At a glance
Name: Denise (call me Niecey) Docherty
Born: On May 4th (Yes, star wars day is my birthday) 1981 in Aberdeen, Scotland
Live: Firth, Nebraska
Calling: Motherhood
Work and Passion: Graphic design, painting, illustrating, writing, typography, photography and photoshop.
Born: On May 4th (Yes, star wars day is my birthday) 1981 in Aberdeen, Scotland
Live: Firth, Nebraska
Calling: Motherhood
Work and Passion: Graphic design, painting, illustrating, writing, typography, photography and photoshop.
Scoot up a little closer
Personal
So, you want to get to know me a little better? I’m thrilled. I’m convinced the deepest longing of the heart of every human is to be known. So here I am.
My given name is Denise, but if you call me Niecey (NEE-see) I’ll feel more loved and less like I’m being told off at school or called in for my doctor appointment. I was born and raised in Scotland, the abode of my heart. It was there, at a Christian tent festival in a park in Kilsyth, that I met my husband, Rene. We were a couple of young hippies in love, pretending to be grown ups when I conceived our first baby just a few short months into our marriage. You know, I slipped on a banana peel and then, oops, just "fell pregnant".
We had to grow up pretty fast; there was no room for playing house anymore. Within a few months, our first daughter, Heather, made a family of us. I can’t look back on those days without a smile and a pang. We were clueless in many regards, with a naivety that opened our hearts to their widest capacities and we filled every last square millimeter (thank you British metric system) with her. She was the most wonderful creature I had ever set eyes upon and I could not fathom how my body was a major participant in the creation of a perfect little human being. It seemed like some deep, mysterious magic. I found my place in motherhood, as though my whole life had just been preparation for this one calling.
I will not insult my memory of the horrors of the next chapter in my story by use of euphemism; so here is the brutal truth. She died. One day Heather was healthy, smiling and thriving; the next she was lifeless, and there was no explanation. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) essentially means a healthy baby died and we have no idea why.
Uncomfortable though it is, it would be dishonest of me to leave out that part of my story in this bio, because it has profoundly formed and shaped who I am today. The death of my daughter was a rude introduction into adulthood, but I learned some valuable lessons through the trauma of those days and years. I learned to depend on God and find my hope in Him and I learned to savor the joy in life.
I also learned that children are invaluable gifts from Heaven, and since then I‘ve been hoarding them. I have an impressive stockpile of seven little darlings on earth, besides my daughter on the other side. The nine of us (13 if you include our furry family members) live in the country in Nebraska where our neighbors are horses, cattle and corn and the kids are free to play loudly (a blessing of which they take full advantage). My household is effervescent with personalities, egos, hugs, spills, tears and peanut butter jelly sandwiches. Rene and I home school them for a variety of reasons, but I think we are learning even more than they are. We have much yet to learn, but the journey is a refining one and there is much beauty in the process.
So, you want to get to know me a little better? I’m thrilled. I’m convinced the deepest longing of the heart of every human is to be known. So here I am.
My given name is Denise, but if you call me Niecey (NEE-see) I’ll feel more loved and less like I’m being told off at school or called in for my doctor appointment. I was born and raised in Scotland, the abode of my heart. It was there, at a Christian tent festival in a park in Kilsyth, that I met my husband, Rene. We were a couple of young hippies in love, pretending to be grown ups when I conceived our first baby just a few short months into our marriage. You know, I slipped on a banana peel and then, oops, just "fell pregnant".
We had to grow up pretty fast; there was no room for playing house anymore. Within a few months, our first daughter, Heather, made a family of us. I can’t look back on those days without a smile and a pang. We were clueless in many regards, with a naivety that opened our hearts to their widest capacities and we filled every last square millimeter (thank you British metric system) with her. She was the most wonderful creature I had ever set eyes upon and I could not fathom how my body was a major participant in the creation of a perfect little human being. It seemed like some deep, mysterious magic. I found my place in motherhood, as though my whole life had just been preparation for this one calling.
I will not insult my memory of the horrors of the next chapter in my story by use of euphemism; so here is the brutal truth. She died. One day Heather was healthy, smiling and thriving; the next she was lifeless, and there was no explanation. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) essentially means a healthy baby died and we have no idea why.
Uncomfortable though it is, it would be dishonest of me to leave out that part of my story in this bio, because it has profoundly formed and shaped who I am today. The death of my daughter was a rude introduction into adulthood, but I learned some valuable lessons through the trauma of those days and years. I learned to depend on God and find my hope in Him and I learned to savor the joy in life.
I also learned that children are invaluable gifts from Heaven, and since then I‘ve been hoarding them. I have an impressive stockpile of seven little darlings on earth, besides my daughter on the other side. The nine of us (13 if you include our furry family members) live in the country in Nebraska where our neighbors are horses, cattle and corn and the kids are free to play loudly (a blessing of which they take full advantage). My household is effervescent with personalities, egos, hugs, spills, tears and peanut butter jelly sandwiches. Rene and I home school them for a variety of reasons, but I think we are learning even more than they are. We have much yet to learn, but the journey is a refining one and there is much beauty in the process.
Professional
In 2002 I launched Special Baby Photography, a business which was doomed from the start because Kaya, my eldest was a tiny baby herself and I didn’t have the resources to put out for a business start up. But for the year or so that I kept it going, I had a blast and learned a lot about photography and image editing.
I moved on to trying to earn an income from the comfort of my own home, by dabbling in web design for my husband’s web company, Ecoder.co.uk.
Next up was digital scrapbooking. I began designing as Denise Docherty for Scrapbookelements.com and eventually moved over to Designer Digitals. I fell in love with the scrapbooking community and have never enjoyed “work” more than creating digital scrapbook kits and products. I was in on it right in the middle of the digital scrapbooking peak and had a lot of success. I also had several layouts published in magazines and books.
Simultaneously I started up an online and local business called Your Memento. Through it I offered custom portraits, pop art and illustrations printed on various mediums. I thoroughly enjoyed the design work also, and gained a lot through the experience of running my business; carrying out the design work, administrative, business planning, customer services and marketing/PR.
For personal reasons, when my family immigrated to the USA, we decided to shut up my shop so I could focus on homeschooling and being a domestic goddess, which I do enjoy too, but the pay is non-existent and there is a lot of poop involved. It is a far less glamorous occupation but an important and very rewarding one.
After several years of doing the blessed barefoot and pregnant thing, I have decided to get back in the game, lest my creative juices start busting out willy nilly and making some sort of mess (as if I don’t already have enough of those to clean up around here.)
Check out my gallery and services pages to see what I’m up to these days (and loving it).
In 2002 I launched Special Baby Photography, a business which was doomed from the start because Kaya, my eldest was a tiny baby herself and I didn’t have the resources to put out for a business start up. But for the year or so that I kept it going, I had a blast and learned a lot about photography and image editing.
I moved on to trying to earn an income from the comfort of my own home, by dabbling in web design for my husband’s web company, Ecoder.co.uk.
Next up was digital scrapbooking. I began designing as Denise Docherty for Scrapbookelements.com and eventually moved over to Designer Digitals. I fell in love with the scrapbooking community and have never enjoyed “work” more than creating digital scrapbook kits and products. I was in on it right in the middle of the digital scrapbooking peak and had a lot of success. I also had several layouts published in magazines and books.
Simultaneously I started up an online and local business called Your Memento. Through it I offered custom portraits, pop art and illustrations printed on various mediums. I thoroughly enjoyed the design work also, and gained a lot through the experience of running my business; carrying out the design work, administrative, business planning, customer services and marketing/PR.
For personal reasons, when my family immigrated to the USA, we decided to shut up my shop so I could focus on homeschooling and being a domestic goddess, which I do enjoy too, but the pay is non-existent and there is a lot of poop involved. It is a far less glamorous occupation but an important and very rewarding one.
After several years of doing the blessed barefoot and pregnant thing, I have decided to get back in the game, lest my creative juices start busting out willy nilly and making some sort of mess (as if I don’t already have enough of those to clean up around here.)
Check out my gallery and services pages to see what I’m up to these days (and loving it).
Goals
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”
- James 4:13-15 New Living Translation (NLT)
If the Lord wills, I will live; and I’d also love to check off some things from my bucket list.
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”
- James 4:13-15 New Living Translation (NLT)
If the Lord wills, I will live; and I’d also love to check off some things from my bucket list.
- Videos
However, I would love to work on developing the music at home, practising as a family and recording some of it. I know I will miss this stage one day, and what better way to capture and bottle a piece of it than with a song? Rene and I also have a collection of more serious songs which are my therapy and I’d love to record them. Music is beauty and it massages my spirit. And the blessing is, I don’t have to be good at it for it to be effective. |
- Horse Riding
|