Oprah's Moment of Serendipity with Tom Cruise and Family

This is just an amazing story on how relationships and serendipity all play a part in our lives.

On an Oprah show that aired on December 12, 2008 featured Oprah with Tom Cruise at his home in Telluride, Colorado. They werein his mudroom when Oprah spied a pair of really cute ladybug shoes; Tom told her that they are Suri's favorite ladybug shoes. This is where the story begins!

Katja Presnal from Skimbaco helped a Cruise family friend put together a gift basket for the Katie, Tom and Suri Cruise's Christmas 2007 celebration at their Colorado home. Inside the basket were many fabulous gifts for Tom, Katie and Suri, which can be seen here at Skimbaco gift items (scroll down the page). Among the guests at the Cruise's that day and witness to the gift opening was none other than Armani. Included among the many gifts were the ladybug shoes Oprah picked up and commented on in the show.

The shoes, known as Little Lady MJs in the ladybug design, and footwear apparel, are the brainchild of Jenny Ford from Monkey-Toes. Jenny lives in Colorado, near the Cruise's, "a hop, skip, and jump from my Casa" as she describes it. Here she lives and plays with her husband and two daughters. Her designs are fun-filled animal-themed footwear that would make even the finickiest of feet happy. Jenny reports that when she thinks of Armani himself, being there, and seeing those shoes as part of the gift basket, it gives her chills.

You can see what Katja's is up to at Skimbaco Lifestyle; can you tell this lady loves to ski? Katja also has another website called Ladybug Landing, a PR, social media, marketing site where her premise is "businesses do not do businesses with business. There is always a person in a company doing business with another person." Jenny Ford also blogs at Monkey-toes Monkey where she uses that forum to talk about business with fellow entrepreneurs.

Besides the serendipity, I also find the ladybug connection interesting.

You can follow these ladies on Twitter, their IDs are KatjaPresnal and Monkeytoesshoes.