A New Look

Surprise! I’m being spontaneous. At least that’s what I am calling my accidental blog migration. I thought I was playing it safe (and planing ahead), when it turn I was actually changing everything about my blog. After a Monday that left me crying more than once, a million emails to support, and a thrown together “maintenance page” while I rushed to make as many of the links work as possible, I’m still alive and Oak + Oats has a new look.

I’m just laughing over here because that is what would happen. This summer has been teaching me more and more about grace, grace, grace over perfection and the Lord keeps finding ways to remind me of it! I have perfect plans to launch a perfect site (in two more weeks) and then without realizing it, I’m in the mess of it all and dishing out grace. I’ve been reading a wonderfully encouraging & inspiring book called Penduka and the chapter I read this busy, messy week was all about growing roots. It is so easy and tempting to desire & long for the big branches filled with gorgeous fruit but if there are no roots none of it will last through the storm or through the winter. We look to our left & our right and see so many trees around us, growing tall & brimming with fruit. We don’t know the roots system they have – we don’t know how long it took them to grow underground, we don’t see the hours put in behind the scenes to get them to where they are today. Some seasons are for growing big branches and sprouting fruit and other seasons are for digging deep & working faithfully underground. Oh! I feel like I am in that second season. I’m working on the slower things – reevaluating, rediscovering, and trying a billion new things. It’s messy and it is far from perfect but it is the season I am in and I am learning to embrace that.

Sometimes it is funny to now be a business owner. I feel like when I sit down at my computer to share with you I need to have it all figured out. That my launches should be smooth, that my schedule should be consistent, and my brand filtered through the eyes of a team of professionals. I feel like to have your respect or for people to think I have a legit job I need to be polished, elegant, and perfect. It is hard to not let those fears, projections, and lies get me down. I’m real, I’m human, and I don’t operate perfectly.

I threw up this instagram this week because I just needed to get it all out and also laugh it off! SO many of you resonated with the words I said. So many of you said “me too!” How beautiful & encouraging is it when we give ourselves grace. We grant others to do the same and it is freeing. None of us are perfect (YAY) and we don’t have to be!

Whew! So now after a messy week, I want to welcome you to Oak + Oats! There is still a lot of the same with a whole lot of newness! I moved over to Showit5 so that I could have more flexibility with the way things looked & felt. I could add pages and elements on my own instead of hiring a designer to do each change for me. There are some big dreams in store and I felt like moving over would give me the flexibility to build, move, and make room for those things.

So here is to big dreams, slow steps, grace, grace, and more grace!

PS: How fun are these photos that Kalyee Sorrells Photography! It was so fun to partner with her on some new brand photos!