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I had no real preconceived ideas of what Denver was going to be like.  I imagined a lot of brown as I always do whenever I equate something with the “Wild West”.  With the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, I was concerned about the state of its inhabitants.  Were they mindless, smiling zombies shuffling through town wearing pot leafed shirts, faded flannel, Birkenstocks, and their hands stuffed into a bag of Doritos to stay off the munchies?  And I admit that Denver has never been tops on my list of places to go.  I mean, it’s Colorado, so it must be freezing, right?  I think it’s well established that this girl hates to be cold.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect.  Not cold in the least.

But off to Denver we would go.  Primary objective?  The fulfillment of a bucket list item for my husband.  It has long been a dream of his to attend a concert at Red Rocks.  As luck would have it, his favorite band, O.A.R. was on the roster.  He was so excited and I was excited for him.  Me?  I was more like, “Meh.”  I was more interested in some much needed alone time with my husband.  And I would go anywhere for that.

Off we went.  Left the kiddos under the capable, watchful eye of Grandma, hopped on a plane and entered into this adventure with a giant check mark poised and ready for Chris’s bucket list.

The ride from Denver International Airport to the city is not glamorous and really doesn’t give much away as to what to expect from downtown.  I was super surprised to see a multitude of prairie dogs along the roadway.  They would appear like tiny statues sunning themselves in the setting rays.  Prairie dogs?!  I thought they lived in the prairie?  Or in zoos?  Denver is in Colorado….um, Mountain Standard Time..???  It’s “The Mountains”.  What?  Boy was I a moron.  Denver might just be the flattest place I’ve ever been.  FLAT.  (Try telling that to the poor pedicab driver who had to pedal us “uphill”. Really?  It’s flat.)

Anyhoo, I clearly had a lot to learn and now I was excited.  (Ask any mom how excited she is about leaving for a trip.  It’s almost not worth even going for all of the work and planning that needs to take place.  Generals could learn a thing or two from us moms about logistics, advancement of troops, and planning for worst case scenarios.  I digress.) Moms don’t get excited until they actual reach their destination, or at least the airport.

Instead of exhausting and frantic, my excitement took on this strange form of relaxation and open mindedness.  Like sitting in a comfy chair and opening up a book that you’ve been dying to read.  Contemplating on it now, I think it was the lack of a schedule and responsibilities that really let me relax in a way I’ve never experienced before.  Of course, it could have been the high altitude and the pot smoke contrails from some of the people, but what evs!

We checked into our gorgeous hotel and decided to start walking toward Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies.  What I noticed straight away was that Denver is a super clean city, with wide streets, and plenty of sky.  Sure you had your ultra modern glass skyscrapers, but they were not concentrated which allowed a lot of sunshine in.  I am a self proclaimed architecture nerd.  I geek out over the different styles and workmanship.  I had to train my eye, in Denver, to spot the little gems of ages past.  I found most of the buildings to be very square.  What the city lacked in old world charm, it made up in clean lines and a peaceful uniformity.  Another feature of Denver that was striking to me was that the streets were not teaming with people and cars.  There were signs of life everywhere, but the city lacked the hustle and bustle and congestion of the Northeast cities that I’ve become accustomed to.  These people, now me included, could really enjoy this city in leisure.  Rat race?  What rat race?

And let me just take a moment to discuss the humidity.  Keep in mind that we had just left the Northeast that was experiencing the longest, highest humidity and heat wave that I can ever remember.  Weeks of 95+% humidity.  Weeks!  But here!  Here it was 41% humidity.  (And that’s apparently high for the area!)  It was the first breath of fresh air that I had taken in months.  It was spectacular.  And my hair!!!  Well, that could just be a whole ‘nother post!  Spectacular.

We decided just to do some bar hopping for the evening.  Something we never do.  We spent our evening sipping cocktails and craft beers and eating bar food like we were 25 again.  The bars were hip and the people working there even hipper. (I don’t think that’s an actual word, but let’s go with it.) We blended right in.  Sort of the Goldilocks of the crowd…not too old…not too young, but juuuust right.  Young enough to have a good time, but old enough to afford it.  I think our first stop had been an old west brothel in it’s previous life.  (Say what?!)  I had an herby cocktail there and sampled my first cheese curd all while watching a rerun of Soul Train. Yep!

The next bar prided itself on it’s infused vodkas and whiskey’s.  House specialty was a pickle juice unfused vodka shot with a dried up scorpion in the bottom.  You earned your stripes by doing the shot and consuming the scorpion.  Yeah, no.  We’ll leave that to the young ones.  After leaving that bar we made our way to the stadium.  I was too tired to sit through the baseball game, so we opted to make our way back to the hotel.  On our way, we stumbled on a super find; in collecting circles, a well known old school arcade and bar called 1 Up.  My husband, being an avid pinball and arcade game collector, was in his element.  When he saw the sign, I think his eyes lit up like the star eyed emoji.  Of course we went in!  We got a round of drinks and a fistful of quarters and played all the games that we didn’t own in our collection, including the world’s largest PacMan.  We ended the night with a few rounds of skee-ball and me playing some really dismal games of Centipede.  It’s been a long time old friend.  A long time.

Saturday arrived..um..early.  (MST, remember?  I was up at 5:15 am). We were meeting my cousin and her husband for lunch (shout out to Erin and Jeff!), but hadn’t locked down our plans for the evening.  Well, not to worry!  The city was teeming with events for the weekend.  I think every pro sporting team had a home game on their schedule and there were oodles of concerts happening in the area.  We narrowed down our choices to seeing Boy George and the Culture Club, B52s and The Thompson Twins and their 80s revival or Bruno Mars.  WE PICKED BRUNO!!!!  We were able to score sweet 4th row tickets and were treated to the most entertaining performance I’ve ever seen.  24 karat magic in the airrrrrrr🎵🎶.

Anyway….we had done a fair amount of walking during our short time in the city and quickly realized how absolutely pedestrian friendly it is.  Really easy to navigate, we could walk everywhere and to most everything.  And the 16th Street Mall provided an oasis of stores, restaurants and coffee shops to break up the walking.

Sunday was the big day for Chris.  We unexpectedly slept really late, so we ordered room service and hung out watching the NFL season openers before we had to head out the Red Rocks for a VIP experience of watching the band’s sound check.  Red Rocks is a quick 30 minute drive from downtown Denver.  The park itself is spectacular, but the concert venue is even more so.  It is huge, but nestled between the massive rock formations feels really intimate.  Once you make the bun burning climb to the top, the venue is really amazing.  I loved it.

The band was awesome as usual, delivering another quality show.  And the warm up, Matt Nathanson was so much fun.  Momma got her groove on.  Lol.

Friends, put Denver on your must see travel destination list.  You will be welcomed by kind people, and oodles and oodles to do.  Be prepared to walk, but I promise, you won’t mind a bit.  I actually think I could live there.

First off, I never saw the movie, so I’m not going to even pretend to know anything about it or quote it. But sadly, I do know a thing or two about mean girls.

Having grown up female (and still remaining female to this day LOL), I have lived through, and still live through mean girls. Not much rattles my chain like someone being unkind just for the pure sake of being unkind. To publicly make someone the butt of a joke, to point out physical flaws as a punch line to the latest stinger, to tear someone down just for who they are or what they look like; these things make me physically sick.

Meanness isn’t often forgotten either. Anyone who has been subject to ridicule or cruel embarrassment can most likely recount the scene as if it just happened. I can remember moments from elementary school, junior high school and beyond. Each stinging memory can replay like a well preserved mixed tape stored in air conditioning so as not to melt and destroy its contents forever. (Said in homage to this crushing heat wave that we are enduring.)

I was raised never to make fun of someone for how they looked. The best thing that my mother ever taught me was that everyone is someone’s baby. That someone loves “that person” more than anything in the whole world and therefore, that person is deserving of love, and respect, and kindness.

Of course I have survived the verbal assaults of mean girls from the past, but now I’m having to watch my daughter live through them and that breaks my heart. And this $h!t started young…first grade???

It’s a terribly hard lesson to learn. I’m certain we’ve all endured it. And I mean that. We have endured. And I will hold my daughter’s hand through this walk and we will come up with strategies for what to say and how to act in the event that Miss Mean Girl du Jour comes sniffing around (and we all know she will). And I know that these moments are building character and maybe even strengthening bonds between my daughter and me, but these mean girls have got to stop.

I don’t believe that we are born knowing how to hate or be unkind. I believe these are learned behaviors. Are these girls being mistreated or ignored at home? Why is their own self esteem so fragmented that they feel the need to attack? What are they gaining? What are they really gaining? Animosity.

I find myself feeling sorry for them. We’ve all heard the adage that they are unkind to make themselves feel bigger or better.  This history must stop repeating itself.  I think that we are taught to attack back to defend ourselves.  Meet blow with another blow.  Match insult with insult.  I recognize it sometimes in myself and I pray, and work, and practice to stop.  This crap has got to stop.

In the era of women empowerment, we must stop being each other’s worst enemy.  In the wake of countless suicides as a response to bullying, we must teach our children and each other that it’s not ok. Even when my own kids are teasing each other and fighting amongst themselves, I remind them that we should not be tearing each other down. We should be building each other up. Girls, we need to do this for each other. To get kindness, be kind. In the face of a little jerk who’s going after you, be kind or at the very least be silent and get the heck out of there.

I’m not saying we have to like everyone and be sickly and unnaturally sweet.  I am saying to keep your disparaging comments to yourself.  Stick with your friends.  Give your energy in positive ways to your circle.  Make yourself stronger by making the people in your life stronger and leave those that you don’t connect with alone. Friendship and kindness can be mutually exclusive.

There is always hope that the mean girls will outgrow whatever is fueling their unkind nature and will find kinder ways to feel better about themselves. I’m grateful that my daughter talks to me and shares these moments with me. I’m grateful that I can comfort her and reassure her that she is perfect just the way that she is. Sadly, I know these verbal abuses will be remembered. I hope for reformation for the mean girls out there, but in the mean time, just do us all a favor and leave us alone. We have no time for the unkind.

I think by now most of the country has resumed school for the 2018-2019 school year. My own children started back last Thursday, so this is their first full week of school. I have a few things to say about restarting school.

Who am I kidding? When have I ever had a “few” things to say about anything?

First off, have you been outside in your neighborhood during the day since the kids went back to school? I find it more than a little disturbing. The streets are deserted. It’s like a creepy science fiction movie. Where did everybody go? Are they in The Upside Down? Should I start stringing up the Christmas lights? I digress into my Stranger Things obsession….

Anyway, you don’t even have to be a parent to know that most parents can’t wait for the first day of school. There have been tons of funny back to school ads depicting gleeful parents and distraught youngsters school supply shopping. (My personal favorite is still the Staples “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” ad. Hilarious!) The Holderness Family has made a career of their YouTube  back to school parodies. (Love them all Holderness Family. Keep up the good work.)

But, true confession time. I am not one of those parents who rejoices when my kids go back to school. Let me just state, that I am all for education and the betterment of my children as people and citizens of this country, but I do love the lazy pace of summer and just having them around.

I used to look at the beginning of school as the New Year’s Eve of my year (’cause I actually hate New Year’s, ugh). I looked at it like a fresh start and a time to clean up my act, make good changes, work on great habits and grow. And then October comes.

By October, my new school year buzz has worn off and I start sliding back into my old, procrastinator ways and my “well this is as good as it’s gonna get” attitude. Truth hurts.

This is the first year that I didn’t feel like it was New Year’s Eve. This is the first year that I wasn’t hypin’ up the new year with trips to Target for supplies, a mall run for new clothes, and constant banter of, “I wonder what teacher you’ll get.” Yadda, yadda, yadda. Blah!

I’ll admit that I did get amped when I took the kids for their orientations. Their schools are magnificent and their teachers seem so excited to teach. (I’ll check in with them again in February and see if they still feel that way. Fingers crossed.)

I think it’s good to get excited about things (not to the point of nausea, of course). I long for those moments of excitement again. Instead I feel dread of the fast pace of the fall school and extracurricular schedule, the lack of off days to catch up on sleep, the minimal family time (because the kids just want to escape into their computers just to get some down time), not hearing the laughter and getting the extra hugs that I can sneak in during the day (whether they want them or not).  And let’s not forget the pending doom of the physical drop in temperature as the seasons change. (Winter is coming.)

On the flip side, I won’t miss the yelling: “He targeted me!, “No, No, NO! The DIAMOND sword!”, “Mooooommmmmm, he’s mocking me!”, “Moooooommmmmmm! Make her stop singing that song!”, “Moooooommmmmm……” Instead I hear the air conditioner kick on and off…and on and off…

I sincerely want to wish your children and mine, all of the parents, and especially the teachers and coaches a spectacularly meaningful school year. May your passion and excitement on the first day of school sustain you throughout. If it doesn’t, I’ll meet you at Starbucks and we can complain together. Cheers!  Lol.

I recently purchased a pair of rose colored glasses. In truth, I don’t really know what color the tint of the glasses is, I just know that these new sunglasses of mine make the whole world look AMAZING!!!  (Ask anyone who I have forced to try on my glasses and look around.  LOL)

So let me back up. I recently had my annual eye exam and decided to purchase a pair of prescription sunglasses so that I wouldn’t have to worry about wearing contact lenses at the pool or beach in the summertime or when we travel. My primary purpose for the purchase was to use at the beach and pool, but I was kind of sad that I wasn’t using the glasses, so I decided to start wearing them for driving.

I was not prepared for what I experienced the first time that I wore these new magic glasses. It was the peak of cherry blossom season in Northern Virginia, which as I’ve established several posts back, I’m obsessed with this time of year. When I stepped out of my front door onto the porch, sporting my new sunglasses, I was nearly knocked off my feet at the colors of everything around me. These new glasses of mine even make brown look amazing!!!!

Have you ever seen video of a little kid…a really little kid getting glasses for the first time? Their reaction is always of such amazement and joy. They look around their little world and just smile at everything and everyone! Well, that’s what I found myself doing with my new glasses. I would even try pulling them down off my eyes to remind myself what the world really looked like. I was so hopeful that the difference would not be dramatic, but it was. I found myself preferring the world that I saw through my glasses to the real world. I began wishing that everyone could see what I see out of these magic lenses. I began dreaming of what the world would be like if we all did look through these glasses. And what it would be like if we could look at each other with equal assistance and filter.

I wondered, is it a bad thing that I prefer this enhanced world view? Is it bad that I would prefer to live looking through a filter than enjoying reality? Many would argue that living in any form outside of reality would be a bad idea; a mistake that could have dangerous repercussions. But then I thought, maybe it depends on the filter we use.

If what we see filtered invokes thoughts of beauty and amazement in the simple, could that be bad? I think that we do this naturally, even without the aid of glasses. Don’t we see the ones that we love in the most beautiful light; maybe somewhat blind to reality?

And don’t you think we might already be looking at the world through a filter? A filter of someone else’s design and not of our conscious choosing. Our culture has a way of telling us what to think and how to see things. Just look at any commercial on tv. Are they not LOADED with innuendos of how we should think? Blonde is better. Taller is better. This brand of clothes makes you better. This car makes you better. It’s all a filter put in front of us to keep us from seeing the truth.

The truth is the world is a beautiful place. It is filled with beautiful people of variety, and creativity, and heart. I wish I could shield everyone from the negativity that we are assaulted with everyday, but I struggle with it myself.

But I can tell you one thing. I’m going to continue to wear my rose colored glasses. I’m going to soak in as much as that filtered world can give me and I’m going to work hard to look at others through these magic lenses.

I always like to ask my Guests to describe their business in their own words. I think it’s very important to get their vision of what their business is and not what you or I might assume it is. In the case of Jodi Cali, of Voilà, this exercise was very important. Jodi has created a service offering for her clients that is fresh and unexpected. Jodi shares, “I would describe my business as kind of a mix. I do a bit of interior styling, I do a bit of staging, and I also do a bit of floral design.”

After 15 years in floral design, Jodi made an important self discovery. She needed variety. With her creative personality, she found that she was happiest when she had the opportunity to mix up her activity. She says, “When I was only doing floral design I found myself extremely bored just doing flowers. And even when I was having fun doing floral design, there would be times when I would want a break from it. For example, I would want to do the window displays and then I would just go crazy! I wouldn’t want to go back to flowers for a while and I realized that the break was really good for me.” She admits that it wasn’t until much later that she connected that she actually needed to do this; incorporate variety in her professional life.

Jodi’s floral background began in her 30s. Having never gone to college, Jodi pursued a career as an administrative assistant. She says, “I was pretty good at it so I thought it was my calling.” Jodi transferred her administrative skills to work in a doctor’s office for many years thinking she would use her skills towards something “good”; the health field. It was at this time that Cali’s husband, who worked for the Department of Justice, got an assignment that would require the family to move to Italy. After 7 years working at the doctor’s office, Jodi was in need of change.

Jodi admits that early on she did not realize that she was creative or had creative potential. She explains, “Growing up in the 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s, if you didn’t play an instrument, draw, or sing, you weren’t creative so the art teachers didn’t push you, so I didn’t know!” When the relocation to Italy happened, Jodi started cooking. She says, “Cooking was my first creative love. I really went crazy when I lived in Italy; crazy, like obsessed crazy. Like I am now with interior styling and everything else that I’m doing.” That’s the spark that lit her creative fire.

When it was time to come back to the states, Jodi’s father inlaw, who had worked in the floral industry in New England for 40 years, offered to get Jodi into the Ritner’s School of Floral Design for free. Jodi took the three week class and hated every minute of it. She explains, “I hated it because I wasn’t perfect at it right away. There were other people in the class who had experience. They maybe were working in grocery store flower departments and were actually doing something involving flowers. I was just trying this to maybe do it for a living.” After she completed the class, her husband encouraged Jodi to go into a local flower shop to see if she could “help out”.

The owner happened to be hiring for a sales position. No flower design experience needed. This foot in the door led to Jodi eventually doing floral design at that shop for several years. Jodi shares, “I fell in love with floral design, but being in a small shop, over time I found it very limiting for me creatively.”

Jodi and her family then moved to Connecticut and lived there for 5 years. While there Jodi worked for a garden center. Says Jodi, “It was a big beautiful garden center. There was a full service flower shop, gift shop and a nursery. And there was a river that ran behind it with canoeing. It was everything all in one for me. The displays, flowers, learning about the plantings, doing outdoor window boxes and the fact that it exposed me to using cuttings off of some of the extra huge trees in the lot and using them for arrangements. That started a passion that I could not stop. I no longer wanted to use anything from a flower shop in my arrangements, I just wanted to cut from what was on the property.”

Through her work at that garden center where she made lots of friends and connections, Jodi started her own little business called Flowers on the Fly. The majority of her clients were a little bit older gardeners, or women from The Garden Club. Jodi would go to their homes, clip flowers from their yards and make them arrangements. Says Jodi, “It kind of took off from there and started growing rather quickly. I was featured in the local paper a few times. It was really exciting.”

Her business grew enough that Jodi started to get wholesale flowers and incorporated them which allowed her to do very small weddings. Jodi says, “I didn’t have a cooler, just like now. I don’t have a cooler in my home. I don’t do every day florals. You can’t call me and say I want something for tonight or in two hours. I’m not able to do that.” That business was really taking off when Jodi and her family moved to Australia.

During this time, the home styling, DIYing, and creating stylish homes on a budget was sweeping the nation. This is where it all started for Jodi. Before leaving Connecticut, Jodi took her own kitchen and redid the cabinets herself. She lightly sanded them and applied a gel stain. She changed all of the hardware, upgraded the counters and the appliances, added some legs to the island, and put in a window seat. Says Jodi, “The whole thing, including a kitchen table and chairs, a light fixture and a pot rack hanging over, was under $15,000.” Her transformation was featured in Better Homes and Gardens magazine! That’s when her passion took off.

In her experience, Jodi finds that most people don’t have the money to renovate, nor do they need to. She believes that they just need to improve, or update but don’t know how. So they stay stuck with what they have. Says Jodi, “Most of the time, it’s really just one or two simple things. It’s a paint color maybe, it’s new pillows, it’s a new rug, or it’s new chairs. It’s not always a whole room, and people don’t understand that.” This is where Voilá comes in. Literally.

Jodi is very clear in stating that she is not an interior designer. She worked as an assistant to a high end designer and found it just wasn’t her lane. She shares, “I am spontaneous. That is when I’m the most creative. It’s stressful at times, but that’s how I find that ideas just come to me. I’m not a big planner.  Although I am capable of creating a traditional room board for you, I would rather just see your things in person and be inspired by that one piece that you’re in love with and work from there.”

When working for her clients, she’s eager to make all desired changes on a realistic budget. She shares, “You see on Pinterest the gals and the guys that are doing DIY and people think that is so great. I want to be that real life person for you right here, in Loudoun County and the surrounding areas. I can think of a lot of things to do with your belongings.” Her goal is to make your space look like those that you find when you search for inspiration. This is one of her strengths. Jodi finds that home styling is a lot like flower arranging. She shares, “Basically, it’s the combination of height, scale, texture, and color. That’s how I apply my styling.”

Jodi has also been doing home staging for years and is often called upon by local real estate agents to prepare homes for sale. Jodi shares, “Staging is the easiest thing for me. It’s moving home owners’ stuff around, decluttering, and making what they have look 100 times better. It’s not really buying anything or ordering anything. It’s a no brainer for me. I could do that with my eyes closed.”

Unlike professional stagers that you see on TV, Jodi does not have a warehouse, nor does she want to rent furniture. She adds, “I really just want to make it easy and that is by rearranging and styling what you already have.” Part of Jodi’s service for styling or staging involves trips to Target or Home Goods to pick up basics. She will also go for full shopping runs for a client, as well as accompany a client to make selections. She does not mark up any purchases and extends to her clients every discount that she is entitled to.

Jodi’s whole professional vibe is casual and fun. She shares, “I want to be a breath of fresh air. I don’t want to make people feel like they have to impress me, nor should they feel embarrassed to show me their house. That’s not me.”

Her creative use of home owners’ belongings has earned her nicknames such as Rumplestiltskin, spinning seemingly mundane into gold, or Tinkerbell because she, no doubt, has sprinkled fairy dust in the spaces she has worked.

And let’s not forget her floral design background. Jodi has several clients who she services with fresh flower arrangements on a regular basis. (MY DREAM!)

Jodi imparts, “When you find that thing that makes you so happy, you have to listen. You cannot listen to your parents, or teachers, or guidance counselors if your heart is telling you otherwise. I am living it now. When you do something that you love, it is not work. It doesn’t mean that your hobby can’t just stay a hobby. Go to college and figure that out. But don’t ignore it.”

She’s small, she’s fast, she’s fun and she’s cheery, all wrapped up in a professional package of a woman with years of experience and oodles of creative acumen. “That’s who I want people to realize that they’re connecting with or hiring. That’s who I am,” says Cali. She goes on, “What I really love is that it feels to me that the clients I’m making now feel like they become friends. I love it.”

To contact Jodi you can find Voilà on the following social sites:  Facebook and Instagram

Do you believe in fate or divine intervention?  Are ironic occurrences serendipitous or just a coincidence?  Do you believe that everything happens for a reason?

I know I’m a bit late to this party, but I recently (and finally) watched the movie The Shack.  I read the book years ago, but needed to wait until I was ready for a good, ugly cry before I could commit to watching the movie.  Now usually, the book is way better than the movie, but I think they did a great job making the adaptation.  There was a moment in the movie, that I don’t remember from the book, that really resonated with me in a very positive way.  No spoiler alert needed here (I don’t think), but it was the scene where the main character was in the garden with Sarayu (the Holy Spirit).  The beautiful spirit shares with the guy that the garden was a reflection of him and his life.  The garden was a complete mess.  There were some lovely things growing in it, but there was absolutely no order, it was overgrown, neglected and just a mess.  But when the camera raises up to give a view of the garden from above, it was a gorgeous, orderly design.  It took my breath away and I think back to the image often.  I try to remember that is what my life is.  It might feel like a giant jumbled mess, but it’s actually a collection of lovely things, and not so lovely things, that are designing a beautiful bigger picture or life.  I had a little reminder of that recently.

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In my journey to recreate myself, or I sometimes feel a more accurate description would be my journey to create myself, I’ve been exploring new avenues and experiences particularly centered around writing.  The sequence of events that have happened in my life this year, looking back, have been laid out perfectly.  And not of my own doing, except the first step.

Let me start at the beginning.  For reasons that I still can’t explain, I decided to start this lifestyle blog.  I know almost nothing about technology and, at the time that I had this crazy idea I didn’t follow or even read any blogs.  Writing for my blog has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  It turned on something in me that I didn’t know was there, and I liked it.  Couldn’t get enough of it.  I worked hard at it and loved every minute.  Best year of my life.

Early on in my blogging career, one of my Guest pieces caught the eye of an editor of a new local magazine.  She liked my work and asked if I would consider being a profile contributor for her magazine.  Damn straight I would!

I did it!  I took the offer, showed up for my first assignment sweating with nerves.  I was so fortunate to be given the unique assignment of interviewing a person who had the rare career of farm to fashion.  Yep.  This lady was a shepherd who would spin her sheep’s wool into yarn and turn it into garments.  As luck would have it, I got my bachelors degree in clothing and textiles.  I’m not kidding.  (And I haven’t worked in my field of study for over 20 years)  It was a match made in heaven.  And I’m beginning to think that those type of occurrences really are! I understood her industry. (Ok, maybe not the shepherding part, but I knew textile and clothing manufacturing.)

The editor was pleased and hired me for more.  I became a regular contributor having several more articles published.  Ironically the amount of money that I earned writing for the magazine allowed for me to be able to hire an illustrator for my children’s book that I had been wanting to have published, nearly to the penny. Besides my own fears, hiring the illustrator was the one piece that was holding me back from going for the dream of getting published.

The process for publishing my book started in earnest.  I’m the first to admit that I don’t know a thing about self publishing.  Simultaneously to all of this, I had rekindled a friendship with a very talented photographer in our area.  I featured her story on my blog, and because of how pleased she was with that article, she asked me to write a cookbook that she was working on.  As part of her own publishing journey, she joined a Facebook group to help learn the ins and outs of self publishing and invited me to join the group as well.

I began the month long workshop with the group.  The first exercise that we had to do was to friend all of the people in the group and several other groups of our choosing.  I’ll admit, I did not want to do this at all. I was uncomfortable opening up my somewhat private life that I have on Facebook with complete strangers. I did it anyway and incredibly reluctantly.

Meanwhile, in the rest of my life, I had been suffering with a frozen shoulder along with tendinitis for months (and when I say months, I mean since before Christmas…a long@$$ time).  I’d been seen by several medical professionals to try to resolve the problem or at least minimize the excruciating pain.  (I’m gonna tie this in, I promise). I had literally been tortured for even the hope of the tiniest bit of relief.  I had regular acupuncture treatments, chiropractic appointments, steroid injections as well as voluntarily withstanding two treatments of gua sha which is the Chinese practice of using a thin polished stone to scrape away scar tissue.  It’s not for the faint of heart, nor for anyone who can’t tolerate extreme pain.

It was after one of these treatments that I found myself in deep reflection.  I was emotionally and physically tapped out.  I can remember driving home from the last gua sha session trying to understand and unravel what was happening to me and how I could change my focus so that all of this was for a higher purpose.  I can even remember exactly where I was, as I was driving home, when I had the analogous thought (which I do a lot) that I am like a teacup.  I started thinking of the attributes of a teacup and me.

• I was strong
• I was capable
• I could definitely withstand some serious heat
• But if dropped the right way, I would break

And I was damn near the edge of the proverbial tea party table.

I found satisfaction with this new association.  Say what you will about me, but I can endure significant pain for a very long time.  (I think it might be my super power!)  I was not just tough, I was super tough and I felt good about this realization.  I’d been blinded by the pain for so long that I didn’t see that it was bringing to the surface a very admirable quality that was in me; is in me.

That afternoon, after the self-empowering moment of thought, I was cruising through Facebook and a post from one of the new strangers turned Facebook friend popped up.  She had posted several pictures of the most colorful and gorgeous teacups that you’ve ever seen.  I nearly sucked all the air out of the room with my audible gasp of surprise.  (And let’s not go into the tear fest.  Kind of a given if you know me at all.)

I felt compelled to reach out to my new “friend” and tell her this story al beit the Cliff Noted version.  It was a stunning collection of pictures.  A total wave of acknowledgment from God (or the Universe, whatever higher power makes sense to you).  It was a stunning reminder that God sees me, and is always with me, and that even when we are the most fragile, there can still be great beauty.

So I am a teacup.  Strong, enduring, but occasionally fragile.  I will keep on keeping on and am grateful for those close to me who nudge me gently away from the edge and help to keep me whole.

1 Pics from the 2017 motion picture The Shack

 

Anyone who knows me even a little knows that I am passionate about my daily cup of coffee. And I’m a decaf girl, so I am enjoying for the taste, not for the insta-buzz. So one day, when I spied a food truck by the name of Java Jen’s, I had to pay a visit. I mean, it literally had my name all over it. Not just an oasis from a chilly fall morning schlepping Folgers, Java Jen’s is a full fledged coffee roasting business serving their artistry in bean form, or cup, in Loudoun County and beyond since 2016.

It all started when Jennifer and Jay Breeden happened upon a documentary starring Hugh Jackman called Dukale’s Dream. Jackman traveled to Ethiopia and met a coffee farmer for the film and became so inspired that he returned to the US and opened a coffee company called Laughing Man Coffee, with a few coffee shops in New York City. Jay explains, “In the documentary you saw the farmer and you saw the coffee shop, and everybody’s sitting around drinking coffee. So I said, ‘You don’t grow roasted coffee, how did the coffee get roasted?’ They said nothing about roasting in the documentary. I said, ‘Let’s do roasting! Somebody’s got to do it.’ So we started investigating. We originally started roasting with a hot air popcorn popper.” Jennifer adds, “It was a great way to learn. Roasting that way is very hands on. It’s open and you’re able to watch everything that’s happening to those little beans.   It’s not like a big drum roaster where you’ve only got little windows.”

It began as a hobby for the couple, making little 80g batches at a time. Jennifer attended a roasting certification course provided by the Specialty Coffee Association of America to gain her level one roaster certification. Says Jennifer, “In the course, you’re not just roasting everyday and learning all the ins and out outs of roasting. You are learning the industry, all the way from the seed to the cup. You learn the history of coffee.”

While perfecting their craft, they burned through several popcorn poppers they had purchased at thrift stores. Next thing they knew, they were being courted by the Loudoun Valley HomeGrown Markets Cooperative to sell Java Jen’s coffee at their markets. Says Jay, “We just started getting more into it and one thing lead to another. We ordered an 800 lb roaster that was custom made in Oklahoma City, we drove out there, took possession of it and got trained on it.”

Java Jen’s has come a long way from their popcorn popper days. Like most industries, roasting coffee comes with its share of technology. To achieve their desired roast, Jennifer uses a computer that is connected to their roaster. Software allows them to develop their unique roasting profile. Says Jay, “It looks very scientific when you’re doing it. We do sample roasts, and what’s called a cupping, where we taste the different roast profiles and then decide which ones we like the best. Typically, with specialty coffee, you don’t roast really dark. It’s more in a medium roast range that enhances the natural flavors of the particular origin.” Jay explained that when you create a medium roast, you’re roasting the coffee up to a level where the natural flavors of that particular origin are enhanced without burning off too many of the sugars. Jennifer adds, “For example, if you go with a Central American coffee, you can get cocoa and nutty tones. If you roast it right, it really enhances those notes. A lot like wine (and chocolate!), coffee beans will take on the flavor of whatever is grown around it. If you make the coffee too dark you burn away the inherent flavors.”

Quite passionate about the coffee roasting business, the Breedens are very conscientious business owners. With their base business in coffee roasting, ethical sourcing is of the highest priority for them. Says Jay, “We source coffee from around the world and have direct trade relationships with some farms. We like to do fair trade and direct trade as much as possible.” It is important to the couple that as much money as possible goes back to the community in which the farmers reside.

Java Jen’s beans come from Central and South Americas, Indonesia, and parts of Africa. Sourcing beans takes earnest research. The couple works with coffee importers to make their initial bean selections. Importers post the coffees available and provide information about the farm, the altitude the coffee was grown, harvesting and processing techniques, and flavor notes. This is where it gets exciting (to me).   Some flavor notes that can be achieved in growing are fruity peach notes, lavender, floral, cocoa, stone fruits, or grape notes, to name a few.  Jennifer explains, “The notes can change from lot to lot. I like to look at what the notes are and pick the ones that I think are the most pleasing. I’ll receive a sample and I’ll do a sample roast so we can taste it.” Cultivating their sharpened palate, Jennifer is able to create unique blends used in their espresso and their cold brew.

But before they even get to roast the sample batch, Jennifer must first do what’s called green grading. When the raw beans are received, they are green. They must be inspected to find and eliminate defective beans. For specialty grade, there is a certain amount of partial defects allowed per sample lot. Jennifer pulls out all the defects and will determine if the quantity is too much of her projected coffee lot. Through green grading and running a sample roast, if she is not happy with the way that the coffee tastes, she won’t order it. If the coffee passes green grading and Jennifer samples it and it tastes good, then they order. Jay jokes, “We’ve tasted a lot of bad coffee.”

As a side note, the higher coffee is grown the better quality and flavor the coffee is able to achieve. Higher altitudes allow the beans to grow slower which allows the unique flavors to develop. At lower altitudes the beans mature faster and don’t absorb as much of the surrounding flavors. Coffee farms shade-grow their coffee. Farmers grow other plants around the coffee trees to shade them. The coffee trees pull up the flavors of the surrounding plants.

Processing techniques can also impact the final flavor profile of a coffee lot. Says Jay, “Different origins process their coffees differently. Africa and Brazil do a lot of naturally processed coffees. In the natural process, the fruit is dried and allowed to ferment for a few days before the pulp is mechanically removed. This allows the pulp and the flesh of the fruit to impart more sugars into the beans so a more full-bodied coffee is produced.

On a personal note, I had to ask if Java Jen’s offers decaf coffee (‘cause that’s how I roll). Thank goodness, they do! They can provide decaf as well as half-caf to their customers. But there’s more. Java Jen’s is even quite discerning with regards to the processing of their decaffeinated coffee. A lot of commercially sold decaf is chemically treated to remove the caffeine with some pretty caustic chemicals. The decaf that Java Jen’s roasts and sells is decaffeinated through the patented Swiss Water Process which uses no chemicals whatsoever. Says Jay, “We have Swiss Water Colombian and Peruvian coffee. They are really good coffees and no chemicals are used.” The chemical process to decaffeinate coffee beans involves parboiling the beans to remove the flavor and the caffeine. The chemicals that are introduced attach to the caffeine and get separated out of the liquid.   To infuse the flavor back in, the beans are put back into the solution that is basically flavored water. It really makes me want to rethink and question what I’ve been drinking for the last 17 years.

Official members of the Loudoun Valley HomeGrown Markets Coop and still growing their farmers market presence, you can also purchase Java Jen’s products at Round Hill Grocery Co. Their brewed coffee is exclusively served at the Herndon Centennial Golf Course Egg Karne Café, Broad Run High School Coffee Café and Java Jen’s offers home delivery within Ashburn and Sterling, VA (even during snow storms!). Don’t live in the Northern Virginia area, fear not! Java Jen’s ships!! They supply customers residing in New Mexico to Dubai and anywhere in between. And don’t let bags of whole roasted beans scare you. Java Jen’s will also grind for their customers.

But if you are local, be on the look out for Java Jen’s bright green food truck-esque trailer at local events. The trailer provides them with a tremendous amount of flexibility since it is able to go anywhere. Some of the events that you might find Java Jen’s in attendance would be Chicks Picks by Hillary (which is where I found them), the Blood and Guts Zombie 5K at Bull Run, and Eggs and Kegs at Lost Rhino Brewery Company. Community service and involvement is also a hot button for the Breedens. Java Jen’s provides sponsorship for the Ashburn Aqua Jets Swim Team and the Ashburn Village Kid’s Triathalon.

Says Jay, “In the summertime we roast close to 100 lbs a week for the markets.” A new offering for Java Jen’s this summer was the roll out of nitro-cold brew (NCB). Sounds really science-y, no? An emerging trend in the coffee industry since roughly 2015, NCB is the process of cold brew coffee being charged with nitrogen to give it a rich, thick head not unlike that of a stout beer. YUM!

On the horizon for Java Jen’s would be the acquisition of a commercial space. Quickly outgrowing their garage-converted roastery, they are on the hunt for affordable space to expand. Says Jennifer, “The space has to be the right fit. It has to be the right size and make sense financially.” Part of that dream also would include a craft beer brewery style space with the roastery in the back and a tasting room up front for visitors to come, do a cupping, hang out and drink good coffee. Until then, they continue to work out of the commercial roastery space built at their home, which has gone through inspection by the Department of Agriculture.

The movement for consumers to buy locally is important to the Breedens, especially here in Loudoun County. Jay explains, “I read recently that the Loudoun farms are in a decline because developers are buying up the land and they’re building stuff all over the place. It helps to buy from local farmers. Loudoun has dairy farmers, produce farmers, and meat farmers raising cattle, pigs, chickens and eggs. Buying locally helps the community. You know where your products come from. You can go out to the farm and see how they produce their products, so you know that they’re not using chemicals and they’re growing organically. You can meet the people that you’re buying from.” He goes on, “At the farmers market, the people that you see there are the ones out there cleaning out the stalls, or milking the cows; they’re doing it all. I think it’s exciting to be a part of that community.”

What brings Jennifer and Jay the most joy, are happy customers. Says Jay, “It’s great to have someone new to us come in and sample a coffee and buy a cup. And then they say, ‘Ah, that’s the most amazing coffee ever.’ That makes us feel good. And then they buy a bag of coffee. And then they become regular customers. That’s what it’s all about.” Jennifer adds, “Our focus is specialty grade coffee. We’re roasting weekly, so you get the freshest coffee. We want to bring really fresh, high quality coffee to the community. It feels really good when we see someone else really excited about our product. I think, wow, I did that!”

Follow Java Jens Coffee Rosters on Facebook!

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A real privilege for me as a new blogger was being invited to the art studio of this week’s Guest, Linda Hendrickson. I am a huge fan of highly saturated color in the space where I live and work, so a trip into Linda’s studio was like a little trip to heaven for me. Fresh, bright colored, whimsical artwork EVERYWHERE! It was magnificent and I never wanted to leave. That atmosphere was so inspiring to me and just boosted every bit of good energy that I possess. I am so grateful for the visit because I can go back there, in my mind, any time I need to. Love. True Love.

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Linda Hendrickson is an acrylic mix media artist who calls herself a “whimsical impressionist”. She explains, “I like the whimsy of subjects, or I try to find the personality and the whimsy in subjects that I paint.”  Shying away from people, the subject matter for the majority of Linda’s art are pets, but she also creates landscapes, and florals that are to die for. Pet portraits are worked from photographs, but get elevated to a fantastical level through Linda’s artistic process and amazingly, her landscapes are done mostly from memory. Through Linda’s creativity, she highlights the important landmarks, but interjects local interests and wildlife. I found that I didn’t even need to be familiar with the towns that she was painting to get drawn in to their charm and energy.

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Linda grew up in Minnesota with a flare for art from the start. She was fortunate and grateful to have a mother who was not afraid of messes and would encourage Linda and her three brothers to experiment with paper maché, finger painting, and many other art mediums. Even as a child Linda would draw whatever was around her and even worked her way through the entire series of “How to Draw” books. Continuing on her artistic path, Linda earned her degree of a Bachelors of Fine Arts as well as an Education certificate which allowed her to teach art for K-12 students. She went on to earn her Masters which expanded her expertise and teaching certification for Home Economics.

Linda taught junior high school art and home ec for years. Her teaching career began in Schweinfurt, Germany, at the Department of Defense schools, but because her husband was in the military, they were required to move often. Linda jokes, “Art teaching positions are kind of hard to get, and once people get in they kind of have the position ‘til they die.” She goes on, “It was not an easy, portable job, so I started offering classes to friends.   We would do everything from crafty to fine art. And then I kind of put art on the back burner for a while, once I wasn’t teaching.”

It was about 15 years ago, when Linda took a workshop in Bethany Beach, DE, from Tara Funk Grim  that she was introduced to the color palette that she currently works in. (Thank you Tara!) Linda shares, “It just brings me such joy to work with the bright colors that the dull earth tones disappeared. Every once in a while I’ll put a little gray in, or there’ll be a neutral background like in ‘Joseph and his Coat of Many Colors’ (a work in progress during my visit). It’s hard for me to think of what life would be like if I didn’t have all this painting to do. It just is my passion.” (It’s a beautiful passion.)

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Linda’s studio is peppered with multiple works at different stages in her artistic process. She works in mixed media where paper or canvases are layered with paint and collage. Having multiple pieces in progress allows each step to completely dry before she adds the next layer. Says Linda, “I have a whole stack of canvases that are gessoed; ready to go. Then I do a “doodle start”. Sometimes there are a bunch of layers of “doodle start”. Often it’s the way I begin and end a day. It’s kind of my warm up and my cool down.” Linda describes her artistic process, “I begin each painting with what I call a “doodle start.” Using an analogous set of acrylic heavy body paint colors, and lots of water, I cover the canvas with intuitive marks using a broad brush and many splatters of paint. While the paint is still wet, I add bubble wrap, plastic wrap, or other texture makers and allow the piece to sit. Once dry, I tear off the plastic or bubble wrap to see what happy experiment may have occurred. Often this entire process is repeated a couple more times to develop pentimento and a beautiful, intuitive toning of the canvas. Each step of the painting covers areas less pleasing to me and preserves some of the first layers to give a finished piece.”

I told Linda that I’d love to be in her mind to see all of the creative ideas that she has going on. Lucky for me, she could SHOW me! Linda has an extensive library of sketchbooks where each of her ideas get recorded. Linda shares, “I have about 30 little sketch books here. They are always with me. We often take a little printer with us on trips, print pictures and put them in the sketchbook so I can get the essence of the place, or I take a few notes and put the picture in so I can really go back to what it actually felt like to be there. So if I’m ever hard up for ideas, I can go back to my sketchbook and find things.”

Pet portraiture is what Linda refers to as her heart song. She is taken with the innocence and expression on the sweet faces of animals. But make no mistake, her florals and landscapes are no shrinking violets. In addition to doing commissioned art, Linda also offers art classes and shows her work in several galleries and museums. Linda shares, “My class attendees are generally grandmas that have more disposable time and income, or maybe even moms with older kids. I would say the drink and paint phenomenon has hurt because people want a quick, inexpensive girls night out. That is not what I’m in to. I want serious art students, or somebody who’s always wanted to blossom that way and just hasn’t had a guide.” Unexpected proud moments for Linda have come when she sees her students succeed. She says, “When my students put on their own show and they’re doing it their way and stepping out; that’s pretty neat.”

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Linda explains, “Art is practicing teaching your eye how to see. You’re teaching something very subjective. I’ve done it for a lot of years and I’m very proud of a bunch of my students who are now professional artists. It’s very wonderful to see that.” She goes on, “I did a lot of teaching when I first finished building out my studio, but living back and forth between Virginia and Montana, it’s been hard. It would be much better if I just stayed in one spot, but then life wouldn’t be nearly so fun.”

I have experienced and even written about my own creative transformation. It was extremely interesting to be able to visually see Linda’s own artistic evolution. Linda’s attributes her big turning point in her career to the Tara Funk Grim workshop that she took 15 years ago. She admits, “Having an art background, maybe I already possessed more of my voice when I first took Tara’s class, so it quickly popped out. The addition of mixed media would probably be the next biggest jump.” Although her color palette made it’s transition 15 years ago, it’s the addition and building up of mixed media that Linda has recognized the most change of her own work. “For example,” she says, “the first “topsy turvy” (which is what Linda calls her landscapes) is very crisp and stylized, versus one for an upcoming show in Flathead Valley, Montana that is a lot more fluid rather than precise and stylized; more painting and less focused on being line oriented.” Size is also a huge change in Linda’s repertoire. She shares, “I discovered that I wanted to do size.” Linda put together a collection of large paintings for a museum show to be held out in Montana in February. But her proudest professional moment was having several of her pieces purchased for Nemours/Dupont Children’s Hospital in Wilmington, DE. There you can find the very large, 5’ x 5’ versions of images from Linda’s collection of pet portraits. Her long term goals include opportunities to do more large scale projects. Linda shares, “I think it’s really cool to get things placed in a Children’s Hospitals. It brings joy in so many ways.” Linda also would love to get into more galleries so she can spend her time painting and traveling, but commission work will always be part of her life as well. Her desire to grow a consistent student base would round out her professional goals.

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Although Linda admits that she’s not very big into imagining the future, she does have a “pie in the sky” dream. She and her husband own 20 acres in Montana that looks out over the mountains. Linda would love to have a simple home there; maybe two main bedrooms with a kitchen in the middle and a walk out lower level that houses her studio/workshop area. She says, “Wouldn’t it be fun to have different sorts of tiny houses on the property and have artists come for a week’s retreat?” That would be fun! She goes on, “I think that there are a lot of people out there who would benefit from art as therapy. I know what it does for me. If I can’t paint, I get real crazy and not very easy to live with. I think there are a lot of women, that once the kid raising stage is over with, they need it too.”

A new question that I like to ask my Guests is what advice or encouragement would they give to their younger self? (See I’m evolving too!) Here’s Linda’s sage advice, “Learn how to say no, and don’t listen to the nay sayers. Just don’t listen to that because it’s just going to drag you down. It’s a challenge to stay up in the midst of all that. And try to tune out the shoulda, woulda, coulda.”

Linda shares, “I guess I’m living the dream. This is pretty good. And I’m never hesitant to share my creativity with students. I tend to learn more from them than I share. It’s not like I have to guard it with a wall, but I do think you have to guard your heart because that’s where the fountain can get stopped and depressed and traumatized.”

Linda believes that everybody has creativity in them but feels that it’s something in our educational system that has gotten squashed early on. She shares, “When I’m doing demonstrations, I like to ask a child, “Are you an artist?” and they’ll say yes. The older they get the less likely they are to say yes because somebody took the pencil out of their hand, or didn’t put the latest picture up on the refrigerator, it’s still the one from 3 years ago which is huge in a kid’s life.” Her wish is for each of us to encourage creativity in each other. But she warns, “You have to kind of unplug to develop it, and for kids that’s huge, but it’s so important.”

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Follow Linda Hendrickson on the following social media links:  www.studio4linda.com, Facebook and Instagram

1  Photos and photo images of Linda’s original artwork by Jeanette Burkle, Galie Photography

2 Photo images of Linda’s original artwork by *Cayenne Pepper Studios (*Formerly Sandrine Brubaker Photography)

Can one story have two beginnings? I think it can. And in the case of Krissee D’Aguiar, from River-Sea Chocolate, her story definitely does.

Krissee met her husband in Brazil, and while she was in college studied Amazonian ecology that included time spent in the Amazon region. She shares, “When I went there to study, we learned all about the social factors and the environmental factors which are really hand in hand. When you’re trying to save something like the rain forest, the people who are trying to cut it down are not trying to cut it down because they hate trees. They’re trying to cut it down because they need money.” She explained that if you owned land in Brazil you could make money off of the land by either slash and burn agriculture, which is detrimental to the long term sustainability of the forest, or cattle pasturing, which is also very detrimental to the long term sustainability. When used for cattle pastures, the land cannot be used for farming for many years because of the nitrogen in the waste from the cows. Logging is another money making option. Loggers are encouraged to do what’s called selective logging, which is where only the smaller trees are cut down preserving the larger ones. A lot of companies don’t do selective logging, or they say they do but because the logging operations are so remote, it’s impossible to verify. But, they’re cutting down the trees! They’re cutting down the forest. These social and environmental factors were so closely knitted together and Krissee left feeling overwhelmed and stunned about it. She says, “I’d gone there to try to save the rain forest and what I learned was if we’re going to stop people from cutting down the rain forest, then we’re basically telling them that they needed to stay poor.”

Disillusioned, Krissee returned home to Fairfax County and began working in IT. Her Information Tech career lasted seven years when she was promoted to a stay-at-home mom. After five years at home, she returned to IT for a year. It was at this point that Krissee and her husband decided to take their family to Brazil for a sabbatical. They were both feeling a little bit lost. They had been working a lot and needed some time to decompress and think about what was important to them. Says Krissee, “While we were in Brazil, we were having so much fun. It felt like we hit the reset button, but we still questioned what were we going to do moving forward. And that felt lost. I felt like I was inline with myself, but I didn’t have a purpose. I didn’t know what my purpose was.”

During their trip they found a cacao tree. Krissee’s son climbed it and started asking about how to make chocolate and they began learning about the process. It wasn’t until Krissee successfully tempered her first mixture, (and it worked) that something magical happened for her. She recounts, “I was able to temper the chocolate after just watching YouTube videos on how to do it. It felt very mystical. I did it and felt like I had this connection with the chocolate to make it be able to temper. It just felt so right.”

As she and her husband began learning more about chocolate, they discovered that the cacao tree is a sustainable type of plant because it’s shade grown like coffee. Krissee shares, “It grows in this region where my husband is from. Through cacao, we can pay people to keep the forest and in a livelihood that’s enjoyable. It’s not detrimental at all to the land. It doesn’t take any chemicals. You don’t have to plant it like a plantation. You can plant it in an existing forest canopy. It just felt like it fit on all these different levels. And I really did just feel like I had a purpose in life when we started doing this. I love it! I love it so much.”

So that was the second beginning. The first beginning involved her mother as a newborn, premature baby in Romania. At the time of her mother’s birth, Romania was ruled by a communist government. Although they had some good government provided services, like their education system, they did not have a great medical care system. For premature babies, they would put warm water bottles along side of them to keep them warm. Krissee shares, “The doctors told my grandfather that he should give the baby chocolate. He explained that chocolate has a little bit of caffeine in it, which is good for preemie babies, but also antioxidants, minerals and good fats.” At this time, chocolate wasn’t legal in Romania. Foods that could be purchased were controlled by the government and they didn’t have good quality chocolate that came through. Krissee’s grandfather had to get it illegally across the border from somebody who was bringing chocolate in from Switzerland. He traded his stamp collection to get chocolate into the country. The chocolate given to her mother was good Swiss chocolate that was made with Swiss full fat, or whole milk. In bar form, it merely melted in the baby’s mouth. It was chocolate that helped Krissee’s mother to thrive and live.

Krissee grew up knowing this story. She says, “As I was making the chocolate, and thinking about how much fun it was to make, and that story, it felt sort of full circle.” She jokes, “I’ve always used that story as an excuse for why I eat so much chocolate.” Outside of her mother’s experience, Krissee admits that she had never heard of people giving chocolate to premature babies. But when she began her bean to bar program, and started doing some research, she found that in some of the earliest accounts of the use of cacao, the books that were written 100 years ago about cacao, they indeed talked about giving chocolate to premature babies as a perfect food.

So back to modern day Loudoun County Virginia. River-Sea Chocolate is a single-origin chocolate producer. They originally began purchasing their beans from Brazil and they are in the process of establishing a fermentary there. (Cacao beans are fermented and dried prior to shipping for roasting.) While that’s happening, and as they gain export and import permissions, they have also been purchasing beans from existing bean brokers in the US.   They source beans from all over the world; Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Vietnam and Tanzania.

Says Krissee, “The social impact is really important to us. The Peruvian beans come from an area that was traditionally known for narco trafficking. The farm is on the border of Peru and Colombia. There is an organization there that’s been helping the community learn how to farm cacao with the intention of providing an alternate income source besides the cocaine trade.” Not only was she moved by the story, this farm happens to produce superior beans that have a strong cherry flavor. Says Krissee, “It’s one of the most expensive ones that we get. I love it.”

Chocolate is very much like coffee and wine in that the flavor of the beans is greatly influenced by the region in which it is grown. Visually you can see that the beans from each origin look different and even smell different. River-Sea roasts their beans and then they winnow them, which is a mechanical process of dehusking the beans. The beans come out as nibs that are used to make the chocolate. The nibs are placed into a melanger that turns the nibs into a cocoa mass which then undergoes a process called conching; a spinning process that smooths out the chocolate texture and flavor. The chocolate is then tempered on a granite surface and molded into bars.

Each step in the process is another factor that can impact the ultimate flavor of the finished product. Krissee explains, “We can roast the beans differently to get a unique flavor profile and we can vary how long we melange the beans for another outcome. Every bean has a different sweet spot.”

River-Sea Chocolates offers a large assortment of chocolate bars that you can purchase from several retail locations, directly from the factory, or by purchasing online; shipped to your destination of choice. Bars are offered in the following collections: Dark, Vegan, Milk, and White.

And let’s just talk about the white chocolate for a moment. Keep in mind, that I’ve never been a fan of white chocolate and I confessed this to my new friend (hoping not to offend of course). Krissee expertly explained why I don’t like it and masterfully won me over as a huge fan of her white chocolate. Here’s why.   Most white chocolates are made with grade B beans. Grade B would be the worst quality beans that are harvested. The best quality beans are made into dark or milk chocolate and the worst are pressed into fat or cocoa butter. However, the cocoa butter that River-Sea sources is made from the same quality beans that they use to make their dark and milk bars. (Incidentally, there is a difference in cocoa butter and cacao butter that is determined by the temperature during processing. I have used the terms interchangeably in this article.) Says Krissee, “As soon as we started getting this type of cacao butter, I just started getting inspired. It was so good. It smells like something you would want to eat as opposed to the other stuff that I was buying that didn’t smell so great, or they defragrance it because it doesn’t smell so great.” That’s what a lot of the chocolate makers do, including high-end makers. They buy a lot of the defragranced cacao.” But River-Sea uses the premium beans pressed into cacao butter. Because the quality of this ingredient is so good, Krissee has been making white chocolates with less sugar, which combats my biggest complaint about white chocolate. It’s too sweet. Their white chocolate has actually been some of their most popular bars. The white chocolate is paired with other ingredients like turmeric, matcha or rose. The bars are beautiful to look at and are truly delicious…and I was skeptical! (They taste like they’re good for you, and not in a bad way!)

And what a nice segue into tasting this chocolate. When you take a tour of the factory, and/or book a party/class, part of the experience is to do a chocolate tasting. (OMGoodness!) You receive chocolate samples, for side by side comparison, that only have one differing characteristic, like bean origin (ie, Vietnam vs. Ecuador), or roasting time (dark vs medium). It was deliciously fascinating. For the first time, I could really taste the notes and the layers of flavor that each chocolate bar afforded. I came away truly feeling like I’ve been doing myself a disservice by eating your grocery store variety chocolate options.

My take away from meeting Krissee and touring the factory, beyond that I should stop eating second rate chocolate, was this. I think everyone can agree that it’s an amazing feat to find meaningful work that speaks to your soul and can get you out of bed every day. Says Krissee, “I was actually listening to a Ted talk podcast about finding meaning in work. It was saying that people just want to do something where they feel like they’re doing good for the world or for the community. I really didn’t have that in IT. It was a great mechanism for us to save up money so that we could do other stuff, but ultimately, my husband and I came to the decision that we need something a little more balanced. It’s ok to work and save up some money, but don’t drive yourself crazy for the end goal of having a vacation.”

Follow River-Sea Chocolates on the following social media sites: Facebook and  Instagram

You can view videos on the River-Sea Chocolates website on the chocolate production process, or you can set up a party/class or tour at the factory (adults only please). Be sure to inquire about creating personalized chocolate bar labels for your event or company function.

As a side note, River-Sea Chocolates is a supplier for our friends, and previous Jennifer the Beholder Guest, at Candy Drawer Confectionary (Guest – Maura McKnight – Candy Drawer Confectionary). Only the best for the best!

Day #9 – Tuesday

What a change of scenery!!!  Where Kona was rocky and moonlike, Kauai was lush, and green, and mountainous.  Scenery reminiscent of what I would imagine parts of Vietnam might look like.  Beautifully shaped mountains covered in green foliage.  It was just gorgeous.  And flowers galore.  It truly was a tropical paradise.

Our resort was outstanding.  The Kaua’i Marriott Resort.  A stunning first impression with picturesque water gardens, a very large koi pond, and a pool area that reminded me of a higher end hotel/casino in Las Vegas (with a minimal population of Vegas bods.  We’re talking more like a mom bod/dad bod vibe here.  YES!!  FIST PUMP!)  And just beyond the pool, the beach!  A small, but accommodating beach for body surfing, surfing and paddle boarding.  You could also get a glimpse of visiting cruise ships and military boats.  This resort was first class and I loved it.

We grabbed a tasty lunch from Kukui’s on the Beach on the resort property and then checked into our room.  And for the first time in a week we had central air conditioning.  Sigh.  It was glorious.

We spent a little time at the pool and then decided to hang tight in our pjs in our room.  We ordered up some room service and just relaxed.  It was magical and time for bed.

Day #10 – Wednesday

Our first night’s sleep in air conditioning and we slept in.  A much needed rest.  We finally peeled ourselves out of bed and headed to the resort buffet for a very satisfying breakfast.  The plan for the day was to drive the coast and take in the Manoa Falls.  We had so much fun stopping at all of the scenic outlook stops including parts of the Wailua Heritage Trail (Maunakapu and Wailua River).  There was something different and gorgeous around every corner.  It was a day I’ll never forget.

We traveled as far as we could go, which was the cute little town of Hanalei (a la Puff the Magic Dragon) where we stopped for a bite to eat at Tropical Taco.  One more stop at the scenic overlook at Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge which had an amazing view of neat partitions of farmland and then we headed home to the resort to get cleaned up for dinner.  We were treated by my inlaws to an amazing meal at Hukilau Lanai.  A terrific assortment of cuisine with an interesting mix of Hawaiian and Italian food, amazing cocktails and ridiculous desserts.  Dining al fresco (which I LOVE), it was a great choice for a fine meal for the adults, but perfectly suited for our kids.

We walked the property of the restaurant/resort and took some photos beachside.  We then returned to our resort to ditch our car and then hiked about a half a mile up through the adjacent golf course to take in the 4th of July fireworks display.  We had a perfect spot to watch.  All in all, a great day and a great evening.

Day #11 – Thursday

Our intent for the day was to visit the Waimea Canyon State Park, but our sweet niece was up all night with an ear infection.  To give her time to heal, we postponed for the next day.  We spent the day enjoying the resort pool and beach.  It was pretty spectacular to wake and see a huge cruise ship docked in the inlet.  The sea was rough this day, so our time was best spent at the very sizable pool.  It was a relaxing day.  A real vacation day.

We stayed close the resort and walked to a local New York Style pizza place called Pietro’s Pizza.  It was good.  I’m a huge fan of fish and could really eat it every day, but I do admit that it was a nice change to have some really good authentic NY Style pizza.  We then headed next door to Skinny Mike’s Ice Cream & Shave Ice.  A nice walk back to the resort with a few stops to catch lizards and pet some ferrel cats and it was time to call it a night in preparation for an early wake up call to catch the canyon views before the cloud cover rolls in.

Day #12 – Friday

Waimea Canyon State Park it is.  We got up early in hopes of getting good canyon views before the cloud cover started to descend.  Mission accomplished.  We had great views of the canyon and beyond.  It was windy and cool at the summit.  If you didn’t know, you would not think that you were still in Hawaii.  The signature abundance of tropical flowers did not exist at the high altitude.  But you know what was up there?  Hydrangeas!  Not a flower I would have ever expected to see here.  The canyon was very different from the Grand Canyon in Arizona.  Although this one is decidedly smaller, it was still quite majestic and breathtaking.  Not the layers of reds and browns like the big daddy, this landscape was a combination of the reds of the rock, but had a blanket of green that made it fit right in with the rest of the scenery in Kauai.  Just beautiful.

We made several stops to scenic overlooks to take in the sights and snap some photos.  It was a really windy descent down the mountain that didn’t agree with some of our passengers.  Several emergency stops were needed, but in the end all was well.  On our way back to our resort, we scouted out a Starbucks.  (Do you hear the choir of angels?)  The coffee shop at the resort closed every day at 11 am.  Blasphemous!!!  Really my only complaint of our stay.

After 12 days in the sun, our kids were wanting a day inside to veg.  So veg they did.  I, however, don’t often turn down a day in the sun, especially in an exotic locale and MORE especially ALONE!!!!  Yes,  I spent a few hours at the pool alone.  It was deliciously relaxing and I snuck in the tiniest of naps.

My husband’s brother and his wife went out for a date night to a restaurant they had been to 10 years prior on their honeymoon, so we stayed behind and got take out for our kids, and our niece and nephew. We enjoyed our meal on the gigantic and delightfully breezy lanai overlooking the pool.  It was a super fun night of lots and lots of laughing.

Day #13 – Saturday – Our last day

We laid low on our last day.  Staying at the resort and trying to soak up as much of this place as possible.  We stayed at the pool for most of the day with several trips to the hot tub.  We took advantage of poolside food and beverage delivery and also hit the shave ice stand.  My daughter and her uncle took the winning spot at the water balloon toss, with my middle son and nephew in a close second.  All celebrated with complimentary popsicles!!  Winning!

We decided to return to the pizza joint and carried out our food to the beach for a last night picnic with the family.  The kids enjoyed a final chance to play on the sea shore and my husband and I enjoyed the view.

As in our typical fashion, it was an early night; mostly to start packing for our journey back to reality.

Hawaii is a beautiful state.  The people are lovely and gracious and the scenery could arguably be heaven on earth for many.  I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to experience this part of the world with the people that I love the most.

Mahalo Hawaii.  Until we meet again.  Aloha.

To see more pictures of our trip to Hawaii, be sure to follow me on Instagram.