What do Coco Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Julia Child, and Martha Stewart have in common with a Texas mother of three? Fashion and creativity blended with brilliantly applied practicality, that’s what!

Amber Mills is a Marine veteran responding to life’s challenges with a challenge. While raising her family, Amber has the additional trials of emotional struggle and dealing with Multiple Sclerosis. Rather than admit defeat, Amber rose to accept a new mission with beautiful results.

Her challenge was to create a wedding dress out of toilet paper. You read right, toilet paper! Like top designers and artists, material selection was imperative, but the selection was limited. In Amber’s case she chose a vintage material from the 1970’s, Charmin’s pink toilet paper.

Like a scene out of The French Chef, Amber takes us to her kitchen to show us how to make a TP reduction using a common sauce pan and hand held blender. Tupperware and duct tape also play a role. From there, she enters the world of design by creating appliqué and assembling the dress with the precision of a master seamstress. Though the end result is a beautiful wonder, it is Amber who shines.

Her story calls to the strength within us. Physical and emotional pain are causes for sorrow. However, we have the capacity to choose our path. We can opt to buckle under the weight or we can fight with the strength and determination of a soldier. Amber did, and through this course, she found new courage and happiness to make her life’s battlefield a little more fair. And, as we’ve often heard, it doesn’t matter whether we win or lose, it’s how we play the game. In Amber’s case, deciding to play was winning in itself.

Amber’s story is a heartfelt reminder that we can find hope and inspiration in what we have before us if we only dare to look.

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