CREATE.

Spent some quality time making jewelry with my best Kate yesterday.  

Kate's friends gave her some feathers from their lovebirds (not to worry- the birds were not harmed for their feathers ;) and she did some beautiful things with them creating earrings and started making a necklace for yours truly!  Kate has a great talent for designing jewelry and I am so excited for her to start producing pieces again. I will be sure to put my PR skills to use and be her publicist as soon as she's ready to sell her creations. :) 

TOMS

Apparently I am the last to know about TOMS shoes. On the morning of Black Friday, my co-workers and I got to lululemon @ 5:30am to prepare for the madness and I noticed them both wearing amazing silver twinkle toe sparkle shoes! Turns out they were TOMS.

TOMS has created the One for One movement- the company matches every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. 

One For One. 

The company has already donated more than 1 million shoes! 

I ran to Nordstrom immediately after my shift ended and picked up a pair. My new Holiday shoes :-) 

This is fashion I can stand behind- drop dead cute, and a humanitarian movement to benefit children! 

Give yourself or a friend an early Christmas present and pick up a pair of TOMS!!

TONS of cute styles!

http://www.toms.com/ 

Give thanks

As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily.  The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world.  ~Terri Guillemets

Happy Thanksgiving!! 

Last night in my yoga class before we began our practice, we took some time to talk about gratitude.  We took turns sharing what we were thankful for and it was beautiful to hear everyone's different answers. 

One woman was thankful for her recent move to Hawaii, another was thankful that she was alive after she had gone through a serious surgery earlier this year, one expressed gratitude for the challenges she had faced recently because of the growth that came with them, and one was thankful for everyone in her life, including us, the people she was practicing yoga with yet didn't even know outside the studio. 

What I felt most thankful for came easy, a strong image of my parents came to mind.  I felt the need to tell every person in class how amazing and special my parents are.  I could take over the class and talk about them for the hour and a half that we were supposing to be practicing yoga- easy! Instead- I quite simply stated that I was thankful for them.  Their never ending love and support, even in times of my extreme indecision about what I want to do and where I want to be, they seem to jump on my path and support what I decide.  My entire heart yearns to be with them today- as I can imagine a fire blazing in the living room, an amazing food aroma filling the house, and the TV set on a football game that no one is really watching because everyone is hanging out in the kitchen.  To whoever is reading- I hope that you celebrate today with loved ones and remember to give thanks not only today, but everyday. 

"I think I am jaded to sunsets"- my friend Dane says 

as we start moving out on the ocean.. preparing for a sail past the sunset returning only when the moon has risen for the night and everyone on the boat has had their fill of all you can drink mai tais, vodka & rum mixes, and cheap beers.  

And I am ashamed to say... I felt the same. How many sunsets can you experience, how many pictures can you take, how many different colors can you count in the sky before they all start to run together?  I took a moment to look at the sunset before my eyes and tried to feel it.  Search my soul for the appreciation that should have already been present.

And then, as if Mother Nature felt my shame, the repeat-nothing special sunset I felt I had seen so many times before, changed to am amazing pink, orange extravaganza. We sat on the boat, everyone grabbing their camera's to take pictures, staring in silence and uttering words about how beautiful it was. And of course- reminding ourselves, "Lucky we live Hawaii" 

Hawaii Spirit Festival

Can I please have a repeat weekend of the Hawaii Spirit Festival? 

On North Shore, no technology (ok I did have my phone but I was never on it), and the only stress (if you can even call it that) of the day was which workshop to take! 

Pranayama with Rod Stryker? Or Happy Yoga with Steve Ross?

West African Dance or the Yoga of Astrology? 

The Sprit Festival was an event that left me feeling inspired, liberated, and ALIVE. In participating in these workshops and meeting these master teachers who own studios, travel & teach yoga for a living - things became very real and very clear. 

What these influencing individuals did for me- I want to do for others.  

I decided that weekend- that my Yoga teacher training I planned for in 2012 couldn't wait. 

My heart was telling me- Do it now. 

It took me less than 10 minutes to find out that my studio was planning a teacher training in January 2011.
Perfecto!

I can't blog about the HI SPirit Fest without talking about Twee. She's amazeballs! A senior teacher and trainer of Yoga who

 has been on a spiritual awakening tour for 3 years... traveling all over the world to inspire and empower people in different communities. She donates a portion of all of her proceeds from yoga events to local and global charities as a contribution to improve the lives of those less fortunate- like I said-amazeballs.  

While I was taking her class, soaking in every word she said like a sponge, she kept going back to the same message, that we are our best guru- listen to your inner teacher, turn inward instead of looking outside for answers.  I have never taken a class from someone who had so much passion and heart in her words.   

There were probably 50 or more people in class and everyone seemed to be captivated by her presence and hanging onto her every word and lesson. 

So while Twee reminded us that our best teacher is ourselves, I couldn't help but look at her in reverence- feeling so blessed to be in the same space at this astounding woman.  I felt a force I couldn't ignore to talk to her after class and thank her (without begging her to take me under her wing, teach me everything she knows, and allow me to travel the world with her.) That's what I REALLY wanted to say... but I figured a simple "thank you" would be suffice. 

http://www.tweeyoga.com/index.html