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by christina britt lewis did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up? seems some people are born knowing. and then there are the rest of us. mollie knows. at thirteen she already knows she wants to be a designer. our world needs more people who seek and find and make beauty. we need lovers of the light to show us the way out of the darkness. mollie fills me with hope for the future. she is already my hero and this is her home...  before...  after...   before...  after...   before...  after...   our world needs mollie and our world needs you. we need you. think about it this way, if you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself, you hurt your children. you hurt me. you hurt the planet. you shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God. creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention... it's a gift to the world and every being in it. don't cheat us your contribution. give us what you've got. - from the war of art by steven pressfield what are you waiting for?
xo... christina for all by christina britt lewis everybody keeps asking how exactly i lost 30 pounds, but i don't think they really want to hear the answer. it's notsomuch about what we eat and what we don't eat. tim and i both got super healthy because of delayed gratification, sacrifice, redefining pleasure, and mostly, we are persistent AF. before and after...  people want a quick fix, 12 steps, a point system, or a plan. we have none of that to offer. we tried all of that. none of that worked for us for long. it's like everything else in life... getting what we want is more of a mental shift than a physical one. we have to change our minds before we can change our lives. we have to decide that we want to feel great and be healthy more than we want chik-fil-a. once we change our minds, the rest is easy. i don't think it really matters which food path we follow. be it vegan, paleo, weight watchers or what have you, the secret to success is persistence. like everything worth having... we are not booked all over the country until kingdom come 'cause we are the best designers in the world. we are in such high demand because we are relentless in our dedication to client happiness. we never give up. we never quit. we bend over backwards. we give up our right to be right for the sake of the relationship. every time. we take the loss. we sacrifice. we mean it when we say we are not happy if you are not happy. we persist. if we want to get healthy, we are the only thing in our own way. we hold all the cards. we have all the power. the weight we weigh is a choice we make. not something that happens to us. we got ourselves where we are and we can change where we are. just like that. all we have to do is decide. choose. sacrifice our right to drive-thru. lol... and persist. like hell. weighing less than you did in high school is not the answer to all things like we hope. if we are not big and happy, we will not be little and happy. skinny does not make the people who broke your heart go away. we carry them with us. what they said. what they did. they stay with us. always. but feeling great about yourself helps you see that there was never anything wrong with you. hurt people hurt people. it is as simple as that. we gotta let that go and move on. peace that passes understanding comes from complete acceptance of who we are on the inside. let's spend more energy working on who we are than what we look like. so how do we change our minds? we educate ourselves. watch documentaries. read books. decide for ourselves which path to follow. tim and i both have a history of cognitive decline in our families. our boys are graduating from college and high school in 2019. our nest is almost empty. cole is going to live abroad, most likely. camden is going to make it all the way to the NFL, most likely. we bought a 4 story townhouse in the city... we want to climb the stairs to our rooftop deck, travel the world to spend time with our boys, and have intellectually stimulating conversations at our kitchen table... for like ever. we are both almost 50. call it a mid-life catharsis, if you want. we decided to make food our medicine. we decided to get healthy. so we did. and if we can, you can. before and after...  it's like religion or politics or anything...
the experts do not agree with each other. decide for yourself. your maker did not leave you here unequipped. so many rivers but they all reach the sea. trust yourself. and then persist like hell. xo... christina for all and for everyone who is going to keep asking... plants, wild caught seafood, nuts, olive oil, red wine, champagne, dark chocolate and that's about it. but you do you. by christina britt lewis i want to have friends that i can trust that love me for the (wo)man i'll become, not the (wo)man that i was and i want to have friends that let me be all alone when being alone is all that i need... i want to have pride like my mother has and not like the kind in the bible that turns you bad i want to have friends that i can trust that love me for the (wo)man i'll become, not the (wo)man that i was - the avett brothers and me feels like i've been in hibernation for... like... almost a year and four months. ahem... grateful for friends who let me be alone when being alone is all that i need. and grateful for friends who say "enough already! get your shit together. we have work to do." so i've been getting my shit together... downsized again! bought a townhouse in the city with a rooftop deck and a killer view of the skyline. downsized my jeep. got a pretty little two door. downsized the company. no more workshops and weekends. for now, anyway. downsized myself. lost thirty pounds. #thankstrump lol... downsized my closet. nothing fits. so i gave it all away and bought a few things i really love. like this french sailor shirt and jeans from old navy....  wore it two days in a row because... when our new client opened her front door, she gasped, eyed me up and down, and said... make my home all navy, cream, and cognac with a little bit of gold. make my home look just like you. so get used to this outfit, my people. i will wear it every day. been wearing french sailor shirts since high school. and navy, cream, and cognac with a little bit of gold has always been my favorite...     i do want to have pride. like my mother has. and not like the kind in the bible that turns you bad. the things that make me the most proud? 1. tim, cole, and camden lewis 2. our houzz reviews here's the latest one... I interviewed multiple designers before settling on The Redesign Company to redesign our living room/kitchen. They are hands down the BEST in their field. My husband and I were moving into a new construction home from an apartment in South Charlotte, and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the transition and multiple decisions needed in selecting new furniture. My home felt empty and current pieces uncoordinated, and this was where Christina and Kelly came in. From the moment they stepped into my home, I felt at ease. I could sense that they ‘got it’. Part of this is their easygoing and kind personalities, but also the multiple years of experience that they bring to the field and in ‘making homes happy’. Christina and Kelly selected the perfect pieces for my home. I could have spent hours and hours searching for these items (and it still wouldn’t have been as wonderful as what The Redesign Company selected), but Christina and Kelly got it immediately and made the process seamless. Contrast with the other design firms I interviewed which didn’t afford a lot of transparency on cost (hidden fees, mark-ups, limited sourcing to only select high/end vendors) and would have been more expensive. With The Redesign Company, you know what you are paying for up front and you get HGTV worthy styles at half the cost because they understand that you don’t have to pay a fortune to have a beautiful home. if you are hibernating like i was, enough already!
we need you. get your shit together. we have work to do. making homes happy... because it's the way we know how to make our world a better place. it's the thing we do best. what do you do best? go do that. we need you. christina for all by christina britt lewis kelly and i go home at the end of every tuesday and thursday and wait. some people text right away. some people text the next morning. as proud as we are of every redesign, the most important thing is the happiness of the people. we mean it when we say that we are not happy if you are not happy. so we wait. 99% of the people have loved everything for like fifteen years, but we still hold our breath a little. we didn't wait long last thursday, her happy text came right away. people say the sweetest things. they cry. we cry. redesign is emotional business. to finally love coming home is life changing. kelly and i sunk a little deeper into our sofas and texted each other fist bumps and dancing women. it doesn't get much better than that. until it does... the next day we got an email from him... Dear Christina and Kelly, I was driving home on Thursday excited to see what was done. The left side of my brain was saying "I can't wait", while the right side was saying "don't expect too much" and "how can we possibly get our money's worth on this?" Let me just say, I'm sitting in our office, looking out the window, breathing deep, drinking coffee and asking: "Why didn't we have you in a long time ago?" Earlier, when I woke up in our bed, all I could think about was how nice our room is. Ok - we replaced a queen with a king, we now have MORE storage, its beautiful AND it feels way bigger AND we have open space...C'mon, thats impossible! I absolutely love our living room. I actually feel like we have some style and it is so comfortable - I can now lay on the chaise and watch TV! There is a flow to the style. Our place is now really cool! Thank you for exceeding our expectations... The left side of my brain is now saying to the right side, you got your ### kicked on this one! Thanks, (Happy Client) before...  after...        dear happy client, thank you for one of the greatest emails we ever received. thank you for telling your story. we are so happy you and yours are so happy. you got me thinking about how we are all just waiting for something. you got remembering "oh the places you'll go" by dr. seuss... The Waiting Place… …for people just waiting. Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting. NO! That’s not for you! Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where the Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy! Oh, the places you’ll go! what if we stopped waiting? making homes happy, christina for everyone at the redesign company by christina britt lewis they said to make it weird. there are no rules. home can be whatever makes you happy. if a hammock makes you happy, hang a hammock in your home. be weird. weird is fun... before...  after...         xo... christina for all |