I provided pre-press approval today on my wedding invitations! They look quite pretty, I’m really excited to see the final product next week. I will post them here, too! Tuning in to a movie now, so we’ll leave this short and sweet.

I’ve been updating all of my web assets little by little over the last week before classes started back up so that I’m all set to go for the year. Here’s a quick hit list!

What’s been updated?

CharlenePrecious.com: Re-structured the content a little bit. I updated the About and Shop page and added the Services and Contact page.

My bio: Re-wrote to share a bit more about my professional side.

About page: Revised a little bit. I read this every now and again as a check-point because I find that sometimes I write something a certain way, love it one day and hate it the next.

Etsy shop: Created a new shop banner and have started to improve the categorization of the listings. I’m realizing that there are way too many items now and it’s probably making the shopping experience inconvenient and harder than it should be.

LinkedIn: Updated and filled in my profile quite a bit to get it network-ready.

What’s in the works?

If you know me, you’ll also know that I’m obsessed with greeting cards, especially the ones by Papyrus. I swear by Papyrus cards! You’ll also know that I love stationery in general and could easily spend hours in a stationery shop. Re-purposing my photography for stationery has always been on the radar and that journey began with postcards. This year, we build on it with greeting cards and invitation cards, which I am hoping to be able to post on Etsy by March. I’m being ambitious about this because I’m anticipating to have more time to dedicate to it this year than last. The invitation cards were actually inspired by designing my own wedding invitations and incorporating my photography into it. It was one of those a-ha moments, realizing that it’s value that I could create for others. All that said, I’m in design phase now. :)

Facebook fan page. I really need to do this, I just haven’t taken the plunge because it’s going to require attention and maintenance and there was absolutely zero bandwidth for it last year. I may get to this in the next couple of months. When I do finally launch the fan page, I plan to throw a contest along with it to get the Likes going! :)

And that’s a wrap for today!

It’s incredible how busy you can be even without having to go to work. I was running around all day today and am exhausted.

I was working with two different print shops (The Printing Team and Sherwood Copy) to get my wedding invitations printed and was pretty taken aback by the service provided by Sherwood Copy, Mississauga location. When I arrived at the print shop, hardly anyone wanted to help me, let alone acknowledged me (no, the place was not busy.) And when someone finally did tend to me, they had this rotten, disappointed looking face that had “ugh, a customer” written all over it. At least pretend to be happy, right? And when I asked questions, I got these careless, lazy one-word answers. This, my friends, I don’t understand. If you have uninspired, demotivated staff who dislike their jobs, get rid of them before they slowly but surely drive your business to the ground. What happened to a little bit of service quality? The worst part was, their quote ended up being double the amount of The Printing Team’s for print quality that was a whole lot shabbier. Say what? The poor quality was likely the result of not properly calibrating their machines before printing out samples for a customer, in which case, more staff issues to address. I was at a loss for words at that point. No further comments.

Needless to say, The Printing Team was a billion times more pleasant. They’re always pleasant. I’ve done work with them in the past and they’ve done a great job. My “due diligence syndrome” thought that I’d be doing myself a favour by checking out another place to compare and contrast. Apparently not. So the lessons here are ones we’ve all learned before: do not fix what’s not broken and the grass isn’t always greener on the flip side. :)

I got a B+ in my Skills for Leadership course. It’s a shame that it didn’t make it to A-. I’m still waiting for my Finance mark to be published; been holding my breath for that one.

I’m getting a head start on readings for classes next week, partly to stay ahead, but also because the articles we read are such nuggets of wisdom that get me excited. Tonight I read “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership” by Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew McLean, and Diana Mayer. It’s a Harvard Business Review article – I love having access to the HBR goldmine of a database. The article goes on for 10 pages but I’ve pulled out some points surrounding self-awareness. Self-awareness / self-reflection is the next best thing to get to know and I’ve been all over it for the last 6 months. Knowing and understanding how and why you behave a certain way enables you to continuously take corrective action. There is really not much sense in paraphrasing what has already been written perfectly, so here are direct quotes:

“When 75 members of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Advisory Council were asked to recommend the most important capability for leaders to develop, their answer was nearly unanimous: self-awareness.”

“An extremely hard worker, Pottruck could not understand why his new colleagues resented the long hours he put in and his aggressiveness in pushing for results. “I thought my accomplishments would speak for themselves,” he said. “It never occurred to me that my level of energy would intimidate and offend other people, because in my mind I was trying to help the company.” Pottruck was shocked when his boss told him, “Dave, your colleagues do not trust you.” As he recalled, “That feedback was like a dagger to my heart. I was in denial, as I didn’t see myself as others saw me. I became a lightning rod for friction, but I had no idea how self-serving I looked to other people. Still, somewhere in my inner core, the feedback resonated as true.” Pottruck realized that he could not succeed unless he identified and overcame his blind spots. Denial can be the greatest hurdle that leaders face in becoming self-aware. They all have egos that need to be stroked, insecurities that need to be smoothed, fears that need to be allayed. Authentic leaders realize that they have to be willing to listen to feedback – especially the kind they don’t want to hear.”

Guilty of some of these? I know I am. For certain things, I feel comfortable asking for feedback and for others, it’s like pulling teeth. Sometimes, you just don’t want to hear it because it’s uncomfortable to hear it. It’s worth noting though that my blind spots have gotten smaller ever since self-awareness forced its way into my life. And it’s so good.

I’ve also updated my bio page to reflect some of my recent life changes. Happy new year to you and yours! Go out and make things happen. I wish you happiness, health, and success.

I packed up my desk in a bankers box today. Tomorrow’s my last day at Canon :(. My heart is breaking right now but as sad as I am, I also feel ready at the same time; ready to turn the page, make new waves, and start writing the next beautiful chapter. Thank you Canon for 3.5 *amazing* years!

I saw this teddy bear on the kitchen floor – it was Chris’ mom’s dog’s toy. Despite a little raggedy, it had so much potential so I adopted it for a photo and sat it on top of a gift box in front of the Christmas tree and here we are. A heartfelt merry christmas to you and yours! I hope you’re spoiled absolutely rotten! xoxo

Even as life gets busier and busier, we try to make time once a year at Christmas to round up the Ryerson Business Management troop. We were missing a few key people this year but the full crew is hard to come by and we appreciate and make do with whoever we can get. :) It was sooo nice to see everyone. It’s funny how despite all the growing and developing we go through year over year, things still don’t change all that much once we’re all together. Although a little bit older now, having a meal together still feels exactly like lunch breaks at the Eaton Centre food court before Accounting class. The same people still get picked on. The same jokes come around. The loudest is still the loudest. And the most quiet is still the most quiet. This was the crew that worked together on everything and more or less aced the program. :) Everyone is successfully rocking in their fields and careers have taken off. I’m so proud. Love you guys to bits.

Despite all of my expenses next year, I will manage to squeeze in even a little trip. I cannot / refuse to go a year without traveling.

We’ve been struck by an ice storm and it’s one of those snuggle under the blankets, watch movies like Love Actually, and sip on warm coffee/tea all day… days. :) Three sleeps until Christmas day! We had an amazing reunion with the Ryerson gang last night and it was such a good time. I’ve been slowly catching up on seeing friends and loved ones and it’s filling me with holiday warm and fuzzies.

Chris and I watched The Seasoning House over the weekend (in place of Love Actually because we couldn’t find it on Netflix or Zune but how I wish we had seen it instead). I have to say that I haven’t been messed up by a movie in a long time and considering how frequently I watch horror movies and how desensitized I am, it’s a point worth noting. This one was so disturbing. I recommend it and I don’t recommend it. I guess it depends if you want your eyes opened to some serious darkness or if ‘ignorance is bliss’ is preferred. I think the potential realness of the subject of the film and the fact that the events that took place could very well exist in the world, is what makes it so heavy for me. But anyway… I’m still trying to erase it from my memory. We’re getting there…

On a brighter note, Chris and I went Christmas shopping during the snow storm on Saturday (lol), and we got it all done. :)

I’ve decided to transition to Schulich’s full time MBA program starting January 2014 in order to maximize the learning experience and potential of this amazing opportunity. This has been by far the hardest decision I’ve had to make because I had to choose between two things that are extremely important to me and that I absolutely love. I went back and forth on this for months and months and couldn’t have been more indecisive about it – Chris was losing all patience. But after 65 conversations, several versions of our five-year plan, multiple pros and cons charts, and simply more thinking than you can imagine, school weighed in a bit stronger. Ultimately, I want to give either my work or my continuing education 120% of my time, energy, and efforts. 120% in each of these two places is humanly impossible and something will end up giving and that just won’t fly with me, so school is going to take precedent for now! You reap what you sow with everything you do. If you put in 80%, you’ll get 80% in results. If you put in 120%, you’ll get 120% in results.

Truly, it is with the most bittersweet emotions that I part with Canon. The last 3.5 years at the company have been years that I cherish. They were packed with learning, growing, building relationships, and making lifelong friends. The company has been nothing but good to me and for that I am grateful. The photo below is the team that I joined at the beginning of this year and is also the last team I will work with at Canon. We had our holiday dinner this evening. They are amazing and I will miss them so much.

Here are some blog posts to prove how much I LOVED my journey at Canon. There are definitely a whole lot more posts about my work life but these were the ones that came to mind first so I dug for them.
Here I raved about how memorable my business trip to Montreal was.
Here I raved about how my business trip to Calgary was the best trip ever.
Here I raved about the awesome people I’ve met at work.
Here I captured PROM at the ROM with two of my favourite Canon girls.
Here I captured the fun my former team had with Movember.
Here I captured my Easter Seals Telethon experience.
Here I captured my portfolio feature in the myCanon publication.
Here I captured the Canon Experience Centre in Calgary.

Last but CERTAINLY not least, Canon is where I found my soon-to-be husband. Need I say more? :) My last day is December 31st and then I am officially a full time student until December 2014. Life is getting more exciting by the minute and the world has never felt more like my oyster.

Just to loop back on the Finance exam, I wrote it last night. It was difficult as hell but I managed and am confident that I did well enough to finish the course with a strong mark. Hard work never fails. I am a free bird for about 2.5 weeks and can’t wait to get into the holiday spirit and get back into some more wedding planning!

Have a wonderful night. I’ll have more time to blog often next year, I’m sure of it!