Changes Are Coming....

This is a long post, so I hope you’ll stick with me! I have been talking about re-doing my website (due to be up and running around the first week in May) and some changes to my business. I wanted to share some details with you along the way. Some of the changes you've already seen- like the decision to turn our popular newsletter into an online magazine format, and the publication of our very first e-book (coming soon, very soon!)

But I will also say that the decision to make these changes wasn’t super easy. Change is scary, especially if what you’re doing is OK. Because what if your new ideas flop and you wish you had just stuck with what you were doing before??  But if you want to be more than just OK, you have to take some risks. You have to get out of the boat if you’re going to walk on water, as they say…..

There are several reasons why I am re-doing my blog and website: I want my site to be well-organized and easy to navigate. I want it to be easy for you to find all of the projects and recipes that we’ve shared here.  And I want it to be pretty. The blog & website have had the same look for five years now, and it’s really time for a change!

If you have been following my blog for a little while, you know that I have already been sharing not just sewing & quilting ideas, but also lots of recipes and craft and decorating projects, too. But in getting some objective, outside opinions, I discovered that my current blog appears to be, at first glance, a quilting blog only. Also, it also doesn't showcase my artwork at all- and that is a really large part of who I am and what I do.

So the new blog and website will feature not just the quilting and sewing projects that many of you expect to find here, but much more. I hope you will like it! My goal is to reach out to a larger audience than those looking just for quilting blogs. I believe we are all creative and I believe that we all like to express our creativity in different ways. If you have visited this blog, chances are you are interested in at least some of the “home arts,” such as cooking, sewing, crafting, entertaining, gardening, decorating….. I believe that home is the best place to express our creativity. I would like this to be a place where we can inspire each other and learn from each other in all of these creative areas.

Now….. my business name. I became “The Noble Wife” sort of by accident. I had been making wool pins to benefit charity. I thought that since the pins were made of wool, it would be cool to donate the profits to a charity that provides sheep to poor families so they can start a business. I was reading Proverbs 31 in the Bible one day and came across this verse:

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.

She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.

She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. (vs 10, 13 & 21)

I thought that was the perfect name for the pins. Then I started designing quilt patterns, and just carried over the name. However, the artwork that I do is under my name, Jacquelynne Steves. It seemed to be a little confusing that people had to remember not one, but two names for me! 

So, to simplify things, I have decided to change my business name to Jacquelynne Steves. It makes sense because I will probably always be Jacquelynne Steves, so no matter what I decide to do, the name will always fit. (Like, someday if I decide to open a car repair shop, I can just call it “Jacquelynne Steves’ Garage” and that will work! “The Noble Wife Garage” doesn’t seem to work as well, ha ha.)

My web address will be JacquelynneSteves.com. (However, TheNobleWife.com will still also work- it will be directed to my new website as well.)

Since I am going with Jacquelynne Steves for my business name, I wanted a tag line which was really descriptive of my business and what I’m about. We talked about so many! We spent days and weeks jotting down ideas (this was probably the point which drove my family the most crazy.) I went through a stack of index cards, writing down possibilities on each one and then looking at all of them and trying to decide on the best one. In the end, I decided on one that I just love and think works perfectly:

It’s perfect because the “art” refers not only to the artwork that I do, but also the art of being a home maker and being creative in your home and with your family.

So those are just some of the changes I have been working on over the last several months. (The products that I offer will change a little too, but I’ll talk about that later.) In the next weeks and months, I’ll show you more of the changes I’m making. I hope you will come along on this little adventure with me!

I’m really excited- it’s really good to shake things up once in a while and take a risk! It’s so easy to just get stuck in a rut. I firmly believe in the law of momentum- 

an object at rest tends to stay at rest, but an object in motion tends to stay in motion…..

So now…. Let me challenge you a bit. What in your life needs a little shaking up? It doesn't have to be major- it can be as simple as trying a new recipe or wearing red lipstick if you always wear pink. Or maybe it’s really big- starting a new business or having a baby or walking away from a job or relationship that is really not good for you anymore. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can share what you’d like to “shake up” in your comments below. If you’re not comfortable giving the details, then maybe just tell us that you've made the decision to start shaking things up today!

P.S. Some of my social media addresses have changed- Please click here for my new Twitter address, and click here for my new Instagram address.
Facebook would not let me change my page name.... sooooo.... find my brand new Facebook page here. (This new page will take the place of my old page.)