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Allow me to make a suggestion: Get yourself a disco ball. Place it in your home or office where it will catch the sunlight and add some ✨ to your world. Do you have someone in your life who is like a walking, breathing disco ball? Here’s the thing about this throwback ball of mirrors, it sparkles best when sunlight is near. You feel me? We can’t all sparkle all the time. Just like a disco ball needs light to sparkle, we need light in our lives. How often do we wait for something or someone to spark something in us when all that time we could have been casting light on someone else? Get yourself a disco ball and let it be a reminder to catch the light and reflect it every which way ✨ This. Is. FriYAY!
I’ve been burned but it only set me on fire. This right here is my fight song. Because I’m ready for battle. Because I feel unfinished. // Yesterday, I was finished. Because I never realized before that I was doing something so dang unoriginal. I foolishly believed it was some sort of gift and I needed it to be a way for me to tell a story…no – all kinds of stories. Yesterday, I was grounded. I have watched people in my community remove the story. Water down the purpose. Force the originality into something commonplace. And I’ve watched it be celebrated. One of the most important people in my life said, “You have to decide what you can stand, Rachel.” Yesterday, I was finished. I couldn’t, no, I would not stand for it. // Today is a new day. Today, I’m choosing to be unfinished. This isn’t my hobby. It isn’t a side hustle. This is my work. I will continue to celebrate the original. // If I were here for the success of being an entrepreneur, this might feel like flattery. I’m not flattered. I feel fooled. I’m not sure the story matters…enough. And so, I’ll be taking the Collections in a different direction for the remainder of the year while I get back to the ”why”. // I asked myself if Polka Square would be missed, if I would be missed, the answer is no. It’s good to be grounded. What I know is that I would miss Polka Square. And so I’ll fight. Not against what burns, rather FOR the good stuff, the real. The honest. I’ll fight for those of who stand for something more. For those of you who actually believe you are unique and original. THAT is what we celebrate here. There is no room for shade. // This girl is on fire. Watch me burn. // Swipe. These and more will be available soon supporting an important cause. ✨
Heart Update // One year at summer camp, I won a ribbon for Ping Ping Champion. It’s still a running joke in our family because I’m really quite terrible at the game. At camp, however, I just happened to be one of the only kids who knew how to play. Everyone else was winning at rock climbing and diving, cheerleading and rowing - but my experience playing ping pong came in handy! I thought about that this morning in a time of reflection and consideration about this work I’m doing here, or have done up to this point. More and more it comes to my attention that the town I live and work in is becoming overly saturated with pieces that look more and more like what comes from Polka Square. And I start to wonder. Or rather, wander. Perhaps this work of creating the tangible pieces was a little like ping pong in the beginning. It was something special only because I thought it was unique. Now, I realize how common it is. It’s everywhere and no longer original. What used to fuel the fire begins to feel dampened. It IS personal, this work, this business. The community where I live may be saturated with much of the same, but I believe there is still a place for this story, and I know the “where will become clear”. I’m deeply humbled by the encouragement and genuine support from much of the community and around the country over the past year. I’m reminded that my worth cannot come from this work, even though it is easy to allow it to. Where there was once a space to be filled is now overflowing, what’s next reveal in time. This is when I pause. Now I choose to trust. #perspective
If you have been hanging around this Square long, you are familiar with this particular piece of art. It’s deeply important to me and has been for several years. I’m sharing these images with you today to ask that you rally around the artist of this artwork the way so many of you have for our family. You may recall that it was this piece of artwork that was a gift. It was something I saw and wanted to represent the story of our late daughter’s life. The artist, @lindsayletters.co, painted it while listening to Oceans by @hillsongunited, which was like the cornerstone of our time with our Audrey. It held me up when I was literally clinging to hope. I call this painting “brushstroke melody” and it has played an impactful role in my world. It even inspired part of the very first Polka Square Collection last year. Here’s where you come in. About three weeks ago, Lindsay and her husband’s darling daughter, Eva, had a minor fall that caused major damage to her brain. Their family is in an unimaginable wait. The excruciating unknown. Our family can appreciate how hope in the waiting feels. As a stranger to Lindsay, I sent a message recently in hopes of encouraging. I recalled how our tribe would rally at a specific time when we needed them to get on their knees and pray. I don’t know if she ever did get that message but last week, Eva was to be extubated to see if she would breathe on her own, they asked thousands of people to pray at 10am that day and Eva breathed. On her own. And I cried. People are wonderful. They show up. Take a moment today and show up for Eva. Show up for her parents and their family. I cannot help them, but I can ask you to fight with them. Strangers prayed for our daughter. It was a good fight. Let’s do the same for this little girl.✨#evalove @dugansherbondy
Do you ever feel trapped in a season? I thought about this today in the heat of the mid-September air. The summer swelter seems to prevail and the cool crisp of fall seems just out of reach. Have you been there? A season of waiting, perhaps. A season of turmoil. A time of relentlessness. The longest year. Or even the most mundane when you just want something more, something different...a change. It’s the peaks and the valleys of our lives that create a palpable texture so beautifully original and unique to each one of us. I’ve had the idea for this particular set of earrings for a bit but finally slowed the hustle to take time out to create them. I imagined their surface to be smooth, but as it turns out, they are closer to the story of life with honest-to-goodness highs and lows.✨Are you hanging by a thread waiting for your season to change? Choose to find hope in the wait. Are you overwhelmed with gratitude for the sweet spot your life is in right now? Let that gratitude spill right out of you and be a light for those clinging to hope. We’re mid-way through the week, friends, pause for reflection✨
Another installment of #naptimediy comin’ at you! What’s your game day style? I love something that is festive with a bit of originality, shocking I know. When it comes to supporting our favorite teams of any sport or level, (professional, collegiate, youth...um, do adult dodgeball teams count?! Yes. Yes they do.) it’s unifying, fun and the seasons last for months. Why not sport a little creativity and design your own piece to that adds to your collection? This simple look took less than 30 minutes (swipe to see supplies used from @hobbylobby including tee). Would you lean more toward GameDay look no. 1 or no. 2? #gamedaystyle
Allow me to introduce you to the color palette that is serving as inspiration for the upcoming Collection this fall season. The pop of a crackling fire, golden leaves, black as dark as midnight, pumpkin patch hayrides, shall I go on? For more color inspo, hop over to a few of my favorites including @uprooteddesigns, @themakerista and @ullajohnson. ✨ Our local coffee spot has a latte named ‘Sweater Weather’, it’s taking everything in me to hold off on ordering it too early. But just as soon as that first sweater goes on, that latte will have my name on it! Fall, let’s do this! #dothepolka
Just any frame wouldn’t do. It’s like adding high heels or a second coat of mascara. It’s that finishing touch that adds polish to these larger pieces. It seamlessly “floats” within the frame while allowing those signature drip edges to show for added texture and originality.✨Did you know Tuesday is the most productive weekday? Mine was off to a solid start. I mean, I was up BEFORE my alarm, people...#winning I was slashing through my to-do list like a ninja and basically hopped into my workout class already feeling lighter just signing in. Then I was informed I was early. Like, super early. 24 hours early to be quite exact. 🤦‍♀️ Hey, at least it wasn’t yesterday, there’s still hope for my ill-fitting jeans after all! Hope your Tuesday was 👌 #dothepolka
Am I biased toward a nod to the colors of my alma mater? Okay fine. But since I was a teenager, growing up in this town, adding a touch of turquoise has been a game-changer (👈 see what I did there?) As we round out summer and welcome fall, even for those who cheer on other teams or don’t care a bit about university Pantones, orange is a pop that brings the outside in. It captures the changing season, the fierce sunsets, the flame-colored leaves and the fireside chats we’re about to embrace. Orange, are you here for it? #dothepolka

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Thirty-Something Skin

Polka Square January 30, 2018 One Comment

Sharing a few “over-the-counter” skincare products that I use in addition to those recommended by my trusted dermatologist. I’m not a skincare expert, but I’m a real-life user and that makes it worth sharing.

Links to each product listed below the video.

Mask | Brush | Rose Water | Vitamin C Powder

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The Basics.
January 19, 2018
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In Real Life
February 8, 2018

One Comment

  1. Krystal February 1, 2018 at 4:42 am

    That vitamin c powder looks awesome. Will for sure need to check that out.

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    Reply

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