Girl's Night Out | HeartStories

Courage to grow up

As we’re approaching the third birthday of the HeartStories Girls Night Out, I’ve been looking through old photographs of the 36 GNO’s we’ve hosted in the past. This pic is from our very first GNO Birthday celebration. In June of 2017, we celebrated 80’s style, at our “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” party down at Big D Party Rentals warehouse. There are SO many hilarious and fun pictures of that incredible night, thanks to Meggie Taylor Photography. (If you need a good laugh, you can see the rest of them right here) We played 80’s arcade games, made friendship pins, laughed, danced, and ate a giant birthday cake.

It was really quite the party!

But when I look back, one of my favorite things about that party was seeing all the women who showed up so courageously dressed in their 80’s get-ups. It turns out that once you hit a certain …

There’s nothing that screams grown-up birthday celebration quite like flaming fireworks shooting out of a Nothing Bundt Cake inside a swanky restaurant. That was certainly the case at our recent gathering to celebrate my beautiful friend Britney. She’s a friend who loves to celebrate special moments for all of us, which makes it all the more fun to celebrate her. Give her a reason to celebrate, and she’ll radiate pure joy and sunshine (or flaming sparklers as the case may be).

But for many of us, celebrating adult birthdays can easily get lost by the wayside.

Time is moving so fast, and because we often wish it wasn’t, we’d rather sweep the birthdays under the proverbial rug, and pretend they didn’t happen. We’re so busy with all our adult responsibilities that it seems trivial, if not wasteful, to stop to celebrate a date on the calendar that only points to the inevitable …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love in Friendship Loving Yourself Our Story Purpose The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

Noah and Scott just returned from their big 13th birthday father/son trip. They filled their every moment with sightseeing and adventure. It was truly a dream come true for both of them. Meanwhile Oaks and I stayed behind, guarding the post, and carrying on with our usual lives for the most part, except . . .

We decided to make every night a “mama date”.

We got his favorite food. We watched movies. We jumped on the trampoline. By becoming his sole companion for the week, I was reminded of just how much companionship those boys share. So upon their return, it filled my mama heart with joy to watch Noah excitedly share the memorabilia that he specifically chose for Oakley while on the trip. His selections weren’t costly, but they were incredibly thoughtful. They were gifts from a friend who knows him well. Even though it seems like 90% of their relationship …

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It’s been a few days (maybe a whole week!) since we met here on the blog. I’m citing the image above from Vanessa Corral, of all the lovely ladies from our Confident Spring Style Fashion show, as the evidence of my “hall pass”. (kidding, not kidding) Pulling off a fashion show at that level, as one of our regularly scheduled events was, in every way, more than we could actually handle. It was a wild, hair-brained idea on my part. Just picture me as Thanos, saying “I am inevitable!” and snapping his fingers. . . if you saw Endgame, you know what happened next. (If not, you’re not missing much. #boys)

Of course, I do not think for one second that I am inevitable.

But this time, I had this wonderful vision, that would typically take a team three to four times the size of ours, eight months to a year …

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When I opened up our newsletter last night I loved seeing this image of Carly Burson. She’s my beloved friend, and our featured guest for the Confident Spring Style GNO fashion show tomorrow night. Carly was actually our very first GNO featured guest in April of 2016, so it’s incredibly fitting that she’s back, three years later to share her beautiful story with us on the runway!

This picture embodies everything I know and love about Carly.

She’s the Founder and CEO of Tribe Alive, a sustainable fashion company based out of Fort Worth, dedicated to hiring at-risk women as a way to pull them out of poverty.

But it’s never been just a business plan, or a marketing ploy for Carly.

She’s on a mission to completely reform the fashion industry, because she cares SO deeply about humanity. As a result the work the she does is harder, it takes longer, and …

by Crystal Gornto Fashion Friday Female Social Entrepreneurs Girl's Night Out Inspiration Inspirational Women Love In Action Loving Others Loving Yourself Leave a comment chat

If you missed the video I took this screenshot from, you missed a barrel of laughs. At least we were laughing a lot. I actually tried to capture us laughing even harder, but apparently ruckus laughter while trying to hold a phone still for a live video don’t pair well together for a clear, focused image. Who knew! I wanted to share this moment with you even though the image isn’t the best, because we never thought to actually take a picture. We were too busy “going live” and being EXCITED!

But it’s a moment that represents the heart behind everything I do with HeartStories, so bear with me on the photo.

Libba asked me several weeks ago if we could put a date on the calendar to get together just to catch up. This rarely happens since life is moving so fast for both of us in this season. Of course, …

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Girl’s Night Out

Courage to grow up

It’s not about the number

Thick as thieves

You with us?

So much more than just clothing

Beyond the surface