live. work. dream.

People often ask us if we miss our “stuff.” Well, the only thing I miss are my scrapbooking and card making supplies. I hated to put them in storage, and thought I’d have to say goodbye to my favorite creative outlet for a while.

But recently, I was introduced to Digital Scrapbooking, and fell in love with it. The digital way of preserving family memories is so much less expensive, more flexible — and saves a ton of space, because everything is done on my computer.

I’m enjoying it so much, that now I’m teaching others about it. Even people who don’t consider themselves “creative” are finding that they can design crafty “coffee table” style, archival quality photo books.

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I haven’t written any posts here in a while since I have been frantically developing the final touches for our latest online venture …

We are proud to announce that the long-awaited RVblogz.com is now online! With RVblogz.com you can get your own free travel blog to document your adventures and keep in touch with friends and family while on the road.

Be one of the first to take advantage of this new free service and join the growing community of RVbloggerz today!

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With a wag of his tail, our dog Jerry always seems to bring us such good fortune. On Saturday, we took him to “Bark Harbor,” an upscale pet boutique in Bar Harbor’s downtown area. As we walked in, we noticed a flyer that advertised the business as being for sale, along with the building which has an upstairs apartment, and a separate home away from downtown. Woah!

We’ve often said that our next business would be some kind of dog-oriented operation, and the opportunity to start one was right in front of us, in one of the most beautiful locations we have been to yet.

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When Jim and I first considered changing gears and starting a new business, running a Bed and Breakfast or lodge was high on our list. So I did some research, and read two books that helped us narrow down our focus, if we decide to make the leap. The books, “So You Want to Be an Innkeeper” and “I’m Living Your Dream Life,” dive into the gory details about the daily demands of catering to tourists. I highly recommend them if you’ve ever considered running a tourism business.

What’s It Like Running a Bed and Breakfast?

We’re still considering this type of business as an option, so when we checked into Melfort Cottage in Toronto, we were on a mission to learn more about that line of work. Melfort Cottage is a small three room Bed and Breakfast, run by Heather Donaldson, a retired schoolteacher. Located in the middle of the posh Oakville area, Melfort Cottage is perfectly situated in an historic neighborhood, within walking distance to restaurants and shopping.

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Readers who have chosen not to register for this blog and receive notification of posts and comments will be happy to know that we have just activated the Subscribe To Comments Wordpress plug-in.

Beneath the comments form at the bottom of every blog post, there is now a convenient check box that will enable you to receive follow-up comments via email. This is just one of the various plug-ins we have installed to make the LiveWorkDream blog better.

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We’ve recently been in contact with Jackie McCutchen, who together with her husband (I presume) Mike have just launched WeWannaRV.com in preparation for their new life on the road as full-time RVers.

LiveWorkDream readers may notice the their WordPress theme as looking a bit familiar, but that just goes to show you that great minds do indeed think alike. (more…)

Whenever we find locals willing to chat (of which there are many in the rural places we visit), we ask loads of questions about the area, their work, the weather, you name it. They think we’re playing “20 Questions,” but what we’re really doing is trying to figure out:

• where the heck we might move to, permanently
• and what on earth we’ll do for a living

As summer winds down, the locals have more time to talk. Information is getting thrown at us as quickly as the summer days are going by. The following is a summary of what we’ve learned recently, so we can look back on it a year from now — if we do decide to settle down somewhere . . . or start to run out of money, whichever comes first!

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Let’s face it, most of us are lazy. We like our routines, no matter how detrimental to our quality of life they might be. Even when little signs start appearing in our lives, whispering to us that maybe it’s time for a big change, we tend to ignore them for years, if not all the way to the grave. We just don’t like change. Even Jim and I made the move to sell our business only after Jerry got sick. Like many, it took a traumatic event to get our butts in gear.

But change doesn’t always have to come about as the result of sickness or loss. One person we recently met at a campground is absolute proof that when we humans do embrace change and run with it, the rewards in life are so much greater than staying with the status quo.

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We are proud to announce that the LiveWorkDream Full-Time RVing Superstore is now online!

We developed this Amazon.com aStore as a service to our readers and filled it with helpful books, campground directories, road trip music, and RV products to help make life on the road a little easier. We sifted through the countless books, DVDs, music CDs, and product categories related to RVing, traveling, and buying/selling a business that are available at Amazon.com. We then compiled the ones we think you’ll find useful and categorized them for your easy review. Purchases can be completed right here on our site or directly at www.amazon.com.

Granted, many readers may be saying to themselves, “Thank God all those ads are gone!” But by the time others read this post, they may be thinking, “What on earth is this guy talking about?” If you’re the slightest bit interested in making little extra spending money by placing Google ads on your own website, or you wonder why we’ve stopped running ours, please read on. If not, rest assured the ads will be back. Hopefully soon.

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