The Celebration that Wasn’t
Last year was the 10 year anniversary of Kierstin Smyth Design. I had brainstormed plans on how I wanted to celebrate, how we’d include our clients in that celebration and more. In reality though, I did a yay 10 years Instagram post and that was about it. Our team did put in several hours working on our celebration project, only for it to not see the light of day. Recently, while discussing this with fellow designer Ashley, from Castilia Design, we both had the realization that neither of us truly celebrated this important milestone in our businesses. And then Ashley challenged me to write a blog post about it, so here we go.
Our Celebration Plan
The 10 year anniversary was officially May 13, 2023. As I mentioned, I had a really exciting way that I wanted to celebrate this milestone and that was to create and print a magazine that would be sent to all of my past clients. We started work on this in early 2023 and spent any extra time we had working on it through the next few months. But this 10th year of business ended up being one of my most challenging years of business. By the time we were leaving summer and heading into fall, everything was turned upside-down. While I’m not at a stage yet where I can fully share what all went down, let’s just say that we were very suddenly thrown into crisis mode. Our workload increased, we called in all the favours we had with our network and supported our clients in whatever way we could while we all picked up the pieces on a situation that we weren’t in control of.
I kept pushing back our planned launch date as a result, and then the printer / distributer we were going to go with didn’t return my last few emails. It felt like it just wasn’t going to happen. And by the time things finally started settling down… well it was almost year 11 and to be brutally honest, we weren’t in a celebratory mood anymore.
What 10 Years Meant to Me
This part is easy, because I had already written it out for our celebration project. So here’s what I wrote:
“It's going to sound cliché, but if you had told me 10 years ago when I was sitting there incorporating my business that this is where I'd be today, I wouldn't have believed you.
I'm always surprised when I put together my updated client list and see it's in the hundreds, or when I go into the archived projects folder and see 10 years worth of design work. And while I can take some credit for all of this, I have to express my extreme gratitude to everyone who supported me along the way. For those first few clients who hired me, allowing me to gain experience, for the suppliers who took the time to introduce me to their product lines and assist with my projects, to the contractors and trades that brought our designs to life and of course, to my incredible official team and unofficial team.
It’s been just a bit of an adventure and while there have been days (and sometimes weeks) of pure stress, struggle and overwhelm, what always brings me back around is the “why” behind what I do. I believe with my whole heart that our homes should reflect who we are and be designed to function in a way that works with how we live our day-to-day life. And that when those two things come together, the magic happens. I have the distinct pleasure of being part of something that can change people’s lives for the better. I get to create spaces that bring joy, comfort, pride and ease. I’m honoured to be granted access into the lives of my clients, to truly see them, to support them, to create for them. And all of that is why I do what I do. And why I can’t wait to continue to do this work for another decade and to support others in their desire to do the same.”
The Late Launch
Once I started writing this post it became clear to me that I couldn’t let all of the hard work we put into the magazine go to waste. So I spent some time finishing up those last few items so that I could at least share it digitally with you all. It’s no longer fully current (not all the items / places / brands still exist and the pricing listed has likely changed) but in the spirit of progress over perfection, I’m okay to leave it as it is. I hope you all get a bit of enjoyment out of what we created - whether seeing one of your own homes highlighted, getting a tip or two from an article or learning something new about me.
Click on the digital magazine below to scroll through!
In reflecting on this all I’ve realized that celebrating these successes and milestones is incredibly important, regardless of whether they are celebrated in the moment or well after the fact.
So cheers to 10 years (now 11) and many more!