A Big Announcement (12 months in the making)

I am a fairly excitable person, and I sure do love a lot of things, but nothing quite compares to my love of paper.

Ever since I was little, paper products have held a special place in my heart. I always wanted to go to the teacher supply store and buy cute notepads. When I was home sick from school, my dad would bring me sticky notes to brighten my day. And don't even get me started on the number of journals I've purchased over the years.

Second to my love of paper, is my love of receiving snail mail. These handwritten notes show that someone took the time to pick out a card, write a letter, find a stamp, and put it in the mail.

About a year ago, I started a list of ideas that I thought would make for good greeting cards. I would tell friends, "I love stationery so much, and I have all these ideas, I just wish I had the design skills to make my ideas a reality!"

After saying this a few times, I had the bright idea that "wishing" wasn't doing me any good. I simply needed to take action and start working towards acquiring the skills to achieve my dream of producing my own line of cards.

Enter, Nicole's Classes. I took a 4-week course to learn the basics of Adobe Illustrator. [I even shared some of my homework assignments here on the blog]

All the while, I confided in a few friends that I was working towards this goal.

My friend Kelly has been there with me since day one. She gave [and still gives] pep-talks, sat through brainstorming sessions, and provided feedback on whether or not a card concept was actually as witty as I hoped... Basically, she's been my rock.

Once I had some concepts mocked up, I slowly started telling more people about my plan. I worked on my website. I had card proofs professionally printed. (That was a super exciting day!) I started posting to my Instagram account. And now, I'm finally announcing and sharing the news on my blog!

So here it is... my big announcement... I have started a stationery line called Loops & Belles. (A little nod to my love of penmanship and my southern roots.) Squeal!

Feel free to click on over to my website and explore. You can also follow Loops & Belles on Instagram!

I'm also super excited to say that I'll be a vendor at this year's Deluxe Winter Market over Thanksgiving weekend in downtown OKC. So, if you're in town, stop by and see my first booth setup. Double squeal!!!

This adventure has already been everything I dreamed it'd be. I have said time and time again that this is my passion project. I've been looking for the right way to articulate exactly what that means to me, and then I found this:

"A passion project doesn’t mean a side business, although it could grow into one. A passion project is often an indulgence of your deep inner desire to create. A drive to bring your ideas to life, whatever form they may take... Create. Not for the money. Not for the fame. Not for the recognition. But for the pure joy of creating something and sharing it." (Source)

That's it! That's what Loops & Belles is to me. It brings my soul alive and gives me so much joy!

My friend Kelsey - who is embarking on her own passion project - wrote a great blog post about Loops & Belles on her website. Her words were so kind and encouraging.

I am so excited to build and grow my business. My biggest goal in all of this is to bring back the art of letter writing and encourage people to rediscover the joy of checking the mail!

xoxo, E

PS - I mentioned that the blog will be at a new URL soon. So, go ahead and bookmark loopsandbelles.blogspot.com.