Social Media Diary 3 Year 1:All The Best et al

I am still celebrating my first anniversary year and showing photos from the year that was in Social Media. Last Spring, we all came out of the woodwork, which made for a hectic social media season.  Yes, all these people we tweet or chat with are really not imaginary!

My first invite came from the royal bloggess, Ronda Carman, of All The Best Blog  for the Sferra Lose Count Party at Mrs. Howard’s in Atlanta. As most of us know, she is the brand ambassador for Sferra Linens .  The charming Texan (based in Scotland) seems larger than life with her topping the blog charts and being privy to the lifestyles of the world's most admired style makers. When you meet Ronda, her unaffected charm will immediately draw you in and you will be delightfully disarmed by her graciousness. She has remained detached by the madness and trappings that come with being a celebrated blogger. Her class act transcends well to her writing and new venture, All The Best Portfolio , a brand building by design company, that she launched this year.

Ronda Carman

I was beyond excited to meet Atlanta's bloggerati.

Shameeka Ayers of  The Broke Socialite, Blayne Beacham, Claire Watkins of CWID and High Gloss Blue, Christi Holcombe of Charm Home, Erika Ward of BluLabel Bungalow

Molly, Jenny Andrews of MFAMB , Erika Ward,  and 

Shani Gilchrist of Camille Maurice  from Columbia, SC

I used to live near Mrs. Howard's in Charlotte and every visit was like a plush pick me up . Not expecting any less from the Atlanta outpost, I felt like I wanted to dress the part that day by juxtaposing high and low. I shopped in my closet and came up with a beautiful beaded top from Lesage that one of my best friends, Garrison Rousseau, gave me. I matched it with a Prada-esque lace skirt (inspired from Fall 2008 RTW) from Kohl's, West Palm Beach. A fab find to mark my first pop into the store. I completed the look with another new discovery this year, Kelsi Dagger, by the same designers of Pour La Victoire. I wore the heck out of them all Spring and Summer from High Point, New York, and Cebu. These plat heels rate high in glam, comfort, and price.

You can listen to, Aaron Stewart- Sferra's Creative Director, here as he unravels the thread count quandary. I have been a fan of Sferra and it was one of the little details that attracted me to the SNUG partner. His thread count knowledge counterbalances his penchant for wearing nice but sometimes, holey cashmere sweaters.  Pro photos from All The Best Portfolio here. The photos below are from Mrs. Howard's website, the perfect setting for the Lose Count party.

A week after, we were invited by Dr. Richard Bennington, chair of the Home Furnishings and Design Department, at High Point University to be part of the Social Media panel. High Point University has been ranked as one of the top 610 colleges and universities across the country in the list, "America's Best Colleges," created by Forbes.com. This places HPU in the top 7 percent of the 6,600 higher-education institutions throughout the United States.     Dr. Nido Qubein, president of HPU, credits the tremendous growth in academics and campus facilities. It is ranked by US News and World Report No. 5 among comprehensive universities in the South and No. 1 in its category among up-and-coming schools. 

Dr. Richard Bennington

Leslie Carothers, of The Kaleidoscope Partnership, gave the keynote speech and a peek of What's Next in Social Media. Some of the tech information was bewildering for a tech challenged person like me to remember. Watching Leslie's presentation and how she weaves everything together further confirmed that there is no dynamo like her in the furniture industry when it comes to social media. 

It is exciting to be part of this paradigm shift and apply these tools in our personal and business matters. I was part of the panel that she moderated representing furniture manufacturing, Wanda Horton of Interior Concepts by Wanda representing interior design, Christy Brown of FurnitureLand South representing retail, Nick Iauco of Brand Intelligence Group who does social media for other sectors.

HPU students gave the audience a quick 411 on the different Social Media applications

Mitch Miles of  The 26.2 Group

High Point Market is fast approaching...We started off with a small tweetup at the Soicher Marin showroom co-hosted by Tobi Fairley and Wanda Horton last Fall. There were about 10 of us, got too busy talking that we hardly took photos. 

John Strauss commemorated his debut in Interhall with a Tweet-for-a-Table contest.

Wes Kennedy, Art Director of Home Accents Today and Leslie Carothers 

John Strauss makes these beautiful business card holders,perfect for gifts.

Last April,  Designer Detective Shay Geyer (@designershay) of IBB Design Group and Good Morning Texas design expert, asked Wes Kennedy and I to co host the tweetup with her at Global Views. This time, there was more dazzle, just the way they do it in Dallas.

Shay Geyer and Erin

Jackie Von Tobel, Leslie Carothers , Shay, Leigh , Wanda Horton 

Faith Sheridan   

Carl and Jill Healy 

 

friend and Mom of Olivia Chalmers

Wanda Horton, Davetta Moore 

Jerry Cohen, John Strauss,  

Wes Kennedy, Jeff Day 

Remote Stylists Kelly (@kellyfallis) and Matt

Traci Zeller and Jackie Von Tobel

Wes, Shay and I 

(and yes, I totally intended to blend with the interiors and 

maxed out my fave turquoise and gold combo)

One of the most coveted invites last Market was House Beautiful's  Southern Supper 2 weeks into Newell Turner's editorship.  The invitation still stated, 'Stephen Drucker requests the pleasure...."

Barry Dixon and HB Publisher Kate Kelly Smith
heralding Newell Turner's birthday

Tobi's Mom, Interior Designer and HB March cover 

Tobi Fairley,   HB Editor in Chief Newell Turner 

Barry Dixon, gentleman and interior designer extraordinaire

with the ladies

here with Thom Filicia 

Withit Networking Party

Stephanie Lowder, Withit President and President of Rare Bird Creative 

and Natura World's Communication Director Julia Rosien and fellow Withit board member

Cindy Williams, VP of Retail Strategy for Info Retail and 

Withit VP for Membership

Lizzy Freundel, Director of Marketing Communications and Innovation 

for Theodore and Alexander

Kathy Wall, President of The Media Matters and Withit Ambassador

Leslie Newby, principal of Brand Communications Inc with Stephanie

talented interior designer Julie Browning Bova aka @jbint ,

Lizzy Freundel, and I

Alright folks, I'm partied out recording everyone from Left-Right but I did this for 6 years at one point in my life. Hope the memory exercise will aid me through the years. A couple more anniversary posts coming up then I'm done celebrating :-)

WOW Inspiration:The Chambered Nautilus

This is a follow up to the Are You WithIt? post yesterday. The women of Withit have been in the thick of planning and preparations for its annual education conference. It didn't take long for Sara Lyke, WithIt's executive director; Barbara Miller, conference chair, and me to decide on the color theme for the year. With Pantone's 2010 turquoise in mind, we decided on a robust complementary red, to match the calming color for the women-centric leadership development network's biggest event.

the serene qualities of blue and

the invigorating aspects of green,

Turquoise evokes thoughts of soothing, tropical waters

and a languorous, effective escape from

the everyday troubles of the world,

while at the same time restoring

our sense of wellbeing

----Pantone

mood board courtesy of glam check

I accepted the call to be VP of Networking and WOW Awards Chair last December while I was in Palm Beach for the holidays. I immediately got inspired there while thinking of colors and a decor theme for the conference and awards night that will take place, August 17-19th in Charlotte, North Carolina. This will be my third time to attend the conference and my first as a committee member....big shoes to fill.

photo from Wikipedia

With summer and all the evocative images that come to mind, I thought that the Nautilus shell would make a strong symbolic emblem for the home and furnishings industry after a difficult 2009. We all experienced a challenging period, stayed bouyant, and have managed to come out of it stronger and wiser.

I took a page from one of my all time favorite ubiquitous coffee table books,

Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities

As coral reefs grow, it provides a habitat for intimately connected marine communities. The diversity of corals and the significant role it plays in the development of other ecosystems and its interconnectedness is akin to how WithIt works. It is an amazing powerhouse that supports its members as they grow and branch out to flourish in areas where they need to be. I've learned and continue to do so from many women leaders with various enriching experiences.

Tobi Fairley from House of Turquoise

Corals are ingrained with symbiotic tissues that enable them to develop into large branches. Reefs maintain a network, foster intimate ecological relationships, and delicate webs much like the many real and virtual networks we build and belong to. Not only is the education conference a great time to meet wonderful contacts in the home and furnishings industry, but also a time......

Kate Spade ad

To Learn

House of Turquoise

To Grow

To Lead

Kate Spade ad

To Encourage

House of Turquoise

To Mentor and Be Mentored

House of Turquoise

A Time to Give and Take

Tobi Fairley from House of Turquoise

I look forward to some tete`-a-tete´ with friends I've made.

Neptune's Treasure by Scalamandre

share stories, moments, ideas, and laughs

while breaking bread

Kate Spade ad

or indulging in sweet euphoria

keetsa.com

Last Valentine's Day, I had my eureka moment

that tied the whole inspiration together.

Le Corbusier's Spirales Logarithmiques

at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art

reminded me of this poem

photo from here

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS

by: Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sail the unshadowed main,–
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,–
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:–

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

Tiger Nautilus by Ruth Burke

"In many ways, we are like a chambered nautilus. It adds a chamber each year through time and effort to accommodate its growing body. New chambers represent our lives. We cannot turn back nor relive the past. According to legend, a chambered nautilus can sail while floating on the water by hoisting up a membrane. Life’s big question is, “What’s our goal in life?” “To grow and not to go backwards.” Our goal should be to make each year better and more dignified than the previous. The last five lines of the poem speak of growing out from a weak past (small chamber), creating new and better years (bigger chambers), continuing to create more precious years (even bigger chambers), and dying (leaving the shell on the beach)"----excerpt from a brilliant analysis

Conference details here or

please visit

http://www.withit.org/

*all photos are from personal archives, unless noted*