First week down

How was your first week in the new year? So far it’s been calm and good – I’m not rushing to appointments or filling up my calendar on purpose.

I signed up for a weekly acting class through the beginning of summer and it’s taking me out of my comfort zone. It’s not my first acting class, I always find myself nervous, but I know working on myself is always good, like photography and blogging conferences over the years. It’s also nice to have something scheduled, some sort of structure for me.

Over the past few weeks we’ve had some big furniture purchases. The holidays sales are a great time to lock in those big pieces and technology. We just upgraded to a 55″ 4k TV and it kinda made me dizzy the first 24 hours we had it – it was like everyone was 3D!

There is such great comforting familiarness this week. I sewed two new placemats since we now have a dining table that seats 6 instead of 4. That took an hour of time and I loved every minute of it. I knit a newborn cap for one of my longtime friends who is expecting a baby girl any day now. I rearranged some cabinets for display and tabletop entertainment goodies, swapped curtains between rooms (what a difference!) and will be sewing adding pleating tape to the back of Pottery Barn curtains. I love to sew!

I also saw my Little Sister (I mentored her when I was in college through Big Brothers Big Sisters, she was 7 and now she’s 23!) twice over the past month. All that to say, these moments and little every day moments are what I’ve been missing for the past six months.

Right before I headed home to Nor Cal, I had two photoshoots! I mean hours before the taxi came to get us, I was editing headshots for Phoenix Home & Garden magazine and then off to catch my flight. The last few months of 2015 were jam packed and stretched me in so many ways – creatively and tested a lot of my character.

This month we also go back to hosting a weekly small group (the past year we joined a different group and now due to size we must split off) which I pray will also stretch me – my heart and mind. We’re reading the book “You and Me Forever: Marriage in the Light of Eternity” by Francis Chan. I’m so excited to dive into this book. Workbook here.

OK, now the biggest latest news – I recently got hooked on “Making a Murderer” on Netflix. My girlfriend Nicole text me with lots of question marks and exclamation points and I knew I had to watch the series 10 episodes. I saw it trending on social media and also on E! I’m a huge 20/20, Dateline documentary lover, (former journalist in me). I would highly suggest it if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s insane, and Steve Avery’s lawyers go down in the books as amazing. I stayed up past 2 am watching through episode 6!

I hope you’ve had a great week so far, enjoy your weekend! Oh and before I forget, winner of the CanvasPop 16×20 framed artwork is Stephanie! (Stephanie, you have a yahoo account and lately emails from there have been bouncing, do you have another email?) Thanks all who entered, don’t forget to use DEPHOTOGRAPHY35 for 35% off your order, expires 1/20/16.

Photo by Michael Franco