I started a wonderful workshop today for creative businesses and this quote just sums up for me what I want to get out of it. It is what I strive to do in my life for myself, my God and everyone around me.
♥
Beautiful
Posts Categorized: This is me
Goal oriented
I love the start of a new year like I love Mondays. There is just something so exciting about a fresh new year. 365 days spread before you do with whatever you choose. I have decided to make 2012 the best year yet! I’m not a big fan of resolutions. Resolving to NOT do something seems to set us all up to do just what we have resolved not to. I like to make a list of goals and clear plans how to achieve them.
I wanted to share some of my goals with you all because I plan to share my progress here on my blog throughout the year. Also, I feel like putting things out there makes me more accountable to actually do them;)
♥Quilts for my kids. I don’t actually know how to quilt but I plan to learn. I have made a few “cheat” quilts but I really want to spend time making something wonderful that will last for each of them. I hope that one day they will pull them out for their own kids.
♥A year of Saturdays. I will be capturing a glimpse into our life by taking photos each Saturday for the entire year. I hope to create an album for our family at the end of the year with all of the images.
♥A new house. This has been in the works for a long time and I am confident that the time is now. I am excited to start a new chapter in a new nest.
♥Write and photograph a book. I have been wanting to do this for a while and am finally going to get off my rear and do it. I have a few ideas fleshed out I just need to decide which to start with.
♥Disney world. We are planning on surprising the kids with a big trip to Disney this fall. It will be their first time and I am so excited. I think that they are at the perfect ages to really get the most out of the magic of Disney.
♥Lose xx pounds. Now I’m not going to say how many because I’m not certain that it needs to be a specific amount. I just know that I want to feel good about myself and be able to wear the kind of clothes that I love. I never had to worry about my weight until after I had kids like a lot of moms. I cheered and danced before I had my kids so I was always in shape. Traditional workouts are a bit foreign and not at all fun for me so I need to fidn something that works for me. Wish me luck!
♥Date Nights. My hubby and I need to start taking time out for ourselves again. Take the time to connect as husband and wife not just mom and dad.
♥Learn to play my guitar. I have had a gorgeous guitar for a year now and have not learned how to play anything. This year is going to be a musical year. I ended 2011 back in my choir at church(yay!) and plan to keep the music flowing in the new year.
What are your goals for 2012?
Pen to paper
This post brought to you by the letter J.
Growing up I kept a diary. Well, let me be honest, I kept many diaries. At times I wrote in it everyday, whether I had something to say or not. My diary was a secret friend. A place where I felt free to pour out my heart and put my every feeling on the pages between the locked cover. I can still remember laying between my covers listening to Pillow Talk on the radio while I layed out my latest crush, squabble, dream or hope in my trusty diary.
I gave up my diary writing as I became an adult. Somehow it seemed childish to still need to confide in my silent friend. Until recently. I began to see that grown women can and do write in diaries, they just call them journals. I searched high and low for a journal that could welcome me back into the folds of paper, into the quiet of pen scratching paper and didn’t see anything that really worked. I asked my beautifully sweet, incredibly talented friend Jeanne to make one for me and then waited with baited breath to see what she would come up with. When I recieved my journal in the mail I could hardly wait to rip it open. Once I had it in my hands I was speechless. Not only is my journal absolutely beautiful but it is perfect for me and what I need it for. It means even more knowing that Jeanne made it for me and chose the words with me in mind. I have been happily writing in it ever since. Everyone needs a place to be honest with themselves. To be brave enough to tell the truths in their lives. To be open enough to share their dreams. I really think that getting it out in the open, in words and in writings is so powerful. A bridge from thought to action. It was a strange and wonderful feeling to connect with my younger self as I brushed my pencil over the page for the first time. I hope that one day my great, great grandchildren will cherish my journals/diaries and feel a little closer to me.
Renewal
The end of a year tends to bring about reflection. Reflection on all that was good and often a look at what was left undone. It is no wonder that a new year brings with it ideas of change and plans to do what was left undone the year before. To make resolutions to be better, do better or just be more. I don’t like to make resolutions as I find that they are easily broken. With no real plan just an idea thrown to the wind it is hard to know where to begin, how to maintain, how to finish. Instead of a list of resolutions this year I decided to sit down alone surrounded by quiet and my thoughts to reflect on my life and what I want out of it. I took out my journal, made for me by a dear friend who really lives with her heart, and wrote what was on mine. A list of attainable goals for the new year in clear detail. Not only details of how to accomplish them but why I set them. It is one thing to say “Oh this year I want to spend more time with my family” but quite another to explore your heart and get out the reasons why. One of my 2011 goals is to learn how to play the guitar and not just to know how. I always wanted a house full of music not just radio and c.d.’s but instruments and voices. I can sing but I really want to add to that music and my children’s memories by playing as well. Mapping out clearly the why as well as the what makes it much more real and more likely to get done.
While I have my golas for the year and a plan to accomplish them I wanted to do something even bigger. I have been dreaming of something for a very long time and this is the year that I am going to make it a reality. It all started with this question,
Without a single hesitation a knew. My heart was clear in it’s desire even if it took my head a while to give in. Photography has always been something close to my heart in various different forms. I love the connections and stories and life that can be captured through my lens and am ready to spend my time and energy doing just that. I love Little Lotti and what I created and it is really hard for me to move on from that. I put a lot of heart and time and hard work into the clothing line but was feeling stifled by it. It is hard to do everything in a business like that and still be able to be present in my children’s lives. The passion was gone, I’m not really sure that it was ever there in the way that it should be to last. I am sad to set it aside but I feel it is the right thing for me to do at this time. Who knows, maybe one day I will revisit Little Lotti and design and the time will be right.
To be completely honest, I am scared to death about moving in this direction. I still feel that perhaps I am not quite good enough to do this but then I ask myself that question above and I know. I know that I have to try. I am willing to take the leap of faith that by working hard and listening to my heart as well as my head I will be able to make something of this. In the next few months I will launch my photography business, Nest Vintage Photography. I hope to bring something beautiful, honest and me to the industry in both portraits and fine art. I am excited and so very scared but ready to give it a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Striving to be
I wanna be in the Light
As You are in the Light
I wanna shine like the stars in the heavens
Oh, Lord be my Light and be my salvation
Cause all I want is to be in the Light
All I want is to be in the Light
(Dc Talk, In The Light)
The Time Has Come
the Walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and ceiling wax, of cabbages and kings…. (Lewis Carroll)
So here we are, a new day and a new blog. Thank you so much to those that were patient with me and my lack of blogging recently and followed me here and hello to any new faces that happen to stumble across my page. I hope you stay and make yourself comfortable.
While I loved my old blogs here and here it was time for a change. I wanted to have ONE place to come and share my photography, designs, family, dreams and all of the other things that I love and this is it. I have so many ideas and thoughts and plans and would love to be able to share them with you. I have made so many friends since joining the blogging world in 2008 and hope to meet many more.
I thought that I might start this blog out much the same as my last as it really sums me up well, I think.
If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer… If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire, For we have some flax golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in! ~Shel Silverstein
xoxo, Brandie
