CCI Studios Blog Post - Personal Brand

This week I contributed to our team blog at work, "Can we kick it?".  I invite you to check out my blog post, "Personal Brand", as well as the other blogs from members of the CCI Studios team.

I love the people that I work with and our blog will give you a glimpse into the unique culture I have the honour of being a part of.

Thank you for reading,

Audrey 

I Want An Egg Hunt!

I had a great long Easter weekend this year!  I spent the whole weekend with my family.  This will probably be one of many blogs I write over the next fews months that have to do with family as I will be spending a lot of time with them.

I have three weddings this summer that are all on either mine, or Tyler's side of the family.  Weddings will also be something I will be posting about as I will be attending six in total this Spring/Summer season.  These events themselves and the events leading up to the weddings, will be providing me with lots of excuses to be with family.

Enough with my sidetrack, back to Easter.  There were a few things that were particularly great.  My little sister Emily was home from Toronto for the weekend so we got to visit and celebrate her birthday and I got to see my favourite little person (my niece Marley) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  She is my favourite, and Tyler's favorite too!

Holiday's are particularly awesome now that she is in our lives because I now have an excuse to get excited about kid activities - like an Easter egg hunt!!!

On Thursday evening I went to the dollar store and stocked up on coloured eggs and chocolates. On  Friday I hid them in my backyard for Marley to find.  She needed some assistance but once she found out there was delicious chocolate inside the eggs, she was loving the egg hunt.  

We repeated the egg hunt on Sunday at Grandma's as well and by the end of the weekend my 1 1/2 year old niece had a new word, egg.

I also got an egg hunt on Easter weekend.  My husband knows I am a big kid so he hid a few eggs for me around our living room.  I didn't realize they were in plain view until I got mad at him for eating my cream egg.  He replied by telling me he had hid them so I could have an Easter egg hunt.  I left the shiny coloured eggs in the living room for the whole weekend, looking at them made me so happy.

What is your favourite part about family gatherings?

I Get The Blues

Once in a while I get a little blue. When this grey could is hanging over me, I feel like small things are difficult.  Getting out of bed, thinking about what I will face in my day, checking a chore of my to do list, these are all impossible feets when I feel down.

I hate feeling like this because I am normally a very energetic person and have so many things in my life to be happy and excited about.  Even when I tell myself this, there is no stopping these emotions except to wait it out by hiding or push through it.  I often choose to push through it but sometimes feel this is ineffective.  I think I need to find the root of my sadness and not disregard it as if it doesn't exist.  I think I try to ignore its existence though because people may find it difficult to understand why I (happy go lucky, energetic, positive Heather) feel like being a negative Nancy every once in awhile. Which brings me to the really horrible part of my blues, that I feel very alone.

I decided to write about this in my blog for a few reasons.  The last few days have been difficult and I do have a hard time articulating these feelings to friends and family so I thought writing it out would be easier.  The second reason for sharing these feelings, is that I recently read a blog post by a young woman who shared a very personal story about herself and this made me realize that until now I have not shared all angels of myself.  If I am serious about my blog and letting people get to know me (which I am) this is a very real side of my personality and I should share it.  She inspired me to write about these feelings I have been suffering with over the past few days.

I feel alone when I have the blues and I wonder if others do when they have the blues.  Me sharing an experience may help someone to relate and not feel isolated. It's interesting that as soon as I write things down and get them out of my head, they begin to leave me alone.  I am feeling better already. I have to say that writing this blog has been a therapeutic experience for me at times.  

 Do you ever get the blues and what do you do to cure them?

Guest Blogger - Meghan aka My Best Friend

Over the past few months Meghan has been working towards a big move.  We have had many discussions about the pros and cons of this move and the risks that existed before she officially was accepted to school.  I asked Meghan to write about this experience so I could share it on my blog.  Meghan, thank you for always sharing your heart with me and now being a part of my blog.  I look forward to weekend getaways to Hamilton.

Its funny that its so easy to talk about experiences that you have, and things happening in your life-but then the moment you are asked to write down your thoughts it becomes harder then it sounds.

I recently made a big decision in my life-to go back to school…again. I have been in school twice (the first time for hospitality and tourism) and most recently to be an RPN. While completing my program-I realized that I had found my calling-to be a nurse. I love it so much that when I finished my 2 year program, I decided that I may want to go back for further education. The decision to go back to school meant that I would be leaving the only city I have ever really known.

The decision to go back to school itself was an easy one. I now know what I want to achieve in my career and am fully ready to pursue it. However it wasn’t all easy. This decision means leaving my family and friends behind.

As I have “grown up” I have realized that it gets harder and harder to make time to see the people that matter most to you-and the fact that I am now living 2 hours away from “home” doesn’t make it easier. I have also realized that relationships take work. Now that I am living in a new city, I need to remember to take time to call those I love. There is never a day that goes by that I don’t think of my family and friends, and it really does only take a minute to call and say hi.

I need to embrace this experience-take it all in. Enjoy it, work hard, and don’t forget who support me along the way. I was once feeling sadness and anxiety about relationships I have with people and how they may change when I don’t live so close. Now I am feeling excited about it. I have realized that being a good daughter, sister, or friend doesn’t mean talking to people on a day to day basis-its about enjoying every minute that you talk to them and get to spend with them.

Now I just get to look forward to different things-exploring a new city so that I can find all the best places to show everyone when they come to visit. I have only been living here for a week, and have already discovered so many awesome places! (Including a really good mall!) I am enjoying this time so much! Getting to spend time with my boyfriend, and organizing my new apartment-which I absolutely love.

I am looking forward to the next 3 years of my life to gain independence and follow my dreams-and I am going to embrace the ups and downs that may come with it.

An Unspoken Speech

I was nominated for a Customer Service award through The Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce a few months ago and the awards were handed out at a ceremony on Friday night.  

The nomination came as a complete surprise, it was a huge honour to just be nominated.  The nominations are anonymous but on Friday night I found out who nominated me.  I knew it was one of my clients who had probably nominated me but I wasn't sure which one.  It was of course one of my favourites, Colleen from Victim Services.  

Colleen is a very hard working woman herself and always putting others first.  For someone with her level of work ethics to nominate me for this award is even more of an honour.

Work has been crazy lately so I haven't given too much thought to the awards, just trying to figure out what I would ware.  On the way home from work on Friday in my car at 4pm I decided I should probably have something little prepared in terms of a speech, just in case I do win.

I did not win.  So what I did want to say is this: I work with amazing people.  People who are passionate about what they do, intelligent and creative.  Because of their willingness and ability to share their knowledge with me, we (CCI Studios) have the ability to provide our clients with unique marketing solutions.

Our clients also live their lives with great levels of passion.  The fact that they are willing to let us be a part of their organizations and businesses (endeavours of which I am sure they have poured time, tears and sweat into) is a huge honour.  Our clients are amazing people, they are the reason we can come to work everyday and keep our doors open, so thank you to them.

The award evening was great.  My date (my husband) was handsome, charming and so supportive.  When I was nervous at the beginning of the night he made me laugh and at the end after not winning, he let me know how proud he was of me anyways.

The entertainment was fabulous!  A Beatles tribute band played all the favourites so we were able to sign along.

My boss took home the award for Citizen of the Year!!!  Pretty amazing.  He is so deserving of this award, all of his efforts have others best interest in mind and he works tirelessly every day to make our community a better place.

All in all it was an adrenaline filled evening.  I am so proud to be a member of CCI Studios and Friday night was a night for our entire team to be proud.  

I am glad I have this blog where I can share things I may not have an opportunity to otherwise.