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7 Temmuz 2017 Cuma

Company of Dreamers

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5qo16m

I’ve realized that the foundation of most of my strength or triumph moments don’t come solely from me or God but also from the people I choose to surround myself with. As life has had it way of tossing me around, cutting me deep and often shutting me out of possibility, there would’ve been little room for true victory without my incredible support system. During the times where you feel you can’t move anymore or you’re too depressed to go out or simply unmotivated, the God sent individuals by your side will ALWAYS make sure you do not fail. This is the thing, I don’t care how many degrees or certificates you have on self-development or strength or understanding the powers of fighting through, EVERYONE needs SOMEONE. Not only as a guide for perseverance but also to serve as a precedent with their tenacious attitude and will to want more for themselves. And you. I am quite sure that Iyanla or Oprah didn’t get to their high esteemed positions without the placement of individuals to help them or set the bar on how things should be done. I’m sure as much as they are out fixing people’s lives, they have those quiet moments of needing fixing themselves. Titles don’t exempt you from problems. And titles surely don’t exempt you from feelings or emotions.

In order for us to grow, we need to strategically place ourselves within the winners circle. By that I mean, knowing that it is okay to be around those who might know more than you or be more experienced than you in certain areas. Let them lead you in their words and by their actions. We always have to seek from areas in people that could feed our soil and soul. And in turn we could be this for somebody else. We all have dreams. I’m sure some that might take longer than others but without a team, it will fall short of its full potential.

We have a tendency to surround ourselves with people that think like us.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

If you want any chance of growth, you have to surround yourself with those that might be in opposition of your views;Those that think differently and lead differently. You don’t need any “Yes” men or “Yes” women.

Be in the company of dreamers!! Their drive can help fuel your drive. Their affinity for growth and development can help spearhead yours! They are the ones who check up on you to make sure you don’t miss an assignment. Or those that pray for you before a big meeting or event. They are the ones who text you the night before a big test saying “You got this.” Be mindful of your surroundings and also be very grateful for those already in position of making you greater than you already are. Every leader needs a supporting staff. And every person in power needed people above them to set the bar on what can be achieved. That ladder of hope is so important. If you aren’t producing like you should or in bad company, make adjustments to your circle and see how different your life can change. You will know the difference between those willing to aid your dream and those looking to deplete it.

Who Pushes you?

Who Motivates you?

Who stands by you?

2 Temmuz 2017 Pazar

HOW TO MAKE A JINGLE BELL CHRISTMAS SWAG

OH my goodness it has been too long friends! Life has been crazy over here and somehow blogging had gone to the wayside for a while. But, my DIY projects as well as custom work have been going FULL speed ahead. This past year has been full of exciting new adventures including

I DREAM OF JEANNE DESIGN is now featured in a brick and mortar shop!

Located right here in the Chesterfield Valley of Missouri. I have joined forces with some of the areas most talented women and small business owners and collaboratively we all support, work, design and offer unbelievable design, home decor, gifts, custom design work and painting, upholstery, florals, French style clothing and more!

WINTER DECOR IDEAS for Decorating your Home after Christmas.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WOW! The holidays are behind us and all the festivities and busyness of the season went by so fast, I cannot believe it is already 2017.

Well, I love the holidays as I am sure you do. I love the music, the decor, the cookies, drinks, family gatherings and things Christmas!

I can tend to go a bit over board sometimes with my decorating I ended up this year with 5 trees going up and red everywhere. I tend to gravitate to more neutral palette, so after 4 weeks or so of all the busyness of my Holiday decorations, I am ready to pack it up and simplify my surroundings. But, I really enjoy the coziness of the twinkling lights, fire place roaring, the frosted greenery and cheerful pillows, when I take everything down,

it is almost sad.

I want to continue that cozy feeling and a bit of the twinkle without the Christmas theme.

So how do I accomplish this?

I thought I would share a little photo tour of my family room with a bit of winter cozy design.

FAMILY ROOM JANUARY 2017.

Ok, so I finally gave in last year to my family's pleadings for a wall mounted tv above the fireplace!

Argh... I really do enjoy the picture but a design nightmare for me, although I know I live in REAL life, this is a REAL home, and we are a REAL family, so we have a tv above our fireplace like millions of other homes across the world!

My dilemma is always how to decorate my mantle and try not to make the television the focus point of the room, I want to try to make it blend, I have tons of ideas which require construction and such (aka: MONEY), but for now, I just use what I have to add to the areas "around" the tv and my husbands speakers....

So this is how our family room looks for January keeping it cozy and casual with a flair of Bohemian drama, my "go to" style! I always use lots of candle light and cozy blankets all around to wrap up in and cuddle up.

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So lets start here with my SOFA. It is a very used and well worn sectional that my family tends to lounge in morning, noon and night... When the all the Red and Santa pillows are packed up I bring out the soft, plush and cozy white pillows. I just layer what I have and maybe add a new one here and there... My family demands "usable" pillows; meaning ones they can lay their head on without getting poked with sequins, jewels or feathers... So we compromise; I get to add just a few of my "decor" pillows to the layers of soft.

So, the bay window: I have swapped out my drapes for an all white backdrop for the room, I usually do this as I decorate for Christmas, I prefer a soft background to loud colors.

I also added new lamps from my inventory at the shoppe (Fluer de Chic, see below) with a metallic touch. The winter scenery with deer pillow can stay out for most of the winter season.. I love that!

Ok, so for the most part, I pack up all greenery, but this pitcher fits the bill filled with wintery branches of pinecones and soft lights... I just added 2 glittery feathers to the pot.

This little vignette on my coffee table was fun to create. The exotic carved wood tray was the perfect nesting spot for a few more candles and a few fun elements. If you notice here I used an odd number of objects and a variety of finishes that all complimented each other to achieve this collected and cohesive look. I added just a pop of that blue green to my soft white and metallic palette, you can see repeated through the room, with my throw blankets in the basket and touches of it on my rug.

Just another view of the vignette.

As I mentioned before I have just a touch of the blue/green color throughout the room. It tends to be a color I gravitate to. I love my rug because I can choose to pull any color from it to decorate. I keep my walls and furniture neutral and that way it is easy to change things out without having to make big investments. Little things like pillow, vignettes or lamps can easily be swapped out each season!

This is just showing the texture of the metallic lamps. I love to mix textures and styles.

I love this room and how it all came together with a cozy feeling for the winter months.

A home should tell a story and be inviting all while looking collected over time. I love to mix all the different styles here to create a room that is comfortable

and reflects my family's style.

Our Adoption Story... Foster care to adoption

Our Adoption Story...

Greetings Friends! It has been awhile since my last post, my apologies, I normally post my tutorials and news about my business on this blog, but today thought I would share a little more personal story with you. Our amazing adoption story!

This past week February 16, 2017 to be exact we had an amazing, emotional, joyful, exciting, major life changing experience. We adopted our fourth and youngest child! Now, we have been living the life of having four children for over two years, and maybe it doesn't change anything physically but emotionally I think the biggest weight is off our shoulders and knowing that everything is finalized and our daughter finally shares our last name is so exciting!

This is in front of the courthouse after the hearing!

This is an interesting story how this all came to happen, you see just a little over two years ago our family was the perfect size, we were busy, happy and our three biological children were all school age and mostly independent and our family life was in routine. We were comfortable with things with how we were.. My oldest in high school, my middle child in middle school and my youngest in elementary, that seems busy enough right? Three schools, three different friend groups, activities, and parenting challenges, my new business keeping me busy, my husband career and his traveling at an all-time high, we couldn't possibly take on anything else. Well, until one evening at a friends home for a Halloween party 2013, they walk in the door with the cutest, chubbiest, pink cheeked, bright blue eyed baby girl (just turned one) dressed as a Care Bear. That meeting of this sweet little chunky monkey changed my world forever.

You see, " Princess A" was a foster child, our friends were a temporary kinship placement home while social services and the family were trying to work on returning custody of this precious little one. I thought to myself, I need to know more, how can I be involved, or help this little girl in anyway during such a stressful time. It actually is not easy to find out much about a child in Social Services unless you are licensed, which we were not, but I continually pursued how to contact the right person. Because here is the perfectly healthy baby and in a few months do not know where she will be placed, how long it will take to be reunited with her family, and this is only ONE CHILD, there are thousands of children going through the very same circumstances.

I had to help, I had to know more about this baby, I could not get her

off my mind.

Well, less than two months later, we received a call from our friends, stating they could no longer foster "Princess A", she needs a home, would you take her in?

Did we think long and hard about it? NO, I answered immediately YES, it was that simple for us to decide. I mean we all chatted briefly about it, but also all of my children and husband knew and loved this little girl, we saw her as frequently as possible. It was exciting to be a part of this, and think of the possibility she could be with us forever, but if not, we were going to help while we could. So we were put in training, and had home studies and interviews and less than a month later this waddling little toddler entered our front door and we were smitten!

We had very short time to all of a sudden recreate a toddler friendly home, a baby bed had to be purchased, furniture, clothing, diapers, toys, stroller, all of it! We made it happen, somehow... I think all of our friends and family were in shock and maybe even disbelief. I am not sure how everyone felt about it, we were so busy doing, we didn't have time to worry. My daughter at the time was 13 years old and offered to share her room, so we created a room that worked for both of them without interfering with her style (she is a teenager after all). Everyone was so excited.

Our home was suddenly flooded with plastic bright toys EVERYWHERE!!

This is her first week with us.

So over the past two years, I had to change my schedule and lifestyle and work around having a baby in the house again. I was able to take time off (about a year) from my business and just focus on her and our new family life. It has been hectic, of course. For example while trying to potty train her I was looking at colleges with my oldest son. Talk about a full circle!! Besides everything you have to do personally, I also had to deal with all the requirements constantly from Social Services. Each week I had to take her to a supervised visit with her biological parents. We had to go to court meetings and hearings every couple of months, we had to have house checks, and licensing visits and training and moving my schedule around constantly, it kind of felt like and invasion of our space and life... But finally in August of 2016 the biological parental rights were removed and we applied for adoption so she could be a forever part of our family.

Yes, the past couple of years have been crazy, fun, exhausting, emotionally draining, hard work and so many more emotions as well. But, the best possible outcome for everyone involved was our precious gift and most special day for our family.

February 16, 2017 will always be a special celebration day. We finally are a family of 6... legally!

This of course is the short and sweet version of this story and I hope to write a bit more detailed to share one day, all about the foster care system and adoption process.

Today, I just wanted to share the fun and a few pics of our special story!

My Family.