Where have I been...and where I am going...

 

I feel like a broken record. Here I am, once again, announcing another change. If you've been following my blog and my online adventures, your head is probably spinning and your eyes rolling. I get that. I also get that when people are trying to start a business, they have to go through lots of changes. Many times continually reinventing their brand and streamlining what they do.

I started off this month with devotionals and the plan was to keep posting one every day until October 31st. The truth is, I couldn't say anything at the time, but I was planning my mother's surprise 50th birthday party. This was also on top of weaning my son off of a pacifier. I had soon realized that life was way too short to spend it on things that your heart wasn't in. Before I knew it, three days had gone by without a single new devotion posted...

And I felt guilty. I didn't want to let you guys down and honestly I wasn't even sure if anyone was following the devotions. Life happened and of course that took precedence over blogging.

My heart is always in the Word, don't mistake what I'm saying. But posting a devotional a day made my sweet, intimate meeting with the Lord every morning seem more like a chore. And I don't like that. I don't want that. I don't want to have this blog because I feel other people want me to have it.

I honestly think that God really wants me to share the devotionals with people who seriously want to read them. More one on one. So while I still feel like the Lord wants me to continue writing 31 devotionals in 31 days, I believe He wants me to do them on my own first. Offline. Unplugged. And if anyone truly wants to do them with me, shoot me and email and I can email them straight to you!

Time is precious and I've spent close to 3 years blogging...and it has brought a lot of good and bad. I know I've tried to walk away many times and continue getting sucked back in. But right now, the season is over and moving on...

Why? Well, I'm rebranding my online shop and everything is clicking. I feel different this time around. I believe blogging was a platform for me to learn community, networking and sharing with other people. It helped me see the potential I have as a leader and business owner (while also showing me many, many weaknesses!). And I'm ready to step up to the plate.

This. This is where my heart is at the moment (online wise.) My husband and I have been praying for a house. He works so hard just so I can stay home with our son. If I'm going to do something, I want to do with to glorify God, utilize my talents and help my family financially. We are not really struggling but the load could be lighter. And I want to help make that lighter. I want to help us reach our dream.

My passion is illustration, home decor and writing. Hello Awesome will officially launch November 1st and will include all of those things! Hand-illustrated wall art, decorative porcelain (plates, mugs, vases etc), prints and so much more. Inspirational artwork and gifts, just in time for the holidays.

I can feel it in my bones. This is it. All the roads I've been on have lead to this! I can feel it. So I need all of my strength, my creativity and my focus on this shop in order for it to be the great business I know it can be.

And I'm sorry. I apologize to any sponsor or any reader who feels neglected. The truth is, I am not good at blogging and it is not so much fun anymore. Blogging has turned into a business. It's no longer the heartfelt journaling it used to be. I've started a Tumbler blog for Hello Awesome right here. We will see how it works and if I even want it. Like I said, my focus right now is on my shop. I will promote it via social media and on blogs. But as far as me, sitting down here, writing...that season is over I think. At least for now. And I am okay with that.

My mother's party was this past weekend and yesterday I was so burnt out. It really opened my eyes to treasuring every moment of every day. Don't waste time on something that doesn't make you happy. I can't worry about what people think anymore or what they are saying about me. I don't live this life for them. And they don't control my happiness.

If you want to follow along as I rebrand my business, reinvent my online presence and revamp my shop, I can be found on Instagram and Twitter.

I truly believe that when you do something you love, others will love it to. So I'm off to do just that and I know it is going to be awesome!!

Quit Your Job, Live Your Dream

"Every blessing starts with a wish, every flower with a seed,

every heart with a dream."
{original quote}

Do you remember as a child wanting to be something great? Like a musician, artist or a ballerina? It was all you could think about! If you were like me, you already started making up songs, drawing, writing or expressing your dream in some way, right? Okay here’s my next question: do you remember when you stopped dreaming? 

As we get older, we are surrounded by responsibility and consumed by the cares of everyday life. Our dreams usually get put on the back burner until eventually they are forgotten and have rotted. In time, it becomes difficult to recall those child-like dreams. But what if I was to tell you that you still have the choice to live it out? I mean, come on, you are still alive! Why do we feel like those dreams were only fantasies and could not become real?

A few years ago in December, I was laid off from my job as a bank teller. I was so happy! Pretty nuts huh? I know it sounds strange but I knew this was my chance to have the dream job I’ve always wanted. Since eight years old, I wanted to be in a creative job. While people around me freaked out that I lost my job, I was motivated. That day, I spent hours cleaning out my home studio and starting fresh.

You see, I had spent my entire “career” in customer service, working in food and then for financial institutions. I loved the people but the work, not so much. I loved art and writing. Drawing, painting and creating stories was where my heart was at all times! That desire to create for a living never went away. I found myself in between customers doodling on the back of receipt papers, old slips and even empty Chicken McNugget boxes {which I happily emptied, of course}. My mind could not get out of my childhood dream!

Now, I have an online shop, wrote a book and run a pretty fun blog {I least I think it’s fun. Duh, it’s ‘cuz I’m fun! Right? Right…} Everything has really taken off and is able to provide us with some extra income. Though I’d like to say that I am my own boss, the reality is that my customers are my boss. It is because of them that I am able to do something that I love so much! The tools that I learned from all the years in customer service helped me establish a customer friendly business.

Today, seize every opportunity that presents itself to you to make that child-like dream a reality. You can make up excuses like I did: “I need a paycheck” or “bills are too much” OR you can turn around and say like I did:  “I know it’s not going to be easy but it will be so worth it.” Either way, we have to work. So why not try and do something that you love? There are tons of resources now for anyone wanting to work in any field. Take to Google and search for how to get started. You only have one life and it’s yours. Are you going to let the dull, boring adult “all work, no play” mindset control your heart forever? Write a plan and seek every opportunity to see it through. 

I am not suggesting to just quit your job cold turkey. That would be irresponsible. I'm trying to get your mind back to that dream, that feeling of being alive...a mindset that has been lost in a sea of stuffy people complaining and whining every day about their jobs. I know having a dream job depends on a lot of factors but ask yourself if there are a lack of resources or you have just fallen into a corporate trap...

If you think you can’t do it, you won’t. “Can’t” shouldn’t be in your dream! You have resources and the abilities to make your child-like dream come true. Say you can, make a plan and it will happen!

Linking up to:

Six Sisters' Stuff

Tatertots & Jello

 

Our Eyes Are Addicted To Clocks

There's never enough of it.
Not even a little bit.
From the moment it starts to the moment it ends,
You turn around just to fall back again.

Rushing through it.
Counting minutes.
Just takes a second.
For you to ruin it.

We track it, box it, lock it, watch it.
Memories full of pleasantries,
Consumed by luxuries
Only to be broken down
And analyzed by the tick tock sound

It is amazing how much value we put on time. Our eyes are addicted to clocks, watches, cellphones and digital reminders on our laptops. Schedule after schedule, we act like we are in control. When really, it controls us. 

Sometimes I dream about a life without a time conscious. How free my soul would feel without the worry about deadlines, nap times and bedtimes. To enjoy every minute like a moment and not like a meeting. I think how God created time yet He Himself is not bound to it. 

I don't want to be bound by it either.
What pleasures and peace would I experience if my mind didn't rush through the hours and days? What beauty would I see if I didn't plan every activity and interaction?

What would you do if you weren't bound by time?

Still That Girl

“You were young, you were free and you dared to believe you could be the girl who can change the world. Then your life took a turn and you fell and it hurt, but you’re still that girl and you’re gonna change this world…”

Britt Nicole {“Still that girl”/Gold}

If there is one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I love a good song. Not just any song. I’m talking about a song that moves your emotions to new depths and gives you instant goosebumps all over. You know what I mean?

The above quote is that song for me at the moment {another thing to note: I love Britt Nicole. Not only can she sing her socks off but you can tell she loves the Lord..and that rocks my socks off.} When I first heard “Still that girl”, I didn’t think too much about it. I mean, I liked the song, but it was just another tune on the playlist. Until I really listened to the lyrics one day while cleaning my studio…I love blasting music while doing that! Suddenly, Britt’s words pricked my heart and brought me back down memory lane…

When I was growing up, I was a dreamer. Surprise surprise. I always dreamed big but I never planned big. There is a difference. So when I started my first relationship and went away to college, those “big dreams” suddenly took a back seat to life. They didn’t have to but I made certain choices that this could not have been helped. Fast-forward to years later, I was heartbroken, sinking in guilt and shame for the life I had been leading.

Besides the details that I share in my book, another important thing haunted me. I went from a “dream seeker” to a “dream doubter.” What I mean by that is, I went from striving to reach big, to talking myself out of my desires. I made up excuses why I couldn’t live life as an artist {“I don’t have a degree!”} and why I could never write a book {“I am an awful speller!}. I started looking at all of the bad I had done and felt like none of it could be erased, so therefore, I could never change the world.

False! I totally lied to myself! I had let all of those negative things that had happened to me be in charge of my destiny. God had a plan for me all along, and though I had dug myself in a deep depressing hole of lame, He knew exactly what I needed to get out! And I did! Here I am, a work at home wife and mommy, living my dreams. I can officially call myself an artist and even an author. Whoa...

I am still that girl.

I am still that girl who loves to stare out of car windows and daydream.
I am still that girl who doodles on scrap paper, notebooks and cardboard boxes.
I am still that girl who laughs at the dumbest things even if I’m the only one!
I am still that girl who loves forts, lemonade stands in the summer and a cold slushy.
I am still that girl who gets butterflies when she sees him {but now he’s mine forever!}
I am still that girl who tries to be positive even when life hands you razor blades.
I am still that girl who believes there’s a God bigger than anything else, and it will be okay because He has all power and control over it all!

The question now is, who are you? Are you still that girl? Do you still dream big, aim high, seek the best out of every situation or have you let the situations of life steal that away? I want to tell you don’t let your past take away your dreams! You can still be that girl, only wiser {like me! uh kidding}

Nothing can hold you back unless you allow it. No one is going to do it for you; you have to be not only aware that you can change the world, but you have to believe it. Don’t be a “dream doubter”, you are better than that, always have been and always will be!

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