I don’t know who you surround yourself with but I hope they are your cheerleaders.

I hope you have a network that you can turn to that shares, gives, lavishes.

Lavishes.

Pretty cool word if you ask me.

A word to me that means abundance and overflowing.

People email me daily thanking me for what I share in my courses and for giving so much information away.

Let me tell you a secret…..it was never mine.

I get beautiful emails thanking me for being so generous with my knowledge, contacts, sources of supplies.

Let me tell you another secret…..I learned to be generous from the best.

When you start out creating, decorating your home, homeschooling your kids, a business or a new adventure you usually have no idea what you are doing.

You don’t need someone to walk you step by step but you need help.

You quickly see who keeps everything close to the chest and who gives it away.

I have had cheerleaders.

I have had friends that I surround myself with that have lavished me with support, knowledge and advice.

They gave it away.

When I needed direction and help…..they gave it away.

They were wise enough to know that by giving it away they are multiplying blessings back to themselves.

You might wonder how is that so?

I give away because it was given to me.

Maybe not the same information but the idea behind it.

When you share generously you don’t carry any anxiety about people stealing your ideas.

You have the freedom to move on and create THE NEXT THING.

You have the energy to dream, plan and create.

Did you hear that?

Freedom.

Want to know another secret….most techniques, ideas, knowledge you can find through google or You Tube anyways.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

I want to tell you about two of my biggest cheerleaders.

They know it.

I want you to know it.

Melody Ross and Christy Tomlinson have been two of the most supportive and lavishing people in my creative life.

Both of these women have helped me grow my business because of their giving of knowledge, advice, support, encouragement and voice.

I could go on for pages about how they have been my cheerleaders.

In ways that I am sure they know and more ways than they don’t…..they showed me early on that there is room for all of us.

What really triggered this post was an act by Christy last week.

Christy had written a blog post about her new e-course that started last Tuesday.

Guess what?

She also wrote about my new art e-course that had started the day before.

She also wrote about a few other people whose work she admires and gave links to their courses, retreats etc.

She gave it away.

She lavished others in the midst of writing about her own business.

She didn’t worry that highlighting others would take away from her work.

There is room for all of us and she made that clear.

Melody does the same thing.

Whenever she can highlight a person, a program, a product…she does.

When she can help someone else shine…she does.

I have a lot of women like this in my life.

Do you?

If you don’t I begged you to keep looking.

They are out there.

I promise.

I have a whole network of women that are like this.

What can you give away to bless others?

What have you been holding too close to the chest because of fear?

Do you know…really know that there is room for all of us?

Are you worried that people will copy you.

They probably will.

Want to hear another secret?

No one can copy you. Not really.

They can try but they will get bored and move on OR you get bored and move on.

You are supposed to keep moving forward anyways.

At the point I see some things copied I am already so tired of it myself that it is just the encouragement I needed to dig deeper.

The best part is that my generosity really started because people were generous with Melody and Christy (or not generous and they learned from it).

See how that works!

Pretty powerful.

When you give it away it will trickle down to more people than you will ever know.

Thank you Mel and Christy for being so generous with your support.

Thank you for scootching over and making room for me:-)

I want to scootch over myself today and share some people and products that I hope you will check out.

First off I wanted to tell you that Christy has a brand new art e-course called “Behind The Art”.

Christy has created a whole course about going deeper in understanding how she creates her girls.

All of Christy’s videos have a ton of information shared and this is her largest art course ever.

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I don’t get to go to many retreats but as soon as read about this new retreat by the incredible Danielle Daniels I was swooning.

The location, the food, the art….every bit is delicious!

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I am in love with THIS print by Mindy Lacefield.

I met Mindy at a recent retreat we both were teaching at.

When she posted the original on Facebook I told her it was my favorite she had done and she admitted that it may be hers too:-)

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I am a lover of using Nevr Dull and magazine pages in my mixed media projects but I loved this recent video (recent to me) video of Katie Kendrick creating patterns with Nevr Dull.

SOOO cool!

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My friend Courtney Khail is an extraordinary watercolors artist! Everything that she makes is stunning and so unique.

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I have been greatly inspired by THIS girl over the years.

Someday I will actually watch an entire e-course that I purchase from her but in the meantime I will continue to be inspired by the beauty she creates.

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I don’t know anyone that creates like THIS girl! Her work makes me stop in my tracks.

Whether she is working in plaster or metalsmithing she astonishes me with her well of creativity!

HERE is her new e-course!

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Karianne of Thistlewood Farm created an incredible clock using a a bicycle wheel!!!

I am in love!

Kelly is going to make this for Ben’s room.

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I am going to an amazing retreat in Mexico this fall and they just opened up another session!

If you didn’t get into the first session HERE is more information.

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This friend is crazy amazing at DIY.

Her house and how she makes it a home is beautiful and her blog is FILLED with DIY projects.

She lives in New York now but she used to live in my neighborhood:-)

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I would love to see YOU write a “There is room for all of us” post.

I would love to see who YOU would highlight.

What YOU can give away?

How can YOU show your network that there is room for all of us.

{if you write a post please let me know and I will share it}

Let’s all practice scootching over and making room:-)