Does anyone else feel like the calendar is gaslighting them? 😂 I've been talking with friends whose kids started school this week, and it completely threw me. Growing up, school didn't start until after Labor Day, and we were out before Memorial Day. August was still 100% summer. School supplies are almost sold out in stores, everyone is talking about pumpkin spice, harvest is only about a month away, my retailers are asking for Christmas, and I'm over here trying not to melt in the August heat. 🥵🎄🍂 To make the line up even more fun, I attended a Skool Summit with a Bridgerton theme, so naturally I had to create something Regency-inspired. My creative brain is apparently living in three seasons at once. 😂 So here's this week's creative lineup: ⚾ A nostalgic baseball summer 🍂 A dancing scarecrow 💃 A Bridgerton-inspired romance 🎄 A Victorian Father Christmas The creative calendar waits for no one! Tell me...where are you right now? ☀️ Still soaking up summer 🍂 Ready for fall 🎃 Bring on Halloween 🎄 Already planning Christmas I'm somewhere between "it's still summer" and WTF "apparently I need to be designing Christmas." 😅

This past week I've been playing along with a Colour Clash Challenge in another SKOOL community, and I thought I'd share my seven entries with you. The only rule? The colors of the day had to take center stage. Design Topic and everything else was fair game. I love creative challenges like this because they force me to stop reaching for my usual comfort zone. Sometimes the colors click immediately. Other days they stare back at you like, "Good luck with that." If you scroll through these, you'll probably spot the one that stretched me the most. Day 6. 😂 Funny, yet so not my style. But that's exactly why I made it. That community leans toward a completely different artistic style than mine, and instead of trying to make everything look "Whimsykel," I decided to meet the challenge where it was. It felt awkward. It felt unfamiliar. It also reminded me that growth rarely shows up wearing your favorite color palette. I'm definitely the oddball in that group, and honestly... I'm okay with that. There's something exciting about stepping into a community where you're the odd man out. I'm learning, experimenting, and occasionally wondering, "What on earth am I doing here?" But that's where new ideas tend to sneak in. So here's your little Creative AF nudge: When was the last time you intentionally made something that wasn't your style, just to see what you might discover? Here were the color clashes of the day: Day 1 Black & Gold Day 2 Red & Blue Day 3 Purple -Orange -Blue Day 4 Green -Pink -White Day 5 Grey -Yellow -Red Day 6 Silver -Orange -Black -Green Day 7 Blue -Purple -Orange -White

This week's free designs are a little like five doors. Most people scroll past them thinking, "That's a horse."Or "That's a beach."Or "That's a duck wearing sunglasses, and frankly I have questions." But artists see something different. They see possibility. 🐴 One person sees a horse and a dog. Another sees loyalty, friendship, and a piece called The Ones Who Stay. 🏖️ One person sees beach chairs. Another sees the vacation they keep promising themselves they'll take someday. 🐱 One person sees a girl holding a cat. Another sees mystery, elegance, and a story waiting to be told. 🦆 One person sees a goose in a towel. Another sees their spirit animal. 🧳 One person sees a suitcase. Another sees freedom, reinvention, and the courage to leave the familiar behind. So here's your Creative AF challenge: Pick ONE of these free designs and tell us... 👉 What do you see that everyone else might miss? No right answers. No wrong answers. Just imagination doing what imagination does best. Because sometimes the difference between "it's just a picture" and "I have to create something with this" is a single thought. Let's see where your brain wanders. 👀✨

So... yesterday and today were supposed to be productive. Instead, I got an unexpected lesson in what I'm now calling the Mercury Scary. ☠️ I hopped on a zoom call, ready to focus on my business, when Craig suddenly came barreling into the house in full panic mode... and immediately started stripping off his clothes and putting them in a trash bag while on the phone with someone. Naturally, this seemed concerning. (Thank God I didn't have the camera or audio turned on! 🤣) Turns out the storage unit he had purchased and cleaned out contained beakers, vials, and Mercury. Before the day was over, the police, fire department, and multiple government agencies were involved. The storage unit got roped off like a crime scene. The police asked if he was making meth. His response: "I called YOU guys." Meanwhile, the fire department cleared him to come home, but then another agency called to explain they would be visiting today to test the mercury levels on everything he brought home, his truck, his clothing, and basically anything that may have crossed paths with him. Then came instructions on how to dispose of the clothing and shoes he had been wearing. How to clean the floors. Checking the dog's paws. Then checking the cat's paws. Then, walking through the house with a flashlight to see if microscopic mercury particles had somehow hitchhiked their way into the house. And somewhere in the middle of all this... My business call was still happening, and our dinner was now burning. Whatever I was supposed to be doing completely left the building. The moral of the story? Some days you're crushing your goals. Some days you're helping inspect pet paws for toxic metals while trying not to burn the house down while in the middle of a hot flash. Both count as surviving the day. Creative entrepreneurs tend to beat themselves up for the things they didn't get done. But life happens. Businesses are built in the middle of chaos, interruptions, unexpected detours, and occasionally hazardous materials.

So it's Wednesday again! Hope you all had a good Memorial weekend. Who's been crushing their creative goals? This week I... - Created some moody florals and out-of-the-box critters for you to use. - Did a 5-day Shopify Challenge for my website - Got 1 week closer to launching my newest creative venture and am ridiculously excited about it. Some days it feels like I’m juggling paintbrushes, websites, designs, content, ideas, snacks I forgot to eat, and about 47 browser tabs, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 😂 So tell me... how many plates are you twirling right now, and did you move the needle this week?