The 2023 Year in Review
I love taking time at the end of every year to review my good times, my challenges, my losses, my growth and everything in between. I am an introspective list maker and love an archive and thinking through how to conquer new goals ahead. It’s a tradition I’ve stumbled into that allows me to pause and re-experience all that was good, while helping me to understand and grow from experiences that were tough. I always appreciate how much I pack in in any given year. A friend once said, I keep my foot on the gas, and maybe they are right, but I relish down time too. It’s like I need a broad/ very loose structure with a lot of freedom in the day to day. This year, I’m pulling back the curtain to share what I’m reflecting on.
Getting Personal
2023 was a big year! I got engaged to Braxton, my partner of 7 years. We don’t have a date set yet, but getting engaged is more about declaring to the world that we are partnered together. He is my favorite person and while it took a while to find ‘my person’, he was well worth the wait. There is no one I’d rather do life with. To propose, he took me to the lake where I grew up, next door to the house my parent’s designed and built. Awwww.
We picked out a ring and Braxton brought it to my dad in the hospital and asked for his blessing. It was my father’s last burst of energy before passing a week later. He sat up in bed, opened his eyes with excitement and asked me if I was going to say yes. My love of everything home comes from my dad who worked in construction all his life.
Below is a passage from Nikita Gill about being present with those you love.
You will not know the last time until long after it happened.
The last time you felt the warmth of your mother’s hug.
The last time your father was able to lift you up and carry you on his shoulders.
The last time you shared half an orange with your brother.
Or the last late night conversation with your best friend.
Perhaps if we knew which ending was forever,
We would linger a little longer in each moment.
We would look at it like a diamond held up to the sunlight.
Treasuring all the beautiful colours it brought into our lives.
Like most people, traveling to new places nurtures and inspires me. Each year I carve out several short trips around the country to places I haven’t been and revisit the places I love. This year, for the first time, we traveled to Palm Springs, San Antonio, and Marfa Texas. We hiked Joshua Tree, Big Bend National Park, went to Hilton Head, Chattanooga, Highlands, NC, Knoxville, Bar Harbor Maine, and several islands in the Bahamas. Such a variety of places! We popped over to Austin, spent a couple weeks in NYC, and lots of time in Maine and New Hampshire in 2023.
I got my first pair of progressive glasses (can’t fight it!), changed up my hairstyle to add bangs, and increased my workout routine to pilates three times per week with a little weight lifting sprinkled in. I added one very special and gorgeous piece to my art collection and filmed the unboxing. I had a lovely weekend reunion with some of my best lady friends that I have known for over 25 years and a couple of other weekends with girlfriends that were so fun and rejuvenating.
Working On It
Violet Marsh Interiors completed 25 room designs this year with two kitchens and five bathroom remodels - which you can see on my blog. I also put my skills to work in my own space, furnishing my office into an all-white haven. I attended a lot of Atlanta design industry events to build relationships with the community and I was highlighted as one of Modern Luxury Interiors Atlanta’s Faces of Design.
I have a great team in place- an operations assistant who helps with proposals, communication, and managing vendors, a bookkeeper who keeps my numbers straight and pays my monthly sales tax. A great new addition was marketing support – I have a much more consistent presence across all social channels and tried a lot of new things that are outside of my comfort zone (more blog posts, reels, even TikTok). I have a great design intern who helps during installs and with things at the studio too.
A noticeable change in 2023? Product lead times seem like they are back to normal with custom upholstery taking 4-8 weeks and many items in stock. This is so great!!
2022 was all about process for my small business – I tightened everything up operationally. This year was more about balance. Coming out of the pandemic and losing my dad, I wanted to slow down and enjoy each project and client relationship and be more intentional with how I am spending my time and producing results. I am shifting from generating lots of ideas and possibilities, to honing in on the best one to share with clients.
2024 will be more about alignment for me. I would like to work on projects that I am inspired by with homeowners that are fun and creative. I want to challenge myself to do things in design that I haven’t done before— to dig deeper if you will.
And that is a wrap!
Cheers to 2023! Looking forward to 2024!
Join the Party.
We promise not to bother you too much, but if you’d like to be alerted to new before & after blog content, please submit your details below.
