Welcome to Creatively Bonded!
We are two sisters, with two young families, two full-time careers in the life sciences, and too little time left over to freely create as we once did.
We are at a point in our lives where the clock and many other competing priorities often take precedent over our passions and hobbies and frankly, even the simplest projects we’d like to finish. In our world, being busy isn’t just an excuse for why we can’t conquer projects around our homes or manage daily life with ease. And we know there are millions of women out there in the same position.
We started Creatively Bonded because we needed an outlet to channel our creative energy back into our everyday lives. But more so, we want to help inspire and empower others to achieve their goals—big and small. Our mission is to reignite the spark deep within time-strapped home and entertaining enthusiasts and empower them to pursue their passion projects. We believe that time should never be a barrier to achieving your dreams.
Through documenting our own journeys, we strive to inspire and guide others, showing them that with determination, strategic planning, and a little creativity, they too can accomplish remarkable things within the constraints and busyness of daily life.
For these reasons, this blog is meant to be more than pretty pictures. Pretty pictures without the “how” aren’t helpful. That’s why our overall approach is to detail the process and thinking behind our projects. Why was the project important to us? What steps did we take? What worked and what didn’t? What would we do differently next time? How long did it take and how much did it cost? What were the key decision points and what factors did we consider along the way? Most importantly, what did we discover about ourselves?
Creatively Bonded is like a reality TV show in a blog format. We’ll show you the great, good, ugly, and embarrassing. This is our reality, and we want to show you all of it.
To be creative means so much more than having a good eye. It’s about constantly asking “What if?” It’s about trying new things, mixing, matching, and rearranging to get different results. Imaginative creative thinking has a huge impact in our lives, helping us be more productive and efficient. The name of our blog reflects our passion to infuse creativity into all things home—from large scale renovations to easy ways to elevate every day, to the systems that maintain our households.
We’ll share our lives with you through projects around our homes, decorating challenges, easy but elevated entertaining ideas, and DIY endeavors. To help reduce the overwhelm of gift giving (and avoid defaulting to the uninspired gift card), you can search through our curated gift guides to find something unique and thoughtful for everyone on your list.
We invite you to join us if you too also desire to be more creative. We can’t wait to learn and grow along with the Creatively Bonded community.
Thank you for visiting and please take a moment to follow us on Instagram or join our mailing list so you’ll be the first to hear when new blog posts drop. We can’t wait to hear from you!
About Jackie
Starting a blog was Nicci’s idea. I enjoy writing and my background in digital marketing would be helpful, but the realist in me wouldn’t allow me to seriously consider the idea. I just didn’t see how I could fit anything else into my life. I was having our second son at age 43, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our older son was just finishing virtual kindergarten. The pressure at work had increased as clients needed to accelerate their digital promotion and hiring was difficult. I was barely surviving between homeschooling, working, and trying to maintain my sanity.
But Nicci was persistent. And as the days rolled on, and I lost more and more of myself in my daily routine, I started to wonder if starting a blog was exactly what I needed to regain some control. It would keep me accountable to my projects around the house, which is a hug passion of mine, but for which I was making no time for. The more I thought about it, the more determined I became to get back to my passions, if only for 10 minutes here and there. In the end, I figured the time would add up and at some point, I’d start to see progress and start finishing some of the projects I’d been dreaming about.
On the surface, the endeavor would awaken my creative passions which was a good thing. I also knew success would require me to be creative in other ways given my current lifestyle. I’d have to get more creative with my time, planning, and systems to make space for tackling my projects and the blog.
With the purchase of our forever home in 2015, I realized I was stumped on how to decorate and style the house. I have always been artistic. Before kids and increased responsibilities at work and home, I used to spend a lot of time being creative. I used to enjoy painting, crafting, drawing, writing, and sewing. As I looked around our dated home, I became frustrated because despite having several creative hobbies, zero effort had been applied beyond unpacking. It was a mismatch of hand-me-downs and original 1957 features, some of which worked and some of which did not. The house has great potential. I just didn’t know how to modernize it. So began my love for decorating and my journey to educate myself as much as possible on the principles of good design. I read books, listened to podcasts, started surfing through Pinterest and blogs, and experimenting.
With the house and a growing family, I also became obsessed with decluttering, organizing, and efficiency. I realized clutter not only stood in the way of a beautiful home, but it had reached a level where I was stressed out about it. I found I’m naturally good at organization and cleaning, but finding the time to keep up with the house and stuff with a full-time job was becoming increasingly difficult. So, this is another area I began to research. I became equally obsessed with podcasts about how to deal with overwhelm and decluttering. I researched productivity experts and methods that could help me both at home and in my career.
This blog represents all I have learned to date and how I’ve put my personal touch on our home. Although I’ve made progress and I’m happy with the changes, a lot of work remains. As for being productive and organized, that is highly subjective. Broadly speaking, many of the techniques I’ve tried don’t work for me based on my phase of life. In fact, some are laughable. But I’ve pulled a little from here and there to help shape my habits. I’ve decluttered a ton over the last few years and things are more organized. To an outsider, it might appear that I have things under control. However, most days I still live with a feeling of overwhelm and it’s a constant struggle to keep up and make time for myself.
I must constantly remind myself to enjoy the process. The blog—just like me—is a work in progress. I really appreciate you stopping by and spending time with us. My hope is we have inspired and helped you on your own journey.
Gratefully,
Jackie