Adventures in Mentoring

As an event person in the non-profit field, it's hard to find the right networking opportunities. Some are geared at non-profits and nothing to do with events, some are event focused and feature things that are so far out of our budget that we could never possibly have them at our event. But it's all about networking, right?

I've been participating in a few non-profit networking opportunities and was introduced to a non-profit event planner in an organization sort of similar to the one where I work. She followed up and asked if I wanted to have lunch and talk shop. Lunch and talking, count me in!

We had a great conversation and at the end, she asked if I would be her professional mentor. I was absolutely flattered. I still feel that I'm new at this whole planning events thing and I am always learning. But looking at my 7+ years of experience, and the wide variety of events I've worked on, I guess that isn't anything to sell short.

So, how does one go about being a mentor? Any ideas?

Adventures in Concert-Going

I absolutely love a capella music. Back in college at SLU, I worked with the a capella group on campus as a Street Team member. I even designed lights for one of their concerts and stage managed that concert. I think I adore music without musical accompaniment because it is the farthest thing from what I can do. I cannot even carry a tune in a bucket. I do sing in church, but that’s only because God said make a joyful noise, not only to sing when we’re good at it. I enjoy singing but as my friends and family would tell you, it’s awful.

So of course when the Sing Off came on TV, I watched every single episode. I loved it. And when Pentatonix was in the third season, I fell in love. They’re from Arlington, TX, which is near where I went to high school for two years, so they felt like hometown kids to me. And there were simply incredible. The link above is their YouTube channel – if you don’t know who they are, you must watch some of their videos. The musical talent is stunning. My favorite video is their Evolution of Music.

Flash forward to when I had tickets to their concert at a small venue here in St. Louis. Something came up and we had to go out of town for the weekend and couldn’t attend the concert. The next time they were in town, same thing. So when they announced their concert at the Peabody Opera House for a date in March when I was available, I HAD TO GET TICKETS.

I put the time the tickets would go on sale (early for AmEx holders) and set an appointment with myself. I was even late to a meeting because the purchase wasn’t going through!

That is how I ended up in Orchestra Center, row R with one of my favorite ladies, M.

Selfie before the concert started!

The Peabody Opera House is simply stunning.

 

The 90 minute concert was so wonderful, so many fun songs.

 

And the lights just set a gorgeous backdrop for a capella singing.

 

Just these five singers, and no back up. It was amazing.

Time flies when you’re having fun!

So the past few months have been fun. Here’s what’s been going on, thank you Project Life for my daily photo…

 

February…

I had dinner with the most amazing St. Louis bloggers at the beginning of February. There’s quite a few who are expecting and one who has since delivered since this picture! Yay for babies!

I’m in love with my Jamberry Nails. It takes a few times of putting them on to really get it figured out but I’m getting there! It’s cheaper than a manicure and I can do it while watching the Bachelor. All around a good time.

  

Meet Minnie the Mazda. She came home with us in January and by mid-February already had 500 miles. I put way too many miles on cars way too fast.

Dates with my husband are the best. Dates at the beautiful Powell Hall are even better.

It’s sad times when I drop one of the most expensive toys I own.

 

March…

My mama had a big birthday. She came to celebrate here in St. Louis. I took off three days in a row to play and had a blast.

Verdi’s Requiem at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was wonderful.

 

The snow is (almost) gone and it’s pretty enough to open up the sunroof in Minnie! YAY for sunshine!

Three times at the gym in the past week is some kind of record. I’m starting to actually like working out, but my inner thighs may protest too much. But I’m having fun lifting weights with Husband and attending Zumba class.

 

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What have you been up to the past two months?

The 2014 Directive - March

I'm working along with a few other bloggers on these directives along with Jessica from Kate and Trudy. More info on the Directive is here.

This is so very sad and not a good start to the year, but I’m still working on the January objective!

However, I have added an item for March beyond the scrapbooking 2013 goal.

I have been working on daily to dos for what seems like forever – clean the house in a timely manner, deal with the mail, do my daily physical therapy exercises for my back, work on the side business, all those things. I have the list in an app called RememberTheMilk which allows me to check it online and on my phone. It’s awesome. But I have these lists that are categorized in priority levels – 1, 2 and 3. It seems like everything gets pushed off to the next day because by 9 pm, I don’t want to do anything. So the objective for March is to actually get done what’s on the number one priority list. Every day. That means the five minute cleaning job, or the email that has to be responded to that night, or whatever. I am going to complete the number one priority item – and it’s been going well!

The 2014 Directive - February

I cannot believe we are already in to February. Where did January go? I climbed out from under a bunch of snow and ice and here we are.

I'm working along with a few other bloggers on these directives along with Jessica from Kate and Trudy. More info on the Directive is here.

I wish I could say that I completed my task for the January edition of the 2014 Directive. Unfortunately, even with the snow days, I couldn't finish my scrapbook for the year. I've done one month so far and will continue working on that one this month. One month is better than none! Here's to another month of scrapbooking. :)

Proposal Videos are the Best

I love videos. I love proposals. I love video proposals.


This guy really set the bar high for all the other dudes out there. Let it be known that recorded or not, organized dance party or not, high tech editing or not, proposals of any kind are the most romantic moment of a girl's life.

Set aside a half hour to watch this amazing video and I promise, you'll be crying at the end.

 

Adventures in House Tours, part two

When last I got my big girl camera out to take real pictures, we saw the living room, dining room, sitting room and kitchen, plus the front yard and back yard. That post is here.

On this lovely snow day, I decided to get some shots of the rest of the first floor. Around the corner from the sitting room, and directly behind the main staircase is another foyer. In it, there’s access to the basement, a coat closer and double linen closet that serves as half storage for entertaining things (crockpot, rice cooker, extra red solo cups, etc) and half linen closet for the master bedroom since there isn’t one in the bathroom.

Next to that linen closet is the guest bathroom, the only half bath in the house.

We managed to get most of the awful wallpaper off these walls, albeit in very close quarters with my father-in-law, over the Fourth of July, but we couldn’t finish the job. This is one of the rooms that the professional painter handled for us while we were on vacation to Seattle.

I highly recommend buying a house, starting a project and get halfway through, leaving for a fabulous vacation, having your mother-in-law let the painters in to your new house, and return to a freshly painted house. It’s pretty awesome.

 

Off that same foyer, there’s the master bedroom suite. It’s a bit strange to have it right off the kitchen and on the first floor, but growing up, my houses mostly had first floor master bedrooms so it’s kind of like I remember. Some people find it strange because most houses in our area have all the bedrooms upstairs. I have to say it’s amazing to be 15 paces from my bed to the Keurig in the kitchen. Nice.

This is another room we painted, and removed the floral border (by me, I mean the professionals). We still have the former owner’s window coverings in this room because we just haven’t gotten around to dealing with them yet. The awesome thing about this room was that floral pattern on the window treatment.

Imagine this with me… white walls, and that yellow-blue floral design on the windows, on the bed, on the border around the room. And then turn around and walk into the master bathroom. The border continued in there on top of white walls. There was a matching shower curtain and – matching toilet seat cover. We still have that one in the basement, if anyone is looking to buy one with a pink tulip on it!

 

We decided to make some changes in the master bathroom. The toilet seat cover and old shower curtain are gone, as is the border. We painted this room the same yellow as in the sitting room because we had an extra gallon from that project. I think it’s nice and bright!

The other positive about this bathroom is the double sink. We’ve had a chance to share a sink at a friend’s house or a hotel and goodness, how you get spoiled with your own sink in the morning! It’s lovely.

 

I like to say this closet is why we bought the house. It’s the same length as the bathroom it shares the left wall with and is rather wide – not quite enough room for us both to be in there choosing clothes, but do-able. We could even clear it out and put a small nursery in there if we wanted! It’s amazing and I can see my whole wardrobe in one glance. It needs some reorganizing already and I’m sure we’ll have to add some more shelving soon, but it’s wonderful to have all that space.

So that’s our first floor. It’s where we spend most of our time and we’re pretty much in love.