Blog Post Title One

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Seedlings

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

A Garden Life

We moved to Burlington, North Carolina ten years ago. The yard of the midcentury ranch house we purchased was a blank slate with only two trees in an expansive front yard to begin a methodical garden layout design. I have a propensity to procrastinate with creative challenges, in part because I know what quality looks like. Gardening and horticulture served as an escape where I could play without regard to doing things the “right” or “wrong” way. I would simply create landscape feature, or a plant bed, and then interact with it over the following seasons, watch how the plants fizzled or flourished, observed what worked and what didn’t, and then revise the design according to what might improve it functionally or aesthetically; usually both.

I found this process so enjoyable that I realized that I could create an evironment that entirely reflects my aesthetic preferences; that changes or remains the same through each season, that has cycles of color or consistent color, and that is alive and has an innate growth potential that eventually alters the microclimate and the flora and fauna that will inhabit it.

Welcome to Expanding Eden

This site has been a long time coming. You’ll find a number of the projects I’ve been privileged to work on the past three years, many of which are in support of my own city of Burlington, the Town of Elon, and Alamance County government.

I’ve worked on many kinds of projects over my twenty year design career. But when I started Expanding Eden in the summer 0f 2022, three years ago today, my goal for my new design studio was to serve men and women who are building communities. In our info-saturated age, it’s easy to lose our sense of place and find ourselves alone and separated from others. I’m always interested in considering a new type of project, but after working on national projects for many years, I’ve found it refreshing to help transform the region I live. I’m currently focused on work to support municipalities, whether a small town or a bustling city, local county government, small businesses, and non-profits, and environmental advocacy groups — especially those in North Carolina and nearby states where I can be physically present enough to know the people, the culture, and the environment.