Rain, rain, go away

Who loves a good shower?

Baby Showers, Bridal Showers

Of course they can be so much fun, getting to see everyone and celebrate our friends and family's milestones.  But let's be realistic, watching the guest of honor open gifts that she's registered for and everyone has already seen because they were just shopping with the list in  hand, isn't exactly riveting entertainment. 

Why not try a presentation shower instead?  Guests are instructed to bring their gift unwrapped.  When they get there, they can fill out a tag with their name, affix it to the gift, and place it on the presentation table.  This way the bride (or mother-to-be) can just peruse the table and thank her guests as she mingles through the party.  Great, right?  It opens the shower up to so many other possibilities than bridal bingo!  Now you can have other kinds of entertainment that traditionally wouldn't work at a shower.  This is a great option for Jack and Jill showers, too, because the men would NEVER sit through a traditional shower!

The Evolution of a Blog

Like my profile says, I have a real Renaissance soul, and am passionate about many things.  While I may have started out wanting this blog to be about my business, I find myself always thinking of things I could be blogging about, but they are not always necessarily about events or event planning.  I think my business may evolve into a business more about "Inspired Living" with branches that deal with parties, style, healthy living, travel, and general lifestyle branding, so why not start with my blog.  At least I'll find it more interesting, too!  So here are some new tags you can expect from me:

Style
 - Obviously dealing with fashions, but could also be hairstyles, shopping tips, makeup finds, random pictures of outfits I love.  This is one that spills out into a lot of places in my life, because I like pretty. 

Healthy Living
 - This is what inspired me write this post.  I was running and thought of the things that I wish I knew when I started running. That made me think I should post that somewhere for people to know, which lead me to this post.  Healthy Living could be healthy recipes, workout tips, inspiration, updates on my training, anything!

Gluten Free
- I could have put this with Healthy Living, but I'm thinking it needs it's own tag.  You see, I have autoimmune disease and it's effected directly with consumption of Gluten.  Since I've been gluten free (January 1, 2012), I have felt better than I have in years.  I'm always learning about new recipes, finding new products (wait till I post about GF beer), and learning tips about managing this lifestyle.

Home Decorating
 - See Style, I like pretty.  I love filling my surrounding with pretty things.  Even though I don't love my house, I do love my home.  I'm constantly making changes to it.  Updating room and collecting inspiration for upcoming projects around my home. 

Cocktails
 - Part of Events, for sure, but I've been on a kick for seasonal cocktails.  I'll post some for you.

Overheard at the Dinner Party
 - Okay, so this is a catch all for all of the things I find interesting in life.  Stuff I would talk about at a dinner party.  It could be politics (though not political), news events, interesting articles I've read, a conversation to start, anything!

Travel
 - This is already a tag, but I'll be able to do more with it now.  We travel a lot and I've already got a blog  devoted to our families bigger vacations but I thought I could elaborate more here, especially when it comes to travel tips, or plans I'm making for upcoming trips.

Entertainment
 - I love art, film, books, music, and great television.  I'll share some of my favorites, including the books I'm currently reading for my book club!  You might get turned onto a movie that you've never heard of, or a killer running playlist of music, or find the next book you have to read!

I hope you enjoy this journey with me!

Love,
Sue
the muse of
a.muse inspired living

How can we do it all?

Ah, the age old question...  How can we do it all?

A friend and I were having lunch Thursday and talking about our kids, our careers, our goals.  She is the breadwinner in her family and needs to be working, which suits her perfectly because she's is a brilliant, ambitious, hard working and well educated woman.  She recently left a high profile executive job to launch her own website (we'll see her on the cover of Forbes one day), and has been at home with her kids while working hard at getting her brilliant idea off the ground.  She's securing investors, writing the code for the site, hiring the right people...  busy.

Even though her husband is super supportive, and has been the model of a true partner shuttling the kids around and making dinners, she's found that her presence at home has really made a difference for her children.  They are happier, getting better grades, benefiting from her advice more.  She really loves how calm her household is with her at home, but she's feeling the financial burden of not bringing home the money she once was.

Bring in the twist.  She was just offered another high-profile, high paying executive position.  Knowing that it may be years before her website affords her the salary her family is accustomed to, and knowing that in her lies this ambition to do something with herself that makes a mark in the business world, she's torn.  This new position would have her commuting into the city again, but would give her an opportunity to be CEO in just a few years.  She will not be able to make all of her son's wrestling matches anymore, but she can afford to send him to that expensive science camp he wants to attend int he summer.  She will not be able to sit with her girls after school and hear all about their day, but she can continue to send them to the private all girl school they love so much.

It's the age old question... How can you do it all?  If I had the answer, I would be rich enough to retire and be home with my daughter!

Ladies Who Launch

I've been noticing a theme among my friends lately...  entrepreneurship!  Perhaps because we all have children that are growing up, many of my once sushi lunching, yoga practicing, tennis playing, play date having friends have started, or are starting their own businesses.  From my two friends who partnered up to open a yoga studio with a great name, Peace Love Art Yoga (PLAY); to the one who created the coolest product for her teen daughter, high-quality fur boot covers for her old uggs, then went into mass production for worldwide sales; to the friend who is busy launching a website to give moms a social network to share their mogul ideas, to the overachieving friend with the high powered job that decided to write a book about empowering herself and others.  How lucky for me to be embarking on this journey with such brilliant and confident women.  We now can support each other and help one another navigate through the woods of starting a new business by sharing in each others successes and learning from each others mistakes.  Love my ladies!