Happy Father's Day!

#HappyFathersDay ! Wishing an enjoyable day to those pouring out their hearts to raising future generations #LeadThem #DadsDay

Your Mrs. Great Plains International,
Maggi

NeoCon 2014 Rewind

Greetings!
  This week was a whirlwind venturing the halls of Chicago's Merchandise Mart for North America's largest design expo....NeoCon. People from all over the world gather to see the latest and greatest in everything from furniture and finish materials, to lighting and technology. 3 Days of 8 floors and tens of thousands of square feet of innovation. If you have never been to NeoCon and after reading this want to go next year, here are my top 3 tips:

1. Come prepared! Mark floorplans and research vendors before coming. Time goes VERY quick over 3 days and there is so much to see!
2. Bring two pairs of shoes...and band-aids:) When you are meeting people from all over the world and especially representing someone, it is important to always be professional and look your best to feel your best. I bring one pair of heels and one pair of classy business flats. The flats are when walking to and from my hotel and then it is heel time.
3. Take stairs. Ok, NeoCon is pretty infamous for this, despite double digit elevators to move people, you will wait in line forever to ride one. Besides the fact you can get where you are going quicker, it is great exercise...keep that heart pumping!

Enjoy the below, hopefully it sparks your inner creative self!
Warm Regards,
Maggi Thorne
Your Mrs. Great Plains International 2014

 Finally, my NeoCon 2014 Rewind:

Top 10 Trends:

• Open Office Benching
• Felt  (it was everywhere...)
• Adjustable height desks
• Work Place Personalization
• Open but Private office 
• The Untraditional "cubicle"
• Staying plugged in. Integrated technology is now a must, not an option
• "Isolation" chairs
• High Back Booths
• Nontraditional carpet tiles

Haworth won me over for it's open office benching with it's simplicity, overall design, function and technology integration. Not to mention it has a great look to it.

Felt is all the rage. This Eco-Friendly highly durable material was everywhere and on everything. Personally I am not a fan of it for comfort factor, but I love the eco-friendly side of it

Knoll's adjustable height desk controlled with your tablet made it stand out amongst it's competitors. With so many adjustable height tables now, companies need something to set this great employee friendly option apart.

Knoll's downloadable app for the adjustable height table

Steelcase did a great show showcasing different personalities in their workplace with a well blended showroom. Employees want to feel at home...at work. Personalization can be risky as the employer, but if they get it right, there will be much more reward from a happy productive worker.

Haworth's Openest line creativity gave it a leg up when comparing the "new" standard cubicle...which is anything but square from lines across the board.

With technology buzzing in everyone's pocket, it is critical now to stay plugged in. It is no longer an option, but a requirement for any desk, chair, you name it...to have technology a part of the integrated design.

Ok. I'll admit it. I don't get this trend. Every time seeing a chair like this in a showroom, it just felt like Darth Vader would walk out at any moment.

This high back booth at Davis was well coordinated. This style is not new, but it is certainly trending heavily alongside the open but private trend.

Wrapping up the trends is the newest wave in carpet design...no more squares! Carpet has slowly progressed away from the traditional two options of broadloom and tiles and now anything goes. Patcraft set themselves apart with the new mixed materials and unique shape.

As Heidi Klum would say "You are either in, or you're out". What's "Out":

• Picnic Settings (Turstone did this years ago with their campfire line starting the trend, but it has reached it's lifespan)
• Hexagons. I love shapes...really. This shape has now been overused in design

• Best New Lounge Chairs:

Haworth Pouf

Haworth Pouf

Stylex Ridge

Coalesse Visalia Lounge

Best Customer Service from a company I didn't already know the rep:

• Arcadia.  After browsing their showroom for a few minutes, a very kind many walked over saying he had noticed be walking around looking and if I had any questions, looking for anything specific and in the most genuine way possible. He was one of the kindest relatable people...he also turned out to be the President of Arcadia. This really stood out to me for a company president to not only be present, but setting the standard for customer service.

 Breath of Fresh Air in design:
 3-form wall panels. While wall panels are nothing new, but their shapes are new and interesting.


Peaked my Curiosity:

•  SixInch rubber coated foam. Comfy, cool, durable
• Blofield inflatable furniture. I liked the eco friendliness of it for production and shipping. Unsure of how well it would hold a 350lb lineman :)

 Best Showroom:

Mohawk's Breaking Form was designed so well, I visited twice just to see it again because it was creative!

 

Mohawks breaking form

The Countdown: "The Team" Week 2 Re-Cap

 Thank you for joining this journey friends! Week 2 of the re-cap is here and I am SO excited to share about "The Team" . These are people who are the experts of all experts and clear the way so I can focus on the most important matter of all: Soles4Souls. Instead of spending hours worrying about the right dress, days writing our the best meal plan or even or stressting about my hair and makeup, everyone below is a HUGE part of this journey. They are a blessing more than they will ever know and in a platform based pageant like the International Pageant system it is so exciting to truly spend a great deal of time serving Soles4Souls. Rounding out The Team is of course my family. If my family cannot be a part of something and walk by my side in it, then it is not for me. The International Pageant system and Soles4Souls has become my extended family who loves me as me and is always extremely encouraging. 

Warm Wishes and Many Smiles,

Your Mrs. Great Plains International 2014

 

The Countdown...

The weekly re-cap of the official countdown to #MrsInternational2014 of all of the #FactofTheDay and #ByTheNumbers from the last week as we kicked off the countdown!

Reminder you can get the day by day posts by following on twitter and instagram @Nvr_GvUp
and facebook at Maggi Thorne.

Thank you for all of the support!
Your Mrs. Great Plains International 2014
Maggi :)

Tough Mudder | WTM 2013 Documentary | Official Event Video

The Worlds Toughest Mudder 2013 Documentary video was finally released and I am officially signed up for 2014 to once again run for Soles4Souls. Grace in my life and the passion to run for others to brnig hope and love helped pushed me through to 75 miles. I Run for Them. #GiveShoesGiveLove



Featured at 3:38, 9:20 and 10:43 and 13:46



Enjoy and here is to 2014!



Your Mrs. Great Plains International 2014,

Maggi

Honoring our Hereos

Here is to wishing you and your family a Memorial Day that is full of memories and thoughts of those who have paid a price for our freedom.

#HonoringOurHeroes

Picture Courtesy American Heart Association

Life. Death.

There has certainly been a lot going on in my life recently with a major Soles4Souls shoe drive and American Ninja Warrior which I will be posting about next week, but this post has been on my mind alot with a topic near and dear to my heart...the loss of loved ones in our lives.

He passed away Saturday during surgery, age 35.
She died from a heart attack getting ready in the shower for her cardiologist appointment, age 48.
He killed himself age 38.
She died in a car accident, age 24.
She died of a brain aneurysm, age 8.

 Over the last 14 days there has been a cloud of death of people I am close to, or someone I am close to who is best friends with the person who passed. Regardless, a loss of life is a loss of life and it can make anyone's heart hurt.
 
 Eyes straining to stay open driving home from a late night prepping for our Greatest Shoe Drive on Earth campaign, pulling in to my garage phone buzzing in my pocket with social media notice's. Sitting in the garage the bright screen awakened my eyes a little, but scrolling through the news feed I saw something that brought me from groggy to gasping with alertness. A friend's best friend took his own life. The light in my garage turned off, and now sitting in darkness with a steering wheel covered in tears it felt like I could not text my friend fast enough to see if they were doing ok. I am not a crier per say, but this. This hit home. 30 minutes passed, but in darkness and the quite of a car it was the most comforting place to be at that moment.

  Every single day...and I mean every. single. day. I think of my brother and my best friend. Some days it feels like I am still there, standing next to their coffins at two different points in time. The world standing almost still as other people mourned and grieved. It was a time of quiet for me at the funeral's, reality did not set in. Moments of tears came and went, but briefly. The sobbing that emerges from the depth of your soul came months later. Two suicides. Pain. Suffering, tormented minds with feelings of no other option or a gleam of hope. Missed opportunities to love someone who was silently crying out for help.

  THIS is why I do what I do. My calling is to love people beyond boundaries, prejudice, judgement, beliefs and any situation. All of the things I did not do before in a life lived in a constant selfish state of achieving goals for personal gain. Present day...now taking the gifts I was given and using them to open doors of opportunity to show and share a message of Love, Hope and Never Giving Up. Sitting at the feet of children washing them letting them know they matter. I feel like it is the story of the man walking along the sand with thousands of starfish strewn across the beach picking them up one by one to throw them back in the ocean. He may not be able to save everyone, but the one's he holds in his hands and shows them love...to that one it matters. As ideal as world peace would be, we don;t live in that world. We DO however live in a world that still has alot of good. One at a time, that is something ALL of us can be a part of.

On our fridge at home, there is a photo of my brothers and I when we were very young. It is at eye height and it catches my gaze many times during a day. Someday's just standing in front of the fridge staring at it. A moment of joy. Happiness. Innocence. A time when the world seemed wonderful and we were too young to know any better.

Left my Brother James age 10, me in the middle age 1 and Brother Mark age 8

People often wonder how I have the energy to do so many things constantly. Number one is God and Grace. Number two, a fire burns inside fueling me to Never Give Up on bringing love and hope to people across the globe. Number 3, my family, helping raise a generation of caring, compassionate leaders. It is what keeps me moving through 24 hour obstacle races, global travel, 38 hours of setting out and collecting shoes. 

If there is someone in your life that needs to be loved by you today. Do It. Can people open up to you easily to share what seems so scary to share, but once they do it is freeing? Put yourself in a position to be there for others, what are you waiting for? If you already do, that is absolutely wonderful because people need you.

Live Inspired. Live with Passion. Live with Love,
 Maggi
Your Mrs. Great Plains International 2014