I recently took a personality test. I’m an INTJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging). It turns out women that are INTJ’s form just 0.8% of the population. As I read through all the adjectives ascribed to an INTJ, a lot of it made sense. Architects, as INTJ’s are often referred, are thoughtful tacticians that love perfecting the details of life, applying creativity and rationality to everything they do. They are imaginative, decisive, ambitious, private, and amazingly curious. They also love coffee, podcasts, politics, travel and Mexican Martinis…at least that’s what I read as I was researching. Insert winking emoji here.

As a kid, I would help my mom decorate other people’s homes for Christmas. She was an interior designer, with an impeccable eye. I learned to make bows and hang ornaments deliberately, creating the perfect Christmas tree. I’m not sure if I loved it then, but she paid me well and now, they are lessons and memories I cherish. As an adult, I don’t have the kind of eye for interior design that my mom does. I can visualize. I see patterns and colors and furniture all fitting into the space, but putting it together tactically takes a certain confidence I haven’t mastered. Put a camera in my hands though, and I can connect the dots. My architect brain jumped head first into photography after my kiddos were born, and after thousands of hours spent educating myself and practicing, I can confidently say that what my mom can envision when she scans the room of home, I have the ability to envision through the viewfinder of my camera.

After tucking my camera away for a number of years (yes, years…a story for another day!), 2022 left me lost and in tears, trying to explain to my husband this nagging feeling of being without purpose. I couldn’t pin point the missing link, but I was searching desperately to fix it. And so, The Kitchen Sink Project was born. Out of the desire to explore this feeling, and to grow from it. To give myself permission to dive into what makes me tick, and let go of what doesn’t. A creative space, without limits, full of possibility. I don’t yet know where this journey will take me. I don’t have an end point in mind. I just wanted the freedom to throw anything and everything up against the wall to see what sticks. If you’re here to follow along, welcome. If you’re here to look at the pretty pictures, I thank you. If you ever want to chat, I’m here for you. Let’s do this!

- xoxo, Jaime, The Architect