Hi!
Thought I would share a piece of the award winning evening.  Here’s a posed picture after (some) of the shock had worn off!

Wow!  Have I got some news!  On Thursday May 21st I was honored to received the 2009 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Emerging Business!  What an amazing night!  What an amazing time!  I was nominated for the award in December and then I chose to go through the process of writing a submission that covered every aspect of my business.  Once I entered my submission (in March) I had to wait until the end of April to find out if I would become a finalist – which I was happy to learn that I did!  Then I had to wait until May 21st, the night of the awards dinner to find out if I would be one of the fortunate winners.  What an incredible moment when I heard Sharon Philips from the Bra Bar and Panterie call my name …stunned, shocked, amazed, excited are just a few of the feelings that describe the moment but the biggest one was honored.

I am so honored to be among such incredible women – the nominees, the finalists and the winners.  And I am so grateful to all the people who believed in me, supported me, trusted me and encouraged me.  Thank you to all of my supporters!  I am also extremely grateful for all of my clients – thank you to all of you for having the courage to follow your heart and play a bigger game in life – you are truly an inspiration for me and can’t wait to see where you will go next! 

Deb

Hi!
This is the big day!  The day we have been focused on arriving at with our challenge in tow! How did you do?  Did you make it?  I am happy to say that I am the proud receiver of 515 hugs!  My goal was 500 hugs in 100 days and I more than hit the goal!  I also had another goal but that one kind of got abandoned part way through the challenge.  I wanted to write a short article every day as well but that one just didn’t work as well as the hugs.  I do have 17 articles which is more than I had to begin with but 100 would have been nice.  Oh well, that is the beauty of the challenge – you learn about yourself, what you can do and what you might need to revise, tweak or get some help with! 

I have really enjoyed this challenge. The focus on hugs has brought me closer to people and has helped me look forward to each day even more than I normally do.  It has been amazing how much better I feel when I get a hug from someone.  I have had days when I wasn’t having such a great day and having to ask for hugs often turned them around.  I would highly recommend this goal for everyone to try. I would love to hear about your challenge and how it went.  You are invited to leave your comments here!  Thanks to everyone who challenged with me!  Stay tuned for the next one and get ready to challenge yourself to Get It Dunn!

Deb

Hi!
Today was my birthday and what a great day I had!  I always take the day off to celebrate my birthday and my husband also took the day off to celebrate with me! We did some very nice relaxing and self nurturing activities, went to a movie, had really great food all day (and cake of course!).  The other great thing about a birthday is that people just seem to naturally want to give you hugs so even though I was spending the day with my sweetie, there was no shortage of hugs from others!  And now I have one more day to go!

Deb

Hello!
I did it….I just hit 500 hugs and I am two days ahead of schedule!!  And the day isn’t even finished yet!  Everything from here on in is just gravy (not that hugs aren’t like gravy anyway…)! 

Deb

Hello!
Last night we went to a dinner party.  We have a group of friends that get together to eat every couple of months.  We pick a theme and everyone brings a dish that represents the theme.  This time we chose Italian and the food as always, was fabulous.  The best part of the evening was getting hugs!  Once everyone learned that I was on the challenge they really helped with the hug count and I finished the day with 17 hugs – the highest total I have had this whole challenge!  I love dinner parties!

Deb

Hello!
I went to my yoga class this morning and we were doing the tree pose.  This is the pose where you have to stand on one leg with the other foot perched on the inside of your standing leg esentially making your legs form the number 4.  Then you lift your arms above your head and spread them out like branches of your tree.  This is the point where I (sometimes wildly) start to waver.  My yoga teacher put it so nicely today…he said just allow your body to waver and just like a tree moves in the wind, your body will move and waver, always adjusting and rebalancing. 

That is the way that balance works – it’s always adjusting and shifting and we always have to respond by adjusting and shifting to find balance.  It’s kind of what my hug count is doing lately – shifting and wavering…I’ve had a few days without my usual number of hugs.  I guess it’s time to rebalance and see about collecting a few more afterall, we are coming down the home stretch now – 12 days left! 

Deb

Hello!
This evening I was lucky enough to attend a dinner theatre put on by a local group of actors and actresses.  They were doing a fundraiser for the House of Hesed which is a transitional home that offers a safe place and family environment for those living with HIV/AIDS.  You can read about it here www.houseofhesed.ca if you want more information.  The actors were all in character the whole evening so when we walked in the door we were greeted by a couple of the characters from the play.  The play was called Virgil’s Family Reunion so the actors were treating everyone like family members who had arrived for the reunion.  Of course, that meant hugging!  One of the actors walked straight up to me a gave me a huge hug!  Now, he didn’t know me and he didn’t hug anyone else in our group so I was thinking that I must have some kind of “hug me aura” that has developed since I have been on this 100 Day Challenge!  If that is the case, I am quite happy to have that kind of aura!  It was a great hug! 

What about you?  What are you attracting during your challenge?  Whenever you give your attention and focus to something you will attract more of it into your life.  What have  you been attracting?

Deb

Hi!
Well, I have hit a mile stone and I’m excited!  After 3 and a half years of writing an email newsletter and inviting people to sign up for it I have broken the 1000 mark.  I have been trying to get my subscription list over 1000 for several months now and yesterday I hit 1003! This is shaping up to be a great month I think!  There are several things that I will be celebrating and I’ll let you in on them as the month progresses.  Today I am celebrating my increased readership!  Thanks to all of you who have been reading my newsletter and sharing it with friends!  What are you celebrating this month?  What can you find in your life to celebrate and be grateful for?  Let me know by leaving your comments here!

Deb