My Baby's 6 Months Old!

Obviously not my big baby! 

He's almost 5, which is another mind blowing fact.

The younger, sweeter baby which I am referring to….

Sparkle & Stone.

It struck me the other day, 

after my very first Colorado market,

that all of this crazy snowballing dream was really 

coming to fruition.

All of my hard work and literal bloody stumps 

and endless chipped and broken nails

were for a reason.

Something was really happening here,

and people were actually liking it.

Thinking about the fact that it's only been 

6 months since our very first market makes my jaw hit the floor.

While it seems like just yesterday, it also feels 

like we've been doing this for so much longer.

 

But the point of all of this isn't to 

boast about how awesome the past 6 months have been.

(although they have been pretty fucking awesome!)

The real point of all of this is to recognize the 

real reason behind all of the success.

First and foremost,

I have to thank my husband.

Not only was his choice to shake up our family 

dynamic a huge catalyst for me finally 

getting off my ass and chasing down my dream,

but it was also a great use of his free time to be my 'do boy'.

This man has run the gamut for me.

I have had the craziest of request 

for construction work on table displays.

He has sat countless hours at markets by my side 

selling things to all kinds of crazy bitches.

And all the while with a giant smile on his face,

most likely cursing me through his teeth, 

but a smile on his face none the less.

If it were not for him,

I literally couldn't do this.

The second person, 

my original baby, Ash.

This kid is a champ.

I will leave out all of the bribes and threats 

that I've delved out to this kid over the past 6 months,

and say this….

All those long hours and shit eating grins,

the boy has done 'em too.

Not many kids could pull it off like he can either.

Trust me I've seen it.

He's become quite the salesman,

and loves nothing more than being my 

"assistant" on market days.

You can tell by the crazed look in his eyes

in the picture above that sugar is involved.

Lots of sugar.

Lastly, You guys.

All my Bitches.

(I mean that in the least threatening kind of way.)

The people that love me and support me 

are really the reason that 

all of the time and work has become a success.

I have met some really amazing people in the past few months.

You guys are the inspiration and the drive.

There isn't a single market that goes by that I don't 

leave with a new friend/customer.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I can't thank you all enough for all of this.

While I am throwing out thank you's,

I also have to give a great big shout out to 

a new friend/customer, Lauren Defilippo.

Lauren is also new to CO,

descending from NYC.

As soon as I learned this about her,

found out she was a photographer,

and realized how totally awesome she was,

I knew we had to be friends.

Lauren was at the Denver HaHo,

photographing the event and was so kind to share these 

images that she captured of our booth.

Thank you so much Lauren for capturing something that I 

never have time to, and for being totally RAD!

Check out her website…

www.laurendefilippo.com

...and while you are perusing the inter webs…

click the "SHOP" button above to head over to 

Sparkle & Stone 

Thankful Thursday

When I was in my early twenties I challenged my self to not eat meat for an entire day.

Well obviously that's not much of a challenge, but one day turned into two.

Then two turned into a week.

Then a week turned into a month, which quickly became lots of months

that all put together was a year.

Before you know it a year had come and gone.

Today, I am challenging myself to exude the positivity that I keep inside my mind and my heart.

For one day, one full day everything that oozes out of me will be laced with positivity.

And, if I am lucky my days will blend together and become months and years and an eternity.

I challenge you to look inside,

find your positive spirit and share it in all actions in your life.

Live it, Breath it, Share it.

Be Grateful & Inspire

p.s. if you would like to find out why I am no longer a 

vegetarian hop over here for a funny little read!

Thankful Thursday

A few years back as I was catching up with an old college friend and his wife,

they kept telling me that they were now living simply.

It really seemed to be a main theme in our conversation,

but I have to honest; I wasn't really sure what they had meant.

Living Simply?

It really can mean so many things.

To me it's more than just de-cluttering our stuff and our minds.

It's more than using only what you need and reducing your waste.

It's really truly living gently.

It's living with intention, respect, and awareness.

It's showing gratitude to the Earth and those that also inhabit this beautiful place with us.

However the most important aspect of a simple life to me is

wrapping my head around what is right for me and my family and what is not.

Once we have chosen what is not right for us, for our home, for our lifestyle, for our belief system,

we simply put it aside without judgment or criticism.

For someone who decides that living a grateful and simple life,

the realization that not all people find happiness and satisfaction in the same things is 

the greatest enlightenment.

Let go of what is not for you.

Put it aside.

Do not judge.

Do not complain.

Just let it be.

My life and my theories are not perfect, but I am grateful for them all.

Be grateful & inspire.

Thankful Thursday: Let's get happy

For my summer vacation read I picked up the best selling book

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

I felt a little silly a first reading it.

I am not much for the "self-helpy" books, but this had a different undertone to it.

It wasn't all woe is me. 

Instead I found myself totally relating to Gretchen's explaining of 

her quest to be more happy, not less miserable.

Now mind you I am not but only half way into the book, and I still have lots of reading to do.

But, after spending some amazing quality time with my 

family last week a certain thing about happiness occurred to me.

My Dad, Step Mom, and sisters all flocked to the lake.

Some of my sisters even brought some friends.

It was a week of lots of girls, 8 of them to be exact.

Eight women under one roof...

It was like a sorority house with a 30 year age gap.

When there are that many personalities in one cabin, 

and mother nature is playing the "rain on your vacation" game,

some truths about people start to really come out.

The passages I was reading kept making more and more sense.

Not everyone's happiness looks the same.

For me, in that moment, my happiness was being surrounded by 

my parents, my sisters, the serenity of the lake, the little 

details that I was capturing on our adventures and the big laughs we left along the way.

I found myself grabbing onto every single moment and then found 

myself dealing with a bit of sorrow when that moment was over.

I never want it to end.

While some found the greatest happiness in a drive alone through the country,

others found the most joy in the uncertainty of what tomorrow would bring. 

My point is this.

It is impossible to look at someone and know what makes them happy.

All we can do is be grateful that there are so many different kinds of people that make the 

huge happy place go round.

One can not define the terms of happiness,

but only recognize it when they see it.

So see it.  Look for it.  Share it.  Emote it.

The happier you are, the happier those around you will become.

Be Grateful & Inspire

Thankful Thursday

Praying before meals in something that rarely happens in this house.  It's pretty much limited to Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinners.  It's not that we don't know how, or not that we don't care to, it is really just not our practice.  Grace before every meal was something that I grew up with, and frankly grew out of.  I feel kinda terrible actually admitting that.

Upon recently enrolling the boy in a religious based VPK (because they don't offer VPK at military schools), I decided that I had better start prepping him for praying before his lunch.  His school that he will be attending come fall says a prayer before eating, does a small bible study daily, and they go to chapel once a week.  You can imagine the sudden feeling of indigestion the hubs is feeling about all of this. ha. 

But, if I was going to teach my child to "pray" before meals...it was going to be my way.  No thanking God for the food that's on the table, rather just giving "thanks" for the meal.  In short just a series of "I am thankful for...", a few from me, and a few from the boy.

So we sat to eat, and I said:

"Tonight we are going to say grace."

the boy: "Grace."

me: "No, we are going to say grace."

the boy: "Grace."

me: "Seriously, let's say grace."

the boy (now much louder and a bit  frustrated): "GRACE!!!!!"

That was when I realized that this had turned into a fun little game of "who's on first".

The point being that we did it.

I eventually realized that he had no idea what I meant by "saying grace", so I went first, and told him what I was thankful for that day.  He followed with some silly almost 4 year old ramblings about being thankful for "butts, and dogs, and poopoo caacaa", he then got THE LOOK and scraped together some appropriate things to be grateful for.

After doing this for a few days in a row it is starting to become obvious that the boy is gaining and understanding of what it actually means to be thankful as opposed to just saying "thank you".  I am teaching him young the importance of living a gracious lifestyle.  Showing him that the more gratitude that you display the happier you will be.

Teach your children to be grateful through your actions and words.  Let them follow you in expressing their thanks, and maybe the future generations will learn to live humbly instead of living with entitlement. 

For now, Happy Thankful Thursday!

Be Grateful & Inspire

Thankful Thursday

What would happen if tomorrow you woke up,

and all you had were the things that you were thankful for today?

What would be left?

 Would you be left with nothing?

Or would there be an overwhelming amount of things?

Would those 'things' be material possession?

Or would you be so full of gratitude and thanks that your insides would burst?

As I sit here and reflect on this thought, I am left to wonder what I would have.

I consider my self to be a pretty thankful person,

but I am not a "prayer".

Which begs the question....

If I am not taking the devoted time to bundle all my "thanks" into a 

quick synapsis for someone to hear,

does anyone know that I am thankful for the gifts in my life?

I remember the nights of my childhood, knelt down beside my bed.

Every night before climbing in between my sheets I would do the run down:

"Dear God,

Thank you for my Mom and Dad.

Thank you for my Grandparents.

Thank you for my Sibling.

Thank you for my awesome toys.

ect..."

So, since I don't take the 10 minutes before bed to hit my "Thank You" quota...

What would I have left in the morning if all that was left was the acknowledged?

Honestly, I am not sure that anything would change.

And do I believe that you have to say those "Thank You's" out loud to mean it? 

NO.

Being grateful is a way of life,

and if you are....everyone will know.

Would I have enough?

Would my life still be full of joy?

I can answer these two with certainty.

YES.

Just because I don't kneel down and rattle off a list of things and people that I am thankful for,

doesn't mean that I am not oozing with gratitude.

So think about it.

What would be left for you?

Where would you be?

And who would you be there with?

Would anything change? 

Or are you living a life of gratitude to ensure that everything that you have is enough?

Don't focus on the negative.

What has happened has happened.

It's the past.

Nobody knows what tomorrow has in store for us.

We can only go into it with a positive attitude, ready to be thankful.

Today is all we can control.

Today is a gift.

Be thankful TODAY, right now, right this very instant, 

for tomorrow it could all be gone!

Be Grateful & Inspire

Thankful Thursday

As I sit here at the crack of dawn, blurry eyed and not quite awake,

I can't help but watch those around me. 

Everyone here is headed for the same adventure to a far away place.

While none of our adventures will be the same.

Those sitting at my gate are obviously headed to the same destination as I am, 

but how similar will our journey's be?

The man next to me grumbles under his breath 

as I politely greet with with a smile and good morning.

He's dressed in a suit so I assume he's headed to New York on business.

His forehead is creased with lines of stress and a life of disgruntled behavior.

He seems angry.

Maybe he's upset that he has to sit next to some purple haired smiling freak.

Maybe he's mad at his secretary for scheduling such an early flight.

There's the lady half way down the terminal who is toting way too much luggage for just one person

and trying to wrangle up her two small children.

I can't help for a minute to be thankful that I am not traveling with the boy today,

and in the next second am cursing myself for not jumping to my feet to go help her.

People all around her are just staring in hopes that they won't be "stuck"

near her on the plane I am sure.

Across from me is an elderly couple.

They are holding hands while they wait to board the plane.

They haven't stopped staring at me.

I can only imagine what they are thinking.

Judgment.

It's funny to me that there is so much judgement today.

Because I look like a Crayola box exploded on me I must be a terrible irresponsible person.

I just smile.

Knowing that I am a wonderful person.

I am secretly waiting for the opportunity to prove their judgments wrong.

I have so much to be grateful for.

I am about to see my favorite lady.

My husband surprised me with the amazing trip.

And that's just what's happing right this very minute.

Recognize the moments in your life that deserve it.

The food and nourishment in your belly.

The roof over your head and the people that make up your individual community.

That stranger sitting next to you.

All of these things may have something to offer you 

if you take the moment to see the gifts inside of them.

Project 52

You can't pass up a good hop, skip, and a jump.