If You Throw Enough Mud

I partnered with my friends over at 163 Design Company on this post and there are a few affiliate links included.

This post is written straight from my heart.

Do you have a person in your life who makes you believe in yourself?

Just their words can lift your spirits?  Their advice can change your whole mood and make you believe in yourself again?

Oh, you do?  I do too. That person for me is my dad.

Let me give you a bit of background first. In my life I’ve seen my dad succeed and fail.  Sometimes I learned more from the failures.  How to continue on.  To keep fighting for what you believe.  I’ve seen dreams come true and I’ve also seen hard times. My dad is now 78 years old and through the years he’s taught me so much but the most important lesson – the need to persevere.

When I was in elementary school my father lost his job. He was out of work for two years trying to find just the right thing. He wanted to own his own company. To be his own boss. These two years were very hard for my family trying to make ends meet. I also treasured the time I did get to spend with him during the day when he usually would have been at work. We’d walk across the street to the open field and hit golf balls (my dad was a fantastic golfer) and I loved doing this with him. He’d also take me for nature walks or we’d go for ice cream cones (somehow I always managed to be covered in ice cream and my dad would always need to lick around the edge of the cone). This time period brought us even closer.  I saw my dad differently than I saw him before.

Toward the end of the two year period my parents fell in love with an old, dilapidated building.  You know I like old houses, but this was almost like the Money Pit if you saw that movie. The building was a colonial mansion on the historic register but it was in a sorry state.  There were gaping holes in the walls due to frozen pipes and flooding.  It was a mess.  But my parents saw something. My dad saw a dream.  A glimpse of something that could be with lots of hard work. He’d always dreamed of owning a restaurant.

They spent a few months restoring the building and he did all the landscaping.  They opened just in time for Christmas. The opening night was a roaring success followed by a rather quiet night the next – only two people came in for dinner and my dad thought for sure he’d made a mistake.  Owning a restaurant is a lot of work and my dad put in many hours.  He worked from sun up to sun down and into the wee hours of the morning.  He went through bankruptcy. He had a stroke while at work. I remember going to see him in the hospital, that feeling of being helpless.

My mom did the party planning and seating.  My dad bartended and I, well, I cleared tables, I waitressed and then I bartented when my dad found it too hard to be on his feet all day.  They owned the restaurant for 11 years and it took some time but in the end it was so successful that it got too much for them to maintain.  They retired to live by the sea in Scituate and that is how Luke and I fell in love with the town we now call home.

In good times and in bad I’ve always looked to my dad for guidance. When I was working on a papers for college, I’d call my dad and read him my final drafts.  Can you imagine him trying to make drinks and listen to my paper?!? When in England, after doing my masters degree, I couldn’t get a job. I’d call and talk to my dad EVERY day.  I definitely think I went through a little depression during this time. Then I landed my first job – a dream job working at TWI in their Entertainment and Factual Departments making TV Shows.

All these times, I’d call my dad for help and guidance and approval. He’d always say to me,

“Dani, if you throw enough mud, some will stick.”

This phrase has stuck with me my entire life.

If you try and stick to your dreams and never give up hope, you’ll succeed.

I saw first hand what perseverance will do with my parents.  How their hard work paid off. Sometimes I think people give up too soon.  If they only just hung on for  awhile longer maybe it would have worked out.

Do you feel the same?

Anyway, my friend Jennifer, who’s family owns 163 Design Company, asked me if I’d like to work with them on a phrase in their canvas letter line and I told her that yes, I would love to but it needed to be this phrase.

Their canvas covered letters start with environmentally friendly and completely safe eucalyptus board. Trees are grown in sustainable farms, harvested, ground into pulp, then heat pressed into 1/8 inch thick boards. No glue or formaldehyde used! Then the canvas is secured and the letters laser cut.

I love how these letters look in my home office which is still a work in progress but I’m hoping to have a reveal in the New Year.

I really love their letters and think they make great gifts too.

You may remember the Seaside letters by them that I have out in the shed:

The letters are so easy to secure. We simply use Command Strips to hang them.

163 Design Company has so many fun sayings, signs and wooden jewelry.  Great gift options too.  A huge thank you to them for making this sign for me.

Don’t the letters look wonderful? Now, when I’m feeling a bit down while I’m at my desk I can simply look up and be inspired by my dad’s words.