A few months ago, my friend Betsy called me, and uttered those dangerous, magical words: “I have an idea.”

My ears perked up, my pulse quickened, and there was a little catch in my breath. Those four amazing words are inspiring. What comes behind them is creativity at it’s most brilliant. What comes behind those words is vulnerable and brave. What comes after those words is life-giving, if you choose to capture the vision and share it with others. The people that have the courage to utter those words are my people.

So Betsy had my full attention. She began to cast a vision for a intimate, luxury retreat for wedding photographers. A workshop that wasn’t all work. An event that rejuvenated, re-energized, and touched the heart of wedding photographers. As a wedding photographer herself, Betsy knew what the struggles they were facing–a changing industry, increasing competition in the already competitive wedding industry, on top of the daily struggles of working with brides while trying to improve your skill and craft–and she created Bliss & Bokeh as a solution to the fatigue that we all face when we follow our passions. (It happens, trust me–if you’re just starting your business, start keeping a handy list of re-energizing sources. Passions maximized can lead to burn-out.)

I’m nothing but delighted to be joining Betsy this coming October 6-9. I’ve been working with Betsy along the way, sharing tips and insights that have worked for us in hosting Stationery Academy in the past. Betsy’s attention to detail has been unsurpassed. Through logo development, website launch, to hotel coordination, and event planning, Betsy has made sure every element is perfect, timely, and refreshing. This event is going to be a breath of fresh air for your soul, and I can say that with confidence, because that’s what Betsy has been for me. She’s put together an amazing group of speakers with superb experience in the wedding industry. KT Merry, Tara Guerard, Joy Thigpen, Becky Hoppman, Leigh Webber, Angelica Maraccio, and Emily Newman will all be joining Betsy in encouraging the hearts of photographers this fall. In Betsy’s words:

Bliss & Bokeh is an intimate luxury retreat for female wedding photographers in beautiful historic Charleston, South Carolina. The team behind Bliss & Bokeh shares a desire to bring together women who are passionate about wedding photography and the art of capturing bliss. Through an amazing team of talented speakers, beautifully styled shoots, and incredible local partnerships, women will have an opportunity to grow as creative entrepreneurs, while indulging in the luxury and charm of a city named two years in a row by Conde Nast readers as the number one destination in the US.

If you’re a wedding photographer, I encourage you to check out the Bliss & Bokeh site, sign up for more information, and consider joining us in Charleston this fall. It’s going to be an amazing experience!

Tonight, I told two little red-fleece-pajama-clad boys that it was time to go bed. You all got up, and padded in your little footie feet over to the bottom of the stairs. I took a photograph with my mind: puffy-diapered bottoms, chubby little legs, tiny little paws grasping at the banister, fat knees crawling up the steps. I read you half of three books, because your attention span doesn’t hold for the language-laden old school Thomas books, and Green Eggs and Ham is totally memorized, and the new Pooh book you found on the shelf was a last ditch effort to feel like I had done my job at teaching you to love books. We said prayers, you both sucked down some water, and I said goodnight. The evening ritual wasn’t over, though. It couldn’t be over without a few after-bedtime cries, whines, a misplaced lovey and a dirty diaper.

Daily, we’re amazed at the new little conversations that are happening in our house. Bubba, you walked into the middle of the family room the other day, stuck out your little belly and declared, “Mama, I wan bah.” Four words. A complete, albeit rude, sentence. A request for a breakfast bar, food of little demanding tyrants, apparently. I was so tickled that you uttered full sentence that I forgot to tell you to say please.

Bubba,  you remain focused on…well, EVERYTHING. In everything. Touching everything. Reaching for my computer, my pad of paper, my pen. Putting your nose in my book, my iPhone, trying to convince me to give you the iPad, turn on another movie, let you go outside, let you stay inside, fix you lunch, let you carry lunch around the house, play-doh, crayons, oh my goodness, the list doesn’t stop. When we chastise you for being into EVERYTHING, you look at us with a cautious, testing glance before breaking into a large, charming grin. It’s not fair. You’re two. You aren’t supposed to be winning these battles with large, charming, grins.

Kiddo, you love soccer, riding your bike, going to school, playing with twacks (tracks, belonging to trains). When Bubba sneezed ten times in a row the other day, you politely asked, “You ok?” After Bubba nodded, answering your question, you said, “You ok, Bubba, you ok.” When the soccer ball was stuck under the wagon the other day, you came to your brother’s aid and helped him remove the soccer ball so that the wagon could move forward. Your daddy and I watched, and then told you how proud we were of you, helping other people. “Thank you, Mama!” you say, in your little sing-song voice, to which we almost happily reply, “Your welcome!” And I guess the manners practice is paying off, because when we tell you thank you, you promptly reply in darling sing-song, “You’re welcome, Mama!”

Charley, you have learned how to roll and grab things. The other day I put you on the rug, and turned around, and you had rolled completely into the other room. It’s a reminder that you’ll be crawling all too soon, and then I’ll have to keep track of three little moving heads. Crawling babies are a lot more work that babies that sit still, or even rolling babies, believe it or not, so we’re not in a huge hurry to teach you to crawl. You want to be a part of the party, though, so I think this whole crawling thing is going to happen despite my reluctance. All it takes is a brother in the room, and you want to be over there by him, grabbing his hair, or his leg, or his toy. When I get you out of bed in the mornings, you instantly start looking around for a brother, and shriek in a high-pitched squeal your delight upon first sight of one. We don’t have any girl toys, so you don’t have the foggiest idea what a Disney princess is, and prefer to play with keys, trains, these little plastic jungle and farm animals, and the monkey pacifier. One of these days, when you’re older, I’ll let you watch Hello Dolly and Annie and The Music Man and have crazy dance parties with you.

I love you all, so very much, and I every day I pray that you’ll learn to love the Lord, and with His help, all the crazy wonderful people in this world. I pray that I can teach you all the things you’ll need to know to make a difference on this earth, and I’m oh so grateful for all the things you’re teaching me about making a difference here, too. Thank you for your kisses, your hugs, your tackles, your cries, your giggles, your roars, your growls, your whines, your little conversations. They make these long days so worth it.

Love always,
Mama

Today’s post is not brought to you by America’s consumer products companies. We’ve been making our own laundry detergent for almost a year now, and it’s worked out shockingly well. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I’m convinced that consumer product companies don’t want us to know how easy, inexpensive, and painless making your own laundry detergent is. This little recipe has been our family’s biggest success factor in pairing back our family budget. It’s super easy and cleans well–and I’ve tried to answer as many questions as possible in the directions on this post.

What You’ll Need:

• A Five Gallon Bucket
• A Fels Naptha Bar (available on the laundry detergent aisle at your grocery store)
• 1 Cup of Borax (cleaning or laundry aisle at grocery store)
• 1 Cup of Washing Soda (laundry aisle at grocery store)
• Blender (we use an old Magic Bullet blender for ours)
• Pot for Boiling (the bigger the better, as it easily overflows)

Directions:

1. Put pot on the stove and start to boil water. Pick a larger pot than the own I have shown in the picture above. I consistently over flow this pot, and will be remembering to use a larger pot next time.
2. Shred the Fels Naptha bar. Lots of people grate their soap, but that was taking far too long for me, was shredding my fingertips, and still wasn’t getting the soap fine enough. Enter the blender. I cut the soap up in to tiny chunks (it actually starts to fall apart on it’s own a little bit), and blend half of it, until all the chunks are finely ground into a fine powder. Pour into the boiling water. Blend the other half of the soap bar as well, and add it to the boiling water as well. The goal is to get the chunks of soap melted into the water, so the finer you blend the soap, the less time you’ll have to boil it.
3. Add the boiled soap-water to the five gallon bucket.
4. Add a cup of Borax to the five gallon bucket.
5. Add a cup of washing soda to the five gallon bucket.
6. Fill the rest of the five gallon bucket with super hot water and stir as you add water.

Literally, that’s it! You’re done! The whole process takes me about fifteen minutes. Use 1 cup of detergent per washing load.

A few things worth mentioning, just because this whole “make your own detergent” thing is a little bit different, and I didn’t know what to expect, so here’s what I’ve learned:

• The mixture is very thin at first. It thickens overnight, congealing and clumping together a bit, but bottom line, it’s a pretty thin liquid. You could add less water if you wanted it to be thicker, but we’ve found that this balance of water to soap cleans really well.
• If you choose to add less water and want it to be thicker, sometimes it will clog the little soap dispenser in your water. When this happens, I just run a load of wash on the sanitary cycle on our machine, and the super hot water clears out the soap dispenser.
• If you don’t like the thickness of your soap, you can add more hot water to your five gallon bucket at any time. This stuff is super-forgiving.
• We’ve been using this mixture in our HE washer for over a year. I did a lot of research on making detergent before trying this, and turns out, commercial companies actually add a substance to the soap to get the soap to sud. Apparently, soap isn’t naturally sudsy. So this mixture does not over-sud, and is perfectly safe for our HE washer.
• It’s not like we’re washing teenage boys’ football gear (yet), but this recipe has served to clean all of our wash over a year. We have little kids, and this stuff has cleaned up some pretty gross stuff, and I’ve been very happy with the performance of the detergent. Once or twice, I have chosen to run a load through twice, but I think that’s been more for my peace of mind than for actual cleanliness’ sake.

How Much Does It Save?

I estimate that we make five gallons of detergent for about $1.50. That’s $.30 per gallon. Compare that to grocery store detergent, which is about $15.36 per gallon. So, I estimate that we save about $15.06 per gallon of detergent. We go through five gallons about every two weeks, so I estimate that we’re saving over $150 per month, and on heavy wash months, almost $200.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them!

Speak Life (& Change The World) from Whitney English on Vimeo.

Nineteen days after the world changed forever, I started my second job out of college. The first job had spiraled downward only three months in, and with nine months left to pay on an apartment lease, I had opted to take a job selling furniture at the retail Thomasville gallery in Addison, Texas.

There were two big pros to the job. The first was that the store was literally four minutes from my apartment, which made the commute a dream. The second was that I figured that I could sell pretty much anything I was genuinely interested in, and truth be told, I was genuinely interested in furniture. The cons to the job were that it was 100% commission pay, and that I’d have to work weekends. A job is a job though, and you’ve gotta do what you gotta do, so I went into the whole thing with a pretty good attitude.

The whole world still remained visibly shaken over the events of September 11, and the old-timers on the sales floor welcomed me with a respect and appreciation that’s rarely found in competitive sales environments. There were about fourteen total sales people on staff in the store, and about half of that team was new. The handful of newbies and I would start training just a few days in, and training would last for about a month.

We were smorgasbord of oddballs. There was another girl my age, who didn’t know a thing about furniture or fabric. There was an older lady who loved decorating and was just so precious, a middle-aged mother of two who was dynamic and had a background in furniture sales, and another guy with several years of furniture sales experience, and a few others. When I walked into the storage space where they held training, and looked around at the lot of us, I couldn’t find one common thread, except for the fact that we’d all just been through the most horrific events of our lifetime within the past three weeks. Not surprisingly, that was all we needed to make a connection, build trust, and respect, and we quickly fell to good times, quick laughs, and figuring out this post-September 11 world together.

Life immediately perked up. Having friends to laugh with made all the difference in the world, even if it was just sitting around the tables at the store, waiting for customers to walk in. I started going to dinner with co-workers after work, and even kept in touch with my manager from my last job. My friend Jennifer arrived in Dallas around this point, and we found time to grab dinner as often as possible.

And then, towards the end of training and October, that guy with several years of furniture and sales experience asked little ol’ me to go to a pool party with a rather unfortunate Halloween theme. I’m not going to tell you what the specific theme was, but I can tell you it involved purple zoot suits for the men and that I can’t remember a single female in attendance participating in the women’s suggested costume. I wore something from Harold’s, no doubt: little black dress or the like. Halloween costumes weren’t in the budget.

After that, the nice guy and I started hanging out. Dallas got a bit more friendly, and that nice guy’s friends in the scary zoot suits turned out to be the nicest people in the world with the worst Halloween fashion sense ever. It turned out I was pretty good at selling furniture, and that I was pretty good at getting dates. The older gals at the store started setting me up with their decorating clients (single guys in Dallas hire decorators, turns out) and friends, and I started to have a really good time, building a tiny community of people whom I still call dear friends.

By April of 2002, however, the enchantment had worn off. I was tired of working nights and weekends, and while I had totally developed a crush on that nice guy, he wasn’t interested in returning the affection, and was going to be leaving the store to take on another job at the end of April. The unity that we’d all felt after the impact of 9/11 had faded. One of our teammates couldn’t make her numbers, and was let go. Another leader in the store was moving to California. A third co-worker and friend had been fired, and none of us knew why. Yet another guy was transitioning to the real estate world. There had been some drama in the back office, and they had hired a really annoying new sales lady who made it very clear from day one that she disapproved of and disliked me a great deal. My apartment lease was coming to an end, and that was the only push I needed to decide to wrap things up and head back up north, move in with my parents, and try to figure out where life was going to take me next.

My mom came down to help me pack, and I emptied my apartment into my GMC Jimmy and said goodbye to new friends: my best friend Jennifer, who taught me the art of frugality, my friend Suzanne, who had taught me all about the traditions of Dallas living, and that really nice guy who I’d sold furniture with for nine months.

It was definitely a short chapter, and not particularly a happy one, given the shadows surrounding it, but it was a pretty important chapter, because six and a half years after October 1, 2001, I’d end up marrying that really nice guy with the crazy zoot suit friends.

I said my goodbyes, and hit I-35 to head back to Oklahoma, my family, and back to the only job I’d ever know outside of furniture: selling wedding invitations at a stationery store.

Side note: he doesn’t look very happy in that picture, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t unhappy. He’s one of the happiest guys I know, still! It’s one of the only early pictures I have of us, unfortunately. Cell phone cameras hadn’t been invented yet. How weird is that?

When people ask me what the secret to my early success was, there are always a few different things that pop into my head. I’ve never stopped to make a list, but lately, I’ve felt like I should make a list of what worked, and what didn’t. That’s been rolling around in my head as an idea, and it’s probably time to take some action on it. I think it would be an interesting reflective exercise, maybe even a blog series.

One thing that I will resoundingly claim as a factor that aided in early success was this: I SHOWED UP. Hell or high water, rain or snow, I made an appearance. Tradeshows, industry alliance meetings, local entrepreneurial forums, conferences, workshops, shindigs, and parties: I was there. Literally, I have showed up by every form of transportation except boat: bus, train, car, and air. In fact one of my most awesome feelings in the history of ever was me, walking through the Denver airport in a pair of great looking jeans and a stellar pair of Prada heels. It was a quiet moment, in the middle of a long travel day, and I was booking it: on a mission from one place to the next, in an exhilarating moment. I felt like I was smack dab in the middle of INCREDIBLE.

I guess you could call me a conference junkie.

So it’s no surprise that I now consider Amber Housley to be a kindred spirit. We attended Alt Summit together this past January, and I can’t imagine a better roommate or conference buddy. We loved the exchange of ideas, the interaction with all sorts of new friends and other creatives. She’s the one who pushed me and supported me to have the Authenticate workshop in Nashville, and there is no doubt about the fact that I will forever be tracing the mark of Amber’s influence in my life. She cares. (She even let me have an ugly cry!) When people care, they change you. Isn’t that amazing?

Amber was so supportive in helping me with Authenticate in Nashville, and now I’m nothing but elated to return the favor as she hosts AMBER HOUSLEY: Inspired in Nashville this coming August. She was precious to ask me to speak and share my insights suggestions for living authentically, and I was delighted to oblige! I’m so stinking excited that I’ll get to attend one of her AH Inspired workshops!

But here is the thing I most excited about: when I saw the speaker lineup, I FLIPPED. I’m not kidding, ya’ll. If I wasn’t speaking, I wouldn’t wait TWO MINUTES before registering. If you don’t follow (or stalk) other creative entrepreneurs, let me be the one to tell you: this batch of women is PHENOMENAL. Amber has rounded up the best of the best, and is putting them all in one intimate setting on August 1st and 2nd. Ten incredible women will be on hand and willing to share with you the insights into how they built their businesses, what they did right, what they did wrong, and what they’d do again. Forget the fact that I’m tickled to be speaking beside them; I’m tickled just to be able to get to sit in the same room with them and learn from them!

Let’s do a quick run down, just so you can hear how I read this off in my head. Literally, get ready. This is a stream of consciousness. Michelle Loretta? I think she loves worksheets as much as I do! Maybe she’ll have worksheet handouts! Amy Flurry, what a cute headshot! Boxwood hedge background? How could I not love her? Yes, we must meet. Cathy Olson, OMG, I think she might share my nerdy fascination with code. We ALSO must meet. Jessica Bishop, love that girl. Love her heart. Can’t wait to hug her neck. RACHEL SHINGLETON, girl who GETS me? Yes, we both live in OKC, but it’s this creative conference thing that binds us. We don’t hang out in OKC enough. Mental note to call her. Jess Lively. OMG. I totally embarrassed myself in front of her at Alt Summit. Walked up to introduce myself and was so exhausted I don’t even think I finished my sentence. Hopefully she’s forgiving. And how stylish! I love stylish people. And Jessica Turner, met her at Alt Summit, too, and she spoke on a panel about monetizing your blog. Savvy chick, I should get to know her better. And darling legal mind, Heather Crabtree, whom I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know better the past couple of months, I can’t wait to see what her insights into a successful creative business are. Oh my gosh, I must text Amber NOW. This is amazing. She is amazing! What an amazing opportunity for other creatives!

I’m done gushing.

I’d like to personally invite you to join me at AMBER HOUSLEY: Inspired 2013, a business and lifestyle summit for creative women entrepreneurs. For more information, check out http://www.amberhousleyinspired.com

If you’re on the fence about going, don’t be. The AH Inspired workshop is an INCREDIBLE value (and I’m all about value these days–pinching pennies over here!) There are only 40 seats available, and there is going to be tons of face to face time to interact with each speaker. To make the opportunity even sweeter, Amber is even offering an early bird rate! You can register today at the early bird rate of $729 (ends June 15, 2013): http://www.amberhousleyinspired.com/register

And if you want to check out some of the thoughts that previous women have left inspired with, check out the film announcing this year’s inspired! I’ll confess I got a little bit choked up watching this, but then again, nothing makes me happier than seeing other creative entrepreneurs step out and reach for their dreams. https://vimeo.com/63428817

I’m not kidding when I say that if you’re a creative entrepreneur, I’d love to meet you at AMBER HOUSLEY: Inspired this August! Please join us!

Energy was positive. I was bustling around my apartment in Dallas, getting ready for the day. In a few minutes, I would walk outside to my 1994 burgundy GMC Jimmy and head eleven miles south, into the heart of the design district. There, for nineteen more days, I would be employed at a small furniture manufacturer.

I had lived in Dallas for four months, moving there right out of college. I’d sent my resume out to every residential interior designer in the area who had been mentioned in House Beautiful within the past three years, eventually landing a job with a furniture manufacturer. The idea had been that I would design furniture pieces, help with consultations at their retail location, and then to just generally do whatever it was that needed to be done. I was ok with that. I was good with that.

It hadn’t been easy, though. I had moved to Dallas at twenty-two years old, not knowing a soul. I figured I would meet people, somehow. Church or something, you know? But I was a bit of a wall-flower, and definitely an introvert, and church was hard to get to by myself. My mom would tell me to go, that the “fellowship will be an encouragement” and so I’d go to the Sunday service, and then leave before I got sucked into some awful singles’ group. The term “singles’ group” annoyed the fire out of me, in fact. What awful terminology. The very name reminded me how alone I was in the world, and I didn’t want much part of anything that was such a constant reminder.

After three months, instead of meeting people, I found myself lonelier than ever before. My aunt and uncle lived in Arlington, and I’d see them on the weekends, but that left empty hours in the weekday evenings. The manager at the retail store location was extremely kind to me. She had daughters around my age and she’d take me to dinner and we’d talk. I appreciated her friendship and company, but I’d still head north to my apartment every night and cry myself to sleep. There was a girl who was a friend of my aunt who was also moving from Missouri to Dallas that fall, and according to my aunt, she didn’t know anyone either. Assuming that was good, I looked forward to meeting her, and pressed forward with my very unglamorous schedule of 8 to 5, then home to scrapbook and sleep.

About three months in to this new job and new life, and exactly eleven days before, my boss had shaken her finger at me, told me I was a “steamroller”, that it wasn’t working out, and that I had to find a new job. So I had. And on October 1, I was going to begin my second full-time job as a furniture sales person at a retail showroom down the street from my apartment. Which left exactly nineteen days at current job left to finish out. I was looking forward to the change, if only because it meant I was going me meet new people.

My morning routine was simple: sleep for as long as possible. The radio on my stereo system in my armoire would come on as an alarm clock. Shower. Check email. I had a television, but it wasn’t plugged in. Breakfast of some kind, probably toast and jelly or cereal. Coffee from the cheap little coffee maker in the laminate-slathered kitchen. Jump in the car, drive downtown. Apply mascara during drive.

That morning, the radio had come on, and woken me up, but for some reason, I hadn’t turned up the volume. Shower, dress, breakfast. Email check returned nothing. As I was heading out the door, the thought occurred to me that I hadn’t heard a song on the radio that morning–they’d been talking an awful lot. I swung past the armoire, twisted the knob on the radio volume, and heard that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Realizing this was not good, but assuming it was an accident, I spritzed on a bit of perfume and jumped in the car.

It was on the Dallas Tollway that Dan Rather told me, over the radio, that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center and that “our country was under attack.” I immediately pictured a wave of attacks rolling over the country, from east coast to west, and wondered if I should turn the car around. By the time I arrived at the furniture manufacturer’s showroom downtown, towers had fallen. My boss was nowhere to be found, but Jesse, the gal in charge, shook her head and said she was going home. “We’re living in one of the largest cities in the United States,” she said. “I’m not sticking around.” The other gal in the showroom agreed. So I got back in my car, headed back to my apartment, and called my mom, who told me to keep a full tank of gas in the car and to pack a bag and keep it in the car.

The world had changed.

I plugged in the television at my apartment and watched horror unfold. My boss eventually touched base and gave me rights to leave for the next couple of days, and by that afternoon, I was on the road back to Oklahoma. Headed home, back to my family and my heart. No one knew what was going on, so why stick around Dallas? For all we did know, the world was ending.

September 11, 2001, was pivotal in all of our lives, but I think, for me, it signified so much more than just a shift in our mindset as a society. For me, it was the culmination of much loneliness, frustration, and feeling completely misplaced in the world. It left me longing for home. It made me realize, as it did millions of others, that life is short, that there are no second chances, and that there really isn’t much time for loneliness, and there definitely isn’t time for self-pity. You’ve got to create the world you want to be a part of. You have to design the life you want to live.

So this is the beginning of my story. Of course, there is a lot that happened in my life prior to September 11, 2001, but in hindsight, those moments don’t seem to matter as much as the ones that came after September 11, so we’re calling this the beginning. September 11 set the stage for change for so many of us, and I wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass me by. No, I was about to grab change by the horns and hang on for the ride of my life.

I’m committing to tell a little bit more of the story each Thursday, as sort of a blogging ritual, rhythm, and routine. Tuesdays will be newsletter day (you can sign up in the side bar) and Thursdays will be story time. Tune in next Thursday to find out what happens next.

Just for conversation’s sake, where were you on September 11? Let me know in the comments.

Nobody’s life is perfect. We all know that. If you, by some remote chance, think you know someone who has a perfect life, think again. You’re dead wrong. At the same time, if, for some reason, you think your life is perfect, then I’m pretty sure our definition of perfect isn’t the same. I’m not talking about living happily, contentedly, or gratefully, I’m talking about sheer perfection. Never a hair out of place, never a work-out missed, never a library book overdue, never a C in any coursework made. Perfection, my friends, doesn’t exist. That’s truth, plain and simple.

I was talking with my friend Rachel Shingleton a while back, and she brought up an interesting question that someone had once asked her: what was the eternal significance of her creative efforts? I’m pretty sure the person who posed the question must have been living under the assumption that for any of us to do any good on this earth that we must forsake all our wordly belongings and go preach the gospel to natives. And if that’s the way the way anyone thinks, then I’m sorry, because it means that you probably feel very limited in your own abilities to make an eternal impact right where you are. But the question stuck with me, and I’ve thought about it several times since chatting with Rachel.

Fast forward a few months. I was emailing with my friend and client, Holly Mathis. I had asked her to think about what her calling and purpose was. She had responded with the wording that “beauty ministered” to her. I related immensely to the statement. When the world around us is crazy and out of control, whether it’s our home, our neighborhood, or even our community in a larger aspect, sometimes a “little slice of heaven” can be a calming relief.

If you’re a mama and an entrepreneur, or one or the other, I have a feeling you might know what I mean. Yesterday, I spent the day scrubbing the grout on our utility room floor, and straightening the shelves that serve as our pantry for our little crowded kitchen. At the end of the day, to me, it was beautiful. I felt productive. I had used my energy to make something in this world BETTER.

If left to it’s own devices, the world would deteriorate. It’s the in natural order of the universe for things to roll down hill, to get worse rather than better. We, as humans, have the ability to put energy into things to make them better. They can be big things, or small things, it doesn’t matter. What matters is if we each, in our own efforts, make our own little corners of this world a more beautiful place, then maybe we’re offering (gifting?) someone else with a little “slice of heaven”, a little respite, a little rest from the weary world and the rat race that I sometimes feel like we’re all stuck in.

My Instagram friend Aedriel wrote an interesting article on her blog last week, about an article out of Relevant magazine. The article was titled, “Stop Instagramming Your Perfect Life”, and challenged the reader to stop and find connection, and live passionately with gratitude and grace. I completely agree, but I also hold fast to the belief that if, as graphic designers and event planners and creatives and entrepreneurs, we stop doing our jobs–our jobs to make our own little corner of the world a more beautiful place–we would be contributing to the natural downward spiral of this world. In short, we’d be lazy. We’d be falling short in not using the natural gifts that God has given us.

I’ll be honest. I work pretty diligently to make my Instagram feed as beautiful as possible. Not because I’m trying to show off or make people think my life is beautiful, but because I want to remember these moments that ARE beautiful. I’m not going to say that my Instagram feed IS beautiful to the rest of the world, but to me it is, and that’s all that matters. It’s a collection of my days, a chronicle of what I’m learning, a tiny scrapbook of my kids growing up, and I want that collection to be the best it possibly can be. I’ve worked hard to research apps that produce the kind of pictures that I like, and I’ve consulted with photographer friends who have given me tips on photo composition. I analyze professional photographers’ Instagram feeds to see if I can learn anything that might challenge me to make my own feed, my own photos, my own art, and my own work better. And I do it because I believe that beauty makes this world a better place.

Life isn’t perfect, but moments are. I challenge you to look around your world and start creating and capturing your own beautiful moments, and collecting them somewhere, anywhere, that you can reflect on and use to inspire you later. If life is made up of moments, then putting the effort into making the most of those moments, and making them beautiful, will add up to…well, it will add up to a well-designed life.

Happy Instagramming, friends.

xoxo,
Whitney

“Give me three things positive about life in general lately,” he asked. It’s the same question I’ve heard almost every three weeks for a year and a half now. I twizzled my hair and staired aimlessly around the room, maybe trying to find something my eyes could land on that would suffice as an answer, instead of having to come up with something on my own. The uber-organized office of our marriage counselor, turned family counselor, turned my life coach was awfully full of interesting things to stare at: piles of books, watercolor paintings, the sign on the front of the desk listing his pricing in all caps.

“Well, there’s one, but it’s kind of a negative,” I started. “He’s finally stressed about money, instead of me stressing about it. It’s actually a refreshing break,” I explained. Counselor chuckled and asked for two more. I can’t remember what I cited for the second thing, but for the third I said, “Well, I found some new software that seems like it will do some pretty cool stuff. I’m excited about that.” (If that was a tweet, it would have #computernerd behind it). He laughed again, said it sounded cool.

Then we launched into the accountability update on my latest project, my book. I’m seven chapters in. Slow and steady wins the race. He’s actually published quite a few books, and has lots of experience. I’m gratefully accepting the gift, happy to be learning something new–one of my favorite things to be doing. Practicing an art, refining a skill, sharpening a strength. It takes discipline, but it feels good. In fact, it feels like progress.

Progress, however, is frustrating on a morning like today. I spent the morning upstairs, sorting through hand-me-downs (what a blessing!), but also realizing that everything about my kids’ rooms is disastrously disorganized. It’s not that there is too much stuff, it’s just that everything is in transition. Kiddo’s room needs to be painted, his bed needs to be taken down, twin beds need to be put up. Bubba’s crib needs to be painted, furniture needs to be rearranged. There are so many decisions in-between, too: do we move Bubba to a big bed or leave him in his crib? Do we put both boys in the same room and give Charley the nursery? Or does Charley keep the guest room. If so, where do guests go?

At about that point, I hit overwhelm. I know I need to break it down into actionable steps, but I can’t figure out how I even want it to end up. Actionable steps without a vision make life pretty challenging. Unfortunately, my kids rooms can wait. It takes a deep breath to admit that, especially when Pinterest is always there, mocking you with the cutest before and afters and nurseries you’ve ever seen. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re on a quest to get out of debt, and spending money on kids rooms doesn’t exactly put us closer to that goal.

What does put us closer to that goal is me working. I mentioned in a video blog a couple of weeks back that I was starting a new business, and that I’d keep ya’ll updated, so here’s an update!

Newsletter!

First off, I’m officially starting a newsletter! It will be delivered once a week, mostly on Tuesdays, and will be a total behind-the-scenes update on what I’ve got going on. In marketing speak, that’s called exclusive content. In Whitney speak, that’s called SCOOP. Big time scoop, ya’ll. The newsletter is going to be written like I’m writing a letter to a friend, so it’s going to be pretty transparent and frank. In other words, if I’m having a bad day, I’m going to say so. On the other hand, if I’m super excited about a victory, milestone, or accomplishment, I’m going to share it with my newsletter crew first–ya’ll will be the first to know! The newsletter will encompass what I’m learning, what tools I’m using, what resources I’ve found, and tons of other information that might be helpful to other creative entrepreneurs. If you’re interested, sign up! I’m including a sign-up form below, and in the coming days, you’ll see one appear in the sidebar as well.

Book Club!

The next thing I’m working on is a book club. I don’t have an official name for it yet, but I’m already super excited about it. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I love to read. What makes reading all the more enjoyable is having someone to talk with about the subjects being read. For me, book clubs are challenging because I have to go hunt down a book, either online or in-store. Also challenging, is that in the past, I’ve found that the book club concept can sometimes be disappointing. If it’s not priority, sometimes there isn’t a lot of committment. I’m hoping to develop a format that changes that. I’ve picked a series of books applicable to creativity and entrepreneurship, and I’m making arrangements to have these all pre-shipped to the book club members. I want this to be super-convenient, something that’s easy to commit to, and engaging to all involved. If you want more details, sign up for the newsletter above. Hooray for book clubs AND scoop, right?

Authenticate E-Course!

Ya’ll, this one has me uber-excited! I’m headed to Nashville on April 17th for a full day, in-person, Authenticate workshop. There are some pretty incredible other people attending as well. It’s going to be a day full of uncovering your purpose, realizing your strengths, and doing some hard core alignment with values and goals. If you’d like to join us, please do! Absolutely anyone is welcome!

My dear friend Amber Housley encouraged (pushed?) me to start Authenticate as a workshop, and I’m so grateful to her. The first concept behind Authenticate was to make it a traveling intensive, where I’d hop from city to city. SO many people have reached out and offered to host the workshop in their city, but as I’ve worked through the details on the Nashville workshop, I’ve realized that it just isn’t in my ability to travel that much this summer.

So, in lieu of a traveling workshop, I’ve decided to offer Authenticate as an e-course! It will be a 12 week, 12 step course choc full of tips, stories, worksheets and coaching, all focused on a central principle: live authentically. Sign ups at an early bird rate will be available next week at a reduced rate of $550! (The actual cost of the 12 week course, with coaching calls, is $900, so $550 is an incredible value!) If you want to hear more details, tune back into the blog on Monday or Tuesday when I hope to launch final details and open up registration! The course will start June 1, so mark your calendars!

Big Idea Binder!

Last but not least, I’m delighted to announce that (finally!) I’m hours away from launching the little Big Idea Binder. The Big Idea Binder is a system that grew out of my personal need to quarantine and organize ideas. After a ton of research, I’ve learned that the creative process is actually pretty simple, but it’s rarely something that creatives use to their full advantage, just out of lack of knowledge. The Big Idea Binder comes with instruction sheets and suggested creative exercises for capturing, documenting, and executing ideas, all from one tidy central location. You can also purchase additional note pads for cataloging and documenting. I use my binder in conjunction with my Day Designer, and the two together form a perfect project management system.

Wrapping It Up

I still get intimidated every time I press publish on a blog post. What if someone doesn’t like it? What if someone leaves a nasty comment? What if I tick someone off? I have to stop and remind myself that I don’t write this blog for “someone”, I write it for the people it helps. I have to remind myself to ignore the one or two nasty (and cowardly, and anonymous comments), and focus on the people who tell me I’m bringing value and clarity and perspective to their lives. (And for those that do, THANK YOU–it means more than you’ll ever know!) Hooray for progress and hooray for positives, right?

Have a beautiful day, friends!
xoxo,
Whitney

How Vision Relates To Purpose from Whitney English on Vimeo.