Well Hello Again
Holy smokes. Its been WAY too long!
This year has been one crazy year with lots of ups and downs but these last few months have been insanely busy. Between my photography business, my illustrations and opening an Etsy shop, I don’t have a lot of down time. Don’t get me wrong though, I LOVE it and wouldn’t change my job for the world! I’m definitely glad Christmas is almost here though and I get to spend some quality relaxing time with my husband and cats!
I want to post a little update of my year since we last talked in July and give you a sort of review! If you have been following along on my social medias you will know a lot of this but hey its still always fun to look back! (If you aren’t already following me on Instagram you should definitely do that. I’ll love you forever! Links can be found at the bottom the page)
In August I found my love for illustrating and began drawing tons and tons of portraits in my own style. I honestly couldn’t get enough! That same month we also found our new house to rent and put our deposit down the same day. The house was perfect. Rent was cheaper than our apartment, it was an adorable old house, amazing and sweet owners and it was just the right size. We moved in on August 23rd! Both the cats instantly took so well to the house - it was like they had lived there their entire lives!
In September, hurricane Dorian made its way slowly to Jacksonville. The previous year when hurricane Florence headed straight toward us we had evacuated after getting the mandatory evac. call for the county and from the Marines. This year things seemed like they wouldn’t be as serious so we decided to stay. We stayed up all night just listening and watching out the front window. Thankfully it only rained a lot with a bit of wind but nothing crazy. September continued on and I continued drawing loads and loads of portraits and even offered a little sale to raise money to donate to the damages Hurricane Dorian had done in the Bahamas. I ended up raising $251 in just ONE week and am still so incredibly grateful to everyone who ordered a portrait and helped me get there!
October started off with a bang and I began my first ever Inktober. It was a bit of an odd adjustment coming back to paper and pens from digital art but it was a whole lot of fun. I didn’t completely finish because it just began to feel like too much and I didn’t want to put more stress on myself. This was supposed to be fun after all! I photographed my first ever surprise proposal that month too. Andy and I carved pumpkins and the cats got to check out their first jack-o’-lanterns. Zeus was obsessed with trying to eat them. Andy left shortly after to visit his family and go hunting in Montana and it was just me and the boys left at the house for a couple of weeks. We had a lot of fun though and even dressed up for Halloween. The day before though, I went in to a real hair salon and got a haircut. It was quite a bit shorter than I had planned but my hair stylist made it look gorgeous and my hair FINALLY felt healthy again! Now I love it!
In November, Andy came home and the rush of the Holiday photography season began. On the 16th I drove myself to Raleigh to check out the Vintage Market Days they were doing there and found some pretty specials trinkets! We had Thanksgiving at our friend’s house and I made my first ever charcuterie board and it turned out pretty darn good! I think I have a new obsession! I shipped off my first ever physical Etsy order this month too (I’d only ever sold digital items before).
December first I rolled out our Christmas decorations. I got to decorate my first fireplace mantel for the holiday and was so excited. Bring on ALL the bottle brush trees! We got our Christmas tree on the 6th and both the kitties were very well behaved around it! They love to sit and sleep under the tree which is so darn adorable. Andy’s performance at the Christmas concert was amazing as usual. So proud of him! On Thursday the 19th we went to the premiere of the new Star Wars movie - the Rise of Skywalker! I have been waiting sooo long for this one and it was definitely worth it. LOOOOOOVVVVEEE how it was done. I wore my star wars shirt and did my hair up like Rey to celebrate. :) Now we are only days until Christmas and I cannot wait! Almost all of our Christmas presents are wrapped and under the tree after today and it all just looks so gorgeous. Our first ever Holiday cards just came in the mail too so tonight I’ll be writing on those while sitting by the tree and mailing them out! They will more than likely be late but thats what I get for procrastinating. Hehe.
Speaking of procrastinating on cards! If you are like me and either waited to the last second or just simply didn’t have time to take pictures and order any, hope is not all lost. I did a post about them earlier in the year and I’m going to do another one now since they may just be a lifesaver for you! Paperless Post! They have gorgeous ONLINE cards for just about every occasion (INCLUDING CHRISTMAS) that you can choose from, customize and then EMAIL to your list of friends and family! If you really wanted to send cards out this year but haven’t yet I would definitely suggest checking them out. Its the perfect option and its so darn easy. I’ll post a few photos of some of my favorites below so you can see some examples but they have TONS of options. There’s even some templates you can add your own photos to.
Anyway, thank you so much for tagging along this year and here is to an amazing new year and Merry Christmas if you celebrate it!!
Xoxo
-McKenna