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| Throwback photo to Assemble circa 2009 |
As quiet as we have been, we have been busy little bees. The last post from October of 2014 introduced our book, which is still slated to be released in August of 2016. Our tiny team of worker bees--Michelle Beilner of Sparky & Marie and Jaqui Shumate of Jaquilyn Shumate Photography--have been superstars in our eyes. It's such a blessing to be able to work with friends, but when those friends are absolutely stellar at their work, it's magical.
We are almost completely done with it, besides layout edits and a final cover shoot. That process is daunting and stressful, but we were so grateful to read this post by Emily Henderson. We are not stylists by any means (and have an immense amount of respect for them too!) so it was nice to read that even professionals go through the difficult task of representing their work on something so "quick-glance" as a book cover.
On the other side of the coin, Assemble has been quiet because of, well, life. Social media has always been my part of the game, and I came into this business as a single person. I wasn't married, nor did I have kids (unless you count Assemble mascot, Grady the chihuahua) and Assemble was my baby. I devoted every waking hour to building our brand and loved every second of it. As time went on, I got engaged, then married and eventually had our little baby Alice on December of 2014.
While I was pregnant, I was so worried about finding the time for a baby while working on a book, a side-business and day-to-day Assemble tasks. Now that I actually have a child, I am astonished at the amount of time, heart and grace that Emily is able to give to our mission with two....TWO! The reality of the situation--and something that no one can explain to you pre-baby--is that it's not about finding a way to fit a baby into your life. Something I found to be true for myself, is that every priority that I had in building our business and my dreams, was suddenly sub-par. The book took a back-seat. Our blog was literally an afterthought. Instagram? What's that? And I didn't care. Not one bit. My brain and heart was focused on playing with wooden tambourines on the floor and teaching Alice to roll over. "How boring!" single Andie would say. She would be right for her own life, but not for mine.
Now that things are beginning to be more scheduled, and the baby fog is parting a bit, I've begun to miss the social aspect of Assemble so much. The thing about a regular career, is that a woman can have a baby, take a break and then go back to that career. When you own a business, and you take a break, your business can go on radio silence. It's tough to not be able to return to things exactly as you left them. Regardless, here we are! We hope you'll take us back in (plus one!).