Guest Blogging for ThankfulFor Blog

As many of you know, I had been offered a fantastic opportunity - to guest blog over at ThankfulFor blog for the months of November and December. ThankfulFor is an online gratitude journal and gratitude sharing community focused on the pursuit of happiness, and it was a blast to be part of this mutual goal and have a chance to share some of my thoughts and experiences. Big thanks to Jen for having me! 

Here are the posts I've written all put neatly in one place:

~ Benefits of Gratitude

~ Small Pleasures

~ 5 Reasons to Say "Yes" to Saying "Thank You"

~ Put Yourself in Life's Shoes

~ It's Almost Time to Be Thankful

~ To-Do Item #1: Appreciate

~ Choose to Be Thankful

~ Gratitude Challenge

~ Thankful Person's Guide to Places to Eat, Shop & Play

~ Gratitude Explained

~ Counting the Blessings of 2011  

Thank you to all of you who visited me there and took part in the conversation!

Gratitude Quiz & Calendar Pics

I've always been a fan of good quizzes, so when I came across the Gratitude Quiz at GreaterGood I had to take it immediately. The quiz lets you discover just how grateful you are, based on a scale developed by psychologists Mitchel Adler and Nancy Fagley, as well as offers ideas for promoting even more gratitude in your life.You can take it here. My gratitude score is 96 out of 105, what's yours?

I have also uploaded more photos of the Thankful Calendar to the TTYP Facebook page, take a look here!

Image via

Thankful Calendar!!

I have such exciting news!! This project has been in the works for some time now, and it was oh so not easy to keep under wraps. Now that the time has come, I am so excited to finally share it with you:

The 'Thank You' Project - meaning you, me, us - we now have our own Thankful Calendar!

Huge thanks to Stephanie of Stelie Designs for helping make it happen and for making it look oh so pretty. Our 'thank you' desk calendar features fun colorful illustrations and 'thankful' quotes by real people from all over the world, so each month reminds you to give thanks and focus on the better all the while bringing color to your day and hopefully a smile to your face. Big thanks to everyone who shared their 'thanks' with me and let me use them in TTYP projects!

As The 'Thank You' Project's tag line goes - "a 'thank you' a day keeps the worries away" - we sincerely hope that the Thankful Calendar 2012 will help you keep a thankful mindset and help keep those worries away each day of the week, each week of the month and each month of the year.

I will be posting more pics of the calendar soon, right now you can take a look and get it here. Do share the excitement with me and let me know what you think! Which month is your favorite?

P.S. Happy International Thank You Day!

The Ultimate Thanking Word

A few months ago I ran a poll on TTYP's Facebook page asking what word was the thanking word of choice among poll participants. At first, "thankful" was leading, then, as more people were casting their votes, "grateful" became the "winning" one. The final results are as follows:

Thankful? Grateful? Appreciative? What do you prefer?

Merci, Paris

Remember my write up on the Merci store in Paris a while back? Merci is nominated for Superstore 2012 in Farfetch's Search for the World's Best New Boutique so they shot this video introducing the store. More reasons to love it:

Housed in an old factory building nestled among the Café culture of Le Marais in central Paris, Merci is a destination store, with its off-the-high-street location and unassuming used books and coffee shop façade - yet this young retailer still manages to see over 500,000 visitors per year. The store mixes together exclusive, and often bespoke designer fashion products with casual items, and vintage furniture with new generation interior designers - "luxury is not a matter of price or brand, but of attitude", explains Managing Director, Jean Luc Colonna. The Merci concept store also has several restaurants, along with a homewear floor, a perfume laboratory and an ever-changing visual landscape. All profits also go towards helping underprivileged children in Madagascar.