In the fall of 2016, I was feeling extremely stuck. It had been over a year since I quit my job as a dance instructor to be able to focus more on my family and career as a cosmetologist. I also had a strong desire to figure out how I could do something more with my life that I was really proud of. Yet here I was, sitting on my couch a year and a half later, feeling like I had nothing to show for all the time that had passed. Dance had been my creative outlet for the past 20 years. What I missed the most was how emotion could be created and shared by so many people without having to speak a word, and I desperately wanted to experience those same feelings again. It was then that I decided I had to make it a priority to figure out what I could do to recreate those same feelings with a different form of art.

As I began to brainstorm what in the world that new art form would be, I started to think back to the things I enjoyed doing as a child. From elementary school all the way through high school, art was always my favorite subject. (You can read more about my first elementary school art experience here.) A few of my favorite artists include the "Mother of American Modernism" Georgia O’ Keefe, Edgar Degas’ ballerinas, and the oil paintings of Monet. I loved learning about different mediums and techniques, but it wasn’t until my sophomore year art class that I accidentally stumbled upon hand lettering...really without even knowing it.

Our assignment for this particular project was to create a picture collage and then use acrylic to paint a replica of that collage. The previous summer my dance company traveled to New York City for a national dance competition, so for my theme I decided to put together memories of the things we had experienced on that trip. Some of those things were playbills, pictures of popular street signs, and my dance company’s logo...all of which had an abundance of letters on them. I remember my teacher telling me that I may want to reconsider the pictures I was choosing to paint because the lettering was going to be too difficult. If anything that made me want to prove to her that I could do it, but honestly I also did not want to spend time coming up with ideas for an entirely different collage! So off I went painting, and once I had to start those letters I remember thinking, “Well crap...she was definitely right about this, but there’s no way I’m going to tell her that.” They were SO tedious and time consuming, but once it was finished I felt more accomplished than I ever had with an art piece. So when the entire school voted on their favorite painting and I won, I was shocked, but also pretty proud. (Disclaimer: I was, and still am by no means Picasso, so you’re not allowed to judge me too harshly by this painting from 10+ years ago!)

Like I said, this was all quite some time ago, and since then my skills have slowly improved between randomly creating hand lettered pieces for my own home, as well as family and friends. However, it wasn’t until a little over a year ago when I was sitting on that couch feeling sorry for myself that I realized I enjoyed this type of art more than I ever knew. I committed to practicing as much as possible and invested in WAY too many pens and other supplies to learn as much as I possibly could, and the more I practiced, the more I loved lettering.

It was then that I decided to create an Instagram page to track my improvement. I will say, this completely scared the sh*t out of me. I am the type of person that usually likes keeping my personal life off social media, and I was afraid that people would see my lettering and judge me for it. I knew, though, that I had no choice but to get over that fear if I was really going to attempt to make this work. My first obstacle was coming up with a name. After a week or so of brainstorming, Stem & Flourish is what I kept going back to. I liked the name because it has two different meanings; one being related to lettering, and the other more about growing in life.

After I submitted my first post and people I knew started asking me if that was my Instagram page, I was feeling EXTREMELY inadequate, uneducated, and silly for thinking that I could create a business based off something that A.) I didn’t go to school for, and B.) was completely teaching myself how to do. Granted, in the beginning it wasn’t so much a business as it was just me being brave enough to start that page. I honestly still have those same feelings now and again, but it wasn't long after that first post that people started noticing my work and pretty soon I had a small side business doing something I love. So my point in all of this is, if there’s something you really want to do, but think it’s too far out of reach, you CAN actually make it happen. That could be anything. Not just creating a side job or running your own business. It could be something as small as running that 5k you've been thinking about for years, or something more extreme like climbing Mount Everest or backpacking through Europe for a year. If you really have a desire to do something, get off your a** and figure out how to make it happen. Will it be easy? Most likely not. Will you have it all planned out by tomorrow? Definitely not. Will you grow as a person and feel more confident in knowing who you really are and what you are actually capable of? 100% YES. And to me, that’s totally worth it.

I built something from nothing in a year and I am pretty dang proud of that. It has been hard, many tears have been shed, and I have doubted and questioned myself constantly. However, I have also never taught myself so much or worked this hard to build something completely on my own, and nothing tops the feeling of accomplishment that comes with that. My most recent project was opening my Etsy shop which you can check out here. There’s not much on there currently, but custom address stamps are coming soon, as well as a nursery collection (in honor of our May 2018 arrival!) that I am really excited about! As for this blog, my goal is for it to be a collection of things ranging from lettering to home projects, travel and more. I want to share with you how my life has “stemmed” and “flourished”, and hopefully encourage you to do the same.

If you’ve read this far, thank you SO much for allowing me to share a piece of my story with you. Click the following links to download your FREE January 2018 desktop or mobile wallpaper. Subscribe to know when new posts and products are coming (I promise not to spam you because trust me, I hate an overloaded inbox as much as you do!), and also give us a follow on Instagram, Etsy, and Facebook. Cheers!

How Stem & Flourish Began

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