So long 2019....you were good to me!

I feel like its been so long since I sat down and wrote a heartfelt post. Like a really, really, long time.

So while I lay here in bed on one of the last days of 2019, willing myself to not get sick, I thought this was as good of a time as any.

This past year has not flown by for me. I only say that because I feel like thats what most of us say as the new year approaches and we look back on what the past year has brought. 2019 was beautiful for me. Really, it was pretty, perfectly, beautiful and I don’t care if that seems like i’m boasting because well, I am. You have to celebrate the wins and I’m super thankful for what this year has given me. Both in my profession, marriage, family and friends. Its all good, like really, really good.

I feel like people kept asking me the same question this year….How did your business start?

Have I ever told you how it all started? Maybe I did? But if I can’t remember then maybe you can’t either. So here goes…

I officially became a full fledged, tax paying business 3 years ago when I registered House Seven Design as a LLC in January of 2017 with not much experience at owning or running my own business. Okay, none.

I did this after a year of dabbling in interior design but not feeling comfortable calling myself a designer. How could I? I clearly didn’t have a degree from a credited school saying that’s what I was. Would I be a fraud if thats what I started calling myself? I told myself, yes.

So instead, I referred to myself as a home stylist. I styled homes and suggested decor and furnishings for people that paid me a very small fee. Not a client. They were definitely not clients because I wasn’t a designer so clearly, they were NOT clients. This is pretty much the conversation I had with myself on the daily until one day I felt like I had done enough work to where I could then declare I was too, a designer. So dumb. But it’s what I had to do to get here. YOU are the only one holding YOU back, remember that.

Brian came on board a few months later in April. My now clients were requesting his work on their homes and he was still working in the restaurant business 70+ hours a week with no time for a part time gig doing carpentry. What to do? What to do?

Let me just preface with the fact that when I have a feeling I usually just go with it. Like really its pretty much all or nothing with me which is both good and bad. Thank you Lord Jesus that so far its been all good.

We made this huge leap of faith decision while cleaning up the dinner dishes one night and thought, it’s right now or never. We held hands and prayed… Dear Lord, we ask for your direction over this decision and please, if its your will, let us keep food on the table and a roof over our kids heads. He did just that and so much more. We are truly blessed and he alone deserves all the glory for what we have. All of it.

Fast forward the past 3 years and next month we open our House Seven design + build Shoppe and its both scary and exhilarating. Our HSD team is slowly growing and could not be a better group of humans. Hiring people is hard. Its hard to know who’s going to mesh and who isn’t. Although, I will say Im getting better at knowing earlier on now. My team is loyal and dedicated for our business. I can tell they are excited to see us growing a little more each month and it makes me so happy to share it with them!

Brian and I are slowing figuring out how to run a business together. “ Together” being the key word in that sentence. Anyone who has ever worked with a spouse/family member can probably relate to the fact that its both the greatest and aggravating arrangement ever. But we are so getting the hang of it and Im super proud of us for always falling back into a stride after a trip up along the way. We have no other choice really because we both know we are in it to the end. For better or for worse but always praying for the better for sure!

Our design clients have also been amazing this past year. They have supported our little company and helped us grow. They listen to us and trust us when it comes to their homes and businesses and that is something that I can’t even express in to words. We are where we are because of them and so I say a huge THANK YOU to each and everyone of you…thats if my clients even read my blog? Hopefully some of you do!

Instagram is still a huge part of my business and even though I’m so grateful to it, it is after all what started this whole thing, its also a huge source of discontent at times. Trying to figure out why or what is going to be liked, hated, followed or unfollowed sucks and I know Im not the only one who feels this way. But we still carry on. I miss having the time in my day to focus 100% on my own home. Striving for the perfectly lit, perfectly styled, 10k liked shot. Those days don’t exist anymore.I’ve got too many other homes on my mind so I post when I can, what I can, and hope someone out there still cares enough to double tap. I still scratch my head and talk a little smack about other accounts that get a gajillion likes on content that I think is less then worthy of a gajillion likes. And you are all liars if you say you aren’t doing the same thing! I’m laughing as I write this because its pretty funny when you think about it. I hope you’re laughing too because if you’re not and IG has become too serious to laugh about then I highly suggest taking a break from it all together. So I watch the numbers rise and fall and tell myself that I’m doing just fine but seriously, I still don’t get it?

As I look to the new year ahead, I’m full of hope and trepidation for what is to come. I hope that I can be a little better than what I am now. A better mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, boss, creative…..the list goes on. But the goal isn’t to be the best this year, just better. And even though, as I write those words, there’s still that little voice in my head saying, thats not true, you should be the best.

To that I reply, I will strive to be the BEST version of me that I can be.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

I wish you all your very own best to come!