Can you believe 2014 is almost over! We love this idea for a New Year’s Eve Game and we thought we’d ask our C-Team for this week’s newsletter!
Cheri Leavy: Co-Founder
Day this past year you’d live over and over: My birthday spent with hubby and good friends (the Capones) in California – I started the morning with breakfast in bed and an ocean view at Bacara Resort and ended the day with a lovely dinner in Los Olivos with Vance and the Capones. It was birthday bliss. The Capone’s Rancho Valiente in Santa Ynez is a place where I truly relax.
Most memorable moment in pop culture:
Brangelina got married.
Favorite song of the year: I caught myself listening to a lot of Jess Graves playlists on spotify which included anything from Shakey Graves to Beyoncé to Sturgill Simpson.
Best conversation you had this year: I had several but my most productive conversations were always the ones TSC co-founder Whitney and I had on car rides between St. Simons and Charleston to visit leapfrog pr co.
Biggest lesson learned this year: Sometimes saying no to an offer is the best move and as important if not more so than the yeses.
Best piece of advice you got this year: “You can do anything but you can’t do everything.” Mike Blanton, successful entrepreneur, dear friend and CEO of Dalton Carpet Co.
Whitney Long: Co-FounderDay(s) this past year you’d live over and over: The lazy summer days we went spent together on a family vacation in my Heaven on earth spot – the beaches of 30-A.Most memorable moment in pop culture: The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge really sticks out in my mind. It was so cool to see us regular people and famous folks like Bill Gates, George W. Bush, Mark Zuckerberg, plus a variety of actors and musicians, come together and show the good that social media can do. Not only did it raise awareness about ALS but a ton of money… more than $100 million!
Favorite song of the year: Can’t name one – but am really loving Taylor Swift’s 1989 tracks – so catchy and fun. Crazy, I know, for a mom of four and for the fact the year she was born (thus the name of the CD) was the year I graduated from high school… yikes!). Iris (Hold Me Close) by U2 and Sam Smith’s Stay With Me were also on continuous play.
Best conversation you had this year: The best conversations are the ones with my children, when I get rare, uninterrupted one-on-one time with each of them to really “hear” what’s on their minds and hearts. It gets harder as they get older. And I, too, enjoyed productive travel car time with Cheri… the best office there is J
Biggest lesson learned this year: At the suggestion of my wise, entrepreneurial husband, I have begun tuning out the chatter and clutter on the weekends. It really helps me take a much needed breather and be better prepared for the week ahead. Because I do work from my home office, this really has made a difference.
Best piece of advice you got this year: I keep coming across this quote by Mark Twain and I feel like I am meant to see it until it seeps into my conscience… “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did.”
I also repeatedly heard versions of this quote over this year… “Don’t worry about what everyone or anyone else is doing. Do what you do and do it well.”
Holly Phillips: C-Team
Day to live over and over- Christmas. It is always pure happiness for everyone in our house.
Most Memorable Pop Culture – ” Break the Internet” Kim K.’s big butt on Paper Magazine
Favorite Song – Meghan Trainor – All About That Bass
Best Conversation- Interview in Studio with Hunt Slonem (coming in January in my Artist Spotlight Series). It was an honor to be in the presence of such a talent and a mesmerizing studio.
Biggest Lesson- Appreciate every moment. Life is fleeting. I lost my mother-in-law suddenlyin the Spring. One day she was with us having cupcakes, the next she was not. I want to slow down to appreciate every moment.
Best Advice- “If you’re sad, add more lipstick and attack.” – Coco Chanel
Emily McCarthy: C-Team
Day this past year you’d live over and over…..Finding out we were having a little girl!
Best conversation you had this year…..Stationery chit chat over cocktails with industry friends in NYC!
Most memorable moment in Pop Culture…..Kimye!
Biggest lesson learned this year…..Taking time for myself
Favorite Song of the year……Roar by Katy Perry
Best piece of advice you got this year…..What’s for you won’t pass you by.
Megan LaRussa Chenowith: C-Team
Day I’d live over: Spending a relaxing & joyful Thanksgiving in Highlands, NC with my incredible family and husband. It even lightly snowed making the quaint mountain town look even more picturesque.
Best conversation: It’s hard to pin point just one, but in general I have adored my countless conversations with my style coaching clients. Discussing with them what they want out of life, their wardrobes, and the joy and confidence that loving your look can bring.
Most memorable pop culture: Losing the talented and oh so fabulous fashion designer Oscar de la Renta
Favorite song: ‘Gimme Something Good’ by Ryan Adams
Best advice: To constantly work on having a pleasurable work-life balance because life’s too short to not enjoy great food, trips, friends and more!
Biggest lesson: Taking my own advice about the importance of a successful work-life balance!
Mary Dell Harrington: C-Team
Day I would relive all over again – My daughter, our youngest, graduated from high school on a gorgeous summer morning in June. Like every parent there, my husband and I could not have felt more pride in our daughter and happiness for her as she walked up the steps to receive her diploma. We were joined by our son (a graduate of the same school), my 87 year old mother, and sister which made the day even more meaningful.
Favorite song – Although released in 2008, “You’re Gonna to Miss This,” recorded by Trace Adkins, was a song that made me cry every time I heard it this year, thinking about how quickly time passes.
Biggest lesson – My friend and blogging partner at Grown and Flown,http://grownandflown.com Lisa Heffernan, has three children about the same age as our two. We began our blog three years ago to write about parenting kids 15-25 and to prepare for the empty nest that is inevitable as kids leave for college. She wrote our most popular post to date, “Knowing My Sons a Little Less,” http://grownandflown.com/knowing-sons-little-less/ to explain the hurt parents feel as their kids reach milestones, from preschool graduation to high school graduation and everything in between. As they grow up, Lisa writes, our kids’ lives are less knowable to us and she asks the very good question, why would we ever want to know LESS about the ones we love the MOST?
Best conversation – in October, I invited three of my life-long girlfriends from Texas to meet me in St Simons Island for a long weekend. We laughed continuously, had wonderful seafood and barbecue dinners, took long walks on the beach, and drank some great red wine, too! On the last evening of the trip, we sat on our back porch and told stories about growing up together. Although we have know each other since elementary school, we revealed a few family secrets along with our most strongly held beliefs and life lessons. It was a remarkable evening of sharing between the dearest of friends.
Catherine Hamrick: C-Team
A day to repeat: When newly minted as a resident of Delaware, I accepted my fate as a southern expat. However, over Thanksgiving weekend, I crossed “the divide” between the northern and southern parts of the state: the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. I heard a sprinkling of southern accents! As it turns out, Delaware is a “border state,” proudly claimed by Southern Living as reader territory.
Emily Laborde Hines: C-Team
Day to Repeat – I’ve just returned from 3 days on Sapelo Island on the Georgia coast and I’d like to go back asap.
Best conversation: In November I spent a weekend with a dear childhood friend of mine in Lexington, Kentucky. It is the first time since high school that we’ve lived so close to each other and we gabbed for hours. It was fabulous.
Most memorable pop culture: Kim K’s booty on the cover of Paper Mag for sure.
Favorite song: I don’t listen to the radio a lot but hard to miss T-Swift’s Shake It Off. Love it. I like Holly’s pick too – All About That Bass.
Best advice: It’s ok to say no. I rarely follow this advice but it is so important to remember…. You can’t do everything.