merry christmas to all

oh, hey guys! merry christmas! i hope that everyone had a happy and healthy one. i hung out with my cat all day, and i worked on checking something off my 2015 goal list - online blogshop! i took ten trillion notes, and i'm continuing the class tomorrow. i'm so happy that i'm sneaking it in before it is gone forever (december 31st is the last day the program will be offered, sadly).

i'm riding high on new photoshop knowledge, so take this with a grain of salt, but i want to kick it up a notch with this blog for 2016. i have it all planned out in my head. i'm buying a coffee maker, and i am going to make coffee at home and start a new morning routine. i am going to try blogging in the morning, ladies and gentlemen. it's the only it's going to happen, since the evenings are so busy. so if i can't do it this way, i don't really think i can do it at all. so, fingers crossed!

anywho, i'll probably see you all tomorrow, since i will once again be soaring on a blogshop high.

image via

do it anyway

last week the song "anyway" by martina mcbride came on as i was listening to my music on shuffle. i then listened to it on repeat, probably ten times. i'm not a country music person, but for some reason i love this song. on a whim, i googled it and found out it's inspired by the paradoxical commandments by kent m. keith, which was one of mother teresa's favorite poems. coincidentally, on that same day i saw emily weiss post that poem on instagram. AND ten minutes later, i clicked on an article on My Domaine about how to stop fear in it's tracks - guess what - it turned out to be dedicated to the book Feel The Fear...And Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers.

remember when oprah said that life whispers to you all the time? well, i certainly heard the whispers loud and clear. in researching how to improve this blog, i've read a lot of articles that say, it's silly to start a blog in this already over saturated blog market. that you need to offer something special, and serve it to your readers in a proven formula of "the 5 _____ you need to be doing," or "the 10 things you shouldn't have in your house when you're 30," or "this _____ will change your life." that you need to assert yourself as an expert on something. but, that's not what i want to do. so the self-doubt comes creeping in. the inner voice that says, this is silly. why are you doing this? so, my new answer to that voice is, who cares, i'm doing it anyway.

i want to write about things i love, things that interest me, and hopefully be able to have a conversation with people about these topics and images that strike a chord with me. i want to share my paintings and collages and use this platform to push myself creatively. i want to learn and practice photography and editing, so i signed up for the at home blogshop and i'm going to pull the trigger on a new camera soon. i may never be the best photographer out there, but i want to learn anyway. i want to become a better writer and use this space to help define my voice. this blog may not draw in a million visitors, but i'm going to write it anyway. i love, love, love reading, so even if no one joins my book club i'm going to have monthly "meetings" anyway. seeing a beautiful interior is so inspiring and fun to me, so even if you can also find the images i'm sharing on pinterest or a million other blogs, i'm going to share them anyway.

in short, i want to work on keeping perfectionism at bay, and focus on putting myself out there in spite of all the reasons i can think of not to. if you've ever felt like your efforts are in vain, but you've forged ahead regardless, i applaud you. if you have a song in your heart, you should sing it. even if nobody hears it, sing on little bird. sing it anyway.

image via on fourth street