• A new design for Apparently Nothing to encourage me to get back into my photography. It’s been awhile.
• I’m officially a roller girl. I joined the Charlotte Roller Girls in May and passed my assessments in December. I shall now respond to my derby name: Hell Vetica Bold. This next year will be all about becoming an effective player for my team.
• Plans to build a house. Literally.

You can’t please everyone!

• British Red Cross
• American Red Cross
• Doctors without Borders
• Oxfam
• The International Rescue Committee

If you enjoy good photography check out the Charity Print Auction group of Flickr. All photos in the pool are up for auction. All proceeds will go to the British Red Cross. If you are a photographer, please consider adding a photo of yours. I’ve added one of my fave shots to the auction. You can too!

Be the person you know you are.

That is my only resolution for 2010.

It’s hard to believe that another year has passed. Time flies. It’s been a busy year. We’ve taken some time off until January 4th to relax before a hectic schedule of work begins.

I love Christmas time – all the decorations and lights, Christmas movies and general cheerfulness. I may not be religious at all, but I appreciate a time where goodwill and joy are the focus of most. So, I hope everyone has a bright holiday!

Apparently the previous diagnosis of “it’s nothing” wasn’t quite right. Instead, I have an abscess and need a root canal. Yay for me. Thankfully I’m now on antibiotics and although I dread the root canal, at least I know what’s wrong and what needs to be done.

So, what lessons did I learn? Well, I did learn that although a dentist is trained and you’d like to trust them, they make mistakes and a second opinion is always a good thing. But that’s not the lesson I want to talk about. Instead, I want to mention the lessons I learned that can be incorporated into all businesses.

The second dentist (and the dentist who will now become my regular dentist) sold me by doing two things (other than actually pin-pointing the issue of course):

1. He listened attentively

He quietly listened as I told him the history of the tooth and the various symptoms I’d been having – including the different types of pain (from shooting to throbbing), to the different things I’d noticed (gum swelling when I laid down etc.). He then confirmed things I’d said, making sure he understood what I meant, and asked some further questions to get more details. He was attentive. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated this – the simple act of actually listening.

Listening is key to all levels, and types, of services. As a designer I know how important it is to listen to your clients to really “get” what they want. It’s also a matter of listening to what is not being said as well. Just like the dentist who listened and then asked questions for clarification and details, I have to do the same. I have to ask further questions to make the client think about other details that may be important to the project, but they may not realise. It’s about gathering even more information from them to get a full understanding of the scope and expectations of the project, and, as the expert, I need to cover all the necessary bases.

2. He explained everything in detail

What I really appreciated was how much time the dentist spent explaining everything to me in great detail, and as simply as he could. He even drew a few diagrams so I’d know exactly what was going on. The idea of a root canal is scary (and the cost is another fright!), but having a full explanation of what to expect helps. I now know what is wrong and what plan of action we’ll be taking.

Dealing with clients who don’t know what is involved in creating a website is a common occurrence. Why should they anyway? That’s why they hire us right? So, it’s important that we communicate with them about the entire process and explain exactly what to expect, when to expect it and what everything entails. This way, we are all on the same page, and the client can feel confident in knowing exactly what steps we’ll be taking.

At least I feel confident in my new dentist. If you are in Oxford and need a recommendation, may I suggest Aaron at The Dental Clinic on Queen Street. The root canal is not going to be fun – both physically and for our bank account – but it’s a solution to this heinous pain. For now, I’ll take my antibiotics and hopefully tonight, get some sleep.

Lauren’s post is well-worth the read, especially if you are a bit of an overachiever (I feel your pain), and more recently she’s posted some additional tips and words of advice for trying to balance things.

With that in mind, I’ve been inspired by Alex (who is always so inspiring!) to create my own list of 30 things to do in my 30^th year. I’m sharing them on my blog so I can cross them off as I accomplish them.

1. Have a food shot published in a recognised foodie mag.
2. Lose 25lbs (Lost about 7lbs…it’s a start, right?)
3. Have my design work featured in HOW or .net
4. Draw an art piece I am truly happy with.
5. Master my camera.
6. Create a home I really love.
7. Get some style. (Getting there. I’ve got the style idea, now I need the wardrobe)
8. Horseride again.
9. Fly a kite.
10. Go a full day without criticising myself.
11. Organise and backup all my photos (have some semblance of a system).
12. Finally create a wedding album.
13. Go to a design conference.
14. Sew something.
15. Have a lovely picnic somewhere beautiful.
16. Sell more photos.
17. Get a birthday card and present for all my family to them on time.
18. Have a full-on Saffa braai with friends.
19. Do something surprising.
20. Swim in the ocean again.
21. Have a professional massage.
22. Cook more and learn 5-10 delish dishes.
23. Take a proper vacation for a week and don’t feel guilty about it.
24. Reconnect with my mentor from college.
25. Donate blood.
26. Stop saying “sorry” for things that aren’t my fault/have nothing to do with me. It’s a bad habit I have.
27. Don’t hesitate to buy myself flowers.
28. Go go-carting.
29. Become a good listener.
30. Learn not to say yes when I really mean no.

Anyway, one of my ultimate favourite interior design blogs is decor8. Holly is a fantastic writer, great person and has a wonderful eye for style and design. If you don’t follow her, you should.

Recently, Holly blogged about a community bookcase in Hannover. Basically, the bookcase (or bookcases as it were) are open to the community to browse and take books they want to read. You then return with books to add to the bookcase and replace the ones you’ve taken. What a lovely idea! Of course, this wouldn’t work everywhere – which is rather sad – and yes, even in some areas where this could work, perhaps some people do take books and not return with more books to replace those. Overall though, what a lovely idea to encourage community, sharing and reading. I would love to see this adopted in more areas.