Finding Your Creative Path in a World Full of Noise
On creative whiplash, having too many passions, putting some dreams on pause, and finally listening to what keeps calling me back.
I have a confession to make. I have whiplash. Not literally, of course, but I swear I constantly feel like I’m being pulled in a million different directions. Maybe it’s because I’m now forty and going through perimenopause, or maybe I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy—except in this case, the boy is a creative outlet—trying to figure out exactly what she wants.
I can’t be the only one, right? The one who finds herself comparing what she’s doing to everyone else on social media and thinking, Oh, I could do that too! And then, before I know it, I’m deep down another rabbit hole, trying to figure out the exact formula someone else followed to get where they are.
I have to admit, our modern world—and this constant 24/7 connection to our devices and social media—has left me feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, tired, and sometimes just ready to throw in the towel altogether. There is so much noise coming at us all the time that it can become really difficult to hear your own voice, let alone figure out which direction you actually want to go.
However, if you can sit still for just a moment—sit with yourself, quiet all the noise, and really pay attention to what you find yourself naturally drawn to, the things you do without question that bring you joy and happiness—then I think you’ll start to hear that voice. The one that’s probably been there all along, quietly trying to guide you.
It’s hard enough not to compare yourself to everyone else, but I think it becomes even harder when you’re someone like me who genuinely loves so many different things. I’ve never been a person with just one passion. I love photography and flowers, gardens and travel, beautiful homes and spaces. I love writing, hospitality, making things with my hands, and creating meaningful experiences for people. Sometimes having so many things that light me up feels like such a gift, and other times, if I’m being completely truthful, it feels like total chaos.
For a while, I thought I needed to figure out which one of those things was the thing. What was I going to focus on? Which direction was I going? What exactly was The East Experience supposed to be, and what in the world was I actually trying to build? I kept feeling like I needed to narrow it down, choose a lane, and somehow fit all of these different pieces of myself into one perfectly defined little box.
But the more I sit with it, the more I’m realizing that maybe I don’t have to choose just one. Maybe I never did. Maybe instead of trying so hard to figure out which passion deserves my attention, I need to pay attention to the common thread that has been weaving its way through all of them all along.
Following What Keeps Calling Me Back
When I look back at everything I’ve created and been drawn to over the years, I can see it so clearly now. I always come back to flowers and gardens, photography, beautiful spaces, travel, hospitality, and those tiny, thoughtful details that can turn something completely ordinary into an experience you remember. Whether I’m arranging flowers from my garden, photographing a beautiful place, creating an experience for a guest, traveling somewhere new, or simply noticing the way the afternoon light is falling across a room, it all comes from the same place.
And I think that is The East Experience.
It doesn’t need to fit neatly into one perfectly defined niche. Instead, I want it to become a world centered around all of these things I love—a place where we notice beauty, learn about flowers and gardens, discover beautiful places to stay and explore, talk about the things I’m loving and using, and travel to places near and far through photographs and stories.
More than anything, I hope it becomes a place that inspires you to pay a little more attention to your own everyday life—to notice what’s blooming outside your window, bring the flowers inside, visit somewhere you’ve never been, make your home feel special, or simply stop long enough to recognize the beauty that was already there.
So, with all of that said, I thought it was time to share a little more about where The East Experience is headed and what you can expect from me here moving forward.
The East Edit — Every Friday
So, what does all of this actually look like moving forward? Well, for starters, Fridays are becoming The East Edit. Every Friday, I’ll be sharing a collection of what I’m loving, noticing, wearing, reading, growing, bringing home, and really, whatever else has captured my attention that week.
Some weeks, The East Edit might revolve around one particular idea, like bringing the garden inside and all the ways I use flowers, herbs, and even tomato branches throughout our home. Other weeks, it might simply be a collection of things I’ve discovered along the way—a pair of shoes I’ve been wearing over and over again, a book I can’t put down, something new blooming in the garden, a beautiful product I’ve fallen in love with, somewhere we’ve traveled, or one of those little things that somehow makes everyday life feel a bit more special.
I want The East Edit to feel a little like sitting down with a friend at the end of the week and saying, Okay, here are all the things I have to tell you about. Nothing too serious, nothing too perfectly curated, just a weekly edit of the things that have caught my eye, captured my heart, or made life a little more beautiful lately.
The Sunday Bloom
And then there are Sundays, which I’ve decided are going to be for flowers—because, really, is there any better way to spend a Sunday?
As part of The Sunday Bloom, I’m going to start doing live flower-arranging videos where you can come hang out with me while I wander through the garden, gather whatever happens to be growing that week, bring it all inside, and figure out what in the world I’m going to create with it.
I really want these to feel relaxed and real. I’m not interested in producing some perfectly styled flower-arranging show where every stem magically falls into place on the first try, because that is absolutely not how I arrange flowers. There will be flowers bending in directions I don’t want them to go, stems that refuse to cooperate, and arrangements that I take apart and redo five times before finally deciding to leave them alone. That’s the fun of it.
While we arrange, I want to talk about what I’m growing, what I’m cutting from the garden, what has completely failed, what has surprised me, what I’m learning, and how I decide what goes together. More than anything, I want to show you that you don’t have to be a professional florist or have some enormous cutting garden to bring flowers into your home. Sometimes it’s a handful of herbs, a branch from the yard, or a few flowers tucked into an old pitcher. It doesn’t have to be complicated to bring an incredible amount of beauty and joy into your home.
Gardens Near and Far
Of all the ideas I have for The East Experience, this is probably the one that feels the most deeply rooted in me. I want to photograph gardens, and I want to keep photographing them for as long as I possibly can.
I want to visit gardens here in North Carolina, throughout the country, and eventually all over the world, wandering through them slowly with my camera and telling their stories through photographs and words. Of course, I want to experience the grand, famous gardens that people travel across the world to see, but I’m just as interested—maybe even more interested—in the little backyard garden that someone has lovingly tended for thirty years.
There is something so personal about a garden. You can learn so much about someone simply by walking through the space they’ve cared for—the flowers they chose, the plants they’ve allowed to wander, the little corners they’ve created, and even the things they’ve decided not to control. No two gardens are ever exactly alike because the person caring for them becomes part of the garden itself.
I want The East Experience to become a place where we get to discover those gardens together. Maybe you’ll find somewhere you want to visit, learn about a flower you’ve never grown, or simply find a little inspiration to walk outside and start creating a garden of your own.
And Then There’s Hospitality
This part of The East Experience has taken a little longer to reveal itself to me, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it makes perfect sense.
For more than a decade, so much of my professional life has revolved around creating an experience for another person. Owning The Tiny Spa has taught me that the smallest details are often the ones people remember most. It’s how a space smells when you first walk through the door, what you see when you enter, the way you’re greeted, how the lighting feels, whether someone has anticipated what you might need before you ever have to ask for it. It’s the difference between leaving somewhere thinking, Well, that was nice, and leaving already thinking about when you can come back.
I have spent years obsessing over those details, and now I want to take everything I’ve learned about guest experience and bring it into another world I love: travel and hospitality.
I’m developing an offering through The East Experience where I’ll stay at Airbnbs, VRBOs, inns, cottages, and other special properties and experience the stay from beginning to end—not only as a traveler, but through the eyes of someone who has spent years thinking about what makes another person feel welcomed, cared for, and remembered.
The idea is to create an in-depth evaluation of the entire guest experience, eventually looking at around 100 different touchpoints—from booking and communication to arrival, comfort, cleanliness, amenities, atmosphere, thoughtful details, and even the surrounding area. I want to tell owners what they’re already doing beautifully, because I think that matters just as much, while also showing them the places where a few thoughtful changes could completely transform the experience for their guests.
But, of course, I also want to bring the creative side of The East Experience into it because I couldn’t possibly go somewhere beautiful and not take photographs.
I picture myself arriving with my camera, gathering or bringing in flowers, creating little vignettes throughout the property, and photographing the space in a way that captures more than simply what the room looks like. I want the photographs to capture what it feels like to stay there—the morning light coming through the bedroom window, flowers sitting beside the bed, coffee on the porch, the old chair tucked into the corner that becomes your favorite place to read. Those photographs would then become something I can leave with the owner to help them tell the story of their property, while I also get to share some of these beautiful places and experiences here with you.
I don’t know exactly where this piece of The East Experience will lead yet, but I have a feeling it could become something really special.
And What About the Pottery?
Some of you who have been here for a while might remember that I was also working toward creating pottery. I had plans for a kiln, pieces I wanted to make, and this whole little world beginning to form in my head. But my kiln kept getting pushed further and further back on backorder, and after months of waiting, I started to wonder if maybe the delay was trying to tell me something.
There was just this feeling in my gut that perhaps this isn’t the season for pottery, and instead of fighting that feeling, I’ve decided to listen to it.
There is so much happening with The Tiny Spa right now, I’m raising a young child, I’m building The East Experience, and pottery requires a kind of uninterrupted time and focus that I simply don’t have much of in this season of my life. And surprisingly, I’m okay with putting it down for a little while.
I think we have this idea that if we stop doing something, we’ve failed at it or given it up, but I don’t believe that anymore. Maybe pottery belongs to another season of my life. Maybe I’ll come back to it when my son is older and life has slowed down a little. Maybe one day I’ll have a tiny pottery studio somewhere overlooking my garden and wonder why I ever felt like I needed to rush to get there.
Or maybe it will turn into something completely different. I really don’t know, and for once, I’m learning to be okay with that.
Maybe We Don’t Need to Figure It All Out
I think that might be the biggest thing I’m learning through all of this. We live in a world that is constantly telling us we need to define ourselves. Pick your niche, build your brand, create your aesthetic, be consistent, post more, grow faster, figure out what works and then do more of it. Meanwhile, we’re watching hundreds of other people doing the exact same thing, comparing ourselves to all of them, and wondering whether we’re doing any of it right.
It’s exhausting.
And maybe the answer isn’t another strategy or another rabbit hole or figuring out the exact formula someone else used to build their life. Maybe we need to stop looking sideways for a minute, get quiet, and pay attention to the things that keep calling us back no matter how many times we wander away from them.
For me, it’s flowers. It always seems to come back to flowers, doesn’t it?
It’s flowers and gardens and beautiful light. It’s walking around with my camera and noticing something everyone else walked right past. It’s stepping into a beautiful space and immediately noticing all the tiny details that make it feel special. It’s traveling somewhere new and wanting to know the story behind it. It’s bringing flowers inside, setting a table, creating an experience for someone, or finding a way to make something completely ordinary feel just a little more beautiful.
Maybe The East Experience doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.
So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to keep following those little threads, keep listening to what calls me back, and see where all of this takes me. I have a feeling I might still change my mind a hundred times along the way, and I’m finally starting to realize that maybe that’s okay, too.
I’m just really happy you’re here to come along with me.
xo,
Jamie
P.S.
In addition to The East Experience, I also founded and own The Tiny Spa, which I can’t believe has been part of my life for twelve years now! What started as a one-woman show has grown into a business that now supports a team of 12, which is still pretty wild for me to think about.
I’m still in the treatment room every Wednesday seeing many of the clients I’ve worked with for almost 20 years, and I also write our blog and lead the marketing and creative side of The Tiny Spa. It’s such a huge part of my life and, in so many ways, has shaped how I think about beauty, hospitality, and creating meaningful experiences for people.
If you feel inclined to take a peek into that part of my world, you can visit The Tiny Spa and read some of what I’ve shared over there. And if you ever find yourself in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, my team and I would absolutely love to welcome you in and treat you to a facial or massage experience.
