"What kind of business you all in?" ... "-- uh ..."

I have been meaning to tell you something: I got a job. I'm like, a business woman now, y'all. Clearly this makes me eligible for business woman specials: 

I didn't plan to get a job as homeschooling and napping and drinking La Croix in the suburbs takes up such a large portion of my life these days, but this past summer I met Karen Stubbs, the woman behind the Birds on a Wire ministry, and I, along with my friend Katie, offered to help her run her social media during her annual conference in exchange for free tickets. You know how much I like the bartering system and you know I love a good ladies' conference.

Let me tell you: I had SO. MUCH. FUN. It felt good to create content for another person and run around like crazy trying to make good Instagram Stories for her much beloved event. It felt good to stretch the conference muscles I hadn't used at all in 2.5  years. It felt good using social media to promote content that wasn't MINE and was, instead, a ministry that I love and support. When the conference was over, I was abuzz with creative energy again. It put wind in my sails. 

So afterward, Katie and I asked her if she'd like to hire us (we are ballsy like that). We quickly formed a digital content and social media consulting company called Canary Cardinal, and much to our delight, Birds on a Wire became our very first client! 

I am cracking up! I HAVE A JOB! I OWN A BUSINESS! I AM A BUSINESS WOMAN! 

This job is great. It takes up more hours than I care to admit but I am learning so much, and my boss is incredibly gracious as I'm flying by the seat of my pants most days. I get to go on tour with her in the spring (Houston, Cincinnati, and Peoria I'm coming at you!), and I'm just really, really happy to have an outlet for my creativity and very specialized skill set. 

What's funny is that when I first officially started working for BOAW at the beginning of this month, I thought that it would, effectively and once and for all, kill this blog-- that I wouldn't have enough hours in the day to consider doing both her work and my own hobbies, but I've found that, for me, creativity begats creativity. I get to run the social media strategy for my client, but at the same time I'm learning so much on the job about this weird world that it's firming up what I do and do not like about blogging and podcasting and Instagram and Facebook and Pinterest and all that. I actually feel so fueled that I want to put energy toward my own personal projects now. Isn't that curious?

That said, I'm not making any official announcements or anything, but I do want to be able to write here freely (I refuse to believe the "good 'ole days" of off the cuff blogging are dead). Instead of this being a lifestyle blog, I'd like this to be a very casual online journal of sorts where I do write about work and my family and clothes (duh!). However, (and this is the new news) I am finally inspired to start a very niche blog in a new realm, an idea I've started and stopped annually for literally five years now. I have two projects that I refer to as my opuses (But, ugh, let's never use "opus" in plural again; that was weird.). It's nearly time to light at least one of them on fire. I'm not getting any younger, you know. 

I think 2018 will look very different than my 2017. And for that, I'm grateful.