365 | A New Year

 RESOLUTION(S)

Every year, it's the same story. The same start. What can I do to be a better person? . . . a better mother, wife, homemaker? There's no end to the improvements I could make. But I tell myself not to get discouraged. Not to get overwhelmed. Keep it small. Simplify. Always that word going through my mind . . . simplify, simplify. By small, consistent things, are great things brought to pass.

Since last year was the "Year of Liz" for all the wrong reasons, this year is going to be a year of looking up & finding peace, of allowing myself to make mistakes & feel hurt without letting the world cave in. I want to take life in & digest it. Roll it over my tongue & savor it. Take it deep inside of me & feel the love & beauty it has to offer flowing through my veins & soul. To see the bigger picture & not let the little things drag me down into darkness. I want life to be a celebration in all its simplicity & in the everyday, seemingly mundane moments. I want to take it in - all the chaos, to dos, chores, redundant routines & see the gift they can be if I just choose to see it. I want to BE PRESENT. To trust in myself as a mother, creator, teacher, photographer. To cut myself some slack. I want to enjoy the little things & not look down in defeat. When I slip & fall, I will not burrow myself into a hole in the ground again, but rather, I will look up & allow the light of God to penetrate me, to shine & redirect me on my course. I will look up more.

Join me each week on my 365 photo journey & feel free to click through & see a day in the life of other photographers around the world.

Cara Harrison of Mischief & Laughs is next.

a new year

It's the start of a new year! I love this time of year for all the new beginnings. It's a time to reflect on life, to set goals, to reevaluate my attitude & how I spend my time. It's a time to look back & celebrate the acomplishments of the year before, but more importantly, it's a time to look forward & decide how to improve as a mother, wife, friend, daughter of God . . . . It's a time to embark on new adventures, grand ones & seemingly small ones from my every day. It's a time to develop talents & to take on new challenges . . . or old ones with renewed force.

While thinking about things I wanted to focus on this upcoming year, I decided to set very few lofty goals. Instead, I'm breaking them down one month at a time (one week at a time if necessary). Planning for an entire year is daunting, but planning for a week or a month is doable.

our JANUARY family goals:

- read the scriptures every night

- do FHE each week

- take a family photo (it's nice to have evidence that I'm in this family too :)

- make a weekly meal plan & make one big trip to the grocery store each week instead of mini trips scattered throughout

- do one bigger family activity (I'm leaning towards sledding. Will's never really played in the snow, & I bet he'd love it!)

- get a bedtime routine down for the kids

- POTTY TRAIN WILL!

my PERSONAL goals for january:

- do my 10 on 10 photography assignment

- complete my weekly photography theme assignments

- set up an Elevate photo shoot (a fine art challenge) - If it's not obvious, I'm really jumping into photography this year with both feet, hands, & my head - completely submerging myself (without losing focus on my family & home!!!), so I can improve in technique & creativity.

- focus on decluttering my house for 15 minutes a day, rotating zones each week (you can't organize clutter!)

- read my January books - Matched, The Happiness Project, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Night Circus, The Greatest Knight

Project Goals for the New Year

I have been working (or procrastinating working) on more than one quilt for a while now (being pregnant for the last year was part of my excuse for putting them off). I have a bunch of fabric to make a quilt, but don't know what pattern to follow or what I'll do with it when it's finished. I also have a Christmas quilt started from about 2 years ago & a quilt for William that I started earlier last year. Yesterday, I bought more fabric for a new quilt (I really wanted to buy fabric for 2 new quilts - I convinced myself to hold off on the second one until I proved my commitment to finishing at least 1 or 2 of my already started ones. As it is, the only way I allowed myself to buy fabric for 1 new quilt was by committing to myself & to Scott that I would finish my Christmas quilt before I could start the new one.) I am feeling very optimistic about finishing at least one quilt, if not two by the end of the year. So if anyone's interested in getting together to sew, I'm ready.

This is the quilt I bought fabric for yesterday (as it turns out, one of the fabrics is the same one my Etsy apron is made from - see previous post). I'm planning on putting it in my craft/green-painted guest room. Isn't it awesome? I think I'm going to enlarge it, so it will fit on a queen-size bed instead of being a lap blanket.

This is the other quilt I almost bought fabric for. I really want to make it too! I better get going on my other quilts, so I can buy the fabric guilt-free.

My Etsy Apron

Etsy is a website where people from all over can sell their handmade items. I've heard a lot of good things about it, so I thought I'd check it out. Since one of my new year's resolutions is to make dinner more often, I decided to look for an apron that would inspire success. I found a woman who's aprons would do just that, but after debating for too long which apron I should buy, they were already sold to other customers. (By coincidence, my sister, Amy, bought me an apron from Anthropolgie for Christmas - that just finalized my decision to cook more often.)

The original 2 aprons I was choosing b/w:


Two days ago, I looked to see if the store owner added any new aprons (a girl can never have too many aprons to help her with her new year's goal). Much to my excitement, she had many new aprons - one in particular that I loved.

This one:
I started to order the item, but had to stop before paying because Will woke up & was hungry. Of course when I went back later, the apron was sold, & I was so disappointed. Last night, I checked my junk email (which I never look at anymore) & their was a congratulations for my Etsy order - it told me that my apron would be held for two more days until I made my payment. Apparently I was the customer who bought the item. I was so excited & quickly finalized the order for the item I thought someone else had purchased (I know. I'm a dork for not realizing it was me who bought the apron. What a loser to be so upset when I saw the "sold" sign, only to realize later that I was the lucky customer who bought the apron I had wanted so much.) I can't wait for my new apron to arrive!