It’s a blog!

Well here I am, in that brief moment of time between kids’ bedtime and staying up way past my own bedtime that all parents are very familiar with. It’s the time that I get to finally have an uninterrupted conversation with my husband, albeit in hushed tones to not cause any little feet to leave their beds. 

Or it’s the time that I get to myself, and I just have to hope that most days I don’t just fall into an Instagram hole, unable to surface until I feel too guilty about all the wasted time that could have been spent reading. But lately it’s been the time I use to build my business; specifically starting a website and organizing all my creative ideas for my business content. I’ve always operated off of my Instagram account and referrals. A website seemed very formal and a huge step to where I was at, as a business licensed hobby florist. 

In a way, The Copper Dahlia became legit when I needed a business license for childcare for my son in 2022. My occasional wedding florals “on the side” were never big enough to need one from the city or state, and it was definitely a lot less paperwork. Working full-time at my corporate job in technical writing and instructional design, florals were a really fun creative outlet. So I utilized the need for paperwork to accomplish two things at once and felt pretty official about it.

I had my corporate dream job. I loved the people I worked with, who I worked for, and the mission and purpose to what I was doing was so fulfilling. It was also a super flexible company and management style when it came to work and life balance. That being said, the modern world we live in with two parents working full time can feel like you are barely staying afloat, or maybe it was just in my case. You spend all day feeling like you’re failing your kids because they’re at childcare and you get 3 hours a day with them. Then when your kids need you, putting work on the back burner comes with all sorts of guilt as well. It’s not a new concept for sure and maybe it’s the algorithms affirming my bias, but it feels like the challenges of general parenting are getting a little more airtime lately. It is hard stuff. 

Both my husband and I contributed to running the household, including childcare when sickness arose (OMG the 2023 sick season was ROUGH.) For the past 3 years we’ve hired a house cleaner to come every other week. We had daycare and the occasional grandma babysitter for those rare date nights. Other than a meal service, I wasn’t sure what else we could realistically hire out for in order to take a little pressure off just the everyday surviving the trenches of parenthood and all that comes with it. So when we had our 2nd child in January 2024 we took the opportunity for me to take on the primary caretaker role and leave my corporate job. I’m so very thankful that I have the opportunity to take this time while my kiddos are young to watch their personalities come through and help be the one that guides them as they grow. 

So beginning in July 2024 I started that adventure. I took two-ish months off floral production just during that transition time, before jumping back in by September. Now that there’s a swing to things and a set daily routine I’m finding more “me time” or business time in small spurts during the day and evenings. 

One huge realization I’ve had with this change is that I miss being organized. My work that I’ve done in the past has always allowed my ideas to be organized and channeled into a measurable result. If you’ve heard anyone talk about stay-at-home-parenthood challenges, the task list never gets anything checked off, and it is infinite. It’s hard to measure if you’ve accomplished anything given that so much of what you’re doing in a day is a cycle, it just repeats over and over. As I’ve completed floral projects in September and October it’s incredibly rewarding to have a final product that I am so proud of, and am able to deliver that beauty to someone else. 

I’m also one of those people that really enjoys organizing their thoughts and ideas through writing. I miss having a writing outlet, even if previously I was writing about new software initiatives and health insurance lingo. I miss the behind the scenes Excel sheets organizing all my content ideas with target dates and notes. I miss teaching others and sharing what I know!   

So. If you’re still with me here through almost 800 words at this point, thanks for reading. What my blog holds for the future will be sharing the behind the scenes floral projects, DIY instructions for crafty projects, sharing the floral images for events or weddings I design, and a little bit of motherhood sprinkled in. 

What I aim to do with my blog mixes a little bit of business with a little bit of who I am. I am wordy. I tell the long version of the story maybe, but I think overall I’m a pretty good storyteller. One concern going into stay-at-home-parenthood, for mothers especially, is that some may feel like they lose a sense of identity. Not only am I a wife and mother, but I am a florist and a writer. Florist is carved so deep into who I am that there’s no rooting it out- I will always be a florist and I will always be a writer, so here I am!