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!

Soundtrack

Candles Candles Candles!!!!!!!!

Soundtrack:
Brian Eno - Here come the warm jets
Yo La Yengo - Anything
French Music - Anything

So I am busy preparing for the crave party as well as applying for a new show and all I can say is.... I now have wax covering all my clothes and even my slippers.
I am so excited, nervous, scared, thrilled and about another billion things all at once.

Soy candles are coming this summer!!!

Ok.... Too busy to write but I wanted to say that new photos of the candles will be posted soon.

Good Times

Have you ever just felt like the world was sprinkled with Fairy Dust and all of your dreams were coming true?
And not the kind of true where it is too easy, but the kind of dreams turned reality where you work hard and are rewarded sweetness from the universe?

This is how my life has been feeling for the last month or so. I have taken many huge steps towards my dream of running Odessa's Herbals and everyday has become an adventure between the Universe and Myself to see which one of us can make the day even better.

I have two weeks until the Crave Party so I am in operation candle making mode. My work space is almost complete which means that my production will soon go up. Once everything is set up I will take loads of photos to show my readers.

I also have been meeting so many wonderful women who are changing the face of business. I think I will highlight those women on a monthly basis on my blog. It is so amazing to start to become a part of a community where people really want to help each other and be friends!

Spring Time

For everyone living in the Northwest it finally feels like Spring has Sprung.
The sun made an appearance this last week and my date book is filled to the brim with activities.

First, Odessa's Herbals will be having it's first public show as vendor at the Crave Party Seattle on February 25th. This a very exciting event and one we have heard so much great stuff about.
If you are near Seattle on February 25th and feel like getting pampered please attend the event and stop by my booth to say hello!

I am also in my last week of the Ladies who Launch group. Joining this group has been one of the best experiences for me. I recommend this to any woman who is looking to become self employed or a woman business owner looking to expand their network.
The next group I am considering joining is called Startup Junkie. This group is for the women who is looking for the next phase of getting her company moving into the fast lane.

I also have had many AIGA events in Seattle in the last month. And, I joined the Rainier Club in Seattle. This club has many networking opportunities for women who are involved in all kinds of business.

To sum up my life, I work my 40 hour a week job. I make candles all weekend long, I attend events in the evening in Seattle and I have become a networking queen bee, all in the last month!!!!!

I will be adding new candles to my website this week and I am hoping to add new products to the site by this summer.

I hope all is well for everyone!

Snow Day!

It snowed last night in the Pacific Northwest which means that everything is pretty much at a standstill.
It's funny, having grown up in Seattle, snow is a force you don't mess with. Hills become deadly, bridges become sheets of Ice that will do you harm, access to places is pretty much left up to walking or taking the bus. I don't see snow days as days when you should leave your house. I know the snow won't last more than a day or two but my philosophy is, if it snows, work from home or just take the day off.

However, many new people to Seattle are surprised by how badly the city shuts down. They act like it is ok to attempt to drive down the step hill of Queen Anne and when they get stuck or in an accident it comes as a shock. They then start to question why the city does not do more to fix the problem instead of asking themselves why they too stupid to realize the city can not sand a street that is too dangerous for the trucks to access.

So people, stay home!

You would not attempt to go to work in a hurricane? Why do you act like snow and ice are forces you can overcome.

I will be making candles all day and drinking tea.

I hope everyone has a relaxing day!

Sleepy Week

The last two weeks have been pretty slow. I was sick which was good because I needed some rest but also bad because production of my candles was pushed back almost two weeks.

Oh well!

I am better now and ready to start up again.

This week will be pretty intense. I start my "Ladies who Launch" incubator on Wednesday. I am looking forward to meeting like minded people and being able to learn and grow with other women who want to start their own business's.

I also am starting a monthly design social event for the Seattle AIGA. If you are in any design field and live near Seattle, please come out to meet other designers, artists, people in the creative industry and start your of Success!
This first Social event will be on January 25th at Viceroy in Seattle.
Please email me if you have any questions.

2007 My year for Success

Tonight is New Years Eve and there is a full moon this week.
Per my tradition I will be having a sacred fire and setting intentions for 2007.

The theme this is My year for Success!

I was rereading my blog post from last new years eve and I must say that operation "Emily loves 2006" was indeed successful! What a year of lessons and interesting forks in the road and yet, I come out of 2006 with a deeper love and respect for myself than I ever knew possible.
I decided the best way to share love with other's was to start with myself. I loved myself enough to let people go from my life that were unhealthy, I let work situations go that were very negative and I let my past resentments towards my parents go. In the end, I learned to love and respect myself and what is best for me. And I learned to forgive and heal!
I now feel and treat myself with only love and positive thoughts which means that I can now freely share love and energy with people in my life.

After doing some thinking about 2007 I realized that this next year for me is about working and success. I have finally found that passion that everyone seems to be looking for. I have found my calling and way that I can help other's all in one. All I want to do now is share this passion with as many people as I can. I love making candles, I love creating oil blends that will help to heal and create positive situations in life. I love the peace I feel when I make a candle and the excitement I feel when a customer writes to tell me of how their life has changed.
With all this energy I want to dedicate 2007 to growing this company, touching as many people as I can and sharing my gifts with everyone I can. I want to become successful in my job and my career but more importantly, I want to become successful in my life. I want to feel like everyday I am making a difference and I am where I want to be. I want to focus on growing my view of this world and realizing what is truly important to me, not what other people want for me but what is important to the core being of me.

So I embrace you 2007 for letting me see the signs of how to create the most successful year I can and I intend to follow through on every action you present to me.

Holiday weekend of candles

This Holiday weekend was filled with candle making and sleeping.
It must be the weather or the end of the year energy but I am exhausted right now.

But my dream life has been very active. Last night I dreamt that I was speaking with two women who work at the company I work for. They were working on a Spiderman outfit. This morning as I was driving to the Bus, the author and creator of Spiderman was on NPR. I was shocked and I have stumbled upon Spiderman twice on the Internet without looking.

So now I have to figure out what this means. What does the spider stand for?
I am pretty sure I am not going to be come a superhero or cartoon author so I think the symbol of the spider is what is important.

That is about it for now. I am so exhausted I need to just work, clean my house and keep making candles.

The NYC Story

I have a little down time to tell everyone about my trip back east.
It went better than I could have or did think was possible.

I received so many orders, so much support, excitement, appreciation and respect from everyone I met. People that were strangers already knew about Odessa's Herbals and wanted to share their stories with me. They all felt very connected to the candles and to my company. It was truly amazing.

I also am proud to say that my candles will be coming to a store on the east coast very soon!

There are more events that I can not talk about yet, but, could truly lead to an amazing journey for me.

I feel so grounded and amazing when I made products. It truly feels like my calling. I love the fact that I can help other people. I think that is my main motivation for doing this work. I want to help people create better and better lives for themselves. I think this lovely energy translates into each product that I make. I hope when someone is lighting a candle, they feel the love and energy I put into that product for them.

Ok, today I am working on a new wax recipe so I must get back to the kitchen but I just wanted to thank everyone that I have met in the last month. You are all angels to me!

Whoa Nelly

NYC was amazing and the energy has not stopped.
I feel like the universe is throwing open doors right now and I am just hanging on for the ride.
The amount of vistors to Odessa's Herbals has more than doubled in the last two weeks.

I am posting a new picture and I will have to write more another day since I have to take some pictures of the candles for a possible article.

All the candles are wrapped and my bags are packed

I can't believe it. Last month when I had the flash to go to NYC, I had no idea how I was going to do it. I also had no idea how I was going to make over 30 candles to take with me as gifts for all those attending the conference.

But now, with 24 hours to go.... Everything is done.

I finished the last of the candles, I shipped everything, I packed my bags, I am all ready to go.

This is one of the first big jumps I have taken off the intuition diving board. I am really excited to see what comes of it, if nothing else, it will be great to see family and friends.

What a weekend!

Where to begin?......

This truly has been one of the best weekends I have had in a long time.

First, Friday night I went out with my new coworker to LOLA. I hope I have mentioned LOLA before because it is my new favorite place to hangout in Seattle. We then met up with another friend of mine who is the product manager for a really awesome magnet company. She took us to the opening at Fancy-Schmancy-Pants for Trish Grantham. Trish is truly a new hero of mine. She was so much fun to talk too and has such an amazing story about how she got started as a painter. I hope to buy one of her pieces in the next few months. Please check out her website and support her. She rules!!!!!

We then went to a benefit at Vain in Seattle for a dear friend that was diagnosed with breast cancer. Vain was lovely enough to host the event and benefit which was a hit!

I had so much fun on Friday night I never dreamed that I got top it but then Sunday I finished all 40 of the candles I need to ship to NYC. I had three friends come over and with the help from my lovely mother, we were able to wrap and box up all the candles and they will be shipped in time for the conference. The best part is that I do not have to rush to finish the candles on Tuesday night. I still have three more days until I go to NYC and I can now relax. We were also able to play cards, have breakfast and lunch and play a few board games while wrapping all the candles. It was a perfect day.

The new packaging for Odessa's Herbals is wonderful. The packaging is still a work in progress but I am very proud of how the candles will look when they are delivered to NYC.

New Website!!!!

I was so inspired today that I have finally created my website.

Please take a look and let me know what you think.

More will be coming soon..... But at least this is a start.

In My Dreams

My new goal for the next year is to have Odessa's Herbals products featured in two magazines and on Craft Revolution.com. This by far one of the best and most inspirational websites I have been too in a long time. I LOVE it.

Also, I will be opening a new ETSY account towards the end of December.
You will be able to find it here.

I will let everyone know when it is up.

One more thing to inspire everyone today. I have a new hero. Her name is Diane Kappa and she is a fabric designer. Her website is located at www.dianekappa.com and I hope one day to meet her. Her pillows are beautiful to look at, are designed with amazing colors and the intention of her company is one of pure love and creativity. I think I might give her a candle one of these days to help her towards her goal.

Last night I went to Lola's in Seattle. This is one of my new favorite hangout spots. It was snowing and I was drinking a lovely glass of Red Wine. In my bag I had a beautiful Orange Courage candle with me. For some reason I was compelled to give it to my waitress the candle as a gift. I have never met someone randomly and just knew that they needed one of my candles, until today. She had a little artist waiting inside of her that needs to get out and play. We did not talk too much about the candle but I know she needed it and I know it will help her.

Candles ... Candles

This weekend I made 20 candles and I had the best weekend ever. I was able to spend time alone, working with essential oil, wax and energy.

What made the weekend even better was the snow that arrived on Sunday. I kept singing holidays songs out loud. Ahmi, my dog, spent almost all day outside. She loves the snow. The poor cats had to stay inside but they got to sleep on the bed so they were not complaining.

This morning my commute was 3 hours long. I took a nice nap and felt very safe on the bus inside of driving my small car.

I will see some friends tonight from high school. They are the first people I have seen since I graduated over 10 years ago. It feels good to connect with people again.

Working

I am at work today. It is so nice and quiet, I have my door closed and am listening to This American Life over the internet.

Thanksgiving was peaceful this year. I spent some time yesterday giving thanks to the universe and thinking of all my loved ones who have passed on.

My theme for this week is Ghosts and Spirits who are sill around. I have such a wonderful story to write about how this became my theme, which I will write later this weekend.

The candles are back

I am in the midst of making 50 candles by the holidays.

It feels so good to cook up candles again. The candles are getting more powerful and lovely.

My new candle is called Intentional Wealth. This candle has been inspired by Colette Baron-Reid. It is sage green and glows yellow at night. This candle is a two fold candle. First, it will help you to clear blocks that you may have in attracting wealth. You will notice areas in your life where the blocks are and be able to process them. Then, the candle will help you to attract miracles that will help you to realize how wealthy you truly are. It will also help to manifest material things, but more importantly this candle will open your spirit to how rich the universe is and how important it is to never live in lack but to share the abundance.

Vincent J. Barra

My new hero is Vincent J. Barra. He has an internet radio show on Tuesday from 4-6 pm pacific time and I never miss it.

I have to say that I am very impressed by this intuitive reader. He is very good at getting to the heart of a callers issue and helping them.

He also suggest keep a list of 100 goals that people want to create in life. I started my goals this morning. I was very surprised to realize how much my goals revolved around forgiveness of people from my past. I thought my goals would revolve around work, material possessions or traveling. But no, they were about forgiving myself, forgiving other people and realizing how successful I already am.

I look forward to listening to all of Vincents show's and to oneday meet and talk with him.

Please listen to his show and give him a call sometime. It will change your life.