It's been a crazy year for us, with finding out we were expecting , to our little bundle coming early and having to say goodbye to him. Our hearts have been broken and heavy, but recently we've been able to start to come out of this fog we've both been feeling. The fog may never fully lift, but we can see through it a bit.
Vivid Liquid Lips
Loving my new vivid matte liquid lips. Smooth, silky and soft!
Almost 2 Years and Cannot Wait For 100 More!
This is a bit cheesy, but this post is dedicated to the love of my life. The man that makes me laugh, who holds my hand when we watch scary movies and who holds me up when I am weak. It has been almost two years since we were married in Paris and everyday since has been an adventure.
While the last two years have had their ups and downs, life has been so good to us and has provided us with the opportunity to travel, to visit friends and family as well as save for our future family. My husband is a great man who works hard, supports me with my career efforts and most of all treats me like a queen.
This weekend we are taking a bit of time for ourselves and reconnecting with one another. I love adventures like this, we hike, we wine sip, we eat, we relax and most of all we are together.
I cannot wait to keep experience life and most of all share many more adventures with this man. Happy Anniversary!
Lemon’s when you expected lemonade
Support is all around:
A few weeks ago we had a life altering experience that tested our faith and our hope, however, somehow together we endured. Nick and I have always had each other’s back. No matter what, it has always been him and I against the world, but when I fell ill a month ago we were so taken aback by the love and support we received from so many.
I have been in and out of the doctor’s office for the last 30 days, with tons of blood tests and exams. This is what my life has been like:
While we are still working through the past month’s events, we are stronger because of our family, our friends, and even our co-workers who have gone out of their way to help us grocery shop, run errands, and just be here for us. It is important to cherish those who are around you, those silent supporters and those who care for us no matter what.
To all those who have supported us over the last month and more, THANK YOU!
Am I Really Living in the South?
It has been a little over 3 months since Nick and I moved from Minneapolis, MN to Raleigh, NC for Nick’s new career with a start-up Semiconductor company. Raleigh has been an amazing place to be (even though it has been one of the coldest and snowiest winters in 43 years!), we have made some good friends and met some interesting people. Our apartment is located in the area known as North Hills, we are literally right upstairs from everything! We have a boutique bowling alley called Sparian’s, a 24 hour Harris Teeter grocery store, Piola Pizzeria, Henry’s Gelato and Massage Envy! As I said, right above everything….
Nick and I drove from Minneapolis to Columbia City, IN (it took 10+ hours) where stayed the night with his parents and grandparents. It is always so funny to be in Nick’s hometown as it is so small town America, but everyone that lives there seems to take pride in the fact that they are from Columbia City. The next day we drove to New Bremen, OH to have lunch with Nick’s Uncle Brad. New Bremen is so cute and small it reminds me of Pleasantville.
After lunch we drove almost straight through to Raleigh. Finally, we arrived at our new home. Our first place together that wasn’t his and wasn’t mine, but that was ours. It was almost a week before any of our furniture arrived so there was a ton of sleeping on the floor and then we purchased a futon so it was like we were living back in college.
New Job, Fresh Start and the Beginning of Something Great!
It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. Since my birthday Nick and I have traveled to Fort Myers Beach, FL to visit his family for the holidays. Then on Jan. 2nd Nick left for India for three weeks. He has been completing a course of his MBA program at The Carlson Business School at University of Minnesota. So while he has been traveling I started a new job. As of Jan. 6th I am the newest Marketing Associate at Three Deep Marketing Inc. located in North St. Paul, MN. It has been a great experience for me. The leadership and the fellow employees make the office a great environment. With this new job has come new challenges and new projects that I have never done before. It reinvigorates a person when their passion comes back in full force.
The Perfect Birthday at The Firelight Inn!
Greetings! As many of you may know I just celebrated my 27th birthday and as usual I was dreading it. See the past two years have been less than ideal, but memorable they were. So this year’s resolution was NOT to celebrate my birthday. No I don’t mean to ignore it and act as if it never existed, but instead to treat it like any other day. Well on the 11th of this month my girlfriends Ashley, Jessica and Shelsie convinced me to celebrate with a friendly dinner with my girlfriends. The idea was that if I celebrated a week before nothing could go wrong. So we all got gussied up and headed to SeaChange located at The Guthrie Theater for a drinks and a nice meal.The dinner was turning out nice and we were all have such a great time, so once dinner was finished we decided to head to The W for after dinner drinks.
Well weren’t we all colored red when I received a phone call saying that there was some water damage at my place and I had to head home ASAP! “Oh lord, I knew something like this was going to happen!”, I exclaimed to the ladies. They all looked at me sadden as they saw my disappointed look.
Needless to say there were issues, but they were able to be resolved. Thankfully, but with this event I was really concerned about my actual birthday. What if something even worse happened? As I awoke on the day of my birth (Dec. 18th) I was surprised by my WONDERFUL boyfriend Nick. He had went and ordered me my dream birthday cake from Wuollet’s Bakery on Hennepin in Minneapolis, MN and also picked me up a Venti light roast coffee from Starbucks. 🙂 I was so excited and happy my birthday was starting out right. Nick said he wanted everything to be just right because I deserved a great birthday, so with that he handed me my birthday card and present. The card was hilarious and I almost peed my pants reading and listening to it. Then I opened my present, an iPod Touch something that I wanted, but didn’t have to have! 🙂
This birthday was just getting better and on top of the present Nick sliced me off a HUGE piece of birthday cake for breakfast now I was living the life! My day just keept better; later that afternoon Nick and I loaded up the car and headed to Duluth, MN for a romantic night at The Firelight Inn a B&B with the best innkeepers and luxuries. We reserved the Barnum Suite a room with a nice huge comfy bed and a whirlpool jet tub!
Oh how wonderful this was, we were staying in a historic mansion, there was endless sugar cookies, coffee and coco and the innkeepers were the nicest people. I was in heaven. Joy one of the innkeepers gave us a tour of the mansion and gave us the history. The original owner Mr. Barnum was one of the founders of General Mills and was a big philanthropist that was a giving man. As we finished our tour we settled into our suite and rested a bit. Once we were ready for dinner Joy helped us pick a great sea food restaurant, PickWicks a historic pub with friendly and speedy food and service. Dinner was scrumptious, with our stomach’s satisfied we headed back to the inn where we discovered three deer grazing on the side of the mansion. How special, it was a great way to end the night. Later in our room we watched a dvd, relaxed, had a piece of birthday cake and enjoyed some vino (thanks to Sonja and Robin of ScoopyPoo). The night was successful. In the morning we had a treat waiting at our door. A breakfast basket full of goodies.
Each morning Joy and Jim make from scratch breakfast for their guest and deliver it to their door so they don’t have to go to the dining room to eat. With the wonderful breakfast we had mimosa’s a nice way to start the day and end our stay at the inn.
As we made our way downstairs I had to do one more thing and get Nick and I’s picture in front of the big beautiful Christmas tree! A perfect way to remember the trip and the inn. For the first time in three years I finally had a perfect birthday and it was all thanks to Nick and the Firelight Inn (Joy and Jim).
Happy 27th Birthday to me!
A Christmas Wish!
As I sit on the couch listening to classic Christmas music, a smile comes over my face. Christmas has always been a great and memorable time of year for me. Growing up my grams and I would prepare the Advent Wreath, the Nativity Scene and the Christmas Tree and it all was just magical. Each year I would try to get my grams to let me put the decorations up earlier and earlier and once in awhile she let me do it before Thanksgiving. That time of year was so special for me, it was so magical and it was comforting.
Now, at the age of 26 I realize that some of that magic has disappeared and I am not sure if it is due to age, life experiences, work or the fact that when you grow up you are not supposed to believe in magic. Regardless I want that innocent, wide eyed, magic believing little 6 year old back. So, that is why I have made the promise to myself to begin to believe in the miracles of Christmas. I will start doing this by completing this list:
- Decorate a tree
- Decorate a window
- Make Christmas Cookies
- Sit on Santa’s lap
- Making a wish list of presents
- Leaving Christmas cookies for Santa
- Listen to Christmas music
- Pass holiday cheer where ever I go
- Help my friends believe
I have completed 5 of these items, below see the Christmas Tree I helped decorate at ScoopyPoo….DoggyDoo PickUp.
I know that these goals seem simple, but I think sometimes we make things more difficult then they need to be. If we all reverted back to those 6 year olds we used to be we might see the magic that still exists.
I ask all that read this to look around at your children, nieces, nephews, cousins or any child and see their faces when you mention Christmas.Their faces light up, they have that twinkle in their eyes and they have belief in their hearts. Isn’t that what we all want? I know I do.
So where ever you are this holiday season open your heart andyour eyes to the magic that is all around. Lets see those miracles start to happen, because after all, “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!”
Happy Holidays. 🙂
Happy Holidays
Flurries of snow danced around me this morning when I walked into ScoopyPoo….DoggyDooPickUp
World Headquarters! I was promptly greeted by Gunnar Tengdin (the inspiration behind ScoopyPoo….DoggyDooPickUp) his tail wagging and a toy in his mouth; it seemed he was also excited about this cool winter weather.
As I headed to my desk I could smell the coffee that was brewing at Bruegger’s off of 44th & France Ave. S. and without even thinking I picked my mug up and went for a cup of 1/2 Hazelnut Coffee, 1/2 Hot Chocolate. Well, needless to say thanks to Bruegger’s excellent marketing tactic I ended up buying a bagel sandwich with my “Bottomless” mug of coffee. At the beginning of the year spend $100+ on a coffee mug and receive “Bottomless” mugs of coffee, well in a year I will drink more than $100+ so okay, but then I didn’t figure in the “extras” each time I visited Bruegger’s. I just have to say my hats are off to them!
So, as I made my way back to ScoopyPoo….DoggyDooPickUp I thought, “how nice is it to have a warm drink, watch the snowfall and get to be at a place that makes me happy?” 🙂 I hope that you all are able to be somewhere that keeps you warm, makes you smile and that is special. Have a great day!
Marketing can be a doggy eat dog world!
As the Marketing Industry seems to have taken a lull it is imperative that businesses start to invest in Marketing Strategies that are more innovative then the business next to them, because after all there is always another company ready to take their place!
In the June 2009 Harvard Business Review entitled Innovation in Turbulent Times writers Darrell Rigby, Kara Gruver and James Allen state that, “When resources are constrained, the key to growth is pairing an analytic left-brain thinker with an imaginative right-brain partner”. I believe that this is correct when it comes to businesses succeeding in rough economic times. What would a company be if they didn’t try to adjust to the changing times? Take for example cellular phones, if once the iPhone came out and companies like Motorola and Blackberry didn’t try to reconfigure or update their phones where would they be? They would be non-existent, but thanks to the recognition of times changing Motorola and Blackberry are still around and in the case of Balckberry doing very well. In other cases companies grow uncomfortable with change and do not believe that their innovations are worth while and sometimes even with innovations in products they fail.
“But when times are hard, companies grow disillusioned with their innovation efforts for a reason: Those efforts weren’t very effective to begin with. Innovation isn’t integral to the workings of many organizations. The creativity that leads to game-changing ideas is missing or stifled. Why would any company gamble on a process that seems risky and unpredictable even in good times?”
The answer is be ahead of the game, look at what you are giving your consumer rt now and map out what it should or will look like in two years. By reinventing your product or tweaking it you help your consumer realize that they need your product. A great example is my Nikon Point and Shoot. I bought it less than 6 months ago because I needed something with higher resolution and picture quality and now Nikon has come out a new Point and Shoot that frames faces, you can touch the screen and you can take self images and ensure that your image is framed correctly. I now feel that I need this camera, why? Nikon keeps reinventing their product.
So lesson here is keeping up-to-date and keep your product up with changing times with at least two year lee time!
Nicole Brown 