A little over 10 years ago, I did a google search for “home decor blog” and discovered a whole new world.  Well, new to me.  I found “my people”…housewives, moms, and decor enthusiasts sharing their love of home on the internet.  They were Myquillyn of The Nesting Place, Melissa of The Inspired Room, Sarah of Thrifty Decor Chick, and Layla of The Lettered Cottage.  I devoured their posts and the comments left by others in that growing community.  I soaked it all in.  Pretty quickly, a thought took hold in the back of my mind.  Initially, it was a quiet, gentle nag.  You know, I could do this too. I can’t explain it, but that quiet nag became insistent.  I felt compelled to do it.  I was being pulled by a strong current and something within me knew I needed to do it. In my complete ignorance of how blogs

I met Shaunna about 9 years ago at the Blissdom blog conference and we hit it off almost immediately.  As fellow “furniture girls”, we knew of each other, but we hadn’t connected until that event.  Since then, we’ve been like peas and carrots. We’ve done speaking engagements together, taught workshops on paint and creative business, and were vendor neighbors at the Chapel Market.  We’ve been a sounding board for each other and have, for years, talked about various business ventures together.  One of them did get up off the ground – The Parsons West paintbrush. But life happened and those ships crossed in the night every other time.  Until now. I am beyond thrilled to introduce you to something we’ve been working on over the past few months – The Creative Exponent! It has taken us so long to launch it because the concept kept growing and evolving.  What started

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the whys behind the things I do.  For the new business ideas I’m currently cultivating… Why am I working on them?  Is it simply to earn more money?  To satisfy a desire for a particular creative outlet?  Is it out of fear of missing an opportunity? For the ones that are currently on my plate… Why am I doing them?  Is it because I’m already doing them, so I just keep doing them?  Is it because I’m afraid to let something go?  Is it because there is a true passion behind the project? I haven’t been asking why for a long time.  Maybe out of neglect or busyness?  Maybe because I was apprehensive to dig too deep and cause too much disruption if I didn’t like the answers.  But, I’ve been thinking more about the whys.  I’ve been asking difficult questions and some of