Business and behind the scenes

It's been awhile since my last post, but with good reason.  I've been busy getting an etsy.com shop up and running. Yup, I'm finally selling my handmade accessories!  If we're facebook or twitter friends, then you've been kept up to date pretty well, but for the rest of you I'd like to introduce you to my shop, my baby, the beginning of my dream...

The heart and soul of AlisonSweet is upcycled eco-conscious accessories. I take cotton, jersey and viscose shirts, dresses and even yoga pants and turn them into something beautiful for you to wear. 

This is just the beginning of some very BIG dreams and I cannot wait for you to check out my shop! I also make custom accessories. Some of my favorite designs have been at the request of some very cool customers. Do you have some favorite shirts you can't wear anymore, but don't want to part with? I can upcycle it into a new accessory for you.

Now for all of the thank yous and there are many!

My family for dealing with my incessant ideas and business questions and for their unending support.

My brother, Derek, for the fabulous product photos and serving as sounding board.

Danielle for amazing product photos with her backyard duckies.

Kristen, for the awesome graphic design work on my banner (above).

P-cubed - for the prayers, encouraging words, and laughter every Monday night.

Michele Whitfield, of Whitfield Consulting, for amazing business advice.

Jessica for modeling product, encouraging me to open the shop, and reminding I can do this.

Stephanie for providing laughter, kicks in the pants when I want to wimp out, and telling me the truth 100% of the time.

If I forgot to mention you by name, know I love and appreciate you!

Up next, the story behind Alison Sweet. Don't forget to swing by my shop http://alisonsweet.etsy.com

Out To Sea

When I said on Wednesday that I would tell the next part of my story "tomorrow", I obviously meant Saturday. Or, time just got away from because I was dog sitting a 100lb poodle and a tiny dachshund. Either way, the wait will have been worth it.

Here's the story behind my picture that is currently posted on The Pioneer Woman's blog... It was taken on Tuesday night at one of St. Augustine's beautiful beaches. I don't normally go down to the beach at sunset. It's my opinion that sunset is better observed on a west coast beach, but that's neither here nor there. On that night, I was on the beach to witness the first loggerhead turtle nest hatch of the season.

Yes, you read that right....I saw baby turtles make there way into the Atlantic Ocean to begin the adventure of their life. This was not happenstance. I'm not that lucky to just stumble upon an event like a nest hatch.

In St. Augustine there is a volunteer Turtle Patrol force that walks the beaches morning and evening beginning in late April. They look for new nests, mark them so people on the beach know not to disturb them, and watch the nests for the signs it's ready to hatch. 

One of my mom's good friends happens to be the head of the Turtle Patrol for one of our beaches. She invited my mom down to watch and my mom invited me to go along too. At first, I passed because I needed to get ready to dog/house sit and I wanted to work on some creative stuff {more on that soon}.

The morning of the hatch I could not stop thinking about and how lame saying no is because how often will I get the opportunity to see a turtle nest hatch? So, I went. It. Was. Incredible. 

Y'all, the Turtle Patrol digs up the baby loggerhead turtles, puts them in a bucket, walks them down close to the waterline and lets them go. This gives them the best chance of actually making it into the water.  Here are the stats from our nest. {Yes, I just took ownership of those babies. Mama is proud!} 121 eggs, 24 hatched. That's normal.  All 24 made it into the water and we cheered them on. What a moment to witness.

I'm so volunteering next season.

Now for the photographic evidence:

Waiting for the hatch

The Nest

Digging them up

Babies in the bucket

Mom and one of the babies

Bye Bye baby!

Photos, Turtles & Tshirts

So many crazy, exciting things are happening right now, and I don't know where to begin.  I'll take you  backwards in time...present to past. I like to live life on the edge and move in a counter-chronological direction {or anti-chronological for all my European friends}. Not really, but I've neglected my blog far too long to not catch you up on the last 2 months.

Let's start with today...
Today submitted a photo to The Pioneer Woman's latest photography assignment - Phone Photos. Out of the {literally} hundreds of thousands of submissions she picks 5 groups of photos with 25-30 photos in each group. Tonight she announced Group 1...and my photo was in it!!!

Y'all, I've been reading her blog for years, and just to have my photo picked to be posted is incredibly exciting!  Winners will be announced later this week. I'll be waiting on pins and needles.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you the circumstances surrounding that photo because it was only taken on Tuesday.

Followed by a story about how I'm chasing a dream.

Love-love,
Alison

Spectacular

Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30am...excited. All day I kept saying "I feel like something really good is about to happen."

Don't get me wrong, Saturday was a good day. Good things happened...spent a few hours at the pool, lunched at my favorite place with friends, went to church...all good things. {Especially the friends!} But, I couldn't shake the feeling that something extraordinary and surprising was about to happen. I couldn't stop smiling...couldn't stop the anticipation jitters...couldn't stop the hope.

Every day since has been more of the same...can't shake the feeling. I don't want to shake the feeling. It really is amazing what happens to the mind and body and soul when hope is regained. I made a choice to give up the "I guess this is it...this is my life." Eeyore way of living. I want the spectacular and now I anticipate it.

The realist in me is always at war with the dreamy idealist. Which is probably a good thing...it keeps my feet closer to the ground. I know that there's work and that life doesn't happen like it did for Cinderella.  There's usually a gap between knowing your calling and getting to the point where you're living it. So I'm in that in between in all areas of my life.

So, for right now, I'm going to let this excitement fuel me for working on the daily disciplines. I know I'll need those disciplines to be able to walk in my calling. I'm mostly talking about the disciplines that bring me into closer relationship with God.

Choosing...
love over hate
joy over bitterness
peace over disunity
patience over haste
kindness over selfishness
goodness over sin-nature
gentleness over hostility
faithfulness over laziness
self-control over self ambition

I'm pretty sure spectacular happens when discipline and opportunity and courage intersect.

I choose spectacular.

Just What I Needed

Alright, based on my last post, Decisions, it's not hard to guess that I'm going through some stuff right now, but it is not all bad! I promise. Some really fun things are happening despite {or maybe because of?!} some recent life events.  On the tail end of a couple difficult weeks, tonight was one of those fun things, and just what I needed.

Laughing with friends, making a new friend, living vicariously through the scent of their BBQ, eating gourmet popsicles, sitting on the sea wall with a best friend talking about what could be, sharing dreams, speaking words of healing, and giggling about how ridiculous we can be sometimes. Tonight I realized I'm going to be OK...I am ok. I'm better than OK. I'm excited and renewed and hopeful and happy. Most of all, I'm know that I know that I know there's a great story for me to live.

In other fun news, if we're friends on facebook, then you've been seeing my sneak peek photos of a project I've been working on recently. If we're not facebook friends, here's a sneak peek for you too!

Details of what it all means will be shared soon. Trust me, it's exciting. Like chasing a dream type of excitement.

Tomorrow: Pool + Sun + Fun!

Decisions

Sometimes a decision is made for you. What I mean is that sometimes another person’s choice affects you in a way that you did not choose and it hurts. You see clearly what you tried to ignore for months, and know in the depth of who you are that it was the right decision. But {isn’t there always a ‘but’} because you know it in the depths, you feel it in the depths. Hurt, relief, anger, closure, grief, peace...sweet unanticipated peace, all flood the senses. Do you know it? This place of feeling happy and sad in the same breath? Emotions so physically felt that it is overwhelming to discern one from the other? Me too.

Knowing it was right probably makes it easier to bear, but what if it was reverse? What if it was wrong? What then? How does a person stand up under it? I’m glad it was right. It makes the walking away that much easier. Doesn’t it? No, not really.

Pictures taken off the walls and memories folded away into drawers and the recesses of a mental vault. Only to be taken out again when it wont sting quite so much...when the missing isn’t quite so strong.

It is a fight to not throw stones at the past or use them to build your walls even higher. Don’t even pick them up. You know it wont make you feel any better. {Well, maybe for a moment.} All you want is for their happiness and for your own too. So, you leave them alone because the only words left are heavy and damaging and should have been said months ago.

Bitterness breeds bitterness. Choose thankfulness knowing it produces joy. It’s how I smile most days, uncircumstantial joy. Hurt and pain and anger and grief are valid feelings, but not a state in which to live. Feel it, own it, work through it. Choose joy. Choose to hope for their best {and yours too}. But know, it’s OK to be sad. It’s OK to miss your friend. The way it used to be. The day will come though when it will be time to move on. Maybe that’s today, or maybe that day is a long way off. You’ll know when and how...when the time is right. You’ll know it, sense it, feel it, trust it...you will.

Sometimes a decision is made for you. Someone writes “The End” on a story you didn’t know how to finish. They unknowingly freed you to begin again. Maybe the best thing to say is thank you and I’ll miss you. Maybe that’s when you truly free yourself.

 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.

And the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:4-9

She Blogs

Remember Stephanie?

How can you forget? Well, she's started her very own blog, Heart Deep!  Check it out, leave a comment, tell her you love her.

Happy Wednesday!

That Moment

Disney's Tangled

I used to dread that moment when I laid in bed waiting for sleep. The night time has always been difficult for me. 

As a little girl, I was afraid of the dark, the corners of my room housed monsters of my imagination. 

As a teenager, that time held a significant loneliness. 

As a college student, it was a time of weeping for what was lost and what will never be.  

As a young woman, it has been where I examine my day, raking over every minute. 

Now, it is becoming a time of letting go...untying the knots and letting the lanterns float away. They’re so pretty on their way...towards the heavens. Wishes, prayers, hopes, anxieties, fears, dreams, love, all of the emotions and memories from the day. They can only become truly beautiful when released from the knot that tied them to me. 

Peace is found in that moment.

She asked for it.

Friends, this is Stephanie. One of my dearest friends.

On Sunday night we were talking on the phone {unfortunately, we don't live in the same city}, and she read my last post, As of Late, while we were on the phone. Actually, she read it out loud to me as if I hadn't written it myself!  She then asked me to write a list of adjectives that describe her. My response..."Write your own dang list! I wrote mine!" I actually said that too. Ask her, she'll confirm. Of course I was kidding and told her I would write a list and publish it to my blog for her to read it with the whole 5 other people who read this blog.  She asked for it.

• Funny. Slap your knee, silent laugh kind of funny.
• Honest. The woman is not afraid to tell you like it is, but somehow you never want to punch her for telling you the hard truth. 
• Very expressive, and her crazy (but lovely) dog Bella has been a great source of prodding her expressive comments.
• Not quiet. She's the ying to my yang in that department.
• Smart - genius level smart. She would never tell you but she's at the top of her field.
• Organized - she definitely likes order, but is ok to go with the flow as well.
• Compassionate, kind, and sees the hope of who a person can be before that person realizes it for themselves.
• Random...just like me. She can be mid-sentence and change subjects, then pick up the first sentence where she left off. 
• She sings Ke$ha every time I say the word glitter. As in "throw some glitter, make it rain."
• She also has a plan....for world domination. duh!

It's important to encourage the people in your life. Not to be morbid, but you may not have tomorrow to tell them what God told you say to them today. Go love on your people. I think you'll like the results. We could all do with a little less holding back and with a little more lavished love.

As of Late

It's time for As of Late, one of my favorite monthly memes. It's hosted by my lovely friend Christy at Critty Joy.

• Lately I've been finding my passion.
• Lately I've learned that whatever story God gives me to live is a good story.
• Lately I'm learning that the wanting is not enough, and that's ok.
• Lately I'm living Proverbs 16:9 'The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.'
• Lately I've known God's goodness in challenging circumstances.
• Lately I've been protected by the peace of the Lord even though my situation should produce anxiety, worry and generally freaking out.
• Lately I'm learning that trust is not a mystery. You trust or you don't. 
• Lately I'm owning that fact that I live a whimsical life in shades of gray. 
• Lately I'm realizing that I really like who I am. Quiet, reserved, loving, deeply feeling, creative, happy, avid reader, intuitive, unruffled, and thoughtful. Take me or leave me. Like my quiet or make some noise.
• Lately I've been working on a plan...for world domination. Duh!