Pancakes & Glue Guns: Creative at Heart Birthday Bash: Photos and Reflection + You are definitely "good" enough.

On one of the first days of January, a fellow creative friend and I headed out to Richmond for the Creative at Heart Birthday Bash. This was an event celebrating one year of the Creative at Heart Conference, a conference that provides education and inspiration to all types of creatives. Now, I actually hadn't gone to any of their conferences the previous year, you know having a baby and all, so I wasn't sure this was appropriate for me to go to - but MY did their pictures look gorgeous advertising the event. I read on their website that this wasn't just for alumni of their conferences but for new faces who were potentially interested in the future. Ok, yes, everyone says that but did they really mean it?

I could have spent days overanalyzing this convincing myself that this wasn't for me, I wasn't good enough to go to something like this, I'm not a "real creative." And the list goes on and on. But something Jess Connolly of the Influence Net said during a webinar I attended was (quoted to the best that I remember :)) "Who told you that? Who told you that this event wasn't for you? That you aren't good enough? That you aren't a real creative? God certainly didn't tell you that. Can you imagine your child looking up at your saying "I'm not good enough"...don't do that to your Father in heaven either!"

And that is the truth!

So we bought tickets and headed out. I'm not going to say I was suddenly perfect and didn't second guess my outfit, how I introduced myself, or if my business cards looked good enough..because I did. But I reminded myself of the truth Jess shared and went in!

Friends, I am SO glad I had the courage to go to this, it was just a lovely event with finishing touches on every detail. First of all it was at Paisley and Jade. Pause right now and go look at their website, but don't get sucked in. Come back to me. But do it. Seriously. It's gorgeous.

Second, the speakers were phenomenal!! So encouraging and real. They talked about the exact insecurities and fears I highlighted above. Natalie Franke, photographer and founder of the Rising Tide Society, spoke about not believing the lie that "everyone else is successful." She talked about how we are flooded with success stories on instagram and gorgeously photographed highlight reels of life. In fact, there were a lot of failures that led to those successes and we shouldn't be afraid of them. We should also define our OWN version of success and not struggle trying to figure out what success is to the world around us or how to get to the place someone else is at on instragram or on a blog, etc. It was wonderful and exactly what this girl (me) needed to hear, as I'm sure many of the other lovely creatives did too.

So what does this mean for you? First - check out the Creative at Heart Conference coming to Annapolis, MD this March. I won't be there but hope to go in future years when baby girl is a bit older and can handle being away from me for more than 35 seconds (seriously, that's what we're at right now with this whole teething thing...). Second - don't ever think you're not good enough. Don't ever think you're not creative enough. Don't ever think you just don't fit in in this beautifully curated instagram world. Remember that many of the accounts you are following are BUSINESSES. They are advertising. They aren't writing a feel good blog. If you're looking for business mentors try to meet the people behind the feeds, join a Rising Tide Society Tuesday Together group (it's free and I'll talk about this in a future post next week) and get to know people in person.

You are a creative masterpiece, you are made in the image of our awesome God and you are certainly, definitely, good enough.

Now enjoy some drool worthy photos from Hope Taylor Photography and find the rest of the vendors involved listed below.