31 Days, 31 Reasons to be Thankful: January 5: Collaboration

col·lab·o·ra·tion  

/kəˌlabəˈrāSHən/

Noun

1. The action of working with someone to produce or create something.

Friends, this is a biggie for bel monili. At it's basest, most pure meaning, collaboration is what makes the world go 'round. Since the beginning of human kind, man has found that working together is the way to go. There are lots of quips and quotes: "two heads are better than one", "many hands make light work", "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link"... the list could go on and on.

Our family system is set up for collaboration. Two people pair up, start a team, and (ideally) together decide how things will be run. They ask each other questions and bounce ideas off of each other. In school, most classrooms are now set up to encourage teamwork. Students are grouped together and taught valuable lessons in how to get along, brainstorm, and compromise. I won't even BEGIN to get into the buzzwords that fly around in the business world about collaboration and team building...those kind of make me cringe. Sorry.

For the purposes of my business, collaboration has given me the support structure I need to build and grow. I have had the wonderfully good fortune to partner with some of the best boutiques and shops in the area:

Boutique 208

KoolKat Designs

Pageboy Salon and Boutique

Spoiled Chics

Wholly Craft!

Wildcard

I have an amazing network of friends who guide me on a (literally) daily basis...I look to my closest pals for advice on everything from what shows to do all the way down to how I should put my business name on my checks. Without these people and their talented, tolerant minds, I would have lost mine a LONG time ago. Here are just a few of the fantastic friends I've been lucky enough to grab a hold of:

Ben Ashby, FOLK Magazine

Tamara Barker, Boutique 208

Jennifer Baron, Handmade Arcade
Jack Bellas, Eileen French, Gina Vensel, Revive Marketing Group

Jeanne Cherry, juNxtaposition

Cari Cucksey, Cash and Cari, RePurpose Shop

Krystal Doring, Green Bubble Gorgeous

Kelly Elko, Eclectically Vintage

Hillary Lewis, FOLK Magazine

Morgan Moore, All Around Awesome Girl

Carrie Nardini, I Made It! Market, Propelle, Indie Foundry

Heather Patterson, At the Picket Fence

Shelly Picard, Neighborhood Blonde

Stephanie Sheldon, Parfait 

Melissa Smith, 1820 House

Mary Urban, National Ovarian Cancer Coalition- Pittsburgh Chapter

Mike Yanchak, Mike Why, DoubleShot!

And, really, there are so so so so so many more! These are the people who give me the strength and inspiration to keep on truckin'. It is my collaboration with an amazing group of talent and creativeness that has given me what I need to grow and flourish in this business. I can only hope that I have been able to offer something to my circle of friends and business partners, and that they have benefited from our collaboration as much as I have.

"I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed." - Steve Lacy