Letter From An Industry Icon… My Preston Bailey Experience

Happy Monday!

I love love love Preston Bailey, everyone who knows me knows this.   Needless to say when I received a response from the designer of all things high-end and celebrity, the one-and-only Preston Bailey it brought me to tears.  On Tuesday, I was reading one of his blogs on Brand Perception to which I sent him a question, never knowing if he would receive it.  

His words of inspiration and encouragement reinforced to me that I am on the right path in deciding to live my dreams.  I will treasure this lovely note and this moment for life.  I am greatly humbled that an industry icon such as Preston Bailey would take the time to personally acknowledge me and I can’t think of any better way to end the month of L-O-V-E with his words….. 

"Someone told me once, the only way to get rid of any insecurities, is to always allow the creative light to shine right out of you.  That light is a guiding one, that does not need to be to grand or to humble, it's just  the divine spirit that guides us in our journey of life.  That light is so real that you can just accept who you are with love and know you are  worthy.

  

I hope I did not get  to spiritual on you, but that advice  changed my perception of worth.

So my dear Ebony, take it all in, you are worthy, and you are on the right path.  Just always keep it real."

Thank you Mr. Bailey for changing my life.... 
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My Motherboard My Self - Time to ReStart!

The past two days have been an extremely difficult over in my neck of the woods. This will be an extremely personal post and a little bit of a departure from my typical posts but it's my blog and I'll share if I want to. :)  On Tuesday night I shut down my beloved Macbook because it was locking up.  Well that would be the last time that it would boot. .  I tried to restart my computer but it would only make it to the gray Apple screen.  I was frantic to say the least.  My Macbook is only one year old coming up on the 28th of November.  My husband just told me to relax and come back to it tomorrow.  I was beside myself.  Just a few days before I left for Napa I reminded myself that I needed to do a backup when I returned, well when I returned would be too late!  Why does it always happen that way? 


After spending 2 hours at the "Genius Bar" in the Apple store fighting back tears, I left my Macbook at the Apple hospital hoping and praying that my data would be able to be recovered.  Soon the call would come....  we've replaced your hard drive but we couldn't move any of your data over!  The bomb dropped!  Why oh why hadn't I backed up my data!  I have a years worth of SED data including business documents, designs, portfolio pictures... EVERYTHING.  In addition to that, all of the software needs to be reinstalled.  GREAT..NOT!!!  What about all of those design elements and fonts that I have purchased?   I felt like the carpet had been pulled from underneath me.  Everything that I have poured my heart into this past year was gone! Just when I thought I was getting into a routine....BAM!  The sadness was immeasurable of how much I feel like I've lost.  One day I will share the story of how and when I started SED, it may then make sense.  I thought about the episode of Sex and the City when Carrie's motherboard dies and she feels as though "her life" was on that machine.  UGH!  Why oh why hadn't I backed up! 


So in tears my husband wraps his arms around me and tells me not to worry, it will be ok.  I call my sister and she says, "Ebony, you know what,  everything you lost YOU created! Not anyone else. YOU!  You are talented, you created those things and you can do them AGAIN. Don't be discouraged! You are amazing! So let's turn this into a wonderful opportunity!"  Of course that made me cry MORE but I thought,  she's right! Those designs came from MY head, I put ink to paper and made them come to creation and I know that I can do it again.  Sometimes you just have to restart and come back bigger and better!  Thank goodness I had already closed my books for the rest of the year (silver lining).  So, that's my goal....to be bigger and BETTER!  It's a tough pill to swallow but who knows what is in store for me, I truly believe that everything happens for a reason.  There is still a chance that the files can be recovered from a disk saving company but in the meantime  I'm focused on making Sparkling Events & Designs, LLC. even better!  So watch out! 


Just remember, sometimes it's ok to restart!  and....I'll be backing up EVERY week from here on out! :) 
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   Dare to Dream!

Happy Monday - Dare to DREAM!

Happy Monday! 

And what a WONDERFUL Monday it is!  I'm coming off the heels of two fantastic events this weekend and I could not be happier with how both of them turned out.  I am so tired but it was all worth it in the end.  My niece was all grins from ear to ear on Saturday and that made me so happy!  She had a great time at her rock star party!  I'll post pics later on this week.  

So, I have been getting a lot of questions lately about "how" I got started in this industry and what made me decide to finally launch my own business.  I began to think and I popped out to me just as clear as a dream.  This is something that I've wanted to do for a VERY LONG time, at least 7 years.  Fear held me back for many years and still does in many ways.   Then it was a new job, then babies, LIFE in general.  I finally decided it was time, it "felt" right!   The other day I was flipping channels and came across the HBO Documentary, "Dare to Dream" about the US Women's Soccer team and thought BINGO!  That's my new motto, "Dare to Dream".  Then I went downstairs into the dining room and there is was, the letters, "D.R.E.A.M".  They had been with me the whole time we've lived here (5 years) and I hadn't paid to much attention to them until now but they mean so much more.  There is nothing holding you back from following your dreams but your own fear, so shake that fear off!  Who would have thought that after only 6 months of being in business that I'm actually turning work away and I have had the opportunity to work with an Award winning Chef.  Only in my DREAMS, so if I can do it, anyone can so

........DREAM BIG!  

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Frustration...

Fellow bloggers, party planners, designers... maybe you can relate!  Have you ever had an idea that you were just about to execute and then BAM you see it posted on another blog or website.  What do you do?  Do you continue with the idea you had and risk being called a 'copycat' or do you just scrap it and loose out on an opportunity to create something you really had planned on doing.  

Let's just say, I'm going through this right now.  I have a long list of things that I want to do and every where I look I see my ideas popping up left and right.  Let me be clear, no one is copying my ideas - that's not the issue because I haven't told anyone about them.  But recently I see them a lot.   I pride myself on being unique so it makes me wonder if I need to start thinking outside of the box again, maybe I have conformed, I don't know.  It's just a little frustrating for me because I also work full time so it probably takes me twice as long to produce something as the next designer.  So I keep missing the 8 ball so to speak.

So anyone else feel like that occasionally?  What do you do?  Keep to your idea or scrap it and come up with another one? 

*shrugs shoulders* 

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