Letter From Kelly: The Universe Has Your Back

I always look at the New Year as a fresh start. I also look at it as a time to re-evaluate my business and look at things I think I did well last year and the things I can do a lot better and grow with this year. The main thing I’ve learned over the last few years of owning my own business is that I will NEVER not be learning and growing. This can take me to a place of shame, for not knowing it all, or it can hit me as a big sigh of relief that I’m never stuck in the tough spots or the funk of creative challenges. I always have the chance to grow.

For those of you who are new to Velvet’s Edge or maybe just don’t know exactly what I do, my day job consists of a few different aspects……

Hair & Makeup Artist/Men’s Grooming: This is the world I started in 2007 in Nashville. You can check out some of my work on kellyhenderson.co if you’re curious/interested.
Celebrity Styling: The full red carpet look was always my obsession, so after many years of doing hair and makeup, I started styling a few of my clients as well. It’s been a great creative outlet for me and I love making people feel their best.
Velvet’s Edge website, shop, and blog: Velvet’s Edge started as a creative outlet and has morphed into a full website and shop. I never thought it would get to this place, but I’m super glad it did.
Velvet’s Edge Podcast: When I was asked to do a podcast, my first response was “no way,” I don’t know how to do that. I’m so grateful that the iHeart team pushed me to try because the Velvet’s Edge podcast has turned into one of my favorite things that I do.
Maybe Most importantly to me… a humanizer? connecter? : here’s what the podcast made me realize: Connecting with people is the one thing that brings my soul the most satisfaction. It’s what I do with my clients and why they trust me. It’s what I do with my friends and my family and it’s what I want to do with you guys. I’ve never been fully satisfied just giving makeup tips or posting my OOTD. Those things are fun sometimes, don’t get me wrong, but I need more. I need the whole human experience. I believe that to be a whole human, we can’t just focus on the outer part of our beauty, but we have to focus on inner too. Being a whole human is both.

Why is this important to me?

Maybe this is important to me because it’s what I need. Maybe my life hit some crashes before a lot of others my age, but I know the journey of exploring and valuing my insides for about the last 8 years has left me unsatisfied with anything else.

Velvet’s Edge has expanded into something I’ve had to evolve with too. What I do for a living is help people feel their best on the outside, but what I have realized over the last 14 years is how tied all of that is to feel good on the inside. Velvet’s Edge is the place I explore both. I love reading about new fashion trends and makeup techniques I can use with my clients. I also love connecting with people and hearing their stories and struggles as well as their healing and insight. The more I work on my insides, the more beautiful I feel on my outsides. It’s a part of me, it all is. The Velvet and the Edge.

I want to openly explore the soft and the vulnerable and also the fierce and fiery; both in fashion and glam and the beauty inside each of us. Every month I’m going to bring you guys a piece of the ‘Velvet’ that I’m working on or learning about. I am a seeker and so much of what fuels me is fueling my soul in whatever way, shape or form that time in my life brings.

January Velvet: Here’s what I’m learning this month-

I am all about trying new spiritual teachers and finding what works for me. This may be one that sounds a bit crazy to some of you, but I’ve found great peace from sessions with astrologer and hypnotist, Marvin Wilkerson. I met Marv through the Velvet’s Edge podcast and he is so damn good at his job it is mind-blowing. He told me things about myself that I couldn’t recognize until he said them out loud. He’s helped me fight through anxiety with hypnosis and start to own my power. I highly recommend sessions with him (and have most of my friends seeing him at this point too), but if you want to start slow, you can listen to my podcast with Marvin Wilkerson here.

The Universe Has Your Back Cards

I have to start every morning with an intention. Something bigger than myself and my own little worries and fears. It helps me to realize I’m just a small piece of this huge universe puzzle and whatever is happening is happening exactly as it should. I pull one of these cards every day and set it on my nightstand and try to live my day with it in mind.

Rising Strong by Brene’ Brown

We’ve all gone through growth periods. They are uncomfortable, frustrating, grief-stricken, but if you’ve been through one, you know they all pass. This book is helping me find tools to help get too and rise on the other side.

Let’s not forget the Edge

Here’s what we are working on…

Things that will be back to Velvet’s Edge in 2020:

-more makeup tutorials

-keeping you updated on fashion trends

-tricks I’m using on my clients in both styling and makeup.

-the food we are using to keep our bodies healthy

What’s vintage got to do with it?

Vintage Tees have been my thing as long as I can remember. My staple wardrobe is a cool vintage tee and jeans. Always. I found that I was posting pics in them and every time you guys kept wanting to shop those looks like you can shop the rest of my looks. Obviously, the joy of vintage tees is that they are one of a kind so that just meant I needed to give you guys a place to shop other cool vintage tees. I do the leg work and the digging (which I love, it’s like a treasure hunt), you guys get to shop cool tees. Feels like a win/win to me. Shop the VE vintage tee shop here.