Julie Slaikjer
“I’ve come to realize that the darkness, for me, has been in hiding in the shadows and not taking center stage in my own life. It’s time to BE in the spotlight. ”
💜JULIE SLAIKJER
🧡LOCATION: PITTOCK MANSION, PORTLAND, OREGON AND MOUNT HOOD, OREGON
💛PHOTO BY: @SUSAN_ELLIOTT9
🖤BLACK ”TEARS” ITEM: VIP SHIRT FROM @TERESACOLLINSSTUDIO
💙SKIRT BY @INDIETRUE_CLOTHING
💚FOLLOW @TEARSANDTULLE
🎤IN JULIE’S WORDS...
It's a funny thing to be told that you're an extrovert, outgoing, bold, loud...all your life. On the inside, you feel shy, embarrassed, have low self esteem, not much confidence...but you KNOW there's a glimmer deep inside that is all the things people say about you just waiting to come out. That's what the past few years have been like for me. I feel as if I'm only now stepping out of the shadows and taking the big stage, under the bright spotlight of life. I've had this feeling of lightness for the past few months, it's the culmination of a lot of hard work. The feeling that I BELIEVE I can do the things I've been dreaming about for so long.
Don't get me wrong, I am an OPTIMIST of the highest order. I see the tiny ray of sunshine on the grayest day. I help my clients and everyone I know see that there is always something we can do to bring out the good. It's just that I always felt that there were things about me that needed fixing or that weren't quite right. Along with all that optimism, I have a hefty load of perfectionist tendencies too.
Since I was a child, I've been enamored with rainbows. I remember helping my mom sew pillows for my bed in the colors of the rainbow: yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green. My mind was blown in 7th grade when I learned about ROYGBIV. Not only did I have the colors out of order, but there's a SEVENTH color! WOW! I still prefer my rainbows in the 6 colors I've always loved though. Red and blue are my favorites.
When I learned about The Tears and Tulle Project, I fell in LOVE with the idea of wearing a rainbow. At first, I was disappointed to be asked to combine this gorgeous thing with something black. The eternal optimist that I am, I would automatically pair these electric colors with something bright and white.
But as I read the posts of my rainbow skirt sisters and really pondered the project and my part in it, I've come to realize that the darkness, for me, has been in hiding in the shadows and not taking center stage in my own life. It's time to BE in the spotlight.
My experience wearing the skirt underscores this epiphany. I wore the skirt in 3 locations around Portland, Oregon: Pittock Mansion, a viewpoint on the highway to Mount Hood and a snowy area up on the mountain. The attention the skirt draws threw my tendency to hide in the shadows right into the trash. It screamed, "NO HIDING NOW LADY!" I smiled and continued to pose and eventually felt pretty comfortable with strangers smiling, saying hello, taking my photo, honking and whistling from their cars. It must have been a sight to see. Suddenly you round a corner coming down a mountain and off to the side of the road, standing up on the barrier directly on the edge of a cliff, is a woman dressed in a monstrous, flowing ball of rainbow fluff, smiling for a photographer. She's wearing short sleeves too. What would her mother say?!! Somehow during this experience, I stopped caring what people thought about me and what I looked like and hoped that the sight of this bright skirt in our cold, gray winter, would bring them some happiness.
I feel like the skirt came to me full of happiness and light and that as it moves to the next wearer, it is taking with it a good piece of my darkness. I hope it brings the same feelings to all my rainbow skirt sisters.
About Julie…
Julie prefers to be informal and tends to talk more than other people - so Julie Chats seemed a perfect name for her first blog back in 2008. When people started to change their websites over to their names, she considered it for about a second before laughing at the thought of people butchering her Danish married name when searching for her. Slaikjer is not a name that’s easily spelled or pronounced by most people 😉 (SLY-ker - in case you were wondering). So she stuck with Julie Chats as her business evolved into its current form.
Today, Julie is a graphic designer and social media educator helping her clients streamline and simplify their social media allowing them to save time and avoid overwhelm with her in person workshops, online courses and private Facebook community. She uses her degree in journalism and public relations, along with extensive experience working with bloggers and crafty industry companies to guide business owners through bumps in their marketing efforts from branding to social media. Working with new business owners to find their unique visual voice through branding is a passion of hers.
A native Oregonian, Julie lives outside Portland with her family and their fluffy dog. On the weekends, you’ll find her and her husband of 25 years at sporting events supporting their son and all his teams or visiting their college daughter at their alma mater, the University of Oregon, cheering on the Ducks.
During the week, you’ll find Julie on Instagram @juliechats Stop by, say hi and also visit her in her Facebook group, the Julie Chats Community, where she answers your business marketing questions and goes Live on Wednesday afternoons.