Jess Lively

I hope you have a great Memorial Day planned! I myself am planning on a day of relaxing, running, and continuing to perfect my football throwing abilities with Erwin in the park. I’m getting better every time. Today I’d like to share a sneak peek into the life of one of the amazing people who [...]

Okay, confession time: for some reason or another, my enthusiasm has been waning on the End of the Week Exfoliation posts for about a month or so. I thought it was just me being lazy (it can take me about 40 minutes to re-size the submission photos, upload comments, and add links for these posts). [...]

My life feels like an amusement park lately.  As I take baby steps out of dream world and into the real world of launching my store, I’m finding that I’m experiencing emotions like never before.  It’s like riding a roller coaster of emotions…the dizzying highs, the terrifying lows.  And quite frankly, it would be perfectly [...]

I think the world would be a better place.

Good morning! Thank you to everyone who watched my OWN Show video and voted! I can’t thank you enough! And if you haven’t had a chance to check it out, you can do so here. In other news, MML was featured on the awesome, incredible, and fantastic Bright Side Project yesterday. Below you can see [...]

First, I’ll state the obvious: Yes, my face looks more than a bit strange in that shot. Gotta love web video screen selection, right? What might be less obvious is what this video is for. Yesterday I found out from a friend that Oprah’s new network, OWN, is hosting a tv show which is giving [...]

This THINK ABOUT IT has been something I’ve been working on personally since last November. What I have learned over the past several months is that there are two parts to myself, one sits just within my right ear and the other resides deep within my core. Since discovering these two different thought sources, I [...]

Today I have an incredible Designed Life to share with you. From what started as a simple but intriguing comment on a post I wrote a while back, I have met Leigh of An American Girl in Cambodia and asked her to share her incredible story here on MML in it’s entirety. Read on, it’s [...]

Every now and then I get the urge to splurge on a few new home accessories for my apartment (current intentional obsession: a faux mini-bar). When I find myself hankering for some new decor loveliness I often start checking out blog giveaways for cute home goods. And if you share in my habit, today is [...]

This afternoon we have a sponsor interview with Niki the adorable blogger behind SingleBubblePop. She’s here to talk about her blog, passion, and purpose for 2010. Enjoy! Tell Us a Little About Yourself. My name is Niki McNeill and I am the voice behind SingleBubblePop! I’m a Carolina born and bred petite lady who loves [...]

Today’s awesome post is brought to you by Karen at Graceful Creative. Enjoy! Edit, Add, Appreciate I have been a longtime reader {and admirer} of Makeunder My Life. So when Jess asked me to do a guest post, I was truly honored. The idea for this guest post happened after I left a comment on [...]

First, I’d like to send a HUGE thank you out there to everyone who has asked to be a Jess LC Ambassador! I just got the first batch of Ambassadors on Jess LC and I will add the next batch early next week. At the end of May I’ll do a round up here on [...]

This is going to be a recurring statement every week…but it’s so true.  You guys are just so incredibly helpful and supportive.  I want you to know how much your comments mean to me and how they really give me motivation to keep going.  I’m beginning to wonder though how to keep my weekly post [...]

Yesterday I did a speaking engagement at a Score and American Express OPEN event. I had a great time meeting small business owners and talking about how I’ve grown Jess LC. The keynote address by Lena West was focused on the power of social media. Of course with MML and my online shop, I already [...]

Not long ago Anna, a MML reader, reached out to me and shared her story and I instantly knew that her experience might resonate with others who are looking to find and follow their purpose. What I love most about the journey is that she eventually took something that many would view as heartbreaking: losing [...]

In case you’re in town or want to stop by the trunk show on Thursday night…Macy’s is having a gathering for the Sex and the City release from 5:30-7:30.

Good morning. Today I’d like to start a new mini-series called Designing a Business with Intention as a riff on both the purpose of MML, designing a life with intention, and taking into account the business side of Jess LC. Though I don’t have any grand scheme for this series, I plan to share the [...]

[from left to right: Brigitte of Covet Chicago, David of The Dailey Dish, Kelly, Rachel of The Style Social, me, Crystal of Plush Palate, Bailey of Peppermint Bliss, Alaina of Live Creating Yourself, Diane of A Spot of Whimsy, and Nicole of Making It Lovely] Over the weekend my Chicago blogging friends, Crystal of Plush [...]

Good morning! I hope you had a great weekend. The past few weekends I’ve decided to treat my days off like mini vacations and I have to say, I’ve been loving it. And since I’ve had trouble finishing the end of the week exfoliation post during the actual week, I’m a bit behind again. But [...]

I have to say that you all had some wonderful ideas and advice on perfectionism, procrastination and my dreaded to-do lists!  Thanks for all your insights and helpful ideas.  It’s funny because that is exactly what I was hoping for…sort of a sharing of thoughts and ideas to help all of us.  It’s amazing how [...]

How exciting! Today’s DYL interview features Jill Vegas of Speed Decorating. She’s one of the first published authors we’ve had here for a DYL. I really enjoyed reading her intentions in part because she has already accomplished something many of us are interested in: publishing a book! Not to mention that the topic happens to [...]

Today’s THINK ABOUT IT comes from a passage I read yesterday from Happy for No Reason, by Marci Shimoff. As I’ve mentioned in the past, this book though similar to a lot of positive psychology research I’ve read, but does have home runs as well. From reading comments, emails, and Dream Reporter submissions, I know [...]

As you can see, I’ve decided to spread a little yellow sunshine on MML for the summer. Though I loved the orange through the fall and winter, I’m craving something a little more light and airy. The only item I wasn’t able to switch over to the new color scheme is the tabbed widget on [...]

Today I’d like to formally introduce one of MML’s newest sponsors, Juniper Urns. This company run by Stacy Armistead and Kyle Stewart has all the makings of a great business: beautiful and unique products for an under-served market, eco-friendly, socially responsible, and high-quality and emotional value. With that said, I was excited for Stacy to [...]

You may or may not know this about me, but I’m a creature of habit. Though I certainly like adventure, new challenges, and even doing the unexpected (like deciding to cut 10″ off my hair in a matter of 15 minutes), when it’s all said and done I love repetition. I love drinking the same [...]

I don’t think there are enough words for me to say thank you to all of you for your wonderful words of encouragement and support.  I honestly feel blown away by them and I want to say how much it means to me.  It was nerve-wracking to put that first post out there…definitely a bit [...]

First, I’d like to take a moment and say thank you to everyone who sent me comments and emails about your favorite things to read on MML. I honestly had no idea so many people were into the business! I am definitely going to make that a bigger focus going forward. The only tricky thing [...]

UPDATE: I found the video that inspired this post! Last week I watched a video about the Sean Stephenson, author of Get Off Your “But” and though I haven’t read the book itself, I think the title is pretty freaking awesome and it applies to today’s THINK ABOUT IT topic, moving forward past fears. People [...]

Today I’d like to level with you. As I mentioned in my update last week, I feel like things have picked up in my life quite considerably. I’m happy to announce that though the first few weeks of the Jess LC re-launch were slower than my crazy-high expectations, I’ve been consistently building my “pilgrim city” [...]

Just in case you’re in Chicago this Thursday and Friday and want to stop by and say hi, I’ll be at Macy’s on State Street between 11a-5p!