then there were three

Hi all, every once and a while I have an experience that is truly special and this week I had one of them. I had a wonderful session this last week with a very vibrant woman named Brenda, when she came to see her photos she came bearing gifts, 4 Cuban cigars to be exact.

For those of you who know me well you will know that the opportunity to spend an hour with my friends from Cuba is an opportunity i have a hard time passing up, so when i heard that we only had one day of nice weather left I simply had to make some time in the evening to spend with one of my friends, well actually two. Brenda said I should make sure I spent the time with a friend and i agree whole heartedly. As I see it one of my friends went up in smoke that night and the other is my favorite, I spent the time on a long walk talking to God; it was an awesome time of grounding where i had the chance to count my blessings instead of simply presenting a wish list to him as I'm prone to do. I find that the more time I spend being thankful for the things that I have been blessed with the less time I spend envying the things of others, so this was a wonderful time for me.

I know we all have something that we enjoy that brings positive feelings and emotions to us, my challenge for you today is to find something that brings you to a place of being grateful and spend some time there, It is a place I hope to spend much more time this year.

Have a great day and Happy Smoking to you all.

Rodney

Our Clients - True Beauty

There is a new TV series out there called "True Beauty"; it's a reality show that has 12 contestants and they are competing to be the most beautiful in America. The only catch is that the judges are actually judging them on both inner and outer beauty. In order to best measure the inner beauty there are actors hired to do things that allow the person to react positively or negatively; it's very interesting.

Well, as you may know last night we celebrated our 1 year birthday party here at EveStudios and we had a great number of clients brave the cold to join us for our celebration. As i looked around during the evening I was overcome by the amazing people we have had the opportunity to get to know, you are all truly beautiful!! As we started the evening last night we were a little behind schedule, I was totally amazed at how our clients jumped in to help finish a few preparations.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge a few superhero people in our lives last night.
Erin Winter - Erin has been a long time friend and she spent half the evening serving without being asked, we love you Erin.
Sheen Grobb - Sheena was our musician for the evening and she and her man disappeared for 15 mins to prep food for us, wow, you two are amazing!
Rhonda Rempel - Our friend and client who volunteered to come and spend some time as a greeter and welcomer (is that really a word??), thanks Rhonda.
I know there were many others, thank you all, we love you.

So back to the beginning, what is true beauty, I would hazard a guess that ABC could come and spend some time in our studio and find the winners to their contest, thank you all so much for being a part of our lives.

Rodney

Thank you, we just turned one!!!

Well, firstly i want to thank all of you who braved the freezing cold to join us here at our 1 year birthday bash, because of you this was a great night. secondly to all of you who did make it out to the swaree(Spelling??), isn't Sheena Grobb one of the best things that's happened to music in a while, Wow!!!
Lastly but not leastly I wish I had had more time to spend with you at our celebration, it's you our clients who make us successful and it's your referrals that keep us in business and we thank you; you really mean more than you will know to us.

I must go home and get some sleep but before i do, Thank you all once again, We love you.

Rodney

We Have a Musician!

It's been a bit of a journey, but we have a wonderful local singer/song-writer coming to our birthday celebration, Sheena Grobb. We are excited to offer you a free mini-concert as part of our evening. Looking forward to it!

Birthday Bash Approaching Fast!

We're excited and nervous all at the same time as the big day approaches. We're looking forward to seeing our clients again (and me meeting most of them for the first time), glad to be connecting with other businesses who have supported us throughout our existence, and happy to meet some new faces and introduce Eve Studios to them.



It has been a challenge pulling everything together this week as our family has battled a couple of illnesses since Christmas. Those of you with small children know exactly what we're talking about! We know it will all turn out in the end, but there have definitely been some despairing moments as we get closer to the day.



An update on the time on Tuesday: I compromised and picked 5:30 to 8:30! It will be held at our studio: 354 Selkirk Ave. at Aikins (between Main and Salter). The entrance is the red door at the side.



Come and enjoy some good food and drink, conversation, slide shows, and give-aways. We will be raffling a few items off so that you can choose what you're interested in trying to win. You'll each receive some complimentary tickets to use (plus extra if you bring someone). If you want to purchase more, they will be available and the proceeds will go to a charity we're still deciding on. If you're thinking of doing a session this year sometime and you want to save some money, we hope to have our "Fig Bucks" available and on sale for 69 cents for Tuesday night only. One of our clients, Sam Manchulenko from the "LifeStyle Pass" will be telling us how we can enhance our life in 2009 and pocket some great savings for an investment of only $40. But please don't think you have to bring cash to this event. It's really all about thanking you for your part in our business this past year and giving back to you.



We have prizes from Moksha Yoga, Rituals in Hair and Skin, Ladies Who Launch, EasyEco Baby, LiveThin, Sustainable Fitness, Zealous MediSpa and Curves so far. Should be great! See you soon...

Happy New year and other such ramblings

Well Happy New Year everybody, I hope that you had a wonderful and fulfilling Christmas time as I for one tried my best to stay fully filled all through the Christmas break and now find myself about 5 pounds the happier because of it. Often the new year is a time that many people make resolutions and promise to quit smoking again or go back onto that diet for 2 days or other such silly things. In recent years I have elected instead to write out a few goals for the new year and this last year I actually kept the list to see how I was doing. In mid September while cleaning my office I found this list and looked over the 11 items I had written down and much to my surprise I was on track for 8 or so of them, with 1 or 2 being things that really had no concrete indicators but were rather subjective.

My biggest goal was to get healthier in Body, Mind and Spirit. I'm not really sure how you qualify success on this but due in part to the vehicle accident that I was in in August I have been forced to work out on a regular basis or I'm in a lot of pain; so I'm stronger than ever. This was also a very busy and hard year for me and that has actually helped me to grow into a stronger person, isn't it amazing how we end up growing through the hard times in our lives. The very first house Sonya and I ever bought was in the town of Asquith Saskatchewan, there was a man named Mr. Pickett who was well known in the town as the "ultimate gardener" or at least the best potato grower around. Well he had a stroke and we ended up buying his property in August of that year. So What does this have to do with anything, Wellllll Mr Pickets had a secret to his farming it was well rot manure!!! It doesn't take long for anything including weeds to grow in this stuff and to our misfortune he had brought in 2 truckloads of it the year before his stroke; the only down side was that no one had done anything in the garden all year and the weeds were well over waist height. Back to the question what does this have to do with anything, well I've learned in the past that the way to grow things well is to get "roots in the poop!" or said another way we grow the most through difficult circumstances so shitty times in life are actually God's way of building character in our lives.

On to this next year, My hope is that you and your family are blessed with a great year, and that if you run into difficult times that you will grow through them and come out the other end unscathed. Blessings to you and a happy new year.

Rodney

A Few Important Details...

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone! It's great to be back in Winnipeg after time away with our families in Saskatchewan. I must say I love my bed!

Secondly, I'm feeling a little bit sheepish today. Usually the super-proofreader in the family, I realized a big oops today as I received a copy of the invitation I sent out for our one-year birthday bash! In my first draft I sent Rodney, I wasn't sure whether we should go with 6-9 or 5-8 and so I put the latter in brackets. Turns out we never did decide and I forgot to take out the alternate time. Sorry for the confusion!

Maybe a few of you who are coming here for clarification can give us their feedback. Would you rather it was earlier or later?? Love to hear your comments. We WILL decide and let you know after the week-end!!!

And if you can RSVP by the 6th (I know that's not a lot of time) and for sure by the 9th by emailing sonya@evestudios.ca that would be great! You can also contact Rodney at the studio if you're more comfortable with that by calling 221-8413 and leaving a message with your name and number and whether you can come and if you're planning to bring someone, or more simply email studio@evestudios.ca.

We will fill you in more next week...I just thought I'd better put something up here as I know you're receiving your mail invitations (by the way, electronic invitations will be going out shortly and if you haven't received anything yet, it's still coming or we have incorrect or incomplete mailing information for you).

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Merry Christmas!

Rodney and I wish you all a very merry Christmas! What is a merry Christmas anyways? I think I would wish that inspite of the busyness of preparations and events, the stresses and emotion that often accompany family life, and the possibility that you may even be dealing with loss or loneliness this Christmas, that you can take a few moments and give thanks for what you have, make the effort to really look around you and drink in the beauty that is there (in the countryside as you're driving or in the faces of those around you), and savour good food and hopefully a few good laughs. More...

Sing. Light candles. Watch the snow fall. Lay on the couch and get mesmerized by the Christmas lights. Read a good book. Listen to music. Party. Watch a classic Christmas show. Make soup. Eat chocolate. Hold a warm drink in your hands and let it soothe you. Take a little extra care with one or two presents and make them a work of art. Use a little extra colour or glimmer as you set your table.

For me, I also hope to take a little time to reflect on the experience of Mary, on the wonder of that night, on the unusual ordinary-ness of a King born among animals and adored by sheep herders, and on the love that brought this story to life.

Maybe merry isn't the best word. Perhaps "wonder-filled" is better. The one conjures up red and green, deck the halls, ho ho ho, and let your heart be light (things I still enjoy). The other brings to my mind starry nights, the intricacies of nature, the faces of children, and a depth of feeling in both joy and sorrow. You can choose. May love, joy, peace, and hope fill your heart this Christmas.

The Brauns

Shopping Local for fun Gifts

If you're looking for beautiful, unique gifts, I have three ideas for you today.

Cornelia Bean on 417 Academy Road has a great selection of teas, coffees, teapots, the amazing BrewT (loose leaf tea made easy), honey infusions (so you can get your lemon and honey at the same time) and so much more. Their staff is friendly and helpful and their store is just fun to visit. Warm someone's heart and insides with a gift from Cornelia Bean!

Orange Poppy Feng Shui Gifts & Decor, 1 – 433 River Avenue, is having an inventory clear-out as they are shifting their focus away from retail and completely onto feng shui consulting/classes. Last I heard, they still have some really beautiful wrapping paper and cards as well as lots of gift ideas...all up to 60% off.

If you have someone who's hard to buy for, is looking for "un-stuff" and is female, check out the LifeStyle Pass. Created by Sam (Stephanie) Manchulenko to help women in Winnipeg and area find new ways of adding healthy and enriching experiences to their lives, the lifestyle pass is like a passport to amazing Winnipeg businesses and is chock-full of great deals. Only $40. Available online and various locations.

And of course, Eve Studios has gift certificates available. So if you'd like to come in for a session, why not put it on your wish list?! We donate $25 from every $200 gift certificate to Alpha House, protective living for women leaving abuse, so you'll be giving and receiving a gift all at the same time! By the way, have you checked out Rodney's fine art photography? It's a little late to order a piece for Christmas, but a gift certificate could also cover something for hubby or parents, too! Check out the link at sidebar. He's done some really amazing work!

Tips for the Holidays

Two things I thought I'd pass along to you as the holidays are approaching.

As I attend more and more business functions and get out in the world, I'm meeting fabulous people. One of them is Trisha Sveistrup. She has begun coaching women through the process of body transformation without dieting. If you'd like to receive a free e-mail newsletter than can help you through the holidays without weight gain and without deprivation, click here. There is a sign-up in the top right-hand corner of her web-site.

Second, if you're looking for an up-do for a Christmas party, I would have to suggest Sandy Turner at First Impressions (an Aveda concept salon) on St. Mary's Rd. It's her favorite thing to do and she's really good at it! You can call 255-3599 to book your appointment.


My hair after a quick up-do at a trade-show. Sandy is really personable, fun to work with, and has a knack for contemporary, natural-looking up-do's.