Welcome to the Gift Guide for 2017!  This podcast is all about women who are pursuing their passion and making it work. Today's episode is more about the "making it work" part with gift ideas for everyone on your list. 

Kids

• Mother Bruce story book
• Melissa & Doug wooden building blocks
• Wunderkin Bows
• Darling and Bandit I Will Shine Bright t-shirt
• Land of Nod sleeping bags

Husbands

• Northern Brewer Beer making kit
• Grilling tools with team engraved
• Miir Growler and tumblers
• J Crew flip wallet  
• City whiskey glass

Women in your life (mom, sister, good friend)

• 5 year line a day journal
• Gift card to Pure Barre
• Lash boost
• Glassybaby hand blown glass candle holder

Teacher

• Movie tickets
• Book of the month
• Garner Farm Products  wood wick candle 
• Not Without Salt Cookie Dough Mix

Foodie/Cook

• Lodge cast iron pan
• Apple slicer 
• herb keeper for fridge
• Date night in cookbook
• Danish dough whisk

Fashionista

• Underwear of the month
• Milk & honey Tees shirt "homebody" shirt
• Everlane Bomber Jacket

Athlete

• SPI Belt for running
• Zella Live In Leggings
• Blue tooth ear buds
• Aaptiv membership

Traveler:

• Scarf with pocket
• Away luggage
• Multi charger and converter
• Topo Designs dopp kit

Hostess gift

• Bath bomb set (can be divided up into individual gifts)
• Linen and cake flower topper
• Meal plan with perforated shopping list pad by Victoria Senges use promo code THETHINGSSHEDOES to get 10% off until Christmas!

Person who has everything

• Compassion gift catalogue
• dinner party with hired chef
• 23 and Me- ancestry kit
• Tile key finder

Stocking stuffers:

• • Scraper for cast iron
  • Wine Away
  • Brand New Day by One Love Organics- exfoliating scrub/mask 
  • Whiskey rocks
  • Decision paperweight
  • Stetler pens
  • Rubber ties for cords

Please note that some of the above links are affiliate links meaning if you click through to purchase, a small commission will come back to the show at no additional charge to you. Thanks for supporting the show!

Today's episode is with Victoria Senges, a graphic designer with her own line of stationary. She is passionate about design and helping women and families get organized.  She is so passionate about stationary that she even went to Paper Camp!

Victoria has very generously given a discount in her shop to The Things She Does listeners! Enter promo code THETHINGSSHEDOES to get 10% off until Christmas!

We talk about how she is using this phase of her life to work hard and invest in her business, and how she is trying to balance that with having a life.  She is hard working, ambitious and very determined to reach her goals.

One of the things she is NOT doing currently is being a wife or mom. Those are roles she definitely wants one day, but right now she is working hard to build her business and hopefully give her more freedom one day when she is a mom.

Top Five: Book: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert Show: This Is Us App: Spotify Life hack: freezing yogurt in silicone ice cube trays so that she always has some ready to make smoothies with Social Media: Jenna Kutcher from the Goal Digger podcast

You can find Victoria's shop online at www.victoriasenges.com or on Instagram @victoriasenges, Facebook @victoriasengesdesignco

You can hear more about Victoria in Rapid Fire

Marites Kliem is a real estate agent for over 10 years, wife and mom of two (including a 3 week old at the time of recording). Marites (pronounced Mary-Tess) describes herself as a fiery Philipino who loves cooking, singing and dancing, and is passionate about real estate, particularly helping people strategizing in buying and selling their homes.

Although she was a child actor and performer, at 19 she became a real estate agent and has built her business since then.

Some of the things she does NOT do include cleaning her house, administrative work (she recently hired an assistant) and typical "pastor's wife" duties at church.

Top Five: Book: Anything by Andy Stanley, most recently Deep & Wide (he also has a podcast) Show: The good place, Walking Dead App: Trello, Notes Life Hack: her Roomba! Social Media: Becky Thornson on Facebook

Learn more about Marites in Rapid Fire at  http://www.thethingsshedoes.com/episode9/

You can find Marites on Facebook or on her website Marites Realty

Please note that some of the above links are affiliate links meaning if you click through to purchase, a small commission will come back to the show at no additional charge to you. Thanks for supporting the show!

Kaara King is a wife and mom of two toddlers who is passionate about sewing and creating beautiful things. She didn't discover her passion until her 30s, but is now thriving and loving sewing clothes for her kids and herself, and also in her Etsy shop Poppie Darling.

Kaara has found amazing support in online communities of other women who sew as well as many tutorials on YouTube. She also buys her fabric online at Knitpop or Fabric.com While she doesn't get long stretches of time to dedicate to her sewing, she fits it in where she can because it's important to her and she has made it a priority.

While she admits that self care is not her forte, she tries to take care of herself with plenty of coffee from Starbucks, and taking quiet time to herself in the evening once the kids have gone to bed.

We also talk about getting over our fears and just doing the things we love (with a shout out to Christy Wright and her book Business Boutique!). After all, what's the worst that could happen? When you think about it, probably nothing all that horrible.

Some of the things she does NOT do in order to have time to pursue her sewing is to fuss too much over cleaning her house.

Top Five: Book: Little Owls Night (and I mention my current favorite children's book Mother Bruce) Show: This Is Us App: Instagram Life Hack: taking advantage of all the drive throughs Social Media: Pattern designer Judy Hale at Patterns for Pirates on Instagram or Facebook

Learn more about Kaara in Rapid Fire at www.thethingsshedoes.com/episode8/

Erica Miller is a photographer, wife, mom of 4 and co-founder of Young Hip and Married.  She is passionate about marriage and family, photography and being creative.

We talk about how it was hard starting her photography business because she had just moved to the area and didn't know many people, how she and her husband work together and juggle to find time to work and shuffle the kids around to their activities.

Some of the things she does NOT do include laundry during her busy summers, cleaning her house and most of the cooking (her husband has more culinary skills).

Erica takes care of herself by getting up early and taking time for herself to journal and prepare for the day, exercising, eating healthy and making time for her husband and friends. She also enjoys her five minute journal that she got from her husband.

Top Five: Book: she hasn't had much time to read Show: Game of Thrones, Brooklyn Nine-Nine App: Later (for scheduling instagram posts) Life Hack: scheduling in breathing room Social media: @kirbyjenner - the fraternal twin of Kendall Jenner

Learn more about Erica in Rapid Fire on the website at www.thethingsshedoes.com/episode7/

Julia Eckert who is a wife and mom of 3 teenagers who is passionate about theology and ministry. She is a full time graduate student in theology and plans to be a pioneer and teach in theology (this area is very firmly in the old boys club).

We discuss the women who have influenced Julia and why it can be hard to find mentors in a field with very few women which has lead her reading biographies of other trailblazing women including such as Jackie Polinger.

We talk about why she feels that mentors are best when there is no more than 10 year age gap, and how she is learning to embrace failure as a means to push herself further.

Top Five: Books: Under the Unpredictable Plant by Eugene Peterson, Defining Moments by Bill Johnson TV: Suits, Big Bang Theory App: AirBnB Lifehack: outsourcing chores to her kids! Social media: Candace Cameron Bure, Sean Feucht

Cherry Mojito Recipe Make a simple honey syrup (combine equal parts honey and water, combine in a saucepan over low heat). Use a mudder to combine mint leaves, cherries and rum in the bottom of a sturdy glass. Add simple honey syrup and stir. Add ice and LaCroix.

You can learn more about Julia in our bonus audio clip Rapid Fire on the website show notes.

We also talk about the iPeriod app

You can find Julia on Facebook or on Instagram @jules2u

Jill Kaufusi is a fitness trainer, entrepreneur, wife and mom of 4 kids aged 2-10. She is passionate about empowering women and helping them find their strength.

Find her on Instagram @jillkfitness, Facebook @jillkfitness, or online www.jillkfitness.com

Some of the things she does NOT do: unpack her boxes from moving, house cleaning (husband does most), volunteer at kids school a lot  decorate her house.

She takes care of herself with meditation to help clear her mind.

Top five: Book: You Are a Bad Ass by Jen Sincere Show: The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Grace and Frankie App: Intagram, Calm app Life hack: clean the kitchen before bed Social media: @drpimplepopper

Learn more about Jill in Rapid Fire at www.thethingsshedoes.com/episode5/

Today's episode is with Hannah Hageman, a website designer, wife and mom from Montana. She is a self declared multi passionate who loves to brainstorm solutions to problems and think of new ways to overcome obstacles.  She is an introverted creative entrepreneur who loves to talk with people, but then needs her alone time to create "head space" after.

Head over to the show notes to hear a bonus clip with Hannah.

Through personal obstacles in setting up her business she has learned to "just do what needs to get done", then move on to the next thing. This is very similar to the motto from one of my favorite podcasts Being Boss who always say "do the work, be boss".

She is an avid list maker (a girl after my own heart!) and uses Google Keep to maintain 3 lists: one for paid work, one for everything else with running a business, and one personal.

She encourages other creatives to start before they are ready because as long as you know a little bit more than your client, you can help them.

What does she NOT do? For a time she has given up: hobbies of crafting and sewing,  Netflix entertaining others in their home and swapping childcare in order to focus on building her business. While this is hard, she also knows it is for a time and she will do these things again later.

When it comes to self care she knows she needs to work on it more, but she has discovered the power of stopping, closing her eyes and just pausing for 1 minute.

Top Five Book: Imagine Heaven, The E myth Show: catching up on e-courses she has bought App: Google Keep Life Hack: Minimizing her stuff so that she has less to keep track of Social Media: Dustin on Smarter Every Day

You can find Hannah's web design services here or go to her YouTube channel.

Trisha Bennett is a wife, mom to 3 and founder of children's clothing line Darling & Bandit. She is passionate about her family and fashion. After working for 10 years in the fashion industry, she wanted to be home with her boys, but still pursue the fashion industry. She decided to start a clothing line... a dream which took a little bit longer than expected when she found out she was expecting her third child. But with hard work and perseverance, Darling and Bandit began and just celebrated their 2nd anniversary.

You can find Trisha online on Instagram or Facebook @darlingandbandit

Trisha has very generously given a discount code for Darling and Bandit! Enter promo code THETHINGSSHEDOES at checkout for an additional 15% off!

Trisha shares about starting her business, balancing that with her family, and using social media to promote her business.

With her busy schedule, thins things that Trisha does NOT do include being a PTA mom and being very involved in their church right now.

This year she is working on making her health and fitness a priority. She is proud of her friendships with other women which she finds so important.

Top Five: Book: The Magnolia Story by Chip & Joanna Gains Show: This Is Us App: Canva, branding course from Ivorymix with tips on how to use Canva  Lifehack: Meal planning pages with tear off grocery list from V Shop Social Media: The Alison Show, Kelly Murray, Monica Hibbs

Learn more about Trisha in Rapid Fire over on the website at www.thethingsshedoes.com/episode4

In today's episode I talk with Carissa Youssef, the director of Philanthropy for Canada Food for the Hungry. She is very vision focused and passionate about making a difference.  We discuss how she balances full time work, motherhood, being a wife and a graduate student. She also shares about how intentional she is about her 5 year vision and goal.