the day's dream

Oh Dad..

0 · Jun 16, 2014 ·

What would the world be like without Dads? I cannot even begin to fathom where I might be without mine. This amazing man helps feed my crazy… with his own crazy!! And while I know he doesn’t have Facebook, has probably never been on my blog and has no idea what Instagram is… he still needs this recognition. My dad has told me “No,” countless times, only to come back an hour later with blueprints in hand on how to make my “crazy” happen. And then he steps it up a notch, inspiring me to be even better.

So anytime I have an idea or inspiration or need to talk a business idea through, I go straight to Dad. Or if my project requires power tools that seem a bit too powerful to me (I have this totally irrational fear of losing my fingers!), to Dad I go and he makes it happen for me. Thanks for all your support, for showing me all the things that girls need to know and for making sure I always owned more tools than my boyfriends!

What is True Will Last

0 · Apr 14, 2014 ·

The definition of success has been on my mind a lot lately. And to be honest, there are days I don’t feel very successful. There are days that I struggle, need all the pep talks in the world and still can’t find my motivation because it seems like I might never be successful. The future does not always look sunny and bright.

But then I have to check myself because I’m basing my definition of success on worldly things. Money does not equal success. I think happiness is a much truer measuring stick. Yes, there is some correlation between the two. While money might not buy happiness, it definitely can make life a lot less stressful, and if my life were less stressful I’d call that a success!

At the age of 22, I had already had many bumps in my road. I remember one day meeting with an old friend. I believe his intentions were good as he was sharing with me about his new business venture and his success and all the money he was making. I remember being wowed. And then I felt small and lost my confidence. I know this was not his intent, he wanted to inspire me. But I felt like I wasn’t enough.

So I turned to writing, which has been a long time practice of mine whenever I’ve felt troubled or at a loss. I remember writing these words like it was yesterday (although I can’t find where I actually wrote them). Am I successful? I have loved, I have lost. I’ve been to the bottom and made my way back up again. And at times I might still stumble but I’m still standing. So am I successful? Damn straight I am.

I think back to that point often, not to relive the past but to learn from it. I counted myself as successful even thought I was a single girl living in a crappy apartment working her way through school. But it was MY apartment and I paid my own bills and created my own life. I was a confident, 22 year old woman with some ugly in her pasts but a whole word of hope in front of her. And what is true will last (thanks for that little quote Katie!) So think of yourself as successful and you will be. Stay true and find your path. And never let anyone tell you that you aren’t enough. Only you can make your dreams come true. You hold the key to your own success.

Flower make me happy. And happiness and love define success in my book. Thanks Hetler Photography for capturing both above.

Planning Your Dreams

0 · Apr 7, 2014 ·

When I gave my business a name back in fall of 2011, I had this ridiculous notion that by somehow having a name and business cards, people would begin to take me seriously and business would just come to my doorstep. Ha… what was I thinking???

Fast forward 3 years now and I have such a greater understanding of business, life and dreams and how they’re all intertwined. Summer of 2012 was when I really began to put myself out there and make this dream my career and by fall 2012 it became abundantly clear that if I wanted to really make this work, I could no longer also work a full time job. Leap of faith = quit my full time job.

Now all of this is fine and dandy, I had a plan – a real life business plan, I had goals and a little bit of a path cleared out to make it happen. I even had a 5 year dream in place of where I’d really like my business to be.

However, if you never change anything, you’ll never grow and make these dreams a reality. It’s great to have a plan, but you also have to follow that plan. This is where I am now. I’m sitting here telling myself that eventually “this” is how I’d like my business to be. And eventually I’d like to add such-and-such additional services. It’s been over a year since I’ve been voicing thoughts and ideas out loud with no action to move forward. If I keep doing exactly what I’m doing right now, these ideas will never happen. Umm… reality check please!

Same rules apply for so many aspects of life. In your job, in your relationships and where you want life to take you. Sure there are unexpected bumps along the way, but if you never change anything in your present, how can you just expect that the future will be brighter? You have to work for something bigger. Set goals and accomplish things.

So it’s Monday and time for a fresh start. I’m pushing forward and going to MAKE my dreams come true! What are you doing today?

And the gorgeous blooms above were put together by yours truly and photographed by Ashley Slater Photography, thanks love!!

Capturing the Now

0 · Mar 21, 2014 ·

As if life isn’t busy enough on its own, this week I’ve been dealing with a sick baby and then of course I found myself battling the bug a day later. On the bright side, I did get to cancel my appointment to have my wisdom teeth removed… silver lining, right?

Do you feel like you’re just battling through life, rather than living it? There are some days that I just can’t get this notion out of my mind – it’s as if I’m just surviving rather than actually living. We just have to push through until we recover, surviving until the next paycheck, making it work until we can afford something better – always looking to the future. But what about the now?

While looking to the future is what gives us hope, and I truly believe that that’s hugely necessary and helps us persevere, however, I do believe that we need to search for some contentment and acceptance of the “now”.

I heard through the grapevine that yesterday was National Happiness Day. And while I completely wonder who determines these things, I also was inspired by the number of people who celebrated it, they celebrated being happy – now. I love that idea!

And I have a couple of projects up my sleeves that do just that…. they celebrate us, life, being a woman and preserving through the hardships.

Project #1 I’ve already told you about. The Romance Shoot is a great way to pamper yourself and find an excuse to feel pretty. I’ve teamed up with Hetler Photography and Helena Young to design a soft and romantic backdrop for these photo sessions, while their job is to make you feel gorgeous and then capture that magic. The original idea was to make this solely a boudoir marathon, but then we thought women don’t need to wear lingerie to feel pretty. Sometimes sexy is in the confidence to just be you. So we opened these sessions up to anyone, maternity, boudoir or whatever reason you might like to have your beauty captured. Sometimes women need to be reminded that they are beautiful.

Project #2 is something for me. Yup, I’m being selfish on this one, because I can. It involves my love of beautiful blooms and surrounding myself with them. I’ll share more on this later.

Project #3 is something special for someone I don’t even know yet. My version of a pay-it-forward. Details are still in the works, but I might need a little bit of help bringing this crazy idea of mine to life. That was about as clear as mud, right? Let’s just say that if you have a heart for hospitality and are in the creative/wedding industry, we might want to chat.

Project #4 is my small role in Bloom | The Workshop. I love helping other creatives and watching others succeed. So being a part of this creative workshop is extremely exciting to me as I want to see others blossom and grow.

Last January I put together a small photo shoot showcasing some Valentine’s bouquets (you might remember it from here). As I was putting the details together, I began thinking about a model for the shoot. And then ultimately, I decided I could model for it. I can make myself feel pretty once in a while, right? So I did, blemishes, flaws, remaining baby weight and self-consciousness aside. I didn’t want any pictures of myself until I lost those last few pounds – I was living for the future and not fully grasping the “now”. But I’m glad I had the courage to model, because I think we all need to be reminded of our beauty once in a while. Capture the moment we’re living in and focus a little on the now.

Happy Friday to my beautiful friends!

Photo by Heather Cisler Photography, oh my goodness was it cold that day!!

One Year Ago

0 · Aug 26, 2013 ·

It was about this time last year that The Day’s Design became an “official” business (paperwork filed, DBA, tax IDs and all that un-fun stuff put in order). I was almost seven months pregnant and waiting to be called back into work after a short and temporary summer lay-off. Around this time I had high hopes and dreams about what this summer would bring, bustling around with numerous brides, designing away and getting ready to wrap up wedding season, all with my perfect little baby girl by my side.

Yup, life was to be just about perfect. My basement studio space would be shabby chic fabulousness and provide lots of space and organization. I would have the best of both worlds being able to work from home and not have to send Gretta to day care – not missing a single moment of her life. We could spend time playing together in the mornings and I’d stay busy crafting and creating while she peaceful slept each naptime.

Now we’ll fast forward to today. That studio space doesn’t even exist. Instead my basement looks like a moving truck full of décor exploded, with vases, tulle and supplies scattered in every direction, creating an obstacle course for me to maneuver through each time I need a new supply. My office has been relocated to the living room for convenience purposes and is haphazardly organized and accessorized by a baby gate. Miss Gretta is crawling nonstop, hardly allowing me to sit down and scribble down an idea or blog post, much less all the other pieces of owning a business I need to work on. Despite it all, this summer has been amazing and I wouldn’t change a thing.

But it does leave me wondering, why didn’t anyone point out to me how crazy I was starting a business now??? Shouldn’t my mother have told me I was getting in over my head? (Moms are supposed to warn you about stuff, right?) It probably wouldn’t have mattered much anyway, I was and still am super determined to make this work. It does work, just not in the same way that I had envisioned. But on that note, I have every intention to take the rest of this week off, savoring what little sliver of summer we have left organizing life before the onset of fall, and even sneaking up north for a couple days too!

So loves, have a great week and a happy Labor Day! I’ll talk to you next week!!

And also last year around this time I was busy designing my first photo shoot with Unikke Photography, as I prepared to launch my website. This is just one of the images we created together 🙂

the day's dream

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