Signing THE contract

It happened.

I am talking about IT !

Today, on this very normal day in October, I signed a contract agreeing to let some very nice people use my designs on fabric! I am officially a fabric designer!

PS don't you LOVE the desk I refinished?!?!! Sigh. It makes me super happy.

I seriously can't believed I just typed that and it's not even an exaggeration! Or an imagination. Or a dream! It's reality. My reality no less.

Wow.

It makes me tear up with joy.

I can't spill who it is with yet, but I promise you are going to want to start following me because things are going to start moving quickly!

OK, here's the back story:

I work for Pick Your Plum and a new sister company called Downtown Tape. DTT just launched at the beginning of August and hit the ground running. By the end of August I was drowning in my work load. We had been asked to be part of Scrapbook USA's expo when we were one week old and I had the great opportunity to plan the booth and get everything organized. With the expo came a couple of TV slots, that I was lucky enough to be part of, and all of the behind the scenes prep work you would imagine. Thankfully, my sister, Annie, was in on everything with me. She is one to have on your team if you want to get things done!

Me and Annie after putting together the booth all day. Don't judge. At the time, we were hilarious.  Promise.

ANYWAY, back to the drowning feeling. There were just too many nights I would go to sleep realizing my children and I had been in the same house together ALL day and I had not really seen them. That was not OK. They weren't going to be little forever. I wasn't working because I have to. My jobs are hobbies. I enjoy them. I don't make much money, but that isn't why I'm doing it. One day I woke up and it was ALL I was doing. Not cool.

So I decided that DTT had to go. That was a hard, hard, HARD decision to walk away from something that is so successful that you've been with from the beginning. Hard! By the time the expo rolled around at the end of September, even though I knew I had made the right decision, I finally felt it. I was fine walking away. I was excited to put that energy toward my kids.

The first day of the expo, September 28th, we were busy! We had a small 10 x 10 space and for the first 4 hours had a minimum of 20 women in that space with us all buying our washi tape . It was a blast! I remember hearing my phone ring a couple of times, but we were so busy I did not have one second to even look at it.

It's cute right!

After the biggest rush ended I glanced at my phone. I saw one number I didn't recognize and then Kevin's.  I called Kevin and he asked if I'd gotten a call from a girl I knew of, but had never met. I told him I didn't know because I hadn't had much time to be with my phone. He went on to explain that someone I have many mutual friends with, but had yet to personally meet, had been following my blog. Not only had she been following my blog, but she was starting her own fabric manufacturing company and she wanted to talk....to me....about my designs.

Hold. the. phone!

I remember being in shock. I didn't have time to really process what I had just been told. The craziness of the booth demanded my attention. For the next two days I held it in my heart until I could really let it soak in.

From there we talked. New company. Not launched yet. New business model. LOVE your designs. We are so excited by them. We would like you to be a part of this. And my favorite quote from all of this

"Well, if people are ever critical of you being so open with your dreams and if they ever tell you not to be too public... you can ignore them. If you hadn't been so gushingly excited about your goal to design fabric, I would have never known you were interested or even trying. So I am anxious to see where this takes us."

Chills. For sure.

Until today. Less than one month, a mere 27 days, from the first call. The signing of a contract!!!!!!!!!! After I signed and they signed I squealed, "YAY!!! Can we hug?"

"Ummm....sure...if you want to...I guess..." ( It was a man. I'm pretty sure I terrified him)

"Oh GOOD! 'Cause I'm a hugger!"

That's right I sucked him right out of business world straight into Emilie-land. In my defense, we were in my home. There's a certain level of realness I like to maintain when I am home. My real self hugs people when she's happy. I told him to get used to it. Again....terrified him. ;)

Do I think that it's a coincidence that on the day that I had finally, truly made peace with letting go of something that was taking me away from my family I got THE call. The call I have been working towards for three years. A call that came out of the blue, unsolicited, and gifted to me.

No. I absolutely do not.

When I told Annie about the call she made a good observation that I could just be possibly taking one thing off my plate only to fill it with something else and thus my plate would be too full once again.

But it hasn't felt that way. Thankfully, it hasn't been that way either.

What it has felt like is a blessing for doing a hard thing. For walking away from something really good to make room for something even better. To allow my Heavenly Father to take me down the road HE needs me to go. So I can be in the places I can do the best good. Make the most difference. Be who He sent me to be.

And do you know what? I have made more time for my kids. I have stopped in the middle of MY agenda to just be with them in whatever adventure they have created from that day. I have not had one. single. sleepless. night because I felt regret from not spending the time with them they deserve. Not one. It feels really good.

That's HUGE for me. That used to be an every night event I took part in.

I haven't had a moment of mommy guilt because I am also chasing BIG dreams. I am being the mom I want to be. Of course I am not perfect. That just keeps it interesting ;) But I am better. I am more intentional. I am soaking in all their little soul's goodness and tucking it away in my heart so I can snuggle with it when they are too old to be snuggled.

So the phone call was a gift, in more ways than I even realized until now. Letting DTT go was a gift. Trusting that He knew more than me is always a gift. I am SO excited to start this new part of the journey. I still cannot believe the waiting is over!

It's a good day, my friends. An extraordinarily good day!

If I could be so bold to ask for even more awesomeness today, if you read this, would you leave me a little comment below. I print this blog off as a book and I want to document every piece of this part of the journey and remember everyone who celebrated with me!

Thank you!