Letter from TeriLyn – July 2024

We are back from Utah after a week with my family! The logistics were intense, as were the travel days, but it was well worth it. Here’s what else I’ve been up to over the last month!

Letter from TeriLyn – July 2024

Travel

Before I had kids and after I left Corporate America, I traveled to Utah to see family multiple times a year. Now it’s a lot harder to make it home, but I make it a point to go once a year with everyone and then one more time by myself. I’ve lived in North Carolina for 16 years, and my hometown has changed so much in that time, that in many ways, it doesn’t feel like home. And I realized during last year’s Utah trip over Memorial Day weekend that I prefer to travel for big family events since everyone is together and off work vs. trying to see people in town around their work schedules and fighting traffic. 

Memorial Day weekend in the Uintah basin and the annual Hutcheon Campout have been family traditions for decades and my fondest childhood memories are during those two things. So my plan now is to make our Utah trip during one of those two events (or maybe both if I’m feeling particularly brave… and feeling rich… flights + car rental + VRBO gets SO expensive haha). 

We don’t have any concrete travel plans for the rest of the year as a family. Tommy has a golf trip to Oregon in October and I have a wedding to attend that same week (yikes, childcare will be hard) and we’re hoping to plan a fall beach trip with my in-laws but nothing is on the books. (Maybe Kiawah?)

We’re also still trying to figure out a trip for my 40th birthday (working with Heather Christopher Travel) but we haven’t finalized anything yet. We’re considering Turks & Caicos. Oh, and we’re trying to decide whether or not to go on a trip to Greece next summer. It’s a trip retracing some of the Apostle Paul’s journeys, and I know it’d be incredible, but I just can’t wrap my head around leaving Charles when he’ll only be 16 months old (especially since I breastfed Thomas for 2 years). Anyway, lots of travel thoughts but nothing planned since it’s all kind of overwhelming me – I’m accepting advice! 

Family

Like I mentioned above, we had GREAT time in Utah with my family! Thomas was obsessed with the cousins and kept asking to see the cousins as soon as he woke up each day. (“I see my cousins! Where the cousins? The cousins come over? I play with cousins all day.” ) And he’s still asking now that we are home. It’s seriously so sweet. He has cousins in NC, but we’ve never told him they’re his cousins so I need to start emphasizing that. 

All of the cousins are older than Thomas (they range from age 8 to 24) and they were all so sweet with him. I can’t even explain how much it meant to me that they all gave him so much attention, and that I trusted them completely to take care of him. My sister-in-laws all wanted to snuggle Charles too, and my tough-as-nails brother, Roger, probably gave my boys the most attention of all (which you wouldn’t expect but he’s a major softie with kids). I just felt so blessed by family the whole time, and I’m hoping some Utah cousins can come out to NC to visit soon. My dad stayed at the cabin with us and it was sweet to see him with the boys in the morning too. He LOVES being a grandpa. And it’s hilarious that the boys are almost as big as my tiny mom!

Work 

Now that the Nordstrom Sale and Prime Day are behind us, we’re shifting into transitional fashion that will work from summer to fall and have already planned out most of Q3 blog content that has a heavy emphasis on wedding guest dresses, jeans and booties!

It felt great to take a true vacation from work after the insane month of July. I only opened my laptop ONCE while I was in Utah, and that’s only because I felt like it, not because I had to do anything. I love working for myself, but it’s almost impossible to take time off (especially since Instagram can quickly become a major time suck with DMs). So, to help, I turned off email on my phone, turned off Voxer notifications, turned off story DMs on Instagram and stayed out of Asana. (More on all my work apps are in this post.) 

I don’t have a lot of sponsored content right now, but usually it starts to pick up in September and October (or at least I’m hoping it does!). This month, I have campaigns with Target, Colleen Rothschild and Adidas so when you see those go live, leaving a comment or sharing with a friend helps so much! Instagram values “shares” these days and brands value engagement. And, of course, purchases so if you use my links to shop, it helps me get future campaigns (and supports my business, which employs multiple women).

Since I have a slower month with sponsored content, I’m considering doing another live round of Let Me Pick Your Brain. I’m going to gauge interest soon so keep an eye out for that! You can always buy the recorded version at any time for a discount, but I think the live versions are the most fun and helpful since I can answer questions in real time about your business.

Another amazing work thing is how fun Oliveda has been. I keep hearing from so many poeople that their skin looks better since switching to Oliveda from Beautycounter and I’ve had the same experience (you can see my skin before and afters in my Oliveda review). I sold more in my first full month with Oliveda than I did in my best month with Beautycounter in 2023 (and that’s including Black Friday with a promo). Crazy! And I’m so grateful – thank you so much for shopping with me!!

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Alright, I need to go eat something so I’ll wrap this up! The boys are sleeping in like CRAZY (it’s 9am and they’re both still snoozing) and I know I should wake them (especially Charles) to get on a better routine and adjust to the East Coast time but I just can’t haha. It’s been too nice sitting in bed, working and watching the crazy storm (Hurricane Debby is DUMPING rain on us). Storms are my favorite and working in bed is my favorite so I’m kind of in heaven.

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