thank you.

Dear Art by Ames,

We’ve been on such an amazing journey together.

It’d take forever to list all the things we did together but here are some of my highlights.

April- December 2018

It was around April 2018, when you started your first evolution from being just a hobby to a potential business idea. After I did my first paid commission, the cogs began to turn and I dived head first into learning about what it would take to turn an idea into a reality.

By July 2018, I had opened up our first Etsy store and participated in our first collaboration (#SheisCampaign2018).

Our second collaboration was with the amazing Workshop.and for their “I am a success” event and we also co-hosted the “God is” Lettering Challenge in November 2018. From there we did another giveaway with Workshop.and, created another chalkboard wall birthday sign, ran our first lettering workshop and started selling our products at Inchmeal.

December 2018 saw us participating in our first Christmas market at Inchmeal, customising 8 mugs to be shipped to Sydney, a range of customised gifts being tested and sent out to the public.

January-June 2019

We started 2019 with a private lettering workshop as a fundraising activity for our friends at Faith Church (Chadstone), created our first mirror sign for Chantel and Josh’s wedding and were interviewed for two other podcasts.

Love was in the air in February as we participated in our first wedding and events expo (thanks again Inchmeal!) and a Valentine’s Day giveaway with StyleMeFlowers. We tried new things including sending some of our items for a styled photoshoot and also participated in our first fundraising high tea event with Generation 414 (creating custom on-the-spot watercolour portraits).

In March/April 2019, we opened up the doors to our next brush lettering workshop and created our third chalkboard wall birthday sign. We worked on two wedding signage commissions, participated in another giveaway, this time with Tanya from Simple Retreat Candles and was a guest writer for The Game Changer Co. blog.

We took a break from each other in May while I travelled overseas and then jumped right back together in June to create customised journals for Lady Ladder’s journalling workshop and ran our third public workshop at Think Thornbury.

July-December 2019

July/August 2019 saw a collaboration with Babylon Grey, a giveaway with Oak and Wonder, our first corporate gig (43 customised journals for a large law firm!) and our birthday BIZ BOSS BABES giveaway. We created our first acrylic sign for the Inchmeal elopement wedding winner, 35 “from Victim to Victory” handwritten cards for Rene Michele’s book launch, more chalkboard birthday signs, customised aprons for Generation 414, was interviewed for the Legal Brew blog and we created a custom chalkboard sign for Business Women Australia.

By the time September 2018 rolled around, I was honestly exhausted and had to start making some radical changes behind the scenes (a story for another time). But on the surface, we pushed on.

We did 4 more workshops before the end of the year (two at Inchmeal – brush lettering and tween embossing, brush lettering at Zudis and introduction to brush lettering with Laneway Learning). We did our first Live Lettering event with LinkedinLocal Melbourne and out of nowhere, we got the opportunity to hand letter the names of big celebrities for all of Channel 10’s sponsored events for the Melbourne Cup weekend!

We had the amazing opportunity to volunteer and use our art to evoke thought and action through the Justice Conference in November, creating a few wedding orders in between the busyness of life and finished the year with a paid gig through Laneway Learning and Metro Tunnel (a mini Calligraphy Christmas Mini Pop-Up Class) and created custom quote cards for NAB’s The Village community for their End-of-Year event. Winning the Side Hustler of the Year award in our SheMentors community was icing on the cake of a busy 2019.

January – May 2020

After a fast-paced 18 months (which included a change of employment in 2019!), I was ready to start the year slow but when the bushfires started raging over our nation, I couldn’t sit by and do nothing. So together, we created custom quote cards that were sent all over Australia to raise nearly $1000 to support the work being done by the Red Cross to support fire-affected communities.

That seemed to thrust us back into “busy” mode and with one of our dear friend’s wedding on the horizon, we created bridal shower placecards and wedding signs that took us into February.

I decided to put things on pause as we took a social media break during Lent 2020 and came back refreshed. However, I knew something had shifted in my spirit. I kept up all the things I thought I should do and loved our Mother’s Day activities (including a collaboration with Brainy Box, a giveaway with StyleMeFlowers and our Mother’s Day offerings with watercolour portraits and foiled mother’s day cards) but the joy had started to wain.

The next 4 months contained a struggle which I’ve already shared about so after writing all of the above, here’s what I want to say thank you for (five Cs):

• Core Skills (Marketing, content building, communication and entrepreneurial)
  • Because of you, I have developed and refined skills that have equipped me for what I’m doing now through the LLW podcast, Site of Hope and for Dignity.
• Collaborations
  • Because of you, I’ve been able to partner with so many amazing business owners and organisations.
• Commissions
  • Because of you, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Channel 10 (this still blows my mind!!), NAB, a law firm and brides to make their wedding day extra special.
• Connections
  • Because of you, I’ve connected with people I never would have met purely in my role as a lawyer – I’ve grown my online presence and community and made friends beyond my usual networks.
• Confidence
  • Because of you, I’ve become more confident in who I am and who I’ve been called to be. I’ve had the courage to step outside of my comfort zone and experiment.

For all of this and so much more, I thank you.

And while our relationship has changed for now, I’ll always remember the part you played in getting me to where I am now. Nothing was wasted and I’m glad you can take a bit of a break now too.

Until we join together in business again,