Thank you to all of you who made it to my 55th Birthday celebration this Friday at the Clayton at the Park! What a fun evening – I am so blessed to have so many wonderful clients/friends. I cannot tell you how much I think of all of you and what an honor it has been to design your homes. I am so glad I got the chance to say thank you!
I realize what my career has been and will continue to be about. It’s about creating……creating homes, that creates a way of life for my clients. It’s aboutthe teamwork and relationships that have been created during the design and construction of these homes. It’s about our trips to Italy and the way that trip has changed my traveler’s lives and way of living. It’s about changing people’s perspective on how to experience life.
I’ve never lived in a home I have designed. Maybe someday. I have enjoyed spending an evening or weekend in some of my homes and of course I spend most of that time analyzing what I could do to make the next project even better. What I really love is the time with my clients/friends and learning about them! You see – no two people live the same way. We sleep at different times and in different ways, we get ready for our day differently, we go to work differently, we cook and entertain in endless ways, we read, watch tv, listen to music, all differently. Everyone lives at a different tempo. I am about accentuating that tempo and our architecture and homes are about the maximization of what makes each client tick.
Well this party culminated that way of thinking and approach – 18 years with CCBG and now 16 years heading Candelaria Design. To have so many of you there from both my CCBG days and now Candelaria Design was fantastic. You have all been there for me through so much both professionally and personally. As I said in my speech my life is my career and my career is my life – it all blends together. My daughter Isabella, summed it up….”Dad you don’t have any friends??? Just clients…..” Yes that’s right…. Because my clients are all my friends and my best friends all started as clients, builders, vendors….
So with that said, I have surrounded myself and have built our Candelaria Design Team with a staff that embraces this same thinking and passion for design, creating and life. They get it and its so fun to teach and share that passion because that’s what changes a job into a way of life.
At 55 its time to start the transition in my life and give the opportunity to pass the Candelaria Design torch to those who have given their time and melded their life towards this company and profession. So with pride and joy we have started the transition with the official announcement of my two new partners/associates, Evelyn Jung and Vivian Ayala. These two have given their heart and soul to Candelaria Design and truly understand the essence of what we are about and can carry this soul on.
I am not leaving….yet. I still have a ten year old and thirteen year old daughter and so I still have college educations to take care of so I will keep working and drawing and creating – I love it. But we will start the transition so that my role will move more towards the soul of this company - enhancing lifestyle - and less with the day to day operation of the company. I’m looking forward to being focused strictly on design, writing some books, painting, speaking, traveling and adding to our repertoire of trips to Italy and adding trips to Spain, France, and here in the US and the design of some new lines of products.
So thank you for all being a part of this adventure and creating my life. Wow – as I said that evening, I had no idea when I moved here in 1979 from Durango, Colorado, not knowing one person, that a night like Friday was somewhere down the road……Now who knows how we will be celebrating or what we will be celebrating 15 years from now? Needless to say, we are all looking forward to and ready for the ride!
