From the Findery blog:

“…We make our human mistakes. Connected to so many, we are intimate with fewer and fewer. We squander our days in amusements. Instead of truth, triviality. We are exhorted to sate the urges of the millions, their sloth, greed, pride or lust. We are told that this is what will make us a success. This is a deadly cynicism, which we must fight.

Because the internet is a medium, it doesn’t care whether it transmits love or hate. It is what we build and who we are that make it what it is. We can build things that diminish our humanity or build things that bring us to human flourishing.” –Caterina Fake

I’m being more cautious about my information diet. Have you made any changes to the way you interact with the internet lately?

Painting my bedroom made me happier than I’ve been in years, let alone clearing out all the junk to make room for a few ideal things. Go check out the end result on Go Mighty. And then you should do this. Do this!

Huge thanks to Victoria Smith of SF Girl By Bay.She took all the gorgeous photos, including the one above, and did the interior design. Without you, my sweet, I would have been too overwhelmed to start. Thanks especially for the education in throw pillows — we got ours from In Bed and dwellstudio — and asserting that even hardwood floors need a little dressing up. (Speaking of which, parents, I cannot recommend the sturdy, neutral Metallic Leather and Hemp Rug from Serena and Lily more highly. I’ve torn through a dozen crappy rugs over the years, and this one is worth an investment.)

Most of all, thanks to Olay for the kick in the bum, without your team I would never have prioritized this life-changing project. Head to Go Mighty for more details, and then check out Victoria’s post for sources and a few extra photos.

We’ll talk more later about how it all came together, but for now, I’m laying on my bed to read and watch the sunlight throw stars off the disco ball.

Sometimes people check off goals, but are coy with details and I find it maddening. Miss Harmony! Tell us the story behind this photo.

POW! SOCK! Ruth Stine, you are a peach. This goal is everything I’ve wanted to come out of Mighty Summit, Camp Mighty, and Go Mighty. Go read.

Overcome your fear of rejection? Check.

Did you know that one pair of a ballerina’s pointe shoes costs $75-$100, and they only last for a night or two of performances? I had no idea. Thanks to a $3,000 goal grant from Olay and Go Mighty, Isabel Kallman funded a year of pointe shoes for a Dance Theater of Harlem ballerina. If you’d also like to fund a pair of shoes, or can find a way to sponsor a dancer’s shoes for a year, go for it right here.

And now a little story about how Jenny Stockton’s goal made me nostalgic. I was one of the first volunteers at 826 Valencia, and I’d been reading Might Magazine for years — it inspired the name Mighty Girl, actually. I had so much respect for Dave Eggers’s projects. The first time I met him 826 hadn’t yet opened, and he worried aloud that the pirate supply store in front of the tutoring center would be a bust — the space was zoned for retail, so they had to sell something in order to rent it. I made the quiet comment that pirate supplies would be huge, San Francisco being a port city. When Dave chuckled, my eyes watered so hard I had to look at my shoes. Thirteen years later, the 826/McSweeny’s/Believer crew is still making the world more hopeful.

This post is brought to you by Ocean Spray Diet. With 5 little calories, it is made with real fruit juice and has a big, bold taste. Get more out of your diet.

A low-carb Manhattan update, for those of us who like to live large without our waistlines reflecting our appetite for life.

Manhattan Slim

1/2 shot Ocean Spray Diet Cranberry Juice
2 Shots Bulleit Bourbon
3 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Homemade Bourbon Cherry

Put everything but the cherry in a shaker with ice. Shake-shake-shake until it’s arctic, and little chips of ice are floating on top. Tuck your cherry in a cocktail glass, and ease the drink right in.

Here’s to objects that are slightly heavier than you expected, people who talk with their hands, and homemade cocktail sauce. What are you toasting this week?

I’m making 100 cocktails as part of my Life List. This is number fifteen. Here are the rest:

1. Shots in ‘Cots
2. Avocado Bourbon Shake
3. The Vacation
4. Sassy Lassi
5. Cherry Bing
6. The ABC
7. Toddy Shots
8. Cafe Picante
9. Gin and Juice (Box)
10. The Neighbor
11. Halloween Spiked Cider
12. Bloodthirsty Mulled Wine
13. Killer Bloody Mary
14. Bourbon Pumpkin Shake

http://thirdparty.fmpub.net/placement/553084?fleur_de_sel=%5Btimestamp%5D

Hey! We’re on a New York Times blog today, go see:

Go Mighty or You Might Not Go At All by KJ Dell’Antonia

We talked about Life Lists and I said, “If you’re constantly looking to cross the next thing off, it can make you frenetic. You become immune to contentment. It’s smart to pursue happiness — I mean, go for it — but stop and savor it when you catch it.” Read more.

Also, if you’ve been meaning to make a Life List but aren’t sure where to start or would just like some teammates to help motivate you, sign up for our Go Mighty Skillshare class. One of the attendees gets a $1,000 grant to cross something off their list. Fingers crossed that it’s you.

“Make my bedroom the perfect place to be a girl” is on my lifelist. This is how my vanity is shaping up so far. For more details on how my room is coming along, visit Go Mighty. Gah! It’s getting so pretty. In the meantime, I should admit that this process hasn’t come naturally to me.

My friend Victoria, for example, moves her couch every few weeks, has prints framed, sets aside the throw pillows on her bed every night and replaces them in the morning. I, on the other hand, felt accomplished when I replaced the pile of moving boxes and grocery bags in the corner with cardboard file boxes. They have lids — for fanciness.

When I finally decided to redecorate my room, I Needed a starting point. How does one even do this? Victoria is a friend and the editor of the interior design blog sfgirlbybay. She agreed to hold my hand through this process, and this is what I’ve learned working with her so far.

1. TAKE STOCK OF RESOURCES

How much can you spend? How much do you want to? Simple questions that shape the rest of the process. Money sets your timeline because you don’t need to spend hours bargain hunting, or mapping DIY projects.

You should also figure out what you already have. If you don’t need a new bed, can paint your dresser or dye your duvet, your investment shrinks. Here are some good tips from Real Simple on how to do things on a budget.

2. MAKE ONE SOLID DECISION

My non-negotiable was pink walls, and it informed the rest of my decisions. But you can also take an object you love and extrapolate. I’ve mentioned before that I adore the disco ball at the Jane Hotel in New York, but it could easily have been a photograph or a bowl of pebbles. My Death Star disco ball told me I wanted my room to be a testimony to celebratory decay, so that was our starting point for the process.

3. PULL THE TRIGGER

Dithering is the greatest enemy of any large undertaking. After you’ve logged a hundred hours on Pinterest, you have enough information. Eventually you put brush to wall and credit card to counter, and your room materializes. This is the exhilarating (and for me, terrifying) part. Remember there’s no one way to do this, and everything is reversible.

4. CLEAN THE SLATE

Box everything up and get it out of the room. I did this because i had to paint, but you should do it regardless. Once everything is out, only replace the things you use or love. After about a week of living in a perfect space, I was hesitant to even open the boxes. Most of it has gone straight to the thrift shop.

5. MAKE IT YOURS

If you replace everything at once your house can end up feeling like a hotel. You need objects that have a patina, things that tell a story about who you are. Avoid the hotel effect by incorporating things you already love and forgiving some of their flaws. Nothing has to be new to be perfect.

Camp Mighty tickets go on sale today! I’m so excited about our plans for next year I’m having trouble sleeping at night.

Remember two years ago when I asked you guys for help building a community and a place for us to meet up? And a bunch of you said No Facebook!” and I thought “…uh.”

So we built Go Mighty instead. And we started Camp Mighty so we would have a place to see each other in real life.

Camp Mighty 2012 Sizzle Reel from Rcom Creative on Vimeo.

This year I saw Emily Winfield Martin speak at (the fantastic) XOXO, and she said something I haven’t stopped thinking about. She was a blogger working in a video store, struggling to become an artist. Gradually her readers began purchasing her work on Etsy, which allowed her to drop shifts until she could make art full time. She said:

“We live in a time when any misfit can make a job for themselves with bravery and hard work — emphasis on hard work. The alchemy that makes your thing real is the audience. It’s like the Velveteen Rabbit, ‘Love makes you real.’ It may sound dramatic to say about your readers or customers, but they make you real. They make your imaginary thing real.”

I couldn’t have said it better, Emily. Many thanks to you guys for helping me make my things real.

We’d love to see you at Camp Mighty. So come. You will like it.

Bedroom redesign update! Yesterday I got to the paint store and realized I have never chosen what color the walls will be in my own house. What the whaa? But I’ve always rented apartments that didn’t allow renters to paint, and I didn’t realize it until the wall of pink paint chips started to swim.

As it turns out there are approximately eight quadrillion billion shades of pink paint. Victoria and I had discussed Wispy Pink by Benjamin Moore, but then I saw it.

You guys, it looked so wispy. I had flashbacks to my aforementioned tasteful, “this is not pink!” childhood bedroom, which made me a little anxious.

So I contemplated Raspberry Shock, Watermelon Pretty Pretty Princess, and Fuchsia What Are You Thinking. I wondered whether they could mix glitter into the paint.

Just, like, a little glitter.

In the end, I went with Victoria’s advice because I am not a four-year-old.

So now my white room…

is blushing.

Huge thanks to Olay, who are sponsoring my Life List by helping me “Make my bedroom the perfect place to be a girl.” And so far? It’s pretty perfect.

I recently checked “Form a workplace with people I love” off my Life List. Now, every day until Valentine’s Day, I’m saying thanks to someone whose work online has inspired me. Today’s crush is Tina Roth Eisenberg of swissmiss.

Photo source.
Quote source.

TINA ROTH EISENBERG is beloved because:

I recently read an interview with Ricky Gervais where he said, “You should make something. You should bring something into the world that wasn’t in the world before. It doesn’t matter what that is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a table or a film or gardening — everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, ‘I did that.'”

That? Is Tina. Making stuff and celebrating others who do the same. Talking to her or listening to her speak, even when she’s grumpy about something, you can feel what a positive force she is. She’s one of the lights.

A few of Tina’s projects:

CreativeMornings
TeuxDeux
Tattly
Studiomates

Tina also collects things that make me smile. Recently on swissmiss:

Frustrated by questionable client feedback, designers Mark Shanley and Paddy Treacy decided to turn their “favorite worst feedback” into posters. I’d totally buy some of these prints. Thanks for making me laugh.

Tina Roth Eisenberg, you are bangarang.

My Crush series is part of RedEnvelope’s Crush on You initiative, which is about showing gratitude to the people who make your life better.