the new home of lavish boudoir
I am a perfectionist and have been since I was a toddler. Yup, I was a toddler who refused to walk solo and risk falling/failing. I’d nonchalantly hold my mom’s hand even though she knew I was doing it on my own. For 40+ years, I have had the mindset that if I can’t do it perfectly, it’s not worth doing at all.
Here’s the kicker… I’m a perfectionist with ADHD and an impulsive streak. Ha. Talk about getting myself in over my head. I decided that 2026 was going to be the year I stopped expecting perfection from myself. I would be okay with doing things well, and sometimes trying things that I knew I might be terrible at. So far, God’s been throwing all kinds of challenges at me to test this.
“Perfectionism is procrastination dressed in a tuxedo.”
That was a quote I heard from Donald Miller at a photography seminar almost exactly 2 years ago. That was “the year.” I was going to throw myself into Lavish and give it the attention and passion it needed to be right back where I was at my peak in another state. Shockingly, there’s no short cut when you have to build again in a different market. So while I said “open for bookings,” my heart wasn’t really into it because I couldn’t bear the humbling experience of starting again. When I had clients book, I knew exactly what to do. Connection and photography is the easy part for me. But I wasn’t out there building the foundation.
At one of those photoshoots in 2025, I hired a lovely makeup artist Shyanne of Shy Beauty. She and her team were leaving a space available at a cute little boutique in Southern Maryland. And I did nothing about it. I was too afraid of failure.
A lot of you will have read the email from 2025. The closing it down email. It felt terrible and I said that I reserved the right the change my mind. It took about 3 months to feel like I was missing a core part of me when I couldn’t create these experiences for women.
Flash forward to this fall. An event took me to the Shops at Parker’s Creek. After a series of coincidences, the owner, Shelly, came to me and said, “You mentioned that you didn’t like working from home. Are you looking for a studio? We have a space available that might be perfect for you.” I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. The night before, I told CJ, “I need a studio. I can’t work from home. But nothing is the right fit. Maybe it’s just not meant to be.” When I told this to Shelly, she got goosebumps and I knew it was going to happen. But I reined in my impulsive ADD side and said I wanted to make sure it worked well for boudoir.
Pulling up to the space again… I realized just how much her barn looks like the old Victorian home where Lavish Boudoir was born. Same blue paint with white trim (even though the colors look different here). Same overflowing crepe myrtles. Same time-worn quirks that come with a home that age. It felt like a sign that it’s okay to get back to where I was in 2010, starting again… but this time with the life experience to tell me it’s okay to grow slowly, to serve with my whole heart and to trust that it’s where I’m meant to be.
Welcome to the new home of Lavish Boudoir… it’s been waiting for you.
PS: I did a test shoot with a friend to make sure it worked well and wowza. I cannot wait to share the photos. But she gets to see them first.