49 | Purpose, Passion, and Entrepreneurship with Amber Guyton of Blessed Little Bungalow

Jan 3

49 | Purpose, Passion, and Entrepreneurship with Amber Guyton of Blessed Little Bungalow

In this captivating episode, I had the pleasure of chatting about purpose, passion, and entrepreneurship with Amber Guyton, owner of Blessed Little Bungalow.

Amber takes us through her journey, highlighting the need to put personal well-being first in a world where business usually takes the lead. We dug into the challenges of self-reflection, the art of setting boundaries, and the continuous dance of navigating change. Plus, we tackled the realness of maintaining work-life balance in the ever-changing world of entrepreneurship.

Amber's openness about the struggles of being her own boss struck a chord, underscoring the significance of self-care and the guts it takes to pivot when needed. Her story is a compelling nudge to prioritize yourself in the pursuit of both personal and professional fulfillment.

Tune in to join the conversation as we discuss:

Amber's background and creative roots.
How she navigated the shift from a structured career in financial marketing to interior design.
Her advice for how to get started with a design project at home
How she’s built a strong client base, large social media presence, and her work is featured often in media outlets
Finding balance and strategies for prioritizing self-care amidst a busy entrepreneurial life.
The challenges of setting boundaries and the importance of self-care, even in the midst of a hectic schedule.

MENTIONED:

Iconic Home: Interiors, Advice, and Stories from 50 Amazing Black Designers

Wallpaper line with Mitchell Black

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Amber Guyton, owner of Blessed Little Bungalow

Website | All Social Platforms @blessedlittlebungalow

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Intro: Welcome to A Pleasant Solution, Embracing An Organized Life. I'm your host, certified life coach, professional organizer, and home life expert, Amelia Pleasant Kennedy, and I help folks permanently eliminate clutter in their homes and lives. On this podcast will go beyond the basics of home organization to talk about why a clutter-free mindset is essential to an aligned and sustainable lifestyle. If you're someone with a to-do list, if you're managing a household, and if you're caring for others, this podcast is for you. Let's dive in.
Amelia: Welcome to Episode 49, Purpose, Passion, and Entrepreneurship with Amber Guyton of Blessed Little Bungalow. Amber Guyton is the owner of Blessed Little Bungalow, an interior design firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. A passionate champion for personal finance, she believes that interior design should not be a luxury reserved for the privileged few, and is committed to democratizing the industry, one home at a time. Amber has served dozens of clients across the country, designing colorful, affordable, and aesthetically pleasing residential and commercial projects. She founded Blessed Little Bungalow in 2016 after decorating her entire renovated 1948, San Antonio, Texas Bungalow In less than a week. Since then, Amber's blog and social media following quickly grew and transformed her former hobby and side hustle into a nationally known brand and business. In 2021, she left her FinTech marketing career in San Francisco, California to pursue this dream and take Blessed Little bungalow full time. As an interior designer, content creator, influencer, and now wallpaper designer.
With her latest collaboration with Mitchell Black, Amber has been featured and recognized by notable organizations and publications such as HGTV Magazine, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Forbes, Ebony, Apartment Therapy, Domino, Hunker, Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles, Atlanta Magazine's Home, Good Housekeeping and many more. Amber has a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and Mass Communications from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Georgia. Outside of design and entrepreneurship, Amber enjoys traveling, exploring new cuisines, volunteering, and spending quality time with her loved ones at home in South Carolina.
I encourage you to listen in for some golden nuggets, laugh along, and of course, implement anything that you hear that resonates well with you in the week ahead. Make sure you're following Blessed Little Bungalow too.
Amelia: So I am pleased to welcome Amber Guyton to the podcast today. She and I met at the Black Girls Who Organize Conference where she was one of the keynote speakers, and it was just amazing to me to watch the room kind of be in awe of your story, your humanity, and your willingness to share how you've steadily built your business through purpose and passion. So welcome to the podcast Amber.
Amber: Thank you. That is so touching. Thank you, Amelia. I appreciate you inviting me here and I'm excited about our conversation today.
Amelia: Yay. Well, I love to start these chats by kind of encouraging everyone to tell us a little bit about their life growing up and what the word ‘organization’ or the idea of organization, how it did or didn't show up for you in childhood.
Amber: So, I am a Virgo are Virgos are obsessively organized, whatever that means for the day. So yes, our house kind of looks like The Container Store. And growing up, I think I just operated better with an organized mindset and thoughts as well as an organized space. If my room was junky and there was stuff everywhere, laundry that wasn't folded, it was chaotic for my mind as much as it was chaotic in the physical. And so growing up, I didn't like making my bed, but I saw the necessity in it and I knew that, this is a chore. This is what you're supposed to do when you start your day. And even as an adult, 37 years old, if I don't make my bed, I don't feel the same about my day and it doesn't go as well unless I do.
And so your day will be how you started that equated to me in my childhood as a made bed, a clean room, everything down to Caboodles and Trapper Keepers and Five Star notebooks with the little pockets and making sure each subject was labeled. I loved having little tabs in my three ring binders and for each subject or each class. So when I think of organization in my childhood, I think of all of that in school and at home.
Amelia: What I hear and what I love is the texture to your story, which is also that element of at a young age, realizing like it might not always be fun, but like it turns into a better day, a clearer mind, a more straightforward path if I do these things. I think that's familiar to many adults now, when we think about routine and grit our teeth a little bit, but then we're like, okay, I'll do the things, because it can work if you really focus on it.
Amber: Yes. And it's so necessary. It's like that necessary evil. Although evil sounds like really left, it's necessary and it's for your own good.
Amelia: It's different for us all. We can just be real. So let's start by talking a little bit about your personal story. You checked all the boxes early on. You did a bachelor's in journalism, then an MBA, you then worked in financial marketing in San Francisco. How would you describe the kind of that inner voice that encouraged you to shift towards interior design? Did it start with the renovation of your Texas Bungalow, of which you built your business off of or even before that?
Amber: I've always been a creative. In high school I was braiding people's hair and painting jeans and sweatshirts with Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse on them. And I was a cheerleader and so the banner that the football team ran through, I would always paint that every week. And then even some of the entrepreneurial, I guess the skill set and mindset I had, I would sell, this sounds really country, so I would sneak in my mom's cabinet and I guess steal the sugar and put them in ziploc packs. And then I'd add like one pack of lemonade and one pack of Kool-Aid, mix it up, go to school and you got like your handful of some of the sugar to like lick out your hand in class for like 75 cents or a dollar or something. I did all kinds of random things, arched eyebrows.
I always had some sort of little side hustle going on and then in college, same thing. I was a dedicated student, but I had a ton of extracurricular activities. I worked as a resident advisor. And then once I moved out of the dorms, I worked at Longhorn on top of somehow maintaining a 3.5 GPA and being involved in all of these different student organizations. So I've always been in a space where I'm comfortable piling on the side things, side gigs that kind of stretched me in a certain skill set, especially if it was a creative one. And so after getting my MBA moving to San Antonio, I missed my old house that I had in Atlanta. And I just was not about the apartment life. So I quickly found another house in San Antonio. It had recently been renovated because it was built originally in the forties. And when I closed, I moved in the same day and I decorated the entire home in a week. Insane Virgo energy.
Amelia: You were in the flow.
Amber: Yes. I was like, okay, I was done. Have these things in the shopping cart, have these things already that I purchased, ready to roll out the rugs, put the art on the wall, let's do this. And so when family and friends came to visit, they were just kind of like, “Girl, what? I thought we were unpacking boxes and stuff.” And my mom was just like, “So when are you going to do this for real?” And I'm like, “What are you talking about?” And she was just like, “I've always thought you should be an entrepreneur, like chasing the CMO role at some Fortune 500. I know that's been your goal. You went back to school for that. You're doing great in your career, but it just feels like this is your thing. You're creative, you like to make a house a home, you can do this kind of stuff in your sleep, and I feel like you should embrace that.”
So I'm just like, hell no, I have a career. I'm not doing anything bad. I just went back to school. I'm going to do all these things. But then I was like, okay, well if it's a creative outlet, I'll just do it on the side. And so it was kind of like adapting back to what I did before in college and everything else. It's just something fun on the side. I can do as much or as little as I wish and so Blessed Little Bungalow was born in April, 2016. They came to visit right after the holiday. And so in January I was like, okay, purchase the domain, hire a graphic artist to help me with the logo. And then I hired another graphic designer that built websites specifically for female bloggers in Dallas. And she helped me put my website together.
So, I gave myself 90 days. I was like, okay, we're going to figure this out. We're going to get it all together. We're going to get professional photos of my own home, put it on there and then each week I'll blog about a different space in my house. And that's how Blessed Little Bungalow was born. And so it really was just a creative outlet. I didn't see it as something that… I had so much imposter syndrome. I had no desire to be a full-time interior designer. I didn't feel like I was qualified or even wanted to do that. And so over the years, five years later, it had become this robust side hustle and a brand of its own. And so eventually I got the courage to quit and go full-time. And that was terrifying and it still is. But it was something that I don't think I ever set out to do. I felt like every two years I was doing something new, whether it was moving or changing jobs or okay, let's buy a house, let's start a business.
And so Blessed Little Bungalow was kind of, I guess that quarter life crisis in me. Like okay, moving to a new state, a lot of change, a lot of culture shock, a lot of different things going on, here's a fun way I can fill some of my time while I'm adjusting to the world. And it still is like a creative outlet despite it being a full-time job, it's something that I can kind of get lost in and remember who I am and push myself outside my comfort zone and have a good time. I think that's the scary part about making your hobby or your creative outlet your full-time job because sometimes you can come to resent it, people see what you do as more transactional versus a gift to the world. And with that comes a lot of fight for balance.
And so despite some of the burnout moments and things, I still have that clear mindset of, okay, this is a gift you're giving to the world that you decided to take from a hobby to a full-time career. And so far it has served me well and I don't know how long this journey will be or when I'll pivot again, but that's kind of how it all came to fruition.
Amelia: Wow, listening to you, I kind of wish that I was like a fly on the wall and could see your internal processes throughout the years because it sounds like a bit of fun, a bit of decision-making, a bit of purpose, and a lot of self-trust, which many of us are sort of struggling with or grappling trying to find. And so I kind of wish I could have seen what was going on in your mind as you made these decisions.
And we'll talk about pivoting here in just a bit because I know there's always an evolution. So I would love for you to share just for listeners right now, Blessed Little Bungalow, you focus on interior design, beautiful spaces and also affordable spaces, which I appreciate. And I'd love for you to offer, if a listener is thinking about a design change, what are two or three elements that you suggest that they'd iron out first? So for example, like their budget or scope of the project. Would you suggest practical things, or really like leaning into the dreaming and inspiration side?
Amber: I think that foundationally, anytime you want to change, whether it's a one space or your whole home, the first thing I tell clients to do is, well… I'll take a step back. You want to dream big. You want to say like, okay, how do I want this space to make me feel? And then connect that to colors and travel. And maybe it's this favorite boutique hotel and San Francisco that you visited one time and you're just like that. I loved how maximalist that felt or I went to this spa in Cancun one time and it was just so clean, stone surfaces and just like super neutral and it just made me feel so zen and there was this weight lifted off my shoulders and that's how I want to feel when I come home. One of the questions I put in my design questionnaire before I have a consultation with clients is asking, how do you want your space to make you feel?
But also, if you can name this project, what would the design song be? Think of a song that makes you feel how you want this space to make you feel. So a lot of it is tied to emotion and mental and spiritual feelings before any aesthetics or visual is brought into play.
But then once we start the project, I say the first thing clients need to do is to purge. What is in this space that you do not need that does not, as Marie Kondo says, “spark joy.” What are the things that are not going to add value to this room or to the creation we're hoping to make here? And so if that is a huge clunky chiffarobe, I think that's what my grandma called it, filled with old sweaters and odds and ends and paperwork that you haven't looked at in 20 years.
And guess what this bulky piece of furniture is taking up space for the 90 inch couch that we want to add in here. We're not going to settle for a 70 inch couch because you need 90 because you got a family. And so everybody needs to sit down. So we're going to get rid of this guy. And maybe bring in a bookshelf with open shelving that you could see through to the wallpaper on the walls that's going to feel more airy and actually be service more functional, but also look better and more modern that matches like the aesthetic that you're hoping for.
So everything starts with what is the purpose of the space? How do you want it to make you feel? What is presently here that needs to go? And whether you decide to relocate that to another room or a storage unit or your attic or give it to your mother-in-law or your cousin who's just got his first apartment or sell it or donate it, whatever that solution is, let's do those things first.
I was at a client's house yesterday trying to do an install and I gave them that homework. I'm like, you got to get rid of stuff. And I don't know if it's procrastination or just like childhood trauma of getting rid of things and feeling like, no, no, I have to hold onto this. I might need this picture frame one day. There was so much stuff still there and I'm like, I cannot install, I cannot make this space beautiful with all of these things. So I had to push it to an adjacent room and you could just see the frustration on one of my client's faces, like, “Oh, we just have so much stuff and we don't know what to do with it.” So it's so important to do that first because then you have a clearer mind. You can see the vision better when you get all the junk out the way.
Amelia: It's like you're speaking to my clients just right now. That is the work that I help people do is really kind of process through the emotion to get to that decision-making so that you can come in and do what you're clearly brilliant at. I was just listening and watching how your process unfolds and I'm sure folks picked up on that as well, like how you think through a space. And that's so valuable because many of us who don't feel that we have a power in design, having you model like how you think through a space would feel and declutter it, which of course I'm big on before designing and decorating and really leaning into the objects that you want, the feel that you want that purpose.
Amber: And it's like being an artist, like you need a clean blank canvas, a white canvas. If it's got a bunch of color and stuff already going on, then you feel the need to, okay, well I have to compliment these colors or I have to only operate in this space because this space is taken. And it's not to be taken as judgment. I think clients a lot of times they're like, like when consultations, it's so funny to hear people like, “Oh well don't judge this or this and that.” I'm like, “Girl, first of all, I've seen it all. I've seen it all from…” well I don't even want to get into it, but I've seen it all and we're all "guilty of this," right?
So my closet that's right behind me, this is the closet in the house that has become the catchall. It has two or maybe three Rubbermaid containers that I've traveled with from state to state, from South Carolina to Georgia, to Texas to California, back to Georgia paperwork and notebooks from college and maybe even some from high school and old career, old jobs, old companies. And also a bunch of stuff for Blessed Little Bungalow like candles and koozies and random stuff. But then also.
Amelia: So you get it.
Amber: Yeah, also formal wear that I can't part with because I'm like, oh, I spent $300 on this dress. Even if I only wear it one more time, it'll be worth it to hold onto it for that one formal event I might be going to. So yes, I get it. I understand. And we all have to compromise with ourselves and understand that this difficult feeling, this uncomfortable feeling is temporary. This is just a part of the process and you have to trust the process. If you're going to hire a designer, you have to trust them. You have to be okay with being uncomfortable and you have to trust the process, otherwise you could have done it yourself.
Amelia: For sure. And I want to move into a little bit of praise now for you and for your work because you have captured the attention of the press and social media. Recently, you've been featured in June Reese's book, Iconic Home: Interior's Advice and Stories from 50 Amazing Black Designers. And now you've just launched a gorgeous line of wallpaper with Mitchell Black.
Amber: Thank you.
Amelia: Yeah. So clearly trust the process. She knows what she's talking about.
Amber: But I think I do anyway. But yes, none of that was on my 2023 bingo card. But yes, apparently the world is validating the work too.
Amelia: Amazing. And it's clear that you're good at the working, the doing of the work. And as we move into 2024, I would love for you to talk to me about the flip side because as a small business or owner, there's this element of taking a break. Getting some rest, prioritizing your peace. What are some of the strategies that you have for integrating life with your work?
Amber: Oh man, this is something I'm still working on. You're on dating apps or whatever and people are like, “Oh, so what do you do for fun?” And you're like...
Amelia: I work.
Amber: I used to do this for fun... I used to fluff pillows and go to Home Goods and look on Pinterest for different designs and things. And that's still fun-ish. But Amber, one thing I've talked to my therapist about and she's just like, ‘Amber has been operating around Blessed Little Bungalow. Blessed Little Bungalow needs to operate around Amber. Amber needs to be the center of it all.” It's funny working in tech and working in marketing, we talk about user-centered design a lot and how the user is at the center and you design the app or the process or the marketing around the user with the user in mind. And that is something that has been drilled into me for years and I have yet to do it for myself. The same can apply for your business and for your "work life balance."
And some people, I think millennials, my generation are just like, “Oh, it doesn't exist, but it can exist if you allow it to.” And balance doesn't necessarily mean it's 50-50 every day. Like maybe some days you are working 12 hours and then the next day you're working at a coffee shop for two hours and then the rest of the day is self-care, going to your wax appointment or getting a pedicure or just taking a walk for an hour to clear your mind. And I have done a piss poor job of that as my own boss.
Amelia: It's hard to take your own advice, right?
Amber: Right. And entrepreneurship has shown me that as much of a leader as I have been in corporate, I am not a good boss to myself. I am not. I can manage multifunctional teams. Obviously I work with contractors and everything as an entrepreneur, as a designer, and I find comfort in all the moving pieces and like the juggle. But when it comes to sitting down and saying, “Okay, Amber, you need to have the discipline to turn the computer off at six o'clock, because regardless of you having convinced yourself that you're a night owl and that you design better at night, and once you start something, you have to finish it. Tomorrow is going to be back if you don't get enough rest.” Or if you are not eating breakfast, if you're just drinking coffee all day, like you are not going to operate as your best self.
If you're not taking off a full week for Christmas as you did a week or two in corporate, why can't you give yourself that or more as an entrepreneur? I think it's really hard for me and it's something that I really want to make sure in the next few weeks as this year is wrapping up, kind of reflecting on, okay, “What are the changes I need to make? What were the things that gave me it this year? Like how many clients would be ideal to take on versus the multiple client projects that I've juggled this year that have stressed me out, that have had some negative experiences. You want to be your best self and do your best work. What is the ideal situation to allow that to happen?” And I think also as an entrepreneur, especially, we're in a recession, inflation, there are all kinds of things going on.
And at the end of the day, someone hiring an interior designer or an organizer, like this is a luxury. No matter how affordable we think we are or essential we think we are, it is a luxury service. So it's hard to sometimes think, “Okay, well it's a little slow right now and that's fine.” You constantly have this scarcity mindset of, no, I have to take every person that comes to me and needs my help regardless if they're a good fit or not. Maybe there have been some red flags that you've ignored, like for the sake of hitting a profit goal this month. Anytime I have bent my boundaries or not trusted my gut with a client project for the sake of, “I need a client project…" - “need," I've always regretted it. And so it's like, you got to trust your gut. You gotta stay true to yourself. You got to be okay in the trenches. You have to be okay, which is very hard for me with the ebbs and flows of cash flow and profitability and profit and loss statements. That gives me anxiety and so I try to cure that anxiety or subdue it by taking on more work.
And that is not good for Amber or my business or anything in the long run. And so long story short, I'm still figuring it out. There was a point this year where I really thought about things like, “Okay, maybe you just need to take a sabbatical” or “You just need to press pause and ‘go back to work,’ get some steady income, 15th and 31st check of each month type of situation, just to think.” But no, I just need to be better to myself. I need to look at myself as my first client. You are the priority and nothing good comes of me mistreating myself and not putting myself first.
Amelia: Thank you so much for all of that because your vulnerability, your transparency, I think that really is going to resonate with a lot of folks because just as women we're always thinking of keeping on going. Rest doesn't always feel amazing. There are always those voices in the back of your head. It's what I call mental clutter that just keeps saying like, focus on the finances, focus on what other people need. I got to get this done. And recognizing, I talk a lot about internal awareness and knowing yourself and how each of us is always making choices. And you just gave that as an example there. And we're either doing that with intention or we're making choices kind of automatically on autopilot.
Amber: Yes.
Amelia: Yeah. Talk to me about… so pausing takes time. Self-reflection takes time, yet it often leads to the biggest rewards in the long term. So you've used the word pivot. How have you navigated some of these seasons of change or decisions to pivot? Because it sounds like they still kind of flare up every now and then.
Amber: I am currently in that season, I am figuring it out. And it's very uncomfortable not to have an answer. When you think, oh, “Well if I pause, that means I'm quitting. That means I gave up. That means I'm defeated.” Those voices in your head. I've heard this term earlier this year and it's so true, I think I am a recovering overachiever. I don't know what to do when I'm not doing well. I feel like anything that's not an A plus is a F minus.
Amelia: Yeah. It's funny how our brains - we go to one end of the spectrum or another. I often say I'm a recovering perfectionist, which is pretty much probably the same thing.
Amber: Recovering perfectionist, recovering overachiever, recovering people pleaser. That's actually a quote that stuck with me from Beyonce's Renaissance film. She said that in the film and she's a Virgo as well. So I was like, yes girl, I know exactly what you mean. But she said, she was a serial people pleaser and now she doesn't give an F.
Like, that is how I want to feel. Not that I don't care, it's just that I am okay with everything not being exactly how I desire and giving up that control the same way having faith requires you to surrender and just let God work in your life. Let the universe do what it's supposed to do. If this isn't supposed to happen and it's taken from me and I'm upset about that, I have to trust that was not for me or that was rejection and God and the world's protection or however you look at it, it is uncomfortable.
It makes me itch. It makes me feel like I just want to shrivel up in a ball in the corner of my house. I don't like it. And so pivoting means I have to lean into those awful feelings. I have to be okay with alright, so Blessed Little Bungalow is serving 30 to 40 clients a year, the past three years, how has that worked out for you? Yes, you have a great portfolio. Your name is out there, you've accomplished a lot of great things, but the work can shine and you are still yourself if that is only eight clients a year and bigger projects. So that takes care of the funding or the profit from those clients so you're not spread as thin. You don't feel as desperate to achieve. I can even look in QuickBooks and see the year over year income that has increased, but what has decreased? That you can't see in QuickBooks but you can feel it in your bones and see it in your rest and in your house.
My house is usually spotless and right now it's chaotic because I have not had the time to just load the dishwasher and dust the light fixtures and things like that. And also realizing, okay, well what are the things that you're doing that just don't feel good, like you quit your job and decided if I could just make a third of that salary and be happy and do what I love, then I'll be okay. I'm still comfortable. I could still pay my mortgage and I have the freedom and time to do what I wish. If I'm not seeing that in real time, then what changes do I need to make to get back there? And so that is something I am in the process of mapping out during the holidays. I really want to just get on a whiteboard and say, okay, here are all the things that were a hell yes this year and anything less, let's see how we can eliminate that.
“Why did you settle or why did you say yes to that thing that wasn't a hell yes? What should have been a no?” I hear so many successful people, celebrities, business professionals say things like, the wiser you get, the more no’s you give out. When you're starting out you receive so many no’s. And so every yes is a victory, but everything shouldn't be a yes. And you have to be more strategic with the nos, like you should be giving out more no’s than yeses. And so I need to sit down and say, okay, what brings me peace? What makes me happy? You talked about mental clutter. For me it's like little men with manila folders just running back and forth in my head 24 hours a day.
I get in bed at 10;30 and it takes me an hour for them to just kind of like, their footsteps of the running. It's like, it's always something, “Well you should be doing this. Did you think about this idea?” You got to calm all of that noise. So I'm still figuring that out and whether that means, okay, I'm doing more licensing and partnerships and making up for the funds that I'm not receiving from client projects by shifting that way or I've been approached about TV before, so like, okay, TV sounds amazing, that might lead to a lot of great other opportunities, but this is how much you actually make per episode and this is how much more time will be dedicated to this. This is how many hours. And so does that even make sense? What are you giving up to take on this other opportunity and what will you not have time to do that you did in 2023 that you can't do in 2024? So yeah, I got to sit down and quiet the noise. And of course I have millions of post-its.
Amelia: For all your ideas.
Amber: Yes. And I just need to write them all down and map them out and just have my own little brainstorm session of what this pivot season is going to look like and be okay with, okay, let's shift, let's change this. And if it doesn't work okay, we could shift again.
Amelia: Well this is such a great place to kind of wrap our conversation because as a mindset coach, one, I want to say I love the fact that you are feeling the uncomfortable feelings. Lots of us try to get around that and escape it rather than go through it. But really acknowledging, like it doesn't feel amazing and that's okay and sort of allowing and processing, that's really huge for creating space to think about what's next for you. So thank you for sharing that because I think it just brings some truth and reality to all that's going on, always as we're making decisions about what's next and whether now is the time to pivot and how to kind of plan out for the future.
Amber: It's scary just hearing you say, “Oh, well I'm proud of you for…” I'm like…
Amelia: You're like, it doesn't feel amazing.
Amber: But thank you, thank you for the encouragement. Every day is a fresh start and I'm doing the best I can with what I have and I think that's all we as humans can do. So we have to just give ourselves grace and allow ourselves to feel all the feels. Do it scared, just keep going, pressing forward.
Amelia: What a great message for the beginning of the year. So Amber, what's one way that you employ this idea of organization now as an adult?
Amber: All of the tabs in my Five Star notebook and three-ring binder are now these guys. I have Post-Its, colorful Post-Its, and notebooks. I love a good notebook. Even when reading books, I have to have highlighted pages and Post-Its, like I can't do the digital Kindle, Audible - it feels good to write things down. I'm more likely to remember something if I write it down. The monitor I'm looking at you on like there are Post-Its underneath with quotes and just things to keep me going. So organization for me is writing things down, putting things on paper and surrounding myself with items in my home, whether that be decor or quotes on the wall or memorabilia that motivate me to keep going.
Yes, the Google calendar and the email and all of that keeps me organized too. But as a visual person and as a creative person, seeing things constantly that keep me positive, keep my chin up, keep me looking forward, that keeps me organized. And so I embrace some of the things from my childhood for sure and still do a lot of those things that equate to organization, but that's how it's evolved in my adulthood.
Amelia: That's so helpful. And you used a term earlier maximalist, which I think isn't often talked about in the home organization world, like that you can as a visual person have lots of things out and being able to see them and that is okay as long as it feels good and lowers your stress levels rather than add to your stress levels. So when you talk about sticky notes and having the quotes out, I can totally see how that makes sense for you as well as probably turns the light on for some of the listeners as well as to why they like to have things readily available and just kind of right in front of them.
Amber: Yes, I agree all of the above.
Amelia: So I am just so excited to see what 2024 brings for you. Amber, I would love for you to tell the folks how they can follow your work, see the beautiful spaces that you create, get inspiration for their own projects and of course, connect with you.
Amber: For sure. So my website is www.blessedlittlebungalow.com. B-L-E-S-S-E-D-L-I-T-T-L-E-B-U-N-G-A-L-O-W, all one word. My Instagram, which is where I hang out the most on the socials is the same thing @blessedlittlebungalow.
As you mentioned, I have a collaboration with Mitchell Black that was recently launched. So I'd love for you all to check out my wallpaper collection at MitchellBlack.com. Give me your feedback and if you care to email me, you can do so on my contact page of my website or my email address is amber@blessedlittlebungalow.com.
Amelia: Absolutely amazing. And I just want to throw in there, hopefully when I settle into one space, I think I would be your ideal client.
Amber: Yes. I'm all about my organized folks, my people that are like, no, I can execute this. Just give me the steps. So thank you.
Amelia: Awesome. It's been a pleasure.
Amber: It has. Thank you so much for your time and for this honor. I hope that our conversation today blessed your audience.
Amelia: Awesome.
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