Inspiration

Things That Bring Me Joy

claudiaFebruary 2, 2011Inspiration, Stuff We Like

If I were making a list of The Top 100 Things That Bring Me Joy, the art of Maurice Sendak would definitely be on it. I used to read In the Night Kitchen to Arielle over and over when she was small, and we never stopped marveling at the illustrations. Now, a mural, the only one ever created by Mr. Sendak, done just two years before he published Where the Wild Things Are, has been donated to The Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, the major repository for Sendak’s illustrations and manuscripts. There in Philly, this sweet painting of a children’s parade is being lovingly restored, and we’re sure going to find a way to get there to see it. To read about the Chertoff Mural or to learn how to support this important restoration project, visit the Rosenbach’s website or listen to today’s story from “All Things Considered.”

Milk In The Batter!

We Bake Cake!

And Nothing’s The Matter!

Into the Light

Are you a two-sided southerner?

At Heart, A Rural Poet

New Discoveries

How’s Your Oxygen?

claudiaJanuary 26, 2011Inspiration, Life-Work

When Oprah Winfrey was interviewed by Piers Morgan last week on CNN, I was struck by something she said. In talking about friendship, Oprah made this comment: “When you become famous and you have access to lots of different things, you know, a lot of people lose oxygen and they can’t make the summit with you.” And that got me thinking. How do us everyday folks keep our own oxygen flowing while heading toward our respective career summits? In other words, when the airs gets thinner, how do we breathe better? In this new little occasional series called “How’s Your Oxygen?” folks from a variety of professions will weigh in on the subject – sharing from their own life/work experiences advice for breathing more freely in a fast-moving world.

First up, April Trigg, owner of eventologie, a specialty firm that creates and produces sustainable events around the U.S. and abroad. Before launching eventologie, April served as VP of West Coast Operations for the New York-based entertainment consulting firm, Platinum Rye Entertainment, where she specialized in celebrity endorsements, sponsorships, PR/media events, music licensing and marketing. Today a nationally recognized “ecotainer,” she’s often called upon by media for her green entertaining expertise and has been featured in Vanity Fair and Every Day with Rachael Ray.

April, how do you find those “deep breaths” at this point in your career? And what experiences have led you to work in a different way?

Life has a funny way of making you take a deep breath, I’ve found. When I was in NYC and running the East Coast office of an LA-based talent agency, I found out I had a rare cell type of cervical cancer which (fortunately) forced me to unchain myself from my desk, go to the doctor, deal with the diagnosis and take a break from the hamster wheel of the entertainment industry. This experience eventually led me to reassess my direction in life, on a larger scale, which is how I ended up in Atlanta, opening my company, eventologie, a few years later. Balancing my event business and my “ecotainer” brand is a heavy load at times so it’s very easy to just forge ahead and not take time to take a breather. I really check myself as often as possible to ensure that I’m taking in the good and exhaling out the bad…focusing, prioritizing and reassessing what’s vital and what I need to cut. A few years into eventologie, I realized that our forte was creating sustainable strategies for our clients’ events and that the revenue and positive productivity factors were higher on that side of the business, as opposed to more of the social events, so I made a conscience choice to lead the business in that direction. Our “parties with a purpose” fill me with a greater sense of direction, drive and accomplishment and, therefore, allow me to breathe easier because I feel great about what we do every day and know that I’m doing my part to green the world, one party at a time.

Are you a two-sided southerner?

Adopted Alabamians

Your Happy Place

Busy-ness…

The Staff of Life

claudiaJanuary 24, 2011Inspiration, Stuff We Like

In the NPR series “This I Believe,” Mary Anne Mrugalski, a freelance reporter in Chicago, tells Bob Edwards that baking bread has helped get her through a lot of life’s tough moments. And it brings her family closer together, through this experience she calls “healthy and honest and pure.” After hearing Mary Anne’s essay yesterday, I’m seriously considering tossing out our bread machine. 🙂

To listen…