Excuse while I take a break

So this last weekend what did I do?
I slept.

Really, all weekend long I slept. I am not sure if I am sick or just needing to take a break for a bit. I have been going pretty much non stop for the last 6 months and I am now ready for some personal time.
So this week I am going to start going to my new gym, I am going to cancel all my plans this week that I can and I am going to just spend some time alone.

I also need to start writing in my journal more.
I thought I might start doing some writing exercises and share them with my blogger friends.

So this week's exercises:

You know that your life should be different. At some point you took a little detour to this life you are living now but you can tell your energy is working towards a better life. What is this life like? Who is in this life? What are you doing? What is your heart telling you? What do you see first thing in the morning? What happens in the evenings?

Dream big. Write down everything you can think of. Create this life. Write everyday. Keep writing this until you can really feel it. Keep writing this down until you realize that what you once thought was a dream is now slowly becoming reality because this dream is starting to manifest in your life.

I do this a couple of time a week. It has helped me get through dark times and great times. Lately I have been too busy to write and I can feel it. I need my alone writing time everyday.
So this evening I will go to work out, I will go home, light a candle and write at least 6 pages in my journal.

So much energy

You know that feeling when you first realize you are in love or at least sweet on someone.
You feel like your bouncing off the walls and just full of energy. The world seems so exciting and wonderful and you realize your brain is open to new things that you never thought were possible before?

Well that is how I feel today. Except I have no new love but I feel a new love for life!

I am excited. I can hardly sit and work. I just want to shout to the world about how happy I am. I want to visit all of my friends all over the world and tell them about how amazing life and living your passion can be. I want to preach to anyone who says " I'm bored". How can you be bored in life? There is so much to do. If I could never sleep, I might!

I want to travel, to take photographs, to move around, to dye my hair ....
Basically, I want to change it up. I want to feel and be free while following my passion and using my gifts to help others.
I want to manifest. I have so much energy I need to put to use. I want to sit in a cafe in Rome and write endless pages of what kind of life I will be living. I want to spend my whole day dreaming. I want to connect with people and talk about life, love and travels. I want to read a really good book or see a great concert. I want to drink red wine and light my new candles. I want to spend the day in the Garden with the sun on my face. I want to walk my dog along the beach and watch her play in the sand. I want to visit friends who live in LA so I can see a gentle and warm side to the city. I want to run away to NY and get my new labels printed. I want to fly to Sweden and meet some new people.

So much dreaming.... So little time.

Instead, I will finish up my day of work and attend my AIGA meeting.
My vacation has been moved from Ashland to San Fransisco and that is fine with me.
Maybe now I can meet Vera!

For every season there is a movie

There are just some movies that appear in my life at the right moment.

In my late teens early twenties, it was Beautiful Girls with Uma Thurman and Timothy Hutton.
I remember Uma Thurman given one of the main characters a lecture about how there wasTimothy always someone in love with your partner and it was your wonderful job to fall in love with those great parts of that person because if not you, then there will be another. At the time, this scene gave me hope that one day someone would love all those little things about me that I love about myself, and if my partner at the time could not see how wonderful I was then there would be another who could.

A few years later it was Sliding Door. Oh! how I love the English and all things United Kingdom. The story line about this movie was what would happen if three seconds in a person's life was different. Gwenie was a strong woman who had been taken for granted by her partner and found not only herself but also a new love by being stronger and living her life. She changed her hair, moved in with her friend and went out on her own.

And now.... The new movie is The Holiday....
With Kate Winslet and Jude Law. It's the story of what happens when you a take a break from life and become the star of your own movie. I have watched this movie twice in the last day and it is so inspiring. Both women are strong career women who meet lovers that not only fall for their strength but really truly admire them for being who they are. It's not about looks, or being cool or even how hip they are. It is about being smart, kind, funny and strong. And it is about finding someone who really sees that part of you that is wonderful. It is about falling in love with someone and having them feel exactly the same way back.

It inspired me to make a new candle to attract people that will love you for being you. Nothing more than just who you are and will help you to realize how amazing you are.

So much happening

April is already almost full of events!

I just signed on to be a vendor for the Thread show in Fremont. And I also found out I will be visiting with three of my best friends from College in April and I have the annual Rainier Club slumber party!

So there is a lot of action happening around my home lately. I am busy trying to prepare everything for next month while enjoying the wonderful sunshine and birds that have come out to play.

Everyday I feel stronger and stronger as a person.
Is strong the right word? Maybe grounded is better. All I know is that I feel at peace and really happy with where I am at in life at this exact moment.

Which brings me a new candle I am creating. It is a peace candle. It is for peace in the world but also just for peace in your life. It is the kind of candle that you buy a couple of and just burn them to enjoy the moment. There is no larger aspiration associated with it then whatever you are feeling at that moment.

I will post some pictures soon.

The candles I have been using

As the winter turns into spring and the sun sets later everyday, I have been noticing that my intentions are manifesting all on their own. Much like the planting of seeds in the fall that turn to wonderful flowers by the summer, all of my intentions are being created without me obsessing on them. It is a very peaceful occurrence for me.

This week I have four candles burning on my counter.
1. Creative Space
2. True Love - a new candle I just created
3. Success
4. Intuition

The combination of these candles has created a very calm, success and grounded life.
Having just survived my Saturn Returning, I now feel I am on the correct path for my life. I can't believe about how confused I was only a few years ago because I now know myself so much more.

I am going to work on a candle this week to help others. I have been donating candles recently and working on list of charities that I will contribute too on a monthly basis from candles that I have sold. This simple act has been filling my heart up with love. I want to create a candle for people who love to give and the simple act of giving to others brings them energy and love.

On a side note, my well wishes go out to my friend Vincent Barra who has fallen ill this last week. You are in my thoughts and a package should soon be arriving!

A windy Sunday

This weekend was perfect.
I spent the weekend relaxing, spending time with my animals, friends and by myself. I also spent some nice relaxing time making candles. It felt good to make candles for the pure love of making them. I always love making candles but with no deadlines for awhile I can just relax and make them.

I am pretty busy this week with meetings after work and company related events. I will be attending the annual Ladies Lunch at the Rainier Club in Seattle. I am excited to meet some new members and see wonderful pictures of Italy. The lunch is Italy themed this month. I also will begin making some candles for the slumber party happening at the end of next month.

Next month is already starting to fill up with events!
I will be taking a vacation to Oregon to meet some wonderful college friends I have not seen in a year or so. I also will be working towards the new website with my Photographer Jeff Truelove . Jeff has been really amazing at capturing the feel for Odessa's Herbals that I want. I did take my own pictures of some of the candles so it is not all his photography but without Jeff, I would not have my wonderful workbench or such beautiful pictures and support for my company.

Sometimes we all grow up

I have a new vision for my website, so look for it in the next few weeks.

The last few days have been wonderfully peaceful. I have been able to sign up for three events happening in the next two months where I can showcase my candles, which is very exciting for me. I have had the time lately to really connect with my customers and get to know them better which has lead to some new products, projects and a realization that my company truly has been created to help others.

I have also started to donate candles to some charities around Seattle. One particular charity that I will be donating some candles too is called A Common Bond. It is a non-profit that puts together gift baskets for parents who have new born babies in the ICU. I am very excited to be able to share my energy and love with such an amazing organization.

In other more personal news, one of my intentions that I have set every year for the last three years was to make more girl friends. I grew up with men so I get along with them better but I have to admit, as I get older I long for the connections to girlfriends that I see so many women share. Along with this intention I also wanted to attract really healthy relationships with women. I have attracted really amazing boyfriends, but attracting good girlfriends was a challenge. I have had more drama with friends than lovers.
But I am happy to say that I created a Friendship candle and it has worked. I have so many amazing girlfriends right now! The most interesting part is two of these friends were people I knew in High School who have come back into my life. These women make me feel strong, happy and loved just by being in my life. The feeling that good friends give you is something that can not be replaced.

Sometimes we all grow up and have the ability to step back, look at how our actions affect other people and truly understand the impact we have on others. To understand another person is the ultimate growth tool anyone can have. I have been growing up and realizing what part I play in situations but also watching the actions of others and not taking responsibility for actions that were not my doing. It feels strange but really good to be able to step far away enough from a situation to avoid any part of the drama, to come to peace with what happened and then to send that person love. But that is exactly how I have been reacting to life lately. Everyone deserves to be treated with love and kindness and this should start with me. From this point on in my life I will treat everyone I meet or already know with love and kindness. I will try to see life from their eye's but I will also know my truth and strength.

So to sum it all up. I feel happy, peaceful, fulfilled and loved. It is a great feeling and one that I hope to share with everyone I come into contact with. I live a truly amazing life!

Lessons Learned

Wow.

What might have caused me to give up on my dreams a few years ago, is now only making me stronger.

My Crave Party sale was not as successful as I would have wanted it to be. However, what I learned and my experience doing the show was priceless!
My back went out the day of the show so I was unable to stand up and talk with the customers as much as I wanted too. I also had two friends with me which made me more nervous than I thought it would. I was able to print out a nice press sheet and list of candles. I also received my intention card and my new moo cards.

The Murphy's law about this whole experience was that Mercury was in Retrograde. I have never really experienced this type "everything that can go wrong, will go wrong" fate before but I have to say, everything that could have went wrong did go wrong and I survived.

I came out of the experience was a better understanding of my product, my customers, my target market and what to do next time.

Plus-- Kate Winslet looked so cute at the Oscars!

So for the next month I will be back at the drawing board creating new candles for an event at The Rainier Club in Seattle.
I can't talk too much about the new candles but once I have them all created I will post pictures!

I also was able to attend the monthly meeting for Ladies who Launch that included the following women owned businesses: 8 Limbs Yoga, Downtown Dog Lounge, and Brazillis Clothing Store. This event inspired me to keep following my dreams for Odessa's Herbals.

I highly recommended the Ladies Who Launch monthly events. They will inspire any woman that is ready to take her dream and make it reality!