So opening the store is fun but let me tell you, buying everything to go in the store is even more fun.

I spent the last weekend in Chicago at the Merchandise Mart.  The Stylemax show was something I knew I couldn’t miss if I wanted insight into this new business that I am creating.  I was right!

This first people that my daughter, Gabrielle, and I met was Cindi and Nancy.  Cindi recently started her own business, Hair a la Cart with her friend Nancy.  They gave me the most useful information about the show and how to approach it as a new buyer.  She understood where I was because we were both in the same boat, having left the corporate world to start our own businesses.  Meeting them was a wonderful treat and was one of the highlights of the weekend.  They are both phenomenal, inspiring women.  And it turns out that Nancy is a contemporary gospel singer just like myself.

Gabrielle and I visited approximately 150 vendors of contemporary clothing styles from about 9:30 am until 6:00pm.  Talk about sensory overload!  Touching all the fabrics, hearing about all the different lines of apparel, seeing all the vibrant colors was quite an experience.  It was fun, exciting and a little confusing but towards the end of the day, with aching feet, things become a little more clear.  After looking at so many brands and prices, you start to discover certain lines that you just love and they stand out to you.  Certain people do also.  Almost all of them were incredibly helpful when I told them this was my first show.  Also I noticed that it seems they all really like their jobs!

 I like my new job too!

Back in the spring, my husband and I attended church one morning and there was a guest speaker there who was a prophet.  David and I had been married less than one year so when the guest speaker, Dennis Cramer, asked us to stand up and started speaking to us, I didn’t know what to expect.  I had never had a prophecy spoken over me.  I had heard of this before but had never been to a church that had the faith to invite such incredible guests!  Needless to say, I was truly amazed!

 Dennis started with me and proceeded to tell me about my current job and how successful I was.  Then he explained to me that he saw me doing something else.  He saw me in my own little store, a girly place with frilly things and it would be so girly that men wouldn’t want to come anywhere near it!!  Even though I had never experienced anything like this before, I knew that every word he spoke to me was God-given and I trusted his words.  Besides, everything else he spoke to my husband and I was so accurate that I stood there completely astounded!

From that day forward, his words burned in my brain and ignited that flame that led me to where I am today.  The opportunity to open this store, A Girly Girl truly is a blessing and I am hear to testify that when you trust God and have faith in him, he gives you the desires of his heart.

Some years later, after marriage, the birth of my beautiful daughter, Gabrielle and a nasty divorce I began my career at the United States Postal Service.  In 14 years with the Postal Service I was promoted three times and entrusted to perform 12 other details while serving my Postmaster position.  I absolutely loved my job until my last boss!  The stress became so great and it was taking such a physical toll that I had to leave.  My husband of one year,  David was behind me 100% and I knew this opportunity was a blessing from God.

I had the opportunity to direct and produce the Miss Victorian Scholarship Program in West Branch, MI for three years and that lead to the opportunity to begin coaching some girls for pageants.  My desire to get into a girly girl type of business flared up again and this time could not be contained.  Watching my daughter struggle through the teenage years, I decided that I wanted to teach modelling again and help young ladies to develop self esteem.

 That brings us to August 10, 2007; my last day with the United States Postal Service.  I had resigned!  Was I scared?  Out of my head!  Was I excited?  No, I was ecstatic!  I finally felt free; free to create and utilize actual business and marketing skills!!  I took a big risk and gave up a career that I had worked extremely hard for.  My last day at my office, when I was disrespected in the manner that I was, made it crystal clear that I had made the right move.

Now, at 44 and with Gabrielle about to leave the nest at 19, I was totally free to be the girly girl that I was destined to be.  God is good and I am a blessed woman!!

I loved Modelling.  I loved hair and makeup and outfits and the runway and pictures, etc.  It wasn’t about being fake, it was about accenting the good features and improving the bad features.  We all have them!  Mostly, it gave me self confidence.  Let me tell you, if you can walk the catwalk flawlessly, you can do about anything.

I learned how to be a lady and present myself to the world properly.  I learned how to stand, sit, walk, speak and carry myself in any situation.  It was, without a doubt, one of the most important experiences of my formerly insecure life!!

I used the training to model and enjoyed the time I spent in the industry (beware of the CREEPS), but I more enjoyed using my training and experiences to make a difference in other young girls.  I loved teaching modelling to girls at an age when they really need to develop self confidence.  Teenagers! 

I figured that you might want to know a little about the person behind this blog.  Truthfully, this is all new to me!  The reason that I am doing this is to inspire girls and ladies of all walks to think out of the box and reach for the stars!!

My name is Debra and I have lived in Michigan almost all of my life, growing up outside of Flint (Burton).  I was always dressed in frilly, sparkling white dresses as a baby by my Grandma June,  so you have her to blame for my girliness.  As a teenager, I disliked school, had braces and really felt that I did not fit in.  I wasn’t cool or part of the jocks, party crowd or popular girls. 

Somewhere inside I thought I was pretty.  I was also tall and very thin.  One day, when I was 17,  I convinced my mom to enroll me in a modelling school and the true girly girl in me began to blossom.  I had found my love.

This is my first time blogging.  I hope that you find the information useful and fun.  Let me introduce myself – My name is Debra and I’m a girly girl.  In fact I’m sooooo girly that I opened a store because I couldn’t find the clothes that I wanted in mid-Michigan.  My store is call A Girly Girl (like of course!!!).