Life Lately | No. 01

My dear friends, it has been a month – a month full of #allthethings. In fact, they were good things that have just unfortunately held me away from my normal blogging schedule. It honestly has pained me to be away from the blog for almost 3 weeks, but it has made me realize that I am not super woman. (Bummer, right?!)

I’ve been a little MIA in terms of blogging and social media, and that has left so many of you wondering lately what I’ve been up to! I promise my absence has been all for good reasons. But, needless to say, I can’t what to share with you a little bit of ‘Life Lately’ today on the blog.

What I’ve Been Up To

Present over Perfect

As you may remember back when I had talked about my goals for 2018, I really made a commitment to myself (in both my business and my personal life!) to live a healthier lifestyle mind, body, and soul. I’m definitely a work horse that would happily not put it down. That’s really what happens when you love what you do.

However, one thing that came with the idea of a healthier way of living that I knew I needed to do was to set boundaries for myself to be more present in living life. Rather than spreading myself thin and multitasking my day away – whatever ‘best yes’ or priority that was needing me at any specific time got 110% of my heart and attention before moving on to the next thing. (and so on!) Essentially, as the Present Over Perfect book reads, I was aiming to leave behind the frantic that often comes with a life of entrepreneurship and lean on a simpler, more soulful way of living – all while giving myself a lot of grace along the way of course.

READ ALSO: Books I’m Loving Lately + Recent Reads

Frequent Flyers

Long story short, I was definitely tested with this idea of being more present this past month as Rob and I traveled in and out of town for various events and family visits. Between client work, conference planning, my own business, and keeping the home base alive, the days are full enough without the addition of travel. I focused on prioritizing tasks, keeping my client and conference commitments (because that’s the most important!), getting done what else I could, and giving myself grace for the rest.

As you can guess by now, one of those things I gave myself grace on was definitely social media. And you know what? It honestly felt so freeing getting to soak up some of those precious moments we had. We celebrated birthdays, attended a dance recital and got my make-up done by a 5-year-old, visited family and relaxed on the lake, saw sweet friends over a table of delicious food, and invested in our business by attending the Entreleadership Conference in Houston.

Present over perfect, y’all. Life’s moments are so sweet. 

Volume 7 of Southern Celebrations Magazine

As you may remember seeing on my social media channels, my recent breathtaking California Bohemian Vineyard photoshoot inspired by the Pantone Color of the Year won the creative contest at Southern Celebrations Magazine AND landed the cover spot of their Volume 7 issue.

A couple weeks ago, I was so excited to finally share our featured gallery with you all. I feel so blessed to have worked alongside such a dream team of vendors, and I can’t get enough of how beautifully Shannon Ford Photography captured it all!

READ ALSO: Pantone Ultra Violet Boho

French Country Farmer’s Market

After months of dreaming, planning, and designing this project, my French Country Farmer’s Market wedding styled photoshoot dreams became a reality last week with Linda Threadgill Photography and an amazing team of vendors at The Shed at Westover Farms. It’s definitely days like that one where I have to pinch myself that this is my job!

While my lips are sealed on all the details for now as we await publication, I can promise you that you’re not going to want to miss this stunning project. Thank you to all these amazing vendors that made today possible:

Wedding Season is Here!

Aside from the breathtaking photoshoots that I’ve had the chance to be a part of lately, wedding season is also officially here and busier than ever! I’ve had the honor of booking two brides in the past week, and I couldn’t be more excited for all of our upcoming weddings and projects we have the opportunity to be a part of. We give God all of the praise, honor, and glory for what He continues to do through us and this business of ours – and we can’t wait to see how He continues to work through us!

P.S. We still have select dates available for 2018 weddings with 2019 coming up fast! Let me help give you the breathtaking wedding day you’ve been dreaming about your whole life. 

Contact me today for your complimentary consultation!

 + What I’m Loving Lately

Our Farmhouse Fence

One of our big recent projects over here at A Hosting Home has definitely been building our fence. Having lived in Texas for so long where privacy fences are the norm, we knew right away that we didn’t want our backyard to feel like a shoe box. We wanted a fence to keep the dog contained (so I could stop having to stand outside in my pajamas each morning!) But, we didn’t want to obstruct the view and feeling that an open backyard gave.

Needless to say, I am in love with the fence that we designed for our backyard. Rob built the fence himself with the help of a friend from work and my handiness with a drill. I then took two days in between all our traveling to stain the front and back of it all. The wood definitely soaked it up fast, so it still needs another coat of stain. However, I am blown away by how good it looks. Here is a photo of our fence after I spent the day staining the front half. The stain we used is the Behr Semi-Transparent Waterproofing Exterior Wood Stain and Sealer in the color Cordovan Brown from Home Depot. Now I just have to wait for the weather to clear up in order to do another coat. I can’t wait to do a whole blog post on it when we’re officially done!

Short Hair, Don’t Care! 

If I must say so myself… I am loving my new hair cut! To be honest, I’ve been dying to cut my hair like this for months, but I was so scared that it was going to make my face more round / full than it already looked. In fact, every time that I had cut my hair short in the past, I hated it. Yet for some reason, I was dying to cut it even shorter this time!

The plan was actually suppose to be that I’d do the chop when I got to my goal weight – because I’m completely dramatic like that. However, after losing 25 pounds and totally feeling myself, I decided to go for it and skip the wait. All I could tell myself (and my hair stylist!) is that it’s only hair, and my hair does grow back fast. It’s safe to say now that my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner! I am in love!

“A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.” – Coco Chanel

Y’all…I joined a gym!

I’m kind of giggling to myself that this is even an update. But if you had been following me on Instagram Stories a couple weeks ago, you probably remember laughing at my joining-a-gym experience. As an introvert who firmly believes that hell is definitely a gym packed with meat-heads yelling at me while Satan throws donuts at me on the treadmill, I was pretty terrified to walk into a gym alone for the first time since I was in college (and a lot more fit…) In fact, I even documented my debate on Instagram Stories that took 15 minutes in the car – all before I actually got the courage to go inside.

Well, I went inside, and I reluctantly joined after getting a tour. But, I realize as I sit here typing this that I never gave you an update! You know what? It actually hasn’t been terrible! I’ve been loving getting to run on the treadmill, and I even take group workout classes 4 times a week. (Shocker, I know!) While I’m still a little hesitant to explore the land of meat-heads in the weights section outside my treadmill bubble, I couldn’t be more proud of myself already. I have been feeling so much better physically and mentally scheduling this time for myself each day, and now I actually look forward to it each day. I guess you could say that joining a gym isn’t so bad after all – HA!

 

 

Well, sweet friend, how is your life lately? What moments have you living in the present? Can you relate to where I’m at? Tell me what you’ve been up to in a comment below!