GRATITUDES + BREAKTHROUGHS 09.24.19

Gratitudes
On Saturday, which was an incredibly beautiful September day in Virginia, Lauren + Jeremy celebrated their wedding day at Airlie in Warrenton. Their wedding was a mix of whimsy fairytale and a touch of country. Lauren had custom made Beauty and the Beast high heels with full on gold glitter and the stained glass image of both Belle + Beast on the underside of her shoes. She also had inspired garters with “be our guest” and red roses on the iconic blue that Belle wore at the beginning of the movie through the town. Jeremy he went a little more tradition in a sharp black suit with tails. He wore his favorite cowboy boots with spurs, a black felt hat and his Grandfather’s pistol + belt. They were married in Airlie’s garden with their ring bearer Scooby, the couples adopted pup! They wedding day was truly beautiful and Lauren + Jeremy were so joyful! I’m excited to share more details of their wedding on the blog soon!

Wednesday I had the best day. I’m talking like a full out girls day that made my heart so full! In the morning I went to Walsh Family Wine to help with a fun branding shoot for Alicia. I got there early and Sarah + Nate (Owners at the winery) let me help them with harvest! Talk about a fun surprise! If you end up drinking their merlot in a year or two, I basically made it – haha! From there I went through a Conflicted Pixie Workshop to create a custom necklace and sip wine! After that Alicia and my new friend Megan with Vida Events went to grab thai in Purcellville and shop. Shopping lead me to find the most incredible vintage fur cape at the Blue Ridge Hospice Thrift Store. I tried to show some restraint and not purchase it. But it came home with me along with a 1970s English to Italian dictionary. We departed from shopping to see the Bob Ross exhibit and it was filled with happy, little trees! It was truly incredible to be able to watch him create a painting in the theater and walk back into see it in real life. He was extremely talented and brought so much happiness to people. Not to mention he’s become sort of a pop icon! The day didn’t stop there! The three of us hopped over to Stone Tower Winery to celebrate the launch of Bohemia Events owned by the lovely Linnie Hughes. Over there we celebrated her rebrand with wine, bourbon cocktails, small bites and the most delicious sweets by Sugar Studio!

I have to admit I was impressed with my nails this week! I attempted a DIY french manicure that was a little more modern and I knocked it out! I used You’ve Got Nata On Me. It’s a cream peachy nude that was perfect for the tips. From there I added a nail strengthener and then my all time favorite top coat OPI’s Plumping. It lasted for almost 2 weeks! I took it off yesterday before I went to the Nat’s game with my family so I’ll need to try something new this week!

Breakthroughs
My breakthrough this week was just a reminder of something Kristen Kalp taught me back at her workshop The Voice. She had us write out a list of unreasonables, you know things that you felt like you could never do. Long reaches, over the top goals and such.

The idea behind it is to list them out and then break them down into smaller, more actionable steps. These steps are less daunting and easier to accomplish, inching you toward your larger goal.

In addition to the unreasonable list, we also had to “collect nos.” And at first I was baffled, like why would I want someone to consistently tell me know. She said that by collecting nos we are actually ASKING for what we want. That a lot of times with small businesses and also being women we don’t ask say, help, referrals, recommendations, ask to be on a podcast or to be published, to write an article or to be a featured speaker. All of these asks can either lead to a yes, a maybe some other time or a hard no. But without asking, we wouldn’t know.

Since I’ve been home, I’ve collected a few nos. Some that were harder to accept, when I know (maybe I’m overly confident) was an amazing idea. But, you know what? It didn’t wreck my confidence and instead it had be research and reach out to others that might say yes!

So, I think the universe sometimes has us circle back around to relearn lessons. This was a lovely remind to keep reaching, stepping and accepting nos before celebrating the yeses!

As always, thanks for reading! xoxo.