The Blueprint by Andrea Fenise

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending a focus group hosted by Andrea Fenise, Owner and Creative Director of Style Junkie and Andrea Fenise Lifestyle Design Group.  This was the second edition of her Blueprint series, designed to help women put their best fashion foot forward.  May I also mention that she stated the attendees made her job that night so easy, as we were all already quite fashionable.

Andrea opened the intimate gathering by sharing the vision of the Blueprint and my heart fluttered at the thought of how this young, African-American, single mother has decided to create the life and future that she wants.  I truly admire Andrea and am pleased to have had the pleasure to collab with her on a few projects.

I invited a good friend, Shyretta, who is also one of Andrea’s sorors, so I knew she would enjoy.  We work within the same suite of offices , which you think would give us ample time to connect.  Yet with us both being so busy on a daily (she’s an attorney), we rarely talk.  But when we do, it’s usually about the challenges of running a business (or practice in her case) and being single, sprinkled with our hopes of one day not being single…ya feel me.  She and I also grew up at the same church which was big on knowing your Bible, so quite naturally and inevitably, we end many of our talks with a Bible story and its application to our lives!  Yes, that excites me because if you’re a Christian, you need someone with whom you can connect that walks a path similar to yours AND is strong and steadfast in his/her faith.

There was a wide array of success driven women in attendance including another attorney, a professional singer, a couple of architects, a jewelry designer, professional model and professional singer and a woman after my own heart, a wardrobe designer!  The best part about it was that all of us owned businesses.  How refreshing is that!  

After the event, Shyretta and I admired  the visually stimulating offices of Emerge Memphis located in Downtown Memphis where the event was held.  So can you imagine how inspired we were after leaving. 

Now meet these ever so fabulous women and I don't have their cards with me as I type this post.  I'll formally introduce them later, for now just enjoy their awesomeness ..a word used frequently by my fifth grader and her classmates.

 I didn't get myself in any of the pics, but you can check out more on Andrea's blog at www.andreafenise.com.  By the way, Andrea's in the middle with the gray and raspberry colored heels.

I do want to leave you with a pic of me with my new obsession, a scarf tied as a bow!  Been wearing this look about a week or so now.  It's fun, but it's time to retire it for now.  Ya'll know I have to switch my style!