Giving a Fresh Start

I truly enjoy creating homes through layout and redesign—room-by-room and detail-by-detail—that my clients love. Two niche markets in which I would enjoy working in more are nurseries, and bedrooms for children and teens. Our babies and kids deserve as fresh a start, and as much support, as they can get. They also enjoy having a space they can claim as their own. The way I can contribute to their feeling of support and well-being is by creating beautiful, fun, healthy and peaceful rooms through design, layout and customized feng shui solutions, with the intention of attracting the best energy for each child's health, relationships, growth, wisdom and overall success.

Babies and kids are amazing—they're naturally curious, optimistic, relatively fearless, inquisitive and creative. Many are also intuitive and energetically sensitive. And, for better or for worse, they are learning sponges (as any parent can tell you, and give you many hilarious stories to back this up). Unfortunately, many of these traits are beaten out of them to fit into society, and the commands continue into adult life—stop daydreaming, get your head out of the clouds and your feet on the ground, be realistic, don't interrupt, follow the rules, don't ask so many questions, mind your own business, don't do that or you'll hurt yourself, I can't believe you think you can do that, how can you possibly believe that, don't be so stupid, etc, etc.

Also, fellow kids are cruel. We all have hurtful playground stories to tell—either those that happened to ourselves, or those we've witnessed.

And, kids today are up against an onslaught of environmental factors—from pollutants in our regions to pollutants in our homes and chemicals in our foods.

All this being said, I feel our babies and children deserve the best fresh start in life they can get, and I can help with their environment. Proposing room layout based on sensible design combined with their personal feng shui, they can sleep, play and study in directions that support their overall well-being—from relationships with family and friends, to their health, growth, wisdom and overall success in life. Plus, I can suggest color therapy for low-VOC wall paints, bedding, flooring, window treatments and other accessories which will look fantastic and enhance the energetic quality within their room. It's my way of giving back to a new generation of amazing, hopeful and inspiring individuals.

Getting Started

This blog is a long time coming.
Knowing what I've wanted to do professionally and creatively has been a long time coming.

I've been fascinated with interiors, layout and details since I can remember. Inspired by my sister and my mom's interior design magazines, I would spend hours drafting imaginary floor plans. Perhaps I should've realized I'd be better suited studying interior design instead of graphic design when, on an tour of a design studio during university, what grabbed my attention was the space (a renovated church with soaring rafters) and the conference table (a salvaged boat topped with glass); I remember nothing of the portfolio or projects. However, already a fifth-year student, I had no desire to start all over again.

Who knows where I'd be now if I'd chosen to switch majors. What I do know is that my graphic design career led me from a Kansas City design boutique, where I had a great mentor, to several places in New York City. At my last position, I was eventually, and occasionally, assigned to conceptualize interior spaces specing eco-conscious products. Throughout those years, I read magazines such as Natural Home and Garden and dreamed of a way to work in interiors, where I'd have more say in the final design decisions.

In the interim, while contemplating returning to school, I attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City and became a certified health coach. The course covered many areas I was interested in—including personal and planet health, body image, local and organic foods, and animal rights—and I began conceptualizing how I could tie in this new knowledge with my love of interiors.

Also, immediately upon graduating from IIN, I began working for a holistically-minded interior studio. I'd summoned the guts to call a couple years earlier, and I was finally hired! I worked on two projects and loved the clients and seeing the results, but my boss and I realized we were both looking for, and expecting, different things from each other. It's unfortunate that after two years of discussion we had such rapid communication breakdown; giving up on the dream hurt tremendously.

I decided to dive into building my health coaching practice, and also began studying feng shui while taking on a few other endeavors, including studying forex (I know, this throws everyone—it's the yang to all the other yin in my life, as one friend put it). I quickly pulled myself in too many directions (which I've heard is extremely common for new entrepreneurs), and my life spiraled out in a direction I never would've envisioned, nor wanted. Last year I pulled back and assessed what I really wanted to accomplish. I let go of health coaching to focus on feng shui, forex, and personal healing. I eventually helped friends and family organize homes and an office, and gained confidence and perspective that I could tie all my interests together while working with clients in a manner personally suited to my strengths. Here I am, starting fresh once again, with the intention of helping others create healthy homes that feel, well, like home.

Welcome to my blog, and thank you for reading. I look forward to getting to know you.