really get clear so that I am taking a more active role in my life and my business, instead of winding up in the same place and another year has gone by.

I can’t go into too much detail now about my own changes, but I will tell you that recently I finally (I meant to do this in the Spring) hired a Business Consultant/Coach and already, seriously in a mere 30 days, my life and my vision around my business and where I want to go has gotten much clearer. I’m very excited. :)

I’m a big believer in positive thinking, and I would say overall I’m an optimist. From my early years of diving into self help I have held a firm belief in how we can change our lives with positive thinking. However, I used to practice this way more, and admittedly I feel I’ve grown a little more cynical over the years (dammit, I swore I’d never do that! haha). Working with this Coach though, I’ve been reminded at how powerful it is to clarify what I want. The few months before I called him, all I could focus on was what I didn’t want…I am VERY clear on that! :p But really sitting down and getting clear on what you do want…literally envisioning yourself, say, 3 years from now…what you’re doing, feeling, where you’re living, etc. It takes work! And many people don’t take the time in their lives to do it.

Now I know all this can get a little etherial, and I think from all my hard core self-help days in my early 20’s even I am a tad allergic to some of the extremities of it all. But the fact of the matter is I truly believe we are all capable of great things while we’re here on earth. I believe we’ve all been sent here with a gift for something, a passion for something, and we owe it to, not just ourselves, but also to others to discover that and run with it!

haha. Who’s excited?

Seriously, take away whatever works for you out of all this… but do yourself a favor & think about what you’d really like to do. Or how your life would look if you were really where you wanted to be. And be specific. ;)

Did any of you see What the Bleep Do We Know? Everyone should watch it.

Have any of you heard of the new movie out now called The Secret? Well, Larry King Live is having a 2-part series, called Beyond Postive Thinking, with a panel of guests who were featured and/or consulted for that movie. I watched the first part & it was pretty neat. Again, if anything, totally worth watching to start planting the seed in your mind & heart about what it takes to clarify what you want and make it a reality.

But if you missed the first part (that aired on 11/2), turns out CNN is rebroadcasting it on Saturday, November 11th at 6:00pm, 9:00pm, and 12:00 midnight (Pacific Time). Then Part 2 will be airing Thursday, November 16 6:00 p.m.

If you’re at all interested in this stuff, check it out!