Transitions never go the way they think they will. Sometimes they exceed our expectations, sometimes they fail to meet our expectations, sometimes our expectations are not even in the same universe as the reality we experience.

Wait, that sounds exactly like the start of my last post! Because the last post was supposed to be about my career transitions, but it went in a different (but good) direction.

I've spent the last 10 years working in the scrapbooking and memory keeping industry. I have loved it. I've loved the personal growth, the motivation to tell my story in my own way, the rubbing of shoulders with my creative mentors, the lifelong friends I've made, and so much more. The industry has been an enormous gift in my life.

*The Simple Scrapbooks team circa 2007 or so.*

But at the same time, I've spent so much time developing and polishing other people's ideas that I haven't had as much time as I'd like to explore my own. I have put so much passion and energy into other brands that I've barely found the time to blog at all since, oh, 2012.

After 5 years at Simple Scrapbooks magazine, I started my own little online publishing company with a friend, ellapublishing.com. Today, I've been slowly "unpublishing" the eBooks I painstakingly brainstormed, assigned, edited, and posted for sale from 2009 to 2012. As I've removed them from the site, in the order of their publication, I've been reliving that time in my life. It's been a wonderful walk down memory lane. I remember my first conversation with the uber talented photographer Rebecca Cooper about each of her three eBooks. I remember calling Donna Jannuzzi and spending an hour on the phone with her while driving through Wyoming with Wendy Smedley, at the end of the first of three treasured visits to Elizabeth Dillow in Cheyenne.

*A little peek at the bygone Ella Publishing Co. website that dominated 3 years of my life...*

*The cover of one of Ella’s first eBooks.*

You see, I sold ellapublishing.com to Big Picture Classes in 2012. It was the best possible move for my company and for my little family. This incredible blessing came along at the perfect time—when Keira was still a baby. I poured about half of my heart and soul into my new role at Big Picture Classes (the bigger half was for being a new mama). I didn't want the BPC folks to regret purchasing my company even for a second. I wanted to make the biggest possible difference I could, to reward them for their faith in me.

*The BPC team mixed in with dozens of attendees at our January Play! event. I'm right behind Mickey, you can see little Keira looking down at Mickey suspiciously.*

And then, just a few months ago, Big Picture Classes sold to Studio Calico. I don't think the transition has gone the way anyone expected to. I did everything in my power to influence what I could influence, and then it became necessary for me to accept what was out of my control. And while I may have stressed a bit more than strictly necessary, I do think it will be a good thing in the end. I have come to a place of personal peace, strength, energy, and excitement for the future.

Through it all, it became very clear that I'm ready for a different path. I am still passionate about memory keeping, but I will no longer work in the memory-keeping industry in an official capacity for another brand, neither full-time (as I did for the first five years in the industry) nor part-time (as has been my life for the last five years). My creative and scrapbooking-related efforts can be poured into my own projects.

I've been tapering off with BPC/Studio Calico since October, and my last day was December 31, 2014. I'm now a solo freelance writer and editor, taking on only the individual projects that interest me. And so far, I've been very lucky to be kept as busy as I want to be, writing behind-the-scenes for various brands you might recognize.

Life is good.

For me, at least, these changes happened at the right time to put me in the right place to move on in the right way. And I have more time and energy to devote to my daughter, to maybe decorating those blank walls in my home, to completing a dozen half-finished scrapbook projects, to our hopes of welcoming another child into our family, and to my secret dream of becoming a children's author.

I might even have a bit more time to blog. :)

The Joy of Job Transitions