When I was in college, I had so many dreams. I was working my way through basics at a local junior college when I fell in love with photography and graphic design in some intro classes. I spontaneously started a freelance "business", Bambie Designs and Photography. I figured out pretty quick that I wanted to pursue those two loves as a career. 

But, as often happens in life, plans were thwarted, and when I graduated from junior college, the local university didn't have photography OR graphic design programs. I was stuck. I chose to study English and teaching due to a lack of options. All the while, I kept up my photography business while working a part-time job. I had all but abandoned the design portion of Bambie, and even dropped it from my business name. 

Then school soon became crazy overwhelming. I stuck with Bambie until things got so heavy that I was only able to do shoots once or twice every month; naturally business began to slack, and it never quite recovered. When I got engaged, I was planning a wedding on top of finishing my last year of college, student teaching, preparing to get my first teaching job, AND prepping my move to another state. I graduated with a BA in English in 2014, and one month later moved to Louisiana where I was hired to teach middle school ELA. 

I soon found, however, that teaching wasn't for me. (I now have PTSD from the whole ordeal, not even kidding.) There was no extra time or energy to even sit down and watch TV with my hubby, much less try to carry on what was left of Bambie Pho when I now had zero clientele and even more competition than before. So I didn't. Until I lost my job. 

That's right, I didn't even make it to my second year of teaching. I believe that qualifies for the label of "epic fail", if that's still a thing. 

When fall of 2015 was closing in, I still hadn't found my golden ticket off the unemployment line, so between dead-end interviews and job searches, I began to brainstorm ways I could work Bambie back into my life. I was depressed and anxious, and everything I touched lately turned to crap, so it took me awhile to get serious about doing it. I decided, however, that photography wasn't the way to go this time. So one day I plopped down in front of the computer, turned on some music, pulled up my updated Photoshop, and churned out some designs. 

I then attempted selling them on Facebook. Buust. Soon I got a real job (not teaching), and the need wasn't so urgent. It could be fun now! So I churned out MORE designs, and experienced MORE failure. Not so fun. But I kept creating. My sister-in-law saw my work, and said I should try my luck at Etsy. I studied up, and "Bambiefied" was born: the lovechild of failure and the desire to create and share. 

Sadly, Bambiefied turned out to be no more successful than its predecessors. After a year, I saw the writing on the wall and put my shop on a permanent vacation. But I knew one day I'd like to revisit it, and that day came after the successful launch of my first book. I'd made a place for myself in the #bookstagram community on Instagram, and realized the market there for fandom and book swag. Were my geekiest loves merging onto one path?

Short answer: Yes

I have no idea where this will go, if anywhere. But that won't stop me from trying. ;)