In Full Color: Interviews, Friend Dates, and Life Surprising Me Again

WHAT A WEEK!

I haven’t felt this way in a long time. Maybe not since I signed up to become an Etsy seller and started creating digital products like mad. Or more recently when I had three clients sign up in one day and I had to burn the midnight oil onboarding them all.

Those are the moments when I know I’m in my element, as I like to call it. My “zone.” My state of “flow.” (Shameless plug… you can actually learn how to find your own state of flow with this tracker 😉.)

Life has seriously surprised me over the last six or so weeks. More than anything, it has expanded.

A month and a half ago, I was shockingly pregnant. My world changed in an instant. Suddenly my days revolved around naps, doctor’s appointments, prenatals, and simply trying to make it through each day with something so foreign happening inside my body. Everything slowed down almost overnight.

Then came the miscarriage, the waiting, the endless bloodwork and follow-up appointments, the uncertainty, and then slowly… healing.

This week, I got the reassurance from my OBGYN that everything is healing well (just one more blood draw next week), and for the first time in weeks, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can finally exhale.

Ironically, as I look back, pregnancy and pregnancy loss didn’t shrink my life—they expanded it.

This week has been wonderfully full.

I had three really great interviews for roles that genuinely excite me, continued reaching out to hospitality professionals and partners (I’ve probably sent 15+ emails at this point!), and have several coffee chats lined up with people whose careers I admire. I’m realizing how much I love the hospitality world—not just events, but guest experience, partnerships, restaurants, hotels, and creating spaces where people feel welcome.

Base continues to surprise me too. What started as a way to make a little extra money has become something I genuinely enjoy and something that continues to shape my portfolio career. This week I contributed ideas during one of our meetings that the founder validated, and my co-host and I are planning a restaurant scouting trip because we’re running out of places to host events in Austin.

It made me smile when I realized… we’re basically doing what travel advisors do when they scout destinations. Somehow that makes the work even more fun because I’ve always secretly wanted to be a travel advisor (even if I don’t love traveling all that much, ha!).

One of the biggest surprises this week came from reflecting on the future of Imperfectly Planned. I had convinced myself that maybe weddings weren’t for me anymore, but after a lot of thinking (and a very helpful ChatGPT conversation!), I realized I don’t dislike weddings—I dislike working in ways that don’t allow for collaboration.

When I’m brainstorming, solving problems, offering support, collaborating, and creating alongside my couples, I absolutely LOVE it. So instead of sunsetting Imperfectly Planned, I’m refining it to better reflect how I work best.

And then...

There’s In Full Color.

What started as the title of my weekly Substack has somehow become my favorite project in years.

I spent the week building Version 1 of my website, and as I worked on it, something sort of clicked.

My twenties had The Everyday Elevated.

My thirties had The Elevated Esthetician and Imperfectly Planned.

More recently came Etsy and Imperfectly Built.

And now...

In Full Color.

Looking back, I don’t see random projects.

I see a life unfolding.

I see myself unfolding.

The Everyday Elevated taught me to appreciate and elevate everyday life.

The Elevated Esthetician became a way to help others build fulfilling, beautiful lives through facials, coaching, and thoughtful resources.

Imperfectly Planned became about helping people celebrate life’s milestones.

Imperfectly Built became a place to write honestly about building a business and life imperfectly, at 40.

And now...

In Full Color feels like the home where all those chapters belong.

Not another business.

Not another thing I feel like I have to grow.

Just a digital home where I can collect stories, reflections, creative projects, and everything I’m learning as I continue building a life that I love.

I honestly love it so much.

Outside of work and creative projects, life has been wonderfully full too.

I’m planning Zoey’s 17th birthday party (which has somehow turned into an informal singles gathering 😂), going to coworking events, reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, attending a cake painting afternoon next week, heading to a pool party this weekend, looking forward to Michigan next month, exploring homes with Nick, and even planning a trip to Horseshoe Bay to see if it could someday become home.

Somewhere in between all of that, I made a few meals without recipes that turned out surprisingly delicious, eased back into working out, and continue to be pleasantly surprised by my Tesla—which I never thought I’d say!

And yet...

In true In Full Color fashion...

This week wasn’t only bright colors.

There were quieter, more muted colors too.

One afternoon, lying on my bed between meetings, I realized that just a month ago I’d probably have been taking a pregnancy nap. For a few minutes, I felt a bit of grief and loneliness.

Not because I don’t love my life now—I genuinely do.

But because pregnancy had quietly become a companion. It gave my days a different rhythm, and for a few weeks, there was always someone with me.

I’ve realized something through all of this.

A life lived in full color isn’t made up of only the vibrant moments.

The muted colors belong too.

This week held excitement, possibility, friendship, laughter, love, and so much hope.

But it also held grief, sadness, longing, and reflection.

Neither canceled out the other.

They simply belonged to the same beautiful, complicated week.

I’m ending this week feeling incredibly grateful.

Grateful for healing.

Grateful for new opportunities.

Grateful for old dreams evolving into new ones.

Grateful for Nick, Zoey, friends, community, meaningful work, and all the unexpected conversations that have shaped this chapter.

Most of all, I’m grateful that life keeps surprising me.

Six weeks ago, I couldn’t have imagined writing these words.

Today, I wake up excited again.

Not because life is perfect.

But because I’m living fully, imperfectly, in full color.