#nice assignment

[operation-nice]

Make something for someone

Hi everyone! How's your October going so far? This fall has been one of the busiest ever for me. So many things to see, people to meet up with, events to attend. I really love having a packed schedule, although it can be exhausting. This upcoming weekend I'm participating in Philadelphia Startup Weekend. I'm a little (okay a lot) nervous. I think it's going to be intense. But I'm hoping that by the time it's over, I'll have gained some skills, some friends, and maybe a new project.

The one problem with keeping busy is that I'm slacking on my hobbies. I used to love crafting for hours and hours on end. Still do, but I haven't made anything in a while. My friends and I signed up for a knitting class starting next month, but in the meantime, I'd really like to get back into making crafts. So I think I found the perfect thing.

My friend Eric was awesomely nice and sent me a copy of Quirk Books new release, Microcrafts: Tiny Treasures to Make and Share. I love this so much! First of all, miniature things are infinitely more adorable. And because they're small, they take less time, space, materials, etc. I could totally get into this.

I thought it might be fun to repay Eric's kindness by making some microcrafts for others. And that'll be an encouragement for me to get back into crafting.

Today's Assignment: Make something for someone

Everyone loves a personal gift. Handmade items are the best because it involves so much more than just opening up your wallet. They really mean something because they require time and patience and love. And it's perfect if you don't have much expendable income. Why not surprise someone in your life with a piece of macaroni art, or maybe a sock monkey, or even a card. It doesn't have to be fancy. Try out something new!

As a big fan of bookbinding, I think I want to try my hand at these mini books. How adorable, right??

(photo from Microcrafts)

So what do you think? If you could make something for someone, what would it be and who would it be for?

[operation-nice]

Give a Smile

Happy Monday! Did you all have a lovely weekend? Mine rocked. Mainly because I was lucky enough to lunch with Kelly of Design Crush on Saturday. It's always so cool to meet social media friends in real life, or IRL as the cool kids would say.  So I happened upon the neatest website today! The Daily Good email this morning mentioned a site that was like "Chatroulette for smile snapshots," and I knew I had to check it out. It's called Two of Us, and the premise is simple. Upload a smile and get one in return. Today's Assignment: Give a smile I had to wait to get home from work to try it out because I don't have a webcam on my work computer. Now, I did this after 9pm, so I'm pretty much at my least lovely point of the day, but I didn't want to wait until the morning. I walked my laptop around the house, trying to find some decent light, and I ended up in my bathroom. I gave a big ole smile, snapped a photo, and got this in return!

Yay! A beautiful smiling stranger looking back at me! How cool is that? And the site has facial recognition built in, so it knows if you're not smiling. It was so fun, receiving a smile. I had a try it a few more times.

Woah. Okay, that last one was a little freaky. But it definitely made me laugh! I really recommend trying Two of Us out. Smiling at strangers will instantly put you in a good mood. And you'll probably, in turn, put someone else in a good mood. If you try it, leave me a comment and tell me what you think! I have a feeling I'll be a regular, so maybe you'll see my smiling face looking back at you. :)

[operation-nice]

NICE Assignment: A Birthday Request (and Giveaway)

Hi everyone! Oh my gosh, I had the most amazing weekend! On Friday night, I went to the first annual Philadelphia Geek Awards, and it was such a fantastic event! It reinforced my love for this city. There are so many great people in Philly doing some amazing things, and I really need to become more involved in it all. And to top it all off, Rob and I were crowned Prom King and Queen! I was so stunned and I couldn't stop shaking! It's so great to know that while being a geek in high school wasn't appreciated, being a geek now couldn't be cooler! So guess what. I turn 31 next Monday. I have one week left of being 30. Then I'll be into my 30's. I was wondering if I could use my birthday to encourage some kindness out there amongst you all. Not that any of you need encouragement! Today's Assignment: A Birthday Request You know what I love more than anything in the world? Reading/hearing nice stories from all of you! And it would make it a super special birthday if it could be filled with tales of kindness! And because I don't want to make a request without giving something back, I'm going to create a special Operation NICE gift set with goodies like NICE Notes, NICE Prints, NICE buttons, some books from Red Wheel/Weiser, treats from Compendium, and whatever else I can find lying around my office to give away to one of you. :) So here's what I'm looking for.

Photos of NICE Notes that you placed around your town/city

A NICE Testimonial of how someone's kindness brightened your day

A video of you telling us the story of the nicest thing someone's done for you

The details of something NICE you've done for someone this week in honor of Operation NICE

To enter, send me an email with "NICE Birthday Gift" in the subject line any time before August 29th at midnight and I'll choose one submission randomly on Tuesday, August 30th! I'll also share the stories/videos/photos on my site over the next few weeks, so I'm not just hoarding your submissions for my own happiness. :) I really hope you'll participate in this assignment! It would make it the best birthday ever! Thanks so much everyone!

[operation-nice]

NICE Assignment: Hold a Gratitude Session

Happy Monday, folks! Did you have a nice weekend? I took a bunch of naps, so in my book, it was a winner! Usually my NICE Assignments come from a personal need to make a change in my life or, in this week's case, my attitude. I admit, I've been a little negative lately. Things at work aren't totally awesome. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I've had this weird headache/stomachache/sore throat trifecta going on for a few weeks. And it's been a BAJILLION degrees out there! (Seriously, are you experiencing this heat wave too?!) So it's been really easy to complain about work, or health, or the weather. But that kind of thinking gets me nowhere! Today's Assignment: Hold a Gratitude Session I stumbled upon this Zenhabits article about living a life of gratitude. One of the recommendations is to hold a 2-3 minute gratitude session. This will really help me focus on the positive things in my life. And maybe it'll make me rethink some of the things I've been complaining about. How can I whine about a little headache, when I am actually grateful to have excellent health! And my job might be stressful, but there are plenty of awesome things about it too!

So for this week (as a start), I'll ditch the negative attitude and hold a gratitude session every morning. I'll list in my mind all of the amazing things about my life. My silly husband. My loving family. My wonderful friends. Great trips I've taken. Fun trips in the near future. My lovely home. This delicious cup of coffee. Some awesome opportunities I may have in my future. Air conditioning. Doughnuts. Hair that behaves in humidity. Finding a great bargain this weekend. Fun upcoming art/web classes to look forward to. Delicious chicken and rice waiting for me in my crock pot. Having an iTunes library full of fantastic music. All of you guys for stopping by the read this blog. And of course, there's so much more! Seriously, now that I took the time to think about it, my life rocks! And now I'm smiling and in a way better mood! So how has your attitude been lately? Do you need to hold a gratitude session of your own? What are a few things you're thankful for?

[operation-nice]

NICE Assignment: Send me your testimonials!

Hi everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was delightful. Spent Friday night having a delicious dinner with some excellent company. Saturday I ran some errands, took a nap, and dove into one of the fantastic books that I recently ordered from Amazon. I'm all about making a change this year. I haven't quite figured out what that change will be, but whatever it is, it'll be awesome!

And then Saturday evening I celebrated my friend Kay Marie's birthday at a place with a photo booth. Aren't photo booth's the best?? It's impossible NOT to be silly. And this is the year of SILLY MELISSA! Technically, every year is the year of silly Melissa. Okay, let's get down to brass tacks. I have been on a bit of a posting hiatus throughout the last few months. Do you guys know how much I wish I could just blog full time so that I could answer every email and post like a bajillion times a week and start to develop Operation NICE into all the awesome things I'm envisioning? That would rock. All in due time, I suppose. But over the last few months I've been letting some things get to me, and I haven't been in the most positive place, and you know what? I think it's because I haven't been putting enough emphasis on niceness in my life. SOOOOOO, I think refocusing on Operation NICE will really help me zero in on the good things in life again! Right?! But I kinda need your help. Today's Assignment: Send me your testimonials! What's my personal favorite part of this blog? Reading all of the awesome nice stories you guys send in! And in addition to making me tear up on a regular basis, it also really helps me out because it makes posting regularly so much easier. So I want you to think about something that a person did for you that you think was amazingly nice. It could be someone you know, someone you love, a completely stranger, whoever! And what they did could be small yet meaningful or massive and life-changing! Maybe it happened last week, maybe it happened when you were ten years old. Everyone has a few of those stories because true kindness really is something we never forget. If you have a testimonial you'd like to share, send me an email at [email protected], and include the following:

story about how someone's kindness affected your life

your name and location

a photo of yourself or the person in the story (only if you want to!)

If you'd like to go through some of the other testimonials for inspiration, click here to read through them. Just make sure you have some Kleenex handy. :) Also, feel free to send me a link to a product or project or news story that you think is super nice. I love passing along that kind of stuff to my readers as well! Thanks again, everyone! This blog would be nothing without all of your contributions, and I'd like to keep posting for a long, long time. Have a fantastic week!

[operation-nice]

NICE Assignment: Write an affirmation to yourself

Happy Monday! How were your weekends? I got a bit of sunburn on Saturday, but with the amount of rain and clouds we've had lately, the burn was welcomed. So do you guys remember Sassy from back in the day? How good was that magazine, am I right?? Well I saw my local Daily Candy Tweeter tweet this last week: Lovers of Sassy magazine have a reason to rejoice: dly.me/6019RDll So I clicked and found a website for the grown-up Sassy reader! I had some fun browsing through the articles, and then I saw this one. The author writes, "Writing affirmations to yourself has a bad rep as some kind of fake cheerful exercise in pretending you're not a loser. I like to write on Post-Its to kill that stigma, because then it feels more like a business kind of a reminder, as if it's my job to stay focused on what's good and true." I kind of loved this idea, so I thought it would make a good assignment! Today's Assignment: Write an affirmation to yourself Work has been a bit rough for me lately. I've just sort of been in a creative funk, you know? I was so frustrated with designing a silly pocket folder. A pocket folder!! And that got me down. So this morning, to start my week off right, I spent a few minutes and doodled two affirmations on Post-its and stuck them right on my monitor.

Yeah!! I CAN do this! It might be a little silly, but maybe a little silliness is exactly what I need to bust out of this funk. So go ahead and write yourself a little affirmation. Tell me in the comments what you're saying to yourself!

[operation-nice]

NICE Assignment: Think Positive

Can you believe it's already MARCH?? Hoo boy! On one hand, I'm sad to see this year going by so quickly. On the other, I am ready for short-sleeve weather! C'mon summer! So remember how last Friday I mentioned how I was going indoor rock climbing for the first time? I was so worried, considering I can't even do a push up. My twig-like arms were in for a real shock. And you know what? It was freaking hard!!! The two athletic dudes I went with had no trouble scaling those ridiculous walls. I, on the other hand, was lucky to make it up the training wall. And after a failed attempt at an "easy" wall, I was feeling pretty down on myself. I ended up giving it another shot. This was another easy wall that the two guys were using for speed climbs, of course. Well, half way up, I was done. Too exhausted to keep going, I asked to come down. But they wouldn't let me down. So I was forced to try again. Guess what. I made it to the top! Yeah sure, it was a simple climb for most, but for me, it was a challenge. A challenge I wanted to give up on. So when I touched the top, I felt accomplished! And now, I've decided that I want to be able to climb rock walls. And not just the easy ones. I've changed my routine so I can wake up early each morning to work out, and one day I'll use that easy wall for speed climbs, just like the guys did. Today's Assignment: Think Positive I was so ready to give up on myself on Saturday. I had no confidence. I had this idea in my head about what I could accomplish and what I couldn't. But you know what? I realized that I need to be more positive! I CAN do these things! Sure, it'll take a little bit of work. But what's keeping me from being an awesome indoor rock climber? Just myself! And yeah, my friends will laugh at me when I post a Facebook status about working out. It's so out of character! But venturing out of my comfort zone was kind of cool. And I wouldn't mind surprising a few folks (including myself) along the way. So, is there something in your life that you've been wanting to do? And maybe your negativity has been holding you back? Tell me about it! A positive attitude can go a long way. If I can do it, you certainly can too!

[operation-nice]

NICE Assignment: Road Respect

Boy oh boy, last week was a crazy one! Got a flat tire which couldn't be repaired (and another was on its way out), had an eye doctor try to touch my eyeball which resulted in a freak out, and spent an entire day in the ER with a friend. Hey, first time riding in an ambulance! Phew, it was high stress! Luckily I was able to wind down at my parents' house this weekend. Know what I did? There was sun shining in through the sliding glass door, so I grabbed a pillow and laid right there on the hard wood floor, soaking up the sunshine. It was amazing! My mom's dog was a little disappointed that I took her spot, so I eventually had to share. :) I've been thinking about today's assignment for months. I spend most of my days driving through Philadelphia, and let me say, some (*cough cough, most*) of these drivers need a lesson in niceness. Today's Assignment: Road Respect

I don't have a lot of forced daily human interaction. At work, I sit behind a computer. If I'm in a social situation, it's typically with people I choose to be friends with. But the one place where I am regularly required to interact with others is on the road. I think I have pretty good road manners. I try to let people in that need to merge. I always use turn signals. I rarely use my horn. But I'll admit that I'm no angel. My dashboard has heard many an expletive escape my mouth. I think we could all try to be a little more respectful of each other on the road, don't you think? I'd love to hear from you guys! What do you think are ways to be nice on the roads? Oooh, you know what I love?? To get into my neighborhood, I have to make a left at a stop light where there's no left turn arrow. While the light is red, a huge line of cars forms in the opposite direction. So when the light turns green, I have to wait a while, sometimes until it turns red again. Frustrating! But on occasion, the first car in opposing traffic will flash their high beams at me, signaling that I can go in front of them when the light turns green. I think that is SO NICE! What else? I leave work during rush hour, so pulling out into a line of traffic is huge on my list. I am so grateful when others do it, and I always try to do the same. Do you have any examples of road respect?