The future has arrived... today

July 6th will mark the official 7 year anniversary of when I started this blog. This week marks the 7 year anniversary of when Hubby and I formally filed and formed our corporation, Rosehaven Cottage Inc. with me as the CEO and him as the VP-of-everything-else. We had the foresight to know that we needed to incorporate and created a corporate "umbrella" for my creative pursuits that would follow... but that's about all we could foresee.  

Seven whole years is the longest I've ever "worked" at one job. I started this creative journey fueled by the creative spark digital photography had re-lit within me after I'd been on a creative hiatus for a while. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do along the way or what I wanted to grow into becoming. I simply knew that I wanted to create beautiful things to be appreciated and consumed visually by others.

I am a classic introvert by nature (as many bloggers are) so I spent years trying to hide behind the moniker "Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage". It was easy to write blog posts about my garden so a large portion of my posts were focused on the outdoor life. Writing about our house, Rosehaven Cottage, was easy too, so I shared some of our DIY adventures here too. The title "Rosehaven Cottage" became synonymous with gardening and home improvement and "Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage" was seen as a "garden blogger". The audience that this blog attracted ended up being more interested in my green thumb and sledgehammer-wielding skills and less about the creative career I was building and very passionate about. 

Like many things in the digital realm, blogging has gone through evolutions and I've seen it go through a few in the seven years I've had this blog. The current trend in blogging is leaning toward catching and retaining readers with slick Pinterest-ready posts full of helpful tips or with attention-getting titles that lure a reader to read the blogger's personal insights, philosophies and musings. Several big-time blogs have had to revamp their way of doing business in order to remain financially viable now that content is often generated on mobile devices that don't accommodate sidebar advertising. They've had to resort to embedded advertising within blog posts to keep generating revenue. And none of that is what I'm really focused on in my "real life".

What is my "real life"? Some of you may already know the answer to that question but some of you may not. Here's the answer...

I am a professional photographer, artist and graphic designer. I am a business owner (technically a "CEO"). My business is about creating visual images that:

• have been licensed to appear on stationery you might have seen when you were shopping for just the right card for a special occasion. 
• are sold as canvases, fine art prints, cards and cell phone cases
• are sold as digital files to other creative professionals that incorporate my work into their own work like websites/blogs, advertising, publications, crafts and derivative art 

For the past several months, I've been at a professional crossroads regarding this blog. I am at an exciting point in my creative career where I am seeing my dreams becoming realities. This is wonderful but it has created a conundrum I've had to face. As a creative professional whose work is of a visual medium, my online presence (some call it "brand") needs to remain professional. My online posts can't just be an open garden journal. They can't be filled with personal musings that I then wish I hadn't published a week after I have. And I also cannot hide behind the moniker "Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage" and be taken seriously by my creative peers and mentors.

This is why I've spent the past couple of months creating and fine-tuning a new online presence at www.CindyGarberIverson.com. It is a cohesive and responsive format so anyone can enjoy it on a smartphone, a tablet or a desktop computer. And I have integrated a blog into the design that I will be posting to regularly as I release new work. Coupled with social media like Instagram (where I'll still share some photographic snippets of what's happening in the garden), I am embarking on a new blogging journey that will be all about my creative pursuits and passions. If you follow me on Pinterest, you can be a fly on the wall as I gather inspiration for new projects and you can watch the early stages of my creative process "real-time" (so if you start to see me pinning lots of photos of vintage sinks you can bet that it has something to do with what I'm working on at the moment).

I'm finally doing it. I'm finally being what I always wanted to be when I grew up. As one of my favorite songs by The All-American Rejects (on the Meet The Robinsons soundtrack) says... the future has arrived!

The future's arrived

Nobody can doubt

The future is what everything's about

It's better for you

It's better for me

It's better than what everybody thought it would be

It's time to create

Time to grow

If you're feeling right

The world

Yeah she's changing

And life's rearranging

Don't it make you feel alive?

The future has arrived

See you over at CindyGarberIverson.com

Interesting Facts About Me (aka I've Been Tagged)

I've been tagged by the blogging artist Thea Burger at Shades of Life. I absolutely love her work. You have to go check out her site.

So now I get to share something interesting, weird, random, or fun about me...

First Fun Fact
I am a 4th generation San Francisco Bay Area Native with my great-grandfather, my grandmother, my mother, and I all being born in Alameda County. This is more unusual than one would expect because a great many Bay Area residents are transplants or their parents were. Along with this distinctive honor, I can also say that my Bay Area relatives lived through the 1906 earthquake. I am fortunate to have literally thousands of photos from old family albums that are candids just like the one at left [that's my great-great grandmother third from the left--she and her husband immigrated from Scotland and eventually set up residence in the Bay Area]. It is fun to still live the same area that my ancestors did because I feel a connection to them by knowing and loving the same places that they frequented and enjoyed. Pretty cool.

Next Fun Fact
I have played the piano for over 35 years now and was taught to play by my mother. My mother was taught to play by her mother. It is a musical legacy that has been passed down. I am very pleased and honored to be a part of this wonderful legacy. Music holds an important place in my life and in my home. It always has, and it always will. When I was little and learning to play, I yearned for the day that I could play with both hands. I would try to be patient and I went through the exercises in my piano book, but I would pester my mom asking her when I could play with both hands. I was tickled beyond words when I finally advanced to the point in my tutorials when I could play with both hands at the same time. It was a very big deal to me.

Final Fun Fact
I am a closet "motor head". I love engines that rumble, chrome that shines, and I love going fast in anything that moves. I am, therefore, one of those people that gawks and stares at any hot rod on the road. If my husband would let me, I'd ride a motorcycle (preferably a Harley). And I love the ride California Screamin' at Disney's California Adventure because of the speed of acceleration at the beginning and the feeling like I'm flying. In my secret dreams, I'm a jetfighter pilot. So when I'm on that wonderful roller coaster I pretend like I'm "driving" it as if I were a jet fighter pilot. The other favorite attraction I have at Disney's California Adventure is Soarin' Over California. Again, it's because I can get the sensation of flying.

Now for those that I'm tagging next:

Dirty Fingernails at Green Thumb Chronicles
Mark at The Green Fingered Photographer
Kelly Cat at It's All Good
Miss Peach (and Karla) at Miss Peach's Meowz
Allison at My Cozy Home
Kylee at Our Little Acre
Zoey at Perennial Passion

The guidelines for this tag:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules
2. Write some facts about yourself: some random, some weird, some just plain fun.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them)
4. Let those 7 people know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.