Thank you for being here! I’m Katie Bladergroen (my husband and I often shorten our last name to “Blade” for ease of pronunciation). I am the artist and designer behind Katie Blade Design! My family and I live in Savannah, Georgia. I am passionate about family, the joy of childhood, and inclusion. Katie Blade Design is my small business where I’m blessed to be able to create in meaningful ways.

A little background…

Amidst the stress of paper writing in graduate school, I used calligraphy as a creative outlet. After graduate school, I entered my career working six years as a Certified Child Life Specialist at our local children’s hospital. All the while, I was doing creative projects here and there for friends and family members. After getting married, I opened “Katie Blade Calligraphy” on the side and designed custom wedding invitations for wonderful couples in the Lowcountry. In 2021, we received the blessing of pregnancy and with that, some unexpected challenges that put my creative pursuits on pause.

In June of that year, midway through pregnancy, we learned that our daughter has spina bifida. We temporarily moved to Philadelphia to undergo maternal-fetal surgery for closure of her spina bifida. She joined us in September of 2021 and we returned to Savannah in October of that year. After getting back to work at the children’s hospital, I quickly realized that my daughter’s medical and therapy needs were where my priority needed to be. She has up to seven therapy appointments each week, so we stay busy! I took a work-from-home job that would allow me to simultaneously pour my energy into my daughter’s early development. Industry changes eventually drove me to leave what I was doing in my remote role at about the same time that we learned that we were expecting another baby girl (yay!). I thought long and hard about the benefits of having a small business, ultimately deciding to fulfill my creative desires and open “Katie Blade Design” in 2024. I view this design business as a blessing in our lives where I can serve others while also contributing financially to our family. My mission is to bring beautiful, joyful designs to childhood and people everywhere while also remaining steadfast in my commitment to promoting inclusion whenever I can.