Waiting

You've probably been waiting for us to update this blog. We're all waiting for spring to arrive (or stay). If you've been driving in this weather, you've probably done your share of waiting in traffic. And if you're like several in our family, you're waiting for a persistent cough to clear up.

Waiting. Most of us aren't that crazy about waiting. Or good at it. My kids are notoriously impatient. I think they come by it honestly. Where am I going with this? I'm not even sure. That's what I like about the creative process. You never know where it might lead. It's like a great novel or an exciting adventure.

My friend is doing a lot of waiting these days. She broke her ankle in three places. Now she waits for it to heal. And waits for others to do things for her, when normally she is the one making things happen (and a lot of things happen at once, I might add).

I have experienced the waiting that comes with pregnancy three times. With the first came lots of reflection and anticipation...and a little trepidation. The second and third went by much faster, with less time to savour the experience.

With our business, we've done a lot of waiting...waiting for the breakthrough...where everything we've done starts to come together in synergy and our business takes off. Well, I think the waiting is over. It feels a little surreal at times, to see our dream becoming a reality, but I think it's slowly sinking in. It's been a long time coming.

I think the waiting has enlarged us (like being pregnant). I think it has expanded our capacity for hope. I think it has increased our ability to trust. I think it has opened up our hearts to be more grateful. I hope so.

Rodney and I often find it difficult to find the balance between "doing the stuff"and trusting. Sometimes it comes down to receiving the wisdom to do the "right stuff at the right time" and sometimes it is simply receiving a gift we could never have orchestrated ourselves. Those gifts "out of the blue" remind us of the vastness of God, so that we don't over-inflate (or over-work) our limited selves.

What are you waiting for? Have you been feeling desperate? Have you nearly given up hope? Do you wonder if you are foolish to believe it will happen? Are you afraid of disappointment?

The one who created us waits for us to turn to him. He knows our hearts. He knows what we need. He is fully capable of meeting those needs. Our part is to wait...in expectation (and with a bit more "stillness" than my children!)



Well, I think I got to where I needed to go. I hope the path was scenic enough.

I'm waiting to hear from you!

Welcome to Eden!

Don't you love Carolin Vesely's writing?!! "...the North End business was created to be a photographic Eden of solely feminine energy" She's got punch!

For those of you just hearing about us for the first time, welcome! We are so happy to be spreading the news of what we do at Eve Studios and we're glad you've come to learn more. As you've read, Eve Studios was created by my husband and I in order to capture women's beauty and build their self-esteem. It has been so fun to do a business with such a narrow focus...just to be known for one thing (and be really good at it...I can say that without bragging because it's my husband who is responsible for what our clients experience). We've always loved being creative and taking risks and being a bit "on the edge". Well, I guess it rubbed off on me...I started our marriage almost thirteen years ago on the more conservative side. But although Rodney has been the visionary, I have been the one to encourage him to make the leap from paramedic to photographer, and from employee back to entrepreneur. Maybe it rubbed off too much!

Rodney has always loved photography, but never really started taking it seriously until he began to burn out from youth ministry. I told him he needed a hobby. And he taught himself the guitar and started studying photography. But it was photography that became his passion...the kind of thing you just can't get away from. And he has pursued it ever since.

I have a musical background and did a bit of computer business training after we were married (university just wasn't doing it for me). Worked a couple of years and then became a full-time mom. I love doing that. I could be happy doing just that. But it turns out that I came up with this business idea and over the past year we've been in business, I've undergone such a transformation myself, that one of my friends told me I've been "Eve'd". It started with a few cold calls for prizes for our Grand Opening, moved to press releases, brochure design, and then networking and becoming a part of a breakfast business group of amazing women...and soon becoming a major spokesperson for what we do. It's amazing how I've grown in confidence and competence over the year, as I've been part of our business.

It's been almost a month since our birthday bash! In that time, we've really been sensing a building of momentum that I've been dubbing the "snowball" effect. All of our marketing has really started coming together and it's exciting to see.

A couple of businesses have really helped us out. One of them is Sustainable Fitness. Allan Zimmer, the founder of these outstanding boot camps, has brought his vision and connections to us in a very generous manner. Thanks for giving us a presence on your website, Allan. We really appreciate all you've done for us. If anyone is looking towards getting more fit and just needs a boost...I encourage you to look into one of the many boot camps Sustainable Fitness offers. They have a wide variety of locations and times throughout the year, with some really high-quality trainers. We enjoyed a barbecue with the Sustainable crew this summer...great people (and great food). Boot camps offer variety, social interaction and accountability--all things we need when we're trying to change something in our lives!

Another business-owner who is a big cheerleader for Eve Studios is Jessica LoRusso. She recently opened Zealous MediSpa on Provencher and is also co-owner of Success Sistas, an organization that helps women strategize for the next five years of their lives, whether in business or personal areas of their lives. Jessica is a talented and passionate woman, and we thank her for being passionate about "Eve".

Keep your eyes and ears open...we think you'll be hearing about Eve Studios a lot in the near future.

Two More Businesses I'm Proud to Promote

I have the tremendous privilege of building relationships with other business women. Today I want to talk about two of them: Kristina Poturica from Rituals in Hair and Skin, and Michelle Lalonde from Tiber River Naturals. Both of them have amazing vision for their businesses, incredible dedication to service, and a passion for what they do. They are way farther down the road than I am, in business for over 5 years (I think) and managing a fairly large staff. I respect each of them a great deal.

What to say? First, I would suggest you check out their websites. You will learn a great deal about what they offer and how they go about it. Both of them love to give back to their communities. Both of of them pursue excellence. Kristina won 2008 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year for Emerging Business. Michelle and her business partner Adriana have been runner-up and are going to win an award soon, I'm sure. Rituals does hair and esthetics, accompanied by relaxation treatments and are located on Pembina Highway. Tiber River offers a whole line of natural products, made in Winnipeg, for the whole family, as well as esthetics. I have gotten to know many of the staff there and appreciate their personable service.

Thanks, Kristina and Michelle for your generous donation of gift baskets full of goodies for our birthday bash this past month. We're proud to know you both.

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