If you've been around for a little while, you'll be familiar with Little Lantern Books and Missing Link Boutique. I have loved running those businesses, but with a growing boy, a full time job returning to more out-of-the-home work now that COVID is under control, and general life I found it becoming harder and harder to maintain consistency and intention. Having multiple names, logos, colors, groups, pages, etc to manage had my brain feeling like I had too many tabs open and I knew I needed to find a way to relieve some of my own expectations of myself. I set out on rebranding my small business, but took a while to figure out how. I knew that while I wanted to streamline and condense my tasks, I didn't want to stop doing either business. Finally, after several months of thinking and planning and bouncing ideas off my closest circle, it came to this. Novel Design Co., which will incorporate both my children's literacy business and my custom item shop. I can't even explain how excited I am for this change!
But first, I feel it's important to give the business story - the why, the meaning behind the name, and to let y'all into my mind a little bit. It begins with my own journey of self discovery. With a lot of time, self care, support, and therapy, I realized recently that this feeling of being disheveled inside was my body and mind's way of telling me to just go back to the beginning. Go back to my roots. So that's what I started working toward.
As a child, so many of my long term core memories included books, reading, learning activities with my mother. Our Saturdays at the public library. My summer reading list that we'd blow through long before the new school year. The many, many trips to Pizza Hut for my free personal pan pizza I'd earned through my school's Book It! program. And all that quality time with my safest space, my mom. This foundation not only solidified our relationship and the grounds for which my adult person would develop, but also my lifelong love for books. It was a no brainer that I wanted to do the same for my own child, and Little Lantern Books allowed me to do that easily (and with a discount) while also helping other moms have that same opportunity. But I've also been a creative at heart and working on designs to make special items for people was this amazing outlet for me that breathed even more life into my day. My boutique became a stress reliever and fun for me. I just needed to meld the two back into that core, that foundation, and allow them to all refocus in alignment with each other.
My favorite part of the rebranded business name is the multiple different ways it applies to all the facets of my interests that led me here. Novel Designs Co. ...
Novel - a book length fictitious narrative with some degree of realism OR new, unusual, interesting
Design - an arrangement of shapes to form a pattern OR plan with a specific intention in mind
This new name encompasses the physical books I'm able to share with families, the literary influences in my custom designs, and the intention behind my parenting through the use of books not only to teach my son but to create positive core memories for him with me. I could not imagine anything else to be any more fitting and I can't help but smile every time I think about it. Sometimes change is scary, sometimes it's necessary, and sometimes it's exactly what you need. But don't worry, friends! While the name is new, the service and heart behind it will remain as true as it ever was. You can find the new business page on Facebook. My custom designs are all listed on Etsy. Please don't mind the site shuffling as I make updates to the menus and pages to reflect the rebrand, and thank you for sticking it out with me!
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