Oh I'm so excited to share today's feature in the dailies series. Kim and Jo were the first bloggers to embrace my teeny little blog last August, and I have these ladies to thank for inspiring me to begin on my own blogging journey! See? They really DO desire to inspire!



Anywoo, Kim and Jo were kind enough to walk me through each of their days from across the country--- Kim in Canada and Jo in Australia. Although they're blogger partners-in-crime, they keep VERY different schedules and (to everyone's surprise!) have never even met.

I find their days fascinating, yet simple. The perfect day in my opinion! Thanks, ladies!

KIM:



5:15am I used to get up at 4:30 but since I moved last month, I've been
able to cut an hour a day out of my travel time to work and I realized
getting up that early is just stupid. Actually, my cats usually start
jumping around the bedroom and howling and driving me nuts about a half
hour before my alarm goes off. They want me to feed them so I head
downstairs and do that, and turn on my laptop. I check the blog, emails,
and see if Jo is online. It's usually easier to catch her in the
evenings (my time) when she's getting up for work (the following day her
time).



6:30am I head off to work. I can walk to my office which takes about
half an hour. This is all the exercise I get. Sad, but true. This
morning I got to walk in a blizzard. That's always fun. Stop at coffee
shop for a tea.



7:00am I'm at work and ready to start an exciting day as a web developer
for the federal government. It's not really very exciting. My job eats
up a lot of my brain juice. Coding is a lot of problem solving, and can
be exhausting by the end of the day. You may wonder why the blog doesn't
have all sorts of bells and whistles since I'm a web developer. It's
because my job involves only coding the behind the scenes stuff. Because
I spend my entire day sitting in front of a computer, I have a hard time
going home and doing the same thing all night. That is why I can't
frequently visit all of my favourite blogs. If I did I'd LOSE MY MIND.
And the best part about working for the government? EVERYTHING is
blocked here - no eBay, no email, no blog, no Flickr etc. etc. Us public
servants can't be trusted. ;)



11:30am I'm starving and since I work compressed work weeks (I work an
extra 50 mins a day so I can have every second Monday off), I usually
work through lunch and scarf down lunch at my desk. Sometimes I sneak
out to meet my sister at an art store a couple blocks down. In the
summer we may go to the Byward Market and hit my favourite store Zone,
or go visit the stray cats that live behind Parliament Hill.



3:30pm My day is finally done and I start heading home - hopefully not
in a blizzard. I walk through Chinatown and sometimes stop in the shops
to look for trinkets (like I don't have enough). At the end stretch I
walk through a bit of Little Italy and try not to look in the windows at
the pastries and pasta.



4:00pm I get home, shovel the driveway, hang out with my 5 cats, check
emails and the blog (and post something), watch tv, make dinner, make
some calls, depending on the weather I might vacuum water out of my
basement, IM with Jo, take a quick look on eBay and Etsy for stuff for
my house, do some blog research.....and go to bed.



JO:



5.00am Roll out of bed with the sun and the noisy parrots in the trees outside my windows. Boil the kettle and boot the computer. Check emails, etsy orders, stats and blog while showering, ironing clothes and painting my face. Pack up my etsy orders to post during my lunch break. Love selling my prints, hate the packing!



6.00am I'm normally settled down for an hour on the computer for blog surfing and chatting to Kim online. It's the only time we can guarantee that we'll both be on. It helps having 2 people to share the work load but we always like to consult each other on the important things like what to do with Kim's new house and what we are buying on ebay or etsy (oh and blog things too).



7.00am Dash out the door to jump a train to work. Stare out the window and take in all the little details. I'm a visual person so I'd rather watch the world go by than read a book. Besides my favourite thrift store is on the line and the manager Phillip always puts something he knows I'll like in the window for me to spot! Grab a coffee on the way from my fav local cafe. Cappuccino if I'm rested or a double short black is I'm still beat.



7.30am I work for the Homeless Health Outreach Team, a mental health outreach team based in the city centre. My office is surrounded by peep shows, drug dealers, churches and thrift stores. Sadly I am moving on shortly to take up a research position and I'll miss my lively neighbourhood! After studying and working in the interior design industry I've gone back to my first love, health. I studied medicine for a number of years but decided that design was for me. Now I'm back in the mental health area and loving it. The blog gives me a chance to keep up with my love of interior design.



12.00pm After slaving away the morning at work I escape for lunch which is usually on the run as I scour the 3 thrift shops within a block of the clinic. I love the thrill of the hunt and will miss it when I change positions. Less "junk" in my house though!

12.30pm Back to work already! Bummer!

4.30pm Head back home craning my neck to spot what treasures Phillip has left in the thrift shop window to tempt me.



5.00pm Turn the computer back on and in between prepping for dinner and checking the early news I begin to write the day's posts. I'm 14 hours ahead of the east coast of America so my day is ending as your's is starting. Since I took my week off blogging recently I've been writing my posts at night instead of prepping a week's worth on the weekend. Must become more disciplined again! I like to be offline by 7.00pm so I can eat dinner and watch the news. I'm addicted to news and current events. I even have news radio playing when I'm on the computer. What a tragic! As fellow bloggers will know the hardest thing is the research. Posting is relatively easy although Kim and I code our posts to get the layout we like. i spend hours and hours a week roaming the web looking for things and people to post. almost all of us have full time jobs as well as blogging. What a luxury not to have to work and devote your time to blogging. My day job keeps me real.

7.00pm Relax, have a glass of wine with dinner and watch TV. I try to keep weekends free to go to the movies, catch up with friends, go out to dinner, have breakfast at my favourite cafe, scope the art galleries - all the things normal people do but more and more my time is taken up by blogging. Kim and I are determined to make Desire to Inspire the best we can.

9.30pm Getting sleepy. Maybe I should go to bed! Got to be up at 5.00am again. Where's my book? Just a couple of pages before sleep.