My Totally Inspired Birthday

Saturday was my 32nd (yikes!) birthday and I spent the day in Nashville attending a workshop with a group of SUPER talented women.  More on that in a bit, but I came come to this awesome cake handmade by my sweet hubby!  It's chocolate cake with orange mascarpone frosting with hazelnut brittle in the frosting!  Yummo!

I also used this trip to schedule an appointment to order shades/drapes for the new house!  I managed to pick out all the shades and I know which rooms I want drapes, but I didn't have a lot of luck picking out fabrics--shocker!  All of the fabrics were either too plain, too fussy, too metallic, or too old.  There wasn't a large selection of modern designs.  I did manage to find some for the bedroom, but they still haven't quoted a price on those so I may be shopping for my drapes somewhere else.  

Now to try and summarize the workshop.  I apologize in advance for my lack of pictures, I was too busy paying attention! :)  I've been struggling the last few days trying to articulate what the workshop meant to me, what I learned, and who I met, but I'm not sure I can do it justice.  This gathering was the brain child of Amber Housley.  To give you all an idea of what this workshop was about, I'm going to quote Amber a bit, the workshop was for

 "creative women who currently have or are looking to start their own business. Our content will be applicable to most creative businesses with special emphasis on aspiring or current designers, crafters, photographers, stylists, bloggers. But of course, we welcome all creative businesses! Everyone is sure to go home with a heaping truck-load of applicable information and action items for their business."

A truck load is right!  I still don't feel as if I can streamline the amount of ideas, inspiration, and practical tips I received!  I have been toying with the idea of making my quilting/sewing into a business, but I haven't fully decided on a direction.  I'm leaning toward teaching newbie quilters, doing a some custom quilts (like for nurseries), and selling the random things I make like I do now.  I wanted to attend the workshop to help me figure out how to best accomplish my goal.....as soon as I figure out what my goal is. 

Can I pause for a minute to say how *cute* the table was decorated?  Flowers, goodie bags, orange Crush bottles with swirly straws, and a journal to write down all our notes for the day!  

I knew the day was going to be amazing when I realized who I was sitting next to--Kelly Boyd of Anne Kelle fabric/stationery/etc.  Remix or Urban Zoologie anyone?  Yeah.  I pretty much flipped out.  Everyone else is cool, calm and collected and I'm totally freaking because I'm a fabric groupie and I'm sitting next to one of my favorite fabric designers.  In all fairness, only one other person attending was into sewing, most of the ladies do party planning, custom stationery, graphic design, etc--I'm trying to justify my nuttiness, or the lack of nuttiness of the other ladies.  She was completely delightful, sweet, and even a tad shy.  I, in my attempt to make polite conversation and seem casual, mentioned that I just saw on the Pink Chalk newsletter than her fabrics came in laminate and how I didn't realize that before.  Then, I said how it would make such a cute shower curtain for a kid's bathroom (I had my new, undecorated house on my brain).  She then proceeds to ask if I'd be interested in doing a tutorial for that.  I couldn't scream "yes" fast enough!  I then completely ruin any façade of sanity by pulling out my iPhone and showing her the quilt I made using her fabrics--this one

and proceed to gush like a complete idiot.  Then, she about gives me heart failure when she exclaims, "Oh!  I remember that one!  It was like you were in my head!  We should work together!"  Goosebumps literally rise on my arms as I try not to hyperventilate!   I-am-such-a-dork.  Even if she was simply saying it to be kind to the crazy fabric junkie, it made my day.

There's Amber getting us started!  She told us her 20 top tips--one of the greatest was "Your friends and family aren't going to understand what you do."  This was huge for me, to realize that I wasn't the only one.  Other people have significant others, friends, and family that are completely clueless about why they love to do what they do.  I think coming to terms with this and not EXPECT them to get it will be liberating.  They don't have to understand what I want to do in order for me to be successful.  Genius! 

This is Courtney Dial who is a party planner, blogger, and author.  This girl needed a day unto herself!  She is the twitter queen and knew SO SO SO much about how to maximize the benefits of using the social media for your business.  It was incredible.  I felt as if we were all sitting there with our jaws on the floor when she was done.  Learning about WiseStamp alone was awesome! 

This is my sweet, sweet friend, Sara Rose.  I apologize to her for the sad picture, but I was really far away and she cried through a good bit of her talk, as did I.  She is the purchaser of, um, lets say a number, of my quilts.  I think she's a tad addicted, but I don't mind because she has great taste in fabric and I get a thrill over seeing my quilts in her pictures.  Sara is a FANTASTIC photographer and is such a sweet, supportive friend.  Not so surprisingly, she spoke on family and mentors.  She is passionate about the love for her family and her work (hence, the tears) and grew her business by leaps and bounds in three years!  Have I mentioned she's booked through the end of the year?  Yeah, she's that good.

The adorable Jessica Bishop of the Budget Savy Bride also spoke, but I didn't snap a picture!  Jessica is a media whiz and has done tons of TV work for retail-me-not.  Cool, huh?

This post has gotten a bit long so I'll share more about the wonderful women I met in later posts.  Get ready to add to your blog lists, I met a bunch of creative and talented ladies!  I'll leave you with the inspirational quote on our goodie bag journals: