welcome 2015

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s!

I’ve had a quiet few days, spent mainly resting and reading and knitting and watching Gilmore Girls. The last weeks before Christmas were a rush and I was plain exhausted when the holidays rolled around. Lots of decorating plans didn’t happen due to that but I did manage to bake a late batch of german Christmas ‘Plätzchen’ on the 24th.

We went hiking nearby on the rare dry days, to stretch our legs and try out the hiking guides my mom had given me for Christmas.

I desperately needed those days off. At first I didn’t even think I was going to do a “hello new year, let’s recap and hear the resolutions” post this year, feeling somehow drained and uninspired. After a bit of rest I can manage a little reflection and goal setting though.

2014 wasn’t an easy year, even though there were a number of wonderful experiences (a three week road trip in Canada and a wonderful few days in Scotland to name just a few).  Still, I struggled with my own expectations and limitations. Something I haven’t written about on this blog before is that I’ve been battling a chronic pain issue in my lower back for 1.5 years now. I don’t want to go into this in detail, I’ll just say that anyone who has ever dealt with chronic pain knows that it gets to you in a very nasty sort of way and keeping that at bay is hard and humbling.

That said, I am glad to see 2014 safely behind and I’m much looking forward to 2015. I have some plans for the year, including a bit of travelling that I am very excited about. Looking back at last year’s resolutions I think I didn’t do too badly in 2014. I made progress on the healthy eating front and spent more time outside. I did blog a bit more and grew my business (both the portrait business and the shop). Some things didn’t work out – I definitely need to work on less online time and less comparing myself to others again in 2015 – and there were times when I just had to sit back and accept the fact that I had heaped my plate too high and needed to let go of some things for a while.

In 2015 my main goal will be balance, both physical and mental. I need to listen to my body and accept the limitations it sets me while at the same time pushing myself just hard enough and getting back into exercising regularly, knowing it’s good for me in the longterm although it may be hard and sometimes painful. Not an easy balance to strike.

If you are looking for motivation to exercise, here are three great projects I have come across in the last few days:

• 30 days of Yoga with Adriene (thanks to Sherrie for the tip!), a free Yoga course on Youtube. You can sign up here.
• My Peak Challenge with Sam Heughan (yeah, the hot guy from ‘Outlander’). Set your own challenge and support cancer research at the same time.
• 30 day plank challenge. If you have just a few minutes a day this is a great, fast way to strengthen the body!

I will definitely try to do the 30 days of yoga (but will have to see if it’s possible to stay with it, depending how my back reacts to it) and I am thinking of joining the Peak challenge as well. My Peak this year will be an actual one – I dream of hiking up Ben Nevis on a new visit to Scotland in the summer. In the meantime I will train by going on regular hikes here at home.

As for other goals – healthy eating is a continual one and slowly, one step at a time, I am getting better at it and hope to settle even more into a routine in 2015. I need to be creative to be happy so carving out time for knitting, sewing and other crafts is important to me. Business wise I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge in photography (there is no end to learning, ever!) and focusing more on what I really love doing.

How do you reach goals? I can only speak for myself but I find I need to get very specific about them, setting time apart each week to work on them. I find scheduling this pretty easy, the sticking with it no matter what is the hard part (no surprise there).

What are your goals for 2015?

 

 

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plans

I love the first few weeks in January. It feels like everything is clean and fresh and ready for a new start. A time to make plans.

I am itching to buy seeds and plan out our little balcony garden. This little garden will be feeding us and help us in staying healthy and I’m excited to share the process of planning and planting and growing.

This year will again feature opportunities to travel and making plans for that is always a wonderful start of the year task. Travelling always feels like a breath of fresh air blowing away the cobwebs of daily routines and sharpening the senses for the beauty around us. Oh, the photos to come!

This little blog is overdue for a change too. True to my resolutions I’m looking forward to spending more time here. A new name plus a visual overhaul will be in order and I’m so excited about it! It’s all still in the planning stages, but I hope to share the results with you very soon!
The photo blog has already gotten a new coat of paint so to speak 🙂
There’s a few photos from our new year’s walk over there too if you want to have a look.

happy new year!

I’m wishing you all a wonderful start into 2014.

On the whole, 2013 was a good year for me. I opened my Etsy Shop and learned a ton about having an online business. I was lucky to do some lovely client photoshoots. I also got to travel a bit which always keeps me happy and refills my batteries like nothing else.

The year has gone by so fast that I can hardly believe it’s time for New Year’s Resolutions again! If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know I’m a big believer in making resolutions. Some of last year’s resolutions worked out quite well and I’m proud of that. Writing them down and thinking about practical ways to achieve each resolution is a big step to accomplishing them.

For 2014 I want to keep my resolutions simple:

• healthy eating and living. On the list every year, but I feel I really made some progress here in 2013. I will be sharing this in more detail in its own post but my goal for 2014 is to keep on track. This includes a. healthy eating (meaning essentially less sugar, carbs and grains and more vegetables and fruits), b. drinking lots of water and c. regular exercise (daily yoga and walking plus horseriding and weekly yoga class).
• do my thing and stop comparing myself to others. Knowing your competition is good but especially in photography it can be numbing to see all the talent out there and feel inadequate in comparison. I am happiest when I’m in my creative bubble, doing work I am passionate about and this year I want to remind myself that while drawing inspiration from other artists is great, it is equally important to deliberately step away and immerse yourself in your own creative world. I’m looking at you, Pinterest.
  This year I want to do more work I feel intensely passionate about as this is the work that pushes me in the right direction and makes me really happy.
• less internet time and distraction. this really goes hand in hand with #2. I love the internet but we all know it’s a time sucker like nothing else. Carefully managing and restricting my internet time is a must to make room for working efficiently and having time for creativity.
• get out more. Being in new places and surrounded by nature is intensely satisfying and inspiring for me. In 2014 I want to plan two weekend breaks to just get away for a change of air in between.
• blog more. I love this little space and I feel I haven’t spent enough time here lately. I’ll also be doing an overhaul on my photo blog but redefining this personal space here is important to me.
• grow my business. Obviously 😉 This year I want to focus on what really matters to me and inspires me and I’m so looking forward to it!

Ahem, forget keeping it simple. Once I start writing I usually can’t stop. The boyfriend asked me yesterday what my resolutions are and I replied ‘It’s still a bit vague in my head, but ask me again tomorrow. Once I’ve written about it I’ll know.’ That’s just one of the things I love about blogging…I get to know myself so much better by writing about stuff!

One more thing: The start of a new year is always a good time to listen to this wonderful and inspirational speech by Neil Gaiman. If you don’t know it yet, treat yourself to 20 minutes and listen to it. Actually, even if you do know it, treat yourself and watch it again. I’ll wait here.

Feeling inspired? New Year’s day is a great day to ask yourself ‘What is my mountain? Did the things I did last year take me nearer to or further away from my mountain?’
For me I can say I am moving in the right direction. The way is not always clear but it gets clearer the further I get along.

Thank you for reading and sharing this little corner of the internet with me!

happy new year

I hope you all had a great start into the new year! As always, I try to take the time to reflect on the past year at this point and even though the year has rushed by these reflections have been on my mind a lot in the last days.
It’s always interesting to read back to the last new year’s post and compare. 2012 has been quite a year! It started with a very emotional time for us due to a family member’s illness which stayed with us for a good part of the year too. Thankfully things are looking up a bit on that end a year on!
2011 was the year where I struggled with the transition from student life to full time office work and to be honest I was feeling a bit low and unfocussed by the end of it. I really tackled that in 2012 when I realized that I was ready to go into business with my photography. It was a huge step for me but it has paid off better than I could have imagined.
I went through all the scary paperwork and officially opened my business in February.
Don’t be fooled: having a business while also working a full time day job is HARD. It means long hours on weekends and weekday evenings, a lot of unexpected challenges and a lot of patience when you have inspiring ideas but simply have to accept the fact that there are not enough hours in the day, week, month and it will just have to wait.
But: it is also inredibly rewarding! I can honestly say I have never looked back and enjoy every minute of it. It has challenged me and helped me grow in my photography in ways I could not have foreseen. It has brought wonderful clients my way and allowed me to capture and give a lot of joy. In 2012 I have designed my own website, created a photography blog and a facebook page and taught myself to send email newsletters (subscribe here if you like). I have done it all on my own and I am incredibly proud of that. I needed and need this to define who I am. I have no intention of giving up my day job (in case you were wondering) but I am excited to see what 2013 will bring for my business.

So, resolutions for 2013.
Health ::

• Keep going to my weekly yoga class and do yoga at home daily. I started yoga class early in 2012 and found out I really love yoga. It has given me a completely new feeling for my body and helps me battle back and neck pains. I really need to extend the part yoga plays in my life by doing at least a few minutes daily. At the moment I am using this 10 minute morning yoga session to wake up in the morning and it feels great.
• Drink water. I went to see a doctor about two months ago because I kept having really bad headaches, as often as two or three times a week and they were getting worse. I was also starting to get tummy aches from taking too much aspirin. She told me to start drinking 2.5 litres of pure water (in addition to every other liquid) every day before trying other treatment. I laughed in her face because I thought I was already drinking enough water. Guess what, I wasn’t. I am not up to 2.5 litres a day yet but the headaches have nearly stopped and I feel much better. Turns out the body adjusts to it after a while, it even makes you more thirsty the more you drink and I don’t even have to run to pee every five minutes anymore. Wish I had known this 15 years earlier.
• Eat better. This one is on my list every single year. We do get better at cooking and eating healthier (still going to the farmer’s market every weekend) but there is still too much frozen pizza. This year I’m planning to tackle this by writing down 10-15 recipes we already know how to do and have them ready at hand, so we’ll have something healthy and easy to make without the pressure of having to search for a recipe and then shopping for it.
• Keep up my daily lunch time walk even in rotten weather and when the cafeteria is warm and inviting.

Grow::

• Expand and grow my Photography business in new ways. Keeping up the inspiration by setting myself challenges and goals, both overall and for each new photoshoot. Being self-taught I feel there is just so much I do not know and master yet. At the same time I need to learn not to be too hard on myself, to value my work and learn to be more patient.
• Improve and keep up my Italian language skills by listening to a language CD at least once a week in the car on my way to work. Unused language skills fade all too quickly.
• Keep on simplifying. In 2009 we gave up television. In 2011 we decluttered and got rid of probably half of what we owned. In 2012 we have reaped the rewards by having less stuff to manage and worry about. Keeping our home clean and cozy is much easier, since picking up and putting things back where they belong takes hardly any time at all. Living simply is an ongoing project that needs managing and supervising and I’m excited to continue doing it in 2013.
• Be a kinder person. Also on my list every year and the hardest resolution to keep. I think I’m good at this at work and with friends, but less so with family and those closest to me. I think it’s so hard to keep because it is vague and there are less obvious steps to achievement. I will just try to remind myself often to be kind and caring and patient even when I’m tired.

If you’ve kept on reading until here, thank you! Thank you for being here in this space and reading and commenting and sharing and encouraging.

2012

Another year gone and I know I’m repeating myself, but how fast it’s come and gone!
This time last year I was looking forward to slowing down a little. My dad’s health problems only a few short months ago, myself still coming to terms with the anger and frustration that I had just left behind in a bad job situation and changes in daily life that came with adjusting from college to corporate world.

Looking back on 2011 now, it was a year of little outward changes for the first part of it- until we moved that is. Instead it was a year of taking a step back, trying to define for myself where I fit into this picture of having achieved my diploma, having settled down in an office job and accepting that this place (geographically even) is where I’ll be for as long as I can think ahead right now.
I was very reluctant to move apartments, which seems silly now that we love our new place so much. The reason was probably that I wasn’t “done” thinking all this through yet.

My New Year’s resolutions last year were:
1. Eat healthier and more local, which will include growing as much stuff as possible ourselves
2. Educate myself further in photography, gardening and sustainable living
3. Simplify and declutter.
Funnily enough, although a big part of the year felt like I was losing focus and looking to find it again, I achieved my resolutions. We now shop at the farmer’s market every Saturday and eat better at least at the weekends.
I did some nice photo shoots throughout the year (although still nowhere near where I’d like to be yet) and did the big balcony garden experiment, which was very successful in parts and will definitely continue in 2012. I realized “going green” is not one big overhaul but a step-by-step process that we are well on (now’s the point where I guiltily realize that I’ve been planning a post on that for months).
We threw or gave away approximately a third of our belongings and it was a long and painful process. Having worked hard at this for many months it feels so good now to be starting into a new phase in life with a clean slate.

So what’s in store for 2012? A lot I hope 🙂
:: More steps towards a simpler and greener life, more growing food and learning.
:: Hopefully a big step in photography.
:: But also, and very importantly, becoming better at keeping a balance between time and projects and resources, living more in the moment.
I have always been high-strung and this year I realized I am a highly sensitive person (here’s a great personal article about it), a term I wasn’t familiar with before but which makes so much sense now that I can’t believe how I lived without the knowledge. It means, in a nutshell, that I can get more absorbed in ideas, projects, creative endeavours, even my office work than most people. I burn for my ideas and experience and perceive things very intensely. The price for that is crashing harder at the end of the day than most people, both physically and emotionally.
My body lets me know fairly reliably when I run out of strength. The hard part is learning to stop to listen to it, dealing with the frustration of wanting to do so much and accepting that I can’t, that I must take it more slowly.

I realize I have blogged less in the past year and have sometimes failed to answer a comment and email and that is a trend that, quite frankly, will probably continue as 2012 gets busy. I love this blog and the friends I have made here but I find that too much online time makes me nervous. As one step towards more balance I’ve decided that in 2012 I will limit my online time to a reasonable amount.
Another step (and another resolution) will be learning how to meditate and incorporating that into my daily routine.

If you’ve actually read to the end of this, thank you! I am so grateful to have this blog as much as a personal outlet and as a place to interact and meet people from all over the world. Thank you for being here and I’m looking forward to sharing another year here with you 🙂

*As you’ve probably realized the photos in this post had nothing to do with the text, they’re just random horse shots from my now finished Project 52

happy blue

The unintentional theme in yesterday’s pictures.


Though blue is the thing farthest from me this week. Do you know that feeling of just being deliriously happy without cause in totally random moments? Of suddenly being so full of happiness you feel giddy and almost like starting to cry? So far 2011 has been full of that (ok, 2011 is only a week old but so far so good).

I don’t think I realized how much 2010 weighed me down until it was over. I am ready for a new year, new plans, new challenges, new garden, new job and a newfound lightness when many stray threads are finally coming together.

It is raining and I love it, I love to be rid of all the ice on the roads, I love the patterns on the streets at night. I love that 10°C feels wonderfully warm and I love the change in the air that ever so slightly hints at spring and green and sun.

2009

has been a truly great year. My last year in college. I spent an amazing month in Canada, learning so much on so many levels. I learned to trust my pony more. I went camping with crazy cowboys. I spent 2 weeks in beautiful Italy with amazing friends. I found myself again in creativity. I worked hard on improving my photography.

New Year’s Resolutions:
:: embracing the changes that are to come
:: be more deserving of the great life I have and the wonderful family and friends (both national and international, both human and furry) that fill it
:: be more patient and less grumpy