I am
so excited to get to introduce y'all to
Valerie this morning! I found Valerie's corner of the internet when She Reads Truth used her
instagram posts as their backgrounds for one of their
Open Your Bible study. And I am so glad I found her! Her blog and instagram are constantly full of truth and inspiration. She is
so honest throughout her instagram posts - I can see just how much she doesn't want people to compare their full stories to her highlight reel. Her blog is full of posts about the realities of her life: that we cannot do anything apart from
Jesus, that running your own business is hard sometimes, but also super
rewarding, that
financial freedom is something you have to work towards, and that this life we have is full of beautiful, precious,
everyday moments.
Be sure to head over to Valerie's
blog,
instagram, and
etsy shop and show her lots of love!
Name: Valerie Keinsley
Age: 24
What does a typical day in your life look like? I usually wake up around 7 and wrap up in a quilt to go make a pot of coffee—our house is 110 years old and soooo cold in the morning. I’m learning to love it though—cozy socks and quilts during my morning prayer time is becoming my new favorite thing. I sit in my little prayer corner and try and center myself for my day, reading
Jesus Calling, praying through my
prayer journal and listing things I’m grateful for. I make a big breakfast (I’m totally a breakfast girl!) and am in my office by
8am. 8-12 is reserved for The Archibald Project work, I take a break for lunch and try to read a book while eating and NOT be on my phone, and then work on my shop and other business stuff from
12:30-3:30 or 4. I might answer a few emails and then call it quits for the day! This has been a huge adjustment for me, actually ending my day and making time for margin and rest and hobbies, and I’m still learning how to do it. But it’s good!
I know you wear many hats (wife, shop owner, blogger, co-owner of Love By Design, creative director of the Archibald Project). Can you speak briefly about these hats, and the place each role you play holds in your life? How do you manage to keep your tank full with so many different roles going on at once? Yes! It can get a little chaotic so starting my day with prayer and coming back to that throughout my day is SO key, I’m learning. I’ve also started listening to either worship music (I am LOVING
Elevation Worship lately) or instrumental music like 2Cellos during my workday to help me stay filled up and focused. But the bottom line is that I am incredibly blessed that all my roles—especially the work ones—are things I am so passionate about and deeply love to do, so even the work fills me up. I give thanks for that every day.
How did you end up going into stationary design? Was it something you always wanted to do? Haha, writing out this story would probably make this blog post WAY too long! Let’s just say that I took a VERY roundabout way to stationery design. I have always loved parties and celebrations though, and after designing my own wedding invites and all the paper goods for it over a year ago, I realized it was what I was truly passionate about. It’s taken me awhile to take the plunge and focus my business solely on stationery, but it truly sets my heart on fire and I feel like it’s absolutely where my greatest skills and deepest passion collide!
How do you stay organized? When you wear a lot of hats or do a lot of things, organization is so key. I use the
Simplified Planner to keep my to-do list and appointments each day. I use Sunday as prep day and make sure the house is clean, laundry is done, groceries are stocked and we meal plan and meal prep. I also make a giant list of everything that needs to get done for each “area” of my life that week—so it’s out of my brain! And from that giant list I can do a few things each day to accomplish it all and it feels less overwhelming. I also plan my days in Google Calendar, so I block out the hours I need to be in my office and then try to break that down by what I need to be doing, i.e.
1-3 p.m.: write blog posts. It helps a lot, especially when those lunch or coffee date offers come up, and I can look at my calendar and see what I need to be doing instead of a big open blank space.
What inspires you? Being outside is probably my biggest inspiration. I see God so vividly and feel him so intimately in nature, in the sky especially, so if I’m in a funk I love getting outside. I also am super inspired by spaces and love to look at images of homes and streets and boutiques and draw a lot of inspiration from that. And travel. I feel so alive and creative when I travel, or right after a trip.
What is one book you have read that changed your perspective? I just finished
“Bittersweet” by Shauna Niequist and it was a game-changer for me. I related so much with her, being a person who is always on the hunt for more, more, more, so her essays and wisdom on slowing down were really impactful for me.
What is the most rewarding part of your job? For The Archibald Project, knowing that I am having a real effect on the orphan crisis through my work, even the mundane tasks, and that God is writing a masterful story through our organization. For my stationery shop, helping people celebrate what matters and playing a small role in those celebrations is SO awesome.
And just to keep things real here, what’s the most challenging? Thinking I’m right all the time is super hard for me! Especially as a business owner who deals with people, and people with opinions on things that matter a great deal to them (ahem, brides!) it can be hard to hear feedback about designs and things that people want to change. My automatic internal response is “well I’m the designer, I’m right and you’re wrong” so it’s a constant challenge to not be so defensive and see it as a chance to grow and serve my clients really well!
What is one lesson you are grateful to have learned in 2014? Prayer changes things, and grace is real.
What was the highlight of 2014? My trip to Uganda that resulted in my job for The Archibald Project. It truly was the answer to years of prayer and I still can’t believe it’s real life!
What was one challenging thing that happened in 2014 that has definitely shaped you going forward? A full year of marriage and creating a home with my husband was so beautiful but also really hard! Realizing that my role as “wife” and the call to love and serve my husband is far more valuable than any job I will ever have.
I know you create a capsule wardrobe from your larger wardrobe, how challenging was the first capsule to create? Has it gotten easier? Do you have any advice for other women looking to declutter their lives? It was soooo hard the first time!! I was like but I PAID for this. What if I NEED this. Haha! It was so emotional and dramatic. But then I’d store the pieces I didn’t love for 6 months, never think about them, and realize that I truly didn’t need them in my closet. Every season it has gotten easier, and even now I’m thinking about things I’m still hanging onto that I don’t wear or need. Just be ruthless. Truly that’s my best advice. You get so much brain space back by getting rid of clutter in your space. If you don’t LOVE it, and I mean LOVE it, get rid of it. Aunt Mary will never notice that you donated the vase she got you. It doesn't matter that you spent money on that random knick-knack, the money is already gone. Let the guilt go and just get rid of it all. I am preaching this to myself, by the way.
What are you looking forward to in 2015? So many fun projects for our house, and growing my stationery shop by leaps and bounds. I have such big dreams for 2015 and am so excited about the potential this year holds!
What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten? “Everything in life is either a lesson or a gift.” That’s from my super wise mama. She’s right.
What you would tell 15-year-old Valerie? Oh goodness. I’d tell her that she’s beautiful, and that she will realize it someday. To stop wondering how she’s going to do all the seemingly disconnected things she wants to do, because God is so much bigger and bolder and better than anything we can comprehend, and he will bring all those passions and hobbies and skills and dreams together into the most beautiful tapestry of life you’ve ever seen. That you can strive to be perfect, but grace is infinitely better. That you don’t have to earn God’s love. That you will grow into yourself and it will be hard and painful and you’ll feel so different from your peers for a long time, but one day you’ll wake up at 24 on a Tuesday and feel the most like yourself you’ve ever felt. And I’d tell her to maybe eat less Snickers bars, because cavities and root canals are expensive and painful ;)
What’s one Bible verse/passage you hold onto as a banner over your life? “He must increase, I must decrease.” John
3:30
*all photos were taken from Valerie's instagram
