The big girl cocktail moment - dress episode

I finally went wedding dress shopping. One of my dear friends (lovely, wonderful, bridesmaid) suggested a "wedding dress tailgate".. as I laughed at the awesomeness of her idea, it immediately became a plan. It was one of my most amazing days ever – having my ladies with me, minus my sisters and other dear friends, including one of my bridesmaids who was out of town. We went to a persnickety bridal shop near Melrose, which I'm happy to say at 39, that I'm mature enough to not let bother me.

They tried to force dresses on me I didn't want, tried to force sales that weren't working.. a nightmare episode of "say yes to the dress" but still like big girls, we took it all in stride, said no thank you and went outside, where we proceeded to tailgate in their parking lot.

I LOVED THAT.

We had champagne and cheese.. (sparkling cider for my maid-of-honor, who will be delivering my nephew #2 in March) Laughing at the wrongness of the situation, we partied in the parking lot like it was the playoffs.. and it was! – my playoffs of womanhood, heading to the big game – "the wedding". That's when I realized.. damn.. this is THE Big Girl Cocktail moment, though I loved the champagne, what a moment for women to share – shopping for their wedding dress with their best friends.. and what a GREAT moment this would be for a Big Girl Cocktail – one of those amazing "women moments" my company is meant for.

Not quiet there yet, I happily settled for champagne.

I did end up getting "the dress" later on that day. What a day it was!

- Cheers to all the best friends, that are there to share the amazing moments in our lives... even if it's drinking in a parking lot in a crappy LA bridal shop.

My company, my friend

I read once that the beauty of having big dreams and goals is not just in achieving them – but appreciating all that happens during the process of achieving them. It's going to sound weird, but one of the best things that has happened to me in this process is feeling like I've developed a a friendship with this thing I've created. I'm used to bouncing from goal to goal, wanting to innately snap my fingers and have what ever I started completed... so I can jump on to the next thing. In developing Big Girl Cocktails, not only have I learned not to do that, but to appreciate the process I'm going through and LOVE this experience and all it is bringing to me, like a great friendship can.

I am continuing to push myself not just intellectually, trying to figure out the ins and outs of starting a business like this, but also allowing myself to get to know what Big Girl Cocktails is – constantly refocusing myself, connecting with what I'm doing... with what my goals are personally and with Big Girl Cocktails. Why I'm taking on a project so tremendous as this? Why has it all become so important to me?  I'm starting to think of this process not just as a goal or a challenge to achieve, but like building a relationship I can grow with.

Big Girl Cocktails has become a huge part of my life and who I am now. I'm constantly thinking of new ideas for "us", how we are evolving – which is so much more than we were when we started this journey together. I love figuring out the possibilities of our future, and am ridiculously excited about all that we can do together.

- Cheers to all those who love their business enough to call it friend.

Yin and Yang of New Years Resolutions

I realized my resolutions this year are opposites... with so many big things coming up in 2012, I am fired up with feelings of "GO BIG OR GO HOME"- which is resolution #1. This new year is full of HUGE life events that I need to give everything thing I have to: launching 2 companies – BigGirl and Kelly's company Emerald World, publishing my book and the big one.. planning our wedding and getting married!

For as excited I am for all those goals and events, I feel I also need to resist the the Sam Hoey style urge to attack them all at once – hence the need for my yang resolution #2, to work on my PATIENCE skills. I need to fight my anxious desire to do a million things at once, and recognize I can break everything down into attainable smaller goals and know if I patiently execute my plan, I'll find success. I know I've discussed this in earlier posts, attempting to manage my entreprenurial efforts in more reasonable chunks, but writing it down in a blog post and forcing myself to actually slow down and not feel crazed over my lofty goals is quite another thing.

Cheers to 2012 and all our goals and resolutions that will make it an amazing year!