Re-Freshed

Hello!  I trust that your new year is off to a nice start and that you are rested and ready for the beginning of something special.  I know that I am.  The break from blogging was nice - probably the longest I have been away ever.

I contemplated starting back the day after new year's but figured it would be like starting a diet on a Wednesday - no one does that!  While away, I thought a lot about where I am and where I want to be. My vision is easily clouded under "business-as-usual" circumstances.  So, the break came at a good time.

The Blog
When I started the blog several years ago, it was fun.  I was busy creating things and doing projects around our home - still am.  I always said that I would continue blogging as long as I enjoyed it - which I do.

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Then the design business grew and advertising opportunities came along.  Many of you have strong feelings about advertising on blogs.  Honestly, I'm not a fan of ads, but they do help supplement our household income and allow me to continue with many of the projects around our home.  I have been thinking about the sponsorship and plan to continue with it, but never want any of my readers to feel like that is the main focus.  Sometimes I feel like it reads that way and I do not want that.  It is important that the ads are relevant to the blog and hopefully appeal to my readers while at the same time give my sponsors good exposure.  Balance is key.

I want you to be comfortable here and to be inspired.  Sound good?  That said, I may be posting with less frequency, but hopefully with more meaning and purpose.

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Now that I have babbled about that, I would love to simplify the blog and am in the market for a blog designer.  Any suggestions?  I want simple.  Actually, "simple" might be my motto for 2013 in all areas of my life!  Also in the works is a website for the design side.  I'm busy pulling together photos of finished projects and hope to have that up and running shortly.  Thanks ahead of time for your patience during the process.

Around Our Home
Blogging is fun because it pushes me to try things that might be too risky with a client.  I like being the guinea pig, but am ready to settle down so that I can really focus on my work.  That said, I have been sifting through countless images over the break really studying rooms and trying to find myself - or at least my most favorite decorating style.  As much I LOVE working with my wonderful clients, sometimes I do not have time to think about our own home.

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The holiday break gave me time to carefully consider what I like to see on a daily basis.  I'm sure that my design buddies can agree that sometimes we are tired of seeing patterns & colors before the rest of the world embraces them.  Guess it just comes with the territory.  I have a plan in place for our home - just fine tuning really, which I will share on the blog. However, I do have a couple of pretty big projects in the works.  More on that later.  Also, Rick and I went through closets and drawers and purged like crazy!  I have listed furniture and a rug on Craigslist as well as a few things on Ebay.  We dropped off several boxes of stuff at the Goodwill trailer.  Paring down never felt better!

All this to say...

I'm back.  Re-freshed & focused.