GRATITUDES + BREAKTHROUGHS 03.12.19

Gratitudes

Y’all I have finally made it. I have been drinking wine and posting about it long enough that Quirk Hotel in Richmond, Va shared an image of me in my natural habitat: relaxing with a glass of red wine! You can find it here:

Quirk Hotel Instagram Featuring Me!

I’m going to Lisbon, Portugal in June with Rachel of The One Moment Events. We found an insane flight deal and jumped! I am so excited for another trip to Europe, the coast, vineyards, seafood and the colorful streets! if you have any recommendations of restaurants, shops etc. Please send them my way!

Friday afternoon we had that weird snow/rain/sleet day, but I warmed up with Michelle of Lieb Photographic, Stephanie of Stephanie Messick Photography and Kristen of Kristen Gardner Photography! I tried their Cab Franc and their Touriga. I ended up grabbing a glass of the Touriga even though I liked the Cab Franc better to get me in the mood for Portugal in June! It’s always a pleasure getting together with these ladies to catch up and do a little roundtable work with our businesses!

Saturday was filled with venue tours at Loundy County’s Wedding Open House. I wasn’t set-up as a vendor because I wanted to make sure I could visit some of the venues I haven’t had the priviledge of shooting at yet and I wanted to swing by and support some frendors! Tori from Victoria Heer Photography met me for a full breakfast at Salamander Market and we headed off to Red Fox Inn, Goodstone Inn, Sylvanside Farm and Tranquility Farm. All of them had that classic hunt country vibe I love and my couples love as well. I’ll be sharing photos of the spaces on IG so keep a look out!

Katlyn’s yoga class on Sunday was full! She had set a fundraising goal of $350 and she made close to $1,000 for Love Your Brain. Afterwards we all grabbed a beer at Barely Naked, it was the perfect Sunday!

New week, it’s a new polish change. I’m going back to a neutral pink with I’ll Have A Gin + Tectonic. It’s a light mauvey pink from OPI’s Iceland Collection! I’m actually wearing it in the photo above!

Breakthroughs

I’ve been teetering on a breakthrough the past few weeks. This one has brought clarity and peace from one of the least likely sources of let’s say peace and clarity, an app called Instagram.

People and relationships are complicated and when I say relationships I’m talking friendships and intimate committed relationships. We seek out people who complement us, who make us feel whole and full and loved. Sometimes those relationships last a lifetime, others seem to fade in a few weeks/months/years, sometimes they revolve around life events or exist only on the surface. Some make a quiet exit, while others destroy everything on the way out.

Either way, these people you connected with, were present in your life for a reason. A specific period of time to help you learn something, grow from something or create something. So many “somethings” really. I’ve recently started tracking followers on Instagram to help grow my following. If you don’t know, Instagram is the biggest lead for my business so being able to expand and catch organic followers is huge!

I noticed a few people who had previously exited my life, some amicably some like a hurricane, started following me again. I’ll admit my initial thought was “Huh, why do you care what I’m doing now?”

I’ve talked before about how I’m a slow emotional processor – I’m running Windows 98, when I should be running iOS. It takes me a long time to let myself feel a certain way, to come to a place of peace with that and form a conclusion. I’ve been checking in with myself on it lately and made that big breakthrough.

I recognized that those feelings were coming from a place of protection. I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t feel the same hurt I felt when they left the first time. I was guarded and I even thought about blocking them, because my life, daily musings and feelings are mine to protect or to share freely.

Anyway, I decided to let it be. To leave things as they were, to not block or allow that fear of hurt/vulnerability hold a space in my heart any longer. The people that left and how they chose to leave, that’s on them, not me. For me, it’s something that happened in the past, as “just a thing that happened” and I’ve moved on.

I’m always humbled by the timing of breakthroughs and where they come from. I’ll double-tap to like this one.

As always thanks for reading. xoxo.