A New Friend + 6 Month Recap

Hi Everyone!!

I cannot believe it's been 6 months since I last posted. But it's been for really good reason.

First of all I finally got a job! And it's not just any old job. It was simply destiny!

I answered an ad on CL that was titled "Would Working For Martha Stewart Be Your Dream Job?"

~~Um, yes, please~~!!!!

Well, the job wasn't actually working for Martha Stewart, but it was working for an online cooking tools company, running the Marketing department, and the owner is a Le Cordon Bleu trained chef! ChefTools.com

~~ enter 'sigh' here ~~

Needless to say, I've been working for 3 months, have a new friend and mentor in my new boss Walter and am absolutely LOVING what I do every day. I'm a cook, I love food, I love talking about food and cooking tools and I am a self-proclaimed Marketing Guru. (I'm sure I'm really not, but I am pretty damn good if I do say so myself. -wink, wink).

I keep pinching myself and asking how the heck the stars aligned on this one. I've been pretty blessed to have always loved what I did for a living, but I guess the year-long unemployment struggle really paid off for me this time. Yes, I had to take a pay cut, yes I commute 50 miles per day and I had to sacrifice a few other things to take this job, but so far I have no complaints!

Hence, I've been blogging for my job and not blogging for myself.

(btw, our business blog is located here, in case you want to follow and win awesome kitchen tools and gadgets: http://cheftoolsblog.blogspot.com/ )

It's a small company and Marketing consists of myself and an online content editor so it's a lot of work and has kept me really busy. That and a cute little Bullie named Weezer and a garden in the woods that needs constant weeding - has been taking all of my time.

But this morning I had a life changing experience. Something happened that made me think of all my Bloggerettes and I just HAD to share it with all of you.

The story begins....

It all started in May at the Snohomish Antique & Art Faire. I had a friends daughter's birthday to attend that morning then ran over to peek around afterwards. It is here that I stumbled upon a booth that took my breath away. Literally. First thing I did was walk up to the lady working in the booth (who totally reminded me of Martha Stewart in her beginning years) and ask:

"Is this your company or are you a retailer for a larger company?"

This booth didn't look like a local business owner or mom and pop shop had thrown it together. The displays, the signage, the collateral materials, the photos and the product themselves looked completely professional and absolutely stunning.

Come to find out, this lovely lady was Janna Lufkin, Interior Designer and Photo Stylist for many magazines we all love: Better Homes & Gardens, Country Living, Sunset, Coastal Living - just to name a few. Janna is amazing. She's one of those women you meet that you want to spend every spare moment with. Whether it's just listening to her dreamy stories about working with magazines, or oodling over antique white enamelware and ironstone together or just taking in and feeding off her love and passion for gardening, interior spaces and design. Whatever it is, I learned quite quickly that this new woman I had met was someone I wanted to get to know better.

This morning I had a life changing experience. I met with Janna at her home. Her dreamy white, perfectly staged, beautifully decorated photo set of a home and we talked shop. I got the grand tour and was in awe. I got to know a little more about Janna and her husband and their daughter. I got to discuss business opportunities that I know will be fruitful. And the most amazing thing of all, the thing that made me cry on the drive into work once I left Janna's beautiful home, the thing I am still completely flabbergasted about happened. It happened.

I showed Janna some photos I had taken of my girlfriends home from her garden tour last weekend. She loved the photos so much and was so impressed with my girlfriends garden, that she asked if I would send her my photos so she could submit them to the magazines she works with to see if they would be interested in them for a story!

Now, let's be realistic here. There's probably not much of a chance that anything will come of these photos. But just the simple fact that these photos I took (me, Sara, yes, I took) of my girlfriends garden - a friend I've had since the 7th grade. The fact that these photos of my girlfriends garden are getting into the email inbox of an editor at a magazine that we have been reading and coveting and only dreaming of ever having our gardens featured in - practically our whole lives. Just that simple fact made me so emotional, I cried, I've had a smile on my face all day and I've been totally and completely overjoyed all day. I'm so excited for my girlfriend, I can hardly stand it!!

But the creme de la creme was this evening. After I sent off those photos, I got the sweetest email back from Janna which read: "It was so good to see you today. I think we were destined to be good friends!"

Like I said, this morning was life changing. I am so thankful for that sunny day in Snohomish when I stumbled upon Janna's booth. I am so thankful I have girlfriends whom I've had since grade school. I'm so thankful to finally be working at a company I truly believe in and love. And I'm truly thankful to have all you lovely ladies to talk to and share with here in blogger world.

Life can be soooo cool sometimes!