This was a very bitter sweet weekend. Saturday night I threw a mini launch party for LiveLikeYou on the terrace and friends and colleagues near and dear to me came over. It was such a great evening with all these amazing people, some meeting for the first time, getting together and having a beautiful night. Then early Sunday morning Dan’s best friend, lost her fight with cancer at only 43, and my other close friend lost her mother. Life is a fleeting moment, a beautiful adventure that we far too often forget to enjoy and appreciate the way we should. This weekend was a wake up call for me, to spend more time with people I love, and to appreciate the small things in life that I perhaps take for granted.
It was so nice to have my friends over!
Not only is it great to see your friends, it forces you to clean up your house and use your home that way it was intended to. A home never looks so nice as when you have a party . I picked some peonies in the garden. I love to have fresh flowers around when people come over.
Lucky was dressed in her best and greeting people at the door with her way too friendly approach.
Fresh pink tulips where on the kitchen table. Fresh flowers is a great dis-tractor from unfinished interiors. I highly recommend it!
Bubba was in a party mood as well smelling the roses. We all thought he was so cute – until he peed on them.
My dear “old” friend and super talented artist Christine Matthai, who is in the states for a few weeks, came down from New York.
So great to see her! I’m thrilled to be carrying so many of her beautiful art photographs on LiveLikeYou. You can see a few here, here, here and here. Her art has been selected for a big museum in Bologna Italy and I’m so excited for her. She deserves all the accolades that come her way!
The house was nice and neat. I got two Buddha heads from Homegoods that are in the Chanel hallway.
Books on the otherwise messy coffee tables got neatly organized.
Some of the first to arrive….From left, Christina Collins, the best chiropractor in the world and LiveLikeYou supporter! If you live in Virginia Christina and and her husband David Collins have Old Dominon Chiropratic and they’ll save your life-literally, and give you a LiveLikeYou card on the way out!! Thanks Christina!
Next to her is birthday girl, talented artist Erica Eriksdotter you can see her work here, and here. GRATTIS PA FODELSEDAGEN ERICA! Erica also does an amazing job with watercolors for the LiveLikeYou renderings, so excited to be working with her on that. Next to Erica Katia Goffin, MY FUN FUN SERBIAN FRIEND, she is a fantastic landscape architect. I’ve convinced her to partner up with me to create LiveLikeYou gardens in the future.
Since we had Christine a photographer here, she had the idea to take this picture!
Some sinful wine…
Jaci Reed our fab new chairwoman for Knock Out Abuse 2011, Tara Engel, Mary Butler (the previous owner of my house. She built and designed it!! Did such a great job.) And Cheryl Masri my Knock Out Abuse partner and co-founder.
Thanks for coming girls!!
Dan, me and Bubba.
Dear friends (and clients) Patty Coleman, Laura Ingraham, Dan, and Marshall Coleman. Patty brought her wicked Margarita recipe. And Laura came her just off a flight from Russia. Thank You!!
Jenny and Christine finally met, after many Skype sessions from Italy regarding her art placement on site. Jenny is Web/Creative manager for LiveLikeYou.
The Knock Out gang enjoying the sweet courtyard Mary designed!! Could be in Europe?
Thank you to my friends for coming and supporting this. I know I’ve probably bored you many times talking too much about LiveLikeYou!!
THEN….
…..Sunday afternoon Dan, Luke and I went out for a hike with our dogs and found this sweet old lost dog wandering around by himself in the woods.
His name was Kodiac, he had a collar, so we called the owner and asked lots of people on the hiking trail if they knew who he was. Just as we had given up hope, we decided that instead of letting the animal cops get him,w e would take him home for the night and locate the owner. But with the effort and care by many NICE concerned people this story had a happy ending….
…Esther the very happy owner appeared!! Some nice people on the hiking trail ran in to her on the trail and told her we had found her dog.
I love it when sad stories have a happy ending, don’t you?
P.S. Fpr daily updates, design inspiration and tips don’t forget to follow LiveLikeYou on FACEBOOK!!
I always try to remember – we wouldn't know what joy is without sorrow. It's wonderful to have supportive friends to walk life's path with! Thanks for sharing with us 🙂
I am so sorry to hear about Dan's friend. It is always extra hard to loose a friend who has so much left to give in life. I hope he is surrounded by loving friends through his grief.
Congratulations on the launch! So exciting.
Of course, I would have been there in a flash had Sydney been a little closer.. (not hard right!?!).
I am glad you have so many lovely and loyal friends. They are the core of life.
Warmest hugs to you my friend for a lovely and reflective post.
xx Charlotta
P.S. You look gorgeous in the photos! x
A beautiful post, Jill. And…a happy ending! : )
So sorry about your losses….makes you take pause , for sure. Bitter with the sweet. On the sweet side, it looks like you had a wonderful party…flowers and good friends are definitely a necessity!
What an inspiring evening with friends and a wonderful, but bittersweet, message about life! So true! Take care, Caroline
What a beautiful party, and I love that you are friends with Laura Ingraham. She is brilliant!
Looks like a really nice party. Friends and family are the best part of life!
Jill,
Sorry for the loss of precious friends. My husband and I both know that pain all too well and it so hard to wrap your head around it. All you can do is hug and appreciate all that you love and celebrate the moments. Looks like a very fun launch party, congrats and I LOVE you backyard!!!
xo,
~R
What a fabulous night! So fun to spend it with encouraging friends. And sorry, but i saw nothing else after spotting your shoes…deets please!!
And so sorry about your friends. Life is so fragile and funny…my hubs dad just had emergency spinal surgery and is now paralyzed from chest down. It's been a rough 2 weeks. Much love and prayers to you all!
I'm really sorry to hear about your friends…
The party looked beautiful and I'm so happy for you about live like you. You are amazing!!
Xoxo,
Lauren
Hej härliga Jill,
So sorry to hear about the losses of precious people.
But you attract goodness my friend. Just look at you! (And next time I want to be invited (:!)
Hugs from Stockholm (busy, busy… det blir inte många kommentarer den här veckan…)
Hi Jill, I understand the pain you must have gone through to loose someone so close to you like that. I was reading on SSRF about how we can help our loved ones in the afterlife by chanting the universal ancestral chant of " Sri Gurudev Datta ". This chant will provide our departed ancestors the momentum or boost required to attain higher regions in the universe. This is how we can help our friends and loved ones who have passed away. We can make sincere efforts to chant on a regular basis and in doing so it will also help us to move on in our own lives. By being attached to our departed loved ones or ancestors we infact make them also upset as they continue to also think about us even in the afterlife. You can read more about this ancestral chant over here in this link – http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spirit…
What do you feel about this ? Do you think it's possible to give the chant a try ? 🙂