Behind The Scenes
I am delighted how many incredible things have happened and how the universe has opened since I found the courage to start working on this project. I’m pinching myself. Each day, I’m blown away by someone’s strength, kindness, and generosity.
I reached out to smart, successful, strong, kind (always kind) women for honest feedback. I sat down with my friend, Rachael Nov, from LaRee Boutique in Bellevue, and told her my vision. She loved it. She was gracious, forthcoming, and on board! It was a relief to get this response from someone I trusted. As I was leaving, she mentioned I should talk to the very well-respected stylist/creative director, Emilie Maslow. This changed the course of everything.
Two weeks later, I met Emilie for breakfast. My goal was simply to leave the meeting with contact information for a good photographer and make-up artist. Emilie and I immediately felt that we’d known each other forever and before I had finished explaining my vision, she looked at me and said, “I want to be a part of this. There is nothing out there like it and I want to help. I know the perfect make-up artist and photographer and I’m convinced they’ll come on board.” Emilie picked up her phone and arranged a meeting with Casey Gouveia and Tereza Janáková for the following week.
The chemistry was instant. We booked out two photo shoots on the spot. Casey, celebrity make-up artist and founder of @go.be.you, is a true inspiration. Tereza is a former-model-turned-photographer who is incredibly talented. Working with her is insanely comfortable and easy.
“I’m terribly uncomfortable in front of a camera,” I said to Tereza. “I can’t even take a good selfie! I don’t know my good side from my bad.” I inevitably get a nervous sweat trickling down one side of my body during the shoots, so we find a way to hide it. Each shoot gets easier, but honestly, I may as well be sky diving ... I’m that far out of my comfort zone. OH! And I’ve had to learn to use social media—as in “totally.” I didn’t know what a boomerang was until four weeks ago ... beyond the Australian version.
Pictured above from left to right: Casey Gouveia, Wendy Euler, Emilie Maslow and Tereza Janáková
Cheers to you, Emilie, Casey, and Tereza! You’ve made this journey a lot easier and certainly more fun than I ever anticipated. I’m forever grateful.
To the rest of you, I hope you’ll come back this Thursday for “Talking Crop” with Erica Nelson-Sheehan, co-owner of hitchcock Madrona, a fabulous women’s accessories store in Seattle. This woman slays me with her style. Both inside and out, she’s a beautiful person.