Happy Summer!! I can't believe it's almost officially summer! I am over here working on Fall and Holiday designs, so I am totally confused as to which season it actually is. Business and the fashion industry are just that...confusing. I am a nurse and a small town girl. Sometimes when I read things about the upcoming trends and staying AHEAD of trends, I feel intimidated. I truly have to work at this to keep it running. I have to study, put in effort during kids' nap times, and I have to sacrifice many things to grow my business. Being an entrepreneur means you truly love having something consume your thoughts almost 24/7. You have to love what you do in order to keep the ship afloat. You may even have to be a little insane. I say this because if you're reading this, you are probably a hard-worker yourself. And I'm sure no one handed you a degree, position, or business so you understand that you aren't LUCKY. You are a HARD-WORKER and GO-GETTER. So give yourself a round of applause for pushing through the long hours and days to make things happen. I am lucky (or blessed) in a lot of ways....I have the best family in the world, I have my health, I was born and raised in good ‘ole Tennessee, but I am not LUCKY when it comes to my success (or current journey of attempting to be successful). I know the work it takes to get that degree, to make it on time to work, and to complete the business tasks now that could be put off until later. So when someone looks at you and says you are so lucky....know that this means you are DOING THE DANG THANG! I'm sure people aren't thinking about that in any sort of negative way, but they do say it! I have always been the one to have to work so hard to get good grades while others, like my brother, could just collect those A's like fireflies in a field in mid June. Just adding them to their collection. But I'm over here really trying to keep the fireflies in the dang jar, watching them just fly away. I fail. I rethink things. I try again. And more times than not, I predict things extremely wrong. This is all part of our journey in life. I truly feel like working for what you want should be a quality more people should possess. The reward of what you're working towards is so much sweeter when you know you've made it happen with every fiber of your being. So congrats on being not so LUCKY!!

I am reminded of the quote by Estee Lauder stating, "I never dreamt of success. I worked for it."

[ Photos of our process of creating our bleached tees. I love that building a brand gives me the opportunity to work with my hands and have a creative outlet. ]