Many of you know this has been a difficult year for me. It’s time to pick up the pieces.

I’m sending a request to all my contacts:  Would you like to be included in my monthly Mary Kay email list? These will include skin care tips for women, men & teens, invitations to special events, and a Spotlight On Beauty product!

This month we have 2 Spotlight on Beauty products, allowing you to try either of these sets for 30% off the retail price.

Clear Proof, our new acne care regime (normally $45 for the set):  

The Clear Proof™ Acne System
uses a combination of salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide to attack the multiple factors that contribute to acne breakouts. Salicylic acid acts as an exfoliant to promote the easy removal of dead skin cells. It helps keep pores unclogged and reduce the build-up of P. acnes bacteria. P. acnes flourish when there’s a lack of oxygen, like in a clogged pore. Benzoyl Peroxide is an oxygen-releasing ingredient that kills bacteria. Together these powerhouse products work to clear up pimples fast!

&

MKMen® Advanced, our anti-aging men’s care line (normally $48 for the set):

MKMen® Advanced Facial Hydrator Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 30
firms the skin and reduces the appearance of fine lines. Hydrates for up
to 10 hours.  

MKMen^® Advanced Eye Cream dramatically minimizes the appearance
of fine lines and wrinkles, restoring the look of younger skin.

Send me your email to be included. (You can change your mind at any time.)
juliasutton@bydesign.net

Thank you for helping me rebuild my Mary Kay business, and reclaim my life.

Now, how can I help YOU?!

As some of you know, the Granite Mountain Hotshots impacted my family hard:  two of the nineteen fallen heroes were my nephews. The mothers, fathers, sisters, lovers, and friends of these men will never be the same. The beautiful grandmother lost two of her four grandchildren.

And yet, beauty was to be found. Prescott, Arizona, that wonderful hometown, rebounded with love and tears and support. Now, it is Orange County's turn ... Grant & Robert's family were from OC, and they had many friends here. This Saturday will be their SoCal memorial, and we want to Celebrate Them Big. They deserve it ~ They gave us everything.

Please contribute to their t-shirt fund on GoFundMe:


Thank you & God Bless.
And, go tell those you love that you love them. Today.
jewels

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Meet-Relationship-Expert-John-Gray.html?soid=1113965915975&aid=1mQoEK6l65E

What better way to feel beautiful, than be so from the inside out! Join us as relationship expert and NY Times bestseller John Gray speaks on communication in the workplace, and every place.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Meet-Relationship-Expert-John-Gray.html?soid=1113965915975&aid=1mQoEK6l65E

Leadership Series: Eat Your Frogs

Leadership Series: Eat Your Frogs

An easy way to keep yourself going ~ Do the hard part first!

What are you Thankful for?

Life can be a doozy, no doubt. It happens to all of us sometimes.
I don't wanna hear about it.

Instead of telling you my sad song, here are the top three things I'm thankful for:
My beautiful son, Shane
My faith and love of the Mother-Father-Creator
My courage to step up

I WANT to hear why YOU are Thankful!
C'mon - what are you waiting for?

Month THREE of DIQ!

What a JOURNEY! It is month THREE of my Mary Kay Director in Qualification! Proof that if you think you can, you can ... and if you think you can't, you're right.

My focus is on the goal:  achieving Directorship by June 30th ~ one full month early. Why? Because my lovely, giving, supportive Director will get to walk across the stage with me at Seminar in July. I want to give that to her. I WILL give that to her.

One of the amazing things about this company is its highest honor:  not a sales goal or monetary achievement; it is called the Go-Give Award, and it comes by the recommendation of your peers only. It is offered to the woman who has selflessly helped others without concern for payment or recognition ... just because it is the right thing to do. Even when it is inconvenient.

For my Director, it has become inconvenient. She has been diagnosed with breast cancer and goes into surgery in about a week. Yet STILL she gives to others. STILL she shows how to be courageous and graceful and supportive.

You bet I want to give back.

So, help me complete my goal by the end of this month! Call me! (949) 326-8855 to hold a facial for you and a couple of girlfriends. Come to an event and bring a friend. Visit my website, and share it with a friend.
www.marykay.com/juliasutton

Help me spread the word. This won't happen without you. YOU are the reason I'm here! Together, helping each other, women can achieve anything! Let's Go and Give.
xoxox

An Amazing Place to Learn

Rena's Friday Update!

Check out this woman ~ a beautiful reminder of what Grace~Grit~Gratitude truly mean.

Happy Mother's Day!

For everyone who is one, or who has loved one, Happy Mother's Day!

What a lovely gift is my child. What a journey we have had, what a wild ride we are taking. My son is now 16, and there are different challenges we face ... still, this feeling, the love and the trust and the absolute enjoyment ... this remains the same.

Hallmark got it wrong.

Mother's Day is every day. Just look at what I've been given! xoxoxXOXOXxoxox I love you, Shanebone.

The Commitment

It's pretty easy to say, "I'm going to do this," or "I'm working toward that." But when there's nobody looking over your shoulder and no hard deadline to fear, accountability can slip right through my fingers and the doing, well, doesn't get done.

That's what happened. I had said, "I'm working toward my Mary Kay car!" and I meant it. What I didn't do is really WORK toward it. Oh, maybe I gave 50%, but that's just not good enough. I even got inspired in January, and it bumped up to 75%.

Last week, at the Mary Kay Regional Office (of all places!) my car died. Dead.
I couldn't help but laugh. It felt like God was looking at me, shoulders shrugging, saying, "You said you wanted this ... Consider it a nudge!"

And so, I am making The Commitment. I WILL EARN my Mary Kay car by April! I WILL WORK toward it each and every day, despite the 500 pound phone! And I WILL DESERVE the accomplishment!

You saw it here first. Ask me how it's going!

"The Power of Inspirational Songs" ....And A Special Treat For you =)

"The Power of Inspirational Songs" ....And A Special Treat For you =)

This is an amazing young woman who truly lives what she speaks. Enjoy her beautiful music, her beautiful smile, her beautiful spirit.

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

Wow! What an absolutely AWESOME time I had in Dallas at the Mary Kay Seminar! It was incredible!

How does this company inspire me? Just a few highlights:

In front of the Dallas Convention Center, Mary Kay & Habitat for Humanity were building their 8th home. It will be completed & delivered at the end of Seminar.

The Mary Kay Foundation donated a whopping $3 million last year from the Beauty with a Purpose lipstick campaign ~ this, on top of the $21 million donated to date ~ to stamp out domestic violence.

The Mary Kay Foundation has built 5 Outdoor Environmental Centers for children from violent homes, for it has been clinically proven that children heal better through therapy in nature.

The Mary Kay Foundation has donated over $13 million to fight against cancers affecting women.

Supported fully through a recycling campaign, the Mary Kay Foundation planted 200,000 trees in the Bitterrrot National Forest last year, replacing much-needed trees that had been wiped out by wildfire.

Yes, yes ... Mary Kay is a skin care & cosmetics company. But the longer I am with them, the more I learn they are really a Beauty company; Beauty that comes from confidence, kindness and compassion. Beauty that inspires others. Beauty that comes from a spiritual connection. Beauty that can't be seen, but only felt.

The truth about Beauty is that it IS only skin deep ~ and Mary Kay is Beautiful, through & through.

Believing is Seeing

It is with grace & gratitude I write this post.

Prologue: June 30th was the end of my Mary Kay year ~ the first full year I'd been with this incredible, supportive company. Last January I set the audacious goal of Princess Court of Sales ... $20,000 in retail sales (that's a lotta lipstick!) Working hard, working consistently, my goal was in sight, when my son got very sick and I took off the entire month of May. It looked like perhaps next year was more realistic.

My amazing director, Susan Dale, sent me a simple card reminding me that it was not impossible. And though my eyebrows shot up, it got under my skin ... maybe I could do this ... why not? ... of course I can!

~ Focus on Success ~

What happened when I changed my perception? By believing something was attainable, it became so. Suddenly I had greater confidence, and that passion spilled over to all my friends and customers. We all were a part of something big and exciting, and we wanted to win!

Did you hear that perspective shift? We wanted. We worked. and so, We succeeded.

Life does not happen in a vacuum. How I think, what I focus on, gets generated! But only with your help. When I believed, you joined in! (Now, I've lived long enough and had enough tragedy to understand that the wild-hair meteorite comes crashing through the roof from time to time. Still, how I've responded to those crises ... that is what sets the tone, not the event itself.)

You know, this is one of those self-evident kinds of truisms; but even though it had rumbled around inside my head , these last two weeks rang it home like a iron bell. Susan believed, so I believed, so a hundred other people believed, so it came to be.

It was stunning. Humbling.
I am honored to be a part of such a thing.

We are all connected.
What wonders shall we create next?

Beautiful Planet

The green summit in Copenhagen began today with hemming about a binding contract. What was suggested were 'political agreements.'

A petition with 10 MILLION SIGNATURES from around the globe asks instead for a REAL DEAL TO SAVE OUR PLANET.

You can sign this petition at tcktcktck.org. I did.

The following comes from the facebook group, YOU can influence the climate summit in Copenhagen from your home:

... today, IndyACT and its partners in the tcktcktck coalition submitted a petition with 10 MILLION signatures to the Danish government and negotiators asking for a REAL DEAL.

So, the topic to mobilize about is: "The World is Ready, Make a Real Deal"

So start blogging, tweeting, changing your status, talking about the 10 million people asking for a real deal. We still can do it.

Below is the press release to help you:

10 million are ready for climate action

Copenhagen: Monday, December 7, 2009: A staggering 10 million people – and growing – have united in a call for a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty1 to be signed by world leaders at the Copenhagen climate negotiations which open today.

The expectations of more than 10 million people who have already signed TckTckTck’s petition were handed over to key figures at the climate talks: UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and COP 15 President and Danish Climate Minster Connie Hedegaard.

TckTckTck chair and Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo said the size of the petition demonstrated the huge groundswell of support for world leaders to deal with climate change.

“The world has spoken,” Mr Naidoo said. “Leaders must and can deliver a deal that will save the climate. One that is fair to the poorest people and countries that did not cause this problem but that will suffer the most from it, ambitious enough to leave a safe planet for us all and one that is legally binding, that can be monitored and real targets that can be enforced.”

The Beauty of the Earth

Today, let's talk about the health & beauty of our Mother. We know she ~ thus, we ~ are at risk ... through pollution, through overpopulation, through our own egocentric belief that she is 'ours' to abuse. If we as individuals do nothing, then we are part of the problem.

From Dec 7 to 18, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen in order to come up with a new climate change agreement. This summit is considered one of our last chances to save life on earth from the impacts of climate change.

Will they have what it takes to make the right decisions?
Now YOU can make a difference.

From Dec 7 till 18, activists and internet users are invited to participate in the most crucial e-mobilization ever, by blogging, twittering, flickering and updating their status on Facebook about the progress in the climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Please go to the fb page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187725014248&index=1

- For Twitterers: Retweet and get updates by Following IndyACT! : http://twitter.com/IndyACT
- For Bloggers: Enlist your blog by sending an email to: comms@indyact.org

For more information:
IndyACT - The League of Independent Activists
Address: Rmayl, Nahr Street, Jaara building, 4th floor
Phone: +961-1-447192
Website: www.indyact.org

Join hands, join purposes ~ Let the Sun Shine IN!!!

Broken Glasses

There is a comic which shows the difference between how men & women view themselves. The man, homely, bulging, balding, looks in the mirror and see Adonis. The woman, young, shapely and pretty, looks and sees a hag.

What's up with our broken glasses? More importantly, why do we keep putting them back on? Since everything we do is a choice ~ and yes, between awful and horrible is still a choice ~ what are we gaining by our misperceptions?

Surely the media's shouted view of beauty has a definite influence, but can I blame all my self-doubt on what others say? Isn't the loudest voice between my own ears? We can be so harsh on ourselves. Sometimes I literally have to say out loud, "I would never say that to another person. Stop!"

For example, you might laugh loudly and tell your friend, "That looks terrible! NO! Don't buy it!" when shopping with her. But you probably wouldn't say, in a voice loaded with disrespect, "You can't wear that, you look like a [fill in the blank]." The first is full of fun and kindness and honesty. The second is said with scorn, and seen through broken glasses.

It's time to remove the goggles. If, instead, we will see ourselves and treat ourselves in the same way we'd treat our best friend, we'll begin to smile more, and stand taller, and present nicer to the world. We'll probably find that we like ourselves better, too.

Gratitude

There is a plaque that hangs over my bedroom door, "With Grace and Gratitude." I wish that as my face to the world.

The company I work for teaches me to say, "Thank you." For little things, like a kind waiter. For big things, like a friend who covered my cost when I lost my credit card. For everyday things, like my kid doing his homework.

When I remember to breathe, to let a moment skip between my reaction and my response, it is a much more pleasant face that appears! I've seen the angry face ... not so pretty. And what is the benefit? Tolerance, patience, and appreciation go far in every situation.

It's not always easy, but like any skill, it gets better with practice. So, today, be gentle with yourself and others. Surprise someone and say thank you. You might discover that you are the one who smiles widest.

Blessings Be!

New Attitude!

Yesterday, I went to see Menopause, the Musical! with a group of friends - what a gas! It was about changing from one phase of life to another, specifically women in midlife, but this is applicable to all genders, all ages. The show climaxes with the song I Got a New Attitude, as the four women come to accept the differences in their bodies, minds and spirits.

Don't you wish you'd been aware, as a 20-year old, that confidence and self-acceptance are infinitely sexier than a size 2 waistline? Perhaps you did know. Me, not so much. I simply couldn't see myself as 'pretty enough.' This is probably a common problem, thanks, in part, to the ravenous media which needs to airbrush SuperModels so that they're 'pretty enough.'

The point here is that Beauty, that which brings aesthetic gratification simply by being nearby, is not limited to one image, one skin tone, one age, or even one's look, at all. Rather, it is one's outlook that speaks volumes to the world.

What does yours say?

How does stress affect your face?

Without a doubt, stress affects us: our health, our heart, even our hair can get frizzy - and gray! When we're racing to pay the bills, and placate the boss, and feed the family AND retain our relationships, the last thing we need is to worry about what we look like!

Or, is it? Taking 10 minutes in the morning and 10 at night to care for our skin does a few things ... it slows us down, if only for 600 seconds; it forces us to be kind to ourselves, reminding us why we are kind to others; and, it has the wonderful side-affect of making us look better.

Suddenly, we look in the mirror and think, "Wow! I look good today!" Looking better, we feel better. That out of control spiral has slowed, maybe even flipped directions. It did for me.

Ask me how!
Happy to Share!