10/07/2025
I've lived enough chapters to know that clarity is freedom, so here it is...12-Month Update Post Flood 🤍
I’ve opened the messages from you all so many times. And every time, I wanted to respond I just couldn’t find the words.But I’m still here.This past year has been a storm, multiple moves, deep loss and a lot of rebuilding life. I thought I’d be back by now, but life had other plans. My family needed 100 percent of me first and if I couldn’t give that same energy to my work, I knew it was better to wait until I knew that I could.
RBTS was something I knew had to be different from the start. I wanted it to stand apart to feel personal, intentional and meaningful to you all. Because of that, it did exactly what I hoped it would. It grew, it flourished and for four years it became something truly special to me and I poured every ounce of myself into it. And then, at the peak of it all, it was gone. The flood ruined nearly everything I had built at least in material form within that office. My first thought was, It took me four years and everything I invested into it just went to waste...I remember saying out loud, I don’t know how I’ll ever recover from this. Looking back, that moment wasn’t just about the business it was about everything tied to it. RBTS was more than just workspace it was an office that was part of our home, it affected our family as a whole and so losing it meant starting from scratch in every way.Thinking where do you even begin when you have no idea what the future holds so at a business standpoint this is more of a professional reflection, not the personal losses myself and family dealt with behind it. So we were all shattered. I've learned a lot and I'm pretty open about it so my words are raw and heavy but it's real. That's life. I also want my customers to know since I haven't posted or responded in a year.
It broke me emotionally an creatively. It felt like the rug was pulled out from under everything I had built with my whole heart with so much invested. I was shocked to say the least. But even then, what the water couldn’t take was my creativity, my vision or the reason I started RBTS in the first place. It blurred the vision moving forward so it made it hard to respond in that sense. And so signage was impossible to take on this year given the circumstances. But through it all, something unexpected resurfaced, a love I had long before signage ever began. It quietly returned while rebuilding our home, reminding me why I fell in love with creating spaces, light and balance in the first place.
An unseen love, the kind that never really fades; it just waits quietly in the background while life takes the lead. My creative journey actually began long before RBTS. Costume design came from a different dream I was too afraid to chase. Years ago, I wanted to start a bathing suit company, I had the paperwork in front of me and I just couldn't sign them... I let the fear of risk and failure stop me. So costumes became the next best thing for me familiar, creative and comfortable especially having been a dancer myself I was naturally inclined there in that sense...That love has always been there since I was little, flipping through costume books at my own studio, completely fascinated at a very young age.
Not long after that came interior and exterior design, where I discovered my passion for creating spaces filled with balance and some personality. My mom used to get home design magazines and I loved looking through all of them loll especially Coastal Living. Even as a child, I’d tell myself, One day I’m going to live on the water and have a beach house that looks like it’s straight out of one of these magazines. Sure enough I did get that later on in life. So from a very young age, that vision for interior design was already in me. For years, I poured myself into that kind of design, mostly quietly, creating for several businesses and private clients on a case by case basis without posting much of it online, so it was unseen. I’ve always been a little private with my work, more focused on the process and the people involved rather than the posts years before RBTS. Then came signage, the part of my story most people know. 🤍 RBTS became the bridge that helped me come out of my shell and start sharing what I create. It taught me how to show my work publicly and reminded me that everything I touch whether light, texture or space comes from the same place of purpose.
Somethings have been a quieter love of mine and it has always been in my hands to make those visions real through the details. With that being said, signage will always remain part of my work. It’s where my creative story became seen, but now it’s growing alongside everything else I loved which may have been unseen to many here. I’m evolving and rebranding into one space that blends costumes, interior/exterior design, some signage. Different forms with the same purpose, creating beauty that speaks from within.
Now I am in a new home, a new office layout is in the works and a clearer vision moving forward and finally it feels like the tide is turning on a steady pace. So I wanted to thank you all for your patience, your love and your quiet support while I found my feet again. Even after all this time, I still receive order inquiries , a year later, and you’re all still here. Remembering. Reaching out. Waiting. And that truly touches my heart more than you know. It doesn’t go unnoticed. 🤍
A rebrand is coming.... a reflection of everything I’ve learned, lost and rediscovered. See you all in 2026 🤍🌊🪞 -R
