Life is all about lessons, and the end of the year is a great opportunity for one to truly comprehend those lessons. I’ve done some major growing up this past year, and have experienced my fair share of personal growth … Continue reading
I can’t even put into words how grateful I am for my life. There is such an abundance of love, joy, and passion injected into every moment of my life, that sometime’s I just can’t believe I’ve been chosen to … Continue reading
After having back-to-back- to-back crazy holidays (Easter, Mother’s Day, Victoria Day) at Lettuce Love and Kelly’s Bake Shoppe, I’ve begun to acquire a deeper respect and admiration for our team. Well, I’ve always had such gratitude for everyone who works with us, but last weekend in particular set me over the edge (in a good way!).
Over Easter Weekend, we broke all previous records at Kelly’s Bake Shoppe and Lettuce Love for the busiest weekend EVER, and the next holiday, Mother’s Day was no different. On Mother’s Day Sunday, in the midst of a full house at Kelly’s Bake Shoppe, I ran down to Lettuce Love to make sure everything was running smoothly (because I could see on my phone that we were in the middle of having our busiest Sunday EVER at Both locations…”ahhhh!” I thought, “I hope everyone’s O.K!”). I walked in to Lettuce Love, and the place was just hopping. Our customers we’re busy gabbing with friends, drinking mimosas and enjoying blueberry pancakes! “Phewww, was that a relief”, I thought to myself. At that point, I went back up to Kelly’s to make sure everything was A OK, and guess what? It was. Our girls were buzzing around serving customers, taking orders, and chatting with customers.
But then I just sat in that moment for a minute and thought about where I was and how amazing these two businesses have become that we’ve built from the ground up. Working 14 plus hour days back in the Kindfood days baking, cooking, and trying to figure out what exactly our businesses would blossom into has really paid off…I’ll admit I had a bit of a teary moment, because I’ve never really taken a step back from “LIFE” to truly understand how quickly we’ve grown our two companies, the impact we’ve had on the planet and people, and how many amazing people want to work with us every day. It was a pretty big ah-ha moment for me….
Where would we be without the over 25 amazing team members at Lettuce Love Cafe and Kelly’s Bake Shoppe (I know…can you believe our team has grown to be this big?) ? You’re our foundation and the most integral part of our businesses. I’m sending you ALL the warmest THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. You make our business what it is on a daily basis, and help us take our two businesses to the next level.
Your efforts don’t go unnoticed. You’re the most incredible people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.
Love,
With International Women’s Day recently behind us, it got me thinking about the term feminism and the real meaning (or at least my interpretation…) behind it. A Feminist is described as: a person who believes in the social, political, and … Continue reading
Valentine’s Day can be such a wonderful holiday, full of love, romance, red roses, passion and gratitude for your significant other. However, the other 364 days of the year our focus tends to shift. You pay more attention to what you don’t value about your partner—annoying habits, different ways of doing things—than what you actually value, why you actually fell in love with them in the first place. The day after Valentine’s Day can be a rude awakening for how “romance-less” your daily life is– you wake up to your partner snoring, taking forever to get out of bed, and then forgetting to pick up groceries after work. It’s easy to forget why you first fell in love with them. But does the day after Valentine’s Day have to be a lunch bag let down? Can you still have romance in your everyday life? Of course you can!
Here’s a few great ideas for bringing Valentine’s Day in your everyday life:
Have a 20 minute daily catch up: Make 20 minutes a day to have a face to face conversation with your hunnie (with NO distractions, no children, no t.v, no phone, no computer). I’ve found this to be very helpful to make sure we’re both on the same page, and working as a team on a daily basis.
Schedule Date Nights: Schedule time for you and your significant other. In our busy world, full of the never ending to-do lists, and day planners, make the time to go out for dinner, and/or have a glass of wine together and just catch up on life. With our busy schedules, Michael and I have started doing this more and more.
Plan to watch a funny movie…and LAUGH: curling up on the couch with a classic comedy is always a great option. Laughing out loud together keeps you seeing the fun side of one another that you fell in love with in the first place.
Plan a vacation: Having something to look forward to is always fun! It can be as simple as planning a weekend away together to a B&B, or as elaborate as a three week long vacation to Bora Bora. Vacations are great for making you unplug from reality, if you can manage to stay away from your distracting electronics…(I’ve struggled myself!) When I come back from a distraction-less vacation, I’m that much more rejuvenated and ready to take on the world.
When I was doing some research about how to keep Valentine’s Day going throughout the year, I came across a great article by Noelle Nelson from Hitched Magazine. She suggests that you should make a list of all those things you value about your hunnie, both big and small. What a great idea! Whether it’s how he makes the coffee on Sunday mornings, or how much he worries about doing the right thing, or wants to cheer you up when you’re blue. Whatever it might be, write it down. Add to the list every day. Let your partner know, in words, how you value them: “I love how conscientious you are in making decisions, how you want to make sure you take everything into account.” This can be a great team-building exercise with your partner to show them how much you value them.
I hope that this helps you bring Valentine’s Day, love and gratitude in your relationship everyday. Our world needs a little bit more love!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Much Love,
Erinn xoxo
P.S Happy Valentine’s Day Michael, I love you so much sweetie! 2014’s going to be great for us! xo
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www.kellysxo.com 401 Brant Street, Burlington, ON Canada
www.LettuceLoveCafe.com 399 John Street, Burlington, ON Canada
Dear Michael,
HAPPY 8th ANNIVERSARY HUNNIE!!
I can still remember when you first asked me to be your girlfriend, eight years ago today in the freezing cold at the Unionville Christmas Festival. We were just little high school kids…just 15 at the time. We’ve grown up together and experienced so many wonderful things together. I’m so proud of everything we’ve done and all we’ve accomplished.
I feel so blessed to have such a strong relationship with you…solely based on our friendship and respect for each other. I am so grateful to be able to work with you every day, and come home with you every night. 🙂
I love you so much.
Happy 8th Anniversary.
Erinn.
With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I began to think about what Thanksgiving means to me. To me, Thanksgiving is a time of year to express gratitude for the amazingly supportive people in my life! It can be so difficult to realize this on a daily basis with the hectic way most of us live our lives (I’m guilty of it too!!). This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for my FOUR wonderful parents, so supportive, so inspiring, and so strong. So really…what are all of you thankful for? Well, here’s why I’m so grateful for my FOUR Parents!!!
Last week Michael and I had my Dad and Step Mom, Amy over for dinner at our condo. We had such a great time gabbing and catching up with them…They just have a great way about themselves, and I’ve been trying to put my finger on what “that way” exactly is! PerhapsI’ll figure it by Thanksgiving…. 🙂
My Dad is so awesome. He’s such an incredible Man, so true to himself and I’m so happy him and Amy are together and so happy. They’re such an awesome couple and they balance each other so well…I love it! They’re always up to date on the coolest things from the new Apple info, new health tips, and cool TED talks. I love talking to them! My Dad has always been there for me, through thick and thin he always has my back, and through some of the hardest times and some best times, he’s always been a voice of reason and the one I go to when I need another opinion. He’s someone to balance me, and give me a good perspective on life. Even though the ‘busi-ness’ of life can get in the way of us getting together as much as I would like to, his voice is in my head helping me get through every day. I’m so grateful for his support. I love him so much!!
My Step-Mom, Amy is just fantastic. She’s a beautiful, independent, and strong woman. I truly respect all of her accomplishments, I mean, she’s run over 15 marathons. I have some of the best conversations with her and she has a way of talking that’s so calming and logical. I really don’t know how she does it (Amy…please share). She had a great talk with Michael last week about giving up ‘control’…I know Michael…controlling? Who knew? Well, Mike’s been stressing out lately about leaving Kindfood with our staff for a few days, while we go away on a family trip, because as a lot of you know, he’s the face and personality of Kindfood. Amy put everything in perspective for him and made him have a bit of an ah-ha moment!!! After talking to Amy, he’s realized what he needs to do to empower our wonderful employees and show them how to be him! It’s so nice to hang out with them and get a third perspective on business and our personal lives…because after eating, breathing, and sleeping work 95% of the time it can be so rewarding to get a different perfective on those things. I so value everything Amy says and I’m so grateful to have her as my Step Mom. I love her so much!!
I’ve been trying to put my finger on how I feel when we see them and I’ve figured out that I always feel re-energized!! I feel like I have a newfound inspiration, and a drive to do better and be a better person. It’s amazing and I love it!
If we’re talking about parents, I can’t forget to add in my two cents about my Mom and my wonderful Step Dad Ken. My Mom, Kelly Childs is just awe-inspiring. I recently wrote a blog about her 50th Birthday (check it out!!). She pushes me everyday to do better, and to be a better person. I admire her so much and feel so blessed to be able to work with her on a daily basis.
Ken, my Step-Dad is amazing! He’s so determined, so passionate, motivated, and incredibly generous all at the same time! I really don’t know how he does it. He’s so kind, patient, strong and unmoving. I feel so blessed to be able to work with him on a daily basis, and learn as much as I have from him, he’s just an endless wealth of knowledge in so many different aspects of life. Ken has been his own boss for his entire life, and he’s been able to help me to grow so much as a leader at Kindfood and Kelly’s Bake Shoppe. I’m so happy my Mom has Ken in her life. They balance each other so well… especially when my Mom can get a little bit stressed out and overwhelmed with everything going on…(sorry Mom, I’m selling you out!! ) They’ve really found their match!! I love them both so much!
I really can’t explain how grateful I am to have TWO amazingly inspiring Moms and TWO go getter Dads in my life. I’m so proud to be able to call these four incredible people my parents. I love them ALL so much!!! I’m a pretty lucky girl. 🙂
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!
What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Xo
Erinn.
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www.kellysxo.com 401 Brant Street, Burlington, ON Canada
www.kindfood.com 399 John Street, Burlington, ON Canada