Happy New Year!!!!


I know everyone is getting those new years resolutions ready. Before I post my 2013 goals, I wanted to go back and revisit my 2012 list with you guys and talk about some of the things I managed to accomplish this year aaaand the ones that didn’t happen so much. 

1.  buy a house – 2012 was a long and crazy year!! I’m so glad to say that we actually accomplished this one this year!! We seriosuly couldn’t be happier. We bought our new home and moved in in April. I was hoping to post a lot more about our house this past year but definitely didn’t get to as much as I would have liked. Really hope to change that this coming year! You can read a little bit more about our house here and here. 

2.  decorate said house – I’m going to only cross this one halfway off haha. While we’ve gotten a ton of work done, we still have quite a bit to go. However, I’m loving every minute of it. New photos of our place to come soon! 

3.  launch a new website – ugh!! I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrated I am that this hasn’t happened. Our site is so close to being done, but narrowing done the images to go on the site is so overwhelming. With everything we’ve had going on this year, I just couldn’t find the time. Now that things have slowed down, this will happen soon!

4.  get in shape – Okay, so I pretty much still weigh the exact same that I did this time last year, but we did get a gym memebership and we actually go here and there. As well as trying to eat better. So while I hope to amp it up, at least I’ve made some effort, right? Right???

5.  attend some photography workshops – So, I didn’t actually attend any workshops (there just weren’t any locally that I wanted to attend), but I did however tune into a ton of Creativelives this year. If you are a photographer and aren’t hip to creativelive, do yourself a favor and check it out! As well as constently reading up on things so that I am always continueing to grow as much as possible, so I’m gonna give myself credit for this one. 

6.  continue to keep my natural hair color + let it grow – I honestly am so impressed with myself for sticking to this! My hair is the longest it’s been in years, while it’s still not quite as long as I hoped it would be but it’s getting there. ps. I may or may not have lightened my ends just a little, but that doesn’t really count. 

7.  learn to sew (better) + make a quilt – I’ve made a few throw pillows for the house and tailored some clothes here and there, so I’ve made some progress. Would still love to take an actual sewing class though. The farthest I’ve gotten on the quilt is buying some how-to books. Maybe this year hopefully?? 

8.  learn to reupholster – yup. didn’t happen. at all. 

9.  blog more – I honestly thought this one was a definite, in reality I actually blogged less this year than last!!! I couldn’t believe it when I checked my stats, but I fell short by 2 posts between 2011 and 2012. However, I believe the quality of my posts have grown greatly. In order to really show my style of photography, especially when it comes to weddings, it required that I include a lot more photos than I used to, which of course took longer than I was used to. I’m going to go ahead and cross this one off, because quality is better than quantity in this case. 

10.  spend more time with family – Check. One of the awesome things about finally owning our own house is that we now have spare bedrooms, so our friends and family can stay over all the time. Our old place was a loft, so having guests could be difficult sometimes. 

11.  take a vacation – With everything we had going on this year we did’t get time to take a “real” vacation. We did get the chance go to California for a week to visit Josh’s grandma and some friends though. It was fun, but it literally rained the entire time we were there. All day, every day. So it was a little bit of a let down.

12.  shoot more film – Yeah. This didn’t happen either. Bummer.

13.  shoot more personal work – I did this a little bit here and there, but no where near as much as I would have liked. 

14.  become more organized – This has become so much easier now that I have my own office in our new house. Definitely still room for improvement, but making progress!

15.  read more – I’m one of those people that I have to either read or watch tv in order to fall asleep. If not, my mind is constantly running. Do you know what I mean? I just can’t turn it off. I go through phases where one option is my preference over the other. Glad to say that reading before bed was the primary winner this year. Just to name a few of the books I read: the Fifty Shades of Grey series (overrated in my personal opinion), the Hunger Games series (I know they’re for teens, but still loved them), & Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (hilarious).

16.  print more photos – Check. Printed a ton of canvases for our home, as well as prints and even some instagram photos! I’m still going to encourage everyone this year to print more! It gets overlooked so much in this digital age.

17.  discover some new music – If it wasn’t for Josh I would probably hardly ever hear new music. Just a few people I’ve started listening to this past year that I would recommend checking out: First Aid Kit and CocoRosie.  

18.  discover some new photographers – I follow so many photographers. There are so many insanely talented people out there. I honestly can’t tell you if I actually started following these just in the past year, but here are a few of my current favorites: Amelia Lyon, The Image is Found, and Our Labor of Love

19.  go on more dates with josh – If you count hanging light fixtures, painting walls, putting together furniture and then cuddling on the couch, date nights? Than yes, we get to check this one off too.  

20.  turn the big 3.0.!! – This one was inevitable whether I liked it or not. I so wanted to have a great big, immaculately decorated 30th bday party somewhere cool, trendy, and fun. Because we were so busy in September, it actually ended up being a last minute get toghter at our house. Nevertheless it was an awesome time, and I’m honestly not really fazed about being 30. I’ve heard so many people say that their 30’s were the best years of their lives, so I’m excited for what this decade has to hold for me!