Look at this picture perfect restaurant. Almost too pretty to actually eat in. I can’t wait to be in Vegas in November. And then I can’t wait to book my next trip. I need to travel again.

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.”

“When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

This one looks like she has little jewels on the edge of her wings. :) Available as an 8×10 at my Etsy Shop!

I am so intrigued by butterflies and the whole metamorphosis process. I think it’s incredible. I went to a Butterfly Conservatory and stepped into a garden of beautiful, colourful butterflies flying in all directions. I’ve always struggled to capture butterflies on camera because they are hardly ever still and when they’re flying, they do so in this crazy pattern that makes your eyes all googly if you tried to follow it. So this conservatory was heaven – butterflies hanging out and socializing (is that why they call it ‘social butterflies’?) and landing on your shoulders to take a break and say hello. :)

Encourage challenges and embrace the times at work when you worry about whether or not you can handle a big task or if you are capable of exceeding expectations on a project or if you are able to step up to the plate and do this and that better than the last person. Embrace the times at work when you question your own skill set or admire another’s strengths. If you’re not feeling challenged, then make moves and find challenges before your brain deteriorates without you realizing it! Be scared sometimes. Have anxiety sometimes. Be stressed out sometimes. It only means you’re learning and developing.

This is one of the most breathtaking sights in Barcelona, second to the Sagrada Familia and I remember it so vividly because we climbed uphill for three hours to get to the top (we took the back roads so that we’d see other things as we were climbing). All while getting eaten alive by vicious mosquitoes. Nevertheless, it was stunning on the way down. You’d look back at it every few steps down and it was a different view every time. This shot still was not taken from the very bottom. It gets more beautiful than this but my mosquito bites were killing me so badly that I had to rush back to the hostel to put afterbite on them. I think I had eight ginormous, unattractive bites. Wouldn’t you like to know? :) Buy this on Etsy! :)

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind,
Possessing and caressing me.
Jai guru deva, om
Nothing’s gonna change my world,
Nothing’s gonna change my world.
Nothing’s gonna change my world.
Nothing’s gonna change my world.

Only one of the best Beatles songs ever.

A lovely Etsian sent me a message saying my work is like painting with a camera. I totally dig it! :) We marketers looove our metaphors and creative play on words! Brainstorm sessions at work where you’re coming up with a name or a tag line for something has got to be one of the most hilarious part of our jobs. I am in tears every time we have one of these sessions – we get carried away so quickly and it becomes a laughing fest.

Both at work and at my Etsy shop. Busy, busy! But good busy. Say hello to the dancing Canadian Snowbirds. :)

This is Barcelona’s la Sagrada Familia – architect Antoni Gaudi’s work in progress. Read about it here. The line up to go in was around the block by 7:30AM – almost felt like I was lining up for the Backstreet Boys at Much Music back in high school. We paid a bit extra to go up to the top of the church but everything in this place is under construction so there wasn’t anything spectacular to see up there, but still an experience. :) This is available as an 8×12 at my Etsy Shop!