Snow White

Well folks, I can’t deny how fitting it is that Launch Day would fall on the most epic of all snow days (the last one I can recall was sophomore year of college when I had to fight through waist deep snow to relocate my Nissan to the opposite side of campus, 0/10 would not recommend). A impressive snow storm has been going strong all night and has plans to stick around until late in the evening. It is not by coincidence that on a day such as this, Seven and I are together, hunkered down in our favorite place. Home.

That, and whenever my Capricorn Seven is involved you can count on a good amount of snow.

I assigned today “Launch Day” but I feel like it is more appropriate to say it is simply a day of acknowledgement, a recognition of growth. The past three years has handed our family, and frankly everyone, a fair amount of moments we’ll call “learning opportunities”. I think as a collective we can agree our world was turned on its head and shaken, vigorously. I would like to think that I have used these moments wisely, leveled up and gotten crystal clear on what it is I am here to do. That may still be up for debate but hey, let’s seize the moment and leave no regrets.

I began a career in 2019 that I am obsessed with like deeply, and truly pinch myself that this is actually my job! and it has led me down a rabbit hole. I have rather unintentionally cultivated a trail alongside my work within the historic preservation industry that I hope continues to be evident for years to come.

Fast forward to today and it is evident that out of one seed grew two arms. Two limbs, equally important and dependent on each other. But as we all know, to reach our furthest wingspan, those two limbs bust stretch opposite. Today is the day that I embrace that separation and BlackHouse Seven stands on its own.

@BlackHouseSeven was created on social media. Intended to be a space for the unpolished glimpse of my day to day. I was a new designer navigating a world that I had no formal training in, only a desire to further support preservation. My design eye, I thought, could help old home stewards view their spaces in exciting ways, in ways that would incorporate original details and give them a chance to survive. My work as Founder and Principal Designer of Leslie Tyler Design is chaotic and messy, finding the humor and the laughter in the teachable moments as I navigate my role as a business owner and life as a single momma.

In each space I inhabit my only desire is to continue to be open, receptive to something new. I have learned through my design work that there is beauty in the mess, and value in sharing that. My ask is that you join me, that you buckle up alongside me and bear witness to the journey of a lifetime. A journey of learning and sharing of the beauty held in the darkness, the untold stories heard in the voices, in the whispers of the past.

BlackHouse Seven in short, are my two loves…

“My BlackHouse, my home whose soul I embrace in totality, the wholeness of its creation and the faithful stewards of its past, and my Seven, my steadfast and committed love for the legacy I will leave to tomorrow”

Cheers to reaching far and wide!