Well, I haven’t shared a free printable in a bit… so, why not a couple things for Valentine’s day? Yay! It’s just a couple weeks away now. SO, here you go! Enjoy!
Links: Bang print, and Mac to my Cheese print.
{Related Posts: bacon hearts, I love us freebie printable, Freebie girl prints}
Tags: happy valentines day, print, printable
Categories: diy, Holiday - Valentine's Day
<< my outfit: //top: thrifted//belt: thrifted//skirt: thrifted// >>
I’m old. The end.
Ok, I’m not. But, I’m twenty nine today. Yup, 2o freakin’ 9. 29. So, I will be 30 in a year… which: I’m totally ok with. It’s just weird. When did I get to my late twenties? Wasn’t it just the other day I was celebrating my 21st birthday in Seattle with my now husband and sister…. on Superbowl Sunday… with Janet Jackson’s boob?
Man… time flies. This year we are seriously laying low. Just headed out for some pizza with the family and… then, a couple friends over on the Superbowl this Sunday. Yup… I usually share my birthday with the Superbowl. ::le sigh:: ohs well. I don’t really care too much about football… but, I do enjoy the superbowl: so, I’m cool with sharing my birthday celebration with the world. NEXT year though: I’m thinking a big ‘ol whacky party! Two of my best girl friends and I all turn 30 next year at the same time (Jan. 27th, Jan. 29th, and Feb. 1st). I see a lovely party in a year. Yup!
{If you have a Wordless{ish} Wednesday, please feel free to link it up below. And, feel free to link up to these blogs too… 5 Minutes For Mom, Parenting by Dummies, Project Alicia,And Then She Snapped, Jenni from the Blog, and Live and Love Outloud.}
Tags: 29, birthday, chelsey, wordless wednesday
Categories: Uncategorized
One of the sessions Jess, Robin, and I wandered into at Alt Summit was the Work and Life Balance session. The panel was an amazing group of talented ladies: http://inchmark.squarespace.
I have so many orders right now I get a bit overwhelmed… I’m forever learning how to manage my time properly: I’m a work at home mom. There’s a lot involved in that role. I often remind myself to stop thinking about work while I’m playing with R. I don’t want to seem distant or like I’m not putting my all into being the best mom I can be for R. And, I know it can’t be healthy to think of work 24/7. I blog for a living…. I don’t live to blog. Something to remind myself. It’s hard when I’m in the moment and think, “Oh, I should take photos of this for the blog….” No. I should take photos of this moment for me. For my family. To remember. In December I talked about how I’ve been actively leaving my best bud, Camera, at home just so I can BE in the moment…. And not the photographer of the moment.
One thing I’ve been doing to get all of the garble out of my head is… Stop… Pull out my phone and add a note to my Note App. That way the thought is out of my head and I know it’s safe and saved along my phone for me to come back to later. Out of my mind. I always have my phone with me anyway…. So, it works! I copy/paste and email the notes to myself for when I’m actually working. In FACT: that’s exactly where I wrote this post. On my phone. I wasn’t sleeping too well and just had to get all my thoughts out… here they are! Actually, this is how I write MANY of my posts.
So, what I really took home from this work and life balance session:
– You can choose what projects you work on. It is ok to say no sometimes. Don’t let the guilt get to you.
– Don’t dilute your brand with quantity. Quality is ALWAYS better than quantity. Oh so true.
– Design your life… who am I? why am I here? and, what am I supposed to be doing?
How do you get your thoughts out?
{Related Posts: Learning to step back… to breath // Alt Summit sessions begin! // Making a living… doing what I love! }
Tags: 2012, about me, alt summit, balance, chelsey, conference, life, paper mama shop, work and play
Categories: Uncategorized
A while back I wrote a post, Be Nice. Basically I was asking everyone to step back and take a moment before you comment/speak mean or hurtful thoughts. 99.9999% of the comments I get here at my blog home are so sweet and nice and encouraging. But, there are still times I get the meanies commenting. Most recently I’ve had a couple of comments about my looks. And, the most recent was about how big my nose was. While I can say, “Pfft, whatever. They are just stupid/lame/losers with nothing to do but pick on people. They can’t hurt me.” it still did bother me. After I got the nose comment I actually caught myself checking it’s size in the mirror. What? My brain was letting them win. I love my nose. I’ve always loved my nose. I nose (hee hee) it’s larger than “normal” but, I like it. It’s my nose. It matches my brother’s nose. I would never change it.
So, instead of letting the mean commenter win…. I can step back and say, “whoa, why am I letting this anonymous troll commenter hurt me?” and, move on.
Recently my VERY beautiful friend, Mandy, wrote about the importance of sharing photos of yourself on your own blog. I truly believe that your readers will connect with you more if you share a photo of you! We all have our issues (even Mandy talks about her “bad side”…. which, is just as beautiful as the other side. Seriously.). For me: I am usually uncomfortable with the double chin that ALWAYS appears when someone pulls out a camera. I swear…. you pull out a camera and ::poof:: double chin.
Another great post is by my other friend, Moorea… the Red Lipstick Challenge. Like her… I was always afraid of wearing bright red lipstick because it would attract too much attention to my face (I’m a wee bit shy and in HS I had really crooked teeth before my braces at 21). So, I avoided it. But, now Moorea is challenging her readers/friends to try it. For her she says that wearing red lipstick is a reminder of her confidence… just like it has been for me since I started wearing it in the past 2 months. I love it!
So, why am I sharing all this with you? Every once in a while I like to challenge myself to take more self portraits. I don’t usually love all of them… but, since I have control over the camera I can take the photo the way I want. We are coming up on Valentine’s Day and this is the time I usually have a Valentine’s Photo challenge. BUT, this year I want to do something different (don’t worry… there’s still a fabulous prize to win!)…
My challenge to you:
Take a self portrait (no need to be a fancy photographer or own a fancy camera…taking a photo with your phone works too. I love self cell phone pics) and blog about it! Blog about you. I love the Currently posts that Danielle from Sometimes Sweet does…. so, this would be a great way for you to share some fun current goodies about you! With your beautiful self portrait!
What can you win? How about $100 shop credit from me to put towards a custom family portrait (check out my family portrait info here).
My self portrait and info:
Obsessing over…
All the inspiration and amazing/talented people I met while I was at Alt Design Summit! I’m so full of ideas and things I want to do I’m about to burst!
Working on…
Drawing! Drawing… drawing… drawing. I have a couple orders I’m finishing before Valentine’s day and a couple more I need to finish ASAP. Lots of work. BUT, I do love it. PLUS, working on getting my buns in gear to get more of my drawings on to fabric!
Thinking about…
All the fun things I have planned for this next year! In my life… for my business… Potty training my kid… <— that one is not one of my favorites.
Anticipating…
So much. So much. My sister and 2 of my best buds are getting married this summer so I’m crazy helping them with that and so excited! Excited for my sister to be home from New Zealand for a couple months.
Listening to…
The She and Him Pandora channel. It’s my favorite channel. So much freaking variety. P.S. the She and Him Holiday channel was my favorite over Christmas time too.
Eating…
Well, right now I’m drinking my favorite Earl Grey Tazo tea :::cafffeeeeiiiine::: and I did eat a slice of pizza for lunch. Hee.
Wishing…
Wishing I could live closer to all my blog friends I’ve been meeting. All of them! We should all just move onto a farm and start some weird cult or something.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Rules:
– To enter, link up your blog post to my linky below. (Please don’t link FB pages. I can’t view those usually).
– Post must include a self photo of you. It can be an old photo if you’d like… but, why not take a new one?
– Please link back to my blog on your post. You can copy and paste this link if you’d like: ” Linking up with The Paper Mama for her Self Photo Challenge! ”
– Share what is currently going on in your life following Danielle’s “Currently” prompt (see my self photo and info example above).
– PG please.
– One entry per person.
– Winner will be chosen at random from Random.org on February 13th 2012.
– Have fun!
Tags: 2012, photo challenge, self challenge
Categories: Uncategorized
Just a fun little video from Alt Summit! This party was hosted by Squarespace and Uppercase magazine on Friday. I’m in the video with my buddies Also in the video with me is Dayna. Robin. Jess.
{Related posts: Day 1 Alt Design Summit, Alt Summit Begins!, Day 2 of Alt Sessions}
Tags: 2012, alt summit, conference, video
Categories: Uncategorized
{My outfit << //blouse: Guess//Sweater: F21//Jeans: f21//boots: thrift// >>}
Saturday we headed out a Rebuild-it center out in Portland. We’re working on some DIY stuff at home…. using only repurposed materials. Yay! We didn’t find everything we needed. BUT, it will be great! We’ll be sure to share photos soon.
Linking up with Mandy from Harper’s Happenings.
Tags: chelsey, my style, steppin out saturday challenge
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: 2012, pm photo challenge
Categories: Uncategorized
