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Happy first. Then make it last.

Happy First Day of Summer!

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Happy Summer ecard

 

Happy First Day of summer! As always, click on the ecard to share. 🙂

Found some fun summer quotes-

“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows”
— St. Francis of Assisi

“Celebrate Summer – Sun drenched days and starlit nights…”
— Gooseberry Patch

“In summer, the song sings itself”
— William Carlos Williams

This one made me laugh-

“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability”
–Sam Kee
because I have been feeling kinda guilty enjoying the summer and not feeling as productive, and now I am realizing it is good for all of us to have some rest, it helps us re-energize and get more creative energy!
What do you all like to do in the summer? I am loving golf, long days and nights, fun with family and friends, pesto, just being outside!

 

Happy June 1st Ecard

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Happy June 1st ecard

Happy June 1st my friends! Click on the ecard to take you to the site to share with friends. Can’t believe it is June already! Down in Dallas helping take care of my mom. Had a great run with my sister this morning, love being a runner chick!

The first day of the month makes me so happy, love the idea of a fresh new month, fresh beginning. May was fun-took a photoshop class at our local community college. Love learning new things.

Jewel Figueras just made my day today with her blog, check it out- jewelsfablife . I love meeting incredible people like her!

Heading to Eufaula, OK tomorrow afternoon for the grand opening of a new store- “Our Favorite Place”. They have lots of Happy First!

Just noticed I use the word “love” a lot. Oh well. 🙂

So venture out, try something new, meet new people-have a fun day! It’s the weekend and summer, yay!

Organic Gardening-battling snails, grasshoppers

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jackrussellI used to think grasshoppers were cute. Now I totally despise them. Snails too. The last 2 Springs have been an all out battle. Last year I had to plant my basil 3 times. As you know, I love growing basil and making pesto all summer long-see my Pesto Recipe blog post. This year I have planted them twice so far. I have an herb garden in our courtyard and the last 2 Springs the grasshoppers have gone crazy eating everything in their path. The snails have done their fair share too. They like to eat my basil, mint and lemon balm. Even my fig and lemon trees!  I have resorted to planting some basil and mint in pots on the back porch. Seems to do better there. I am trying to be all organic and it is hard. The organic insect sprays do not seem to work much. I asked for ideas on facebook and my friends have told me to use beer for the snails. At night I put beer in little plastic tubs, the snails love it and drown!

Then for the grasshoppers I have found that Diatomaceous Earth works best. It is a really soft sedimentary rock (contains fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton) that easily turns into powder. It kills bugs that have an exoskeleton, but is not harmful to mammals (some people even eat it for detoxing-not trying that yet).

I have another secret weapon-my 3 legged Jack Russell Terrier named Bella. It has become a game with her to catch and eat the grasshoppers. So about 3 times a day we are going outside and playing the grasshopper game. It’s really working! I hope they are good protein for Bella!

Any other garden ideas are welcome here!

 

Earth Day Entrepreneur Jeweler Michael Choi

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XOvivo

Hi everyone!

I am going to start featuring some of my entrepreneurial friends on my blog. I have been planning on this for a long time.  I have met so many incredible people through my business. Happy First is all about finding your passion and pursuing it. I hope to inspire you through my work and the work of others.

I thought with Earth Day coming up I would feature Michael Choi, as his line is created from using recycled materials and he is all about going green.

We have similar stories, as I was a CPA and decided to leave that field and pursue my passion for my love of fashion, and Michael was a successful engineer and decided to follow his dream in the artistic field of jewelry. Michael and his wife have two teenage sons close in our age to our sons.

So introducing my friend Michael-

My name is Michael Choi, a designer and maker of fashion jewelry at
XOvivo in Northern Virginia. Debbie, Happy First, and I met at the
AmericasMart-Atlanta in 2009. As soon as we met, we became friends. I
think that is because both of us carry positive energy… well…
Debbie is so sweet, who wouldn’t want to be her friend?

XO in XOvivo represents ‘extraordinary.’
Vivo means ‘of life.’
So… XOvivo means ‘extraordinary life.’

When you wear my jewelry, I want you to feel that you are an
extraordinary person living your own life. That is my goal. As part of
that, an awareness of the sustainability issues, and doing something
about it has become integral part of my workplace. From material
selection to shipping material, my team and I do everything that we
can to recycle, reuse, and repurpose. Being GREEN is becoming a way of
life, as opposed to, a marketing term to differentiate. And that is a
great progress.

I am an artist at heart, born to a painter and a fashion designer.
After an exciting career in engineering and high tech marketing, I
finally decided to follow my passion for arts. My wife introduced me
to jewelry making four years ago, and the rest was history. Looking
back, my past is evident in all of my work. My lifelong art training
and meditation help me visualize the essence of beauty, my business
and  MBA training helps me design based on value, and my engineering
experience brings my designs to life. In just over three years, we
have been fortunate to have over 300 stores carry our lines in The
States. Currently with two full-time and one part-time employees, we
plan to continue building our American brand and growing our business.
I hope to pay off my credit card debt soon 🙂

I currently have two lines for women; XOcandy and XOgreen and a men’s
line, menzEGO. You can see them at www.xovivo.com. XOvivo jewelry
lines are bold, vibrant, and comfortable.

XOgreen radiates extraordinary energy of women through bold lines.  I
use alternative metals to balance the boldness and the comfort of the
jewelry. A woman want to look beautiful, but she also wants to be
comfortable. I currently use aluminum with recycled content. It is
generally a stable metal with regards to allergies, I can finish in
both shiny and matte. When you put on XOgreen, the bold lines harness
the energy of nature and channel that into your beauty.

XOcandy radiates extraordinary vibrancy of women through colors. Hard
and soft resin are used to generate fun yet gracious look with an
ability to form curvatures and bold shapes. I am always researching
new material and I am so happy with this material that I import from
Italy. Extraordinary colors make you beautifully glow when you wear
XOcandy. The translucence adopts to the color of your skin, color of
clothes, and the light.

With menzEGO, we narrow the reach for a man in standing out in the
crowd confident yet approachable… artistic yet comfortable… edgy
yet calm… raw yet refined. The designs are inspired by my vision of
men’s code of life that I strive to live by. Materials include soft
resin, fine silver, recycled aluminum, exotic wood, and leather.

Be a Lucky Chick!

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Lucky Chick Long Sleeve burnoutMy newest tee is the Lucky Chick-I thought it would be fun for the Spring, my favorite season! It’s available in our popular long sleeve burnout and a short sleeve gradient lime tee. It’s designed with green in both tees so you won’t get pinched on St. Patrick’s Day, but I think you can be a Lucky Chick all year long! (Someone said they will be wearing it to the casino, didn’t think of that one-but that works!)

What is Lucky?

I looked up Luck in the dictionary and it said “success or failure brought by chance rather than one’s actions”. I am not really a believer in that kind of luck. Yea, you can be in the right place at the right time, but I agree with what my friend Kim Fuller said on my Happy First Facebook page-she’s a “make my own luck chick”! I love that! I believe that we all have the power to change our future based on our choices. And I know things happen in life, but it is the attitude we have and how we handle circumstances that creates our destiny.

I believe I am lucky because I am here! I went through Hodgkin’s Lymphoma 17 years ago and am happy to be here! (And have you seen that Happy to be Here tee?) I feel blessed with my family and friends and just all the opportunities and adventures that are all just waiting for me. I knew in my heart when I was going through treatment that something good was going to come out of my experience. Through creating Happy First I have met so many incredible people and am making a difference! I have met other entrepreneurs, survivors and patients. My newest friend is undergoing treatment from Hodgkin’s and she lives in South Africa. She found me through my blog. You never know where your experiences can take you. (By the way she is doing great!)

Find your Passion and Pursue it

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about finding your passion and pursuing it. It doesn’t mean you have to quit your current job or anything. Just figure out what you love to do and start doing it. You never know where it will lead you.  Some of you know my story, I started out in college as a fashion design major and then switched to accounting because I was so good with numbers and thought I would make more money being a CPA. But I was miserable; I didn’t like it-it wasn’t my passion.

When you decide on a path, it is like things and people just start appearing and falling into place. “Leap and the net will appear”. A word that keeps popping up with me recently is synchronicity. That word showed up in 2 different studies (below) I was doing on the same day! The dictionary defines synchronicity as – the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection .

Some would say it is coincidence, but I like to think that things are not really coincidences. I have really been delving this year (my word for 2012 is delve-check it out). In January I signed up for both the Baron Baptist 40 days to Personal Revolution and started reading a book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. That book has been sitting on my shelf for years-I don’t even remember who told me to buy it. I started these studies on the same day and it is weird (or synchronous) how these two go hand in hand. I am going to to tell you more about both in another post-what a creative journey!

Anyway Baron Baptiste talks about having a vision shift -he said “our greatest power to change ourselves is found in our ability to see beyond the veil, to see with an enlightened vision. He said a vision shift calls for attention, intention and faith. He quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson- “Once you make a decision , the universe conspires to make it happen”. He mentioned the word synchronicity.

in her book Julia Cameron said “Take a small step in the direction of a dream and watch the synchronous doors flying open”.  Another quote she included was by Goethe “Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do , begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”

I’m not trying to be weird or voodoo here, I am just saying, once you decide and commit to a path, things fall into place.

Finding Synchronicity

I feel like I experience synchronicity almost every day. People are just coming into my path. A couple of weeks ago I had coffee with Judi Groves, founder of Breast Impressions and Turn Tulsa Pink. I thought we were meeting really quickly so I could give her her Super Chick tee. Anyway, 2 hours later we were still talking! She is contagious. She loves life and helping others and has a huge vision. Then last week I went to a friend’s party and met Kayce Hughlett. Kayce wrote a book that I bought on the spot that night-As I lay Pondering Daily Invitations to Live a Transformed Life. We immediately clicked – we are kindred spirits. She just included me in her blog-Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds– I am honored!

Both of these women and I talked about how you are never to old to start pursuing your passion. All your experiences and circumstances are leading you up to what you are supposed to do now.

I want you to realize that YOU too are created for greatness. I want you to find your passion and pursue it! I truly believe that every one of us is supposed to do something with our talents.

What is your passion? Remember, each one of us can be a “Lucky Chick!”

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Happy Valentine’s Day my friends!

Found a great quote about friendship this morning.

“Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief”.
-Cicero

My word for February is Connect-I want to focus more on my relationships this month! It is so easy just to take the time to send a quick email or make a quick phone call or even send a fun note! Saturday I made some extra loaves of bread to share with friends. Just simple things you can do to brighten someone’s day.

Spread happiness today by sending this ecard to 5 friends! Easy to do, just click on this Happy First ecard above.

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day and rest of February!

-Deb

Super Chick ShaRhonda

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I wanted ya’ll to get to know our Super Chick, the winner of our “New Chick” contest! It is ShaRhonda Williams Crow! I asked her to write a little about herself and include a picture. She has been helping us come up with the design, it is almost ready, cannot wait for you all to see it! Introducing ShaRhonda….

I am just a small southern Oklahoma girl, still trying to find my way into the “BIG” city life! I am a God-Fearing PT-SAHM!?! I have 2 beautiful kids & a gorgeous husband. I am author of my own personal family blog The 4-Crow’s and a co-founder of the blog The Real Housewives of Oklahoma aka The RHOK where I write as ♥Mrs. Hart♥. I work part-time as an Infant Teacher, Volunteer, Coach T-ball, Run a Professional Kid Taxi Service to and from ballet and sports practices/events and am a Self-Retired Banker- oh and am a Social Media addict!

Creativity is just part of my being. When I was a bank manager my employees always told me that I should be a teacher because of the ideas I would throw out there and make them do to achieve their sales goals. I guess my degree in Business Management/Communications applies to all ages at times.

One of my favorite quotes is “When real people fall down in life, they get right back up and keep walking.” Carrie Bradshaw.  This quote is one that has helped remind me many times of who I am and to get up and get going again. I think it accurately describes the “Super Chick” shirt as well- because a “Chick” who can honestly follow that advice after experiencing some of life’s roller coasters and curve balls, truly is “Super”!

I am very humbled that “Super Chick” was chosen amongst such great entries in the “New Chick” contest. I am absolutely thrilled that a portion of the profits will be going to the local charity Turn Tulsa Pink, $46,000 was raised by this organization in 2011 and I am so excited that we will be a part of exceeding that goal in 2012.

ShaRhonda Williams Crow

Now lets sell some shirts!!!!