Since fear was the first thing I battled to get this new project off of the ground, I thought it would be an appropriate first post. That’s right – I’ve started a new blog.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this blog. I write about crazy moments in my life, craft projects, Jesus and all of the things that I don’t know but should. But as I have been growing as a speaker, I decided to be a bit more intentional about who I am becoming and where I am going. I don’t have a book and I don’t have a product but I want people to have a way to connect with me after I walk off of the stage.

So. I started a new blog dedicated completely to leadership and life. I will share what I am learning and challenge readers to grow with me. I will still be here writing as well but I wanted to invite you to join me on a different journey in a different way.

Shall we?

(Yes, I purchased the domain www.christybwright.com because it will last long after May 5 and that just makes sense. Until then, I’d just like to confuse everyone as much as possible with my name.)

Oh yea.
That. Was. Awesome.

Well continuing with the DIY craft theme today, my lovely friend Natalie has asked me to guest post on her blog. She has started a new blog dedicated completely to awesome DIY craft projects. Head over to her site to check out my post, support her and find great other ideas of new projects.

She posts awesome ideas like how to make cheap but super cute gift wrap:

And how to make your own lace headbands:

Trust me, her craft skills make mine look like a Kindergartener. You won’t be disappointed.

Check her out HERE.

Like the one where I was pregnant in the mall and Sarah wanted to hang out. Seriously, I couldn’t make that up. It took little to no commentary from me and BOOM- blog post.

I bring you another one of those today.

Remember how I went to DC with The Starting 5 (and learned a bit of history) and wanted to copy Susan’s life?

Matt (Wright) and I weren’t dating at that time but the moment was clearly prophetic because as of Cinco De Mayo, 2012, Susan and I will both be married to Matt’s.

Oh but that’s not the really good part. The best part is that TS5 + Boys (Husbands, fiance’s and boyfriends) hung out around New Years and the Matt’s came wearing matching outfits. It was so cute that we made them take a picture and then quickly decided that they could be brothers.

Step-brothers, that is.

Plus, training for the Country Music Marathon exactly 2 years ago is how we met so it’s particularly significant that we will be crossing the finish line together at the same race exactly one week before our wedding. I’m going to run in white and we may paint a tuxedo shirt print onto a dry-fit shirt for Matt to wear – any opportunity for a costume, you know.

Anyway, so yesterday was my second run. I’d been running through the holidays but I didn’t start building my mileage until the new year. As I stated before, I don’t typically “do things right” when it comes to running. My strategy is always very reasonable with splits and paces all mapped out until I get to the starting line and then adrenaline takes over, I start out way too fast and just try to hang on until the end. This usually works, even if I feel near death by the time I actually reach the finish line.

However, the last couple of weeks of training have been different. Instead of obsessively checking my Garmin and pushing myself, I’ve not paid attention to it at all. I’ve just adjusted my pace by how I felt.

Last week, I ran with a few people that I met that day also training for the full marathon and we talked the entire time. Conversational pace for long runs? Check, Check.

When I finished last week, I felt great. I checked my watch and I had averaged 8:55/mile for 11 miles. For me, that’s really great for Week 1 of training. Actually, that’s surprisingly fast for me. I figured it was a fluke, one-time thing because I always run long runs at 9:30-9:45/mile especially during the beginning of training. I’m not a sub-9:00 mile runner for long runs – I just know this about myself.

So this week, when Matt and I were driving to meet the East Nasties at Shelby for our run at 8:00 a.m. and in 25-degree weather bundled up in 3 layers, head to toe, I said to him,

I’m running SLOW this week. No more of this sub-9:00 pace crap. It’s cold, these are long runs and I’ve got to be able to last. I am doing 9:30′s today for sure.

We got there 30 minutes early to meet our Full Marathon group to get some extra mileage in before the rest of the Half Marathoners got there. We ran 3 miles at 9:29/mile. Perfect.

Then everyone else got there and we all started again. I ended up by myself for the rest of the run somehow and I still didn’t pay attention to my watch at all. At Mile 3, I stopped to take off a layer since the sun was starting to warm things up. I checked my time and I had averaged 9:24 for the second set of 3 miles. Staying on track – this was good.

I took off my middle layer and tied it around my waist and kept going. I didn’t feel particularly fast or slow – I just felt normal. I incorporated Fartlek intervals every quarter-mile for the last 2 miles per Mark’s instruction. I finished at 12.25 miles feeling good. Tired and sore, but good.

After I caught my breath and walked around a bit, I decided to check my watch for the last 6 miles to see how I did. I checked my pace for the first time and saw that for the second half of my run, I averaged 8:15/mile.

WHAT?
HOW?

Mark (East Nasty’s Coach) and many other professional runners talk about the importance of starting out slow to give your body time to warm up, especially in extremely cold temperatures. Mark said last week that if you want to average 8:30/mile you need to start at 9:30/mile for the first few miles. I didn’t want to average 8:30 though so that didn’t apply to me.

And, I never really believed that strategy anyway. I couldn’t conceive that starting slow could pay off enough to offset your time in the end. You’d have to be flying by the end to compensate for your slower first miles. If I wanted to average 9:30′s, I planned to run 9:30 every mile.

However, after yesterday, I am a believer. I finished with an average of 8:37/mile for 12.25 miles. Keep in mind that 8:37/mile is my PR RACE PACE for the Memphis Half Marathon a year ago, 4 months into training and in perfect 50-degree weather with Matt pacing and pushing me.

Yesterday’s run was with layers and layers of clothes, in below freezing temperatures, on my second week of training and by myself.

I guess those professional runners and coaches know what they are talking about. Starting slow pays off in the end and I surprised even myself. And apparently I am a sub-9:00/mile runner.

To get you into the spirit, I decided to repost my favorite Christmas blog from last year. It’s a classic.

(You can also go HERE and enjoy a fantastic Christmas post by Ashley from 2 years ago about our annual Christmas lights tour. This year will be year #4 and it’s happening tomorrow night. Hopefully the pictures will turn out just as excellent as displayed in Ashley’s post.)

Merry Christmas, friends!

————————————————————–

Just when I had you thinking that I am smart and successful, I had this conversation on Instant Message with Ashley yesterday.

AS: …That’s like imagining winning the lottery – like a dream but impossible.

CB: Oh, I know. It’s like unicorns and reindeer – a nice thought, but not real.

AS: Reindeer actually exist! Ahahahahaha!!!!! They just don’t fly! You are hysterical.

CB: No, they don’t. ASH – you are ridiculous. This isn’t even funny. (Getting scared now…)

AS: DUDE! Come On! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer

CB: (I click on the link. Horrified.) I am feeling real weird right now. I can’t breathe.

My entire life has been a lie. Am I the only one that believed reindeer weren’t real? Must consult others…

—————————————–

I instant message Matt to see if maybe I am not the only one that thought reindeer weren’t real.

CB: Do you believe in rein...Nope. Not worded right. Try again.

CB: Do you know that reindeer are real?

MW: Yes, why?

———————————————-

Must try someone else. Will ask Christy Graham.

I go to her desk, sit by her and whisper….

CB: Do you know that reindeer are real?

CG: (bursts into laughter) YES! They just don’t fly!

CB: (yelling now) WELL SOMEONE SHOULD SPECIFY THAT WHEN THEY TELL YOU THAT SANTA ISN’T REAL! Santa isn’t, reindeer ARE! There IS a North Pole, but there is no workshop there!

——————————————–

This is a very confusing time for me right now. The truth and lies are very blurry.

Please excuse me.

Cary Graham.

Let me tell you two of my favorite things about Cary.

#1. He is married to one of my best friends in the whole world, Christy Graham.
#2. He is an amazing writer.

Now, let’s focus on the second one. Cary has a dream to become a novelist. He’s already made 78% of that dream come true by having an idea, writing the book and having the book edited.

The next 22% involves laying it out, designing the cover, oh yea – and actually publishing it.  That’s where we come in. 

Cary has started a Kickstarter page where all of his friends and family (and friends of friends and blog readers of friends) can learn about his dream and help make it happen.

Kickstarter is a great website that does not charge you a fee for accepting funds but here’s the catch: you MUST reach your goal IN the time frame set in the beginning or guess what? You get $0.00.

As of today, Cary has raised $2,729 of his $5,000 goal to bring his dream to life.

He has 19 days left.

If even HALF of the people reading this blog right now were to click on his link and donate $5, his goal would be met.  Even half of you. Will you be in that half?

It’s Christmas- the time of giving, right?

You don’t have to know Cary.
You don’t have to care about Supernatural Thrillers.
You don’t even have to like to read. (But you are here, so… )

But will you support someone’s dream today?

$5.00 – You won’t even miss it, I promise.
$5.00 – Shows a complete stranger that you care about people and that you care about dreams.

I don’t know about you but I want to be the type of person that breathes hope and life and love into people – even if I never see the fruits of my hard work or get credit for my sacrifices.

Let’s do this.

Because out there in the blog universe, I know that you and I have dreams too. And if the opportunity comes along to make it happen, we’d all be grateful for every last friend and stranger that was willing to help make it come to life.

Thanks for being so supportive, friends.

You can click HERE to contribute $5.00 (or any amount.)

When it’s a stranger, it pisses you off.
When it’s someone close, it can cut much deeper.

When someone wrongs you and you feel (and possibly are) completely justified in calling them out (in love,) you need to ask yourself two questions:

1. Do they need correction?
This is pretty simple. Usually if they have done something that is blatantly out of line, then yes, they need to be called on it, held accountable and corrected.

But the next question is one that most of us don’t ask ourselves before we charge forward with our noble cause of righting the wrong. It’s one that we don’t even consider.

But it’s a question that changes everything if you just take a moment to consider it.

2. Are they capable of receiving correction?
Because if they don’t have the capacity to receive it and you give it anyway, it’s like shoving food at someone whose mouth is sewn shut.

And why do we do it?
So that WE feel better.
So that WE feel relieved.
It becomes all about us and our justified self-righteousness so that we can feel okay about it all.

And all that we do in the process is hurt the other person.  The one who originally offended us, we are capable of destroying because we didn’t consider them.

It’s hard watching someone that desperately needs this correction but can’t receive it. So the next question is even more difficult:

Can you commit to love someone anyway, in their need, in their flaws, in their lack of capacity?

Can you learn how to meet them where they are?
Love them where they are?
Work with them where they are?

And even more so,
Doesn’t Jesus do that with US?

I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. – John 16:12

We are so busy being personally offended and therefore defending our name, our honor, our reputation and our pride that we lose sight of the fact that the other person is possibly incapable of anything else.

If we can’t meet people where they are, then our arrogance will always get in the way of our relationships. It will block our capability to love unconditionally and keep us from living the life God calls us to.

One aspect of forgiveness is removing the expectation that the other person is capable of doing it any other way. True forgiveness is freely given without condition – condition that they apologize or condition that they perform in a certain way next time.

It removes expectation, relieves personal offense or debt and releases that person freely in love - right where they are.  Not because they earned it or deserve it,

But because that’s what’s been done for us.

If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. – 2 Corinthians 2: 5-8

I don’t know if any of you have someone in your life that this could apply to or not.

If not, it’s alright.

Maybe this was just for me today.

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

(As I’ve written about before, our company has weekly devotionals where we bring in outstanding speakers such as Stan Mitchell. He is to credit for the wisdom I gained by asking that second question. Thanks Stan, for another challenging and brilliant devotional.)

For the last couple of years that I have had this blog, I average about 40-60 views a day on a normal day and around 120-200 on the day that I put up a new post.

So you can imagine my shock, and complete confusion, when I checked my blog stats on Thursday, December 10 to find that I had FOUR THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE VIEWS.

I’m sorry. I just hallucinated. What?

(Name that movie.)

Yes, that’s right. I went from an average of 50 to 4,429.

Obviously someone (very famous) somewhere linked to my blog because there is no other reasonable explanation for a blog traffic increase of 8,758% on a day that I didn’t even have a new post.

So I did some research into my stats and referral sites and I found the explanation.

Pinterest.

How To #1: Get People to Visit Your Blog

Put something on your blog Pinterest-worthy and let it fly.

Apparently someone liked my Birthday Boy Bouquet for Matt and they pinned it their page. And then apparently lots of people repinned it. And then other people repinned it again. Ant it multiplied, exponentially. Look here. See? I’m almost famous. That’s crazy.

Anyway, I was so excited from my new-found anonymous affirmation that I decided to maybe put a little more effort into my craft projects that I post here in hopes that they might soar all over the pinterest universe also.

Spread the crafty love, you know.

I’ve already posted projects such as Matt’s Room Makeover, Ashley’s Valentines Day Surprise and who can forget the Ice Skating Rink?

Anyway, so today’s project was another gift for Matt. (I am noticing a pattern that he is the most common outlet for my crafty experiments.)

His birthday was last month and as always, I wanted to get him something different. We aren’t spending a ton of money lately with the whole wedding planning thing going on, so I tried to get creative.

I remember going to visit my friend Lauren Beaman’s house in Knoxville years ago and she had this awesome world map on the wall. It was on a canvas and in 3 pieces. It was for her and her husband Casey to put pins in for all of the places they had and would travel. I thought this would be a great gift for Matt as we both value traveling and have already been to so many amazing places.

I texted Lauren asking her where she got it and she told me that she got it from Pottery Barn years ago.

That’s not a problem of course because I knew that I could make one.

Let the craft project commence.

How Two #2: Make a Canvas Map

I got 3 canvases from Michael’s – one slightly wider than the other two and all three were the same height. I bought a world map ($7.99) from Barnes and Noble.

*Important Note: The size of the map needs to be larger than the size of all of your canvases put together so that it will fit over all of them.

(I recommend getting a map from a bookstore or online. If you buy them at Office Max or a Parent Teacher Store, they are bright primary colors for kids to learn and don’t have the rustic look that this one does.)

I also got sewing pins, Mod Podge and a sponge brush.

This was a really easy project. (So easy and fast that I forgot to take pictures of each step.)

Step 1: Lay the map over the 3 canvases and cut it into 3 pieces. You also may want to cut off any unattractive border on the map.

Step 2: Coat each canvas with Mod Podge and wrap the corresponding map piece on it like a present.

Step 3: Let dry and hang on the wall with about 2″ of space in between each piece.

I gave it to Matt without putting the pins in because I wanted him to pick his color and us do it together. We sat on the couch at his house and had so much fun putting pins in all of the places we had been.

Matt: Blue Pins
Christy: Pink Pins
Places we’ve gone together: Green Pins

We ran out of pins so we need to get some more but you get the idea.

So there are your two How To’s for today: Increase blog traffic and a fun, cheap, interactive and thoughtful present.

Now head to the craft store and go create something!

However, since our team here is in the process of updating some videos for my page on the Speaker’s website, they went ahead and changed my name. They said it takes a while for the google words to catch up and they want any media interviews done between now and then to be “Christy Wright” so that it’s accurate when they reference them on the website forever after May 5.

So starting today, in the YouTube world, I am known as Christy Wright. These videos will be uploaded to my page on Daveramsey.com later with an updated bio and references but until then, you get a sneak peek.

Here are 3 separate segment from my talk to a group of military wives at Fort Carson in Colorado this past September .