Good Morning and Happy Friday to You from the Great State of Michigan!

Our thermometer bounces around up here, and yesterday it was a hot humid 90 degrees, and this morning its reading 48, so whatever you have in your closet may indeed be the perfect thing to wear!

I heard so many encouraging remarks from people last week on the story I shared of my friend Vivi Sexauer and her incredible journey. She is such a great example of how to face the ultimate adversity in life.

I love sharing stories of inspiration and encouragement because they help build me up personally, and I hope they help others as well. If you should know of a story that might inspire others personally, and if you would like me to write that story (yours or someone you know) please send me an email at [email protected]  and if we can work it out, I would love to do that!

So today I have two new tops from Chico’s to share. I had a little time after I got off work yesterday and went to the mall (something I don’t do much anymore… pretty much online shopping for me). I wanted to try a few stores some of our readers have encouraged me to try, and I thought it best to simply walk in there and take it all in. So I went in to J. Jill, very nice, very elegant yet simple designs in their clothes (yes I found something… in an upcoming post!) And my other goal was to get to Loft, which I haven’t been to in awhile. But I walked past Chico’s and I am telling you right now Chico was whispering my name!

The story behind Chico’s is near and dear to my heart. Chico’s started as a small folk art shop in 1983 at Periwinkle Place on Sanibel Island in Florida. An aside here, if you have never been to Sanibel Island, its absolutely the perfect place to go recharge your batteries, some of our best vacation memories when our kids were little are from trips to Sanibel. The founders of Chico’s, Marvin and Helene Gralnick came to Sanibel to raise their family. They named the store after a friend’s pet parrot named “Chico”. They specialized in art pieces and included a few sweaters, but the clothing items far outsold the art pieces. The story goes that in the beginning, the shop originators, Marvin and Helene Gralnick literally handwrote the name Chico’s on every bag as they did not have budget for bags printed with their store name. They kept the store open each day at least until they reached a predetermined sale goal! One time their accountant came by and made a purchase just so they could reach their goal and go home that night! That makes me smile so big just thinking of those humble beginnings! But what I love is the feeling that their clothes give me… its like a celebration! Helene Gralnick says of their philosophy, “Chico’s is an attitude. Its not an age. Its a love of life.” Chicos FAS has since purchased White House Black Market, Boston Proper, and Soma. They are continually branching out to reach and provide great products and great service to different customers.

So, back to my shopping trip. I walked in to Chico’s yesterday and had an amazing sales person, Michelle, help me. I told her I like clothes that are bright, fun and pretty. She pulled a wardrobe full of things for me to try. I highly recommend letting someone do that for you, and just try them on! You will be surprised at what fresh eyes and someone else’s perspective can do to help you try some new things!

So this was the first piece she recommended, and I love it! Its their Lace Trim Tunic in Runaway Red! What a great name for a color!

I might have mentioned red is my favorite color!

You can see me here with my Bloggy Doggy Kasey!

I paired up two of my Stella and Dot necklaces, the shorter one is the Signature Engravable Disc Necklace in Gold, which makes a great gift for graduations! The longer necklace is the Double Horn Pendant in Gold.

Here is the other top I got, the Chico’s Short Sleeve Tunic, specially priced at $39 and available in several colors!

I love a cap short sleeve as its so comfortable, and flattering even if your arms are just this side of perfect!

As you see in this picture, I used the Stella and Dot Luna Pendant (the shorter one) and the same longer pendant as above. While I was in Chico’s, she had me try on some really big chunky jewelry in turquoise and gold, and it looked awesome too!

Here I switched to a statement necklace in silver, the Sutton necklace. I also have 2 silver bracelets, the one on my right arm is the Celine Wrap Bracelet which includes various shades and goes great with black, and the one on my left arm is the Helai bracelet which is silver and just very dainty and sparkly.

As I posted before Mother’s Day last week, I wanted to stop and take a moment today and recognize some wonderful people that have been helping me in the pursuit of this blog!

Kaleigh and Alex Prokic are expecting their first baby this year! Can you guess what they are having?

These two have been pivotal in helping me with the tech end of my blog. They literally open their home up to me and invite me over to work through all kinds of things on the tech end. Alex is gifted in pretty much all things tech related, and Kaleigh specializes in the social media aspect of it, as well as fashion, and they both are incredible at inspiring me and encouraging me with this blog!

This is my friend Maribeth Schmidt, and she is an amazing photographer who took my headshots for this blog. She loves to photograph food as well, and she and I have worked on several projects in the past and have more scheduled for the future. She is a friend and confidant and cheerleader for keeping me striving for the goal. She herself is talented at so many things! And her family is simply beautiful! You can visit her photography blog here.

Here you see me with my mom, my niece Megan, and my sister Susan (Megan’s mom) and my sister Stacey on the far left. My sisters I am constantly texting and sending pictures of things often trying on clothing right from the dressing room with notes, “What do you think of this?” And I can count on great advice from them! Its really fun!

My mom is such a source of encouragement and such an example of love.

I have always loved this photo of her, she is giving a bottle to one of my brothers. But Its the smile and look on her face that captivates me. I captures her absolute delight and love for her children. She is the same with her grandkids and great grandkids. That love is such a gift!

And of course my dear sweet Kasey is such a faithful friend! There are many more priceless people in my life and I will be bringing them up as we go. But these are the ones I wanted to celebrate today!

And you dear friend, you are priceless to me as well. I count you my friend and I hope this day and weekend have good things in store for you! I hope you are encouraged to believe in yourself, to go for your dreams, to take time for some joy and laughter, and new discovery. I encourage you to get out there and meet some new people, try a new dish, listen to some beautiful music, maybe buy a pretty pot of flowers for your stoop, take a lovely walk or get out on a boat or a bike or just take a lovely drive. And I thank you for being a friend!

Love Always,

Amy

“1 universe, 9 planets, 204 countries, 809 islands, 7 seas, and I had the privilege to meet you.” ~Unknown