An End and a Beginning

Within the past two days I have gotten more than a couple hints that my blog is slowly dying. I know, I know... but no news is good news, right? Silence is golden! Okay, maybe not.

The bad news is that this blog is nearly at it's official "end". I will not be posting to Something That Simple much more.

The GOOD news is that my new blog is right around the corner! It is nearly finished, and the goal start date of November 1st is close, so hold on for the big one! It's coming sooner than you think!!

My new blog will be similar and yet different. The main difference is that it will be a shared blog. You see.... well, boy, it's a long story. But since I have nothing but time (a complete exaggeration in case you were wondering), I will fill you in on the details.

Where to begin? Alright, here goes.

Back in June, my life changed dramatically. We bought our house, moved out of the city, I switched jobs, and began a new life. When taking this new job, I was quite sure that this would be the "bridge" to take me to the days when I will be a mom (yes, kids are on the horizon somewhere). However, it became clear within about three weeks of working the new job that this was NOT going to be a forever kind of place. After three weeks, I was having serious doubts about making it to even the three month mark. I have been challenged, stretched, discouraged, inspired, and frustrated (sometimes all within the same day!). I have learned so much in my time here. The lessons have been life lessons. Slowly, I began to realize that this job is a bridge, but not necessarily to the days of motherhood (farther down the road). The freelance dreams that I had put aside sprang to life again. I began day dreaming about my freelance business... My thoughts were consumed with ideas, plans and goals.

Back in late July, I began to develop a three tiered plan. I decided to build my own business based on 1) general freelance design work, 2) stationary/invitation design, and 3) a blog.

The general freelance design business was born as Bethany Hway Design. The growth has been exciting and overwhelming at the same time. My clients began to spring up out of the woodwork (via word of mouth mostly).

The next tier to my plan was the stationary and invitation design business. This is where the story starts to get interesting, so listen up...

In my moments of brainstorming, I thought that it would be incredibly fun to develop a brand or "line" of wedding invitations. These invitations would be sold through an online shop and they would be custom, fun and beautiful. The name that I came up with for the brand was "emmy lu". As I started thinking more about my venture, I remembered a girl that I worked worked with back at KPA. She had been an intern there one semester while I was an employee. I knew that she was very talented and fun, and my first thought was that I wanted to grab a hold of her talent and pull her in on this whole idea. We bumped into each other at a design alum picnic and couldn't stop talking. A week later we got together for coffee and chatted for over 3 hours. We began to learn about a whole host of similarities between us; in our situations, personalities, goals and dreams. I brought up my "emmy lu" idea and out of that meeting the beginnings of a wonderful partnership were born.

Shortly after our first meeting, Laura became my official partner in Emmy Lu. She has been a continual source of encouragement, motivation, and joy. It's been two months since we first sat down to meet, and in that time, HUGE things have happened. Emmy Lu officially became an LLC on September 26th. Laura and I have since created a detailed business plan, networking strategy, vendor relations, and a complete company identity. Our goal is to have the business totally up and running within the next few months. We are currently in the process of building our website, brainstorming marketing ideas, networking, and.... drumroll please..... creating our blog!

This is where the third tier of my business plan comes in. Emmy Lu's blog, dubbed "Pretty in the City, Lovely in the County" (after Laura, a city-dweller who lives in a downtown loft, and me, a "county"-dweller who lives in a vintage cape-cod) will be a place where Laura and I write about simple, beautiful, and inspiring things. We will write about our homes, our hobbies, our travels, our city, our work, and the little things that make each of us "us".

I know that I mentioned a new blog a few posts back, and it has always been my intention to create a new blog using better software and design, but now that Emmy Lu is on the horizon, the blog has become a bona fide pursuit. It is currently in the final stages of design. Next week it will be "coded" by a company that is doing all of our web work. After that we will build up the content, and then share it with the world!

So there you go.... that's where I've been these last few months! I'm really excited about all the possibilities that the future holds.

Stay tuned for the new blog launch!! I promise, it's right around the corner. :)