Trench Coat and Lace-Up Boots

Last night I bought a lottery ticket. Let me preface this by saying I’m definitely not a gambler, in fact my view is I’d rather spend my money on something tangible – like a new handbag for example. The thrill of possibly winning just does not do it for me, I am too much of a realist. So I’m not sure then why I bought a ticket yesterday on the way home from the gym, when I stopped to fill up gas and realized I was really thirsty so I went in to the store to buy some water.

I saw the Powerball prize had gone up to $500 million, so I thought, why not give it a shot even though the odds of winning the grand prize are technically 1 in 292 Million, which is obviously a long shot, but if you compare to the odds of being struck by lighting in your lifetime, which is only 1 in 3000, you know just how truly unlikely it is to win the jackpot. Nevertheless I bought the ticket, which led to an interesting conversation with my husband at the dinner table.

Tom asked me if we won the prize, would I still blog, and would I still do the personal styling and interior design work that I do now. Without even hesitating I answered of course! Its my passion!I would just make it better, and hire more people and buy better equipment. I mean I would definitely go on several shopping sprees and maybe a vacation or two but other than that I would do exactly what I am doing now. Then I thought about how everything I would do with more money is actually something I could do now, or in the near future, if I just plan for it a little better.

This all happened after a most inspiring day of meetings, the first with an amazing blogger who I plan to collaborate with on some major events this year that, if it all works as planned, could be pretty revolutionary, and the second meeting was with a group of entrepreneurs who have created a brand new product and brought it to market and are looking to successfully promote it.

One of the big changes I am incorporating in my life, you may already know, and that is shopping ethically manufactured clothing. I call myself a ‘work in progress’ as I still shop some fast fashion, but I believe in progress over perfection so I’m just going to keep working on it. For today’s look I’m wearing a scarf by Inkmade Co. A Chicago-based company that specializes in creating beautiful scarves and paper goods using traditional Indian block printing techniques. A portion of the proceeds help these artisans in India by giving them an income source. Knowing that I’m helping others in some way makes shopping so much fun – and also guilt-free.

Being surrounded by entrepreneurs and people who are just really passionate about what they do and are working hard towards fulfilling their dreams and changing the world while they do it, is so much fun and also highly contagious. I had such a nervous excited energy inside of me the whole day that I completely forgot to eat until dinner time. I wish everyone could find and tap in to that amazing energy that comes with doing what you really love, even if it is just something you do on the weekends or once in a while. It changes you completely and affects other areas of your life too; as the saying goes – how you do anything is how you do everything.

Oh and by the way, I didn’t win the lottery. But I’ve definitely got my eye on the prize.