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adventures in business, cathe holden, christmas, dreamy whites, furniture, holidays, homestead house paints, justsomethingimade, Maria carr, Marian Parsons, milk paint, Miss mustard seed, painting, petaluma, shutter grey, summer cottage antiques, workshop
Miss Mustard Seed Comes to Petaluma
I can’t even express how truly surreal this whole experience was. I remember back in April I was sitting on the computer the day of our Antique Faire here in Petaluma. I was totally bummed that I didn’t make it to the street faire. As I was reading Miss Mustard Seed’s blog about 6 pm that night and she talked about her new milk paint line and mentioned if anyone wanted to carry her milk paint in our shop/space. I remember having so many reason’s why I shouldn’t respond. I remember thinking “who do you think you are?” and “someone from the shop already responded” and “You have been in the business 2 months..what are you thinking?” and so much more. But something told me “Go for it!” so I did and Marian got back to me and said “GREAT”! That was the beginning of this wonderful,crazy,flying by the seat of my pants adventure! When I took on the leap of faith to bring Marian out it was just that a HUGE leap of Faith!
Marian has been so inspirational to so many of us in this business. When the paint was finally here I was honored and excited to be a part of it. Her book Inspired You was released in November after reading it and taking it all in I knew this was something extraordinary. Marian has captured the hearts of so many of us. She has taken what was terrifying and made it attainable…at least for me. If I can describe her in a few words it would be real, humble and natural God given talent. She is so real it’s almost comical. Here I was trying to make everything as perfect as possible….and I am not a perfectionist by nature. We talked over the workshops a few times and she was so “flexible” it almost drove me crazy! She came prepared for one of the projects with her own “stash” of german glass glitter with chunks of glue in it…..man gotta love that! For me that was so real and here I am take it or leave kind of moment and guess what? We all love her for it!! The workshops went great and were definitely a learning experience. You don’t know what your getting into until you do it…and I learned a lot. My favorite part of the day was the Holiday Inspired workshop. We moved the tables closer as Marian guided us through some simple but beautiful crafts. It was so awesome to be in the room with Marian, Maria Carr (Dreamywhites.com) her two beautiful daughters Bethany and Nicole, and Cather Holden (JustsomethingImade.com) all of who are amazingly talented glittering and crafting with all of us…just awesome. I am a little star struck. Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve been a wife and a mom for most all my life and here I am sharing in this world of creative women that I never saw myself anywhere near. 
We had an amazing day that was crammed with as much as we could fit in and Marian handled it all with such grace. We had a milk paint workshop, a holiday inspired workshop and a book signing at Summer Cottage Antiques. She truly is here to inspire us and share with us all she knows to help us find that spark of creativity inside us all. I know that if you click on her blog, read her book or experience anything she has put her hand on you would feel a glimpse of what we did that day….Marian Thank You!
Marian and I in my space at Summer Cottage Antiques
Marian happily signing books
The beautiful space the girls at the shop put together for Marian
Me, Emily Bruhn My Bestie (frenchtoastlifestyle@blogspot.com) and Marian
Me and Michelle Westling….Go for it Sister follow your dreams!
Michelle and I …Thank you Michelle for the pictures and everything!
Emily and I waiting for Marian & Jeff at the airport 🙂
Now I couldn’t write this post without making mention to Emily my biggest cheerleader,partner in crime and the best friend a girl could ever ask for. For the record not to sure when but probably about this time last year Emily said “you need to check out this blog….Miss Mustard Seed”. When I said to Marian come on out…this wasn’t just for me it was for us! Not my MMS party but our MMS party! Can I tell you how much I love this girl….no words. Em was there from start to finish. It was a labor of love to put this together in 3 weeks. Husbands, our children and regular life all aside and she never left my side. Husbands kicked butt by the way and did their part too and a whole village of awesome people who gave their time couldn’t have done it with out you!! All in all it was more than I could have ever hoped for. Although I wish I had a little more sleep, more time for hair and maybe some lip gloss. This all is so trivial with the tragedy in Connecticut so hold your loved ones close this Christmas and don’t forget to cherish the moments. I know there will be more reflection about this time with Marian, Maria Carr, Cathe Holden and all the other creative women I met but for now this is enough…more than enough. I feel so blessed beyond anything I could have imagined. I can’t wait for the future to unfold I know the is the best yet to come!
Blessings, Gen
Gracefully Worn 