Our Story
My name is Kris Norvell, also known as “The Succulent Lady”. and my journey with succulents didn’t begin as a business, it began as a way to cope.
During one of the darkest seasons of my life, when I was going through a divorce & my dear Aunt Jackie started declining in her battle with lung cancer, each day felt heavy, uncertain, and often overwhelming. I needed something to throw myself into that could bring even a moment of quiet to the chaos both in my head & going on around me.
That’s when I found succulents.
At first, it was simple. I wanted one. Just a simple, small plant I could tend to & admire and see for myself why so many people made such a fuss about plants. In fact I even considered getting an artificial succulent since I’d never been good with keeping real plants alive but I did think they had the most striking characteristics. However, my best friend declared I was getting a real live succulent because “Friends don’t let friends buy fake plants!”
“Friends don’t let friends buy fake plants!”
My flower farmer friend then took me to a local wholesale succulent store & before I knew it I had 30+ succulents in my basket. I fell in love that day with the variety of colors, textures, unique shapes & overall character that these plants carried. I immediately called my aunt after leaving that store and told her I needed her help making arrangements with all of my new succulents because I knew literally nothing about planting or caring for plants. That was the beginning of a love affair that would take me places I never expected. While Aunt Jackie was too sick to plant herself she and I worked together as she taught me exactly what to do where she would place each succulent in general principles of plant care. It was one of my favorite memories of us and still is today.
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Aunt Jackie & KRIS
After this, I began making succulent arrangements for everyone I knew. There was just something so peaceful, so freeing about working with my hands, focusing on something living, something steady & so beautiful. In those quiet moments with just me & the plants, time slowed down. The noise in & outside of my head softened. The pain didn’t disappear, but it became more manageable. These resilient plants, thriving with so little care, became a source of unexpected comfort to me.
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Before I knew it, I’d made succulent arrangements for each one of my family members, my closest friends & co workers, yet I didn’t want to stop planting. It had become my therapy & I didn’t want to stop there. I transitioned between jobs to take a month hiatus to care of my Aunt Jackie in her final weeks, which gave me a lot of idle time while she rested without my plants. I was wanting to share the succulent knowledge that I was researching so much about yet not wanting to keep bombarding all of my Facebook friends with nonstop succulents, so I decided to make a business page where I could post whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. The page needed a name & I thought about cute succulents tie-ins like “It’s a Succy Life” but then it dawned on me that I don’t actually believe that. Life has many challenges to be sure, but overall it truly is a beautiful life. That’s the day that It’s a Beautiful Life Succulent Gardens was born. Things took off very quickly from there & I never looked back. Today, I can honestly say that my unexpected passion for making artfully designed succulent arrangements kept me grounded during a period in life where I felt so very untethered. The craft helped me get through to the other side of the pain by creating something beautiful to make others happy.
Succulents taught me something I didn’t realize I needed to learn
that even in harsh conditions, life continues. They taught me that strength can be quiet & that beauty can exist alongside grief.
What started as a personal healing outlet has now become my greatest passion. I create with intention to spread joy & peace to others who may be dealing with things unseen. I pray over each piece as I construct it, asking for healing in a broken world & for blessings to abound for those who receive my arrangements.
Every arrangement I create still carries that same intention. It’s not just about the plant or even the design, it’s about the meaning. It’s about creating something that brings calm, that tells a story, that reminds others, just like it reminded me, that resilience can be beautiful & peace can be found even through the toughest circumstances.