Artist Hanna Strikes Again...
Updated: Jul 7, 2019
If someone would’ve handed me a script of my life as a business owner 6 years ago, I would’ve taken the tragic comedy and thrown it in the trash.
What logical person would want to subject themselves to a life of out of pocket health care and vulnerability in both finance and pride?
Artist Hanna
I can answer by saying no logical person would, but there is another side… I call her “Artist Hanna”. She’s bad for business. She reduces margins to help her clients pay for the pretty stuff and she buys Kate Spade bags and Starbucks coffee, at any chance she gets. Accountants hate her but our client’s love the creativity she possesses.
Business Hanna
Business Hanna, she’s a bit of a pill. She does everything she can to help the bottom line. She spends hours looking for deals on plumbing fixtures and stays up well past midnight submitting applications for less expensive insurance. She’s not afraid to challenge anyone who doesn’t put the client’s needs first.
A bit of our journey in bullet points…
2012 Baby Lucy was born and Hanna quits her full time job and Jonny makes a go of property management and flipping houses.
2012 Nap times are used to complete testing for professional licensing at our expense
2012 The business was born via a website and Group-on campaign making $12/ design, not per hour, per design! FYI not enough to pay for gas to get to appointments let alone pay off student loans.
2014 Baby #2 arrives with health problems and private insurance #somuchstress
2015 Our first new build client arrives. Hooray! Dreams are coming true!
2016 Baby #3 is on the way! #thisisgettingcrazy
2017 Time to sell the house. The garden is impossible, the sewer is garbage and has to be replaced. The business is growing but money comes, and money goes as babies and businesses are very hungry. Jon is trimming the city every night late into the evenings. We look at each other daily and even ask our friends - "Is this right? This can't be right for our lives right? RIGHT?"
2017 Town Home Livin’- not for wimps! We crammed 3 babies and a business into 1,500 square feet with no basement but it’s just temporary right?
2018 Being self employed makes it hard to get loans. This is the year to make hay. Heads down and give that 3am a high five every night and Jonny, you can kiss Saturday’s goodbye!
2019 Good job guys- it’s time to build your own home
Big announcement via Instagram
Artist Hanna hacked the social media accounts without discussing with business Hanna, Rookie mistake.
Business Hanna checked with the banker and much to Artist Hanna’s dismay a ranch is more well suited for the lot…
Which leads us to….
A RANCH
What?
That’s right. We are a building a lovely Nantucket one story walk out and shelving my beloved Dunmore Chateau for a beat. We may live there for a year, we may not live there at all if someone falls in love with it before we are done building. The moral of this juncture of our story is that we don’t know our future as well as we thought, but do any of us really? This isn’t the blog I expected to write, because I’m writing the life we are living, and honestly not one moment has been predicted. I knew I would be with Jonny, I hoped I would have babies to come along for the ride, and I dreamed ballet would have a part in what we do all under the loving hand of our creator. Those are now the constants, and the rest, well the rest we’ll unfold together! Come back again to follow this crazy, unpredictable life at Eden and Gray!
“The moral of this juncture of our story is that we don’t know our future as well as we thought, but do any of us really?”
All my love,
Hanna Shiplett
Interior Designer
Wife & Mom
Wanna be ballerina
Lover of interesting people and things!