Yesterday, I hosted my first workshop in Charlottesville at Old Metropolitan Hall on the adorable Downtown Mall! I don’t have behind the scenes pictures yet (my sweet friend Serena was kind enough to take them for me) and I can’t share pictures of the styled shoot until it’s been published. But I wanted to share this revelation that hit me yesterday instead. I hope you’ll bear with me!

It was after lunch and I was just standing back watching everyone else interact and it hit me how excited I was that this was actually happening. I dreamed about this a long, long time ago. I had dreamed about teaching a workshop. When I looked up and realized that it was all coming true, I finally understood that the only thing it takes to make your dreams come true is just get up off your ass and go do them. I literally said out loud “It feels so weird…I just wanted to make this happen, and now it is! How crazy is it that you can just do whatever you want to do?”.

Every once in a while I start to fear that this life (my amazing job, the best husband ever, our life together in general) is just too good to be true. What did I ever do to deserve John? Or our incredible clients and friends? Or getting to quit my full time job to pursue my passion? I never feel like I did enough to quite deserve any of it. But yesterday’s revelation reminded me that it isn’t by luck or by chance alone that life is what it is right now. It’s by hard work and determination. And with that same dedication, we can go anywhere we want to in the future! It reminded me that all of those bucket list dreams (writing a book, going to Hawaii, running a MARATHON, etc) are only as far away as I let them get. I hope whoever might be reading this remembers that too. Your dreams are as close as you want them to be. All you have to do, is just go out and do them.

End inspirational message for the day 🙂 Here’s a small snippet from yesterday’s workshop. I hope to share a full behind the scenes tour later this week, and the shoot as soon as it’s accepted for publication!

Thanks to Dear Sweetheart Events for this beautiful bouquet!