Goat Hill Hike

After a long week of work, sitting my bum for longer than what I'm used to (yes hard to imagine since I spend anyways ALOT of time in front of the computer), I told Geoff that I needed to get out and about. Alpie was 

excited about this idea.

We decided to check out Goat Hill, which is all the way on the East End of St. Croix, almost at Point Udall. It used to be a road, and has now become completely overgrown. I recommend doing this hike on an overcast day or at 6am in the morning, NOT at 2pm in the afternoon in the burning hot sun. Sure, it made for nice photos but all three of us were sweated through entirely by the time we were 10mins into it. 

The views though? WELL worth the grueling hike!

Views of Buck Island on the way up

Haha look how BIG Alpie looks here :-)

Looking out over the northern half of St. Croix

Beautiful Buck Island

Everyone deserves a break, dont they?!

"I'm the Queen of the World!"

New job!

Two days down at the new job and all is going very well... this definitely confirms the reason just why I left my previous position. Its so nice to work in a successful establishment where not only staff, but management appreciate me and the hard work that I put into all of my duties. Its nice not be expected to do things outside of my job description, but highly praised when I do.

I'm not a needy person, but a little bit of acclamation and encouragement goes a very long way in keeping an employee happy and motivated to help and work.

A day off today and I'm being spoiled rotten by my friends (and ex-coworkers).. one is treating me for lunch at a beautiful restaurant downtown, and another is taking me out for a cocktail hour with the girls! 

Life does have its way of turning around sometimes...

Watching the new crops grow :-)

A couple of days ago, our landlords planted some new crops in the garden - soon we'll have more eggplant, tomato and bok choy that we'll know what to do with!
A lazy Sunday, with both Geoff and I studying, I let Alpie out to roam a little... when I found her she was in pure bliss, watching the new vegetables grow :-)

Q is for Quiana

Last Saturday whilst doing the video shoot, I met a beautiful young woman named Quiana, who is a well-known photographer on island. We got chatting about the ins and outs of weddings, events and starting our own business (mind you, she's had her business for years and is doing very well for herself) and I was asking her about whether she knew of any work going.
It was the biggest compliment to hear her ask me, whether I would be interested in working with her ! This week has been jam-packed full of meetings with clients, potential clients and friends but not yet a business associate so we met this afternoon for a long discussion about her new projects and how mine could tie into that.  Stay tuned... I will be posting the first of many more Quiana/Michelle projects within the next few weeks...


In the meantime, check out her collection at http://www.qstudiovi.com/index2.php#/home/
or http://www.facebook.com/QStudioLLC?sk=wall

Things are looking up!

This evening I met with an amazing born-entrepreneurial woman who owns and manages a very successful business on St. Croix. We had a brief meeting earlier this week to discuss just general opportunities on island and she was even open and trusting enough to give me names of a few people to "stay away from". She said at the time, there wasnt anything she could offer me, as much as she would've liked to.


This morning, less than 48 hours later, I received a phonecall from her to say that she had done some brainstorming and wanted to meet again. This "lets-throw-around-some-ideas" turned into a 3-hour, professional business meeting together with her partner... I guess the first encounter with her earlier this week had really been a pre-interview and although she had said there had been nothing she could offer me, had decided after our chat that she wanted to create a position for me! This really moved me and gave me a glimmer of hope that my talents, skills and personality are being recognized in a very positive light by professionals.

More Garden Splendors..

I'm thinking a Caprese salad for lunch today, with fresh mozzarella and homegrown tomato and basil....delizioso!

A Valued Life...

Whilst I'm going through a bit of a rocky patch, these quotes seem to be popping up everywhere, from different people as though this is a time of my life where I am supposed to be hearing them, and reflecting on them. 

I love this one.

A Valued Life

Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

Don't destroy or humiliate people because Karma will do it's job.

In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

Don't judge people by their relatives.

Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

Free yourself from people that don't value your presence.

When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

Spend significant time to care for your soul, not just your looks.

Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.

When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

Spend some time alone. Without your phone, magazine, laptop or ipod.

Let go of the parts of life you honestly don't want.

Thoughts for the Day...

"The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find 
herself in places no one has ever been before." - Albert Einstein

Portfolio...Part 1

Sommer Sibilly, a massage and reiki therapist on island asked me to design her business card.. she had specified only to me that she wanted something to do with chakras, spirituality and energy, so the first thing I had to do was research what all of that even was! I've realized that designing people's business cards is actually a very educational experience, as I'm learning a lot about different things and jobs as I research each one.

I came up with this design below, which I've gotten an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from already. I cant wait to get it printed!

Front:

                                                                           

                                                                             Back:

And here it is......

Our video shoot from today! Hopefully it will reach many and help people to realise that no matter what your race, religion, sexual orientation, skin color or anything else, we are all one and should treat eachother respectfully!

Can u spot me ? :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POfjvqrO2QY&feature=share

Sayonara Carambola... and hello world!

On Thursday the 14th, I quit my job at the Spa at Carambola...finally. As many of you know, tension had been building up in the circus (aka work), which hadnt made for a comfortable working environment for many of the Spa employees. Sure, the job offered me an opportunity to grow for a while, and make some contacts but due to poor management I reached a point where I was stuck and things turned from bad to worse very quickly.

Since I quit, which has only been three days, I have felt an enormous weight lifted from my shoulders, and nothing but the feeling of freedom and happiness and realising that all the Spa was a starting point for me, and that the management will realise at some point the mistake they have made with treating the actual hard workers, and loyal employees like prison inmates.

Job prospects have been tumbling towards me, and I've met more people in the last two days than I have in the last year - literally! Just yesterday I had already two meetings, with one ending in a possibility of re-opening another Spa on island, and the other meeting being more than I could ever ask for at this point - a Spotlightstx client needing ongoing marketing help, which of whom she has already referred me to another company in Christiansted to help with theirs!

Last night I was offered to star in a music video by Lady Gaga, which is soon to be broadcasted on youtube, local television and schools in the US Virgin Islands. It was an amazing experience and a true honor to work with such talented people and at the same time be able to help towards such an important cause (this video was made to bring awareness to the severity of bullying).

I do believe in blessings in disguises. This is well and truly one of those.

(This pic is one of me and some of the girls with that I worked on set with today - the actual video clip is still to come...)

Peppers, peppers everywhere!

Our peppers are taking off like crazy after this weeks worth of rain! We've been sprouting bell peppers lately, but we were very suprised to see the habanero plant had grown two little peppers during the week!

So what to do with these hot little things now? Chorizo and cream cheese stuffed chicken breasts, wrapped in bacon and served with pasta in a tomato-pepper-habenero sauce....delicious!

If anyone would like the recipe, please email or Facebook me - I can assure you that you wont be let down!

Business Licence

The last couple of weeks I've looked into the steps to applying for a business licence.. I havent even really begun and its already seeming like an absolute nightmare.

Have spoken with several different people, including professionals and even the DLCA (Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs) and everyone is telling me conflicting things... for some reason I need to get a certificate verifying that my office space (i.e. HOME) has had a fire inspection and is safe...even though I will not be bringing clients through home.

The usual procedure of getting a background check and applying for a tradename seem like all reasonable requests but I've heard this entire process can take up to FOUR months! Please someone organise some champagne to pop once this is all over and done with, I think I may need it!

WTJX Channel 12 Golf Tournament

Yesterday was the big day - WTJX Channel 12 first annual Golf Tournament at Carambola Golf Course and we featured in it! It ended up being a huge success and we are now discussing possibly being in the next one.

Into the Wild...

Yesterday we decided to take the opportunity of finally having a clear, sunny day to do the hike to the waterfalls in Fredericksted that we'd heard so much about.. 1 1/2 hours up and we still hadnt reached the top! It was a decent hike and VERY beautiful - see for yourself!

( Fresh noni, mango and passionfruit were available to snack on the whole way up the river!)

Oops, she found it!

Wagging her ears....?

Alpie began wagging her ears tonight... maybe she's forgotten where her tail is?

4th of July Celebrations

This year there were no fireworks for us as the company that usually puts them on in St. Croix lost his license.. however we surely made up for it, celebrating with new friends and a delicious feast of food!

Rainy Day Creations...

Rain, rain, go away... well actually its kind of nice sometimes as the mind becomes more creative and the tummy, of course hungry!

It had been ages since we had made real, fresh healthy Mexican food with homemade salsa and marinade so guess what we did today?

2nd Anniversary

Just wanted to say a big thank you to all our family for helping make our second anniversary memorable! We received gifts and wishes and even had a beautiful dinner overlooking the ocean with a nice bottle of Italian red thanks to you!

Also - just an update on my business.. for those of you that dont yet know, I've decided to start flying solo and pursue my dreams of creativity, events, tourism and marketing and have teamed up with an amazing woman named Wendy who has lots of experience and many contacts on island.

We've developed: Spotlight St. Croix, or Spotlightstx for short. ("We help put YOUR business in the Spotlight!")

Yesterday we received our work email addresses and domain name for a website that is now officially ours! Its not up and running yet, until we can create a little portfolio of our work, and most importantly - have our business licence... that will be taken care of next week.. wish us luck!