Thanksgiving! We are so Thankful!

Gratitude, Saying Thanks  //  22nd November 2012

Awww Thanksgiving. What a magical day.

Today we are hosting Thanksgiving and are busy prepping Tony (pronounced with a heavy New Yorker accent) aka our turkey… well actually, we are probably snuggled up on the couch watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! ;) (We tend to put the turkey in the oven early just so that we make sure we can enjoy the parade!)

But anyway, as we promised on Monday, we took some time this week to think about all of the blessings in our lives and everything that we are grateful for and we thought today would be the perfect day to share a few of them with you! Hopefully reading our list will inspire you to create your own! ;)… that is, in fact, if you have not already! ;)

Also, if you didn’t see our video on Monday, we thought we would share it again here today.  Be sure to check it out below our list.

Here we go… by the way, these are in no particular order! ;) Today we are incredibly grateful for…

• YOU! Everyone who is reading this post. Words cannot explain how much you mean to us.
• Family & Friends
• Board of Life Directors & Mentors that push us to be the best that we can be
• LOVE and HUGS
• Our clients
• clean water
• cozy blankets
• heat/air conditioning
• high speed internet
• finding our passions of photography, cooking, DIYing, writing, and spreading the word about Living an AMAZING Life
• food, especially Tony the Turkey!
• the gift of sight and hearing
• good health
• doctors and nurses
• Smiles
• kitchen gadgets (especially the blender & garbage disposal… they both recently broke and we realized more than ever how much we appreciate them!)
• music that inspires us to get up and dance!
• Coffee shops
• Blue Skies and Puffy White Clouds
• Service Women and Men… and everyone who is serving others in their careers!
• Skype & Facetime
• Breathe Mints ;)
• Farmer’s Markets
• Repurposed Wood & Goods
• Sunshine
• Photos and the ability to print memories so they last a lifetime
• Bucknell University for shaping us to be who we are today
• All teachers and educators
• The Making Brands Happen Team for helping create an AMAZING brand that is 100% us
• Peanut butter, especially freshly ground from Whole Foods
• Free will
• Our creative spirit and passion for life
• Encouraging words
• Last, but certainly not least (and I can say this because I am writing this post! ;) )… I just want to say that I am incredibly grateful for Ryan. I am one lucky lady to be surrounded by so much love, energy, passion, and talent every single day of our lives. Love him!

Happy Thanksgiving Y’all! ;) Hope you have an amazing day surrounded by your loved ones and giving thanks for everything!

Giving Back: Liz and Ryan + Thirst Relief International

Giving Back, Gratitude  //  19th September 2012

Water is one of the most basic needs that we all share. It is likely that each and everyday we wake up and take for granted that we will have clean water to shower in, to brush our teeth with, and to drink. But, what if we didn’t have clean water? What if the water we drank to quench our thirst just made us sick? For many, that is the reality of each day…

Since a very young age, both Liz and I have had a strong passion to give back to and to make an impact on the lives of others. We have been so fortunate and blessed to have the opportunities we have had in life and we believe everyone should have the same opportunities as us. So, when we attended our first WPPI conference three years ago, one of the things we were the most excited to see was a talk on photography and philanthropy. Photographer Jim Davis Hicks and a small group were speaking about a recent trip to Tanzania. It just so happens that Jim was also the founder of Thirst Relief International. While in Tanzania, Jim and the group helped install Bio Sand Filters that would provide clean drinking water for a lifetime.  Jim spoke further about Thirst Relief International and their mission and instantly we were hooked. With just $5 we could save a life and provide clean drinking water for a lifetime to someone in need.

This past year as we began thinking about our new brand and website, Liz and I talked a lot about what we could do to give back. How could we run our business with authentic gratitude and passionate hearts to give back and make a difference in the lives of others?  It was as simple as “$5 saves a life.” So, to go along with this week’s Amazing Life Manifesto theme of “Pay It Forward”, we are excited to announce that with each new amazing wedding couple we book we will be paying it forward and 10% of their photography collection costs will be donated to Thirst Relief International.

We have setup a fundraiser on the Thirst Relief International website titled “The Liz and Ryan Mission” fundraiser. You may view the fundraiser here and we would love it if you donated to Thirst Relief. Take a moment to think about it, $5 can save a life. What can you do today to save $5 and to save a life? This afternoon we will share where the first $10.00 donation in our fundraiser came from.

Images used in this post are courtesy of Thirst Relief International, www.thirstrelief.org

 

Extremely Grateful – Love and Hugs to All

Saying Thanks  //  5th September 2012

“Live your amazing life with authentic gratitude that creates a passionate heart to give back and make a difference in the lives of others.”

Our hearts are smiling.  Everyday we have so much to be thankful for, but today it seems like “so much” is such an understatement!  As we created our Amazing Life Manifesto, one of the three main themes became “Authentic Gratitude.”

Giving back and sharing our heartfelt gratitude is something we feel incredibly passionate about… so passionate that we created a category specifically for this topic on our site.  Whenever you see a symbol that we are calling our gratitude journal, you know we will be sharing our authentic hearts of praise, thanksgiving, and even encouraging ways for everyone to give back and spread the love.

Today we want to start by saying THANK YOU!  Thank you for taking the time to read this post.  Thank you for sharing in our dreams and encouraging us along the way.  Thank you for leaving comments on our site and posting on facebook, twitter, instagram, Pinterest, etc.  Thank you for dreaming along with us and believing in your own amazing life!

Whenever we hear our clients, friends, and family say they have been following along on our blog (or “stalk us”  haha) we seriously do a little dance inside because we know we are one step closer to living our dreams and inspiring other people!  THANK YOU for being amazing encouragers in our life!  We hope we are able to do the same for you!