I had few revelations over the weekend. Not the least of which was that I need to settle down and get back to a sense of routine and normalcy. The summer (with kids out of school, travel, lots of distractions and outside projects, and heat) has this way of upending everything. Add to that a new venture (Leaf magazine) and I have simply been totally topsy turvy.
Part of the revelation came when I had the pleasure of lunching with a group of bloggers, writers, artists and designers that all have the singular connection of Holly Becker. Holly was Boston on her book tour and this group was largely made up of women who she was friends with from her own Boston days, alumni from classes, and close colleagues. It was great to meet, in person, so many people I have known only online for so long.

Chatting with Holly I realized that she has gone through so many similar evolutions and has seemingly effortlessly moved from one success to the next. But her version of how it all happened is not so effortless…as she took time to write a beautiful book (in just 8 months) she kept her blog going daily, she moved to another county, and kept her blog going daily….she has taught classes and kept her blog going daily. Admittedly, she points out, she often works 100+ hours per week, but she has kept all the balls in the air and I found inspiration in that. She is going for it (her dreams) and that is hard work.   Now I am not saying I don’t work hard….I do, but I have let myself dither a few times too many in the last month and my brief chat with Holly made me realize that I just need to keep doing, moving….and getting to that new place where I want to be.

Launching Leaf is a huge shift for me – but one that I have been plotting for quite some time, and now that I am actually leaping into it, (as I said) I have been very discombobulated. Holly snapped me out of that with a quiet and to-myself  ‘get it together Rochelle’ moment.

The pieces are settling, kids go back to school next week, the farmers market is officially up and running and in full swing,  my last design project has all but wound up, and I am getting my head around the fact that instead of over-thinking what I write here, I need to just let studio ‘g’ be the place that I continue to share what inspires me. Even if it evolves. We all evolve and the fact is, I have chosen to become the founder of an online magazine about Outdoor Design and leave the day to day of running a landscape design business. I will be choosing (in time) to head off in other new directions too and all of those are part of an evolution.  Studio ‘g’ can’t not evolve with me.

So what has been on my mind lately? Magazine Covers, Fonts, Layouts, Photographers, Graphic Designers, Networking, Trends, Products, Stories, and reaching out to people.  I met a writer named Laura Gaskill this weekend.  She writes the lovely blog Lolalina. A visit there, sent me mentally back on photographer and layout tangents, particularly when I read about Petra Bindel (who took all these photographs).

I love the Swedish light and particularly the styling of these shots, and am interested in learning from this inspiration, so I can apply it to Leaf.

Also — these shots are feeding an unhealthy obsession I have recently developed — it involves building an old-school shed style glass green house (just like my grandmother had when I was a kid) off the backside of my dining room.   I dream it will bring in Swedish-like light.

all images from Petra Bindel