Getting to the TOP of Your Game is a Climb....

It has been a long, exhausting, amazing 4 days of creating looks for a brilliant photographer; Frank Doorhof. Sure, I am tired; I didn't  even know what day of the week it was until mid afternoon... but hey, I was having fun working and that is all that matters as I climb to the top of my game. That's my goal... and I won't stop until I get there. I remember back in beauty college 21 years ago that I had dreams of being on the platform at hair shows being the "hot shot" and that climb was one I challenged myself to for 7 years. I got all the way to platform assistant and switched gears because the hair care company I had aligned myself with sold to Loreal... ugh, not a happy day for me and I made the choice to jump ship and I am glad I did. I quickly became enthralled in doing makeup for photo shoots and that is when I said YEAH... THIS is something I want to be a part of! I was ALL over that creative avenue... and here I am 14 years later walking all over that creative avenue with some of the best photographers in the world. How cool is that? I would say that switching gears was a good call... you have to know when to say when.

Now I would not say that I am at ALL at the top of my game... (yet) because there are some unbelievable makeup artists out there that can run circles around me, but since they are my mentors I am in good shape. I have gotten to where I am with no fancy makeup classes, courses or training other than what I learned in Cosmetology class, proactive learning and trial and error (LOTS of it!) I must say that I am proud of that. I did not get here by NOT working hard,  I have worked my BUTT off, endless hours and many years of sweat equity to be here right now. At times I even told fibs about having done certain types of makeup before just to land the job ( I have God to thank for my proactive personality, You Tube for tutorials, and Kevin Aucoin for his books.) My point is that sometimes you have to work your fanny off to get to where you want to be. The moaners and the wimps don't make it, but you can bet they will complain about not making it (ALL the time)

You must work hard to get to the top, you will have sleepless nights, short (if any) vacations for quite a while, you may miss events you want to go to and likely disappoint people that you love from time to time but if you are willing to push yourself beyond your limits you WILL make it to the top of your game and everyone will be happy in the end. Is it easy? Ummm... NO! Is it hard? Most definitely! Do you make sacrifices along the way? Yep, too many to count. The greatest reward is when you begin to see the end of that tunnel... when you want nothing more than to sprint to that finish line because you KNOW that is when you can really enjoy the triumph. THAT is when you can relax, pat yourself on the back and know that it was all worth the fight.

I take time for everything I love, you can't work yourself to death but DO work hard... love what you do and if you don't? Well, find something you love and make a career out of it someway, somehow. If you allow your passions to drive you nothing can stop you! I promise!

As I approach my last day of creating looks for a photographer I have admired the work of for years, I am smiling... it is cool, and definitely worth the sleepy eyes and tired hands I have as I lay down on this ever so fluffy pillow. I honestly cannot wait to share the pictures; the downside of doing commercial shoots is having to wait for them to pick images that they will use for the project, but as anything that's worth it... waiting is just fine with me!

" I often flinch when people say "don't work too hard" because in order to get to the top of your game it is a necessary practice. You can relax at the top... THAT is your reward for hard work and a job well done; 

so keep climbing!" 

ShelleyGiard©2012

Goodnight my avid readers, YOU ROCK!

xoxo

~Shells~

What Floats My Boat? Well.... this does!

I have to laugh at my title... because the other day I thought I would try something different to help me put together a fun blog post by posting the question "what floats your boat?" on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/shelleygiard hoping to get some funny answers. It kind of bombed; although a few people did respond (all guys might I add...oh and one woman). And although not what I was expecting (two of them said water) I did get a few laughs, but it did not really help me with my blog idea. SOOOO... now I have to wing it on my own so here it goes!

What floats my boat... translation, what excites me? Gets my engine revving, my juices flowing my creativity in WILD mode and well just simply what do I live for? I know, it's a BROAD and loaded question and so are my answers, so here they are.


I live for great weather; you know, the kind of day that you wake up, walk outside to feel the crisp breeze on your face while simultaneously being bathed in the warmth of  the sunshine?

I love laughter, it makes stressful things go away for that moment, it is great exercise for the tummy region, and because it forces a beautiful smile onto anyone who encounters it.

I love to read great memoirs, stories of beating adversity, and non-fiction books that give me knowledge I wish I could have had the patience to obtain degrees for. I also love to read success coaching books and self-help books because I am always trying to become a better person.

I love my kids, family, and friends... they mean EVERYTHING to me because I know what it's like to miss my kids, lose a family member and have no friends.

 I love when someone tells me I can't do something just so I can prove them wrong by doing it.

I love a passionate kiss... ( and that's all I have to say on that topic)

I love a good competition but don't care if I win... I love it for the purpose of pushing myself to my limit and the feeling I get when that happens.

I love strong hugs and stronger hand shakes.

I love the smell of fresh cut grass, coconut, vanilla, and rain.

I love thunderstorms and snow.

I love writing; it's therapeutic and invigorating and sometimes doing it reveals things trapped inside that you never knew were there.

I love people and enjoy talking to strangers.

I love REAL people, they make me smile and are always interesting.

I could go on and on and on about things that"float my boat" but have you gotten the point yet?

My point is... if you wake up thinking about what floats your boat perhaps you will have a positive day
because you are thinking only about things you love, want, and appreciate. How's that for a clever purpose? ;)

"Wake up thinking about how you will get your boat to float, not about the hole that will make it sink." ©2012ShelleyGiard

XOXO

~Shells~

This is a picture of a yacht I saw when vacationing at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas last year. 

When I saw the name of this boat I remember thinking "wow, that is the story of my life!"

Finding Balance...

Do you ever have ah-ha moments? The kind that make you feel like Wile E.Coyote when the anvil inevitably falls? Yeah... well I have them all of the time, and frankly I am not sure that it's typical or for that matter normal. I have the feeling that I encounter them often simply because I strive to learn about how to become a better partner, a better mother and a better friend... (I couldn't dodge the anvils if I boycotted ACME forever!) We are promised a better life if we do this. I had one of these moments over the weekend and decided that if I shared it with my readers, it could likely help someone.

If you have been reading my blogs then you know that I have been crazy busy lately... (not complaining at all about that!) I have been busy with work, work and more work, which is AWESOME! Something I could not figure out however, was why I was beginning to feel stressed. Usually when I am SLAMMED with work I am happy knowing that money is coming in, (that typically creates less stress for a work-a-holic /business addict such as myself) Relax? What is that? Take time for yourself? That's a foreign statement, have unscheduled fun? Never knew what that was! For the past decade or longer, I was not living life... or at least not the way it was intended. I was nose to the grindstone, gotta make a living to support your family and have nice things no matter what kind of person. Something shifted though... something happened to me when I hit rock bottom...and that was that I was forced to relax, and for the first time I came to experience things I never took the time to appreciate before.

Many, many things have changed since I had this shift in who I was two years ago. I opened my heart up again after a very long and tough relationship, I spent more time with my kids and less time away from them; I became a better mother, friend and partner. I found time to do everything I needed to do but MADE the time to also do what I WANTED. Of course... I had to make financial sacrifices in order to do this, and I must say that not only did it humble me, it made me more appreciative. Finding that balance... having just enough work, a little more fun and a lot more family and friends.  It leads to happiness; no wonder the "Cleaver's" had it made! (if you don't know who they are then Google them! (And don't call me old after you do!)

For years people have found themsleves so busy trying to drive that fancy car, build that custom house, and wear expensive labels that they forget to find that balance... I was one of those people once upon a time, and I never knew what I was missing. Now... as I have been swamped with work and feeling stressed I realize that my happiness had been depleted because my balance was interrupted. I suppose I have gotten used to having time for everything that having no time to do laundry, paint some walls in the new house and cook dinner for my family was making Shelley a grumpy scrooge! Ba-Humbug!

My latest ah-ha moment was over the weekend when I finally had some time to finish up some home projects, catch up on laundry and cook dinner for family and guests we had over on Sunday. My poopy mood seemed to dissolve because I regained that balance and in return, my "happy" came back. It's really hard to admit that I am growing up... my wisdom is scaring me and I am pretty sure I will soon sound like my Pépère who was as old and wise as they come. He had lots of experiences too (called trial and error)... so I suppose I took after him in that sense. (loved that man)

I encourage you to look at your life and ask yourself if you are "happy".  Analyze how well your "balance" is. If you are out of whack and want to change things, begin prioritizing by figuring out what is REALLY important to YOU in life; not what is important to others. That may sound selfish... and it is on one hand; however on another hand it's exactly what you need to sort out in order to be happy and succeed in life. The cool part is that it will make everyone around you happier as well.  That's the best kind of selfish there is!

I DARE you to find balance... 

Find the time to do all that you need to and most of what you want to. It's priceless, I promise! 

"Sometimes hitting rock bottom will take you straight to the top." Shelley Giard©2012

When Opportunity Knocks... You Have to Answer! My day with The BUCCANEERS

It's not every day that you get a voice mail like I got yesterday. While I was away on a photo shoot in Captiva Island Monday and Tuesday (that's why I have not blogged in two days) I had no internet and VERY spotty cell coverage. I was lucky to find a place to get one bar on my phone so I could at least update my Facebook status (I sound like an addict... hmmm, maybe I am, but that's not the topic here) Okay, moving on... I retrieved my voice mail messages and had one from a talent agency that I have worked with in the past saying they had a client who needed a makeup artist and wardrobe stylist for a shoot today and tomorrow, and to please call them if I was available.

Now yesterday was a HECTIC day from hell... it was my first day home after two days of being out of town, I was exhausted and woke up a bit late. My poor son told me his tummy hurt but quite honestly I thought it might be an attention seeking tactic since he had missed me. I fed into it a bit  by hugging him etc. but that was the extent of it. We got it the car to drive Baleigh to school and because of the tardiness I had to go in to sign her in late. All of a sudden my son said "mommy, my tummy hurts bad!" and he proceeded to throw up in the lobby of my daughters school. A half hour later, Corey (my boyfriend) frantically calls saying he was headed to the ER. I had not even had a cup of coffee yet! (ha)  Luckily they are both okay now but they certainly gave me a welcome home that wore me out!

Despite all the craziness, I finally managed to call the agency back and the agent proceeds to tell me that if available, I was needed for a promo shoot for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Immediately assuming it was the cheerleaders I was semi-psyched and welcomed the opportunity but as the agent continued I realized it was a shoot with the players and the coach! Holy YAY! I was STOKED! I explained that with some slight rearranging I could be available no doubt, and of course I rearranged things. I was told that I had to call the Ad Agency to go over details, so I did. The contact at the agency (who had already seen my website) asked me if I was experienced in working with athletes... of course I said, yes, (although the athletes I had worked with were not Pro, and a few of them had been "pretend athletes" aka paid actors) Point being, an opportunity was knocking and I was not only answering but I had  hors d'oeuvres in hand. The producer asked me to send a few photos of my work on athletes and as long as they looked good... I was hired. (sweat began to drip from my forehead) I had JUST moved and all my photo CD's were still in boxes and the photos I needed were not on my hard drive. CRAP! There are two photographers that I have done this type of work with and those are Scott Kelby, and Joe McNally... two WORLD known guys who are ALWAYS out of the country doing seminars, conventions, classes... etc etc.

What was I going to do? Well... I contacted both of  their assistants and as luck would have it they were able to get me the shots I needed! Scott was actually in town and wished me luck. ( I love that guy!) WHEW! I emailed them over and landed the gig. A half an hour after the email I was on the crew sheet and my itinerary was sent over. Here was my "talent" lineup...

Davin Joseph
Carl Nicks
Josh Freeman
Vincent Jackson
Ronde Barber
Coach Schiano

I nearly peed my pants when I saw Ronde's name... he is my favorite Buccaneer! I could barely sleep and my nerves were in high gear this morning. I was going to 1 Buc Place to make some NFL players look great for promo stuff ( tickets, calendars, billboards etc.) for the upcoming season. How COOL was THAT! I needed to be pinched but nobody was around to do it! (boo) Dreams really do come true, my first REAL celebrity shoot was today, and I must say that ALL of these players were AMAZINGLY friendly. Ronde was SO funny, I love him even more now! I had a LONG but amazing day rubbing down players with silicone and spraying them with water to make them look sweaty, meeting our new Coach and making him look super handsome for his shots and I steamed about 30 Bucs flags for tomorrows shoot. I will be back at 1 Buc Place tomorrow and when I leave I will smile just as I did today realizing that if you stay on the road long enough you will eventually get to exactly where you wanted to be!

xoxo

~Shells~

"If you give up now, you will never know what is waiting for you at the finish line!" ©2012ShelleyGiard

Ronde Barber and me after his photo session

 Inside 1 Buc Place

 Me and Ty Law... retired NFL player

 As I was leaving tonight...

The autograph  I got from my favorite Buccaneer!

LIFE IS GOOD!

That Moment When you Feel Like You Can't Breathe...

Have you ever had a moment when something happened that gave you the feeling that you can't breathe? Like you would absolutely hyperventilate at any moment? Did you know what to do when this happened? Perhaps you got shocking news, could have been good or bad... maybe you found out someone you trusted lied to you, or that someone you love was not forthcoming in something you felt you should have known... or maybe it was finding out something amazing was right around the corner that you had been waiting for all of your life.

It is at moments like this that we must stop and think about what is happening, we must stay rational in a heated angry moment because it is important to maintain composure and analyze both sides when we are faced with something we do not understand; otherwise we say things we don't mean, or say things we do mean in a hurtful way. On the flip-side, when faced with exciting news, we must revel in the moment and open the throttle wide as to experience the full effect of the happiness and victory that lies within it all.

Many times in life we don't think enough... we are too busy or too selfish to take the necessary time we should to make purposeful, meaningful, rational and correct decisions. However when you learn this and apply it  to your life, things will change... hands down without a doubt. I have learned all my lessons the hard way, I have no doubt this will continue given my rebellious, stubborn nature. What I can say in my defense however is that it no longer takes me once-twice-three times to learn from them; and that is what I call growth.

Wishing everyone a moment that will take your breath away... (in a good way of course!)

xoxo 

~Shells~

"Take the time you need to think things through... it is a necessary practice in order to birth good decisions" ShelleyGiard©2012

Love~ Support~ Family~ and True Friends...

It has been a LOOOONNNGGG couple of weeks. Being in DC for Photoshop World for five days then immediately coming back to the closing on our new home, diving into painting,/prepping and then moving; losing my Step-mom to cancer and then two friends, one to a sudden heart attack and one to liver disease all in a matter of two weeks will EXHAUST even the Energizer bunny (to which I have been referred to as being more than once in my life.)

Last night after cleaning up from dinner it was about 9:00 and I finally sat down... to veg. To my complete surprise, when I sat down, my mind apparently allowed everything to settle in and I began to tear up with an overwhelming puddle of emotions thinking about the people I lost over the last week. I was on Facebook and saw a beautiful picture of my friend Henry... I opened a photo album in my photos to see a picture of my Step-mom, Mom and Dad taken on New Year's Eve 2008 and I looked at a picture of my friend Vivian and her husband Rick who passed away last week. It was my moment of grieving that I had not allowed myself to have being that I was caught up in the middle of my move, it had been "on hold" and by sitting down I clicked the "play" button.

I wanted to take this morning to thank each and every person who offered love, support, comfort and encouragement through all of this, it means more to me than any of you may ever know. Without the support in knowing people care about you enough to reach out to congratulate you, offer kind and loving words when you are feeling sadness, offering an ear when you need to vent, a shoulder to cry on or help in doing something that needs to get done.... things would be much more difficult. Love support, family and true friends are an amazing blessing and I am truly thankful to have received that blessing from many of you over the past couple of weeks. YOU ARE AMAZING, and I love you all!

I want to intentionally and purposefully give a special thanks to Aniko Downey, Danny Mills, Gregory Lewis, Emily Watson, Lara Luchart, Davonne Smith, Miguel Campos, George Lachmanek, Diane Heth, Jane Mak, Vivian Schofield, Nancy Candy, Andrea Beck, Tracy Bankhead and Wendy Wofford for your ongoing continuous support in nearly everything I do. To my mom, you are my ROCK; always have been and apparently always will be. And last but not least to Corey... it has been a crazy two weeks and I am so happy to have had you by my side through it all. Here's to our life together babe!

I hope that all of you are able to sit back and say that you too have been blessed with true friends, whether it be one or many. Life is so much sweeter because of them. Be a true friend and you will likely find

"Many people in life search for one "true" friend; I have been blessed with many because I have learned that the first step to finding a true friend is simply being one." ©2012ShelleyGiard

xoxo 

~Shells~

In loving memory of three terrific people to which I had the honor of knowing. 

You will be missed by many and never forgotten. 

When People Can't Be Happy For You

First of all, I want to say that I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend regardless whether or not you celebrate Easter. Corey and I spent the entire weekend putting the new house together and it was tiring yet really fun. We are both the type that want it all set up as soon as possible so we were on a mission for sure!

My blog tonight is a simple one with a strong message and it was triggered of course by something that happened to me over the past few days. I have been posting once a day on Facebook just to keep everyone abreast of things and unfortunately by doing so I ruffled someone's feathers and she let it be known by posting commentary on my wall. Yes, I could have de-friended her or deleted the comments but I am not 12 so acting like I was would be silly. Bottom line is that not everyone is going to be happy when you are doing well... and I have learned to accept that. Jealousy is a crazy thing and when people are miserable they want you with them.

I have gotten where I am not because I care about what others think... but through TONS of bad decisions, hurdles which I have jumped, getting up after falling on my face and staying determined and motivated simply because I had goals. I have accomplished quite a bit despite the troubles along the way, but am certainly not where I intend to be in the end. Bad choices lead to good lessons, but you HAVE to learn or it was not worth the trouble of making them.

In order to change your life you must change who you are, you must grow through your mistakes become a better person and make better choices. Put the past behind you but let the lessons from it guide you to the future. It is up to YOU to make your life different, nobody can be blamed for your shortcomings... everyone has circumstances that are not ideal but in order to overcome you must look at YOURSELF square in the face and say "what can I DO to change who I am and where I am?" Until you ask yourself these questions and be truly honest in answering them, you will never change your direction, so I hope you like where you are!

"Mistakes teach you the lesson but  only learning the lesson can guide you to a new beginning." ©2012ShelleyGiard

xoxo

~Shells~