Hello Again
Where I’ve Been
If you've been around since the early days of this blog, hello again. I've genuinely missed this little corner of the internet. And if you're new here, welcome. Let me catch you up, because the last few years have held just about everything.
The honest reason things went quiet is that I needed to get quiet for a while myself. After eight years of building this studio, two of them the particular brand of busy that only 2020 and 2021 could create, I was running on empty and unsure of where I wanted to take things next. So for my 36th birthday, I did something a little out of character. I took myself to Italy for two weeks, alone. I walked until my legs ached, ate slowly and well, and finally stood in front of the art and in the places I'd spent years only dreaming about. Somewhere between the mountain towns and the long dinners, I started to feel like myself again.
Then life unfolded in the way it tends to when you finally exhale. I met Ben in the fall of 2023, and not long after, our lives changed in the best and most unexpected way: our daughter, Elodie, arrived in December of 2024. We planned a wedding, got married, and settled into the beautiful, blurry chaos of being a little family. Elodie is eighteen months old now, and finding the rhythm between motherhood and work has been its own kind of design problem, one I'm still solving. These years move so quickly, and I want to be present for all of it. But I also love what I do, and I'm proud of what I've built. Having her here hasn't dimmed any of that. If anything, it's sharpened it. She's given me a clearer sense of why I do this, and a real reason to be intentional about where my time and energy go.
So here I am, easing back in. Figuring it out as I go, the way we all do.
A lot has changed, and the biggest shift is simply this. For most of my career, the work was my life. I had the time and the tunnel vision to pour everything into it. Now my time is finite, and that single fact has quietly rearranged everything. When I say yes to a project today, I'm trading away hours with Elodie to do it, so it has to matter. Motherhood, and a little age and perspective, taught me it's okay to say no when something isn't the right fit. And after all these years, I've finally arrived somewhere I never quite let myself stand before: solid ground. I trust my eye. I trust the relationships I've built. And I feel genuinely lucky to work with clients who trust me right back.
What hasn't changed are the things I believed when I first started writing here. I still believe in collaboration over competition, and that there's more than enough room for all of us. I still believe in not taking yourself too seriously, and if anything, becoming a mom has given me permission to let a little more whimsy show, the kind that was always there but felt safer tucked away. And I believe, more than ever, that family is everything. Now that I have my own, I understand on a much deeper level what my clients are really navigating at home: the function, the mess, the quiet wish for a space that can hold all of it and still feel beautiful.
I won't pretend these years left me unchanged. There was a real undoing of who I thought I was, and a slow rebuilding into someone steadier. I'm still very much my own person. I need my creative outlet and my space to think. But my family comes first now, and building a business that honors both has always been my “why”. Even if I didn’t know it at the time. (thank you, 2014, Bethany!)
This season gave me something else, too: a deeper confidence. Working alongside a client who trusted me with his entire home, every room, inside and out, stretched me as a designer and reminded me how much I love this work. In other scenarios, it also taught me a harder, slower lesson that many of us creatives eventually learn: to value my time and my work for what they're truly worth.
So, what can you expect from this space going forward? More of what brought you here in the first place: thoughtful design, real projects, and honest advice. But also more of me. The intentional living, the motherhood, the small joys, and the behind-the-scenes of building a beautiful, sustainable business without losing the things that matter most.
I'm so glad you're here. Let's get back to it.
xo, Bethany
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