As one of my real estate mentors says, “Busy yourself, and good things are bound to happen.”  Yesterday was one of those magical days.

For the past two years, my fiancé and I have been renovating our 1919-built home.  It has been a long process, one that often seemed like it would never end.  But we kept our heads down, stayed focused, worked hard, and poured our time and heart into turning our house into a home.

Through a number of serendipitous events, we were approached by Faith Durand – Managing Editor of Apartment Therapy’s website, TheKitchn – who just so happens to live in Columbus.  After a year of conflicting schedules and back-and-forth via email, we finally set up a time for her to stop by and see what we had done to the place.

The result was a fabulous article and photo gallery about our kitchen renovation.  We are so happy to be featured on their amazing website and are proud to have inspired so many people (via the comments on the post).  Thank you Faith and Apartment Therapy for allowing us to share our home with the web!

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“Busy yourself, and good things are bound to happen…”

As I wrote in my last post, one of my goals for 2010 has been to expand my personal network by meeting new people online and in person.  So yesterday I decided to attend my first “Skyline Chili Connoisseur Club” meeting.  Coordinated by Rocky VanBrimmer, the SCCC was a fantastic gathering of fifty or so local business people who come together once a month to network and share their love of Cincinnati’s finest chili.

I was glad to finally put a face to so many of the names I have chatted with on Twitter, but I was shocked (and pleased) when I was able to shake hands with Kevin McDonnell – CEO of Skyline Chili.  I was also glad to learn that NBC4 had caught wind of the event and sent out a camera crew to cover the event.

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“Busy yourself, and good things are bound to happen…”

At the end of the day, I traveled to The Pub at Polaris to meet with the other directors of SNAP! Performance Productions to discuss our upcoming Spring Show in May.  It was there that I received the best news of the day…

A few weeks back, someone contacted SNAP! with an unusual (but touching) request.  A young girl named Faith had recently been diagnosed with an inoperable and terminal brain tumor.  Because the doctors are unsure how long Faith may have, her family decided to throw her a “Christmas in December” party this weekend and (in an effort to make the party as authentic as possible) asked if we would be interested in sending over some “carolers.”  The request fit SNAP!’s mission perfectly, so we were honored to accept the invitation.

As word of Faith’s Christmas party traveled through our cast, her story landed on generous ears.  An anonymous donor has agreed to not only help with the cost of the party this weekend, but has also pulled some string to present Faith with an absolutely amazing opportunity.

I can’t let the cat out of the bag (as we haven’t even told Faith’s family yet), but I am overwhelmed by the generosity and support of our cast and patrons to make such an opportunity available to such a deserving little girl.

If you would like to learn more about Faith, or help her family with a monetary donation, you can visit her website – http://HelpFaith.com