Lifestyle & Aesthetic

"I don't care if we're rich. I just want you to come home. You'll try, won't you? Really, really try?" ―Primrose Everdeen to Katniss Everdeen During the spring and summer months, the primrose flower blooms in shades of pink, white, blue, purple, and yellow. Their yellow-tinged centers, shaped like a little star, make them easy to identify among garden blooms. As I studied these, as part of my birth flower series, I instantly connected their meaning to The Hunger Games book series. In that story, Prim (short for Primrose) is the catalyst for the story's major events. Understanding the historical symbolism [...]

"December Update" was the title when I first drafted this post. I didn't have a clear focus for it — I wanted to address both my business and personal life to talk about ending the year and starting a new one. The calendar inspired the post as well as the events of late November. To say I almost died sounds dramatic and isn't my style. We'll just say I've never been so urgently swished around by medical professionals in my entire life. And I was politely chiding for waiting so long for treatment. That was how I spent the weekend [...]

There's a way that we should write. It starts with an outline. With an outline, it's easy to decide on the point of the thing you're writing. I recently had a birthday (36). It's not a particular round and important number for a birthday. I made myself a little promise, one of those head-on-pillow, sleepy-yet-ambitious promises, to write more. This is silly, I tell myself. I write constantly. I write all day every day. I write for a living. Most of it is what you would call "copy". Strictly work. I take on the voices and brand guides quite well. [...]

Something about autumn has a touch of nostalgia or maybe it's anemoia. Each falling leaf and each chilly morning, awakens a different energy. Perhaps it's just the behavioral pattern of "back to school" ingrained in me over 12 years of childhood. Maybe it's just the movement of the sun a little further away and more dangerous. Autumn Color Ideas for Web Design Projects When I create these color roundups, I use hex codes because I tend to work most in web design. That's the core of the work I do with my Lynchburg advertising group. If you’re designing in Canva [...]

I was delighted to find that my birth month flower came in one of my favorite colors. The aster flower meaning is mostly associated with charm, wisdom and named after the star goddess Astrea. Asters are native to Eurasia and North America. Their name comes from the Greek word for star because of the petal's shape. They are a composite flower - growing in clusters at the top of a stem. Historically, they were used as medicinal herbs for treating headaches, colds, hangovers, and epilepsy as well as decongestants for the lungs. Myths + Stories The ancient Greeks used to [...]

I have a recreational interest in word meanings and grow particularly excited when the etymology is on-the-nose. Learning about the Gladiolus flower meaning gave me that thrill. The flowers grow from a spike-shaped stem. The word "gladiolus" is related to latin and greek words that mean "sword" — think "gladiator". I've read that they were used in ancient celebrations for warriors as spike-shapes in the floral displays. Through this association, the flower has become associated with honor and remembrance. It's a memorial flower with meaning related to strength of character, faithfulness, sincerity, and integrity. The History of the Gladiolus In [...]