My Interview Wednesday

Kinda odd…I know…to interview myself!???!

I am not actually going to interview me, but I am going to share a little bit of my struggles and accomplishments, as I use this post to reflect on and potentially help guide me forward.

So where to begin?

I started this blog because I love to write. I also love to design my home. And at the time, I was also spending too much time focusing on my career. While I have been blessed with success…I needed something other than my job to balance it all.

As you may or may not know, I was both a music and fashion merchandising major. So I am a bit artsy, which really helps me with both my writing and my design work.

Here are some examples of art that I have painted myself:

My design is really out of necessity. Very similar to a fellow blogger that I met at Haven this weekend, I only create my own pieces or designs (DIY) when I can’t seem to find what I am looking for.

I have a vision and I can’t find anything to help me execute that vision. So I make it myself or pay someone else to do so.

For example (these are just a sprinkling of what I have done)…

I didn’t have a mudroom, so I created my own little space to hang our coats, purses and hats:

Or, Emma didn’t have her own spot and I wanted to cover the wall space with something useful so I made this space:

My goal was to take my love for design, my crazy mind, my desire to improve my writing and absolute need to finish some of these projects (or start those that I have been dying to start for quite some time) and use as content for the blog. My hope was that I could inspire you AND myself at the same time.

The feedback was AWESOME! It was so inspiring that I decided I wanted to do more. Yes…I have a problem. I am never satisfied and always want more. That can be a blessing, in that I am always wanting to improve or enhance, or it can be a curse…a curse because I can be impatient or have higher expectations. But I knew I wanted to make the blog more! Bigger!

Even in its short time, I was evolving already. I started to expand and post things related to lifestyle with topics such as: Editorials, Recipes and Interviews.

And Varied Posts that cover a myriad of themes such as:

And as it relates to design, while sometimes highlights were DIY projects (or those DIY that I paid someone to do), they were mixed in with posts that would hopefully provide some inspiration such as:

Because I now had more motivation and these new ideas, I decided to have my blog re-designed. I had a logo created and set some additional goals to potentially generate some small income from my efforts.

I mean, really!!! If you have noticed, I post almost every day (with some exceptions here and there). Why not make some money doing something I really enjoy and secretly love! Ok…not so secret anymore, I guess.

So I go to the blog conference this past weekend. I was not even remotely overwhelmed or nervous about it. Heck! I have been so busy with work and family that those feelings never even crossed my mind.

Until I got there! Within a few hours…I felt as though I was going through an identity crisis and second guessing my blog, my content and my goals.

Now here I sit wondering what to do next? How to proceed?

Here is what I know TONIGHT (even after writing), that:

I still love to write!
I can still think of billion topics and projects to post!
While I think there are some design changes that need to be made, I do like my blog ALOT!

What does that all mean?

We can sometimes get overwhelmed and over stimulated with what is around us. It can cause us to self doubt and question what all that we do.

But I have to truly be honest with myself and allow those things to not influence me. I have to remember what my passions are and what I believe in. If I stand true to that, then everything else will fall into place. People like me for me and will like my blog for what it is.

With all that said, I still will continue as I am now, but with the goal to continue to grow, improve and leave the doors open to what may still yet come.

Your challenge, when you have any self doubt and a lot of noise around you, is tune it out and remember what motivated you or what your goals were. Remember that only you know what you want or where you want to go. The others will join you in your journey if they really care about you.

I leave you with this: YOU ARE AWESOME!!!