I have always optimistically welcomed the start of the New Year. For me it is a time to thoughtfully consider what I have surrounded myself with both personally and professionally. I set aside my "emotional thinking" and coax out my "business" thinking." This usually results in something pretty darn important, and brave -- and here it is: I'm kicking of the New Year with an announcement... (continued...)
I decided to re-locate The Gipson Girl. I knew that eventually the time would come to move The Gipson Girl out of "her" current beloved Vine Street location (in one of Tyler's gracious and beautiful old homes) to a more visible and prime spot located in Tyler's Old Downtown Historical District.
What typically happens to me after making an important but "unemotional business decision" is that I get a wickedly exciting urge to take up a new challenge. That's just me, I guess. I'm eager to shove my sound business decision into brave new territory. Well, as if moving The Gipson Girl wasn't brave and nerve-wracking enough for me, I ALSO decided that I would make my former business location, the small but elegant home on Vine Street, my new personal residence!
Thus, the adventure begins... Well, I simply thought that the installation of my cherished personal objets de art would be a breeze. I'd just arrange everything back the way that I had arranged it in the last home that I had lived in, right?? Right!!Well, wrong. As I starting moving my treasures in and around the place, I kept envisioning new ideas and new places for antique furniture arrangements and treasured collages to be placed. This brought to mind also memories of my past treasures that I had let "get away from me," whether it had been through sales or gifts to special people. I stood there a bit recalling those treasures. Did I regret selling items in the course of my business, or perhaps because they did not fit into the overall scheme of The Gipson Girl? Not at all! (...well, maybe just a little) Most everything special to me that I have sold has a nice memory attached; that it was something sold to a friend -- and they in turn now love the item as well. It is such a thrill to walk into the home of a client friend and see how fabulous that item now fits there.
Let me give you a recent example. Recently a dear friend purchased my English hostess chairs (which for years had surrounded my own bedecked dining room table.) This transaction gave me a fresh opportunity to pair new items up with two tall red zebra hostess chairs in my own space. Ooh, la, la! Another opportunity came unexpectedly, and with a surprising revelation: A large-scale art nuevo hall-tree was now perfect just inside my bedroom. Oh, meow! This inspired me to place a traditional set of needlepoint chairs into a very un-traditional space, and now they are singing a funky-new tune. This just goes on and on, and I THRIVE ON IT! I suppose that, best of all, I am reveling in all of this brave new rediscovery -- and loving it all! My whole life feels free, newly discovered but still familiar, if that makes any sense.
Moving and bringing exciting change is what I do for a living, whether it be inside The Gipson Girl, inside my clients' homes or a traditionally unexciting venue. I have never been afraid of it. It truly flings open the doors to new heights and opportunities. Ironically, dear reader, similar doors will be flung open for you when you least expect it. Be brave! Embrace the opportunity when it comes along, even if your hands are so full that you wouldn't have dared to open that door for yourself.
Yes, the moving job has been a labor of love, but the unexpected and thrilling revelations have taken my breath away. New beauty has arrived in the form of beautiful old pieces that have been rearranged and re-purposed. Brand-new revelations have been brought forth by all this unexpected inspiration. I believe that my decision to greet the New Year optimistically and bravely has rewarded me a gift: The reaffirmation of what I have always known and continue to express within every square inch of The Gipson Girl -- Be brave! Do not let fear stop you short of becoming fabulous! ~ Cynthia
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