Goals for June

My goals for May were fairly well executed, although I did hit a few bumps in the road. Let's recap....

1. Plant Garden: finally done. After many rainy and windy days, the garden is in the ground. I feel like I've accomplished something huge here. My plants lived in pots for far too many days. 

2. Train for 5k: Major fail. I managed to get myself a nice concussion about half way through the month and haven't gone for a run at all. Let's try again.

3. Do yoga 3 times a week: I practiced yoga very consistently the first few weeks before I took a nasty fall. I'm back on the horse once more and feel that I conquered this one and hope to continue. Yoga is good to my soul. 

4. Bake/Cook something once a week: I did! Being on my new diet, I have an arsenal of hundreds of recipes. My slow cooker and I are becoming best friends. Also, a vegetable steamer is truly the best invention known to mankind. 

Banana Oatmeal Bread.

 

Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup

 

5. Sign up for Sewing Class: Fail. We are poor. I just didn't have the funding this time around and hope that June will change that. I have a wedding shoot coming up and hopefully a bit of that can go towards taking this class. 

Now onto the goals for this new, beautiful month!

1. Read a novel. Treat myself in a book that I can get lost in. 

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2. Train for 5k and continue to do yoga as much as possible. 

3. Organize all closets and cupboards in my house. 

Source

4. Sign up for sewing class and reorganize our art room. Make it really usable. 

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5. Start photography blog. I have some business opportunities coming up. Just got my business cards a few days ago! 

Happy June. This month is full of good things: recording the hubby's record, vacation on the beach, wedding photography, etc. 

New Year, New Goals...

It has taken me a couple of days to sit down and write out my goals for this new year. Many of them, I've found, are based off of my 25 Things Before 25 list, which will continue on until I turn 25 in August. 

.....get out of debt......buy a car.....buy a camera.......record a new album......record an album with my  husband.......have a garden.....love my husband.........prepare us for having a baby (hopefully we will start trying in 2012!!! )...........lose the rest of the weight, only 20 lbs more to go........run a 5k........go on a trip or two......have more quiet time......make our house a home.......read "What to Expect Before You're Expecting".........Book Club.....Do more yoga.....become a vegetarian.........cook more.......bake more..... advance at my work ........learn to love my job more than I do.......map out a business plan for some of my dreams jobs............go to Mexico with my work.....actually write a song to/for/about my husband...... continue working through the Artist's Way......try something new........take a class...........buy local and organic.........stay organized........take a real vacation......learn to brew beer with my dad.....take more photographs just for fun........paint some walls........blog more......actually use my typewriter and sewing machine.......

This list is massive, but I am overwhelmed with excitement for this new, fresh year. Looking back at 2010, we actually accomplished a lot of what we set out to do, with a few unexpected turns as well. We bought a house, played a lot of good music with many wonderful people, took lots of photos, grew closer to each other,  released a new album with my band, got a cat (who is a pain in the butt most of the time), took a trip back to the northwest,  I lost 30 lbs!!!!!, had a family get together at our new home, etc, etc, etc. 

Happy 2011. I'm ready for the best year yet. 

With Every Pound Lost

For those of you that don't know, today is a grand day. I am a little more than half way to loosing the pounds I have set out to lose and to achieving my goal weight. (Which is the amount I weighed the day I graduated high school.) This is a little more personal than normal, but once I got married, I became quite comfortable with my wonderful existence and started to pack on the pounds. In a goal to become as healthy as possible for myself, my husband, and the potential kids we desire to have in the future, I made a major life change. 

I have been on a new, pretty intense eating plan for the past month or so. I am down 20 lbs today! The weight on the scale is one I haven't seen since sometime in college. It feels really good. I can't believe the discipline I actually have! Seeing the pounds come off a little more everyday is reason enough for me to continue on. 

I feel like I could take on the world! 

I have been daydreaming about some new outfits that I want to buy once I reach my goal weight. It is good encouragement to actually be working towards some wonderful new outfits! I tend to gravitate towards blacks and whites, but lately I've been trying to add some color to my wardrobe. Lots of oranges, reds, and floral. 

Here's some items on my wish list! 

From Red Velvet: 

(For my husband: this is what your wife would love for Christmas!) :) 

From Modcloth.com: 

And being a photographer, I have major bag envy for this....

From Jo Totes: 

Life is good. 

#9!

We made it home from our wonderful vacation on Sunday night, after two days of my lovely husband driving us all the way back to Fort Collins. (He's awesome like that.) 

Now, reality has hit. My to-do list is forever growing. Part of me embraces it and the other part wants to run for cover. I realize more and more how un-spontaneous I am in many things in life. Routine sometimes is my biggest downfall, yet also sometimes my biggest triumph. I grasp on to all of the lists and all of the goals. Yet, sometimes you just have to get in the car and drive without a destination in mind and be alright with that. 

I wish I had an easier time figuring out how to dwell  in between the chaos and the control. It's a constant lesson. 

Currently, I'm editing photos like a mad women for our friend's wedding that I shot before we left on our trip. I couldn't bring my editing stuff with me so these photos were left in Fort Collins and seemed to call me back to them the whole trip. Now I will edit, edit, edit, edit, edit...

A bit of a sneak peak.... (I won't post photos of the actually wedding party, etc until I have full permission from them...) 

Photography makes me feel so alive. 

On another note, I can mark something off of my 25 Things Before 25 list! This one came around A LOT quicker than I thought it would and I didn't even spark the conversation this time. 

9. Have the Baby Talk! 

Ryan and I have decided when we will start trying to have a family. I realize that God is ultimately in control of all of that and we are constantly willing to go His route verses ours, but we have set a tentative time period that will allow us to somewhat financially prepare and allow me to get my body and health in tip top, baby making condition. 

It's almost weird to even talk about it! For so long I never thought I would get to this point. But, alas, the mama bug has actually bit. Craziness. 

Needless to say, I'm excited. 

And to our mothers..... I promise it is a plan that will not go into action for quite a while. No babies for us yet! :) But, someday you shall be grandmothers! 

25 Things Before 25

Most of this has nothing to do with our vacation.....

Today was very low key, spent driving from Seattle to Longview for what seemed like forever. Once we hit L-town, I got a pedicure with my long lost friend Liz and then we all went to dinner. Nothing to crazy, but still wonderful. 

As I've been on vacation, I always start to build up my massive to do list for the time when we return. Everyday I get further away from reality and everyday my to do list continues to pile up back where I left it. I've hardly taken the time to realize that we are approaching my favorite season of all: fall. This season is full of boot-wearing, coffee drinking goodness that I look forward to every year. If it could be fall all the time, I would be entirely alright with that. 

I've been thinking a lot about my goals for this year. I even glanced back at my Four Simple Goals post from earlier. I've been working towards a few of them, but not nearly at the intensity I would like. 

Here's the beginning of the list: 25 things to do before I turn 25....

1. Plan for a garden this coming spring
2. Grow out my hair
3. Write at my typewriter at least once a week
4. Get HEALTHY! 
5. Unpack and organize my creative space
6. Buy a new car
7. Create a blog schedule/blog button
8. Save enough money for camera equipment
9. Have the baby talk 
10. Create a business plan
11. Paint some walls
12. Read a novel every month 
13. Actually work on our yard and make it look nice
14. Be able to fit into my jeans from when I moved back home
15. Go through my clothes and donate the ones that have been in my closet for years

I'll post the remaining ten goals tomorrow.... 

Four Simple GOals

I felt a tinge of excitement when I saw this post over on Elsie's blog. Goals are my things. Lists are a favorite, yet oddly justifying past time of mine. Notebooks have been filled with said goals and poured over in the years to come to see if I've ever really accomplished them. Some are left to die on those pages, some have found new life in the everyday.

I like to have something to work for. Without a goal in mind, my busyness seems utterly pointless.

My Four Simple Goals......

1. Take the time to take care of myself. Visit farmers markets on the weekend. Make those good salads that I actually end up enjoying. Eat more of the fruit that makes my mouth water. Get some sleep. Actually exercise by doing an activity I enjoy.

2. Grow out my hair. I generally have no patience in this category, but will not cut any length off my hair, other than a nice trim until December. Luckily, my sister is my hair stylist and won't let me!

3. Make our house a home. Paint some walls a crazy color. Seek out those crazy flea market and craigslist finds. Hang some personal artwork on the walls.

4. Create a space for me to live creatively. Stop avoiding the one bedroom I have yet to unpack our house. Take the sewing machine out of the box. Place all of my art journaling supplies where I can actually find them. Use my camera for more than just business. Make time to live creatively. Busyness shouldn't be a downfall.

Let's see how I do! Many of these are goals, within goals, within goals. But, I like to see the big picture.

Breakfast downtown, farmers market, grocery shopping, music playing, and birthday BBQing today.

Should be a wonderful, beautiful Saturday.