welcome

To my readers,

I want to take a moment to thank all of you who have stopped by to read about our life, home, family and journey. There is so much we can learn from one another and so much love to share. I hope you find this blog to be insightful, supportive, informative, creative and most of all, a place to relate and connect! That being said.. let’s get to the real purpose of this letter.

I’ve spent much of my life reaching for perfectionism, to be the best.. and always feeling like I fell short. I felt I was never going to be good enough at ____. There was always going to be someone better. And many times I chose not to pursue something solely because I knew it was not possible to be number one. Over a 6 month time period, I dedicated myself to hours of intensive therapy. I started the sessions thinking I was going to address a very specific event related to a bad travel experience, and instead it opened a WHOLE can of worms. We didn’t even talk about that actual experience until my last two sessions. Ha!

I came to realize that my need to be the best stemmed from something much deeper. Growing up I was praised mainly for straight A’s, scoring the winning goal at a soccer game, winning a singing competition. I developed a lot of anxieties, both from the unintentional pressure of my family but also the pressure I put on myself. I became results oriented at a very young age and in doing so, didn’t learn how to enjoy the process or even see the value in it. Through my education I excelled and graduated college at the top of my class. After entering the grown up world of 9-5 my life took quite the turn. I made some very poor decisions in my 20’s, hurt people I loved and never really understood why. I was seeking to understand who I was without having any real understanding of how to do so. Many years and two kids later, I finally acknowledged that no matter how much I thought I knew myself, there was something more going on.

Enter the intensive therapy… I learned much about myself and processed through many painful things in those weekly two hour sessions. One of the biggest realizations was that I was struggling with imposter syndrome. The dictionary definition states: imposter syndrome is “the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills.” I found myself believing that no matter how many times people said my work was great or that I was a creative person, I just didn’t believe it. Like I was never going to be enough. And when I finally got to the place where I genuinely believed, both with my head and heart, that whether I nailed the biggest presentation of my career or spent the entire day in my pj’s, unwashed and binging Netflix I was equally as valuable, EVERYTHING changed.

Who I am as a mother, has changed. Who I am as a wife, has changed. Who I am as a sister, daughter, friend.. has changed. This shift in my perspective led to me quitting my six figure job; deciding to spend time at home with my babies, focusing on my physical and mental health, deepening my faith and ultimately diving into building its leal love to hopefully help support you all and make a positive impact in your life.

Whether you are here for design tips, mom support, travel inspiration or you’re going on your own wellness journey, I SUPPORT YOU.

All my love,

Ashlee