Scribbles From Emily is now The Minimal-ish Mama! Surprise!
Oh gosh, where do I start?!
It all started on a beach in North Carolina. I’d just begun a summer-long mission trip with CRU (then Campus Crusade for Christ), and I’d been telling my mentor about all the people who’d so generously donated for me to go. “You should start a blog!” she said. “You should call it ‘Scribbles from Emily’!”
And so I did.
And ever since that summer in 2009, I haven’t changed it….until now.
Have I thought about it? Dozens of times, but I never found something I liked better. Part of the issue was that I struggled and struggled to find a “niche” and category I fit into. After years of just blogging about my life (so embarrassing to read some of those posts now!), I became more of a craft and DIY blogger. I dabbled in style, but I was specifically interested in ethical fashion, which seemed at odds with the consumerist culture of fashion blogging. I didn’t feel like I’d found my “thing” that I could talk about without getting tired of it at some point.
Honestly, I also lacked the confidence to pick something and commit to it.
But even with my blog struggling along year after year with mostly just my family and close friends reading it, I couldn’t bring myself to give it up. I just loved it too much. Even as social media came up and took over, it couldn’t fully replace the blog shaped hole in my heart.
Even after working full-time for nearly five years as a blogger, social media manager, creative team director, and magazine editor at non-profit, I still had this desire to create my own thing. To have a place where I could create and process and connect with other people.
And Scribbles From Emily has been all of that and more to me. It’s weird to think that my blog pre-dates the most important relationships in my life – pre-marriage, pre-kids!
New Year, New Direction
Over the last two years, I felt a shift coming. I started listening to the marketing advice I’d successfully implemented for many other clients. I stopped rolling my eyes when influencers said to “build a list” and “niche down.” I took a big risk and bought a blogging course. I took another big risk and launched a YouTube channel, feeling the stretch of learning a new skill and putting myself out there.
Then last month, I took the plunge and hired a business coach. Dawn Sadler helped me create a new mission statement that finally felt like it captured what I felt God calling me to – helping millennial Christian moms find freedom from stress and overwhelm from clutter: the kind of clutter you can see, and also spiritual and emotional clutter, like mom-guilt, comparison, and finding our purpose. She also helped me map out my first product, a decluttering course. At the time, we didn’t know what it would be called. She said, “We’ll just pray that the Holy Spirit drops that into your mind at the right time.”
As I worked on the course one night, a name flashed into my mind: The Minimal-ish Mama. I could already see the logo in my head. I was so excited, I stayed up WAY too late mocking it up, buying the URL, and dreaming up plans. Then I realized, this isn’t the name for the course, it’s the name for a website, a website that would sell a decluttering course.
Why Minimal-ish?
Just yesterday, I read a post in a minimalist Facebook group I’m part of that said a woman and her husband had decided to give up drinking coffee, because they wanted their countertop to be so clear, they didn’t even want the coffee pot on their counter anymore.
Yeah … I would never in a million years do that!
Marie Kondo recently clarified the difference between her method and minimalism. She’s about what sparks joy, not just reducing possessions to the bare necessities.
To me, “minimal-ish” is tongue-in-cheek wink to the desire to be minimalist, while embracing imperfection.
I’m not about pure white rooms and throwing out all sentimental items. I am about less is more, but it’s less of the wrong stuff: stress, overspending, over-scheduling, that equals more of the right stuff: joy, peace, contentment.
Capsule wardrobes, occasional DIY projects, my home decor projects, and intentional parenting all fit into that minimal-ish mindset.
The more I’ve researched and experienced in my own life as I KonMari’ed and studied decluttering and organization, the more connections I’ve found between our environment and our internal state. Our homes are often a direct reflection of what’s going on inside. Physical clutter has emotional and spiritual roots, and emotional and spiritual clutter often reflects physically – like in our physical or mental health.
Having experienced depression and anxiety so intimately myself, I’m especially passionate about helping others find healing.
The ultimate question we’re dealing with is one of our worthiness. Minimalism says; “I am enough, I have enough.” For us as Christians, we can say “Because of who I am in Christ, I am enough, and I have enough.” Through The Minimal-ish Mama, I want to explore helping moms of my generation discover their worth and identity in Christ.
Making the Change
I reached out to my friend Callie of Living Enneagram (check her out!) and asked her opinion on the rebrand. She asked me insightful questions about my longterm goals which further clarified the need for the change. I could never imagine “Scribbles From Emily” as a book title. But “The Minimal-ish Mama”? Now that sounds like a book I want to read!
It sounds like a membership site… a podcast… a quarterly digital magazine. And I can see the logo on notebooks and a coffee mug.
Especially a coffee mug, because you know this minimal-ish mama is never giving that up!
I realized I needed to make the change before launching the course. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m more likely to buy a decluttering course from The Minimal-ish Mama than Scribbles From Emily!
With only a little over a month to go before the course launch, I did the math and decided to get it done … yesterday. My heart nearly beat out of my chest when I hit that “Save Changes” button!
But now, you should see the change reflected everywhere! (Let me know if you find something broken though, thanks!)
What do you think?! I’d love to hear from you! Let me know in the comments below, or chime in on Instagram.
Thank YOU for being here!!! Seriously, I know some of you have been reading faithfully since the very humble beginnings. Some of you are brand new here too. Either way, I love you guys! I’m excited for new things!
P.S. I did find a name for the decluttering course too! It’s From Clutter to Clarity!
