Welcome to another edition of my Weekly Journal! If you're new to grace + hudson, I use this space to share about my journey from lawyer to jewelry business owner. In this week's journal entry, I am going off the usual topics and instead answering a question I get a lot: what's the meaning behind the name "grace + hudson?" No, they are not my kids' names nor my dogs. Although I must admit... I sometimes think about getting two dogs and naming them Grace and Hudson. 

When I was thinking of starting this business, I knew right off the bat that I would not name it "Stacy Mikulik Designs" or something else using my personal name. I just can't stand that. I think it's appropriate for some people - like real life artists who paint or sculpt - to brand their work with their personal names but I just don't like it when jewelry designers do that for some reason. I wanted something way more creative. And while I show my face a lot on social media and talk about my story of going from lawyer to jewelry designer, I didn't want my company, my brand to be named after me. I wanted it to be a living, breathing thing that can stand all alone on its own (p.s. anyone who's owned a business can tell you that a new business does feel like a living, breathing newborn baby at times!). In other words, I wanted it to have its own identity. 

"Grace" came to mind because it is my favorite word. I love the sound of it, the ease of it, the elegance of it, the beauty of it. It's just a lovely word in my opinion. And then, when you dive down deep and discover the meaning and definition of it, whoa - I'm just blown away. The Oxford Dictionary defines "grace" as "simple elegance or refinement of movement." You know, something like, "She gracefully walked into the theater..." It also defines "grace" as "courteous goodwill." Other definitions for grace are "a short prayer at a meal" and "pleasant and polite behavior (social graces)" - per Webster's Dictionary. And we haven't even gotten to the Bible yet! The Bible has grace written all over it. In religion, grace is generally thought of as the help and kindness that is freely given by God to all humans. Wikipedia defines grace as this (ok, I know, I know, Wikipedia is not a religious source but I kind of like the way they've summed up grace and I'm trying to make this accessible to all and not just Bible readers):   

Help given to one by God because God desires one to have it, not necessarily because of anything one has done to earn it. It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to people – generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved – that takes the form of divine favor...

Ah, grace is a beautiful thing. We also see grace show up a lot in our relationships, right? In our relationship to ourself (giving ourselves grace when we mess up), in our romantic relationship (by extending unconditional love and giving him or her the benefit of the doubt), and in our family relationships (choosing to be loving when the other person doesn't necessarily deserve it). And surely grace is present in our friendships and co-worker relationships too. 

So you see, grace is a beautiful word with deep meaning! Now, I just needed a word to go with it. I played with a lot of different combinations but I eventually landed on "hudson." I once lived on a Hudson Street and that's how it came to mind. Once I thought of the combination, I couldn't let it go. "Grace and Hudson" just seemed elegant enough to represent bridal jewelry but not so elegant to be too formal or stuffy. I also knew that I'd be selling giftable jewelry that wouldn't necessarily be used for a wedding 100 percent of the time (although that's my main market) so I didn't want to include the word "bridal" or "wedding" somewhere in the name. 

Then, to make it a little different, I added a "+" sign instead of writing out the word "and" or using "&" and I also lowercased the "g" and "h." Truthfully, I just like the way the "g" and "h" look as lowercase letters. They aren't as pretty capitalized! And there you have it, the name of my company was born!

If you'd like my Weekly Journal sent straight to your inbox every week, click here to subscribe. I hope you're able to learn something valuable from my business journey and my experiences!

P.S. Are you on Pinterest? I created a Weekly Journal board so you can easily navigate all of my journal entries. You can view and follow the board by clicking here. I've written so much about quitting my lawyer job to start g+h and I want to make it easier for you to access and read the entries that resonate most!

xoxo,

Stacy