The day before

It is the day before my website/shop opens and I'm a bit anxious, nervous and even a bit unsure. Did I make the right choice? Was resigning from my corporate job the right move or was it a leap from the "frying pan into the fire"? Have I done enough? Will people like my designs? Should I have stuck with the tried and known path? So many questions in my mind made me look back at my life and where I am now.

I don't know that my life has ever looked much like anyone else's. But maybe that is what we all think? Aren't we all more alike than we are different?

I was born to a couple who were very much in love with each other. I am their only child although I have four half brothers who came along much earlier than me. There is a nine-year gap between myself and the youngest brother who, for the most part, was the only one I was raised with. I was the annoying, terrible, bratty younger sister that followed him around, and pretty much made his life miserable.

My dad was a preacher and when I was seven our family moved into 35 ft trailer, pulled by a big black boat of a car. The four of us and our German Shepard travelled the southwestern parts of the United States "evangelizing". Which means churches would request that my dad come to their city to hold a revival and we would park our trailer next to their church for a week or two weeks while while my dad preached for them and then move on to the next city and church. I'd have to ask my mom if I ever questioned our life, but as far as I recall, it was just my life. Just how we lived.

During those years between the age of 7 and 15, we did have a few cities that we called home for longer than a few weeks. My dad pastored churches in Johnson City, Texas, Friona, Texas, and Childress, Texas. All of those places left me with great memories. The Blue Bonnets, peaches and rattle snakes in Johnson City. The scar still visible on the back of my leg from trying to show off on a three-wheeler, learning to drive on dusty country roads, and the friends who became family in Friona. The red-dirt dust storms and unmentionable teenage antics (none of which escaped my mom's attention!) in Childress. People, places and things I'll never forget.

Growing up on the road shaped my life. I met so many different kinds of people, experienced many different cultures and styles of living. It is most likely why I enjoy traveling and being out on the open road. Getting up before daybreak, packing up the car and hitting the road. The quiet noise of the car's engine humming and the soothing sound of the tires as they move you across the cities and states. Watching the scenery as it changes.

When I look at the landscapes, the varied terrains, mountains, valleys, deserts and oceans that I've experienced first-hand in America and Europe, I know that my love for color and texture and creating new spaces and designs, all comes from God. He is a truly amazing artist, and if my inspiration comes from any source, it comes from him. In the end I haven't really "created" anything new, I'm just copying the master.

It is my hope people enjoy my designs and carrying the unique expression of their individuality. Alike in so many ways and yet so distinctly just theirs.

~ I wish you peace and thank you for your support.
Amber