Paydirt!

I must confess that the past several months have been a bit slow for this fashion consultant.  I depend on the availability of others for my income, meaning that women need to be available to sponsor a home show in order for me to showcase my clothing line and make a sale.  In Hermiston, well, May and June women are caught up in family time ~ baseball, soccer, graduation, vacation ~ all those wonderful things that the family thrives on.

So, I've been enjoying my time, watching the river flow by my window, sipping wine, catching up on a few good reads until this past weekend when I hit the skies and flew to SoCalifUSA for the CAbi scoop.  Oh my goodness ~ talk about a wake-up call!  There were 2,900 women there, so lots and lots of energy flowing through the Long Beach convention center.  Most of it was focused on Friday afternoon when the new Fall collection was unveiled. If you've never been to a fashion show with the runway and all, then you've missed a rare treat.  It was simply amazing and to use a much used phrase, "The crowd went wild!"  Every new grouping brought new rounds of shrieks of delight from the crowd and you can only begin to imagine what 2,900 shrieking women sound like.  There was confetti littering the air, balloons floating everywhere and being batted about and streamers draping themselves around heads and shoulders ~ all CAbi pink, of course.

We all tried to absorb as much as we could, went to our product training classes and buried ourselves in our MP3 players with the collection notes on our flights home in hopes of learning every minute detail, not to mention the names of the nearly 100 pieces.  Now today, I lie in wait of the UPS man, my new best friend.  He's due with my boxes of CAbi clothes.  YAY!  Then it becomes a mad scramble to unpack, tag, steam/iron every garment, organize the rack into groupings and memorize each piece ~ all in an attempt to be prepared to present it next week to an excited group of women, eagerly awaiting the new collection.

Two preview shows next week.  It's so exciting to see the enthusiasm of the women at the shows.  Such a great time with them as they play "dress up" and try things on.  (of course, the margaritas at the one show and wine at the other help to loosen things up :-) !)  And such a great way to begin a new season of encouraging women to gather, to get away from their every day routines and have some fun!  It's not necessarily about spending money on clothes.  It's just a fantastic way to get out of the house and meet new friends or spend time with old ones.  And CAbi is such an awesome company, not just in the way they treat their customers and consultants.  They are truly a company that gives back!  So far, that means donating 1.4 million garments to women in need in 40 countries, 15 U.S. communities and also making 400 microloans.  It has been a privilege to be a part of this great company!   christinahoell.cabionline.com

Adventures in Nashville

Late in the month of January, more than 2,700 CAbi women descended on the unsuspecting town of Nashville. CAbi?  you say.  The name represents Carol Anderson by Invitation, a clothing designer out of the Los Angeles area who sells her distinct collection through her independent consultants who host "trunk shows" in homes across America. 

The closer I got to Nashville in my cross country trek from Oregon, the more obvious it became that I was "on the right track" towards my destination of the CAbi "Scoop" convention.  Airports became inundated with women fashionably dressed in CAbi designs.  In fact, it became common to see groups of women dressed in their CAbi finest gathered together exchanging names, sharing photos of children left at home and gleefully calling out not only the names of the fashions they were wearing, but also the season they were from!  Wow.  Nothing like being the new kid on the block!  It was my first season and they left me in the dust.

I arrived at the Gaylord Opryland Resort after midnight, exhausted after a full day of travel, ready to fall into bed. . . .if I could only find my room!  The resort was a maze of lazy rivers, cosy restaurants, winding paths and couples enjoying them. (Note to self:  Great place to come back to for a vacation!)  Even my map was of no use to me!  Thankfully the resort staff was still out and about and able to help me find my room.

Morning dawned (early!) and it was off to the show.  I was blessed with an awesome room mate who had been here before and knew her way around.  Registration, (check) breakfast, (check) class schedule (check, well, a moment of panic when I realized I'd have to find my way around to all of those places).  Remember I mentioned all of the women at the airport wearing the same Carol Anderson clothes?  Well, here were 2,700 women wearing them!  Obviously there were duplicate items but it wasn't as if anyone had a problem with it.  And every woman had a different way of wearing it.  The effect was amazing.

My hours were crammed full of details, information, helpful hints, you name it, along with meeting some pretty amazing women.  For being the "new kid", I was sure getting a lot of attention and the information! well, let's just say a week's worth of information  was crammed into 3 days. But, you know the old adage about all work and no play?  We had some fun as well.  One night we donned our jeans and a pink plaid cowboy-inspired shirt we were each given and kicked up our heels to some live music and line dancing.  And if that wasn't enough,  back by popular demand were the CAbi Cowboys!

The ladies went wild!!  I mean, we could have watched them all night but, alas, it was for a brief set and we had to console ourselves by learning a new line dance.

And what trip to Nashville would be complete without a trip into town for bar-b-que and some more live music? Four of us piled into a cab and headed into Nashville proper. And the food we had was nothing fancy.  Oh no, no fancy tourist place for this girl.  It was a locals-only order-at-the-counter place for pulled pork, mac and cheese, slaw, fries and of course, a great selection of sauces.  If I'd had my way, we'd have spent some time boot shopping at one of the places where you get two-for-one.   Then on to the music!  Lots of choices ~ and all but one of them no smoking!  The best one featured Willie Nelson's former stand up bass player.  I would have payed good money to see any of the bands, but there was no cover charge anywhere we went.  Sincerely, I enjoyed it so much I tried to share it with my girlfriends back home by calling them on my cell and holding it up so they could have a "listen".  Apparently, all they heard was garble.  Bummer!

It's difficult to choose what  was the highlight of the trip.  The music? the food? the resort? the people?  All things considered, I'd have to say it was the incredible things I learned about the company I now represent.  The final morning was spent learning not only about the minute details of the business from the CEO and President, but mostly about the very heart of the company, its Foundation.  Those people who know me know that I have a heart for missions.  I've participated in or co-lead more that 15 trips to Mexico and New Orleans.  I also participate in KIVA where I can provide micro-loans to people in 3rd World countries who are just trying to support themselves and their families.  CAbi has, in the 5 years since their Foundation has been in place, donated more than 25 million dollars through their partner organizations.  In addition, they have donated over one million (and counting) garments to women in poverty or effected by natural disasters.  And if that isn't enough, they also provide micro-loans to women in 3rd World to help them get set up in business for themselves and get a "leg up" on poverty.  Another one of my highlights?  I got to help assemble hygiene bags that were bound for AIDS victims in Africa.

 I'm proud to be a part of a company that's not just out to make a buck. CAbi has proved to me it has a conscience, a purpose to improve the plight of those in poverty, particularly women so often seem to be stricken the most.  I had an awesome time while in Nashville!  Someday I want to return when I can have the full experience of the music and the food in the summer time when it's not so stinkin' cold.  But the experiences of learning about the heart, the core of CAbi will do nothing but motivate me to work that much harder to provide the resources for those in need.