Mojoy

STRETCHINGand GROWINGandCRAFTING...

OH MY!

Hello, fellow MoJoy followers!  My name is Chrissie Autin - and I'm up first for the personal experience blogging we'll be doing the next few days....Sit back, relax, and ENJOY my journey!  

I emailed Melanie a few weeks before the retreat - only after going back and forth in my mind on whether or not I should go......I'm the busy mom (like many of you, I'm sure!) and, a weekend AWAY??  With no kids or husband?  Do people even DO THAT anymore?!?  

Although I'm not a "crafter" (or anything that even remotely resembles a "crafter"), my eyes and attention were immediately drawn to the John Maxwell portion of the retreat.  I am very interested in personal growth - and growing my new wedding planning business.  So, I decided that no matter what came up that weekend, I would figure it out because I was GOING to that retreat!

I arrived at the BAH (and there's really no other way to describe it....it was the most awesome house I've ever been in.  You can easily tell that each and every aspect of it was carefully planned out.  It's truly a masterpiece!) and finally met MO!  I've "known" her for YEARS but, this was the first time we had formally met.  She did not disappoint.  Her personality is just as big and contagious as you would imagine it to be.  The girl has TALENT! 

Once everyone arrived and we all introduced ourselves, we quickly got started on what was to be a whirlwind of a weekend.  Our first order of business was to make the journals that Mo had specifically made for the retreat.  We picked out an empty journal and began filling the pages with things such as our strengths (from the  Strength Test we took before we got there), cute Pinterest quotes, and inspirational sayings.  This book ended up being a vital part of the weekend and is one of the things I treasure most.

This is Mo helping out with some hole punching for the journals!  :)

 

 



Ever so often, while we were finishing up a craft, Mo would have "A Moment with John Maxwell" (well, that's what I called it! :) )   Mo introduced several of the 'laws' from the book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth.  Each and every session was insightful and really made me think about where I am in life and where I need to be.  And what I need to be doing to get there. 

 



After getting our journals together, we were giving a list of colors and their "meanings".  We had to choose a color based on an area of our lives we wanted to work on.  I chose green for GROWTH.  Once our color was chosen,  we made these cool talisman necklaces - highlighting our color of choice.  

This is some note taking during the one of the John Maxwell parts.

 

 

The next few pictures show one of my favorite projects of the weekend.  We each got a canvas, some paint, and a painting tool.  Everyone started off with a different tool.  I started off with this handy dandy rubber scraper (I'm sure there's a more technical name for it!)  We all started with our own canvas.  We set the "tone" for our canvases and then had to pass them on to another person with another tool.  Very cool. 

Being the LSU Tiger fan that I am - I started my canvas off with some pretty cool purple and gold scrapes - hoping everyone else would get my vibe and follow my lead!  :)

 

This was a stressful project for me!  I was responsible for furthering the beauty of someone else's canvas......Talk about PRESSURE!!

Here's Jennifer giving me 'a look'.....  HA!!

 

 

And in steps Miss Alabama.....Do you see what she has in her hands?!?  The dreaded ALABAMA RED......Yes - she defaced my beautiful purple and gold masterpiece with red!  No worries - I still hadn't had my turn at her's!  :)



Here I am - with Nena Beth's (aka Alabama) painting.......hmmmmmm.......

Just what her painting needed - some cute purple & gold circles!  :)

At the end, Mo added her special touch to each of them and made everything jive.  They turned out AWESOME!  It was a really neat project.

Saturday night we decided to get all dressed up and hit the town!  We ended up at The Warehouse - a local favorite.  Good times, good food, & good fellowship!

Sunday morning we got up, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed out to the cottage to finish up the John Maxwell part of the retreat.  This was my absolute favorite time.  During this session, we learned about the Law of the Rubber Band.  It was my "A-HA" moment of the weekend.  Where everything done during our time together came full circle for me.  The weekend was such a nice, relaxing, & renewing time!  

 

 

  I would highly, HIGHLY recommend that  EVERYONE participate in the MoJoy retreats.  I'm SO looking forward to Colorfinder 2.0. 

 A very special thanks to Melanie for being the hostess with the mostess!  Also to her awesome husband, Todd.  Although we saw very little of him, his servant's heart was at work this weekend!  

 

 

Some of my favorite projects from the weekend!

 

 

I had the pleasure of taking some of our out of town guests by The Duck Dynasty building before they left town!!

 

Thanks for letting me share!