School studies have officially come to an end and summer is just beginning! I know I am NOT alone when I say “Thank Goodness May is over!” May happened to be one of the busier months for my family this year. We had birthdays, out of town family visiting, graduations, faith ceremonies and an emtional goodbye to part of our family moving out of state. I am glad May is over. Lets take a look at what has been completed this month as one of my smallest group of refinished furniture by far, but all gorgeous none-the-less.

This month I wrote a blog post about Secrets, Tips & Tricks on a master bedroom overhaul that was completed. I shared with you products that I use and the process on how I do my furniture so that you can try it on your pieces at home. As always, if you rather have me do all the work (which I most certainly don’t mind) please email, text or call me for a quote! Remember to get yourself on the First Dibs Email to be notified first on available pieces.

This month I received many customer photos of Second Chance pieces staged in their homes and I am completely swooning over them! Some pieces you may recognize, one that was my first piece of January of this year and another from December 2015!

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me.

-Erma Bombeck

The 2016-2017 school year has ended and I am enthusiastic to finally share with you something that I started back in November of last year. If you recall my New Years resolution for 2017 was Inspiration; you can read about it on the 2016 Portfolio post.

Little back story:

We are days away from ending the first quarter of school and my first grader, Donovan, loads in the truck at Drive Line with an expression that literally looked like a light bulb went off in his head holding a sheet of paper in his hand.

D- “Mom, after school clubs came out for 2nd quarter I want to do one!”

Me- “That sounds amazing, which one?”

D- “Well that’s the thing, they don’t have THE ONE I want to do, will you run it with me?”

Art Club

What I wonderful idea my son had to host an after school Art Club for his peers! As the year was coming to an end I was Soul Searching what it was I wanted to work on for myself in 2017. Donovan inspired me to get out of my comfort zone. I am NOT a teacher by any means. I was nervous, sick and excited all at the same time about sharing my passion with children. Lets be honest children can be VERY candid. I was frightened. I kept reminding myself that talking in front of a group of adolescence might be less nerve-racking than lets say a group of adults. Public speaking is not my forte.

My first art club started off with 22 children ranging from Kinder to 6th grade. By the end of the school year we had a total of 48 kids split into 3 different age group classes.

“I went into this hoping to inspire children about the creativity of art and passion… but it was I who became inspired by them.”

– Rebecca Whitney

“Understand that you can be an inspiration to others, no matter what you feel you have or have not achieved. Even if you feel that you have not yet reached the endpoint, and even if you feel like you have reached a low point, you have the ability to inspire. No matter who you are, giving back and inspiring others comes equipped with many benefits. You never know who you’re going to impact when you give — and you never know who might be in position to reciprocate if you ever find yourself in a time of need. Giving back leaves a legacy that will live on far longer than you will. You will be amazed at the way inspiring others makes you feel. In fact, it is the only feeling that rivals the one you get when you realize you have achieved your dream.” -R. Kay Green

By the end of each class, and as each child focused on their projects, you could faintly hear a steady humming sound coming from each of them. An Artist ‘In The Zone’ moment. We did many creative art projects. As I would bring my samples into class to share with them what we would be working on, I became enriched with their ooh’s and aah’s. I encouraged the “Can I make mine different than yours?”. Never ONCE did any of my artist undermine another artist for his or her project. Those tiny artist taught me so much this school year.

xoxo -Rebecca