Those of us who appreciate quality coffee develop a sixth sense when we go into a restaurant.

Places with the word café in the name are usually good but to be sure check out the ambiance. Tables of students, people reading books or newspapers and snippets of conversations about politics and the theater indicate it is safe to relax and enjoy a latte.

Unless you have been been on the road since before the sun was up, restaurants on the side of a highway are not the best of places to order coffee. What is served up in those thick white mugs is a blackish beverage that comes in an industrial size can and run through a never been cleaned coffee machine and as the day wears on it becomes a combination of the 6am, 9am, 10:30 ………… leftovers.

Never assume that expensive restaurants will serve good coffee because they don’t. Chains defiantly don’t, I rarely get a good coffee at The Keg; perhaps their thinking is that by the time one has consumed all those keg sized drinks and a large slab of cow the customer wouldn’t even notice the quality. I notice. The last time I was there I ordered a Spanish coffee after dinner; it had the bitter taste of sitting for hours with liquor and cream added.

I may be one of only a handful of people in North America who DOES NOT LIKE TIM HORTONS COFFEE. It gives me both a stomach and head ache. We have not one but two Tim’s where I live, yea.

Needless to say my kitchen is a shrine to good coffee. I buy only whole beans that I would hand pick myself if I could. I grind them, add bottled water to my clean coffee maker, get out one of my favorite coffee mugs, add some fresh cream and experience something that is close to a caffeine orgasm.

One day I will buy an Italian espresso machine, the kind that costs a few thousand dollars. I will serve it’s hot fresh nectar in little white cups while friends gather to discuss avant-garde topics and how hard it is to find a good cup of coffee

Recently the New York Times asked “How do you decide to get rid of a book.” The answers from six authors and one book store owner are worth reading if you too are the ‘ I would rather read than have sex, what bestsellers are on sale this week, I want to die in my favorite book store’  kind of person.

Which books we get rid of goes to the root of what type of readers we are. I read fiction and biographies to relax and for the escapism into a different life and someone else’s reality. If I don’t like it I pass it on or take it to the second hand book store. I am not snobbish about my library; hardback, trade paperback or written in the margins from a garage sale if I enjoyed reading it….it stays.

As a business coach business books get rotated quickly as they have to be current. There are of course the classics that all entrepreneurs should read such as: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, The E-Myth by Michael Gerber or the timeless Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich

The majority of life self-help books are overly clichéd and devoid of any genuine long term life solutions, unless it is exceptionally thorough I don’t buy much of the self-improvement genre. This criterion makes it easy to maintain a manageable selection.

While I have a minimalist attitude when to clutter in general, obviously this doesn’t seen to apply when it comes to books.There are piles in the living room and dining room, my office shelves are full and what does the top of my beautiful antique bedside table look like any way? I’ll just put a basket underneath to catch the spill off and stop it from groaning.

I can definitely relate to Joshua Ferris sentiments in his last line of the NY Times piece “………..I leave and come back, and the books I find there tell me I’m home.”

I must also confess that while I will not read about what famous people are wearing, eating or where they vacation; I am curious about what books they are reading. So Lesley Jane Seymour , Al Gore,  Rahm Emanuel, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Michaëlle Jean, Angela Merkel what are you taking to bed?

It was a cold Christmas and New Years’ here in Alberta with temperatures often in the -20’s. We however were comfortably ensconced at home having made a decision to have a quiet holiday season; wanting to relax, regroup and restore.

Needless to say this was not ideal dog walking weather so I stretched my imagination to keep them amused with indoor activities. Duke who is known to many of you as the neurotic chocolate lab recently turned nine and his long legs are showing the early onset of arthritis. His vet has just started him on a course of Cartrophen Vet which is of plant origin and not a steroidal anti-inflammatory.  There are four shots so we will see if it helps.  Mia, his 18 month old Australian Shepherd sister has no sympathy and continues to bug the hell out of him until he plays with her so he needs something!

The weather is particularly hard on the two feral cats who have adopted me or vice versa. I have my quota of indoor cats; anymore and I will be close to ‘cat lady’ status. So we built them a  shelter and ensure that they receive dry bedding, regular fresh water and food. No matter how cold and hungry it is my voice that they wait for first when I go outside. When I speak to them their bodies relax and ears perk up, next they want the fresh water and then finally they eat.

Whether soothing a frightened animal, talking to a friend or writing an article it is our voice and the words that we choose that carries the message.

Blogs are all about our voice, the words that we type convey the nature and style of the blog. One of the first things I ask my clients. What do you want to achieve with your blog? Do you want to post about business, life, lifestyle,  travels, writing?  The range is vast so in order to stand out you have to have a clear vision and goals for your blog.

So with that in mind we have changed the look of this blog to reflect more of what we are about. Imagine that you are  sitting in a café with friends discussing movies, politics, books, food and life in general. Life Deco is a blog where we aim to capture that same atmosphere. Drop by anytime all you need to bring is your favorite beverage. We hope that you will leave a comment for that will keep the conversations stimulating.

Thank you to Alanna Morley of  Alanna Inc for designing the Life Deco blog.

1. Buy really smelly cheese.

2. Replace your laptop on the dining table with a place setting for a person

3. Attempt to write something dazzling in cards to clients but end up with ‘best wishes’

4. Slip into your office to catch up on work and don’t answer the phone

5. Wonder why you keep buying boxes of crackers

6. Go to farmers markets and expensive bakeries for your ‘homemade’ baking

7. Curl up at 2pm with a book, hot cocoa and no guilt

8. Carry on whole conversations without any interruption

9. Feel like a kid again and actually enjoy the snow

10. Stop planning everything with military precision

…………. remember that the best moments are spontaneous.

In her recent article Mrs., Ms. or Miss: Addressing Modern Women , Nancy Gibbs ended with this statement

Feminists a generation ago fought for the title and dreamed of Freedom and Choice and Opportunity; maybe the surest sign that they’ve won is not which title we pick, but that we can have them all at once.

I also like the fact that how we choose to be addressed is now a matter of personal choice not societal mandate. I use Ms. for all things business; preferring the neutrality that it provides.  Whether I am married or single is irrelevant in my professional life.

For business I also use my family name of Crossland and that decision had nothing to do with patriarchy. I like the name and am proud of the English heritage behind it -

English (chiefly West Yorkshire): habitational name from a place in the parish of Almondbury, West Yorkshire, named Crosland, from Old English cros ‘cross’ + land ‘newly cultivated land’.

(English or Scandinavian) Belonging to Crosland/Crossland (Yorks) = the Land of the Cross [Middle English cros, Old Norse kross + land].

Early records of the name mention CROSLAND (without surname) who was recorded as a tenant in the Domesday Book of 1086.

In my own way I keep the family name in a state of perpetuation and part of me imagines how proud my father would have been to see the name being branded in my company and as the byline to my writing.

Googling one’s name is always interesting. Jill Crossland, the pianist comes up first and frequently but I manage to hold my own somewhere on the first page of the search.

For those personal matters such as banking, legal documents. Mrs.  Sadie married lady steps forward.

I have never liked the practice of hyphenating last names unless there is a cultural or social reason; as it gives one the impression of a need to try to please everyone. So this is the only time that you will ever see ……….. Jill Barbara Crossland-Pappageorgiou.

If there is an upside to having Atrial Fibrillation it is that you don’t just jump out of bed in the morning. You get up slowly so that your heart finds its day rhythm and the blood starts moving to all the right areas of your body.

Once up its dress, leash dogs and out the door. I keep my brain in a comfortable neutral only allowing certain thoughts in. Not those meaning of life ones that I probably should have instead I muse on the creative side of my business; finding the right words for an article, website touch-up ideas or fresh business concepts. Like so many entrepreneurs it is hard finding the time to create instead of running a business so 5:15am…ish is that time .

The energy is different when Chris comes with us; he is one of those people who gets up with his all his mental stuff front and centre. While I don’t mind Duke’s and Mia’s lingering sniffs over blades of grass mixed with multiple bathroom stops he is impatient to keep moving. Their excitement over every smell, sight and sound enhances my own awareness of the awakening day.

At that early hour we only share the streets with fellow dog walkers, a few joggers and runners. Some are withdrawn, huddled into their jackets and thoughts, others merely nod. It is usually the dog people who call out a cheery hello.

Then it’s home, make coffee and shower while channel surfing between The Today Show, a Calgary Breakfast Show and the BBC because I like their international news and knowing what kind of weather people in Hong Kong and Palermo are walking their dog in.

Put succinctly I had a love/hate relationship with Julie Powell’s book Julie & Julia.  Unlike some of her critics I do applaud Powell’s leap from the world of blogging into that of a published author. Many of her detractors have made it all about the food but that wasn’t why she embarked on 524 Recipes in 365 days; Jennie Yabroff in her Newsweek article Stop Hating Julie Powell, Please covers this well.

What Ms. Powell did need was someone to remind her that when people stop reading your words for free and start laying down money for your book, you then have an obligation to give them a reasonably professional product and that is where she just doesn’t deliver. Some of her word choices and phrasing were barely at a high school grammar 101 level. Attempts to be avant guard through drawing on sexual encounters (hers and those of her friends), a preoccupation with her own body odors and the ad nauseum descriptions about the grunge and filth of her apartment were imitations of twenty-something writers who had gone before her and who have done it so much better.

When she isn’t trying so hard and returns to the realness of her life the book improves. I enjoyed reading about the bona fide world of Julie Powell. This is also where she stops being a blogger and remembers that she is an author as her prose takes us through the drudgery of her day job, her escalating enthusiasm for cooking, to her growing obsession with completing the project Mastering the Art of French Cooking  and even her feelings for Julia Child.

It was a stark contrast indeed that while reading Julie & Julia I came across a piece of work by Elizabeth McCracken.  After years and years and years of reading it is not often that one can still stumble on an author who really draws you in,  This Does Not Have to Be a Secret from her book An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination does just that.

She has a wonderful style that never slips into some of the slickness that so many writers do. She writes about life events and emotions with a refreshing clarity and where I really felt a connection was her sense of humor; the dwarves of grief that she refers to will forever have a place in my imagination  and I will definitely be ordering one of her books for my winter reading

Authors such as Elizabeth McCracken provide a quality source of reading pleasure, and while pop culture figures such as Julie Powell may stretch their 15 minutes of fame into 30; I for one won’t be finding the time to read any more of her books.

When it comes to how we live with our furniture Chris and I are definitely at different ends of the lifestyle spectrum

He comes from the ancestry where the front room is for guests only and the good china  is saved for special occasions; while my descendants were more the “Oh, dear the new puppy just chewed one the legs of the 18th century Hepplewhite mahogany dining table.”

As I am responsible for the care and feeding of the furniture we live in the relax and appreciate it environment. If you are a guest I’ll round up the dust bunnies but all in all you take the house as you find it. And don’t get me started on the concept of preserving something so that we can pass it on after we have died. I enjoy living with and using nice things; so after I have gone whomever can decide to keep it or put it in a garage sale but rest assured every scratch, dent and scuff will have a story or memory behind it.

Unfortunately though a mahogany dining table doesn’t fit in with our habits; as we eat, talk, laugh, plan and sometimes argue around this focal feature in the house. Instead we have a big Pier One table with a glass top. A squirt of Windex and it is ready to go for the next round of bill paying, newspaper reading, me on my laptop, deep discussion, wine drinking while dinner cooks and yes, actually eating a  meal.

Our home is also a reflection of eclectic tastes; old with new, expensive with not so much. I love to mix things up; to position an ultra modern chocolate coloured couch in between two turn of the century tables. According to many interior designers an eclectic look is rarely done well and should not be attempted. I don’t listen to them either.