Bite Of The Big Apple

Visiting the Big Apple is always a thrill because you never know what you may experience while there. Recently, I was lucky enough to attend an amazing conference in N.Y.C. (A shout out to my friend, Autumn, for scoring the tickets). The Embrace Ambition Summit, an event hosted annually by the Tory Burch Foundation, focuses on the community and countrywide contributions made by women from all walks of life, and the speakers ran the gambit. It offered a glimpse into the minds, motivations, and inspirations that allowed these accomplished people to set goals and thrive. It focused on the importance of creative and analytical thinkers coming together to push ideas forward into action. Action takes courage! And perfect timing (albeit preferred) isn’t always a requirement. Instead, successful strategies and projects are developed through thoughtful consideration and conversation from different points of view. It allows for opposing thoughts to find areas of collaborative common ground that develop any newborn idea into a fully formed plan of action in any arena - business, community, or family life.

I left the conference walking tall and feeling like I could do almost anything. So, thank you, Tory Burch, and, specifically, Laurie Fabiano, for providing that platform and the chance to feel that level of empowerment. 😀 It did exactly what it set out to do; it provided a sense of pride in not only embracing the ambition within but also looking for curious ways to stay inspired to produce good work fueled by creative thinking.

I spent the other few days in the city enjoying the life and energy that radiates within it and maximizing the time with some work-related needs by visiting a few vendors. I also had the chance to visit one of our favorite artist friends, Hunt Slonem. This was undoubtedly one of the highlights. His newest studio is amazing and, as always, elicits a sense of creative excitement and inspiration. Walking in, you are instantly engrossed in the bold use of color, the larger-than-life images, and the real-life aviary full of live birds that so often serve as his muses. It is like walking into a fantasyland of art in motion. Courtney, as a long-time collector of his work, first introduced me to him when we launched Ivy Lane. We have worked with him for so long that we have seen three separate studio gallery locations, and his art continues to excite the art world! This visit allowed me to take a look at some of his newest works in progress, watch him at work, and be grateful that I am in a line of work that values the beauty of art and sharing it in big and small ways.

By the time I was headed home on the train, thinking over everything I had seen, heard, and done over those couple of days, I felt exhausted, but in a good way. I left N.Y.C with a renewed sense of gratitude for the wonderful team of women I work with, the artists and artisans we have curated and collected, the wonderful clients who support us, and the strong community we live in. The conference setting seeded some daydream-type thinking, connecting with the inner creative, and allowed me to ask…. what’s next for us? That very simple question is hopeful, thrilling, and keeps the future looking bright!