February in review

Come on world, stop playing this cruel joke on me.. how is February already over?!?!?! I think this gorgeous weather we've been having is throwing me off and making me feel like it's still 2013 and still late summer (seriously, it's been like 65 every day with pretty much no weather at all for the past five months). But alas, it's March, and another month is gone. Let's take a look back at the month and see what (if anything) I accomplished:

- Was surprised by sweet decorations and a thoughtful card from my awesome fiance (I don't know how he does it, but after 9 years he still brings me to tears with his love notes).
- Built an epic fort in our living room for Valentine's Day, made complete with Paxti Gluten Free Pizza, a fancy bodel of Duckhorn wine, Three Twins Ice cream for dessert, and the entire season two of House of Cards. Seriously, it was the best weekend ever.
- Made a new wedding industry friend, Michele from Tango & Foxtrot, and did a quick styled shoot for a venue listing.
- Reconnected with an old college friend and did head shots for her new start up company at the Ferry Building, which is my new favorite place to shoot
- Had the awesome opportunity to photograph a sales kick off conference with Sasha Gulish Photography, and was able to learn so much about the event photography world while having a blast running a photobooth for the conference attendees
- Was featured on Gilt for a week which brought in a ton of new crazy business that I can't wait to photograph!

four things for february

I had planned to sit down in December and make a long list of goals I wanted to accomplish each month in 2013. I thought this type of goal setting would be easier to achieve instead of having a ton of new years resolutions because I would be making smaller, easier goals that I could hold myself accountable to. Well, January came and left, and I still have yet to sit down to make my 2013 monthly goals. However, while I didn't actually set any goals to accomplish last month, I was offered some amazing opportunities and accomplished some huge milestones without really meaning to. Every weekend in January was filled with photo shoots, something I've been wanting to schedule and do for the past year, and I officially launched my own photography website and facebook page. While pursing photography has always a dream of mine, it wasn't something I thought I was ready to jump into quite yet, mainly because I was intimidated by the thousands of other photographers and scared to put myself out there. Luckily, these opportunities kind of fell into my lap and instead of being nervous, I ran with them.

So, moral of the story is, even though I didn't start off the year as I had planned, I'm so happy with how this year has been going and I'm so excited for whatever else life throws at me this year. I will probably end of setting some monthly goals for myself in the near future (let's be real, I probably won't get around to it in July/August) but for now, here are a couple of things I want to do in February:

1. Make lovely valentines day cards like this one to send to friends near and far (via)
2. Finish editing photos from this cutie's 1 year old photo shoot from last weekend (and get ready to photograph his first birthday party in March!)
3. Carry my camera with my everywhere so I can capture pretty pictures like this one
4. Finally make our coffee table after storing the hairpin legs in my closet for the past 4 months (via)

Do you have anything you want to accomplish this month? I'd love to hear about them!

Goal Setting- New Years Resolutions

After my recent success with the "mile a day" goal, I've been on a goal-setting high. Elise gives some great tips for setting goals (my goal in life is to be more like her...) and I've embraced some of her tips for my new years resolution goals.

Side note: I never follow my resolutions. Ever. I can't even make it through a week without breaking one of them, and I think it's because my goals are always extremely ambitious. They are things that I'd like to do (like work out every day), but that are slightly unreachable without any structure and plan, so when I fall off track one day I give up instead of getting back on the horse.

This year I've decided to go less grandeous with my goals and take a while to real focus on what I what to achieve the next year. The past year has been centered on redefining my likes and hobbies and refocusing on who I want to be. It's been a long and torturous journey (Jack can tell you all about my late-night sobbing fests where I whine about not knowing who I am or what I like.. they're so much fun) but (for the moment) I am completely happy and content with where I am right now. However, there are many many things I want to learn, improve, and grow in, so that is how I'm going to utilize this year's goals.

As I mentioned, and thank's to Elise's great advice, sometimes you need to check in with your progress and  refocus your goals to make sure they're still attainable and still what you want to be doing. While I'll be using these goals and a framework for what I want to learn and do, this is a very flexible list of things I hope to achieve by the end of the 2013 year.

So, with that said, here are my goals for the next year:
- run 365 miles (stolen from Elise :)
- be able to touch my toes
- complete 12 photography projects (one each month)

• The Individual- a complete portrait shoot that fully captures their internal and external beauty
• Lower Height Photo Walk/ Case Study- documenting the North Beach neighborhood
• A Study of Light- exploring different techniques using natural and man-made lighting
• Hockney Inspired- celebrating of one of my favorite photographers by creating a photographic collage
• Color Challenge- finding and focusing one color in multiple locations
• Night Life- the city after dark
• Macro Focus- a study of every day life at the macro level
• Epitomizing Myself- exploring self portraits and trying to capture the essence of me
• San Francisco Architecture- celebrating the city's most celebrated and overlooked buildings
• Food for Thought- practicing commercial food photography in a new way

- complete 12 crafting projects (one each month)

• quilt
• sew a scarf

- read 12 books (including 6 nonfiction books...)

• Extremely Loud and Incredible Close
• ROOM

December Goals

After my recent success with the "a mile a day" goal, I've been on a goal-setting high. I loved the feeling of accomplishment at the end of the month and realized that I need more of this structure in my life. I have always been a list-making person as I like being able to refocus and recenter my thoughts when I have things written down and in plain sight. Plus, it's so fun to cross things off.

In order to stay on this awesome, I-can-do-anything high, I plan to have little goals each month that I hope to accomplish to keep my mind, body, and spirit challenged. At the start of the new year I plan to have more structure, long term goals (more on that coming soon!) but for now, here's a little taste of what I hope to accomplish in December:

- decorate our first Christmas tree together
- do something EPIC on 12/12/12
- learn a basic knitting stitch
- keep running
- do at least one portrait shoot
- give back