Hi y’all!

I’m so glad you’re here. The fact that you’ve found your way into this little creative corner makes my heart so happy. Danielle Motif has been with me in one form or another for over twenty years. During that time, it has shifted through all kinds of chapters. This newest version is about bringing my whole self into a creative space. All the parts of me have been accustomed to living in their own corners over the years. Now, they’re gathering together and showing up as part of the same story. The personal and the professional and the projects and the play all come together set against the backdrop of this new phase of life I’m in and the new roles I’ve stepped into over the past four years as wife and mother.

In this post, I want to share a little more about how this new season came to be. I’ll also touch on what inspired it and why cultivating good energy is at the heart of it all. Before I dive into more of what led me here, I want to give a special thanks to the friends and family who have always supported me along my creative path. You nudged and encouraged me forward with all my ideas, no matter how short-lived or impossible. You may not have even known it at the time, but your gentle words, positive head nod, or well-chosen emoji were just what this gal needed. And now, without further ado, let’s step into a new season for Danielle Motif together.

Dreaming it Up

I’ve always wanted to have some kind of creative space. A few years ago, I signed up for career coaching and spent time thinking up what I wanted for the next few years. Since I’m super visual, I visualized my future, naturally, through mood boards, my favorite brainstorming tool.

As I began filling them up, they looked like this: tables gathered around with friends, sparkling cocktails on pretty bar carts, glowing candles, balloons, babies with their mamas, cozy studio corners, flowers and plants everywhere, poolside and seaside travel scenes, styled photo setups, signage and shop fronts, greenhouses, print pieces, design details, fruit trees, desserts, package design, and interesting typefaces.

On those boards, I started to see a creative space and personal dreams take shape. However, dreaming doesn’t always mean you know the path to get there. Not to mention the realities and constraints of life’s challenges and roadblocks.

Up until then, I never really believed all the different parts of my life could exist together, or even still, that I could balance them all in a way that felt manageable. But that coaching exercise changed something for me, and the seed was planted. I began to fill up notebooks and documents with ideas and of course, many a Pinterest board just waiting for the right time to try to pursue some of those ideas. 

Ikigai – Something Worth Living For

Around that same time, I created an ikigai diagram for myself. It’s a Japanese framework for finding your purpose, where what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for overlap.

Between the diagram, career coaching and nudges from the universe, I found myself compelled to start making vastly different moves. In a few cases, that meant quite literally moving to entirely different regions of the country. Twice. Those nudges that pushed me in new directions weren’t exactly small either. My husband and I were supposed to get married in April 2020 in Greece. Alas, the pandemic changed the course of our plans. We married a year and a half later and then were met with working through fertility challenges, which is a journey all its own. Eventually, we began walking down the path of adoption and were told, “keep yourselves busy, you never know how long it might be.” Keep yourself busy you say? I guess I heard it loud and clear. It was time to dig in and keep myself busy. So I did.

After those years of the pandemic’s depths and the emotional roller coaster of trying to start a family, I was desperate to bring joy and creative light back into my world. Evolving Danielle Motif became the perfect way to reconnect with my creative spark.

The Art of Figuring it Out

So what was I going to do with all those years of ideas? Try to make something a reality. I welcomed my test era with a healthy bit of skepticism and heaping piles of excitement. I began candle making in my kitchen. I tested wooden wicks, cotton wicks, and different kinds of waxes and fragrance combinations. I also tried various vessels and shipping materials. I made playlists and got paper samples and ordered up an array of different types for product offerings. All the while, I was trying not to set the house on fire with all my candle tests. 😬

I embraced science (gasp) to become a better candlemaker and spent time playing with package design. I also worked with my friend to help me untangle a few of my own brand puzzles I had created over time. I tried out a lot of ideas. And friends, some worked, while others really did not. And there were many days I thought I would just call it. But with some sweet encouragement I keep plugging away at it.

I continued to run burn tests to see how different candles behaved and to make sure they were burning properly and they had ideal scent throws. On the print side, I tested with different vendors, paper stocks, and product types to figure out what brought my photos to life in the best way. And now I’m here! 

While I’d love the idea of a studio someday, what I really want right now is a space to play, experiment, and share some fun projects. Some parts may feel messy and others may look sparse, and that’s okay. After all, letting go of perfectionism is part of what I’m here to do.

It’s about just putting something out there and trying. I know things will change and evolve. At what pace, I have no idea. But that’s kind of the point. Life’s ebbs and flows will carry me in and out of this space as I feel able.

A New Season for Danielle Motif: The Creative Living Room

Where have things landed? Think of it as a virtual living room I’ve opened up for anyone who wants to drop by for some good energy.

There’s photography that has always been at my core. Candles that set a mood. Playlists that transport you. And the little prints and projects that keep things playful. You might even see book recommendations and drink recipes pop up here and there. I’ve built the foundations of the space around the senses and these actions: breathe, listen, discover, savor, connect. It’s my hope to continue to expand around them.

Just like a living room, this space is meant for feeling good, for relaxing, and for being surrounded by things that make you feel welcome and happy. Now more than ever, that feels like an essential piece of this project for me.

Just Good Vibes

Nowadays things have felt a bit topsy turvy in the world for a lot of us. So creating something like this that is focused on bringing the good vibes feels almost therapeutic. I am perpetually desperate to hold on to hope and optimism and I search for it constantly. The way I see it, if I can pass some of that positivity on to someone else, that’s a little ripple worth making.  And I hope it causes more positive ripples. I admire people like Christina Tosi, Richard Branson, and Phil Rosenthal who bring their sense of joy, youthful energy, humor, and whimsy to their work. They have also built incredible sccess by being fully themselves. I look to people like that as reminders that it’s possible to thrive while leaning into your own way of being and sometimes that can be to tap into what I could only describe as authentic optimism.

Giving Back

As you may have gathered by now, I believe good energy should ripple outward, so to that end there will always be a giving-back component in the Danielle Motif shop. Different seasons may support different organizations doing amazing work, but the heart of it will stay the same.

From launch through the end of 2025, ten percent of shop sales will go to First Aid Arts in Seattle. They are an organization dedicated to equipping trauma survivors with arts-based tools for healing.

This isn’t only about what I create. It is also about what we can do together, even in small ways. They really do add up.

The Journey Ahead

So here we are at the beginning of a new season for Danielle Motif. It’s a time for pulling the pieces together. I’ll be trying things, sharing, and following where the energy flows.

I’m so excited, and honestly a little bit scared and nervous too. Things will ebb and flow in this space, and that’s a big departure for me. I’m used to structure, to setting and meeting expectations. But here, I want to let things be more loose, more playful, and more fun.

Thank you for being here with me at the start of it. I can’t wait to see where the journey leads next.