21
MTH Tampa: One Year Later
Hello everyone! First off, THANK YOU for the wonderful words of support and encouragement for my latest blog post–words cannot adequately describe how comforting it feels even just reading words of encouragement. It truly fills my heart.
So this has been a whirlwind of a week–big announcements, my birthday (wooohoo 32) and prepping for our site to launch early next week, but this evening, I wanted to take this post to acknowledge something very near to my heart and that is a workshop (movement) I took exactly a year ago (today) called Making Things Happen with Lara Casey, Emily Ley, Gina Zeidler and Natalie Norton.
A year ago, I was a different me. I felt stuck, in a funk, unhappy in my current employment and as a wife and mother, feeling like I was failing miserably.
When I signed up for Making Things Happen, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had long followed Lara Casey’s blog and figured “why not?” When the first day came and I walked into the room, all I feel was a sense of relief that I didn’t really know anyone else. Not sure why I felt this way other than the fact that If I was gearing up to bare my soul, it would be easier to speak in a room full of strangers then with people I knew…don’t ask me why…but that’s how I felt at the time. As a workshop (and I really have to find another word because “workshop” just doesn’t cut it) unfolded, I found myself letting go of a lot of feelings that had been built up for sometime and seeing that my path was right there in front of me, ready for the taking. But to get there would require a lot of guts, hard work and most of all, deep seeded passion which I, and everyone else in the room had. I knew that I had to feel the fear that had paralyzed me for some time and take action to change my life. It was going to be hard, but oh, so worth it.
And it wasn’t that Lara, Emily, Gina or Natalie sprinkled fairy dust on everyone and magical things happened, but in their own, very personal way, reminded all of us that we had what it take to make things happen, it was just a matter of opening our eyes and seeing the big picture.
So I, along with several other women embarked on a wonderful (and hard) journey this past year and I’m privileged to consider them my friends. The week before when I was getting ready to resign from my position and needed my “pep talk” it was a godsend to sit down with a few of them and be reminded of where I was going (McKay, Desiree and Kate-Thank You).
But most of all, I’m honored to see their successes and growth everyday. I love everyone of you and can’t wait to see where all of us will continue to go from here!
On that note, the one thing I’d like to leave all of you with a picture of my latest love and newest addition to the “Clamp clan.” He’s a bundle of 12lb joy and partly (okay, hugely) responsible for my delayed post today.
If you haven’t heard of Making Things Happen, PLEASE click on the picture below for a link to the tumblr for the latest on their next tour and frequent updates!
Have a great weekend everyone! Natalie
12
A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT FOR CHIC SWEETS
So it’s with a mixture of excitement, nervousness and deep pride that I share with all of you that starting January 18, I will be devoting my love and attention to Chic Sweets on a full time basis. I’m leaving an amazing job as the “Network Manager” for The Network of East Hillsborough Neighborhoods, a wonderful organization aimed at engaging residents in a BIG way and spreading out quality programming in several East Hillsborough communities. This decision has weighed heavy on me for some time but I can tell you that this work fills my heart in ways that make every sacrifice, both big and small, worth it x’s 1000 (maybe more).
This year I realized that in order to make things happen I had to take the plunge, set goals and most of all, take action. My work has always been a part of me, a big part of who I am….and when things grew in ways I never imagined, I found myself deeply torn between doing what I was good at, versus taking the plunge into a business that was still growing. Add the pressures of being a wife and mother, well, I can’t lie–it was more than I could handle at times. Ultimately, though, I made the decision that in order to be the best wife and mother I can be, I had to wake up in the morning doing what sets my heart of fire and that my friends, lies here in Chic Sweets.
Thanks again for all the love and encouragement I’ve felt from all of you–my friends, my supporters, my family and most of all, my husband, Steve, since the truth is, without him, I just don’t make sense.
Love you all!
PS–I swear it’s just coincidence this announcement happens to fall on my birthday! LOL! 🙂
