Our lovely Wedding Day: Lafayette, Indiana. April 11, 2015. (Photo credit to Rebekah J. Murray).

“For we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.”
– John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Hello, there! Welcome to Wholehearted Creative, I am delighted you’ve stopped by our little corner of the Internet. I’m Kristi, a thirty-something believer in Jesus, wife, photographer, artisan, storyteller, and globetrotter who is passionate about understanding and inspiring people. 

I AM A WIFE: I’m married to my darling husband and best friend, DJ Albert. We are passionate about marriage and reflecting the Gospel with joy in pursuing each other intentionally and being a team. Our dating relationship brought us through some unusual challenges as we each continued learning to overcome brokenness from our family home life in the midst of a two and a half year long-distance relationship between three different states. We hope our marriage encourages you to love others well, be intentional and reflect Christ in your relationships.

I AM A PHOTOGRAPHER: From a young age, I learned to love the power of a story captured in a photograph. Photography has taught me how to see life, how to value people deeply and cherish the simplicity in every day. There’s something profound about watching relationships and people through a lens, capturing moments of emotion and expression uniquely them. The very best of those are the ones filled with spontaneous laughter and happy tears, and if they are simultaneous: pure magic.

I AM AN ARTISAN: Being a creative comes as a natural outflow of my heart. Some of my earliest memories include creating with my Singer sewing machine and piles of my grandma’s leftover fabric, filling my sketchbooks with dress designs and landscapes, and creating with various other art mediums. These were all fueled by the desire to make beautiful things to give to other people. Making is an expression of my desire for excellence and adding wonder and delight to the world around me.

I AM A STORYTELLER: Life is endlessly unfolding like an unspoken story in my heart. I’ve always told stories, sometimes in words, sometimes through textiles and sometimes through photographs. Every day people and everyday moments are simply unexplored stories waiting to be told. Some of my favorite stories come from adventures leading to moments of wonder, in discovering new places and in gaining new perspective.

Olympian, Eric Liddell famously said: “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”  When I capture light and emotion in a photograph, I feel God’s pleasure. When I create, when I add beauty to the world, I feel God’s pleasure. When I tell a story, I feel God’s pleasure. When I write a moving paragraph, I feel God’s pleasure. God has made me a creative. It’s an act of worship to reflect His design and beauty in creating.

John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge: Cincinnati, Ohio. One of the three cities where we fell in love. (Taken with our Canon 5DMKII).

“Gazing on beautiful things acts on my soul.”
– Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

WHAT I VALUE: My identity in Christ. Being the wife of DJ Albert. The worth of every human life as created in the image of God. Handwritten letters. People who listen well. Saturdays at home. Loyalty through adversity. Spontaneous laughter. Intentional conversations with people who feel like home.

WHAT INSPIRES ME: Window light. The ocean. Libraries, especially ones in downtown cities. Hauntingly beautiful movies. Growth in the midst of adversity. Books that make you cry. Twinkle lights. Midwest sunsets. Trader Joe’s Chocolate Covered Sea Salt Butterscotch Caramels. Intentional use of negative space. Clive Staples Lewis. Choosing fabrics for a quilt. Seeing new corners of the world. Talenti Gelato. Summer evening picnics.

WHAT ANNOYS ME: Being rushed. Small talk. Laziness. Abuse and bullying. Lack of imagination. Misuse of God’s word. Inefficiency and disorganization. Overspending. People not keeping their word. Dresses without pockets. Miscommunication. Craving Chick-fil-a on Sunday.


Bir-Hakeim and Trocadéro in Paris, France.  (Photo Credit to the brilliant Federico Guendel at iheartParis).

JUST A WEE BIT OF RANDOMNESS:

  • I’m a bit of a contradiction: I’m a people motivated introvert, a practical sentimentalist, and adventuring homebody who needs planned spontaneity.
  • I adore wearing dresses. If you comment on my dress, my response will be a delighted, “Thank you!! It has pockets!” whilst demonstrating said fact. 
  • Three movies I can quote fluently: Beauty and the Beast (1991). You’ve Got Mail (1998). The Sound of Music (1965).
  • Confession, until I was in my late teens, I had never heard of Jane Austen or L.M. Montgomery. I grew up in the world of Little House and Laura Ingalls Wilder and had no knowledge of Anne with an “E” or Elizabeth Bennet. Since meeting both of the former we have become quite well acquainted.
  • One of my dreams is to open a Modern-romantic Tea Room where I will use the china from our wedding as place settings.
  • As a child, I was very ambitious! I wanted to be a ballerina, dolphin trainer, an actress, own a horse stable, get married and adopt a house full of children when I grew up. While some of those are not my current goals, ambition and ideas are never lacking.  
  • The Midwest is currently home. My heart loves the gorgeous sunsets of the Midwest. Born and raised in Illinois, moved to Indiana (1999) and moved back to Illinois (since 2015) when I married my darling husband.

Wholehearted Creative is a place to inspire you, to teach you to see daily life and peoples afresh, share authentic and life-changing stories,
and give you glimpses into our adventures, whether at home or abroad.

Thank you for visiting a little piece of our world.

♥