My dear blog readers,

On my blog I have chronicled many changes of my life, and you have followed me through all of them. Especially those who have been around since the beginning – Beth, Joanna, Matt. I’ve gone from a college student, to a college grad. I’ve gone from single, to engaged, to single again, to engaged again, and then finally to married! I’ve gone from pet-less to having a fish, to having two cats, to having a dog, to not having a dog, to having a dog again (for the last time), and now dog-less. I’ve gone from a dorm, to a college apartment, to my own apartment, to a townhouse, and now back to an apartment. I’ve gone from Indiana, to Orlando, and now to Atlanta. I’ve gone from childless to- haha, I’m still childless, gotcha. ;-) I’ve gone from a part-time job at our college, to a temporary full-time position, to a full-time salaried job.

And now, I enter a new phase of my life.

Many of you already know this, but last September I stopped working at my job as a full-time graphic designer at an advertising agency and am now pursuing freelance work at home. Paul and I had been debating about this for a long time, and God finally made it very clear to us that this was the road He wanted me to take. The goal is to build up my business, continue paying off our loans, and hopefully when we have children I’ll be able to bring in some income without having to spend a lot of time marketing myself. (Our home IS my main priority, but I don’t ever want to stop designing.)

One of the reasons I wanted to work from home is so I could focus a bit more on being helpmate to my husband. By being home, I can work harder to decrease our living costs and keep a handle on the housework and cooking so Paul can relax when he gets home. (I plan to go into this a little more in-depth later, about my views on gender roles and how that has impacted our choices.) Since we don’t have children (yet!), I don’t really NEED all-day-every-day to do housework and cook. And, since we do still have financial needs, I am going to work from home doing graphic design! I am very blessed to have a career that makes this possible. I am also excited about the flexibility this affords me – if it doesn’t work out and I need to go get another job, I can. And, I am able to work as little as I want – so for now, I can work more, and then in the future when we have kids I can work less.

These past few weeks I have been working on getting my website together – I decided to name my business “twentysixcats design”. You can check out my website here, including my newly updated portfolio! So if you were familiar with my last portfolio, you should go check out this one and see what new pieces I’ve done. If you know anyone who is in need of a designer, send them my way! And if I’ve done design work for you, send me a few sentences for my “testimonials” page!

You may notice the focus of my blog shifting a bit. I will be putting more emphasis on frugality and home-y things, more recipes and the like. I will probably talk a bit more about my design work. Of course, I’ll still be the same Ashley, that crazy girl who loves cats so much she named her blog after them. So thanks for reading, and please continue to stop by!