Reflection!

Every day I read... a lot! From all your posts to multiple blogs and lots of articles published referencing anything from A-Z. Today, it seems we all have a common thread running through out our lives. We are all collectively ready to put this year behind us.
All of us on some level have dealt with unpleasantness and pain, things dealt in our hand that were a bunch of no fun.
It is nice to see such optimism. Feeling everyone's hope for a better year is such a refreshing feeling.  Knowing that we are ready to put the past behind us and move on without looking back. I think we can all agree some tough lessons were learned for sure. In the same breath we must also praise our ability to cope with our emotions as well as the courage we all posess to tell our story. The bravest thing we can do is share our strife with others. We certainly help to inspire each other with our stories of triumph. For those personal struggles of mine this year I am thankful for what they have brought me. A greater understanding of what true faith is all about. I have never felt more in touch with my priorities than I do right now at this moment. There is strength in my convictions like never before. I am truly excited to see what God has in store for me next and I leave it completely up to Him.
As we spend our last few hours of reflection, let's toast those hardships for leaving a burn in our belly to continue moving forward, Happy New Year!

diggin in for 2011!

One of the perks of my career is seeing what happens on the other side of pushing through. I usually start with a client who is in despair, feeling very cautious about what to expect and by the end of a few days that person is more confident and at ease about letting go and living in the moment.

Something I have always tried to do for my clients is to witness their collection of desires. Recognizing what they have collected and its pattern along with listening to what they value most. Often, I can realize a hidden passion or a longing to pursue a dream. Just like I can tell after organizing a closet what colors you like or not. A lot of folks don't really like to wear yellow I have found.

By organizing my clients and often times realizing those dreams I am able to discuss options for taking their first steps into a new business. Sometimes they may not have even thought of connecting the dots but mostly I find they are stuck with the how-to part.

Every year I teach several components to the students in AUM's Interior Decorating program, one of them being client communications. Fortunately I have worked with many advertising agencies and planned annual marketing schedules for automotive dealers as well as real estate agencies. Planning your campaign is the most important thing you can do for your business.

With my clients I am able to discuss objectives and establish goals along with time frames to achieve these things. They are left with new motivation along with new tools to begin these ventures. In the recent How-To guides that were popular with last month's package it occurred to me, it's nice to have a map!

I have established someones home office and set them up to create and market on more than one occasion and happy to say my most recent success was a dear friend that I knew wanted to be more creative in her life. I clearly understand the importance of social media and online tools as I network with professional organizers from across the country and stay up to date on what's working and what is not.

A lot of times you have everything you need, just not sure where you should start. Sometimes we can even sabotage our own desires by repeating behavior patterns that are not productive. We are so overwhelmed by ideas and plans that we short circuit in the getting-around-to-it phase.

Having been a business owner for the last seven years I have tried a lot of things and love sharing my successes and failures with others. The number one reward for me is helping someone figure out their mission statement in life. What is even better is when I can prevent someone from making a two steps back mistake.

I feel truly blessed to have been able to pursue my goals and I am excited to venture into new territory this year with my art and providing more coaching and consulting with my services. Lula's not going to be doing very much physical work, it will be limited.

Working in media advertising for several years I was able to benefit from top selling techniques from Gannett Corp., parent company of USA Today. I have relied on this training in my own business along with the tools we use to teach Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and happy to share that motivation with others. I have decided to put all my passions together and create a small business consultation service along side the organizational aspect.

At the same time I realize I am in no way done with my own growth and discovery. By counseling others I am able to provide myself constant encouragement from the bravery I see. People helping people is what it's all about! Creating a sense of community is essential to a small business.

So, if you have that idea, something nagging at you after all the lists are done for the day...but just not sure how to take the first step, take advantage of our January small business package. Receive coaching from me along with organizational tips for setting up and running your home based business ( a $500 value ) the entire month of January for $150.

Receive a complete two hour consultation along with follow up for 3 months to ensure you hit your goals for $300.
For those of you that desire a personal home organization consultation, Lula will continue December's package of a 90 min-two hour consultation plus "how-to" guide for $100.

For questions you may contact me at melissa@lulagrace.com or 334-799-4598. Thank you to all the great folks who supported Lula in 2010, it was a great year, but lessons learned for sure! Happy to say 2011 looks like it is going to start with a bang, so call today to book your appointment!! Wishing you much success in the New Year!!!!!!!!

**Small business package available state wide, personal organization package limited to Walker County residents only.

CONTEST!!!!

Refer the most friends to our Facebook page :

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Lulagrace-Organized-Interiors/123242845254

and enter to win this "Lead Without Limits" water bottle from Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University!!

Help us get to 500 Likes....refer the most friends to our page by Jan. 5th, make sure they enter your name on our wall to register you for the free drawing!!

being emotionally healthy and Merry Christmas!

Reading a few Katherine Center quotes this week I felt overwhelmed with heartache. Sometimes her words are so deep that they take me by surprise. You realize feelings that were there but not verbalized yet. She beats you to
profound self realizations.

Its a good thing because you get there quicker. I have discovered many writers, bloggers and other folks of inspiration this year that have really helped me make sense of my "self". Not that I'm so challenged in knowing who I am, but just making sense of me and why I'm here. I feel sometimes like I have lived with a broken heart for a long time. Over what ...I couldn't say in particular. Just events throughout my life and childhood that steered me one way or another. Regret over mistakes, opportunities I've blown because I'm stubborn. Basically, whenever I have not listened to Him and His plan for me.
And heartache as a topic has always intrigued me. When I am listening to Ryan Adams (my 2nd husband) Bayne claims something must be wrong with me, why am I listening to such sad music if I'm fine. Soulful lyrics are so beautiful to me, much like a great painting or a beautiful landscape. There is beauty in the molding of a human spirit. And I can just relate to melancholy sometimes better. I 've even researched it a little. I think it is because I know I better get prepared for it and I intensely want to prevent myself from falling apart when it comes. After all, I am an easy crier!!
Come to find out if you bing "Living with Heartache" you quickly discover you have simply nothing on other people. Somewhere there is always someone else in the throws of losing a child, a spouse, a parent, even a pet. I am preparing for that very thing in my life and I want to be strong. My father has been some form of ill since I was 10. As I ponder having a baby after 35, just like my mother did, will I be creating a child surely to lose a parent in their prime as I will. How can you expect someone to grieve your loss while they are still trying to figure out who they are. So often I think, will my Dad be here when Baylor graduates in another 10 years?
Next December will be the 20th anniversary of my sweet Grandmother Lula's passing. I lost both of my grandparents the same year before I graduated. How are my boys going to feel about losing possibly both of them before they graduate?

(my Dad this summer with great-niece Isabella)

I would feel that I was exaggerating but I get messages from home that all is not well. It has been the case for several years. But he has had a horrible tumble since I saw him last and  hear it wasn't pretty. Now words like fragile, feeble, weak are part of the vocabulary, so it isn't what I want it to be, but it's quite possibly "time". My mother also hasn't recovered from a fall 3 yrs ago leaving her unable to walk.
As I prepare to make a trip home tomorrow it is overwhelming to think that maybe I don't want to go at all. Do I want to go home and see what kind of shape they are in? Certainly not. I feel I have worked so hard at becoming emotionally healthy since my young adulthood that surely I can buck up and go home. But its sensitive to me and frankly speaking I'm a little afraid. Its my parents. I have a 5 year old! How do you say "Soak Poppy up boys, he could be gone in a flash!"

On the immediate home front I have this Maltese, Luckie, who is aging rapidly and has recently dropped a lot of weight. I have called finally after my husband has urged me to make some sort of decision soon. Its $45 to have him put to sleep. A final no return home from the vet's office. As I look at him now he is quite sad, but the UPS guy still sends him into a frenzy and he displays the gusto of a 3 year old puppy. He is definitely a grouch, a lot like my sweet Daddy. I compare Luckie to Poppy quite often actually. I will make the decision soon...its Christmas after all. I look at lil Luckie now and think I can't imagine placing a $45 price tag on his life. But I hate to see him suffer just like I will hate to see my Daddy suffer. No easy answer...heartache's set a bead on me.

For this Christmas, I am going to show them both and all my family all the love I can...I'm fast trying to get myself to a point of being emotionally able to process their loss. I haven't been able to fathom it to this point. I am thankful I have had this year of self reflection to learn to appreciate my now and the most important lesson that "perfectionism" is not necessarily a good trait to have. Things are going to fall apart. Prepare for it.
As I peak at my Christmas gift to myself that has just arrived, Ordinary Courage by Dr. Brene Brown, I am filled with optimism again. First sentence in preface...
            "Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do."
As I close this year I commit to  making  2011 my bravest year yet, whatever may come!!
Thank you for following Lula's Grace, I love to read your comments, keep them coming!!! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

New Beginnings!

When I was in junior high school there was nothing I wanted more than to be accepted into Carver Creative Performing Arts Center or CCPAC. I applied, was accepted and began my 10th grade year feeling like an artist at the FAME school!
It was probably the greatest opportunity of my life. I entered competition, had excellent accomplished instructors, met other young folks like myself and was encouraged to apply to art colleges in the southeast. I did, I applied at Savannah College of Art and Design, Memphis College of Art and ofcourse the local college. My folks decided I was not to attend an out of state school so I went to the local college and majored in graphic arts.

I hated it. Quite literally...it sucked me dry of inspiration. I longed to be in an environment that thrived on art and culture. So I quit. Decided that was obviously not my path. I eventually got a degree in liberal arts after 8 years. I like to say I am a mile wide and an inch deep. I know a little something about lots of different stuff...like the fall of technology in the Soviet Union and can discuss in depth 5 Shakespearean plays as I took a Shakespeare in Production class, loved it!

It has taken me nearly 20 years to decide I want to be involved with art again. I picked up a brush when my oldest was born and painted something for his room but it still has taken 8 years to bring that to the surface. I'm ready now. I also feel I have so much inside me that visually needs to come out.

I think the most crucial decision in my life was when I took the attitude I was not good enough to go to one of those awesome schools so why try? I have spent so much of this year reflecting and trying to decide what type of "adult" I want to be in a few years when I turn 40.

So we are gonna try and get back to it...I'll keep you posted what is to come. Gonna attempt to paint up some Christmas gifts for my sisters and mother. Who knows what will happen when I break out a piece of canvas again!

Interesting to see when you trace the steps in which you came you can usually find your own answers.

Ponderings of 2010, next week last blog of year!

This is the last working week for me of 2010. Kids get outta school on Friday and I am done til Jan. 5th 2011. It is so nice to take a long break, visit family, but mostly take time for reflecting and make plans for 2011. This was again, a Christmas that snuck up on me. Not even sure I will be able to commit myself to getting out Christmas cards. I felt incredibly inadequate at the raising of the gingerbread houses last Friday and have let the week's adventures leave my brain like mush. I simply am not sure if I can process any-thing else. We have committed to less this year, tried to make family first, stay within our lil budget plan and make good decisions during the holidays, but the weariness of another year coming to an end can wreak a little havoc on emotions.

"The Happiness Project" has been difficult to do this month, it is committing to ALL the work you've been doing all this year every day of the month. I am looking onward next year to a new reading list. Confident in what I have learned these last 12 months from Mrs. Rubin.

First is one of my favorite new bloggers and artists Kelly Rae Roberts Taking Flight: Inspiration And Techniques To Give Your Creative Spirit Wings and to be followed by Dr. Brene Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are .

While I am working on the last blog post of the year, I seem to keep hitting on a few themes: living with integrity; living with more creativity; seek new inspiration; appreciate what I have; spend more quality time with my family; and to be more spirit led.

Next weekend I head home to S. Alabama for the first time since school started. Very Sad! I have never been that long without seeing my family. Homesick? My favorite line in Kings of Leon's song Radioactive...
"It's in the water...
It's in the story
It's where you came from
The sons and daughters
In all their glory
It's gonna shape them
And when they clash
And come together
And start rising
Just drink the water
Where you came from...
Where you came from"


Feels good to go home, feels better to love being in your own home, Next year's theme I can go ahead and say will have lots to do with "home"! Hope you will continue to follow us through the next transition of our lives. I mean, people, there could be chickens, raised gardens, and even a new baby.

Lulagrace Organized Interiors, may be experiencing some changes. Things to be modified in life to allow new things to continue to come in it. I may do mostly consulting, haven't made a full commitment. Those who need me usually find me with little assistance. As I have done this now for a minute, I think it is fair to dedicate more time to my family, my nest, applying all that Ive learned from the amazing clients I have had over the last 6 years. Not necessarily saying I am no longer organizing/decorating, just only for a few that I feel called to work for. There are some that can't be helped, they don't really want it. It is rude to say" You know you could be prospering by now, but you keep hanging on to all this stuff" so politeness leads you to decline.

My biggest lesson this year, crazy is not a goal of mine, "looking perfect does not perfection make". Perfection is also not an attribute of good character...merely a symptom of fear. I feel empowered to have this inside knowledge that I still see so many run around frazzled thinking that it is going to pan out well for them...I was scared my problem with perfectionism was going to lead me to a heart attack. So I am really trying to chill it on down now. My new mantra to the women I meet..."SLOW DOWN!"

So until next week's post....I'm off to ponder!

Finishing my "Happiness Project"- Self reflection

This month I will be reflecting on an entire year of transformation. I have turned my thoughts towards the new year and have a gut feeling that 2011 will be my best yet!

Having gone through what I've gone through this year I feel a complete shift in my DNA. A change of heart about having a third child, turns out I do! A change in how and who I intend to do business with in this new small town I've been thrust upon. How far Im willing to travel to work. My health...oh thats a big one too! God and my family come first. And while I've been sacrificing them for far too long to help those that call on me I have worked all year on finding balance.

My parents have aged considerably this year...all while I've relocated 3 hours north to them. I haven't been present with my first family in quite a while. I intend to be more "present" with them in the new year. It really has been difficult being away from home for the first time ever and with my dad soon turning 80 I need to get with that!

My husband and I are changing and settling into our mature selves these days. Our boys are bigger we are able to experience so much more now as a family. Life is so good, but I feel I haven't appreciated it up until this point.

I've been following Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project" all year. Excited it will soon be a real tv show with "Charlotte" from SNCity series as Gretchen herself. I tried to even get my methodist women's circle to follow it as well, however,  I was the only one who stuck it through and boy am I glad I did.

I have reflected on it so much throughout the year that I feel it is somewhat a bible or guide to help me in life to be the better wife, mom, sister, friend, etc.

This is my last month, sad but true, and this month's resolution is to follow the way of perfection acting with greater love. By learning to do the loving thing, to learn to be grateful, practice humility, listen and laugh, don't top, forget scorecards, no calculation, loving thoughts actions and words, putting aside anger and resentment...and most of all be happy. Tall order!!! But she hasn't let me down so far and I've changed a lot of my inner nature and discovered quite a lot about myself these last 11 months.

My long time clients, the ones I have built a true relationship with and feel concern in their well being I have realized I keep telling them the same thing Im trying to tell myself.
SLOW DOWN!!!! Stop driving yourself in the ground!!! For WHAT!!!!! I 've taken the whole year to work on just that and feel Im coming to the peak of a wonderful discovery.

I have decided that if I am going to anticipate pregnancy next year, continue working with the horsefarm and painting furniture with my best friend I will surely make changes to fit all those things into my life. By subtracting those things that don't bring me complete joy...like sifting through some strangers belongings and getting into the nasty stuff that caused me a staph infection years ago (my Hoarders Anonymous clients) and bringing my body down over and over again to marathon organize at the same time I feel the desire to say YES to everything I'm asked to do...Im going to stick with what I said earlier in the year. No more! I will organize for a select few who truly need me, consult for everyone else and as the new year rolls around I have decided to offer productivity coaching as one of my services. As this has been something I have already done for years as a professional organizer and time management coach I only seek to help folks help themselves. I would love everyone I come in contact with to the know more joy with less stress, God's love and forgiveness and the comfort in their heart that they are enough. I have been encouraged by others who know me well and feel this is something I want to pursue. Not a life coach but a "get back on track" coach.
As I said 2011 is going to be a great year, I know it because He has planned it for me and I gave Him the reins earlier in the summer and that's that!

For more information on The Happiness Project
visit http://www.happiness-project.com/