My Top 3 Joys of 2013!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope this year is off to a JOYFUL start! I just took a few minutes to tell you my Top 3 Joys of 2013 – and I would LOVE to hear yours!

Please share 🙂 xoxo Kate

Joyous Joy 80: Amazing Compliments Bring Me JOY!

Back in July at the NYC Summer Fancy Food Show I met a fabulous woman named Angela Neale who owns a new snack bar company named Simply Chopped.

Check out their website: http://simplychopped.com!

Her warm personality and clear passion for natural ingredients instantly drew me to her. For anyone out there who has read my business plan and my mission you know that Angela is my ideal customer.

After the food show I did plenty of follow up with prospective clients, but none more than with Angela.

Joyous Joy 79: Making Friends in Everyday Places

“Kate, Thank you for checking us in. You are a fabulous hostess. – Craig”

Working this year’s NYC Autumn Wine Festival was fantastic! I met so many amazing people who not only appreciated the delicious wine (275 different ones to be exact), but also some scrumptious food that went far beyond your typical meat and cheese tray.

This is a note I received from my very favorite guest. I met Craig and his friends when I was checking them into a blind wine tasting class. After chatting for awhile they all warmly hugged me and told me that I was their favorite person they met that day. It’s so encouraging to know that you can still meet people in every day situations like waiting in line. That even though we only just met and spoke for a few minutes and will probably never cross paths again, that they were kind enough to write me a note to show their appreciation. And I let them know the feeling was mutual.

Joyous Joy 78: I am Winning and Uphill Battle

It’s nice to be excited about getting on the scale for a change!

Everyone goes through it, so I know this isn’t that special of a post, but hotdog! I am excited!

For about the past 3 months I’ve been wearing the same pair of jeans (the only pair that fit!) and a limited selection of yoga pants. I have been refusing to buy new pants since I’ve “packed on a few pounds.”

When I saw the leaves were about to start changing I decided that

Joyous Joy 77: Finding the Joy in Being “Ugly”

I will never forget how far my jaw dropped and how many tears filled my eyes when a previous manager referred to me as her personal Ugly Betty. Looking back I think the situation is funny, but 6 years ago it crushed me.

Snipping away at a magazine, this lovely 2-sided collage was a definite joy inducer.

My manager had put me in charge of monitoring her email while she was on vacation. When her friend responded to an email in which she referred to me as her personal Ugly Betty I was crushed.

I had finally gotten over the Ricky Lake comparison I’ve got for years and now UGLY BETTY! I of course told all my friends about this incident and received the sympathy I was seeking.

Joyous Joy 76: A Simple Text Message was all I Needed

Today I have been feeling a little “off” and I really dislike days like these.

As you know, my company Launch Party is tomorrow and getting ready for it has been a bit taxing on me. I still stand by my brilliant decision of hand delivering invitations to my top 45 prospective clients, but my ankles and knees don’t agree. When I yawned through all of yesterday I knew it was time for a personal intervention. Therefore, I popped an Ambien last night and rejuvenated myself with 10 solid hours of sleep – it was glorious!

However, I have still been feeling a little “lost” today. Then I received a beautiful text from my AMAZING cousin, Christine Walters. It made my heart flutter and a loving smile emerge.

Joyous Joy 75: For the Love of Baby Pink Crocs

These last couple weeks have been very busy preparing for my Red Currant Launch Party. Although exciting, it’s been pretty dang stressful.

I recently had a lame Saturday that threw my positiveness for a loop-de-loop. The day included me trekking all over God’s Green Earth (in this case, concrete) for a series of disappointing adventures – all with unsuccessful outcomes. I was exhausted, my back and feet hurt and I was grumpalicious!

“This should cheer you up! I am painting in your favorite shoes!”

Lucky for me I always have support in times like these from my bestest friend in the whole wide galaxy, Miss Talya Moked.

Between calling and texting, I gave her the full play-by-play of bizarre and lame situations. As always, she did her best to help me laugh my way through it. She completely succeeded at this when she sent this pic!

It’s a little tough to see, but here is why I literally burst out hysterically laughing and the entire day’s stress vanished!

The Red Currant Story: Tears & Stairs (PRx)

This is a video of me telling the story of my internship interview at PRx Strategic Communications. It is such a funny story that I wanted to share it with all of you too – in  case you aren’t following my professional blog to hear The Red Currant Story.

Enjoy!

Joyous Joy 74: “Go Ahead…Order the Lobster”

Meet Lobby the Lobster.

I love succeeding at everything I do – and my great friend Sharla this morning proved that I have yet again!

Here is a comment she left on my Facebook wall that made me “awwwwww” out loud.

Random Joy: Non-burning Bush

This bush stopped me in my tracks yesterday. How lucky am I to walk past it each day?

Autumn and I have a precarious relationship. Every year I make the same statements (in this order).

1. “You like Fall? I don’t! All it means is that Winter is around the corner! And I HATE the cold! Why do I still live on the East coast?!”

2. “Okay, okay, if I go into Fall with this negative of an attitude, it’ll ruin this season that others seem to love so much. I am going to focus on the positive!”

3. “Look how beautiful these Fall colors are! Maybe it isn’t such a horrible season after all”

4. “Ugh! It’s getting colder – BOOOOO!”

5. “The best thing about cold weather is that I can do more cooking (since my NYC apartment literally turns into a sauna when the oven is on in the summer”

6. “Okay,” I reflect. “Get over yourself. There is no way you can control the weather. Just enjoy the endless supply of roasted vegetables and snuggling with your blankies.”

Any advice you can give to help me further appreciate Fall would be MUCH appreciated!