The Sparkly Feeling

There’s a specific feeling I get sometimes when I’m in the middle of a design and everything is just clicking.

Not “oh this is going well”…not “yes everything is running smoothly”…CLICKING. Like every decision I make lands exactly where it’s supposed to and I’m not second guessing anything and time is doing that thing where it moves differently and I look up and somehow two hours went by and I didn’t notice.

I called it sparkly once when I was trying to describe the Chobani event and I’m keeping that word because it’s the most accurate one I have. Everything I touched felt like “FKN yes.” Every stem, every piece of fruit, every vanilla bean cluster, every loop of garland. Not one second of doubt. Just full locked-in confidence in every single decision.

That feeling is what I’m always chasing. And when I get it I try to pay attention to what’s making it happen.

What it actually feels like from the inside

It’s not excitement exactly. Excitement has a nervousness underneath it. This is calmer than that.

It’s more like certainty. Like I already know how this is going to turn out and my hands are just catching up to what my brain already sees. The design exists fully formed somewhere ahead of me and I’m just moving toward it.

My ADHD brain is usually running a hundred tabs at once. When I’m in flow all of those tabs close except one. The work. Everything else goes quiet and I’m just in it completely. It’s honestly one of the only times my brain feels genuinely still.

I notice things in that state that I don’t notice otherwise. The way one stem wants to lean a specific direction. The exact moment a color combination shifts from just good to completely right. The detail that isn’t in the brief but needs to be there and I can feel it instinctively.

That’s when the mushrooms screaming situation happened. We were building the moss mounds for the witchy forest wedding and my assistant and I just started screaming at each other because the mushrooms were so right. That level of unhinged excitement over a tiny detail is only possible when you’re fully in it. When you’re distracted or stressed or just going through the motions you don’t scream about mushrooms. You just finish the job.

The conditions that create it

I’ve started paying attention to when it shows up and when it doesn’t because I want more of it.

Creative freedom is the biggest one. When a client gives me real latitude to design for who they actually are instead of executing a brief I didn’t build, something opens up. The Chobani event was the clearest example of this. They came to me and said you have the ideas we don’t, go make something happen for us. And I did and every single decision felt like a full yes.

Aligned energy matters too. When I’m working with clients who trust me, who are excited about what we’re building, who bring good energy into the process, that transfers into the work. I genuinely believe the energy in the space where something gets made flows into the thing itself. The arrangements that come out of a high-trust high-excitement process carry something different. Your guests feel it, the vendors feel it, you feel it… it’s all a vibe.

The Kansas distaster day had sparkly energy too, weirdly. My entire order was in the wrong state, I was driving across the Valley making calls, and I was completely on fire. Not stressed. Locked in. Every wholesaler I called was a new angle, every drive was a new solution, every pivot was another thread to pull. That’s the ADHD brain doing what it’s actually built for. High stakes, fast moving, no room for anything except the next move. I thrive in that. I always have.

When it’s not there

I want to be honest about this part too because pretending it’s always sparkly would be a lie.

There are events where the energy is just different from the start. The client is going through the motions. The brief is rigid and leaves no room for any creative input. The vibe in the consultation was flat and it never really recovered.

I still show up fully. I still do the work with care. But it doesn’t feel the same from the inside and I think, if I’m being honest, it probably shows up differently in the work too. Not in a way most people would notice. But I notice.

The Sedona wedding was like that. A bride who said oh when I handed her the bouquet and I spiraled for a little while before the planner confirmed she loved it and that’s just how she is. The work was good. The arch was one of my favorites. But the sparkly feeling wasn’t there the same way and I’ve thought about why.

I think it’s because design is a conversation. And when the other person in the conversation isn’t that engaged, you’re kind of talking to yourself. Which you can do. But it’s not the same as when both sides are fully in it.

What I’m actually building toward

Every client. Every event. Every single time.

I want the sparkly feeling. Not for me, although honestly yes also for me, but because when I’m in that state the work is different. Better. More alive. The details that make people stop and actually look, the combinations that shouldn’t work but completely do, the tiny perfect moment that nobody planned for but everyone remembers, those come from that state.

That’s why I’m selective about who I work with. Not picky in a snobby way, just self-aware. The clients who bring that collaborative excited trusting energy get a version of my work that the resistant distracted checked-out clients don’t. And I want every client to get the best version.

So when I’m on a consultation call and I start feeling that early hum of yes, this is going to be a good one, I pay attention to that. The universe tends to be right about these things.

And when I’m in the middle of a design and everything is clicking and my hands are moving faster than my brain can narrate and I look up and somehow it’s two hours later?

That’s why I do this, to be in that flow state and create insanely beautiful art.

If you want to work with someone who is fully invested in making something extraordinary, not just executing a checklist, let’s talk. I’d love to find out if we’re the right fit.

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