Ever since I turned 29 on the 29th of October last year, I've been celebrating my "golden year" by honing in on some key fun things I want to do/see/be each month before I turn 30. Already Five months in, I'm really loving my golden year. My priorities each month feel more targeted than just monthly goals, but they also add a bit of random/fun into my monthly routine. In the past I've always had so many swirling ideas of things I wanted to do or try, but I never had a system to help me prioritize them and tackle them.
Each month I've designed a different visual framen (like the one below) for my golden priorities. In the past I've always made these in Photoshop Elements, but this month I decided to take my design out of the computer. I brushed off my new watercolors and went to work. All of the images in this month's frame were painted by myself and then scanned and moved around to create this design in PSE. Obviously, I'm not a painter or a graphic designer, but I sure had fun practicing my painting and seeing it come to life on the screen.
Most years when February hits I'm already feeling tired. January always slips away so fast and just like that one month is gone.
This year, probably mostly because of my epic trip to Alt, it feels like February is like a second new year, and I've got some resolutions! I am ready and revving and taking chances. I've got plans y'all. Big plans.
But with all that creative goodness comes a high pitch nervous energy that is bouncing around me like a force field. I've felt very anxious this week, and you know what I think the nervousness stems from? Excitement. Which reminds me of a memorable moment:
On the plane ride to Alt last year, my friend Stace was chatting with a successful young filmaker/entreprenuer who was thoughtful and engaging and giving her loads of awesome advice.
And I'll never forget this one thing he told her at the end of their conversation (I was sitting on the other side of her). He said something to the effect of,
You know that fear you get deep down in the pit of your stomach when you're afraid of (fill in the blank: a new idea, a risk, a change, an opportunity)?? That fear. . . well, it's really excitement. We just don't feel it often enough to recognize it.
And I just thought YES. How often are we truly, passionately so excited about something that we are feeling it so strongly that a) it's scary and b) we don't even recognize that it's really that rare feeling of being alive/inspired/awake. My new friend Chris wrote about this phenomenon (also known as "gut churn") on Monday on his blog.
So, February, I feel your gut churn deep down. I'm currently carrying it around like a bowling ball, and you know what I'm planning to do about it? I'm going to just. keep. feeling it. I'm not going to ignore the feeling or pretend its not there. I'm going to embrace it. And every time I feel it really strongly, I'm going to take a chance! Let's do this! Do you have something deep down you want to do, but you're too afraid to try? Sink into that feeling and spend some time with it. Maybe it's a good thing.
February is a magical month in our house. We fell in love in February, Viet's birthday is in February, and we got engaged in February. Given so many awesome reasons to celebrate, you can bet I'm going to keep it Golden around here just like I did in November, December, and January.
Here are the fun things I'm focusing on this month. Y'all know what else is reason to celebrate this month?! It's alsoMardi Gras! I grew up with Mardi Gras, and I sure do miss it. But I'll keeping it alive right here in my little corner of San Fran:
Color: Royal Purple
Be (theme): Learning. I'm signing up for several Altitude Channel Classes this month, and I'm going to broaden my skillz.
Listen (weekly playlists): JAZZ! I am so excited about listening to Jazz. I loveee Jazz, but I don't know enough about it, and I don't listen to enough of it. This month I'm going to try to actually learn more about this genre while I'm preparing my weekly Sunday song lists like last month. As always, if you have any recommendations let me know.
Read (book of the month): Divergent This book was just recommended to me as a good Hunger Games esque series. I'm going to try out book 1. I'll let you know how it goes.
Eat: Cajun. I'll be channeling New Orleans all month. Do you have any favorite cajun recipes I could try?
Craft (DIY): Window Magic. I've got one particularly sad window hanging around, and I've got a project up my sleeve to turn it to magic.
Travel: Tahoe, Nevada. We have our fingers crossed that we're going to be headed up to play in the snow this month.
Aurora (my life list): Finances. Ok. This one has been on the life list for a while. We need a serious system to better track our finances and keep them organized. I'm going to be exploring all the helpful sites and tools around the interwebs. Lay your recommendations on me if you've got em!
Capture (Photography): Still loving Fatmumslim's monthly photo a day prompts. Join along! You can get all the details on her blog. You can follow my progress on Instagram: @notmerelyliving.
Happy Weekend Friends. Hope it treats your right. Go 'Niners!!!
You always seem to shake me to the core. I hope that every month of 2013 is like this. I hope every month I face myself and say, is this what I want?
Carpe Diem Y'all. Let's do this. This has been a beautiful month.
Before I tell you about my month, I need to acknowledge this special day. Today is my mom's birthday, and she is incredible.
Happy Birthday Mom. I'm better every day because of you. I love you.
You are more beautiful inside and out every. single. day. Miss you.
>>This year I'm celebrating my Golden Year in full force. I'm focusing on some key areas that I'm passionate about that I want to explore (e.g. food, craft, music, travel). Here's a review of my January:
This month, I was seeing blue. It's a new year, a new day, and a new blue sky right?
Oh friends, I have been hecka planning. Alt has been a real inspiration this month: see in the beginning, in the middle, and after. Most of my planning this month has been focused on the blog and my dreams for where I want it go. In so many ways, my blog is a reflection of the dreams I have for my life, so it is precious and dear to me. I'm looking forward to sharing this journey with you guys!
Oh Rock. I mean. . . you were fun. You weren't my favorite I think, but I definitely enjoyed you. My playlists this month were definitely danceable and reminded me of so many moments from my youth. Hope you enjoyed rock from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and up.
This book moved me in a deep, deep way. I wrote about this a bit here, but if you haven't read it yet I highly recommend it.
I am not that good of a cook friends (gasp! I know. It's true though). But this month I really put myself out there so that I could learn to cook some key Vietnamese recipes. Even though none of them were easy, I really loved learning how to make these key recipes. In case you missed them (click the photo to view the whole post):
Did you see my favorite valentine craft ever?!?
I love these origami boxes. They work for whatever valentine surprise you've got cookin. You can make them in all colors and sizes (and they're fun. promise).
Salt Lake City, you were lovely. You were all about Alt for me, but so impressive just the same. To me embracing travel is about facing the unknown. It's about challenging yourself and moving outside your comfort zone, and this trip was all about that for me. Thanks, Utah.
Whew. Ok Here we go. You'll need your headphones in for this one. Push the buttons below to hear me attempting to say these phrases in Vietnamese. I'm scared:
1. Hello Mom:
2. Thank You
3. Very Delicious
4. How are you?
5. I'm Sorry
6. I'm Hungry
7. It's good to see you.
My husband said he doesn't know how to say this. HELP. Anyone know how to say this is Vietnamese? :) I need to look this one up.
8. My name is Meredith (to someone familiar-not to an elder)
9. I am Viet's Wife. (this one was a doozie)
10. What's your name? (let's say I'm talking to an older male, because the phrase depends on their relation to me)
There you have it!!! These were scary but super fun for me. I'm looking forward to learning more key phrases over the next few months. Vietnamese speakers, give me some tips!
I loved starting off the year with #fmsphotoaday on Instagram!! You can follow along with all of my photos on Instagram. If you're we're not friends yet, don't be shy! I love following people on Instagram. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the month:
This month I'm diving back into the awesome #fmsphotoaday project created by Chantelle Ellem from Fat Mum Slim. Chantelle posts daily photo prompts at the beginning of each month on instagram. You can just take a picture each day following the prompts and add the hashtag #fmsphotoaday.
This year I am committed to taking a photo a day. I am posting these on Instagram daily, but I'll also be sharing them on the blog.
January is off to an epic start. If you're on Instagram, please look me up so we can be friends. I'm @notmerelyliving. It always takes me a while to ease into these challenges. You have to get yourself back into the mode of thinking about taking pictures and really paying attention to the prompts, but I think once I get the hang of it it's really satisfying to have this daily creative challenge.
Y'all, I am so tired this week. I've been sick and busy and just plain sleepy. I am ready for the weekend. We are headed down to LA to visit Viet's family for his cousin's wedding, and I'm looking forward to relaxing and getting in some family time.
I've been trying to take a photo a day this month, and to make my life easier during such a busy month, I've given myself free reign to take a picture of anything as long as it works with the tag #holidays2012.
So far, this has been successful. Check out my pictures from the first half of Golden December:
So far so good. :) Also, without giving you any more explanation than this, last week I had to go to the police department to try to submit a supplemental report, and this is what was in the lobby:
Yep. that's right. A whole lotta holiday awesomeness. that's all. Tis the season.
Good to see you. We are capturing the moments around here:
A couple of big things happened this week (did you notice?), and I am tired but grateful.
I am grateful for a country where we all get the right to vote and choose. I was especially inspired by this post this week.
I am grateful for my wonderful husband who does the dishes and slow dances barefoot with me in our living room (with both his toes stacked on top of mine).
I am grateful that things are calming down.
I am especially grateful it's finally beginning to feel like fall here.
I am grateful that my dear friend Bridget gave birth to a beautiful baby boy Oscar without complications.
I am grateful I got to talk to my nephews twice on facetime this week. Old McDonald and backward crawling rock.
I am grateful that the holidays are barreling towards us, and I am ready to celebrate our first holidays as newlyweds.
We arrived home from Vegas last night. I am so grateful to my parents and my hubby for making my Golden Birthday so special. We had such a wonderful time just hanging out together, and I felt very loved and very lucky.
I'm a little behind on blogging because of vegas, but I've got two posts for you today to make up for it. And I'm so excited about what's in store for tomorrow: Golden November!!!
I'm still loving the DIY Photo a day project I started in September. I chose a long list of possible prompts for the month without assigning them to a specific day. I tried to pick some that I knew were easy (like #M+V or #love or my cat #Scratch'n), but I also wanted words that could be broadly interpreted.
Each day I either purposefully choose the prompt I am going to photograph, or more often, I just keep the list handy and take advantage of photo opportunities as they are happening.
It has been a real adjustment in my every day life to take so many pictures all the time and to think about taking pictures. I have to admit sometimes it feels instrusive on moments as they're happening to stop and take a snapshot. That said, I am consistently grateful for the photos after the fact.
Here are the photos so far for October (just missing today, which is TBD):
And here's my photo a day plan for November. I've made a few changes to November's prompts. I've taken out #birthday and added #thankful and #joy. Here's November:
I hope you'll join me this month or follow along on Instagram (@notmerelyliving).
Stay tuned for the last installment of Not Merely Voting this afternoon!
