Southern Living Photo Shoot

Go to Southern Living Magazine's site or see the November issue for two articles where I got to be a "super model"! Ha

I am the blue in the background behind the mugs in our kitchen
and the VANNA HANDS in this article about great gift ideas for the garden.

Also shown are some shots of Van and Missy Nevill Crawford doing some styling for an upcoming shoot in the spring around our pool.

Everything about what goes into the magazines that we read goes through such an extensive process, with the first spark being an idea around a conference table and growing into a finished "ah ha!" moment on a bright sunny day. It takes a huge team of professionals to pull it all off.

See the site at www.southernliving.comand lots of GREAT articles and ideas.

Photos shown from November issue:
Van Chaplin / styling Lisa Powell Bailey, Bridget Sellers

The Butterfly Effect of Love by Allison Adams

Science has shown the butterfly effect to engage 

with the first movement of any form of matter- including people.

            ~from Andy Andrews book The Butterfly Effect

            a gift for the families who attended the wedding

A few years ago, a boy was too busy to make it out for a blind date with a girl.

After talking to her long distance by chat, text, phone, he decided he had to see her.  Convincing his parents who were on their way to the town where she lived to drop him off at her house for the weekend, he arrived at her doorstep, a sleeping bag and pillow in hand. 

I don’t recall the exact way it was told at the Rehearsal Dinner but I think it went down like this.  As he stood there, a surprise to this girl and her college room mates, he waved to his parents over his shoulder with a huge grin, “This is Lauren. I am going to meet her parents this weekend, then another weekend you are going to get to know her and some day we are going to be married!”

They dated a couple of years and the celebration of their lives together was this weekend in Rosemary Beach, Florida.

My husband and two daughters (7 and 17) followed the flutter of love set forth in their college days and headed to Rosemary beach for their wedding.  Getting to know his family, in the brief moments we had around them, was something magical. To meet Will you can only grin from ear to ear. I don’t recall seeing him not smiling, and hugging people, and sticking his arm out to say “I’m Will!” to anyone and everyone he saw.

Toasts from their friends were all upbeat, magical, kind, genuinely all about the magic of their love.  The preacher who married them had been waiting for this day since he was a child. His humor and pure joy for the occasion sent waves of chuckles throughout the weekend.

A toast was made by an elderly couple, briefly strangers, who met Will on an airplane on his way back from Argentina where he works as a hunting guide.

“I’m getting married,” he told them.

The gentleman whom I would guess is in his seventies gleamed as he and his wife stood to toast Will.  “This boy whom I met for only hours but felt like I knew him my whole life told me about Lauren on the ride home. It sounded like such a magical union. “

Will’s answer was, “You should come. I’ll send you a ticket!”

And that is how the little northern couple too were sucked up into the love current started back in college by a boy with a big heart and a girl who won it with her brains, beauty and love of hunting.

And everywhere we were, stories of Will and Lauren drifted across the wind. Her college friends from Rhodes, her roommates from Auburn, and some from Graduate School at Vanderbilt all meshed together in a tail wind of excitement spurred by the birth of a little girl whose daddy taught her how to hunt and fish and her mama who loved to shop with her and ski and do all the things boys like for girls to do with them while looking “fabulous”.

While her parents are no longer married, the love in her heart and the love they have for her brought them to a moment where they could stand together, for her, with her.  The toast Carson made was not about him…but how “your mother and I feel about the blessing that you are”.

Love is the ultimate goal in life. It is the most important of all of the messages that God left for us here on earth.

The couple didn’t say “we are in love”. 

They ARE love. Their eyes showed it, their hugs showed it. There was no need for words.

In a time when the world seems tiny and meaningless for so many as it crumbles around us and hate rises up, we are reminded on a beach in a small town of Rosemary that there are great new beginnings being formed. There are messages floating along the sands and waves shouting out to perhaps a couple who was there who re-kindled a stale relationship, or a stranger who watched from beyond the dunes who dreamed of one day having such a blessed marriage.

Yes, there were butterfly effects going on all around us in Rosemary.

My seven year old watched it all.  Perhaps the effect she sees will be with her forever as she aspires for true love.  She was so excited to help hand out the rosemary that would shower the bride and groom  as they rolled off in their antique thunderbird convertible. Rosemary symbolizes love, remembrance, friendship and truth ~ something they will take into a new life, a new world, where laced into an even more powerful strand, I have no doubt that they will send tornadoes of hope across the world.

I can feel them now in Belize~ landing on a soft beach, speaking of love, toasting to their future, perhaps sparking a small wave, a breeze of what is to come across the planet where we are, just as we are soaking in and simply remembering the first wave.

Cheers and congratulations to you for touching my life and reminding me how precious my sweet husband is and how blessed I am with my children.

The greatest of these….is love.  Thanks for sharing yours!

Allison Adams

www.allisonpadams.com

SOCIAL MEDIA THE HAPPYMESS WAY

The past month I have been a part of the happYmess quest to get all of my media frenzy in order. I am a habitual blogger, website starter, facebook poster, frequent frenzy tweeter and Mitzi Jane Media has provided me with so much happYmess to explore that my head might just bust open!

MJM STRENGTH Social Media Conference for Small Business 
has been the facilitator for area experts in every genre of Social Media.

Follow her on Facebook to get highlights and find when the next conference will occur!

As for now, I am pecking away doing a bit of happYmess housekeeping. Here are a few of the baby steps I have achieved this week:

Began the happYmessLIFE BLOG (still in progress...thanks for checking in with me)

Began the happYmessLIFE facebook page

Made a notebook grid of all of my "identities" and sites that I have scattered across the world wide web with columns to connect the many emails to the entity with which they speak to one another. 

(YES I should simplify..but one of those email addresses I have had since I was in college...perhaps I am a virtual junkie!)

Updated my Linked In Account...sorry all of you who just use Linked In...I still don't get it..perhaps because most of you are on the "morning cycle". 

I have embraced my creative inner clock..thus Linked In is not working too well for me!

Pinterest...I have formed a happYmess pinterest account and plan to privitize my personal account in many areas....until the workshop I had no idea it was for followings...I thought I was using it to stash great ideas for me to use only!   Don't be buying up the horses I have pinned! It is my goal to own a flock of them!  a herd of them....

I have updated my bloGSSSSSS....and thought long and hard about where to go from here. We'll see about that.

I have updated my new website that I build myself.....which is FLASH so web crawlers do not find it...but it was easy...free  from WIX.com and I love the graphics.  SOOOOO..re-evaluating that.

www.allisonpadams.com

Please check it out and give me feedback!  It was a hair wrenching project where I had goals to finish it in my journal a year ago today!  I arrived at the conference and had my doors blown by the fact that WORDPRESS is THE way to go...by the way...it and blogger are in with GOOGLE. Thus the ease in searches.
WHO KNEW?  Wish I had a year ago! 

And TWITTER....wow...the value of the conference went through the roof when I learned about a little ap I can add to my phone and IPAD MINI to post and schedule tweets called  HOOTSuite! Thanks to Julie Brannon with TELP Media I have been humming the little lollypop song associated with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang all day....It is a life saver if you are a multiple personality media person like myself!

And THANK YOU to Rachel Callahan, blogger of graspingforobjectivity.com  and active blogger leader of alabamabloggers.com ,who made me feel like a creative spirit again instead of a whistle in a square business hole. The session before was the technical stuff I love to know but hate to do~ google analytics, search engine optimization.  She freed me to blog on what I love in random order, all with handy bars at the top so the reader can pick what they want instead of wading. She is still telling me that Wordpress is the best way to achieve that. I'll be sifting that through my brain after I get back from vacation next week. But so far....Wordpress keeps wrestling me to the ground!

Don't get me wrong Jerry Brown (with InfoMedia), your information was invaluable....it just had my creative self in a tail-spin for a day or two. 

There happens to be ONE MORE SESSION!  

On Monday night, April 29 at 5:30 we will wrap up the month with Maximizing Your Online Productivity with Emily Lowery and the Top Ten Take Aways for Small Businesses with seminar maestro Mitzi Eaker.

IF YOU ARE CURIOUS, IT IS NOT TOO LATE....

Contact Mitzi at the link for MJM STRENGTH Conference to see how you can be a fly on the wall to catch the information buzzing out on 280!  She has a one time admission price under $40 bucks.

You won't be disappointed! If for any other reason than to GET ON THE LIST TO SIGN UP FOR THE NEXT ONE~

Hoping to MAKE MORE SENSE TO MY FOLLOWERS (because you know I usually, truthfully just write for myself!)

 about music, writing, art, fashion fun, fluff! design ideas and all that my life leads me to! I love to share....I love to write....I was born to BLOG!

Thanks Mitzi for turning my sprinkler into a smooth flowing water hose...at least that is the GOAL :)

Blessings!

Allison Adams

Visit her blog for highlights. 

This photo from MJM Social Media Conference by Mitzi Jane Media

this post is cross posted on www.happYmessLIFE.blogspot.com

artists of the month of MARCH at ROJO Birmingham

Please join us on Thursday, March 7 at 6 PM at 

ROJO        

www.rojobirmingham.com

for the exhibition kickoff for the show entitled

HEART HOPE AND HOME 

which will feature vibrant artwork on canvas by 

Allison Puccetti Adams  

(www.allisonpadams.com)

and 

Kristin Drew Vickers   

(www.facebook.com/kristindrewvickersart)

20% of all artwork sales during the entire month will go to The Heart Gallery of Alabama, 

which focuses on highlighting the nearly 300 children yearning for adoption across Alabama.

Enjoy live music performed from 6-8 by Brent and Shelton McCollough

www.facebook.com/BrentMcColloughStudios

Prints will be available of the entitled work, “Embrace for Life” by Allison Adams

for $30.00 to benefit THE HEART GALLERY OF ALABAMA. (60% of price goes directly to the Heart Gallery)  

Come out and enjoy good fun, purchase some ART WITH HEART or just learn more about THE HEART GALLERY.

Register for a free painting to be given away!

If you are a family who has been changed by adoption we would LOVE to have you share your story.  At around 8 PM we will open the mic to individuals who want to share their HEARTS.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AT 

 kristindrewvickersart and allisonpadamsartist

we will announce some free giveaways between now and the end of march

For more information contact Allison Adams at 205-914-2400 or visit www.allisonpadams.com

We hope you will spread the love and share this message with friends and family~

Visit the HEART GALLERY WEBSITE to see actual photos of the children awaiting families 

like yours, to find where their next exhibit of photographs will be located or to donate directly. 

NEW YEAR ~ NEW goals to YOU

Every year I love to pull out my journals from the year before
 (yes, there are usually two or more of them).

I am a journaling junkee!

This year I created a new way to capture my journaling and my calendar in one place.
The happYmess Journal documents my todays while I plan my tomorrows.

I also LOVE the SARK's Journal and Playbook! I have one from 1996, one from 2000 and one from 2006. While many of the goals, scribbles and thoughts are similar, they still evolve.

www.planetsark.com

WHAT ARE YOU DREAMING TO DO DIFFERENTLY IN 2013?

WHAT ARE YOU LOVING THAT YOU WANT MORE OF IN 2013?

After all, we all made it through the doom and gloom of the end of the world at the end of 2012!

CELEBRATE THAT!

Last year was the year for my painting evolution. I took some great workshops through local and regional outlets.

@pauljackson @alabamaartsupply  @kellienewsom @nancunningham  @forstallartcenter
(even google evolving where these are supposed to link to these artists~ who knows! but hey, I am up for big changes and new adventures, even if on my blog!

In 2013 I explored @seejanewrite the blog a day for 30 days and made it with a few "multi blogs" along the way! Thanks @javaciabowers  @seejanetweet

SET A GOAL, ANY GOAL AND SEE WHERE IT LEADS YOU!
It doesn't have to be life changing! Just something to help you stretch and grow!

Here is a GREAT one!
Anyone with a camera on their phone can do it!  And be sure to tweet it to me
at  #artallie on Twitter!

Source: positivelypresent.com via Inger-Marie on Pinterest

This is the link to the DAILY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

TODAY! DAY ONE!  A FAVORITE! FOOD

AND I LEAVE YOU WITH SCENES FROM BARTON G RESTAURANT IN MAIMI BEACH!

@bartong

a smoking drink

cotton candy!

menu pad....

http://bartongtherestaurant.com/experience/

surf and turf~ of monumental proportions

Tuna~ 

and great friends

which is what food is all about

lobster poptarts~ 

and my seven year old's favorite~

the chocolate treasure chest with graham cracker "sand"

Treasures like this are all over the world. GO EXPLORE them~

Barton G was the personal chef for Versace. Next time you go to Miami
find this quaint restaurant tucked on a side street among gardens and find a corner table beneath the twinkling lights in the trees.

Or better yet, stay in tonight and get creative!  Find a bucket and fill it with ice cream, candy bars and top it with POP ROCKS!  Your kids will love you for it!

Blessings to CREATIVE LIVING EVERY DAY in 2013~

Allison Adams
www.allisonpadams.com

ABDUCTED: Elf answering to ELF-is. Last seen 2011

OK ALL YOU CLEVER ELVES, who started your escapades early in November.

Do you THINK we don't hear about all of the wonderful mischief you have concocted?

Your pranks are filling up Pinterest, your "children" are bragging at school.

http://pinterest.com/bgall/christmas-elf-on-a-shelf/

Meanwhile, I am scrambling around in all of the buckets in my garage for any sign of you.
Panic is setting in as I am remembering that you were last spotted
in Colorado last year as we spent the week out there....
At least I am thinking you graced our presence there!

but I really am not sure.

And I am remembering you weren't that REGULAR easy to find ELF-is
(the name my daughter continues to call you, in her letters, on notes by her bed)....

So I ask, WHY on a holiday FILLED with plenty to do,
do we pack on another thing to coordinate?

Yes I know, he does it all himself! But hey! He DOES NOT CLEAN UP!

Parents need the ELF THAT DOES GOOD DEEDS AROUND THE HOUSE
fueled by KIDS WITH HUGE HEARTS AND APPRECIATION for
what PARENTS do!

And at Christmas, the time we should be remembering Jesus,
we have a TREE to get and decorate (I have to say it is my favorite thing!)

Does the Christmas tree have anything to do with Jesus?

And then there is that dude, Santa~
who really has little to do with the reason for the season~
and possibly evolved from Father Christmas riding a goat!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus

But hey! real or not, he is everywhere! even in my brownies!

and NOW A DANG ELF that eats my boxes and spills cereal,
who is missed because he is NOT destroying the laundry room,
not squirting toothpaste everywhere, not playing in the potty.

So I thought~ should I dig into the stories behind these things?

Come to find out~ as A LOVER OF THE BROWN LIQUID THAT CLOGS
MY ARTERIES~  COCA COLA is behind the creation of the
American SANTA CLAUSE.

http://robwrite.hubpages.com/hub/The-Real-Story-Behind-SANTA-CLAUS

and the Christmas Tree?

I have to say this link is written by a biblical scholar, a bit dry in tone but hey!
Who KNEW the tree's message was so varied and so powerful?

The evergreen, that withstood the winter when a child was born in a manger.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/thepastinthepresent/storybehind/whychristmastrees.html


The presents beneath are another issue~ isn't the GIFT of LIFE and the gift of time
with family, LIKE ON THANKSGIVING ~ ENOUGH?

http://www.thelaboroflove.com/articles/why-do-we-give-gifts-at-christmas

As I wrap up this blog post with all of the new knowledge I have about this season
we call Christmas Time~
I am relieved that as new events evolve, new traditions are introduced,
I am reminded that

the most special reason for this season is LOVE~ the GREATEST gift of all...

and with that, the satisfaction of family member's joy as
they open their gifts, as they sip hot cocoa beneath a beautifully decorated tree filled with
hundreds of little mementos that remind us of great times together,
of the rare beautifully thought out cards we still receive from friends near and far,
of the angel trees with wishes still being fulfilled, of the churches singing praises
to our king.

We anticipate the giggles when they open the fridge to find
 (hopefully by FRIDAY according to my Amazon.com elf package tracking!)
not only that Christopher Lumpkis or POPKINS
or whatever version of the ELF that we can't find LOCALLY

but his new friend (YES THERE IS A FEMALE ONE NOW)

CHANDA BELL!

based on her CREATOR.  (an author loves a good success story now~)

all cozied up in the cream cheese.

Move over Rudolph!
 Elf on the Shelf even has an event NEXT WEEK
so you can make him a HOUSE
DECEMBER 18 at the library in Crestline!

AND YES there are different KINDS...SOFT, HARD, DIFFERENT BOOKS
and only the children probably know the skinny on THAT~
http://www.elfontheshelf.com/AboutUs/TheTeam.aspx

http://www.elfontheshelf.com/en-us/home.aspx
http://www.imaginatives.com

CHEERS TO NEW TRADITIONS!
AND MAY THE BEST ELF MISCHIEF WIN!

Be sure to share your ELF-IS experiences with me! I would love to post some!

AND REMEMBER~ DECEMBER 25 IS ALL ABOUT ONE THING.....
Merry CHRISTmas!

The rest of the days! are all about the FUN!

And if you want to read a bit about that date, which is really NOT the
guaranteed day of Christ's birth,
find it here~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

I will say, according to history, CHRISTMAS IS A GIFT TO OUR ECONOMY~

Maybe the story like THE MIDDLE'S this week where we make gifts and
sit around and sing songs together is not a bad idea AFTER all...
no elf, no tree, no presents, no Christmas cards.

But then, THAT would just be ANOTHER DAY....

I think I will STICK WITH THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE!

Blessings to YOU and your family!

Allison Adams


And if you haven't gotten ENOUGH information~
here is a link to an alternative view on CHRISTMAS.
Don't let it cramp your CHRISTmas spirit.

http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm

CHRISTMAS GIVING

Christmas is my very favorite holiday.

There are so many things more important than the receiving of gifts.

For our blog a day assignment we were to add some pictures, perhaps relating to the holidays.

Here I provide a link to my many blogs and pages, all which have Christmas themes running through them.

www.facebook.com/fluffdesigners 
provides great ideas from pinterest and our own designs as we decorate client's homes for the
holidays.

We hope you will visit and get inspired!

A favorite is this video of my daughter reading my Christmas book
The 12 Days of Christmas Giving.

Hope you will snuggle up with a cocoa and some marshmallows and enjoy her reading
by the fire....she is seven.

Here I share a link to a source for remembering the reason for CHRISTmas and a tradition so that you might help your children and family understand.

It is from a fellow blogger's site. 25 Days of Scripture to help you remember the true meaning of Christmas.

THIS LINK WILL TAKE YOU TO PAGES YOU CAN PRINT AND CUT OUT:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yCHUG8GSA27D4i1qJ_GiY3fXhx0Xu7KOUDUx-pOHG1g/edit