Month in Review | September 2024

- Shared the story of Shari Biery, veteran Navy spouse, mom, founder and health/life coach at Alive With Purpose, and author of It’s Your Turn: How to Rediscover Yourself, Prioritize Your Well-Being, and Thrive With Purpose, in our Meet a Milspouse interview series.

- Enjoyed our 4th annual Charliemadison Retreat in the mountains of Virginia. We stayed at the most incredible house perched in the treetops at the top of the mountain. It was like our own treehouse in the woods and we loved every minute of it. Here were a few of our favorite retreat moments:

• The stunning view out every window on the back of the house
• Glass windows on the entire back of the house with a view from every room
• The flock of turkey vultures that put on a show for us all three days - perching on the roof of the house and diving off into the valley - circling, then flying back. We even had one that perched on the deck right outside our window.
• Family time - we convinced Brian to work from our rental house and he joined us on day 2. Having Charlotte with us rounded out the family and we enjoyed dinner together around the table with wine and great food.
• The absolute joy and gratitude I felt spending time with my three favorite humans in a place that makes my soul feel at peace - my heart was incredibly happy!

- Collaborated with the Space Force spouses of Guardian Spouse Candid Conversations to create the In Our Orbit Bracelet to bring awareness to their mission of fostering a sense of community, connection, and support within the Space Force family. 

- Redesigned a community favorite bracelet, Milspo Strong, in a new color combo with small, sparklier gemstones. We made 300 bracelets for the Military Influencer Conference, where we gifted them to military spouses at the MilspouseFest event.

This month's Community Favorite Bracelet was: The Army Strong Bracelet - one of the Tiny Stackers bracelets in the our September launch of the new Branch Strong Collection

Our Favorite Customer Review of the Month:

"You are the best!!! Your bracelets are high quality. I am truly addicted. I wear 3 every day. That is my norm. And I wear them with a gold bracelet that I never take off. They always look good together no matter which color I pick. I have a lot of your bracelets and always get compliments on them." ~Roni G.

Wendy’s September Favorites:

- In the Kitchen: We've been watching Jamie Oliver's show on Taste Made and I love how a few simple ingredients transform into something so delicious. This Greek Chicken Pasta was so good and we froze the leftover sauce (without pasta) and pulled it out on a weeknight when we just had to boil some pasta and add the defrosted sauce. Amazing!

- Watching: We started a new series, Royal Pains on Netflix - it's an older show and has lots of seasons, but it's lighthearted, funny, and we always learn something new about medicine and science every time we watch.

- Grateful for: The opportunity to work with some amazing military spouses and organizations that support military families to create meaningful and special bracelets for their groups. I am honored and humbled that Charliemadison bracelets are being slipped on so many new wrists!

Madison’s September Favorites:

- Near the beginning of the month, I celebrated my 2 year anniversary with my boyfriend! The two of us love celebrating normal days, small moments, and the big moments trying new restaurants in Washington D.C. Sometimes we also go to our reliable favorite places that we can’t get enough of. But for our anniversary we went a little big by going to a Michelin star restaurant called Maydan, a Middle Eastern live fire restaurant. Now this place was recommended to us by many people, and I just have to say that this meal was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! A big draw to this restaurant is their tasting menu (called the Tawle menu), which offers you the chance to try 8 dishes, 3 spreads, 4 dips, and unlimited warm pita all for a set price. This truly was one of the best meals I have had in a long time, so flavorful, such fresh ingredients, the ability to mix and match flavors. Also the ambiance of the restaurant was unmatched, seeing the chef’s cook the food on the fire in the middle of the restaurant was entertaining. I was so stuffed after this meal, but it was 100% worth it, I was in heaven! We could not stop talking about this meal for days! Yes it is a bit pricey, but it is worth the price and the experience if you ever are in Washington D.C.

- Compared to Wendy, I am most definitely not a reader. In the last couple of years, I have struggled getting myself into reading and prioritizing time to read, since I personally would rather read a physical book than listen to an audio book. But one of my goals for 2024 was to get myself to start enjoying reading again, which I had not made any progress toward until this month. Back in August I ran across a new limited series on Netflix called A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, which I saw was based off of a book, and instead of just going ahead and watching the series I decided to order the book to read first. This month I started reading it and I have been LOVING this book! It is a murder mystery thriller genre and it will have you guessing after every chapter. I honestly can’t wait to finish reading the book because it is that good! This book is actually part of a series by Holly Jackson, so I will likely read the next in the series once I am finished with the first book.

- Grateful For: Having the opportunity to have lots of quality family time during our annual retreat in the Virginia mountains was truly so special. Once us girls were at the mountain house airbnb, which we had been eyeing to stay at for years, we knew my dad also needed to come and enjoy this time with us. I was so in love with the house we stayed in, the views alone were incredible, but the layout and design of the house was so unique. Definitely lots of inspo for Wendy and Brian’s future mountain home to retire to, which Charlotte and I will most definitely be visiting often!

- The last day of September kicked off our trip to the Military Influencer Conference in Atlanta! We will dive deeper into our experience and highlights in our October month recap. Our major highlight of that day was meeting this Golden Retriever Therapy Dog named Oliver at the baggage claim in the Atlanta airport. He was the sweetest and friendliest boy, decked out in his own hat with his name on it, bright red little booties on his feet, and a festive bandana...how could you not be obsessed with him! Check him out on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube at OliverGoldenTherapyDog. I loved meeting him and will never forget this special moment!

- Looking forward working with Air Force spouse, Laura Longmire, a personal wardrobe stylist at Where Life Meets Style to help me put a new perspective on my own personal style.

- Pulling out all the fall comfort recipes, including a few favorites like Gordon Ramsey's Spicy Sausage Rice and Jamie Oliver's Sweet Pea Oriechette.

- Watching on Hulu: Death and Other Details and Only Murders in the Building season 4 have been my go to shows recently. I can’t recommend both of these enough! Death and Other Details especially kept me hooked the entire series, there is plot twist after plot twist and it is hard to guess how the show all ends. (Madison)

"If money were the only thing people needed in order to live creative lives, then the mega-rich would be the most imaginative, generative, and original thinkers among us, and they simply are not. The essential ingredients for creativity remain exactly the same for everybody: courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, trust - and those elements are universally accessible. Which does not mean that creative living is always easy; it merely means that creative living is always possible." - Elizabeth Gilbert from "Big Magic"