thank you coton colors for sponsoring this post. as always, all thoughts are my own.

I am an incredibly sentimental person. Perhaps I get it from my late Grandfather, but I cherish memories and preserve them any way I can. I’ll soon write a blog post on the top ways I like to easily save family memories, but for today I want to share a new way to save family memories through Coton Colors new line of journals called Celebrate Books.

Let me change the topic for a moment. Coton Colors approached me and I got the chills when they did for a few reasons. The first being that the Coton Colors began in the town I went to college in, Tallahassee (go Florida State University!) Many of my sorority sisters worked there when it was a Mom and Pop start up business. As the daughter of two entrepreneurs, and married to one, I applaud and love to support small businesses. Coton Colors has exploded and it’s great to see theirs do that!

The other reason I got the chills is because their company motto is similar to one that’s very important to me. My best friend (whom I met in college) has a family I adore. I’ve become an adopted member and for the past 15 years we’ve done a breast cancer fundraiser event in honor of her Aunt. When her Aunt passed away her dying words were “Celebrate and take care of each other.”

“Celebrate and take care of each other.”

– vicki

So Celebrate we do every year by coming together and throwing an uplifting and happy event to celebrate life, celebrate each other and be thankful for today. It’s an event that is as important to be as Christmas. I look forward to “Celebrate” every year. The love and energy I feel that weekend fuels me and has informed so much of who I’ve become as a woman.

Through those years I’ve seen my “Celebrate family members” have new babies, married into new members and sadly lost some over the years. One of the most devastating losses was best friend’s Mother. I cherished her. I learned from her. I looked up to her. She was extremely instrumental in molding who I wanted to be as a mother and wife. She passed away last year after battling three forms of cancer over the past numerous years. I feel her spirit with me often. If anyone I knew lived the “Celebrate and take care of each other phrase” it was her. She was also a die hard FSU fan and lover of Tallahassee!

So when Coton Colors asked me to take a look at their “Celebrate Me” book I got the shivers. The book cover is this beautiful blue/gray with the words “Celebrate Me” on it. I smiled and thought of it as a gift from my best friend’s Mother in heaven. It was just a moment of feeling that she was proud of my blog and reminding me to slow down and Celebrate life.

“Never miss an opportunity to celebrate every day.”

– laura johnson, ceo of coton colors

So that brings us to today. The Celebrate Me book is not just a daily journal, but actually a life journal. It has pages for every day of the year, but with no years listed. The idea is for you to write just one sentence or memory as it strikes you over the years. Then slowly but surely each page will be filled with memories of what happened that day throughout your life. Beautiful. You also could fill up the entire page as the spirit moves you. The versatility is so nice.

I’ve decided to take a twist on that book and use it for my entire family to use. The Celebrate Me book is so beautiful that it can be easily displayed on a kitchen counter or coffee table. So that’s where I have it. And I’ve asked my children to grab it and write in it whenever the feeling strikes them. Because to “Celebrate Me” means to celebrate them. I’m proud of my family and I feel like they are a representation of me, a product of the people I love and have learned from in my life and a link in all of our connective chains.

On a few pages I had written that I was proud of my daughter getting a 100% on her math test she studied so hard for. On another I wrote that my son lost his first tooth. Each of them wrote on the page their thoughts on it. Their sweet little handwriting forever marked in the book.

I also plan to take pictures they may bring home from school, or the Valentine day card my husband gave me and tape it in there. Just because it’s a journal in form, doesn’t mean it can’t transform into an easy scrapbook!

If you’re searching for gifts for the woman who wants nothing but love, this would be a beautiful gift to give. I also see it as one of those creative Mother’s Day gift ideas (ohh….what if you got it today, secretly spent a month, or even a year writing your own thoughts before giving it to her!!!!)

Thank you Coton Colors for the opportunity to celebrate every day. And thank you to my Ida in heaven for the “gift” you sent me in the form of this book. I promise to try and slow down, enjoy everything like you asked, forgive people who can’t change who they are and remember your words more. I’ll do my very best to “Celebrate Me” to make you proud.

* post brought to you by coton colors. thoughts, as always, are my own.