The business that started it all.

House of Istria was my bridal accessories brand that sold all over the world, stocked in dreamy boutiques and featured on the cover of magazines.

It enabled me to employ members of my family, sit and draw in my notebooks while my daughter was sleeping, and help women to reflect the free spirited beauty that sits in their soul.

(Just like my coaching does now)!

and was the company that kickstarted my deepest mission and message of freedom.

I walked away from House of Istria at the six figure point because I’d just had my first daughter and didn’t understand how to streamline, work in flow or outsource to support my goals.

All I knew was creativity and work by working every minute that was sent to me.

It seemed ‘too big’ for me to continue to grow alone.

I didn’t realise there were other ways of working.

It took my next business (photography) to show me how I could have a business that gave me everything – total creativity, financial freedom, travel, a business I could shape and design around me and how I choose to live and what I choose to love.

But even that required a total breakdown of the superwoman identity for that to happen.

I’m so thankful for the lessons this business gave to me. I wish I’d known then what I do now.

But sometimes it takes what we experience to become all we are meant for.

I had no hesitation in walking away from that business because I had outgrown her

And she had outgrown me.

We have to remember to prune the things that no longer serve us, like fruit trees, to allow for more blossom to grow.

But sometimes like today, I miss the beauty of it all. Not in a way of wanting it back,

But just in that softness of nostalgia,

Where we remember times and places with love in our hearts,

And nothing but gladness for their presence and existence.

Thank you House of Istria.

Named after my first daughter and the heart shaped region of Croatia.

You gave me so much.

And above all you helped me understand how to find my freedom in business and life.

And that is the most beautiful thing of all.