Season of change

Me and Joan during my second trip to California.

While summer doesn't technically start until June 21, Memorial Day feels like the beginning of summer. The season brings change for us this year...a whole lot of change. The obvious one is the baby, but there are also changes coming to Gerald & Joan. After next week, Gerald & Joan will become my full-time business again. I'm both excited and nervous about this huge life change.

Working part-time in the nonprofit world over the past year has been great for my confidence (thank you, Common Table Health Alliance!), and the plan is to (re)introduce nonprofit and small business marketing and brand consulting to my services and offerings. I also hope to grow my vintage-inspirated stationery lines and continue offering some preservation services. The key is to figure out my work flow and schedule for the next three months...and then be prepared to throw it all out the window and start from scratch again after the baby comes. This creature of habit is about to get a bunch of lessons in dealing with change, but I recognize that learning to adapt to change is exactly what I need at this point in my life.

As I prepare for the next chapter, I am humbled that I have the opportunity to be building this business from my home-based studio. I am honored that I have family and friends who have supported Gerald & Joan from the beginning. I am blessed to have the most supportive husband in the world. If it wasn't for the seed of Gerald & Joan that was planted in our hearts and minds during our last California vacation in October 2012, I'm not sure we would be where we are today. It set the wheels in motion for a baby and a move to Germantown. It has allowed me to reconnect to my ancestral and career roots. It has given me the greatest gift -- to be fulfilled in my career while also spending precious time with my husband, our pets and our son. 

June marks the official countdown until we meet Baby Hardin, but it also a time of growth for Gerald & Joan.

Stay tuned for lots of changes...they are coming very soon.

Easter Traditions

In England, we had a multiple week break around Easter. Many of those Easter holidays were spent in California where we created traditions that will continue with this next generation -- Easter clothes, See's Candies and colored eggs!

We received a box of See's goodies from my mom this year, so Baby H. has already tasted its first See's chocolates, jellybeans and lollypops. As you can see from the photo below, See's chocolate bunnies haven't changed much since 1988...

Easter morning at Grandma's with our See's chocolate bunnies.

My goofy facial expressions haven't changed either...

Easter dresses from the neighborhood kids shop. I loved those horrible white shoes because they didn't have straps. That bunny has already made itself at home in our baby's nursery.

Jonathan and I don't dye eggs very often, but we are excited about doing this with Baby H. in a few years. My favorites were (and still are) the sparkly eggs.

Coloring Easter eggs. 

Messy but so much fun.

Our handiwork. Check out mom's LA Gear hightop sneakers with purple laces!

Another Easter tradition was an indoor chocolate egg hunt. We continued this tradition after we moved to Mississippi. I remember finding random chocolate eggs for the rest of the year because my mom hid them so well.

I can't wait to continue these fun memories with Baby H!

Little Sister

One of my very first memories took place on September 24, 1986. I was one month away from my third birthday when my little sister Lauren Victoria came into the world. I remember so many details of that day including getting ready to go to the hospital to meet her for the first time and receiving the Little Tikes car that she brought just for me. That car is now in our attic, patiently awaiting the arrival of the next generation of crazy drivers. On July 7 of this year, Lauren and her husband Chris will welcome their first child and my nephew, Hudson Glenn. I recently made Hudson's first photo album for his gender reveal party, and these photos were some of the many that made the cut. We are very excited about Baby Hudson's arrival this summer.

Three generations on a very special day.

At Grandma's house in Cerritos, California. Check out those high tops!

On Christmas morning in California. It was one of the best Christmases ever.

Baby Lauren with her pretty mother.

A very short time before Lauren's arrival at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Maidenhead, UK. Lauren and I were both delivered there two years and 11 months apart.

My mom and Lauren on Lauren's first birthday.

Vintage Image of the Day: 31

Throughout the month of January, we are scanning and sharing a vintage film slide each day. This week we are sharing vacation photos from California in the 1960s. 

Today includes our month of scanning and sharing vintage film slides. It was an interesting and slightly exhausting project. Now that I can see a month's worth of images on my computer, I have decided that film slides have the richest colors. Our digital world just can't compare.