Archive for the ‘Encounters’ Category

Shades of February

A little color goes a long way. In the past few days in my travels I have encountered a pattern of early springtime.  Yellow.  It’s everywhere and the funky moods that parallel it are pretty significant. So I thought to capture it in this blog… so relax, put your feet up and enjoy!

Sunny pencil cannister
Sunny pencil cannister
 
The smell of newly sharpened pencils remind me of the first day of school and so does the
look of this cool 60′s inspired metal container!
 
Grapefruit tree in full harvest

Grapefruit tree in full harvest

 This tree has so many grapefruits – I think I will come back later tonight hoping for the ones that have fallen  (ha ha ha !)

Saltwater Taffy - Banana Style
Saltwater Taffy – Banana Style
Sweet banana flavored Saltwater taffy from Rocket Fizz in Campbell (YUM)!!! 
 
Kick Some Sass

Kick Some Sass

One of the fun skateboard decks at our gallery… Are you ready to “Kick Some Sass?”
 
No Parking Zone

No Parking Zone

On driving into Campbell this morning I saw this hubcap hanging on this fire hydrant … Unsure of the message here – but made for a great photo for this evolving blogposting!
 
Glass flavors to die for...

Glass flavors to die for...

Phase one of my new love for glass art and the creation of glass art beads.  These are some of the first I have created with my new setup and equipment, so far I am loving it LOTS, and here again the yellow keeps popping up!
 
Sweet Corn Maize
Sweet Corn Maize

Well, if you can’t get enough butter into your diet, then have yourself some Sweet Corn Soda, most likely made with Corn syrup but I am pretty sure that this is an acquired taste.

 
What’s your favorite color – please reply and let me know what’s your flavor and why?
Happy February Y’all!
 
 
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Fun Sonya Sightings

When I was a little kid, I felt as though I wanted a name that was a “ordinary” name, much like my friends in school or people on TV.  I thought I wanted to change my name to become a Sue, Donna or Mary, this would make me feel like I would fit in. Much to my realization at this early age, I wasn’t so ordinary, I was a complex little kid with loads of energy and I had a pace to beat to my own drummer.  Not at all like the Sue, Donna or Mary’s that I knew.

So there is was, I was just me. Sonya.

As much as it was sort of inconvenient at times to have anything ordered special with my name on it, I grew to like the fact that that it wasn’t bad to be the only Sonya around.  Now as a grown up and a business owner who has transitioned my name into a brand it’s fun to see my artwork in different places.

Most recently it was brought to my attention that it was featured on the Disney network show “A.N.T. Farm” as one of the colorful pieces of artwork featured on the show. Often times I hear stories how someone was in an open house or a friends home where they saw my artwork prominently displayed!

Sonya's "Rockabilly Red Rhythm City" on ANT Farm!

Sonya's "Rockabilly Red Rhythm City" on ANT Farm!

There are many interesting Sonya’s out there and especially Sonya’s that are creative artists too. I recently located another form of a “Sonya” sighting that was truly delightful. The district in Brooklyn called “South Of the Navy Yard Artists”… aka.. S.O.N.Y.A. This was a fun find to stumble upon.

S.O.N.Y.A. is a non profit ins a specific area in Brooklyn, NY that consists of visual artists living, creating, and/or exhibiting in the Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill, Wallabout, and Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Whom are diverse and dynamic artists in their community.

The SONYA District

The SONYA District

It’s great to see other Sonya artists in performing arts, visual arts, musicians, television, film and so many other creative media. There is some style of a kinship that I believe we can all relate to… especially creatively!  I love to hear about these sightings, if you encounter some,  please share and let us know where  :o )

Disclaimer:  I know a fair amount of fabulous women named Sue, Donna or Mary…, this blog was to convey my message and not to discredit any of the Sue, Donna’s or Mary’s out there.

Tip of the morning to you…

So, I suppose I should get right to the point… I recently had a customer who paid for his purchase in cash and looked for a place to discard his $0.18 cents in change. He asked if we had a “Tip Jar”, the look of sheer shock much have crossed over my face (much like a sandrails tread on a Pismo Dune) as I simply said, “we don’t have a tip jar here, we’re not that kind of business”. The nice gentleman said “oh I thought all retails independent  shops had those – you provide a service so you should have a tip jar”.   I smiled and sort of chuckled because as much as he was being sincere and thoughtful, insinuating to my customers to contribute to a jar of money for a service that I feel is already a free genuine compliment of daily business-as-usual was so absurd. In fact, I cannot even fathom such a thing.

Great customer service is priceless!

Great customer service is priceless!

It seems everywhere you go you see tip jars. You see them in retail chains, independent mom and pop cafe’s and every once and again you’ll see a sign on a tip jar that reads “Tipping is Good Karma”.  Ummm OK … WHAT???   So now I am being guilted into contributing into the vessel of paper and metal currency for customer service which may or may-not be very good.  I want to think that the person behind the counter isn’t going to take  note and mess up my order or something worse… I really have a hard time buying into that program.

I am the biggest fan and evangelist of customer service, I feel that is what brings people back to visit us in the gallery or to purchase art or retail products from us is the fact that we have quality friendly and no hassle awesome customer service… in fact I believe the general public thrives on it, they love it and either consciously or unconsciously experienced a positive experience and it makes them feel great.

So, is it my imagination or is customer service becoming the lost art of retail business? It seems only natural to me to greet people when they enter the gallery and to let them know that we are here to assist without making them feel hunted or followed throughout the gallery. Making sure that people feel like they’re appreciated. A kind thank you accompanied by a smile is one of the best things you can experience in a daily routine. It’s free and meaningful.

Now if you ask me – this is the best tip and in my opinion, that’s good karma!

Riding High

Once upon a time there was a little girl who had a big beautiful dream, she wanted to ride like the wind and to some extent live dangerously.  She loved horses and admired their amazing strength, beautiful coat, luxurious manes and long tails.  She wanted a horse so badly it became much of who she was.  She lived and breathed everything horses, read horse magazines, collected horse figurines and helped out at the local 4H club – even though she was not amongst one of the youths fortunate to have a horse of her own.

After much pleading, begging and persuading, she convinced her parents to let her take riding lessons, hoping and wishing that if she proved herself well enough with the lessons, her folks would give in and accommodate her wish.

You may have already guessed who the little girl in this story is… and the dream of having my own horse was so consuming that it was all I thought about at 11 years old.

The riding lessons were the most exciting experience ever and the smells of the stables is a distinct scent; a sweaty, salty, alfalfa, hay and manure infused smell that you either love it -or- you hate it.  I loved it.  My desire for riding lessons was one for the love of the sport of horse racing.  I suppose there were other styles of  riding sports like vaulting or equestrians, but the large arena of the track and the rush of the speed and a winners circle was most exciting for me.

Successful Women Jockeys

Successful Women Jockeys

For those of you that known me for many years would agree that I would have been the perfect candidate for being a jockey, I had the racing attitude, the perseverance, the need for adventure and a (slight) element of living dangerously.

But most importantly, professional Jockeys range in height from 4’10″ to 5’6″ and in weight from 108 to 118 pounds. I would have been perfect at 5′ tall and averaging 105 lbs. I have been the same size since I have been in high school (yeah yeah, before you call me names and say you hate me) let me just say that I highly respected this sport especially pioneering women like Robyn Smith, the first woman jockey, who inspired me as a young girl and made me want to learn more and succeed.  I was learning more with my riding, technique and gaining confidence, the basics on saddling the horse, washing and grooming them, all becoming part of my environment. Wanting to be the next Robyn Smith, to have no fear, have a job where you can ride a horse, get dirty and carry a crop, the ultimate thrill!

Robyn Smith - First Woman Jockey

As time passed, and as a vulnerable 13 years old gullible kid at this point I was very impressionable and malleable determined to know what I wanted at 13 , so when a grungy stable guy asked me why I was learning to ride and why such an interest if I did not have a horse?  My answer was simple “I am going to be a jockey and I want to learn as much as I can and be the best jockey ever, and not all jockeys own their own horses”.  I can still hear his cynical nasally annoying laugh  like it was yesterday, he followed by saying “what? a jockey? You? Are you kidding, if you wanted to start learning to train and ride to be a jockey, you should have started riding at five years old”.  He walked away snickering and shaking his head.

I was crushed.

I went home and kept asking my parents if I was too old like the dumb stable guy said and unfortunately they simply did not know.  Those were the days when you had to really research answers, there was no Google or internet at that time and what became my quest for answers quickly became my disappointment and disenchantment. Sadly, I never got my own horse, but that would be another lesson learned in my life, you don’t always get what you so desperately want. My parents were very frugal and wanted me to know this and understand this. Sometimes in life you know that you can’t have everything you want, no matter how hard you work, it’s just life.

The moral of this story is simple. You have a dream, a vision and an attitude to fulfill something of your utmost desires, do not let anyone stifle you or stand in your way, persevere and gallop forward no matter what.  Reflecting  back on this encounter, this was probably one of the best experiences I had at an early age so I can have this as a life lesson moving forward.

After all, would you take advice from a stable boy…. seriously,  I often wonder whatever became of the guy shoveling all of the crap at the stable?

Sonya Paz Gallery

Sonya Paz Fine Art Gallery

Fog of the Blog

Yes, I know.  I am guilty.  I have not been blogging as I had hope to in the past several months.  As I sit here at my computer I ask myself, how can I spend so much time at this thing and not blog my thoughts daily… or weekly…. or bi monthly…  ((deep sigh here)).  It’s not like I have nothing else to do.

Funny thing, I get people asking me about my blog and when will I write more, others ask if I would document more about my life as an artist as they want to see the hard work and want to be in my shoes for a while…. (ok, whatever I suppose, be careful what you wish for!)  I cannot even wrap my head around that thought for a second… but heck, I (guess) am flattered that people are interested to see what I do on a regular basis.

My Glamour Muse

My Glamour Muse

When I started the blog, the intent was to dig into my the deep dark cellars of my mind to be able to give some dialog to who I am and why I do what I do, why I create, what are the inspirations and thoughts about why I paint and how they are projected on the canvas.  At the beginning, it was great, it was fun, it was an adventure of tossing myself out into the web world and share what I may not think is even remotely  interesting.  To be able to distill my random thought process into something palatable that people may be able to understand me and my wacky ways.   Interesting that my brain is always in the fast lane, thinking, processing and distilling imagery, fearing that all of that fast lane mumbo jumbo may be overwhelming to some, I know it surely is for me!

Back in February of this year, I chronicled  “a day in the life”this was  a scope of what a random work day was like for me as a gallery owner, entrepreneur, designer, artists, retailer, painter, dog owner, sales clerk etc, etc, etc… and I have to say that that day was absolutely exhausting, to actually have to document my movements throughout the day was excruciating , seemed to make the tasks doubled.  I know blogs are supposed to be fun and I am not complaining entirely, but I need to make this interesting so that I am not bored with it.

What I plan to do is be more disciplined about my blogging, perhaps maybe it’s only a thought or some arty tidbit, I will work on this and be a better blogger. I mean… do you really even care if I workout daily, what I am eating, what I am painting, where am I going, what’s on my mind?  Perhaps I am listening too much on what everyone wants vs. what I can deliver, so there I go.  You will just have to get what I give and that’s that!

So, I will tune into my muse and hopefully the “fog” will burn off and I can see clearly into the blogfilled horizon to provide you with some tasty flavorful arty inspirations.

True Grit – A day in the life


So as promised, I often get asked on what is in the life and headspace of a working artist.  Most people think that this is a glamorous job where I am whirling in the glitter and glam of running my own gallery.  Whenever asked this – my mind switches to overload mode as I get a flash memory of myself in a state of painting craziness and administrative discombobulation.  Glamour, I think not, just a suitcase full of hard work, multitasking and determination to get things done in a semi-timely manner.

I have always wanted to have a running dialog of “my day in the life”. Needless to say this was a quite stressful and overwhelming project, but needed to get it done and share some of the “Glamour” with you.  So here is the dialog as clear and concise as I can get it for you.

8:17am  Got up, woke up (well…. for the fourth time in the last eight hours, not willingly of course) to start my day.

8:20am   Hugged dog – very important

8:30am  Got herbal tea situated and turned on the TV. Local news.

9:00am  Turned on Regis and Kelly and checked email and Facebook, networked online.

9:20am  Got an email from one of our retailers placing an order, responded accordingly. I am very grateful.

9:50am  Cell phone rang, checked vmail and got primmed and ready to get to the gallery – what shall I wear you ask??? (Yes, yet another boring ensemble of dark pants and darker top with semi dark sweater).

10:10am Washed dishes and put breakfast stuff away, straighten out living room. before departing  Yes, I hate coming home to a messy domain.

10:15am Put SAMi in the car and made calls while driving to the gallery (Yes, I was using my trusty Motorola ear piece!)

11:00am         Got into the gallery but with my excitement of how the new artwork that I varnished last night looked today when completely dry, I truly forgot to unlock the front doors to the gallery until at least 11:25am…. sorry UPS man, my bad bad bad!

11:26am Unlocked the front gallery doors  (yeah…..)

11:30am Turned on computer and checked emails and Facebook again, processed emails and gave SAMi a tasty for her  doing a dookey on her paper potty place. (I will not disgust with a photo of that).

11:35am Made a cup of TAZO Lotus tea. Delightfully yummy.  However too hot.  Ouch.

I love Tazo Lotus Tea!

I love Tazo Lotus Tea!

11:37am to 12:15pm    Spend some time catching up on emails, scheduling meetings for next week, peeking at friends new photos on Facebook, laughing, assisting customers, greeting friends, talking shop, sold some coasters and a mini pop art and did some power networking online.

12:16pm .Took another large canvas out and started to draft out a large wine piece, as the more personal piece is done for now, a more streamline piece is necessary. My goal is one big painting a week.  Yeah, sure – not too sure how that is going to fly.

12:23pm Customers arrive, four ladies from lunch, I greet them, they love the gallery, they have seen the art at the San Jose Airport, we chat about that.  They were very nice!

12:30pm Feeling hungry… out of Salty snacks…. looks like I need a Trader Joe’s visit… hopefully today!

12:40pm Honorable son #2 stops in to visit me.  SAMi our little Malese doggie loves him, she wiggled for 10 minutes straight greeting him.  Son leaves to go get lunch, offered to get me something, but I declined. Thanks anyway. See ya Ryan.

12:45pm Customers come in and look around for artwork for their kitchen.  Nice couple.

12:53pm Another couple comes into gallery looking for retail space in Downtown Campbell, we chat about the benefits of the local downtown scene vs. other towns in the local area. They were nice.  They will be back to look at more retail space here locally  :o )

1:00pm  Took photos of my newest painting “In the Land of Lollipops and Lattes”.  While photographing this quick snapshot outside, a woman drives right behind me and casts shadow on the artwork.  I had to move my entire set up over 25 feet.  She apologized. I accepted.  She compliments the artwork, I thank her. We smile. It’s all good.

Sonya and newest Artwork: "In the Land of Lollipops and Lattes"

Sonya and newest Artwork: "In the Land of Lollipops and Lattes"

1:15am  Downloaded photos and and crop and edited new artwork to post online.

1:22pm          Posted images to Facebook in both personal and gallery pages.  Very happy with the turnout.

1:40pm  Had a walk in customer, showing their friend my gallery. We chat about random stuff, the spoke about smokers and people that smoke. I am not a fan of smoking.   I do not smoke.

1:45pm  I heat up my Chille Verde leftovers from yesterdays lunch – tummy, good stuff.

2:05pm  Customers come in and we discuss gallery and weather in Michigan (where they are from).

2:25pm  Started to do some hand embellished on the sculpture – way long overdue, necessary of course.

3:00pm  MaryJo arrives for work, I can run errands now! I check some email and then I leave.

3:15pm  Take packages to the post office, go to the bank, hit Home Depot for some supplies and wood moulding, (I love the tool corral… I can spend all day in there).  Not quite impressed with their selection of metal polished there.  Two kinds, not much choice.  Bla.

3:50pm  Arrive at Traders Joes. The meccaville of all things sweet and salty!. Hmmm I love snacks and can easily drop $35.00 at a shot there.  Today was great, many items back in stock. Pub Cheese. YUM.  Great for a quick cheesy snack in the afternoon. The frozen food section, another yum.  This time I got some ice cream bon bons.  Mango Greek yogurt and then the checkstand where the selection of black licorice and Ritter Sport candy bars are my weak spot.  I love Ritter Sport Butter Biscuit. Tastes like Europe.

Trader Joe Snacks

Trader Joe Snacks

4:12pm  Drop off some Styrofoam to my pal Dana who needs some packaging stuff that I could not use.

4:19pm  Arrive back at the gallery where I am greeted by Miss Wiggle Butt (SAMi) with full enthusiasm on board.  Hoping to have time to take her for a quick walk later on.

4:22pm  UPS arrived with supplies and frames, yeah – I love getting packages event if I am the one paying for them!

4:42pm to 5:15pm        Called ATT to get new phone services and typically dreaded to be on hold, but I had the phone on speaker while I check email. Spoke to Chris from ATT and he’s very nice, local too – San Ramon  That’s a bonus. He hooks me up with the services I need. Yeah!

5:25pm  Open up the cartons from UPS.  Oh darn. Two of the frames that I ordered got dings from the shipping.  It seems no matter how well these babies are packed, the shipping company’s always seem to go “Rambo” on them.  Need to notify manufacturer. Grrrrrrrr.  Me = not happy.

5:30pm  Mary Jo left at 5pm and there is an Shop and Dine Business expo happening at Villa Ragusa, will pop over there for a quick moment to network some.

6:10pm  Attended the Shop and Dine Business Expo in Downtown Campbell for a tad, nice event – networked and then needed to get back to the gallery where SAMi was anxiously waiting and downloaded some photos from the days documentation event. I am telling you – I am exhausted from this blog entry and the task at hand.

6:17pm  Mark calls to see if I want to have some dinner.  Not wanting the same that I had for lunch quick;yt accepts. He comes over and we order from Aquis restaurant. Chicken Romano for me, Caesar salad for him.  We sit and discuss a plethora of topics, from the weather to business and family stuff… I then of course start cleaning and getting things from the day back in order.

All in order for another day...

All in order for another day...

7:45pm  I am about to lock the door and shut off the lights then a gentleman comes in to ask some questions about the Wagg’n Wednesday event we host here every Wednesday in Downtown.  He is a reporter with one of the local papers, we chat for about 15 minutes and we chat about SAMi coming to work with me every day and he takes some photos of us.  SAMi is very used to her photo taken and she likes it, for me… not so much. Hopefully we will see the result of our chat in the local Campbell paper in April!

7:56pm  I close the gallery – lock the door and larger overhead light are off (If I am here I keep a couple of the showroom lights on). However, I work on this blog to get it finished while Mark and I are in the studio chatting about things and the events of the day.  Multitasking is truly my thing.

8:45 – 10:00 pm Mark and SAMi leave at 8:45 and I am plugging away at finishing projects, emailing orders, placing the second varnish later on the newest painting, embellishing sculpture, sweeping the floors, taking out the garbage, wiping the glass displays in the gallery.  Just think that this was actually a short day, normally I would be here until 12 midnight easy. But this blog has me wiped and I am pooped out.  So, as the toys from a doggie day remain in their place for another day of play from their white fluffy master, I can only image how much sleep I will encounter this evening.  Sigh.

SAMi's Toys... well, just a few of them.

SAMi's Toys... well, just a few of them.

Are you tired as well?  I am going home. Good night.

Mind your own business

I hear your conversations, I know your business, I know what you drank last night (and then some), I witness your horrific one handed driving and  I have absolutely no idea who you are.

This is what I believe all of us witness on a daily basis at the grocery store,  local cafe and at the park for that quality play date for that time with your 3 year old.

I fear that there really is no way to state my next comment without using all capital letters and shouting….  but  GET OFF YOUR FRIGGIN’ CELL PHONE!!!

I don’t want to hear your one sided family squabbles, your new business proposal, your idle ramble non important recent dating fiasco recap or witness your horribly uncoordinated ability to juggle the cell phone, your wallet, shopping cart, the debit card pad at Trader Joes while the whole world listens to your pathetic mumbo jumbo blabber about your ex-inlaws and their complaints about… um…you.

What on earth did you used to do before this small digit pad device called a cell phone was invented? Most likely had a life with laughter and quality family time and a free state of mind.

Got Manners?

Got Manners?

I have noticed in more that one place of business that signs are posted asking folks to take their conversations elsewhere.  I love it, in fact I was in Port Townsend in April and saw this awesome sign at the pizza place we went to.  I could not help take a snapshot of this as a cool reminder of the honesty of the modest, yet to the point request for their cell phone patrons.

Ever since I had a woman come in last month to the gallery (with her grade school daughter) cell phone in one hand and Gelato in the other, I greeted her to let her know we were available to assist and quickly got the “one index finger shush gesture”. I gasped out loud and calmly stated, “I don’t shush for anyone”. From then on I have decided that I simply was not going to take that crap anymore.

OK well, maybe it’s me (naaaaa trust me… it is not me), maybe I am not being sensitive to their hectic agenda of importance and need to be heard by… well…someone.

Take it outside.   Take it home.   Take it to the river.

Get a clue and get a bag of manners. As much as you are the center of the universe, you personal drama and dilemmas are of little interest to others…. but on the other hand, your dating disaster or flatulent inlaws gives much inspiration and you may be the center point of a really nice painting.

You are welcome to come and see it, but leave the cell phone at home.

The Distillery

I think one of the most interesting things of being a creative person is the ability to run with an idea, no matter how wild, crazy, conservative and perhaps to a degree… on the fringe.

distill_create

Brainfizz of creativity!

Day to day encounters can often lead into a myriad of interesting visuals, to take an experience and distill it into a fun piece of artwork that really tells a story – a mini peek into the thought process that never stops, one that keeps on rolling and rolling to every second of a day.

No artificial flavors or preservatives, no paper, no plastic, no caffeine or alcohol. Just the sheer romantic patina etched by melding thoughts assured to become something memorable. I create straight from momentum – off the top of my head, when working in this way I know that the emotions will rule the feeling and dictate the power of creation. Often the emotion factor works quicker than what the paintbrush can accommodate, it can truly be thrill seeking and intoxicating all at the same time.

The freshness aspect to this process is vital, it cannot ferment for too long as the flavors will simply dissipate and the finished works will never be the same as intended. Thinking positive and by turning uneventful encounters in your life, distilling and processing into fun flavors is a good thing. Be creatively adventurous and let those juices flow – no matter what!

Scattin’ Cats and Cub Scouts

Celebrating Jazzy Style

Celebrating Jazzy Style

Often times when I start a week I like to start it with a bang… this was very much the case for this week.  My best pal, Christine celebrated her husbands birthday party last Sunday here at the gallery. Now mind you these peeps  know how to throw a good party – many of them are jazz musicians and singers if that will tell you anything.

It was a fun celebration and with lots of  notoriously famed musicians and vocalists including Ms. Christine  (which was really cool for me to have these people in the gallery).  It was quite a celebrated event and everyone had a great time and I know Noel was ecstatic! (Next time we will bring the congas and I’ll sit in!)

As the week moved forward I worked on getting my email newsletter out (SPFA quarterly newsletter that tells folks about new arty products, exciting news and of course this time… the new blog announcement!). I always feel blessed on the amount of subscribers that have been followers for several years and who still follow….  I now associate the email addresses with the faces they belong to… Thanks y’all!

I think one of the benefits of being an artist in a local area is being able to give back to the community, I feel that my art is a gift and that when I can share it in some capacity, it’s pretty cool.  This past Tuesday, I had Boy Scout Pack #390 come for a field trip, it was one of those visits where they needed to talk and learn from a local artist, discuss some artwork and shared some of their own stories about art and what they like to do. I was really impressed with how many questions were asked from these nice youths and how aware they were on some of the terminology we discussed.

Scouts Pack #390 visits the gallery

Scouts Pack #390 visits the gallery

Now for those of you who know me pretty well, will know and appreciate that I did not sugar coat the business of the artworld, I did tell them that it was a lot of work and that I do much of the grunt work here at the gallery, from emails to framing to shipping… even the  janitorial stuff.  All jobs need to be completed in order to run a successful business of any kind. I am a true believe in good ole’ customer service and I am truly the fashionista of wearing many hats in the workplace.

I know that a large part of their trip to the gallery was so they can achieved a cool merit badge, I do hope they received their badge, I would certainly give them an great score!

So here comes a new week and new jazzy inspirations, you never know what can happen around here next!

My Simply Fearless Blog

Ok. so this is the perfect story on how networking really pays off! I was invited to a cool BizNik networking event in February here in downtown Campbell, it was raining and I really contemplated at the last minute, but since I do not like when people zone-out on my events there was no way I was going to stand up my friend Chrystal who was hosting it.

I attended the event and had some really inspiring encounters – I met many new faces of several new and innovating businesses. One business champion in particular was Cassandra Rae of Simply Fearless she is a blog and life coach.

Her name states it all.  Simply Fearless!

Cassandra, SAMi and Sonya

Cassandra Rae, SAMi and Sonya

We connected (again by my pal Chrystal)  because the blog(s) that I had were outdated, unorganized and in dissaray. She was able to assist me in getting all this done in a very timely manner. She rocks!

We wrapped up the technical logistics in less than a week and I worked on the design elements all day yesterday. I started blogging today!

Thanks to Cassandra and to Chrystal for giving me the swift (but endearing) kick I needed!