Who rules the world? According to Southern Living Magazine (and Beyonce)- Girls.

Honored, humbled, giddy, grateful-- For so many reasons, aside from the obvious, I'm finding it impossible to articulate the below feature in an eloquent manner, so I'm going to defer to Haskell Harris, the inspiring woman who produced this new Southern Living column that will cover female entrepreneurs (!) across the South...

"The subject is one I hold close and my hope is that each month it will inspire and empower my fellow female creatives to go out and do what they love. And give readers great sources to feather their nests (obvi)." 

If you've read the Live Sparkly section of My Cup of Te, you'll know that I started this blog back in 2010, newly unemployed, before Society Social was even a thought, lost, confused, (like I said, flailing) and simultaneously hoping that writing about the things that inspire me would help me find a clear path back to a career that I love. It was scary, and so fun financially, but life's too short to not be doing what you love, whatever it may be! 

I'm incredibly honored and grateful to have been given the opportunity to stand (on tables) behind that powerful message, and of course to bring it back to my home state of North Carolina y'allll!

Also, can we give a standing ovation to the entire Southern Living team for putting a spotlight on such a positive message? 

p.s. Did I mention I literally sleep with this issue? Yes, in my bed. It has its own pillow. I am so excited. If y'all come over, I will give us each a table and a bottle of champers to dance on. And if you want more funny deats, here's a few behind the scenes from last October...

Matthew flew in a day early to the NC HQ to assess the situation. To my delight, he made the executive decision- PINK. My brother who also does all my Society Social photography (bless him) said, "You want to what to my studio?!" Our awesome friend, Elliot, volunteered his day off to come help us "build the set." Here's the two of them playing nice :) Couldn't have done it without the team.

The shoot lasted about 5 hours. It is actually really hard to smile and strike a different pose for 5 hours straight. There was a lot of "Am I doing this right? Are you sure? Did that look dumb? What if they don't like that?! Are my gums showing? I get really excited and smile too big for my own good and my gums show. Are they showing? Can you photoshop the mountain range on my forehead?"

 "You really want me to dance on the table? Lay down on the table? What?" Matthew instructed me to smile sweetly as "this particular pose and a serious face might make me look like a hooker." He made my sides hurt all day. He also knew when I needed more lip gloss, when my hair was doing a "weird, one big curl" thing, and exactly who to put on the speakers at exactly the right times. Bless.

That is Robbie Caponetto. The talented and entirely cool photographer behind the photo. He was the best cheerleader and made me feel confident and totally normal for dancing/laying around on my furniture designs all day. He is probably telling me that I am forgetting to breathe and then cleverly interjecting seemingly random questions about life, my family, all of which made me relax. I was on to you. Thank you:)

And finally last week, the night Alan and I saw it in print for the first time. I must've busted ear drums all across the Barnes and Noble Union Square. We bought all the copies... 

...then headed home for a simple celebration of 14.99 bubbly, instead of the normal 9.99 (ballers), Chinese take out, and a dance party to Fun's entire album. Alan, don't deny it.

As always, if you've made it this far, thank you for making it so fun to share. It really makes everything a million times more special :)