Keep your eyes on these 10 women, all reader-nominated because they have found a way to live life fully as they pursue what they love — whether it is dancing, giving massages or providing investment advice.

We don’t need to see these women plastered on the cover of “Forbes” to recognize how they epitomize success. They represent a vivacious part of the community and deserve props for their devotion to their business or craft.    

1. Niara Eustace, 35, of Boulder
Founder and previous co-owner of Streetside Studios, www.streetsidedance.com

Niara Eustace

In January of 2007, Eustace founded Streetside Studios, a Boulder-based studio focusing on dance foundations, technique, character work, hip-hop and choreography with meaning.

Eustace, who grew up in Europe as a ballet dancer, says she opened the studio to provide a non-intimidating space where people could cultivate their inner artist.

“We really wanted the dance community here to have a place to express themselves artistically,” Eustace says.

Starting in 2010, Eustace decided to branch off to teach her own private classes, separate from Streetside. She is gearing up to start a smaller dance company of her own.

In addition to classes for kids, Streetside offers adult classes: hip-hop, ballet, modern fusion and salsa for $10 a class. Contact Eustace at niaradance@gmail.com.

What inspires you?
For dance: everything. Usually it’s music for movement. I learn a lot from watching other people, other dances, even kids. If I’m ever feeling blocked, I’ll put on music and watch my 3-year-old daughter dance. Kids hear, they feel and they move. They don’t think. Thinking gets in the way.

What’s your motto?

I have a goal for how I try to live every day: to live simply, not get caught up in all the drama and focus on what really matters.

What is something about you people would never guess?
A lot of people don’t know I spent 18 years of my life in Belgium and speak French. Or that I spent four months doing an internship in Paris in a neuroscience research lab.

What’s in your purse?
Kids’ socks, diapers, food, necklaces, four different kinds of lotion, nail-polish remover pads, flyers from the studio, window cleaner — really, everything.

2. Elyse Foster, 55, of Boulder
Principal of Harbor Financial Group, www.harborfin.com

Elyse Foster

Now the principal of the company, Foster pursues another dream: connecting with youth. She recently created a paid internship for recent graduates to work at Harbor Financial Group and learn the ins and outs of investment advising.

“I designed a training program where for two years I teach them everything I possibly can about wealth management up to ownership,” Foster says.

While driven in her career, Foster says she’s just as passionate about her family.

What inspires you?
I like helping people. I also love the challenge of putting all these separate pieces together and all the disciplines that go into a person’s life, not only financial but also personal. And this whole next generation. I am very passionate about bringing these young people along.

What’s your motto?
I am my own best competition. I really drive myself — I’d like to think in a good way — at every level. I don’t look around at what other people are doing.

What is something about you people would never guess?
I am a more vulnerable person than it might seem. I’m a very creative person, but I’m also a very private person.

What’s in your fridge?
Lots of organic fruits and vegetables. Soy milk. A bottle of white wine, almost always. And cheese. I like really lovely cheeses.

3. Traci Brown, 35, of Boulder
Personal trainer for your mind, www.tracibrown.com

Traci Brown

At the end of her athletic career as a three-time United States collegiate cycling champion and member of the U.S. cycling team, Brown realized her next path involved the mental aspect of cycling.

“What was going on in my mind was the primary factor that determined my success,” Brown says.

Trained in neuro-linguistics, huna (a Hawaiian spiritual healing practice) and hypnosis, Brown now helps clients get at the unconscious roots of their problems to make fast, profound changes in their lives. While many of her clients are athletes, others are also people struggling with chronic pain, depression, abuse, neglect or phobias. Recently, Brown published her book, “Mastering Magical Persuasion,” which discusses unconscious persuasion in body language. It can only be purchased through her website.

What inspires you?
Excellence inspires me. I love to see people who are really good at what they do.

What is your motto?
Excuses are the tools that allow you to deny the truth and destroy opportunity.

What is something about you most people would never guess?
I dance Hawaiian hula. It gives me a little bit of aloha here on the mainland.

What is in the back seat of your car?
I have a pickup, and that’s where my dog lies.

4. Jeannette McVoy, 63, of Lafayette
Distributor for Send Out Cards, www.sendoutcards.com/mcvoy

Jeanette McVoy

After a 39-year career in nursing, Jeannette McVoy retired and began selling greeting card software through Send Out Cards, a company that prints and mails cards after the user creates them online.

“Now I can do what I want, when I want, with whom I want,” McVoy says.

While businesses use the greeting cards as a relational tool for clients and employees, McVoy personally uses the software to connect to relatives she had not seen in years. She believes working for Send Out Cards encourages her to break through her shyness and become a better businessperson, wife, mother and grandmother.

What inspires you?
I love what Zig Ziglar says: “You can have everything you want in life if you help others get what they want.” I love helping people and showing people appreciation.

What is your motto?
I wake up every day and send an unexpected card to someone I care about without any intention of getting anything back.

What is something about you people would never guess?
At the age of 59, I did my first cross-country ski marathon in St. Moritz, Switzerland. I am into health and working out every day.

What’s in the back seat of your car?
I have two car seats for my grandchildren.

5. Leslie Jones, 39, of Longmont
President and founder of the Inneractive Institute, www.inneractiveinstitute.com

Leslie Jones

Formerly known as Jones Associates, the Inneractive Institute aims to educate, coach and provide training programs for business leaders, consultants and other clients who seek to fulfill their dreams and intentions. Clients range from top-level managers to yoga instructors to legal firms.

“Every day when I’m interacting with prospects, clients, and colleagues… I get to experience human potential,” Jones says. “And there’s such a richness to the relationships in my community. It’s a gift.”

What inspires you?
Deeply connecting with other people, as well as witnessing and guiding other people to see their greatness.

What’s your motto?
It’s something like, “This is it.” This is your life. Live it now. My life purpose is being loving and alive. The power in love and living on the edge. There is so much available when you’re present to the moment and the day. I love this quote: “The way that we spend our days is the way that we spend our lives.”

What is something about you people would never guess?
I used to be terrified to be a leader and public speaker. Terrified. During my training to become a presenter, I used to not be able to eat for 24 hours.

What is something from your past that you just can’t get rid of?
I have my teddy bear from when I was an infant. It’s red and white. The other things are stories. My mom was a great storyteller.

6. CJ McCarthy, 52, of Niwot
Physician’s assistant at Dakota Ridge Family Medicine in Boulder

CJ McCarthy

McCarthy started practicing as a physician’s assistant in 1983. She chose her career because she craves changing scenarios that require her to be constantly on her toes and resourceful. She also wanted to be a mom without having her career engulf her. With her patients, McCarthy aims to create a safe zone where they can be open and honest about their problems.
“I call myself a human troubleshooter,” McCarthy says. “You can’t judge anyone. You just have to absorb, observe and help.”

What inspires you?
Challenges and variety.

What is your motto?
Life is sweet. Never give up.

What is something about you people would never guess?
I have a very cool, very special whistle. I’ve never found anyone who can do it quite like I do. I use my whistle to get little kids to trust me. I also white-water kayak, snowboard, sing and dance. I sang with Ars Nova Chamber Singers (a professional vocal ensemble in the Denver and Boulder area) for years. My mom was an opera singer.

What’s in your purse?
I always keep a journal with me. I always carry my laptop and all the cords and a digital camera.

7. Gail Kanemoto Hogsett, 57, of Longmont
Co-owner of Walters & Hogsett Fine Jewelers, www.waltersandhogsett.com

Gail Kanemoto Hogsett

“Our business is a happy business,” Hogsett says. “People come here because they are in love. They want to celebrate life with us for their different occasions. Just being a part of their special times is what makes it so enjoyable.”

What inspires you?
I’m wowed by great design. Guess that’s why HGTV is my favorite TV station, and fashion magazines are high on my list.

What’s your motto?
Following my parents’ footsteps, my motto is that whatever you do, do it to your best ability. I may not always do it the speediest way, but I give it my all.

What is something about you people would never guess?
People often comment on how organized I must be, but in reality, I am so unorganized. Guess what my New Year’s resolution is?

What’s in the back seat of your car?
There’s always something in my back seat. The most likely things are items to return to a store, a folder of coupons and there seems to always be a pile of clothes to take to the dry cleaners.

8. Julia “Jewl” Petteway, 33, of Nederland
Owner and director of Sensorielle Spa, www.sensoriellespa.com

Julia "Jewl" Petteway

After working in marketing and management, Petteway felt burnt out. At that time she received massages every week, and she started wondering what it would be like to be the masseuse. Now she is.

“I wanted to do something to help people and make people feel better instead of working all day in a cubicle under fluorescent lights,” Petteway says.

Three years after she started working at Sensorielle Spa, Petteway is now the director and owner. She loves working with her staff, which feels like a family, and seeing her clients happy. Among its services, the spa offers acupuncture, massages, skin care, facials and ayurvedic treatments (a treatment that focuses on balancing your body through special massages, skincare, body wraps and other specific methods). The spa also offers a sliding scale system, a pay-what-you-can system, on Tuesdays and Thursdays for those with limited financial means.

What inspires you?
I have a background in dance and music, so my other self is a belly dancer and a musician. A lot of where my inspiration comes from is artistic. It’s all holistic; it all comes together to inspire me, in general. Like watching dancers, teaching dance, playing music, seeing people smile is inspiring.

What is your motto?
I live my life with love. I think that love is what makes things move and what makes this world go ‘round.

What is something about you people would never guess?
I love kung fu films. I’m a big kung fu buff, and I study kung fu.

What is your latest Facebook update?
“Full moon! Aaaawooo!”

9. Deb Britton, 39, of Longmont
CEO/principal of K2 Audio, www.k2audio.com

Deb Britton

At K2 Audio, clients get help improving the way a room sounds, from changing the room’s architectural “shaping” to finding materials for optimum acoustics. K2 Audio has worked on school cafeterias, churches, theme parks — even the U.S. Senate Chamber.

“I really like the end result,” Britton says. “When you see a happy client and they say, ‘Wow this really sounds good; this is exactly what we need. I can hear exactly what I need to hear.’”

What inspires you?
I’m a people-pleaser. I like to see people happy with what I do. That just seems like one of the more important things in life.

What’s your motto?
I think you have to enjoy what you do, otherwise you’re not going to put 100 percent into it.

What is something about you people would never guess?
I am currently forming a B-52s tribute band.

What is in your refrigerator?
Pork chops, beets and a little leftover egg nog.

10. Sudi Haynie, 51, of Boulder
Master Colorist, www.sudicolor.com

Sudi Haynie

After going to school for art at Colorado State University, Haynie worked as a model in New York, Tokyo and Paris. Her biggest client in New York was Bill Blass, and she also worked for other designers such as Valentino, YSL, Oscar De La Renta, Escada, Anne Klein and James Galanos.

In her mid-30s, Haynie decided to go back to school for cosmetology to tap into her creativity. She specialized as a colorist. Haynie now works at Rumours Hair Studio in Boulder and draws from her experience.

“I love the creative aspect,” Haynie says. “I love working with color and tones. To me, there’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t have gorgeous hair. I love problem-solving.”

What inspires you?
Making a difference for people. Any kind of opportunity for people to feel better about themselves is huge.

What is your motto?
I am always saying, “Laugh as much as possible.”

What is something about you people would never guess?
Just looking, they’d never guess that I’m funny and quick-witted. I’m kind of a ham and like to pull practical jokes.

What is the last text message that you sent?
I think it was to a girlfriend last night: “I love hanging out with you. Love you, talk soon.” We hung out for a while, and I sent it to her on the way home.

— By Caroline Seib

December weight update: 222 pounds

Total weight lost to date: 53 pounds

December’s lesson: I finally passed the 50-pound mark, so I’m more than halfway to my ultimate weight goal. Can I hear a collective “Woo-hoo!” The best news: This month I’ve really moved beyond some of the emotional issues and tough lifestyle changes that were painful in the beginning of my physical transformation. It’s still not easy, and there’s always more I can learn and improve, but this whole “healthy habits” thing is truly becoming my new way of life. I feel like I’ve crossed over some invisible threshold of wellness, and I’ll never go back to the way I was before. That feels fantastic!

January’s obstacle: I love Christmas. Not just a little bit, but to the point of probably needing some type of therapy. Once the music stops, the decorations come down, and the gloss wears off the gifts I’m prone to slip into “post-Christmas depression.”

Not this year. I’m not going to let the cold weather trap me inside — and I’m committed to facing the winter months by continuing my routine of healthy eating and regular exercise.

Reader’s challenge: New Year’s resolutions. Every year Americans make them, and every year 99.9 percent of us break them (yes, I just made up that statistic!). This will be the first year in a long time that I won’t make a new resolution to lose weight in the coming year. I’m already doing it. I hope that this January, instead of a temporary crash diet or gym membership you won’t use, you’ll really pledge to change your entire life for the better — permanently.

“Sometimes the design hits immediately,” says the Boulder County sculptor, nationally known for making furniture and doors. “Other times, I sit with the wood for a while, then suddenly visualize the piece.”

Shutan originally studied creative writing. (She even had a teacher tell her to “forget art.”) But she wanted to work with her hands and ended up learning from a traditional Dutch woodworking master. That’s where she crafted her first door.

Her teacher died a few weeks later — after telling her, “You don’t need me anymore. Look at you.”

Twenty-eight years later, Shutan boasts custom doors around the country, including many throughout Boulder County. She etches movement and curves into her one-of-a-kind mostly mahogany doors; she wants to call out the “sensuous” nature of wood. She rides the band saw like a pencil across the rugged material.

Each door takes two to four months. Her only limitation is that it must fit in the door jam, she says.

“But within that boundary, I can go quite wild,” she says. “It’s like life.”

Her doors are functional, but with abstract qualities, she says. And as with her abstract sculptures, the results always surprise her, she says.

In fact, she adds, often “the accidents are more interesting than the original idea.”

Perhaps the accidents are the secret hidden inside the wood.

Check out Shutan’s work on display at the Osmosis Gallery, 290 Second Ave., Niwot, and online at www.ashutan.com.

— By Aimee Heckel

Broken Neck Baby was once a doll that could blink and cry. The blinking had stopped, leaving it with one open eye and one sealed half-closed. Its little rubber noggin had come to rest for days on the mailing label of my Vanity Fair: It left a permanent tattoo of my name and address on its temple. Its neck was broken, the exposed wires of what used to make it blink and cry made me constantly vigilant to keep the doll away from the baby.

Photo by Ray Tollison, www.pixelpooch.com

But the longing disappointment was real: Days later, a doll’s pacifier is ferreted out of a full toy chest. “Oh,” said a voice trembling with near tears, “this belonged to Broken Neck Baby.”

This is a story every parent knows already: Children will love toys to death, and if you held on to every scrap of the broken possessions, you’d be living in a landfill. Grown-ups have to teach children how to move on from material things. And on a daily basis, we need to teach coping and safety skills as well.

And children teach grownups, too, with their spirited defense of all creatures beautiful and ugly, of dogs both clean and smelly, of things whole and shattered. With their capacity to forgive flawed mothers who throw away beloved things, they remind us on a daily basis about the worthiness of unconditional love.

— By Erika Stutzman

It became a ritual, a beautiful class at the intensive care unit. Yoga is unity. And I joined my dear friend for a different kind of yoga around her hospital bed, dressed alike in our blue paper hospital gowns and matching masks. Shed been trying to heal for a month now, beeping machines and blinking lights keeping her alive  and for many weeks before, fighting off the ravaging beast we call esophageal cancer.

Photo by Joe Glynn.

Then, one day we faced the decision I’d only read about in the newspaper. When do you let a person pass on  freeing her from the tubes that can both save and strangle? My friend was alert enough to talk with us. Unable to make noise because of her tracheotomy, her parched lips mouthed her wishes. Her son dabbed her mouth with a tiny pink sponge, rubbing ChapStick on pale lips, lightly purple because of weeks of labored breathing.
Just be sure, she said.

Sure of what, Mom? Her son asked, leaning close and staring in to her eyes.

She didn’t seem to have the strength to add more, but I think we knew. As with birth, when words are few, death also doesn’t demand much talking. It is all in the eyes. And my friend would only say goodbye if she knew shed gone the distance and there was no more hope.

Without our breath as a guide, our body finds no poses, no energy, balance or expression. Her breath was leaving and sadly none of us could help her find it again.

In her last days, she continued to be my teacher. I always brought gifts when Id visit, trying to help even if I couldn’t heal.

Last week I brought her a small mirror Id found among my daughters make-up. It had been two months since my friend had looked into her own eyes. At first, I worried, What would she see in her face after weeks of such sickness? I helped her unclasp the mirror, her swollen and bruised fingers trying to hold tight. Her wide smile filled the moment. She saw the beauty of herself. Her own reflection brought her such peace. She held her gaze tight, nodding and thanking me for my gift. I hope she knew she had given me even more: the reminder that self-acceptance is the greatest joy.

Today is the day that her children had decided that they were sure. They didn’t want her to struggle any longer, never giving up, but with dignity she could finally give in. As we gathered around her bed, we tearfully embraced her as she found her final savasana.

I had always wanted to take my friend to a yoga class, but shed always say, Im just not flexible enough. I wouldnt be good at it! I know she would be proud to know that she actually became a wonderful yoga teacher, bringing the peace of unity and self-acceptance to a small dim room in the ICU.

– By Priscilla Dann-Courtney

Dann-Courtney, of Boulder, recently released her first nonfiction book, Room to Grow: Stories of Life and Family, published by Norlights Press, www. roomtogrow.info.  

Get up and go: Dann-Courtney will be doing a reading 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at the Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder. Free and open to the public.

Got a story to share? Submit open forum entries to speakup@womensmag.com.

2. Balance your bed by adding same-size bedside tables to both sides.

3. Add fire colors: cranberry or orange pillows or a duvet cover.

4. Have art that encourages partnership. Ditch the image of a woman waiting at a table alone.

5. Move workout equipment or your office out of the bedroom to encourage restful sleeping and a relationship that’s not hard work.

Read more in the February/March edition of Womens Mag!

– By Liz Canavan, www.alchemyoforder.blogspot.com

“I feel that we’re getting a reputation as being upscale, which brings in high-quality items. But we still sell if for a really great price,” says owner Patty Ross, 51, of Boulder.

It’s because of that mix that Clutter, which opened in August at its location just south of Ninth and Pearl St. in Boulder, has clients from college students outfitting their first apartments to seniors buying pieces for their assisted-living residences.

We sat down with Ross for some tips on holiday decorating.

The great part about all of this: Clutter can be a great place to gain inspiration and load up on what you’ll need for the season.

1. Mix and match.

When setting a holiday table, bring out the good stuff and fill in the holes with consignment pieces. Display that etched glassware that’s too fancy for back yard BBQs, and serve your family favorites on vintage china — such as Clutter’s beautiful set of Franciscan china, a whopping 101 pieces, for $495. Pair that with festive linens, scented pinecones and pine foliage, your grandmother’s candlesticks and you’re set.

2. Double up.
Ross suggests having two Christmas trees: one theme tree, where you can really go all out, and one family tree with those sweet ornaments your 5-year-old brings home. Ross also suggests bucking the norm with your tree and adding decorative picks. Picks are long decorative pieces that are often added to bouquets and floral centerpieces. You can purchase picks at Clutter, online or in floral boutiques.

3. A tradition of collecting.
Ross also suggests starting a holiday collection. She and her husband have been collecting nativity scenes from their travels all over the world, which they display for the holidays. Many people collect ornaments, like Santas or angels, or ornaments by a certain artist or manufacturer. Clutter sells ornaments and might be a great place to gain insight on starting a collection of your own.

4. Inside-out.
Bring outside lights inside, and not just on your tree. It’s fun to hang oversized ornaments and wreaths throughout the house. Traditionally, Christmas was, in part, about renewing our sense of nature in the house during a time of year when little is blooming. A fresh, fragrant pine wreath will do just the trick.

5. Hostess with the most.
When it comes to getting your guests in a festive mood, Ross suggests decorating a small tree in the guestroom. She also replaces wall art with holiday-themed prints or wreaths. Adding holiday linens and other small touches with make your guest feel special.

On the Web
Visit Clutter Consignment online at www.clutterconsign.com.

— By Annie Brokaw

According to www.usa.gov, some of the most popular resolutions for Americans include losing weight, managing debt, saving money and reducing stress.

Reducing stress?

Ironically, Americans pair that popular goal with the very resolutions that cause anxiety.
In some cases, January lists allow people to hide behind unreachable expectations to feel less responsible for failure. For instance, the beloved goal of losing 50 pounds by swimsuit season. With such looming figures and anything-but-instantaneous results, failure appears imminent. A low probability for actual achievement, however, means low odds for self-admonishment.

Is the best form of action, then, setting little goals like sacrificing candy? Small steps sound delightful until that Snickers sneakily finds its way into the pantry. And once that chocolate hits the lips, the promise to forfeit candy is violated and thoughts of self-loathing are overwhelming.

Instead of accumulating unachievable lists and living in a “pain management lifestyle,” Boulder psychotherapist Tara Eastcott challenge her clients to evaluate the difference between goals and values in order to “move toward what matters.”

Eastcott sees values as internal compasses, which point to a right direction rather than to a specific place, title or body weight. She classifies fitness, for instance, as an indefinable value and a marathon as a goal under its umbrella.

“Some ways to start thinking about your values is to think about when you’re 85 years old, and you’re on your front porch in your rocker and you’re looking back over your life,” Eastcott says, “what is going to make your chest swell with pride?”

Eastcott poses the question in a different way: If there were a part of your life where something miraculous could happen, where would it be? Which dreams paint your life with purpose?

When setting goals, Eastcott says it’s important to start where your values are.

“You can break [them] down into whatever size chunks you want,” she says. “You can set actionable goals that are within a five-year time frame, a five-month time frame, a five-minute time frame.”

Without definitive endpoints or finish lines, values thwart the possibility of failure.

“Ideally values should be something that inspires a sense of openness, hopefulness, passion, a spark of fire and engagement with your life,” Eastcott says.

Whether they know it or not, three women who work in Boulder County beautifully embody Eastcott’s concept of living passionately toward a value, with resolutions and goals set subsequently and accordingly.

Serving the youth
Noël A. d’Albertis values serving the youth community.
As the director of Project YES (Youth Envisioning Social change), a nonprofit in Lafayette, d’Albertis envisioned big plans for 2009.

When d’Albertis, 40 of Denver, accepted the job of executive director in 2007, Project YES’s 500-square-foot space squeezed in (at the maximum) 20 young people.

“We really wanted to set our sights on getting a space that was 3,000 square feet,” she says. “That was our goal for this past year: to get into a space that was adequate for the young people where they felt like it was theirs. So that’s what we did.”

Project YES moved last April from a small house on Baseline Road in Lafayette to their current center next to Centaurus High School, 1306 Centaur Village Dr.

Today, artwork and murals ornament the walls of the youth center, now complete with a large art studio filled with paintings and supplies, a TV room where young people hang out, a computer lab equipped with the much-loved “Garage Band” software and spacious offices for the staff.

Now, numbers are skyrocketing.

“We’re probably going to hit easily 400 to 500 kids who have come through the youth center this year,” says d’Albertis.

With the different location and the inflow of youth with new needs, d’Albertis and the staff decided to revisit the mission statement. Until a year and a half ago, Project YES categorized itself as an organization that promoted social change through art programming. Recently, however, d’Albertis realized some kids were simply searching for a safe place to go after school.

After hours of meetings with the community, volunteers, staff and youth, d’Albertis and Project YES members elucidated exactly what the program aspires to accomplish. Project YES sees itself now as a positive youth development organization, which includes its original art in the community program, as well as service learning after school programs, and the youth center, the safe space.

“We now embrace that we aren’t solely an arts and social change organization,” d’Albertis says. “We’re also an organization that truly values youth voice, and they get to drive what happens here.”

With an adequate building and a focused value, Project YES hosts happenings like community art projects, weekly workshops ranging from crocheting to jam sessions, and the building of strong relationships between the adults and the youth.

Abby Kelleher, a student intern who works with d’Albertis at Project YES notices her popularity with the kids.

“From what I’ve seen, I think the kids just adore Noël,” says Kelleher. “She always has this constant crowd of kids in her office, and I feel like they feel it’s a safe place for them.”

Living for faith

Jennie Fletemeyer values living for her faith.
“That’s a process,” says Fletemeyer, 34, of Superior. “I don’t know how you ever achieve that. That’s my aim. But it’s such an aim.”

Trickling down from this value, Fletemeyer sets numerous other goals (like completing two Ironman triathlons). She falls into the category — like so many women — of people who focus on small goals that resonate under a bigger purpose.

“I gravitate toward structure,” Fletemeyer says. “For some people, routine drains them, but for me I thrive on achievement. And it’s achievement like, ‘Let me just check off that I sent that e-mail today.’”

Every month she writes down her “primary monthly goals,” which vary from drinking more water to writing her grandmother. Each one revolves around the values of her life. Her family. Her friends. Her job as an associate director of university ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Boulder.

Unlike people who feel trapped by routine and organization, knowing exactly what she will accomplish every month gives Fletemeyer a sense of freedom. Becca Lester, a student intern who works with Fletemeyer, and the rest of the university ministry staff appreciates her goal-oriented mindset.

“Working for Jennie over the past few months has just been such a privilege,” says Becca Lester, a student intern for university ministries. “She has such lofty ideas that feel attainable because of her encouraging attitude.”

In addition to monthly goals, at the start of every season, Fletemeyer intentionally plans fun activities to do for that time of the year. Right now, Fletemeyer intends to set aside time for winter-themed art projects to do with her daughter and hopes to turn on the fireplace more often.

“I call it seasoning,” Fletemeyer says.

She extends this concept into her ardor for her job. Fletemeyer taps into her values by mentoring young women during the months before and after their graduation. Fletemeyer spent her post-college years working as a conference coordinator with professional athletes, moving to beautiful locations in California and Colorado, attending seminary at the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and refusing to make dating “that big of a deal.” Fletemeyer now offers practical advice to college-age women based on years of experience spent discovering her dreams.

For women frightened at the thought of graduation without finding Mr. Fiancé, she says, “Do what you love, and you’ll find who love.” In her 30s, she found a man who loves a “woman in the pulpit.”

“If I have one passion, if I could write one book, it would be to that group of women who are graduated from college and think their lives are on hold because they didn’t find him,” Fletemeyer says. “Those years for me after college were some of the best years of my life. An absolutely priceless season.”

For women frightened at the thought of graduation without job confirmation or career direction, Fletemeyer says, “Spend 10 minutes pursuing a dream each week.”

That’s what she did.

Challenging yourself

Ania Mohelicki Brakhage values challenging herself to improve.
And as a full-time dentist of 15 years, a mother of two and a marathoner, Mohelicki Brakhage, 39, of Lafayette, sets her own standards high.

During her upbringing in Poland, Mohelicki Brakhage took up running at a young age and found that “physical itch.” Today, she still understands the benefits of staying fit — with a strong body and mind — to help her patients for long hours and spend quality time with her daughters.

After completing her first marathon in June, Mohelicki Brakhage signed up for the Boulder Marathon in September and finished fifth, a victorious feat for a novice surrounded by a city of runners and competitive athletes.

“My husband always jokes, ‘Good God, if she starts somewhere in the head of the pack, she’ll want to win this thing.’ And it’s hard not to,” Mohelicki Brakhage says. “It’s hard not to push yourself.”

With the fluid-draining temperatures and quad-pounding hills of the Boulder Marathon, Mohelicki Brakhage found incentive from the runners surrounding her to keep her focused on the finish line.

“I guess it’s the same thing in my practice, too,” Mohelicki Brakhage says. “You want to succeed, and you draw from other people around you.”

During her time in college in Minnesota, Mohelicki Brakhage knew she wanted to delve into the medical field and chose dentistry in order to open doors for both a professional career and a family. Her largest professional triumph: opening her own practice in 1999.

“I totally believe in setting goals and setting big goals,” Mohelicki Brakhage says. “You don’t expect things to just fall into your lap; you have to work for it. But, you have to focus on what it is you want at that time. And it’s really envisioning it.”

Now her career focus differs. She constantly seeks to improve herself and her knowledge of dentistry through attending seminars and refining techniques, such as cosmetic dentistry and implants.

You have to challenge yourself not to become stagnant, Mohelicki Brakhage says.

In her personal life, she pushes herself to find balance. By compartmentalizing areas of her life, she isolates her job from her family from her workout time (running 60 miles every week). The separation enables Mohelicki Brakhage to pour 100 percent of herself into each category.

Mohelicki Brakhage attributes part of her success to surrounding herself with people who support her. Her relatives encouraged her dreams of pursuing medicine, her father instilled in her the value of fitness, and her husband and daughters cheered her on at the marathon finish lines.

“It’s keeping things in perspective, looking at what is the most important thing, which obviously, to me is my family,” she says. “But at the same time, it’s not letting yourself consider failure.”

Like these three local women, when living for values and setting goals that reinforce them, the thought of failure slithers away. It isn’t possible to fail at valuing a youth community, faith or self-challenge. Values are infallible.

Psychotherapist Tara Eastcott recycles the advice once given to her by a mentor: “Never set a goal that a dead person could do better.”

Dead people will always beat you at losing 50 pounds, but they will never reach healthy fitness. Dead people will always feel less anxious and less lonely than you, but they will never care as deeply for others or offer love as wholeheartedly.

This Jan. 1, live as if you’re alive, rather than scribbling down lifeless resolutions.

— By Caroline Seib

With the Turtle, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

And just like an actual turtle lives inside of its protective shell, Peggy Dyer, the driver, lives inside of her camper.

“It’s been a crazy ride,” says Dyer. “Literally.”

Dyer, who came up with the nickname “Turtle” because of the camper’s slow speed, is a local photographer who also uses the camper as her mobile art studio. And despite the fact that she is basically homeless, Dyer is philanthropic through her photography. She considers her living situation just a small speed bump on a road to make a difference.

“I just want to change the world, basically. That’s pretty much it,” says Dyer, 36, who parks every night outside of her office space in south Boulder after traveling around town taking pictures. “I want to inspire people to connect.”
Her avenue: the One Million Faces project.

On Feb. 26, Dyer was driving as Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” came on the radio. As the lyrics “I’ve seen a million faces and I’ve rocked them all” crackled through the old speakers, Dyer got an idea.

She wondered if she could photograph 1 million faces to raise money for local charities, and change the world by building community through art.

Less than a week later, Dyer set up her first One Million Faces photo shoot and shot the first 28 faces. Angie Wise, of Boulder, one Dyer’s closet friends, was the first face.

“It’s not just about me taking a bunch of pictures,” Dyer says. “It’s about telling the stories of people.”

For a $10 donation, Dyer takes several black and white portraits of each person. First, just smiling and posing. Then, with your name and number on a white board. And finally, with any message you want.

Messages have ranged from “Hi Mom” to “Anoint the world in dance” to “Cancer, you messed with the wrong bitch.” Everyone has something to say, Dyer says, and every message benefits a good cause.

After taking the photos, Dyer pastes them next to each other on large pegboards. The faces and messages stand together in a stunning collage of human experience.

Currently, however, the pegboards live in Dyer’s rented storage space. When the One Million Faces project progresses, Dyer hopes to display the pegboards in different galleries and coffee shops around Boulder, thereby furthering the sense of community they create.

Dyer has photographed more than 1,000 faces since February. The faces have come from a variety of events, such as “the Vagina Monologues” at Boulder Theatre in February and the Boulder Creek Festival in May.

Still, the money has hasn’t exactly piled up. At first, Dyer asked for a small donation instead of charging a specific amount for the photos. Bad choice, she says. At the Boulder Creek Festival, for example, Dyer shot more than 150 faces, but at the end of the day there was only $183 in her donation jar. The money has increased since she initiated the $10 flat rate, but expenses, such as paying an assistant and gas, drain the funds.

“I haven’t paid myself ever,” Dyer says. “I don’t even have money yet to donate back to my charities. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe that it is coming.”

She is only one woman, living in her camper, and 1 million is a lot of faces. Her financial struggles prevent her from focusing on the project full-time. She pays the bills doing private jobs, which occupies most of her weekday 9-to-5’s. Currently, she is looking for sponsorship and volunteers so she can dedicate more hours to her project.

When Dyer started One Million Faces, she dove into it like a cannonball in a swimming pool. It was quick, made a big splash, and many people got wet. Still, she hasn’t had time to fully work out the details of how she is going to accomplish her goal.

If Dyer were to spend the next 30 years working on One Million Faces, she would have to photograph more than 30,000 faces every day. At the rate she is going, it would take her 666 years.

But she doesn’t let the uncertainty — or the seeming impossible — frighten her. Things have a way of working out, she says. If the project grew large enough, she could set up One Million Faces offices all over the country and hire a full-time staff. She wonders if she could work out a deal with Bon Jovi and shoot massive crowd photos at his concerts. Maybe Toyota will sponsor her.

“When I get really scared I just have to tell myself, ‘OK, I can do this,’” Dyer says. “I’ll be fine. Like really, how much worse can things get for me?”

The little things add up

Each board brings faces together and creates a community. Creating a sense of community is what matters, Dyer says, much more than having a roof over her head.

Each person is one in a million. Everyone has a number. Yet there is a sense of connection in that you are a part of something larger. As an individual, your contribution is small, but as a whole, the contribution makes a significant impact.

“When you start putting these messages side by side, they start to tell a story,” Dyer says. “You can kind of get lost in what’s happening with the messages. I can look at all these faces and remember a story about every single one of these moments.”

She wants her work to bring out the true essence of each person. And there is a sense of warmth in the portraits, like these faces are sharing something intimate and personal with you.

Amy Howard is the executive director of the Boulder-based Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s, a charity on Dyer’s list.

“Her ability to capture people is unbelievable,” says Howard, who has also posed for One Million Faces. “She is able to capture greatness in people. I’ve never seen a photographer like her.”

‘This is what I’m here to do’

Despite a steady income photographing special events like weddings and bar mitzvahs, when Dyer started the project, she had less than $500 to her name.

Her financial troubles followed a canceled photography event and a subsequent lawsuit, which Dyer lost, costing her about $20,000 and the home she lived in. Shortly after, Dyer found the Turtle, and she bought it for $3,500 with borrowed money.

“I didn’t want to give up my dream,” Dyer says. “This thing, right here, that I do, taking pictures, telling stories, being with people, this is what I’m great at. This is what I’m here to do.”

Still, when she isn’t behind the lens of a camera, she worries about more than money. Despite eating well and exercising constantly — she teaches a spinning class at Mountain’s Edge Fitness Center — Dyer is overweight. She says she has been rejected by six health insurers who say she is “uninsurable” because of her height-to-weight ratio.

Dyer says she has always struggled with self-esteem and body issues. That’s why the One Million Faces project has meant so much to her personally. It has changed her own beliefs and expectations of herself.

“You go back to that body image stuff, and it’s like I’m an elephant,” Dyer says. “And I’m standing here, as an elephant, just wanting to be a giraffe. I’m never going to be a giraffe. But I can be a really good elephant. And elephants are strong. And I’m very strong.”

So she chooses strength.

She says she has developed a sense of perspective since she started One Million Faces. When she thinks of her charities, she can’t complain about her “morbidly obese” designation.

Take her friend Chanda Hinton, of Denver, who was shot in a hunting accident when she was 8 years old.

The spinal cord injury confined her to a wheelchair. Still, she founded the Chanda Plan, a nonprofit that works to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

Dyer also plans to support to the Rett Syndrome Research Trust. Rett Syndrome is the most physically disabling of the autism spectrum disorders, according to the Rett Syndrome Research Trust Web site. The disorder, which affects mostly women, strips people of their verbal capabilities. Maybe Dyer lives in the Turtle, she says, but at least she can talk.

“The fact that I have all my faculties and that I have my health and that I have the strength to stand, walk, communicate and to create — all those things, that’s a gift that every single day for a really long time I took for granted,” Dyer says. “I don’t take it for granted anymore.”

In addition to the Davis Phinney Foundation, the Chanda Plan and the Rett Syndrome Research Trust, Dyer also hopes to raise at least $20,000 for Moving to End Sexual Assault and the Shjon Podein’s Children’s Foundation.

“This is my life and this is how I choose it to be. I’m not going to sit here and be a victim. I’m not going to sit here and cry about losing some lawsuit,” Dyer says. “I get to bring a lot of joy to the world through my work. And that is what I want to focus on.”

A million miles away

As the Turtle heads from shoot to shoot, the engine coughs like someone trying to clear her throat. Like someone who is trying to start a conversation.

Dyer wants the One Million Faces project to open up a dialogue between people who would not have communicated otherwise. Through the messages, Dyer engages people in a conversation about their beliefs surrounding themselves, their lives or their community.

Get your hopes up.
Sacred Earth.
The world is my family.

Posterboard messages like this are what Dyer says lead to real change in the world — just as the project has lead to real change in herself.

When you start to listen to people, you have a better understanding of your community, Dyer says. So she is slowly painting a portrait of America creating connections all across the country.

“I love the idea of it being art that connects people,” Dyer says. “At the end of the day, if everybody — if the community of culture, the world — rises up and changes the conversation, we start talking about something different.”

The Turtle moves unhurriedly, barely reaching speeds above 65 miles per hour at full throttle. Still, no matter how slow the progress, it’s headed in the right direction.

Dyer needs help. But she believes in the power of her community to support her. She already sees herself standing in the Oval Office, shaking hands with President Obama, as she prepares to take his picture as the 1 millionth face.

The end may seem like a million miles away now, Dyer says. But life is fleeting, and you have get in the driver’s seat to have any hope of arriving at your destination.

Even if it’s in a rusted old camper.

“You want to change the world, this is how you do it,” Dyer says. “You figure out what it is that you’re brilliant at, and you show up, and you shine.”

To learn more about how you can help the One Million Faces Project and upcoming events, visit www.onemillionfaces.org.

— By Jessica Warnock

It’s the summer of ’72, and my three sisters, my mother and I baste our bodies with Johnson & Johnson baby oil, then lie all day in the sun in Kleenex-sized bikinis. We light Kool 100 Menthols and we are hot — in more ways than one.

Before

Fast forward to the summer of ’09 and the skin that did all that backyard baking? Um, not so hot. Splotched, mottled dermis wraps my 54-year-old face and arms, and my chest sports big brown globs of I don’t know what. Though I quit smoking decades ago, an adorable circle of permanent mouth wrinkles frames my lips, and the ever-critical eye squint one adopts when chain-smoking has left lovely, multi-tiered creases across my forehead.

Oh yeah — and I’m 15 pounds heavier than that sizzling 1972 summer.
I decide I’m not going down like this. So the spring of ’09, I determine to push the delete button on the last 37 years. I lose the 15 pounds and decide that I want skin that looks like that summer of 1972 never happened.

I’m the opposite of plastic anything. I eat organic, run four miles six times a week, sleep seven to eight hours a night and attend a 90-minute yoga class every Monday evening, whether I need it or not. Yet I can’t help wonder: What would I look like if I’d never smoked or spent all those summers in the sun? What if I’d used good skin-care products, not Costco-bought body splash to wash my face all these decades?

After.

Plastic Surgery Research.info, a Web site dedicated to cosmetic surgery stats, shows that interest in procedures is up. Since 1997, surgical procedures have increased 142 percent, and nonsurgical procedures have jumped 743 percent. In 2007, more than 10.6 million women had some sort of cosmetic surgery, the site reports.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons tells a similar story, adding that $12.4 billion was spent on cosmetic procedures in 2007 alone. Whether it’s for you or not, there’s no doubt that cosmetic surgery is a big issue in America today.

Mammoth body and face makeover reality shows and “lunch-hour” facelift ads dive me headfirst into research. I interview a “Thermage” guy, who, for three treatments totaling $5,000, promises to make me look like his nurse-sales lady — who’s a dead ringer for Tammy Faye Baker.

Another Boulder surgeon I talk to is months from retirement and mad about something — and do I want a short-timer with anger issues possibly cutting on me? A Denver surgeon flat-out stands me up, and a botox gal with a new spa has hand tremors as she shows me her product line.

This is all nerve-wracking. New “cosmetic centers” and “rejuvenation centers” pop up like Starbucks.

But I keep searching, and I end up in Joel Meyers’s Aesthetic Center and Medical Spa in Longmont. Immediately I feel comfortable, primarily because he won’t do what I ask him to.

“A forehead lift by itself will look out of context with the rest of your facial features,” he says. And then he starts with healthy skin talk. “We start with the simplest things possible. Our concept is that beautiful skin is healthy skin.”

Not exactly what you’d expect in a plastic surgeon’s office. Perhaps there is more to this field than the media typically presents.

And so begins the beauty rejuvenation plan. The four-month process, starting in May, involves skin-care products; chemical peels and Intense Pulsed Light (to get the skin healthy); a face-lift (to erase the “jowly” jaw line); and blepharoplasty of the lower eyelids (to remove under-eye bags).

Yes, the cost — which would total almost $7,500 — could have been a downpayment on a new car or a time-share in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. But I don’t want a new car. (Though the time-share doesn’t sound bad.)

This is more fun than it is critically important. I have a theory that a lot of people give up at middle age, in more ways than one. We’re living to be 100 now. Why give up when you’re only halfway there?

Then I meet Beryl Reker, Meyers’ paramedical aesthetician.

Beryl’s skin sells me. I learn this is what happens with nearly every new client. Beryl’s skin is creamy and delicious: all white, and smooth and dewy and lovely. She’s in her late 50s but has the skin of a 30-something.

“It’s about education,” says Reker, who works independently with a few doctors in Colorado, one of which is Meyers. “I’m not a product junky. I believe that you don’t need 10 products to get skin healthy. The first line of defense again aging skin is putting nutrients in and protecting the skin.”

This means a balanced diet — including lots of water, vegetables, low-fat foods and sleep. And sunscreen. Definitely not Johnson & Johnson baby oil.

They give me a regime of medical-grade skin repair products, including iS brand serums, Vivite face and eye creams and a prescription for Retin A, as well as over-the-counter products like vitamins and AmLactin skin lotion. As the weeks go on, I begin to look and feel better. But it’s not all a golden-bricked walk through Beauty Oz.

The skin products, including moisturizer, skin serums, an eye cream and a mineral-based sunblock, feel decadent and lovely on my face, like satin upon my skin.

The chemical peels — a couple mild ones and a couple of medium ones — leave my skin shedding. Very much like a snake. For weeks. Wearing black is out of the question. And one day when I stand up from a friend’s maroon velvet couch, I’m mortified to see giant white-gray skin chunks flaked all across the fabric.

Moreover, surgery’s still surgery and not for the faint-of-heart, although it didn’t hurt or bleed. Riding home after my lower eyelid tuck (for pouches) and s-lift (for sagging chin line), my giant, gauzed-and-compression-garmented head — viewed by passengers in other cars — nearly causes a fender bender.

In June, one week post-op, I am weeding the garden and end up on the couch with an hour-long dizzy spell. I’d figured the “no exertion for two weeks” instructions clearly didn’t apply to me. Or so I thought.
But that was the worst of it. Ten days out, there is no swelling like I’d been warned could happen, and if I put on sunglasses and a little lipstick, no one can tell I’ve had anything done. I feel, in a word, fresh. That’s when I know I’d done what was right for me.

Obviously, plastic surgery isn’t for everyone. Meyers calls a good candidate someone he thinks he can make happy and help. Someone with realistic expectations.
“When a potential patient comes in, we are interviewing each other,” he says.
And he reiterates that beautiful skin is healthy skin. After that, he often recommends simpler approaches toward skin rejuvenation, such as botox and filler material, which can be injected into crevasses and can fill out hollow areas.

“A lot can be accomplished with just those steps,” Meyers says.

Then there are Intense Pulse Light treatments and other non-ablative light or laser treatments. These treatments break up those dark, veiny things that appear on skin, as well as age and other sun-damaged spots. Skin becomes clear, light and unblemished again.

“Excess pigment, excess hair, enlarged pores, spider veins and facial flushing can all be treated non-invasively, in a very comprehensive and dramatic fashion,” Meyers says.

My comprehensive physical transformation feels very, very right for me. It hasn’t given me any new lease on life or anything. I still have misgivings about stuff, the same as anyone else. But I feel rejuvenated. I feel I’m the best 54-year-old I can be, in all aspects of my life: spiritually, mentally and (now) physically. A redo won’t save a marriage or instill needed confidence where there was little to begin with.

But a little bit of undoing of young-bikini’d-girl’s ill-conceived behavior? It’s like getting your entire house remodeled and landscaped.

With so many “medical spa” businesses popping up, and so much not-so-great-looking surgery aftermaths, one of the most difficult steps is trying to decide what to do — and with whom.

Meyers recommends finding someone who listens to your needs and comes up with a plan to meet these goals. I echo his recommendation. Analogous to dating someone new, it’s about feeling comfortable and not pressured.

Which worked for me and my 30-odd years of only minimally protecting my skin. I don’t feel or look plastic or shiny or “surgeried.” My skin is nice, but not flawless. I’ve still got lines and spots on my arms and hands, but I believe 80 to 90 percent of the initial blotches are gone. Now I feel undamaged, healthy and like I should.

The 1972-inspired sun damaged skin is gone.

And though I’ll never wear a Kleenex-sized bikini again, I know that I could — if I wanted to — with a bit more confidence than I had a few months back.

Myth busters

Myth No. 1: Cosmetic procedures change your life. Cosmetic procedures don’t take an unhappy person and turn them into a happy person.

Myth No. 2: Because it’s new, it’s better. New treatments and procedures are constantly becoming available. Select a plan with someone who continually studies and researches new treatments and procedures.

Myth No. 3: Liposuction is a good way to lose weight. Liposuction should not be used for weight loss but should instead be used for disproportionate pockets of fat that don’t diminish through a monitored diet and exercise program.

Myth No. 4: Botox creates a frozen or unnatural appearance. When administered by an experienced individual it is safe, and when administered conservatively and carefully it can provide a natural appearance.

Source: Joel Meyers, owner of Meyers Aesthetic Center and Medical Spa in Longmont.

Costs of the summer of 2009 new face:
Vitamin C, $10
Amlactin skin cream, $13
Vivite hydrating cream, $50
Eye cream, $69
IS active serum, $120
IS super serum, $135
Intense Pulse Light, $400
Chemical peels, four at $75 each
Blepharoplasty surgery, $2,420
S-Lift (face lift) surgery, $3,960
Total: $7,480