New year, new look, new you, new everything!

How I flipped my world upside down in a year.

Well it's been more like 18 months, but if there’s anything I can say about 2020 it was the year of the New. New everything! When I say everything the only thing that hasn’t changed in my life is the following. I own a dog, have two kids and I still have the same car, but besides that pretty much everything else has changed. What a way to kick off my 30s. Yes, all this started just a month after my 30th birthday.

As a teenager in the 2000's we grew up watching Mean Girls and Gossip Girl. I've always like this particular quote from Gossip Girl "Sometimes, you need to step outside, get some air, and remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be".

It may have taken 30 years for me to really get that but I finally realize who I am, what I want to be and that sacrificing my own happiness to please others or to fit into other people's idea of what I should be just wasn’t worth it. Something had to give, to be honest with you, pretty much everything had to.

All of this takes courage but, sometimes you just have to listen to your heart, listen to those little seeds that God planted and just take a leap of faith.

The first new thing was a change in my marital status. While I don’t want to encourage anyone to seek a divorce or separation as your first choice. Separation is certainly not easy and a lot of heartache happens because of it. But for me and my situation this was something I knew in my heart needed to change. So that was the first new for me.

Then next came the new living arrangements. It was time to look for a new house, having always loved architecture since I was a young child, I love moving into new houses. Moving is always a lot of work but I enjoy coming into empty space and creating something new. To be honest I played with Barbies well past the appropriate age to play with dolls mainly because I loved building these towns, homes, and places. Which is probably why I love building, merchandising and creating beautiful things in spaces.

Step three to the new me was I had to get a new phone. So after putting it off for too long, my dear friend Parker convinced me to get an iPhone. He literally took me to the store, picked out what I needed, and got me all hooked up so I could jump on the apple bandwagon.

So what else new could I possibly do this year??? Well, I quit my job and started a completely new adventure, chasing my dream. So you can add new job to the list.

It wasn't just a new job, I took a leap of faith and started my own brand and boutique. I have always loved creating and had always thought about owning my own business, where I could do the things I loved but that dream is kind of scary. The uncertainty, worrying, not knowing if anyone would even like what I was creating and selling. That’s the scary truth that kept me from chasing my dreams a long time ago.

But this was the year of the new so why not add a new adventure to my life and one day after getting dinner with Parker a thought crossed my mind. What if?

From there I dove in head first taking all of these dreams I ever had and doing what I could to put those dreams into the world. So I needed a platform to sell on and had to build a website, never having done anything like that before, but thanks to the help of some friends I launched my first website August 1 of 2020.

This happened only days after my birthday, so about a year after my 30th birthday I took the biggest leap of faith and started Blue Jean Boutique. Now I get to work on my schedule, make magic happen, I get to create on a daily basis and even let my kids to help with the creative process.

While there are still moments of doubt and days where I think what in the hell was I thinking. I choose to celebrate the little victories, an encouraging customer review, a T-shirts sale, the support from friends who love me and care about, that time the owner of the shop in shop building called me to tell me he sold $200 worth of stuff out of my boutique, or that time at my first in person show, making a little girls day by simply giving her a bath bomb. Instead of focusing on the overwhelmingly negative things happening in this world I choose to focus on these things, I choose to focus on the new me and how far I’ve come this last year.

So with all that said what better way to kick off the new year, hopefully an even better year, than with a new look. Mind you this is coming from a girl who has had Serena van der Woodsen hair envy for the last decade. But without hesitation I booked an appointment, headed to my friends salon, I got a totally new look and couldn’t be happier!

So for those of you who may be scared, nervous or worried to try something new I want you to know you are stronger than you think, and to throw another little gossip girl quote at you "have a little faith and if that doesn’t work have a lot of mimosas".

xoxo A