So. You're curious. I get it. Who is this person? Well, here's the short version:
farmers daughter from Ohio, living in texas.
wife.
photographer, geek.
happy person.
This is not just a photography blog. It's a life blog. I post everything from my latest session sneak peeks to a video of the song I can't get out of my head, to stories about life and my family and trying to run a business on my own. My brain is a random content generator. Stay, enjoy the mayhem, AND the mundane.
I had to take a little overnight trip to Austin last week, and this time I actually got the camera out and used it. I mostly just hung around 6th street and the wonderful weirdness there.
But the best part of my trip was just before I headed home. I went to THE BEST TOY STORE I HAVE EVER SEEN. Thanks to my Austin expert Rita who brought me here many years ago and introduced me to the wonderfulness of Toy Joy. And thanks to my phone that got me here without getting lost. I needed to pick up some goodies for a certain ‘experts’ birthday, so I hung out in my favorite toy store for way too long, and then it started pouring, so I stayed a bit longer. It’s just magical.
Need an inflatable moose head? Check.
Short on unicorns? They’ve got you covered.
Apparently, DINO’s are a girls other best friend.
And, as promised… squirrel underpants.
I also saw some awesome rain clouds on my way home. I pulled off the highway and found a nice place to pull over and get some shots. I played around in lightroom a bit to make the clouds look cooler. =) Enjoy.
I will def have to get directions to that toy store the next time I head down there! There’s a cool 3-story independent book store near the university that I always visit, too. And those are the coolest rain pictures I have ever, ever seen. Gorgeous!
Touch the suit? Eh, that’s ok. Earn a blue A ribbon at the fair for her sewing project? (Yep!)
What SHE did was go and turn 9! That’s what I get for having to miss her birthdays so much because all my silly friends decided that this was the best time of year to get married.
Have a wonderful super awesome birthday Delaney!! We love you!!
That’s my girl!* She is having a good day of no chores, good weather, early-morning doughnut run with dad (5:45), and G & G coming soon. She even had a friend call her to say happy birthday and chat, which made the whole 9-years-old thing seem very real.
*And of course, being the rule-follower I am, I must point out that there were steps in the back of the space suit that you *were* supposed to climb up and be a pretend astronaut. : )
Finally, I made it through all of our Hawaii vacation photos. It’s a record! It’s only been 4 months! I’m getting better, see. Well, the photos are edited, exported, saved, etc. I am in the process of creating a simple photo book from our trip, and then it will be done. Just thought I’d share a few of my favorites from our trip. Enjoy!
Just thought I’d put up a little slide show from last weekend. John’s birthday pie, getting our new windows and some other painting projects. =) Enjoy, and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
So, after much delay, more Fire Starter Session review/highlighting goodness:
Sometimes life is like cooking on a stove. You’ve got things on the front burner and things that may be sitting on the back burner so long that you’ve forgotten what exactly you were trying to cook. Well, summer is crazy busy around here, so I had to put reading the Fire Starter Sessions on the back burner for a bit. Not because I didn’t have time to physically read it. I could do that, but it’s not a read-it-once-and-put-it-away kind of experience. You interact with this thing. You argue with it, with yourself. There are worksheets to complete, videos to watch, and watch again. I want to absorb it, not just read it.
Not too long ago I was stuck in a hotel by myself in Austin. Thanks to a handy iphone app called GoodReader, I was able to load the entire Fire Starter Sessions e-book on my phone and take it with me as opposed to printing it all. All I printed were the worksheets. The section I was focusing on was all about feelings. More specifically, as Danielle puts it…
“First you get clear on how you want to feel. Then you do stuff that makes you feel that way.”
Now, I’m a pretty emotionally transparent person, and I admit to relying on my feelings a lot in my daily life, so it wasn’t a big stretch for me to get where she was coming from. I could imagine though if you were more of a Spock than a Kirk, you might have trouble jumping on the feelings train. However, I think Danielle lays out her points well for both groups. For the folks like me who are already willing to admit that we are driven by emotions a lot of the time, she makes sense and adds more structure and direction about how to organize and turn those feelings into actions that result in you reaching your goals. For the other folks, she makes a clear and logical case for how feelings are clearly tied to motivation and desired behaviors, and how examining those feelings FIRST will save us time and keep us on track to achieve what we REALLY want. She takes you from big, grand, broad feelings to feelings specific to you and your business or objectives, and then walks you right into choosing the next steps you can take to get there.
Her message is clear and simple and easy to understand. She even gets into how we (especially those of us partial to guilt and self-judgment) need to get out of our own way sometimes. Plus, the video is amazing!
The worksheets are great for this one and I highly encourage you to set aside time and DWELL on this stuff. It is so worth it. That’s one of the things I love about the Fire Starter Sessions. No matter where she starts or takes you, the worksheets (as long as you actually DO THEM) take you down a path that leads to you takingaction! That’s what this is all about right? Doing something about it.
Well, there’s more to come soon, thanks for reading. If you are are interested in checking out the Fire Starter Sessions, head over here to White Hot Truth {this is an affiliate link} and learn even more. If you want to read what I’ve written so far about the Sessions, you can read Part 1 and Part 2.
thank you, with all my heart, for your thoughtful and clear (and ra-ra) reviewing of The Fire Starter Sessions. I’m totally jazzed that you’re really playing with the…fire.
That quote: “First you get clear on how you want to feel. Then you do stuff that makes you feel that way.” – is really amazing. How many times have I just kept doing something and completely disregarding how I was feeling? Too many. This is a revolutionary way to think for many people.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Karyn Kelbaugh, Danielle LaPorte. Danielle LaPorte said: lovely review of The Fire Starter Sessions: http://ht.ly/2e5as [...]
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” -Mark Twain
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