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Dear Perfectly Wonderful Girl,
Are you carrying an old or new burden around like a heavy bag of rocks, letting it drag you down and hold you back? Is it a belief about yourself or someone else? Is it a mistake you made? Is it something that someone else did to you than you cannot overcome?
It is time to stop shaming yourself. It is time to start.......
Read more of "A little bird told me" - your Daily Truth from The Brave Girls Club
Dear Patient Girl,
You knew when you started on this path towards your goals and your dreams, staying on the pathway that's meant just for you, that sometimes the road was going to get rough, that things would not always be fun or easy, and that you were willing to sacrifice whatever it took to get there.
So why is it, gorgeous friend......
Read more of "A little bird told me" - your Daily Truth from The Brave Girls Club
Dear Stunning Girl,
What does truth feel like? Truth feels good and peaceful and warm, even with the truth is a hard reality. Truth is peace, and truth is light being shed on darkness. Truth eliminates confusion and loves the beauty of life, in all of its forms.
Think of a time when you knew FOR SURE....
Read more of "A little bird told me" - your Daily Truth from The Brave Girls Club
Dear Bright-as-the-Sun-Girl,
Sometimes we give in to some kind of explainable pressure not to be as amazing as we truly are. Sometimes we hide. Sometimes we apologize for our successes or cover them up so much that no one will ever know they ever existed, or that they exist right now, right this minute.
We know, even if only a little. We know our incredible potential, and yet we hide.
Your light is as bright as the sun.....
Read more of "A little bird told me" - your Daily Truth from The Brave Girls Club
me, Jo Packham, Loralee Choate, and Kathy
So.....something really wonderful happened about a month ago. The timing was impeccable...the motivation was...well, motivating.
I got an email from Jo Packham, the creator of Where Women Create Magazine, and other magazines...and one of the creators of The Creative Connection Event...and, because I am speaking at this year's event in Minneapolis, and teaching too...she wanted to feature my creative space as an artist. WELL, I have moved ALL of my art work, all of my supplies, everything to the new Brave Girl Clubhouse....and so it is our studio....where we ALL work...so awesome! By the way...do you know about this awesome event? Like I said, I will be speaking and teaching at this event...I went last year and it is absolutely incredible!
Anyway...she wanted to come into town to shoot our studio for a 10 page spread in her magazine. Well......we had JUST moved into 2000 sq. feet of concrete. NOTHING was done except a whole lot of stuff piled all over the place ready to find a home. We had exactly 3 weeks to finish before the big photo shoot. We also had a million other things going on, including recording an album, working on our online classes, a cruise for our alumni, and the regular day-to-day business of our family and work life. BUT WE KNEW WE COULD PULL IT OFF...so we did.
In early August, you will be able to see our spread in the magazine. It will be beautiful and wonderful and funky and fun. And...we are pretty sure that you will be as amazed as we are at what we accomplished in just those 3 weeks. It is truly miraculous and awe inspiring and we could NOT have done it without a ton of help from people we love and adore and appreciate.
It was super fun and the photographer shot photos for THREE HOURS STRAIGHT. Very exciting. By the way, Jon Ball is an exceptional photographer. :)
Yeh, I am a dork. I know already. :) I was kinda giddy. :)
We had a blast the whole time, really....it was very surreal...the whole thing....being done with the "clubhouse" as we lovingly call it was a dream come true...having the gals there was a dream come true....all of it was just FUN FUN FUN and we can't wait for the magazine to come out! WOOOHOOOO!!!!
We loved sharing our INCREDIBLE new space with them. Wish we could show you more...but you will have to wait until the magazine comes out!
We also went shopping at our favorite store...and
out for sushi.....
we are always looking for an excuse to go out for sushi.
We showed them the beautiful city of Boise and we had a wonderful evening together...chatting, laughing....eating!
Be sure to look for this magazine at your local bookstore...I buy it at Barnes and Noble...but look for it wherever you can find it! It's going to be an awesome issue!
We feel SO HONORED to have had this wonderful opportunity! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to our friends, Jo and Loralee for coming and spending a few days with us...it made us get our beautiful space done in WARP SPEED and wonderful things happen here at our clubhouse now....we can't wait to share our magical haven with the world.
xoxo
melody
Sometimes you just have to ask yourself...
"WHAT IF?"
...ya know what I mean? Sometimes you just have to throw practicality and logic out the window and go for inspiration and comfort and color and beauty and fun and adventure and GO FOR IT and make the things you think about and dream up a reality......in any and all ways you can. Why do it any other way, really?
This is one of the pieces of art found in our lobby, before you open the door to the magic of the Clubhouse.
We go to great lengths to make sure this is a happy and safe place....safe and happy in every way.
When we set out to build our "CLUBHOUSE" which is our Brave Girls Club World Headquarters....we started with just needing an office to work out of, and a warehouse to hold all of our goodies....all of our art supplies...all of our equipment...all of our "stuff" that we use to do what we do. Each day as we planned it out...we asked "WHAT IF?" and then we answered "WHY NOT?".....and we dreamed up crazy beautiful things and then counted up the skills in the room....Kathy can sew anything, cook anything, plan anything, figure anything out....I can paint anything, design anything, write anything, make anything, think up anything...Marq can weld, build, fix, engineer, electrify, and man-up anything, and Brock makes a fabulous assistant....Kim can organize anything....our friends have the skills and the hearts to come and help with ALL OF IT. SO WHY NOT??? WHY NOT MAKE THIS PLACE into the MOST FABULOUS, FUN, SAFE, BEAUTIFUL, INSPIRING and FUNKY place we could ever think of? Why not? We had a budget....and it wasn't big...but we had skills, and we had determination, and we had thrift stores and lumber yards and steel scrap yards....and Craigslist and garage sales and stuff stuffed in our garages............so we put it all together...
AND MAGIC WAS MADE, my friends.
and it all started out looking like this:
But then we rolled out a "wood" floor, and lots of carpet....
Some of us worked harder than others....
We strung lots and lots and lots of lights.....
We put together scads of shelves! And filled scads of bottles with oodles of pretty things...
and we put up art tables before we were even close to being done....because we had to make art, you see...
and we bought lots of old used furniture to repaint, and refinish...and make into magical pieces of loveliness...
and we did JUST THAT.....painted it, distressed it...gave it a new life...
We painted walls and walls and walls the prettiest, happiest and most beautiful colors we could find...
Kathy found a perfect sewing/laptop desk...a WWII officer's desk...big and bold and metal...with amazing hardware...
the flip-up writing area is perfect for a sewing machine OR a laptop!
I made art....and made art...and made art....big art, little art...tons and tons of art...everywhere you look...
We put inspiring and words of truth EVERYWHERE....everywhere you look...something lovely...
We made a million little spaces to photograph, video...and hang out together...and no corner was left unbeautified..
I painted my favorite painting ever....a painting of Brave Women Creating Beauty.....in all forms:
We even collaged the refrigerator!
We made beautiful things...we built our dream....and truly...our souls were beautified and built in the process...
When people in your life show up to help you make your dreams come true...this is love personified.
This happened over and over and over again. My husband....my favorite person on the planet...tirelessly hung ENORMOUS works of art,
built things, welded things, made things work, fixed things.......that is true true true love. :)
I held him up while he was on a 12 foot ladder. :) and while he hung my 8 foot painting. :)
We even have a "stage" for dance parties and fun.......(which also hides our storage of Brave Girl Camp stuff) complete with a 24 foot velvet theater curtain...
then one day, in the middle of all of it......I HAD AN IDEA. duh. that is what I do...:)
So I took out a piece of paper and I said to my sweet husband....WHAT IF...
What if I could have a HUUUUUUUGE magnet board...on wheels........what if...
and two days later, he showed up with this...he made it from scratch in his welding shop....
IT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!!!!! Even has beautiful metal roses...
Can you see I am soooooo in love....can you?
Can you see the love in these beautiful details?
Marq and Jeff and Brock worked SO HARD doing the man stuff....we never could have done this without them.
We made funky curtains EVERYWHERE....
We put up photos of people we adore......
People we adore showed up to help over and over and over again...
We had a complete and total blast....we knew we were making our dream place....so it was worth it....
We worked together.....each doing our thing...day after day after day...
and with all sorts of weird hairdos (oh, maybe that was just me...)
We masked a zillion places to keep the colors crisp and lovely...
we spent a lot of time on the floor taping and taping and taping....and painting and painting and painting...
Some of us even cleaned the place up....
We taught our son what we learned in surfing lessons....
(for reals...this looks weird, huh?...we got kinda tired and crazy after a while....)
We made works of art out of anything we could touch....like all of our lamps...
We decided to be gutsy...and STAY GUTSY.
Let me tell you why, my friends.
We did all of this because we have worked in places that have made us miserable....places that we could not wait to get out of .
We have felt trapped and yucky and invisible and overworked and all of those yucky things....we never want to feel that way again...
So we asked WHAT IF? And Brave Girls Club was born......we will never be in a cage again.
So...what is YOUR "What If?"
It all starts with that question beauties....it is worth it.
xoxo
melody
p.s. you will get to see the CLUBHOUSE in all of it's entire glory in a huge spread this summer
in WHERE WOMEN CREATE magazine....sorry we can't show you now!!!
It will be worth the wait for sure!
xoxo
Ok Friends.....
this is part of a much bigger story...but I am going to just tell you the beginning...and we will keep telling
you the rest of the story when the time is right. :)
This is Kim...she works here at Brave Girls Club and she is our right-hand-girl...
She is also one of my very best friends from Jr. High and High School...
so we have been in each other's lives for a long long time. She is perfect for BGC and what we do here.
But she hides......
She has a big dream of being on THE BIGGEST LOSER and if you watch the video below....you will fall in love with her.
But like we said...this story is far from over...and we can't wait to invite you along on this journey....
xoxo
melody
Dear Overwhelmed Girl,
Do you have the completely irrational belief that so many of us have? That you can be everything to everyone, especially to those that you love? Do you believe it's your job to keep them all happy, to help them with everything that they are struggling with and to then go out and save the world in your free time?
Do you over commit and then beat yourself up when you under-deliver?
Read more of "A little bird told me" - your Daily Truth from The Brave Girls Club
After the first few Brave Girl Camps...everyone wanted to get together for a reunion. As more and more camps gathered together...more and more asked for some kind of alumni get-together. We have had alumni meet-ups all over the country when we are traveling....but we decided to put together a sort of impromptu trip for those of us who wanted to get together for several days....and we went on a cruise!
Who better to spend some time with than our beloved Brave Girls!!!!!!
We got to relax.... and eat yummy food.... and visit.... and sleep.... and do some sight-seeing.... and sing... and RELAX!!!!
We spent an embarrassing amount of time at karaoke events.....
but it was fun...so I will not apologize! :)
I sang SMOKIN' IN THE BOYS ROOM....because I am just a rebel and I thought it would be funny.
We had so much fun and it was a great to see our alumni Brave Girl sisters!!!!!!
Wish we could see every single one of them at least once a year like this!
xoxo
melody
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