AFTER Making Things Happen

Pic above of Lara Casey with my handmade fabric flower belt on her head....hehe, I feel so famous to have her loving on it and me!


BOY Have I got a lot to say!!!! I'm a little afraid I won't stop, so bare with me here. Sorry I don't have more pics for ya!! I'll be adding some funny ones with Lara and the gals I spend last Friday with so keep checking in.

So just to preface..I will tell you what I THOUGHT this workshop was going to be all about....

I, along with probably all of the wonderful women at the workshop, came into the room in the Hyatt and thought, Alrrright, I'm pumped and so excited to be here...I'm going to learn about how to build my business, branding, get things done better, ya know an all around strengthen our business and ourselves seminar."

BOY, were we wrong! I'm not saying we didn't get that out of the deal as WELL but we got SO MUCH MORE!!!

What I quickly realized was, we would be digging deeper and getting to what really holds you back in LIFE, not just in your business or passion in life, but what is holding you back RIGHT NOW?!?! Sooo, we all very quickly started sharing our deepest darkest thoughts/fear/confusions and started to find out what inside of us was keeping us from realizing our potential.

Lara continued to probe questions to us and take them a step farther, and farther and add a few wise quotes in between to see if we could find the CLARITY we needed. It took me a while and then SNAP all of a sudden it HIT ME. Close to the end of the day I was writing and realized my TRUTH. The clarity I didn't see and understand or believe before just HIT ME.

Here's what my big moment was all about...

What I realized was that I can't take on anymore until I take better care of myself. Now stay with me here because most would say DUHHH....(aka my mom has been telling me this for years) but the difference is this...I always THOUGHT I wasss taking care of myself. I've always tried my best and had lots of goals and made good decisions and worked out and cooked healthy meals but what I really need is to turn my GOALS (to exercise more, eat healthier, have quite time/prayer time with God more, quality time with Ben) I have to turn my GOALS (want to's) into my ESSENTIALS (have to's)...EVERY SINGLE DAY!

In doing such I will be able to take on more and God bless me with more and bring me more projects for my business and I will have the peace inside to handle it all and show others who God is through all of it. I had many more moments and connections to this point of clarity and would love to share this experience with everyone. Ever since the seminar, I feel like a prophet and want others to experience their own moment of clarity. It's created such a sense of PEACE and empowerment. I have also seen so many more things so much more clearly. Doing my bible study exercises and listening to Beth Moore's latest video presentation with my bible study group Sunday night had such a deeper meaning to me. It's all coming together and all sending me the same messages that are building on one another. Even today at my first day at work I was being sent messages about how to succeed in my career was through the same concept of being prepared and that you have to put preparation into today to have a great tomorrow. It seems so simple to me but it was such a huge transfer in my mind. I realized I had to create a whole new routine and day in order to gain all of the things I want out of life. I was afraid of loosing my new creative business since I have a full time job and I was afraid of loosing my happiness and "Emilyness" in my new job. What I realized was that I can not loose anything that I'm not willing to give up. God has already provided me with everything I need to have it all and to dream big and tackle it all. I just need to respect what he has given me and take the BEST care of it so I am able to handle it all. In turning the things I need in a day into my essentials that are in everyday I am creating more energy, more time, more positivity in brain, more peace inside, and most of all a Greater Capacity to Love Others.

Since the workshop I have been on fire and am learning and reteaching myself how to have my essentials in every day. I am simply starting anywhere with SEA sisters and not making everything happen in a perfect order. I'm just GOING for it. Of course I don't have everything where I want it to be, but if I simply never give up and do as much as I can in a day, after a good collection of days, we will see what will happen. I would bet more than my expectations and dreams.

Below a Pic posted from the Tmbler page (http://mth2010.tumblr.com/page/6) Lara made to follow all of the Making Things Happen tour events....below is my group of wonderful girls and a quote that Lara added to us...God Bless her and all these fabulous women!


April, Jenae, Debra, Elizabeth, Amber, Angela, Cynthia, Danielle, Emily, Lauren, Judith, Lisa, Lara, Carrie, Caroline, Jenny - Yesterday was just the beginning. Today, now, in this moment you have the choice to be remarkable. Give yourself license to dream bigger, as you did together just hours ago. Make the choice to be remarkable. Life is just too short to settle for anything less than the greatness - giving, loving, creating - that you were created for. xo Lara, Emily and Gina

Pumpkin Patch Picking & Projects!

The rest of my September consisted of finishing up my SEA Sister projects for my two October brides and a Sunday project break for a pumpkin patch picking adventure!















Me and the gals just arriving to the cute little farm!














Catherine in the pumpkin barrel...we didn't go far ;)















I led the corn maze...maybe not the best idea. My strategy was to take every right turn...come to find out- the way out successfully was to take every LEFT turn...OOOPS!










I loved these old trucks...how adorable are they!

PROJECTS! PROJECTS! PROJECTS!















Painted all the cedar shingle signs...love the colors!















Molly was great help in the painting of words for them as you can see.













Feather boutonnieres for one of the bride's....I'm loving these! The feathers were brought to me from Mandy Jones, the beautiful bride. They came from her fiance's duck hunts :( But they sure do make some pretty boutonieres!
























Below is the start of the light pink silk garter I made for Mandy as well. I added the cream lace flower with beads as an accent for the garter.
















I made Mandy try on the garter for me :) How adorable is that!!

BEFORE Making Things Happen!!!

Due to all my hard work with different Sea Sister projects I've been taking on, I have decided to take the bizz to the next level. I signed up to join 13 other enthusiastic entrepreneurs for Lara Casey's Making Things Happen 2010 Tour. I will be going to Houston, Texas TOMORROW to learn everything there is to know about how to take what I've got to the NEXT level.

A Little Background For Ya:

I first learned about Lara Casey from my amazing wedding photographers (VUE) who were selected as cover shoot contestant for Lara's latest edition of her Southern Weddings magazine. (She's the editor and founder/owner/creator/goddess divine, among other things)

The VUE chicks called me after being selected as contestants and asked if I would lend the handmade "party belt" (as I call it) that I wore for my reception...AND asked if I would make a second belt for their photo shoot.

(This is the party belt I made to wear for my reception)

Hmm Lemme think.. YESS!!!!! I jumped on the opportunity and made some belts as quick as I could (for thier Southern Weddings cover shoot contest they were having in 4 days!)

(This is the second belt I made for their photo shoot)

From there I read more about this Lara Casey person....I became one of her many fans REALLY quickly!

Her blog posts brought me newfound INSPIRATION and COURAGE to keep at it with my little Sea Sisters business idea. When I saw she would be doing her Making Things Happen tour again this year, I knew I had to be a part of it! I worked worked worked and saved saved saved to get my butt in that seminar.

Where Things Are Now:

Although VUE didn't win the cover of Lara's latest edition of Southern Weddings magazine (just realeased this month!), they DID make it in the beautiful pages of the magazine.

-BONUS: I also won a free copy of Southern Weddings magazine from Lara ONE DAY EARLY when I posted my favorite Southern dish to her site...my answer: "BOUDIN BALLS BABY!"

My belts weren't used with the dresses chosen for the shoot as they were empire waist, but thankfully I got a TON of great shots out of the deal and I'm just honored and STOKED to be a part of anything with VUE, LARA, Southern Weddings magazine, and all of the gals that work with Lara.

VUE recently wrote a blurb on thier blog with an AWESOME pic of my belt...SO SWEET to include me! (Check it out!! http://www.vuephotographyonline.net/?p=3459)

As soon as I get more pics from VUE I will add so you can check out my handmade fabric flower and jewelry belts!

September in a NUTSHELL!

So, I honestly can't remember what happened the two weeks following the honeymoon. I've searched through my personal and work calenders and nothing seems to have happened so I'm going to bring us right up to date to the last week of August. So this week started with me getting my latest student ID card...that's right folks, I'm now a Vanderbilt Family Member...just one of the few perks of being the wifey of law student at Vanderbilt....

Thursday evening we went to our first Titans game! -against the SAINTS of course ;)

We met up with my fave Kappa gals in Nashville and walked to the stadium from Victoria's place at The Stahlman to the VERY top of the Titan's stadium.

That's right...we sat at the very tippy top where the bugs hang out and get this...we were so high up that I noticed even the bugs can't handle it...they were constantly running into the light bulbs, dying, and falling on us!! Yep, so we were high up, but thankfully it didn't matter for me b/c the whole time I was talking to Victoria and did't watch a lick of the game.

So Friday morning came and that meant...LABOR DAY WEEKEND trip to Florida!! I left early from work and head down to Rosemary Beach to have a little beach fun with my bestie Meggie, my mom, Rusty, and our fave nieghbors from BR. So, that was a beautiful weekend of beach fun and relaxation!












Walked in from the long 8 hour drive back to Nashville with a BROKEN pup! That's right, Molly Gonsoulin was wailing and freaking out. We brought her to Vet E.R.....torn ACL!! Yes 400 bucks later, she has a torn ACL and got drugged out of her little puppy mind. ( she couldn't even hold herself up to pee outside...so sad!) So, she (Molly) and we (Ben and Em financially) survived the week and got ready for the big weekend of visitors.

LSU came to Nashville...and more importantly, my mom, sister, her friend, ben's kappa sig buddies, and their ladies ALL joined us to watch the Tigers. We started the weekend with a BBQ at the house and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. So fun to see purple in gold in my new city! I can sum up that weekend by saying "They Came, They Partied, They Left." It was a fun weekend for all! (Thank goodness we won...that was a close one! Gotta Love them Tigers!

Emily, WHO?

Soooo...I admit, I've been a naughty naughty Sea sister. I'm confessing to all of you (if there are any of you still checking this blog) that I have been quite absent lately. There, it's done, I'm going to go on now that I've gotten that off my chest and tell you EVERYTHING that we've been up to during this hiatus. So, not sure where I left off..I created my "happy place" in the house for Sea Sisters to thrive...had a "welcome home party" that evening for Benny coming back to Nashville from his summer law internship and woke up the next morning for our honeymoon departure.

Wanted to give everyone a little bit of advice that I learned from my honeymoon. Before such advice...I'll give you some background on where we went/what we did.

Sooo...being that Ben had never been out of the country and I have graciously (by mother dearest) had the opportunity to see lots of wondrous places, I told him to pick ANY place in the world he would like to go, and I will pack my bag and jump on the plane with him. Well, once we started searching, we came up with the idea to do an AWESOME California wine trip "Emily and Ben" style rather than a European trip. (Our thoughts are...let's do Europe once we have the means to do it BIG hehe, and do Cali BIG now since we can)

So we wake up at 3:00 a.m. to catch our flight to San Fran and i hear some funny gargling/bubbling noises. What is it , you ask.... the toilet overflowing! Come to find out...the main water line from the house to the city is broken and therefore caused all water sources in the house to overflow!! YIKES!! So, we get to San Fran and get to the car rental line (2 hours later and making friends with everyone around me :) we get to the counter. (VICTORY!!!) So, we start going through the paper work and find out since we have not gotten a credit card yet (on our new marriage to do list) we can not get the following...

and must settle for the following... (Yeahhh... Were ballin!!!)

So, what are the lessons thus far:

(1.) Get a Credit Card! - aparently you need this as a grown up

(2.) Be ready for your car rental bill to double if your under 25!!! (Warning: They will not tell you this in the fine print...not until your paying will THIS come up.) and

(3) I don't have a three, but felt like it needed a three...I guess...a third lesson could be to make friends in line b/c it makes your life and line wait happier :)

So, other than our car trouble, I have NO complaints! The truth is...honeymoons are wonderful and I must admit...I ate and drank and ate and drank and ate and drank some more... I swear I think I gained 10 pounds!!!

Speaking of the eating and drinking...gotta tell you one more thing about our amazing wine tour visits...

So, Ben scheduled all of the tours and such, as he does best...and I did what I do best...used my resources to get some seriously cool things on our calender. What cool thing in particular...we went to Phelps Winery as a guset of Allie Phelps (that's right, the Phelps daughter!) Seriously cool way to check out a winery! We felt so special! The views from their winery are ABSOLUTELY amazing! (Pics shown below) This has got to be a MUST SEE if you ever go to the area! http://www.jpvwines.com/


The Views... The Flowers, The WINE...OH MY!!!

Before we left Cali we hit up a whale tour in Monteray. The whales were so close (we could have TOUCHED them) Warning: When they blow from their spouts it smells like dead fish, seems like an obvious thought now, but it about kills you when you first smell that stuff!

Next blog post on the list...(I'm serious I'm going to update y'all on everything since my last post!)....back home in Nashville, married, honeymooned out, and ready to inform all on what I've been busy doing for Sea Sisters!!

As the whales say it below... "BYE for now....Will post again soon!

My Happy Place

Soooo, I'm back from the honeymoon, but before I get into all of that jazz.... I have to share some pics and thoughts on the space I created in our spare bedroom for the SEA in my life. Yes, that's right, I've made a little happy place for work and display for the biz. I turned a corner of the room into a mini office and shirt display. Ashley and Sarah have also created a "happy place" at their residences as well and will hopefully add their pics very soon to share with everyone!

My desk right by the window for lots of pretty natural light!!!

Close up of the desk. It has my cute little yellow lamp, some great magazines (for inspiration) with my business cards and the tags on top. Over to the left is an old shutter that I've turned into a clip board of some sort. I have pics of things I love and other happies clipped on. Underneath the shutter board are the pretty thank yous and of course my chic mac in center (only works if plugged in, so the powercord is a must!)

This is an old piece of wood Ben and I found in B.R. when trying to find something for over our bed that we could afford! We now have a new piece of wood (surprising, I think not!) over our bed that my mom got us, so this one gets to become my display piece for the office. I have our two shirts pinned up along with my beautiful handmade belts that I've created (definitely my most prized pieces yet!) I am going to keep pinning different pieces on this board as I make them to show people and to keep organized!


This is the shirt display area I have created with an old pretty sheet I had as well as the big ugly plastic boxes holding all of my crafting supplies. I would say this is a much better look than those hideous boxes. If only Nash had an IKEA and I could really get into some organizing! Rumor is we're getting one, so in the future that problem will be solved.

Close up of the display of shirts with an "example" of what buying something from us would look like!

So like I said, this is our packaging materials Sarah picked out! Do you LoVe?!? I LOVE! We're using an assortment of natural and bluesie-greensie coloring to create our SEA sister look! Materials include: Natural, turquise, and blue tissue paper, turquise and natural raffia string, blue and white colored wrapped together twine, and the brown bags. I'm thinking we should make a cool stamp to put each bag!! Also shown my business card attached and the tags we made for all the shirts and gifts. The tags have our "catch" phrase on them... " Refreshing Southern Style" as well as a little blurb about us on the back that reads, "The Sea sisters are all about living with spirit and style. We're three sisters combining our talents to bring fresh, one of a kind designs to your home and life." Sarah also got us hooked up with thank you cards with our logo on them to include in all of our gifts and packages and of course to send to all of our lovelies that have been so supportive to us (That means YOU reading this!!)

the life of a SEA sister

Here’s a little update on what’s been going on in the life of the SEA sisters…

SO…I know we’ve been MIA for a little while but don’t worry we’re still kicking! Turns out starting your own business, while working full time & trying to have some sort of social life (I mean we are in our 20s people) isn’t always easy.. BUT it’s SO worth it!

E finally got to go on her belated honeymoon with her new hubby Ben to California this week! So while she’s been away sipping wine on the west coast, S and I have been holding down the fort in the Deep South.
 

One of our 1st Orders!

I’ve been busy making TONS of oyster charm bracelets & necklaces & shipping out orders. We still get excited every time we get a new order! Help the Louisiana seafood workers affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill and get a really cute classic piece of jewelry – sounds like a win-win to me!

We also sent a 2nd order of SEA sister shirts to The Savvy Seahorse in Rosemary Beach, FL! If you’re down that way for Labor Day weekend stop in and pick one up! Other than that we are working on a few amazing custom projects for our fall brides. As always we will keep you posted as more things come our way….

Have a great weekend friends!

{A of the SEA}