Small Business Saturday

Happy Black Friday :)

I'm taking a break from writing my normal blog posts to talk a little about Small Business Saturday.

I own a small consulting business (yes, that will be in a forth coming post!) and I work with and know several small business owners. I am lucky enough to live in Columbus which is a thriving, supportive community built of local, small businesses. When you experience this first hand, it's hard not to get passionate about supporting local small businesses.

This holiday season, I am vowing to only buy local. I am encouraging you to do the same, starting tomorrow (Nov 30th) with Small Business Saturday. #shopsmall

Below I have listed some of my favorite local businesses that I urge you to support. {there are many others, of course!} There are a few independent consultants listed here as well and, while they represent a national company, you are helping a member of your local community pay their bills or support their family. It is no different than a local boutique owner carrying a national brand of clothing. I have also included a couple brands that aren't local but give a portion of their proceeds to charitable works.

For the jewelry lover on your list:
Red Giraffe Designs (hand-made, unique)
Silpada (quality .925 silver)
Stella & Dot (fashion jewelry)

For hand made knits:
Made with Love Knits

For a creative outlet:
Creative Art Studio

For a little pampering at the spa:
replenish: the spa co-op

For that person on your list resolving to get in shape in 2014:
Urban Moves

Boutiques & Clothing:
De De & Dolly Boutique
Thread
Rowe
Tiger Tree
Ladybird
Homage

For home furniture, decor & accents:
Edwin Loy Home
Objects for the Home

Book lovers, unite:
The Book Loft

For the food guru in your life, gift cards to any of the following:
Giuseppe's, Cork, The Rossi…I mean, I could go on & on. Just walk down High St, 4th St (Dirty Franks, Little Palace) or Gay St and you can't go wrong.

For amazing food to bring to your holiday parties:
Larry B's Meat & Cheese

For that person who loves to give back:
Good works make a difference
Sevenly.org

And, lastly, for my own little plug --
For the clean, vegan, paleo, non-toxic-lover type in your life:
Ava Anderson Non-Toxic (non-toxic products for baby, home and you)

So, again, whether you purchase a gift or a gift card, please support your local community & #shopsmall on Small Business Saturday and all through the Holiday gift-giving season!

Thanks for stopping by my blog -- I'll be back to posting about the Single Girl Project soon!

Monday Motivation

Start the week off with a little inspiration:

"This is the beginning of a new day...what you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it"

Earn your years

This week I have been identified as being well under my true age multiple times. I am not complaining at all -- that will never get old! When this happened in the past, I would have typically just brushed it off. Now, however, I have been defiantly correcting this mistake. 

I am proud of my age. I have earned my years. I want to wear them as a badge of honor for everyone to see! So now I politely smile, say thanks, and offer my true age with confidence.

I recently read an article outlining the different aspects of your twenties and it caused me to reminisce on mine. They have been fabulous. Incredible. Wonderful. My Aunt Maria (probably the wisest woman I know) always told me "your twenties are your best." The most fun, the time where you are socially allowed to find and create yourself. The time to try new things. To be bold in your mistakes. 

And now, as I get closer to thirty and see how far I've come since twenty; as I look back on the broad spectrum of change I experienced from twenty till now...I am filled with so much pride and love for those years.  I know I'm going to tell my future children the same thing my Aunt Maria told me -- live up your twenties, make them count, they are the very best. 

I think in general people change a little bit over time -- as life experiences affect them, as they become spouses or parents. But I've already gone through the down and dirty work of learning who I am and making myself into who I want to be a few times in my twenties. {In fact, in the past few months, I have gotten to know myself better than at any other time in my life} And I don't think I will be able to say that about any other decade of my life. 

I know the other decades will have great things to offer and that I'm the type of person that will be happy with wherever I am in life, no matter the time. But I am going to always look back on my twenties with pride, love and a nostalgia that knows that the spark my twenties had will never be repeated in the same way again. 

I am going to be so wistful to turn 30. Not because of the number, but because of what I'm leaving behind, the door that will be closed. I've got a year and a half left, I'm going to make them the most amazing yet. When I turn 30, I want to shout it from the mountaintops because I know what it took to make it there. And, then, I'll do the same at 40. 

One day

I had a good day today.

I went to a very(!) early networking meeting and conversed with a wide variety of people -- all looking to get ahead and gain some new business. I unexpectedly ran into a sorority sister from college. It was a great way to start my morning.

Then I spent a couple of hours helping my Grandma with some charitable work which felt really good and served as a reminder that I need to get involved in volunteering again. And I got to spend time with her, always a blessing!

In the afternoon I went downtown to work. I got to park in my new spot in the monthly parking garage (yay for scoring a commodity!) and on the walk to my building, I took some deep breaths to bring myself to the moment. Granted, city air isn't the most refreshing but it was cool & crisp and heightened my awareness of how it felt to be in the midst of the hustle & bustle with my tailored pea coat and new Coach work bag. It was a new feeling, and kind of neat.

From the office, I went to a class at Barre3 in UA. I love love love this facility and the workout I receive there. On the way in, I ran into another sorority sister that I hadn't seen in awhile so that was a wonderful surprise! My body felt every bit of the hour long exercise. This became evident when I lifted my foot to the brake on my way home and the muscles in my leg began to shake!! I called my instructor (also a sorority sister - apparently it was a Zeta day!) to tell her I was really feelin it! But it felt amazing.

After, I grabbed a bite to eat with my friend BB. We went to a charming little place that offers lean Mediterranean food, which went perfectly with the fact that I didn't really want to undo my Barre3 workout. While walking to meet her, I repeated my walk from earlier in the day. I took a couple deep breaths of the evening air and reflected on my busy and wonderful day.

I thought "This is exactly where I should be." A 28 year old single gal walking to meet a girlfriend for dinner in a hip little pocket of town after a fulfilling day of being productive and randomly catching up with friends. And then the interesting thought came to me of how I'm just one person living my life, but in thousands of cities across the country, there are millions of other 28 year old women doing the same thing, living a day fairly similar to mine. Their gyms, their friends, their offices, their little pocket of the world…but most of us probably went through very similar routines and were ending our day with dinner with a girlfriend. I honestly didn't know whether to feel connected, connected to a much bigger.. thing, or to feel disconnected, like when you look at the ocean and don't see the individual drops of water that it's made of. Either way, it was one of those moments that is bigger than you and you just let the thoughts and feelings rush over you. I love that feeling, I love those moments.

Yeah, it was a good day.

Soul Sisters

I have been blessed with having a wonderful array of friends. I have my best friends from elementary, my best friend from high school, friends from living in LA, my sorority sisters, friends from different jobs I've held through the years and friends that I met through other people and we formed our own friendship from there. I'm someone that truly loves and appreciates the connections and relationships that are built simply by being a friend. People are what makes the difference in this world -- people change lives, not things.

In pretty much all facets of life, I always believe quality is more important than quantity. It is fairly common to have surface-level friendships, but I want substance and meaning. Even if that means having 5 friends instead of 50, at least they would be amazing ones. I have a lot of friends, but they are all quality human beings, and add quality to my life. None probably more so than my soul sisters.

These are the girlfriends I met in college, outside of my sorority. We all were brought together in a random way, which proves to me even more that we were meant to be. None of us grew up with biological sisters so we always say that bringing us together was God's way of giving us the sisters we never had. It is rare to have a friendship that runs so deep where you truly feel you're connected in your soul, that you are truly sisters. It is even more rare to have this with a group of 5 women. {let's be honest -- women don't always get along with one another..}

For the record, we call ourselves CAMM (the first letter of each of our first names) and T-CAMM (when we are joined by the 5th member who now lives out of state). We most recently coined the term CAMMtastic because..I mean, why wouldn't we!? We even hash tagged it (of course!)

T-CAMM in a picture taken at least 5 years ago, I think.

My girls and I have been through a lot together since meeting in college -- cross-country moves & cross-country visits, heartache & weddings. We've been emotionally separated and built back up. When it isn't possible to frequently see one another, we rely on group texts where we share an inspirational quote, a funny story, or vent the day's frustrations. Where would I be without these girls, I wouldn't want to know.

A few weeks ago, 4 of us planned on going to a concert -- girl's night & live music, what could be better?!? The concert was cancelled at the last minute. It was a Monday night, we all had our own lists of mundane things we could do, but we decided to still get together and have an impromptu "Wine Your Art Out" night at Creative Art Studio, which is owned by one of the members of CAMM. Let's just say at first it seemed unfortunate that the concert was cancelled but it turned out to be a way better night at CAS then anything else we could have planned.

We conversed over pizza & wine and then got to work on painting. Anna's an amazing teacher and very patient -- she let us each do our own painting rather than all working on the same one, which is the way a typical WYAO operates. Let me just say, this was a perfect way to end a Monday and start off the rest of our week. (By the way, if this sounds like a creative escape you'd like to enjoy with your friends, you can host your own private WYAO, too).

Here's a photo of us with our finished pieces of art:

Several months ago the 4 of us picked a weekend in November that we wanted to do a girls' getaway. Last weekend came upon us suddenly & we didn't even book our hotel until Tuesday! All we knew was that we were all free and we were going to be together. We road tripped to Pittsburgh, ate amazing food and shopped till we dropped. There's something about discovering hidden gem restaurants in a new city, making a place your own and not knowing anyone but the girls you are with that is just so freeing. We laughed SO hard, we shopped for 8 hours and still were getting along at the end of it, we made our suite into a throwback dorm room of getting ready, dancing to music and enjoying pre-dinner cocktails. 

Having SO much fun in the hotel suite

On the drive we talked about life and babies (A & M are married, babies are next!) This trip was when it really hit me that oh my gosh we are getting older, life is changing. Ordinarily, I think there would be a panic that would set in. You always hear that as people get married, and then after they have kids, they drift away and settle into a new world with other married parents. But we're CAMM, we're soul sisters for life. I'm not going to be forgotten friend Meghan, I'm going to be Auntie Meghan. And maybe girls' weekends will be fewer and farther between, or maybe they'll turn into girls' weekend plus hubbies and babies but they will happen, and they will be full of wonderful memories. 

I cherish these girls and our moments together and I'm looking forward to experiencing what the future holds. It's going to be CAMMtastic.

Moments of Quietude

So, remember a couple of posts ago when I said I'm going to try to live in the moment by being calm in my heart?? It's working!! :)  I've had some recent experiences that have helped me realize what moments of peace look like, feel like. And the peace those moments brought me has lived with me. It's a great feeling. It's making everything better. I'm having a great, busy week and yet my heart doesn't feel busy at all! I am definitely noticing myself being more conscious of the moments I'm living in and just freely enjoying them. My heart isn't busy, it's happy.

Here's how it happened:

Last week I went on a 3 mile walk with one of my best friends. It was perfect! We got to exercise, catch up and be one with nature all at once. Watching the sun go down, smelling the country air and feeling the crisp fall breeze…it doesn't get more peaceful than that!

{doesn't this just make your heart be still?}

Then, this past weekend, I went for a little weekend getaway to Tennessee. The whole point of the trip was to not think about anything so I took that viewpoint to heart and didn't really think twice about going. I said yes and went with it, which is a little unlike me. This in and of itself made it a bit of a liberating experience that allowed my heart to be free. {Turns out a free heart makes for a calm heart}

You know the phrase "follow your heart" --I personally like "follow your arrow, wherever it points"-- I think it was coined for a reason. Your heart knows what you need. My heart told me to go on this getaway because it knew it would be good for me. And: it was the best thing I've done for myself in a long, long time.  Everyone knows you don't relax on the weekends - you're either catching up on chores or errands, or catching up with friends you lost touch with during the week. That's what we do on weekends, and that's great. But what do you do when you just need to relax? Get a massage? Never a bad idea, of course but, if you're like me, your mind never stops racing, reviewing everything you need to do once you leave. Go on vacation? No, not me. My vacations aren't even all that relaxing. Fun, and necessary, yes. But not relaxing - there's still something to do, somewhere to go, someone to see. There was NONE of that this weekend. Absolutely none. I had nothing to do. I cannot even tell you the last time that happened in my life. I don't remember.  

This weekend I sat on the couch in a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains that overlooked a cove of Ft Loudoun lake. I watched football. I took a two hour nap. And then I took several more cat naps after that. I ate delicious home cooked meal after home cooked meal. We barely left the house and when we did it was to go sit at the dock, or go to the marina for dinner, or take an aimless drive through town. 

We all know that would never happen at home. You feel guilty for relaxing, for not getting something done. This weekend, guilt was not on the itinerary. I didn't think or worry about one thing. Literally. Time stopped, my mind was still. I knew peace. 

{so calm, so quiet}

Borrowed Wisdom

My best friend shared this blog post with me from fellow blogger Hannah Brencher. 
I love sources of inspiration & this is an amazing example :) Read & enjoy! 

1) Life is a steep, uphill battle but it’s fierce & it’s beautiful & you’ll be sad to see it go if you live it right.

2) New people won’t stop coming into your life and opportunities won’t stop knocking on the door but you need to have the space for them. In all you currently have– be them relationships or obligations– step back and ask yourself “why.” If you can find the answer, hold tighter. If the answer escapes you, it’s time to let something go.

3) You should resolve to be awesome for the rest of your life. Right now. Do it.

4) Leggings, no matter how much we wish, will never one day magically transform into pants. Wearing them with tops that don’t cover your bum is not cute. Please, please, please stock up on pants.

5) Goals are not a January 1st kind of thing. Set them weekly. Set them monthly. Set them so that you are moving forward and always trying to progress. Life can grow stagnant without them… beware.

6) Tuna and barbeque sauce are as unlikely a couple as Sandy and Danny from Grease. However, they go together. They go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong. Don’t gag at the computer, I promise I am not fooling you. Mix the two together with some brown rice and you’ve got a bomb.com lunch.

7) Confidence is a sexy thing. Guys dig it. Girls dig it. We all dig it.

8) I agree with Bruno Mars and, if I were a good singer, I’d serenade you alongside him in singing how I hope he buys you flowers… and holds your hands… and takes you to parties if you like to dance. You deserve that. Always. Don’t think you should have less than that. You are worthy beyond words, gal.

9) And maybe Bruno Mars should be president because he’s also right to say that you are amazing. Just the way you are. No frill. No big introductions. You’re unlike anyone else and you should lean into that every morning. Every evening. Every hour.

9.5) Knowing your states & geography is a really precious thing. As a recovering “I didn’t pay attention in Geography class and forgot my states one by one so that boys would think I was ditzy & cute, and it was, in fact, ditzy & cute until the day I made the mistake of asking everyone in Missouri how they liked living down south,” I can say firsthand that it’s really wonderful to know that Russia isn’t on top of the US and that Delaware is, in fact, a state. The moral of this bloated story: guys have never wanted us to be stupid. They actually like brain cells. It’s a wonder & a mystery but they really kind of, sort of, definitely like girls with a noggin. ALL HAIL THE LADIES WHO LIKE HTML CODING & UNDERSTAND MARXIST THEORY!! HOLLAAAA!!! WE WINNNN AFTER ALL THESE YEARSSSS!!

10) Your spirit will never benefit from shallow people. You gotz to cut the toxic out of your life, boo.

11) And if you make mean comments, and you talk about people behind their back without ever trying to love them or see where they are coming from, you MIGHT be the toxic one. Oof. I’m not trying to burn you, just trying to say that relationships are too valuable to muddy them up with what you perceive to be the shortcomings of someone else. Big girls do bigger things than that.

12) So yea, I’ll drive the point home: gossip is shallow and stupid. Hobbies are better. Social good is best 

13) Nude pumps. They’re good for the soul. They are a must-have in any serious closet. Buy a pair one day and I can promise your whole entire style statement will benefit from them.

14) Here’s the truth: you are going to waste a lot of hours focusing on who you are not, or who you want to secretly be. But you won’t ever wake up and actually be that person. You’ve got to embrace what you bring to the table. If you don’t like what that is, have the courage to change it.

15) The world does not revolve around us. Turns out that we are just little points of punctuation in a much bigger story glittered with periods & commas & dashes. How are you helping that story to be better? How are you being the best dang point of punctuation that you can be?

16) If you ever find yourself frying Oreos on the stove top (and being an absolute BOSS at it), do not, I REPEAT, do not take the simmering pot of grease straight from the stove and pour it directly into the sink. The thing will straight up explode… And grease will fly everywhere… And you will risk burning your pretty little face off… And then everyone will probably call you “Vat of Grease Face” or “Grease Lightning” (what is with all the Grease references, Hannah?!) for the rest of your life… And, if they do, you can refer them to this blog post and tell them to read point #11. But still, dump the grease outside and keep your face intact.

17) If you want to run a serious business, if you want people to take you seriously, then start your engine and sign out some library books. Business books are proof that God loves us. Lean In by Sheryl Sandbergwill make you a better leader. Seth Godin is the dude you wanted to take the prom all these years and never knew it until you cracked open his book “Tribes.”

18) No matter how tech savvy we get, there is a need to say things to a person’s face. Please, for the love of lovelier things, have the courage to call someone up and verbalize your thoughts or meet for a coffee.Breaking a heart is hard stuff, stopping a relationship is never fun, but there will never be anything as loud as this statement: You are worth my words. You are worth my presence. You are worth, and will always be worth, more than just letters on a screen and a broken heart jammed in the crooks of an overflowing inbox. Face to face connections are fading faster, please don’t let them get away…

19) First impressions are important. Really. That truth never changes. So refer to point #4. Really meditate on it.

20) No matter what kind of interview you are gearing up for, there are certain standards you should always hold yourself to: wearing something other than jeans, not talking out your phone during the interview, sending a handwritten note afterwards. An interview means you want something but it doesn’t mean they have to give it to you.

21) Regret is a real thing. It’s going to happen. It’s going to come clomp-clomp-clomping into your life at some point. Don’t hold onto things forever but learn from them and let the past go. The past will be a dictator if you let her.

22) You never want to be the COTS (chick on the side). Girls, GIRLS!!!! IF A GUY HAS A GIRLFRIEND AND HE IS STILL TRYING TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU IN A “YOU ARE THE ONE THAT I WANT” WAY, DO NOT FALL FOR IT. HE SHOULD MAN UP AND ACTUALLY LET THE OTHER GIRL GO. IF HE DOES NOT THEN WALK AWAY. WALK AWAY. WALK AWAY. You are worth so much more than second string in relationships. And being a COTS is not an endearing title. Be the better lady and hop off his swag; you are breaking the heart of girl you don’t even know without ever really meaning to. (And truthfully: real men aren’t interested in finding another gal, they’re too wrapped up in loving the face off the one they already have.)

23) The women’s section of Old Navy and Target has failed us. If you ever really want to fully embrace to “oversize” look then just frolic over the men’s section. All those flannels you’ve been tugging at, wishing they would actually be “oversize,” are hanging out in the men’s section waiting to kiss your elbows with their flannelish lips. Roll up the sleeves and get going. And then wear them leggings having no shame at all!

24) Facebook is a tricky thing. This is an invitation to step back and ask yourself, should I really post that? In the days of diaries, we never had to worry about this. Now all that we say is a microphone so be very, very careful. Here’s a link to all the best quotes from Maya Angelou. The next time you feel like posting something really ugly that you are going to regret, take a stab at one of these instead:http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3503.Maya_Angelou

25) Darling, darling–the victim song is never going to fit you. It will never be good enough for your lungs. It will never be good enough for your time. You are stronger than you know and more graceful than you know. Don’t let the parts of you that want to be a victim live on any longer. You’ve got a voice… you’ve got a story… Do us all a favor and use it. Without any apologies. Without any stepping back. If ever you need a listener, come find me…