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

January 2: Green Bubble Gorgeous

Green Bubble Gorgeous Pink Grapefruit Solid Sugar Scrub

Anyone who knows Krystal Doring of Green Bubble Gorgeous will tell you the same thing: it's love at first sight. Product, packaging, and personality, this girl has got it all!!!

Krystal is a self-described "chef gone soap crazy". She says that growing up on a big family farm has always taught her that most often smaller batch homemade products are probably the finest in life. Much better than store bought, commercially processed,preservative and chemical filled. Being a Green Chef of the natural and organic food scene, Krystal is always looking for new routes of creativeness for my natural life style. She realized what harsh chemicals and additives are in all the beauty products we all like and thought, "I can make it better for you, me and the environment and be creative at the same time."

I first met Krystal at an I Made It! Market event called I Made It! Memorable in April 2011. I was lucky enough to be set up next to her, meaning that for the duration of the show I stared longingly at the beautiful hot pink and green decor, smelled the delicious natural scents (mmm...lavender, coconut, verbena...), and sampled as much of the amazing organic goodness as I could. That day, I left with a bag of pretty little Easter soaps and, shortly thereafter, called in an order for more. That's the thing about Green Bubble Gorgeous...if you think you are going to get away without purchasing anything, you are dead wrong. One whiff of the bath salts, swipe of the lip butter, or feel of the massage bar and you are hooked. I mean, can't get it out of your mind, website stalking, haunted in your sleep HOOKED. One look in my purse, my car, my desk, or my vanity will tell you that I can attest to this...

These days, I am so happy to say that I can call Krystal a dear friend. I am inspired by her personality, her drive, and her ability to take her incredible talents and channel them into something she truly loves. Green Bubble Gorgeous offers a line of fine, handmade, organic bath and body products that are unparalleled in quality, and once you try it, you'll be sure to go back time and time again.

Make sure you visit Krystal of Green Bubble Gorgeous on Etsy and Facebook to keep up on her goings-on. Lucky ducks in the Pittsburgh (and sometimes Ohio) area can see Green Bubble Gorgeous in person, but don't worry out-of-towners, you can always make purchases online!