Notes from the... Chair?

A note on what’s next for dovetail...

I’m writing this from a rocking chair, my almost six-month-old asleep across my chest.

I know, clarity and creativity aren’t words people usually associate with postpartum. But here I am - seeing more clearly than I ever have - what truly matters, and what I want to build.

If you’ve been following along in any capacity, you know that the past few years have been anything but linear for me.

I’ve built brands. I’ve hosted gatherings. I’ve dreamed up spaces menus, and workshops. I’ve poured my heart into helping others tell their stories - sometimes so much that I forgot my own.

And then life shifted. Everything sharpened. The way I see time, meaning, the legacy I want to create - it’s all much more simple now, but deeper.

Motherhood didn’t slow me down. It stripped things back. It made it impossible to pretend that more is always better. I no longer have the time - or the desire - to pour energy into anything that doesn’t feel true. What I build now has to matter. It has to nourish - me, my family, my community.

Enter : Dovetail Together.

A studio, a workshop, a table - all offering a different kind of nourishment.

This isn’t a rebrand. It’s me - bringing together everything I’ve ever loved, everything I’ve made, everything I’ve learned from this beautiful, messy, non-linear path. And letting it all live, finally, under one roof.

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Where I’ve Been (take a seat and buckle up)

For over fifteen years, I’ve worked at the intersection of design, food, story, and place.

→ I’ve helped founders, creatives, and hosts build brands that feel like them - layered, intentional, full of life.

→ I’ve designed experiences that invite people to linger - at a table, in a space, with each other.

→ I’ve cooked meals with the intention to create connection, spark memory, and nourish community.

For 15 years I’ve been at the helm of a brand design and strategy studio I’m proud of. I’ve loved that work. But over time, the landscape changed - suddenly, it feels like everyone with Canva was calling themselves a “brand strategist.” And while I’m all for democratizing creativity, I started craving the kind of work that can’t be templated. The kind that asks for intuition, care, and lived experience.

In 2021, I started Dovetail Gatherings — a passion project at the intersection of design and food. My love letter to sustenance, ritual, design, and story. I dreamed of a coffee table book: part cookbook, part lifestyle journal, part tribute to the art of gathering. But I quickly learned what it takes to break into publishing without a massive platform. So I created a digital home for sharing menus, rituals, seasonal reflections - all shot on film, all from the heart. It’s been an expensive, beautiful, imperfect journey.

At home, my husband and I live and breathe hospitality. Food and wine are our shared language - our house runs on weekly menus, house cocktails, fresh bread, small rituals that turn the ordinary into something magical. When we step into a new space - a restaurant, a bar, a boutique hotel - we go quiet. He notices the operations, I feel the experience. Our favorite work has always been where we get to build those spaces together. That’s what sparked our long term dream of consulting as a pair - merging brand, experience, and operations for lifestyle and hospitality spaces. Is there also a B&B pipe dream, yes.

Through it all, I was living life’s biggest chapters - taking on client work, navigating loss, traveling out of state for IVF treatments, and holding onto the vision of our family.

And then: cue baby.

On New Year’s Eve, we met our son.

After a long, winding road marked by patience, loss, trust, and surrender, motherhood arrived as the most humbling and clarifying chapter of my life.

I no longer want to keep parts of myself in separate boxes. I no longer have the capacity (or the desire) to build anything that feels fragmented. What I create now has to nourish. It has to matter. It has to align.

Postpartum was messy. Foggy. Full of surrender. But in the quiet - in the stillness of holding him close - something clicked. I didn’t lose my creativity. I found my why.

In those early hazy months, small sparks started to flicker: late-night notes on my phone, sketches in the margins, ideas that felt more aligned than anything I’d dreamed up before. And then, as the weeks passed, the floodgates started to open…

I started seeing Elements in a new light. I’d always believed in the workshop - I designed it for founders who were tired of stale questions about “mission, vision, values,” who craved a deeper, truer starting point. But somewhere between sleepless nights and the quiet of rocking a baby, I saw what I’d missed: Elements wasn’t meant to stay small. It wasn’t meant to live 1:1. It was meant to be shared - immersive, in-person, for founders and creatives ready to root their brands in something embodied and real.

By four months postpartum, I assumed I’d be rusty - foggy, out of practice - but I was on fire. Late at night, my husband had to remind me to sleep - I was up late sketching out hospitality concepts for abandoned buildings - flexing muscles I didn’t even know I’d been missing. Dreaming up concepts I could imagine myself walking around and lingering inside.

And when client work began to trickle back in? It wasn’t random. It was all hospitality. A wine shop in Wedgewood Houston. A new restaurant concept at the beach. A chef, a caterer, a venue. A beloved wine bar ready for a fresh take. A few asked for help with interiors - a dream I hadn’t dared to name yet. Suddenly it wasn’t just design or food or brand or space - It wasn’t fragmented. It wasn’t coincidence.

The truth? I think I always saw how these pieces played together in the same sandbox, as part of the same vision. But it took having this baby (and potentially just taking a break), living this wild, clarifying, humbling experience, to really see it.

So here we are.

Dovetail Together.

It became impossible to keep things in separate boxes. Impossible to keep building in silos. I started to see how the brand work, the food, the gatherings, the spaces - they weren’t separate. They were parts of the same whole.

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Where I’m Headed

Dovetail Together is what I am building behind the scenes now - a place where all of it belongs. Design. Food. Ritual. Story. Identity. These aren’t separate pieces of my life or work. They’re threads of the same fabric - finally being woven together.

→ The Studio {FORM}
Where brands take shape.
Strategic, refined, and rooted in meaning - crafting strategic identities that align with your vision and stand the test of time. This is where your brand takes form, aligned with who you are and how you want to move through the world.

→ The Workshop {FOUNDATION}
Where ideas return to their roots.
A guided clarity journey for founders and creatives. Here, we excavate what matters - your voice, your values, your vision - and lay the groundwork for growth that feels true. Brand work, from the inside out.

→ The Table {FEAST}
Where we gather.
Recipes, rituals, and seasonal rhythms that bring us back to ourselves and each other. Through food, storytelling, and shared experience, we make space for presence, connection, and beauty that lingers.

You don’t need all the answers to come to the table. You just need the willingness to dig deeper. To align. To create something that feels like you.

And if you're craving more - more ressonance, more connection, more of yourself in the work - pull up a chair.

My philosophy:
Start from truth.
Design what feeds.
Build what lasts.
We build better when we do it together.

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The Invitation

If you’ve been part of this journey - through the many versions of my work, through my own becoming - thank you. Truly.

If you’re new here, welcome. This space is for you, too.

Dovetail Together is a way of being. Of building. Of gathering. It’s a place where we bring our work, our stories, our rituals - out into the light, where they can be shared, felt, and remembered.

This isn’t about business, not really. It’s about building a life - one where beauty and purpose aren’t at odds. Where the work of our hands aligns with the pull of our hearts. It’s about creating spaces — physical or digital - where people can pause, connect, and remember what matters. It’s about building in a way that feels like home.

I hope this Substack can be a place where all of these things can live and breathe - together.

Starting July 1, I’ll be turning on the paid side of this Substack - a space for deeper behind-the-scenes of Dovetail Together: the work, the process, what’s being built, and what’s still becoming. A place to pause. To connect. To remember what matters.

I hope you’ll stay and see where it leads.

Here’s to what comes next.

Come sit with us.
— Lauren