Bloggy Recap!

Wow- 2 months. Time has gone slow and fast all in one. Summer was amazing. Just pure fun, happiness, and progress with our foster-care/adoption process. September-now have been slower, difficult, life-changing, and torturous with the adoption process. Just a different season, you know? But I'm bursting with ideas and things to share and I really do miss posting. I still take pictures every week with the idea of blogging! So here I am. Thank you for sticking around. Now let's get back to business... :)

Here's a little recap of what's been going on so far this year because it really has been awesome.

I started on my weight loss journey...

 

After being laid off the 3rd time in May, I completely got off my Shaklee 180. I was a mess. Finally in August, I started back again and it felt great! The difference between the first 2 pictures is 8lbs. The first and third picture is a difference of 11-12lbs. Amazing what 10lbs. can do! I plan on taking another one in the same black tank-top, etc. soon. The third one was random when we were in Nashville and I was feeling bloated and down. Shaklee 180 has been monumental in my life. I feel empowered and knowledgeable about food and fitness for the first time in my life. It's easy to look at it and think it's just a shake diet, but it really is SO much more. More on that later. :)

If you are new here or it's been so long that you've forgoten why you love me- Start with these... This summer began the Coastal Living Showhouse Tour which was amazing and I can't wait to find a new home in Charleston to take you on a tour with me! See all of those posts here.

The show house tour opened up my passion for design and I began my Stage My Home series. I've been thinking about this one a lot lately since I received a pretty negative comment stating that I was being mean and picking on people. To that commenter- get over it. Blogs are here to inform and help, I don't mean anything in malice and I try to make it light-hearted, but sometimes the truth hurts! Even if you aren't selling your house anytime soon, check these out- I feature an amazing Charleston home for sale at the end of each post! ooh and ahhh.

Along the way I've also been sharing my love for organic, non-toxic cleaners... check out this awesomeness- Organic Car Cleaner and Non-Toxic Pressure Washing. Not sure why I love Shaklee so much? Here are 5 Reasons You Should Love Shaklee. :)

Enough business- time to open up to you a little bit! ;)

1. Beginning of our home tour- Living room Progress

2. A heart-to-heart- I was shocked and elated by the amazing, positive feedback I received for this post. Y'all are so awesome. You Can't Airbrush Self-Love.

3. My Story: Becoming a professional blogger, How I monetized my blog, Finding my blogging Family, Our Foster-Care Story.

Other gems you might love- Charleston Fashion Week 2013, 4 Lessons from 241yo Modern Design, HGTV Dream Home 2013, Charleston food reviews.

And if you read nothing else, I would have to at least recommend this ridiculous story. This post has brought my blog more traffic than any other. Family, friends, and total strangers have laughed along with us, as I recap the most awkward situation I could never had made up.... Charleston to Bahamas Carnival Cruise.

Well, that isn't everything so far, but it's plenty to get you started!!! Now time for me to get started on some new posts. :) Talk to you soon!

 

Project Dream Goes to Nashville

Last month (and beginning of this month) we traveled to Nashville for a week for the Shaklee Global Conference and were so happy to meet up with my Project Dream International Team! Project Dream is a group (team) of women who blog and market Shaklee products via our blogs. We're like family. I love these women, as I know you've heard me say before.

Directly following the convention I was so pumped about new endeavors that I promptly went on hiatus from here. :( So lame. Just as I was ready to get back to blogging (after a week break), I realized that my time limit to take the Certified Personal Trainer exam was in 11 days. I made the decision to pause from the blog and study my butt off and I don't really regret it, but I DO MISS blogging and interacting with y'all!!!

So I'm back now and I'm going to start off nice and easy with a little eye candy... feast your eyes on ... ME! j/k... sorta. Here are some of the absolutely gorgeous photos taken by Samantha Byers Photography in Nashville. This is only a tiny fraction of Project Dream, but it gives you a nice idea of how awesome we are.

(If you are every curious about PDI, go to our site and come to one of our Thursday night webinars. We love meeting fellow moms and bloggers! www.projectdreamintl.com)

 

Second from the left is Jaima from Ring Around the Rosies. She is a beautiful person and was so nice to have all of us over to her home to take pictures with a gorgeous Nashville backdrop and her husband prepped everything while she was at the conference, including finding a caterer for some Southern cooking. :)

This last picture is of all the PDI women, plus some friends and family, including Jacqui McCoy who you may know from Extreme Weight Loss or the Shaklee 180 site. Jacqui and her mom joined us for the night and they were so sweet and great/motivated business women to add to our team meeting.

Register now for our next webinar (held every Thursday) to learn more about PDI and find out if this amazing team of bloggers may be just what you have been wishing for. :)

My Story: Finding a Blogging Family {Part Three} + Giveaway

Earlier I was writing some snail mail cards to a few of my Project Dream friends and it occurred to me that this story of becoming a blogger and how I monetized my blog really isn't complete if I don't mention the amazing women/friends/fellow-bloggers/family who encourage and support me on a daily basis.

When I talked about how I monetized my blog (better than affiliate marketing, sponsorships, etc.), I introduced you to Project Dream International. If you go to the site or follow our Facebook page at all, you can see that we are clearly a fun group of women who mean business! What you might not realize is that we are all bloggers. It's how we all met!

If you have been on Pinterest at all lately or attended a blogging conference, I'm sure you've heard the blogging tribe buzz. The experts say it's crucial and for more reasons than just exposure. A blogging tribe supports you, give you ideas, picks you up when you're discouraged, helps cheer on accomplishments, and motivates you with the best training. Or at least that's what mine does.

We don't call ourselves a tribe, though. We're just Project Dream because dreams are our mission. We aren't limited to only 10 people and we don't have rules about keeping the size of our blogs near each other. Everyone is in different parts of the journey. And that's okay because we're not really a traditional tribe- we're family.

A few years ago I was feeling in a rut. My handful of good friends are ones I've had since middle school (or earlier) and the further I got into adulthood, the harder it became to make new ones. Enter Project Dream... not one of these women lives in the same state as I do, yet I talk to them on a weekly basis, texting, on Facebook, and through the cards that I sent out today. They are there for me in every aspect, not just blogging. They are amazing friends.

Well, I've gushed enough about how great they are. How about a fun look back at this last year? I had the opportunity to travel to Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas to meet up with them and attend some conferences. Meeting in person isn't a requirement- I was very blessed to have been able to.

Dallas- Me and Katie from Building a House of Love.

Dallas- Vicki, Mary, Erin, Katie, Me, and Claire and our friend Juan who we met in Los Angeles. He's awesome.

Chicago- Krysta, Me, Jenn, Bonnie, and Mary

 We actually stayed at Bonnie's house and this was my first time meeting my PDI friends in person. It was so much fun! Mary is actually laughing in this picture. She's a hoot. :)

One of the nights we went on a field trip to Trader Joe's. It was my first time and it was awesome! Of course we were in our pj's and cracking jokes with the few people left working there that late. Always a good time. :)

The Heasleys (how cool are they!? 12 kids!), Jenn, Susie, Krysta, Mary, Bonnie, Elisabeth, and Me

 Oh yeah, and we did attend a great conference and learned a lot besides which TJ yogurt I like best. Here is even more of the group... (ignore my awkward pose)

Funny thing- I can't find any pictures of me with the ladies in Los Angeles, but I know there must be some. Maybe we were just too busy laughing to remember pictures? That was a fun and funny weekend!

Most exciting for me about this walk down memory lane is that I get to see many of these women and meet even more at the Shaklee Global Conference in just a few days!!! I'm so excited to see them all again and do some in-person brainstorming and keep building our businesses and blogs. :)

Blogging friends who I will get to see again or meet in Nashville this week:

Ring Around the Rosies; My Other Shoe; Eyes on the Source; Happy, Healthy, and Domestic; Raising Daisies; Claire's Healthy Home; Beauty Blondie; Erin Branscom; Krysta Steen; Bonnie Donahue; Blissfully Ever After; Parents of a Dozen; The Home Tipster; Pearls, Paisley, and Petticoats

If you would like to be a part of this awesome group of women, go to Project Dream's website and sign up to learn more! No feeling nervous! :) We're all strangers at first, yet all looking for the same things out of life, which is part of why it's so easy to bond. We'd love to have you!

Okay, now GIVEAWAY TIME! :)

In celebration of my first time in Nashville I am giving away a gorgeous pair of earrings from Lauren Amos Designs. These are the same that the main character, Rayna James, from the TV show Nashville wore. I bought a pair for myself because I love them so much! lol.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll be wearing these plenty while in Nashville. :) I can't wait! Good luck!!!