Last January I wrote out a list of goals I wanted to accomplish in 2010 and dubbed it my 38 in 365 project. My time officially expired on January 9, 2010, but this month has passed so quickly, and I haven’t found the time to really reflect on the list as a whole. I’m giving myself till the end of the month — which leaves me, like, 3 days…? Oh goodness. In the meantime, I wanted to do a quick post on some things I have accomplished, but never blogged about individually. I’ll gather my remaining thoughts and do a wrap-up post on the whole project early next week. If you want to see the full list and how the project progressed in 2010, *click here*.
12. Organize my closet.
So, I actually did this way back in the summer time after I was no longer in the corporate environment and found out that we were having a baby. Based on those two developments, it was a lot easier than I expected. Afterall, I didn’t need all those cardigan sweaters and black pants I’d been collecting anymore! And those teeny tiny tank tops and cute short shorts were easy to toss knowing that I would never fit back into them anyway :)
16. Read (and finish) one non-business related book.
When I was young, I loved to read. But sadly I got out of the habit in high school and just don’t make the time for it like I should. I added this goal hoping to take the first step toward a renewed love of books, but it wasn’t really happening for me in the first part of the year. And then I got pregnant. I have read pretty much any and every baby-related book that I have been gifted or run across in the last eight months. Funny how that happens. It isn’t the novel that I’d hoped for, but I can say without a doubt that I read my share of books (and then some) in 2010.
17. Book five more weddings for 2010.
My goal was to shoot 10 weddings in 2010. I was still working full time when I wrote out my goals last year and thought it would be a manageable number. Not counting the times I helped second shoot for friends, I ended up shooting 11 beautiful weddings. My goal is slightly higher this year, but not by much. I admire photographers who can shoot 30 or 40 weddings in a year, but honestly, I don’t think I’m cut out for that kind of craziness. My relationship with my clients is something I take really seriously, and I feel like I can give my best when I have an equal balance of work and personal time.
23. Organize a professional portrait shoot for my girlfriends.
This is a goal I tackled early in the year. I have a really great group of girlfriends who have been with me since childhood. As our families grow, and we become more scattered over the country, it is harder and harder to get everyone together at the same time. In March, we held a wedding shower for Jill and then left the next morning for her bachelorette party in Nashville. We met up with my friend Hillary for a photo session before heading to the music city.
25. Shoot and frame artwork for our house.
As a photographer, you’d think this would be an easy item to mark off the list. NOT TRUE! This has actually been one of the harder ones for me. I think it boils down to me being extremely indecisive and also my own worst critic. I have photos that I love, but they just don’t seem “art” worthy like they should. It’s silly, but it is hard for me to look at my own photos with an impartial eye. The few photos that I have printed have gotten stuck in limbo as I obsess over what I should or shouldn’t do with them. What size frame do I need? What wall would look best? How should I group them? This is definitely something I am going to continue to work on in 2011. Framing other people’s photographs has proved a little easier, so those are the examples that I have…
30. Host Thanksgiving dinner at our house.
Unbeknownst to me at the time of writing my goals, we spent Thanksgiving in Rosemary Beach. So that kind of took the wind out of my domestic sail. We were still able to pitch in a little more than normal though, and Allen was given the honor of carving our delicious turkey.
31. Create sample albums.
This is another goal I marked off earlier in the year. I took lots of photos of the beautiful new wedding albums and then summer and fall caught up with me, and I never posted them! In prepping for this post, I searched every file and external hard drive that I own and can’t find the photos. Like hiding my childhood diary from my older brother, I’m sure they were strategically tucked away in some perfect hiding spot that I’ll never remember. So you’ll have to just take my word until I can revisit the documentation later.
32. Order our wedding album.
Done, done and done! This has been in the works for a few months now, and the album finally arrived last week. I have a whole long story to go with it’s completion and hope to post that in its entirety in the next few weeks.
34. Recycle!
We are at an unfortuanate disadvantage in our small town in that they don’t have recycling pick-up. I have been keeping a small bin where we open the mail to discard paper magazines and white paper, but I want to do more. This too shall be revisited in 2011.
35. Help my mom grow her new business.
Over the past few weeks, you have probably seen me touting my mom’s handy work. She has been making handmade cards and products for a few years now, but really made the commitment to her business in 2010. With my background in marketing, I really want to help her get it off the ground and show others what great work she can do. She is currently working with a designer to finalize her branding and packaging, and I have pretty much forced myself into the process on her behalf :) We have done a lot to grow the business in the last year, most recently opening her Etsy site. It took six months of badgering for her to finally get it up and in less than two days she had already begun selling things! I’m counting that as a success…
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by Amanda
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