My brand has always been split right down the middle. On one side I have a community of fellow women, mothers and parents who love the sharing of DIY projects, home decor and design, recipes and learning new tips on documenting everyday life in a beautiful way. The other side is a community of fellow professional creatives and business owners who love to see the new brands and design projects launched, who get excited over the new business tools that become available in the shop and who love to discuss organizational ideas to make managing a business easier.

For so long I struggled at finding that common thread between both sides. The how and why that explains my brand, why it bleeds into both worlds the way it does and why it has worked the way it has. For so long I didn’t know how to explain it. For so long I didn’t know how to describe the passion and the ‘what’ that fuels everything that happens here. I have felt as if there was a piece missing that allowed me to share with the world the tie that binds it all. For so long I wasn’t able to until this past fall.

I was on maternity leave, soaking up our new babe and constantly surrounded by my children and husband. In being unplugged and surrounded by what inspires me most, it hit me like a ton of bricks. One morning I just woke up with this thought and when I sat down a few days later the words just flowed. So here it is. A manifesto in 2018 and beyond. My core values, my beliefs in what it is I am doing and what drives me to do it. It’s a piece of my heart.

So whether you are brand new here or have been here from the beginning, I hope these words will tell you what this place is all about as well as where my heart lies in everything I do…

Create. From the Latin word ‘creare’ related to ‘crescere’ which means to ‘arise, grow, expand’. Living creatively does not require mastered techniques with a paintbrush, it doesn’t call upon only those that are imaginative in an artistic form and it doesn’t mean one must be well-known in their craft. 

Living a creative life means to forget the status quo. Be willing to try something new. It’s saying yes to an adventure even if it’s in your own backyard, overnight, in the tent that your children were so excited to put together. It’s to recognize the opportunities – sometimes the tiniest of moments – to transform the everyday into something more. It’s taking a different route home from work just to enjoy a new view. It’s lingering a little longer in conversation with an elder. It’s saying hello to a stranger. It’s making something – anything – beautiful and meaningful. It’s taking that picture because you know how important it is to tell the story. It’s reading just one more book before kissing them goodnight. It’s dessert before dinner because we only live once. It’s thinking outside the box. It’s dancing just for the sake of dancing because that melody is just too sweet. It’s not conforming to outside opinions. It’s dancing to the beat of our own drum. It’s taking the mundane and transforming it into something inspiring. It’s gathering others around your table to break bread. It’s waking up before dawn just to watch the sun rise. 

No, living creatively does not ask us to be magnificent on a canvas, the elite behind a camera or a beloved actor on the stage. It simply means to live life where no experience is wasted. It means breathing love and beauty into every moment that we can and while we have breath in our lungs. It means to rise to our divine and truest potential no matter what that may be.

When it’s all said and done. When the eulogy has been written and the flowers laid upon my casket, I hope that the one thing that escapes everyone’s lips when asked what they knew about me has nothing to do with the work I created. Or what I accomplished in life professionally. I hope they simply say that I lived life. And maybe did it with a sparkle in my eye. And an immense amount of love and passion.

So, friend. Just live. And do it creatively.

This manifesto will now live forever here as well as on the website as I hope to not only be able to tell the world what it is that I do and why I do it, but to help inspire others – from the stay at home mom, to the accountant, to the small business owner. This life is a beautiful thing when lived creatively.