Halcyon – What’s in a name?

When I started making signs and chalkboard designs in 2016, I had no idea it would lead me to this.

That’s how all great stories start, right?

It was Spring of 2016. I was newly graduated with a Civil & Environmental Engineering Degree, I had a job promised to me starting two weeks after I graduated. I was standing in the wedding of two people I deeply care about. Life was fine!

Allie, the bride, asked if I could make her a couple signs for their wedding shower. She wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted, but she gave me some general directions and brought me some markers. I took some art classes in college, I knew my way around a sketch pad…. but I had never made anything like a sign. I spent a week looking at other artists designs and started sketching. The signs I made her are below.

Allie was thrilled with the results. She had a stunning shower filled with love and support and my mini business unintentionally launched.

Since that pivotal spring, I have taken part in over 50 independent projects including weddings, business ventures, styled photo shoots, baby showers, parties and custom commissions for gifts.

So where does this leave me?

Well, in 2019 I decided to get serious about my little business and get organized. You are seeing the finished website (Let’s be honest though, it really will never be finished because I have changed it like, once a week since I started working on it). I have compiled pictures of some of my work. I have a name.

A name. What a scary and difficult thing to decide on.

I spent months toiling over the thought of what to call my business. I certainly didn’t want to name it after myself, so I started compiling pretty and meaningful words. I had lists and lists of potential names and phrases. I went through them all with my sweet mom and dear friends and we all landed on one. You guessed it-

Halcyon Creative.

“So what is a halcyon? How do you say it? Why did you pick that name?”

If we turn to our friend Google and it’s endless wisdom, you will find that the definition of Halcyon is as follows:

To refer to a time period as the Halcyon days, in modern times, is to look back on a memory and recall it as being blissfully happy and entirely peaceful. In Greek mythology it referred to a bird that could only lay her eggs in the middle of winter on the shores of the mediterranean sea, during an unexpected warm and calm period called the Halcyon days. It speaks to the belief that there are days we can count on that will serve as a break from the storm of life. These days will bring back peaceful and idyllic memories when you think of them. Halcyon days are a promise amidst the chaos that there will eventually be peace. So why did I chose this name?

I want to help others create memories that they can recall as Halcyon Days in their lives. Creating Halcyon days = Halcyon Creative.

It may be a little spacey and “hippy dippy” for some of you, I get it! But it makes perfect sense to me.

To date, most of the projects I have taken on have been beautiful brides and glowing expectant mothers. These women are facing incredible stress (physically, mentally, emotionally) but they know on the other side of the storms they are going to have halcyon days. It is a joy beyond words to be invited to take part in some of the happiest memories of their lives, and in the lives of all of my clients.

What are some days in your life you regard as “Halcyon Days”? I would like to challenge you to think for a moment about them. I think about standing in an open air jeep on an African Safari, staring at giraffes peacefully eating in 2012. I think of holding my baby cousin Remington when he was born in 1999. I think of the late nights spent cradling coffee cups (or Little Caesar’s Crazy bread) and genuinely talking to my girlfriends. I think about seeing Venice, Italy and crying because I was so overwhelmed to be there. I think about watching my dad sing and dance with my mom, not caring how hard it made my brother and I cringe to see how much he loved her. I think about hot summer nights at bandcamp in high school, exhausted, sunburnt but so happy. I think about the faces of the people who were there… especially the ones who have since gone home to God. I think about all the Halcyon Days to come.

I know this blog post should probably be about 4 paragraphs shorter, but I wanted to genuinely tell you all about where my heart was when I chose my name, and that I am so so so honored to have had enough people trust their ideas to me that I have need of a website at all. Thank you for checking out my work. Thanks for being you.