Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my dear Grandma, who was an artist. Naturally, she provided me with an endless supply of drawing pads and utensils, and she loved sharing her love and knowledge of calligraphy and lettering styles with me. In her young career days, she had been responsible for decorating the displays and windows at the big stores like Loewenstein's and Bry's in downtown Memphis while the men who normally held those jobs were away at war. Her bookshelves were overflowing with old art textbooks and lettering manuals, and I pored over them endlessly, fascinated with the slight nuances as well as the enormous varieties in all the lettering designs. Whenever I had an artistic project to complete for school, I always knew to take it over to her house to work on, because she would sit right beside me the whole time, chatting with me about anything and everything, sharing stories and laughter, and offering her seasoned artistic insight as I worked.

In time I graduated from Ouachita Baptist University with a B.A. in mass communications and a minor in art. However, once I started getting some work experience in public relations and marketing, I realized that I was especially tapped to use my artistic skills again and again. Along the way, I was always surprised that people liked my work as much as they did -- it had always been so second-nature to me, such a natural part of who I was, that I had really never given it much thought, aside from choosing it as my minor (mostly because I really enjoyed it).

Later on I went to Louisville to study Christian education with an emphasis in women's ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I was three classes from graduating with my M.A. when I delivered identical twin girls nearly 11 weeks early! Of course my days have been full ever since. When my girls were about two years old, in an attempt to bring in some side income while staying home with them, I took some samples of my lettering work up to a stationery store to see about getting some business addressing envelopes. I was thrilled that they loved my lettering styles, and later that afternoon, they called me with my first assignment: a wedding map. I finished that map in November that year, and I have stayed busy with a constant stream of projects ever since! What an exciting adventure it has been, and what a blessing!

My Grandma passed away in February 2013. I miss her so much every day, and I wish she knew about Pearl & Rose Designs. I wish I could take my projects over to her house to work on and get her input on, but thankfully I feel like she did such a good job over the years of sharing her talents with me that I can almost hear her voice in my head as I work! ;) And most of all, I'm thankful she was able to get to know the real-life Pearl and Rose, my twin daughters. (Pearl and Rose are their middle names!) I hope you enjoy my work here, and if there's something you would like to see that I'm not currently offering, just let me know! Thank you so much.