How is 2018 already over?! I seriously feel like it was just yesterday that I sat at this computer for like 5 hours and wrote my 2017 year in review blog post (hahah, I am not kidding it took me like all day….this year I learned my lesson and spread it out a little!). I always go back and read these, and am just now realizing as I read last year’s post that when I redid my website, my old photos on my blog did not transfer! Waaah. Oh well. Now, as I said in last year’s post, I fully understand that you might not care about my goals and year in review, but you are here reading this, so maybe you do. 😉 Either way…if you just want to see some pretty pictures, feel free to skip this next part! I totally accept that my future self might be the only one reading this post.

As far as 2018 goes for Elizabeth Alice Photography, I am beyond thrilled with how this year went. I got to photograph so many special moments, and got to spend time with such amazing families!  This job always brings the best people into my life. My favorite types of sessions are in-home newborn lifestyle sessions, and this year I was able to do so many of these. That right there is a win in my book. When you love what you are doing, working is not really work. I got to photograph my brother’s engagement photos (yay!) as well as another great friend’s bridal portraits. I also had the privilege of shooting my sister’s graduation photos this year. I shot my last ever wedding in the summer, and decided to pursue more of a portrait and lifestyle path of photography. This was a huge step for me, as I felt like I was all over the place in the past. I really enjoy meeting families, photographing the special moments and bonds between people at my sessions, and I love working with the kiddos (I am an elementary school teacher, after all!). I also LOVE shooting portraits, so I kept doing engagement shoots, bridal portraits, and senior sessions. I felt more focused  this year. I also felt like I was able to balance my job, business, and personal life a little bit better this year as well. With the guidance of other photographer friends, the support of my husband, lots of prayer and personal reflection, I finally feel like I have defined my purpose and goal as a photographer, and am on the path I want to be on. I am so excited to see what the future holds. 🙂

SO…on January 1st, my hubby (Dan) and I sat down and made goals for ourselves for the year. We made personal goals, professional goals, and couple goals.

A few goals of mine…

Professional:

1. Shoot more film (1 roll per session) – I did shoot more film, but did not shoot 1 roll per session. I would love to get better at this in 2019, although film shooting might become more of a hobby than an addition to my packages. TBD in 2019! Overall, I am totally happy with what I did with film this year. 🙂
2. Re-do my website- CHECK. Thank you January snow days and Dan Lipetzky…. and Show It! I love my new website, and love even more that it is so easy for me to update.
3. Schedule 1 weekend free of shoots every month- Oh, y’all, more on this later, but I did NOT successfully do this until about halfway through the year. Working as a full time teacher in a year round school, but also having a strong passion for my business and desire to get it moving have proven to give me some issues with work-life balance.
4. Invest in Education- This year I participated in the A.J. Dunlap workshop as well as a mentor session by the sweet and amazing Amber Hatley (who took the picture at the top of this post)! Both sessions were totally worth it, and I have grown as a photographer because of these!

Personal:

1. Eat healthier and DRINK MORE WATER– Um, I did ok on this I guess. I am currently trying to figure out the appropriate amount of gluten, soy, and added sugar to keep in my diet. TBD, friends. Is all of this drama about those things worth it for me though? I can’t tell! Haha, I am rambling now, sooooo in conclusion I did attempt a healthier lifestyle, but I am still trying to figure out what is the best path for me and my body!
2. Train for 1/2 marathon- This is not happen. LOL. I did run a 5k in October?
3. Ok, this is my favorite one! Read 12 books– I surpassed this goal! I am pretty sure I read 14 books this year (which is SIGNIFICANTLY more than I have ever read in a year). I feel like I could be forgetting a few though, I need to double check my list!  I was FLYING through books in the spring/summer, and read 12 of the 14 by July. Then, well, life happened, and I got a little distracted. I only read 2 books between July and December (which disappoints me a little, but what can you do?). I also read the BEST trilogy in the summer, and after that I could not find anything I liked as much. Haha, I actually kind of want to read it again. My top 5 favorite books from the year were
   1. Mark of the Lion – series by Francine Rivers:  A friend suggested this to me in the spring, so I got it and….LOVE. love. Love. LoVe. I loved this trilogy. Can you tell?! If I have to choose a favorite book of the 3 it would be the 2nd book, but I can’t just put one book here- the whole thing was amazing. I even got my mom to read it! 🙂
   2. Present Over Perfect- Shauna Niequist– You guys, I am not trying to be extra or over dramatic right now, but this book legitimately changed my life. Last year I was BURNT. OUT. I could see the direction I wanted my business to go, and I sacrificed like all of my free time to get it there. I was seeing all of these full time photographers, and their awesome businesses, and thinking that I could have it all, too! “Why can’t I keep up with them?!” ….um, because you are also a full time teacher. I was obsessed with productivity and growing my business. While that was great for my business, my personal life was suffering. I told myself that I would do things differently in 2018, but over my May track out I remember crying on the phone to my mom, telling her I could not come out to eat with my family after my sister’s graduation because of how busy and exhausted I was. She told me it was fine, and to rest. It hit me that day that I should not be saying “no” to important things with friends and family, but saying “yes” to every little thing someone asked me to do for my business. Soon after this, I read Present Over Perfect, and found myself crying while reading a chapter about this. “This is me,” I thought to myself. I decided right there in that moment to take off the entire month of July. About 2 hours later, I got an email from someone wanting me to meet them in a sunflower field for photos during the first week of July. I almost took the job, but Dan reminded me how upset I was when reality hit me about how I was overworking myself. I ended up turning down 7 jobs in July. While this seemed like crazy talk at the time, I am SO glad I did this. I did not get those clients or that business, buuuuut I did get to say YES to a last minute trip to the beach with my husband’s family, was not stressed out during the first weeks of school, and traveled to DC with our friends. We hosted people at our house. I slept in. I hiked with my friend. By the end of July, I felt like myself again. Luckily, I was (mostly) able to keep the mindset of taking care of myself before my business for the remainder of the year! Thank you Shauna Niequist for your beautiful words and message! God put this book into my hands at the PERFECT time.
   3. Redeeming Love- Francine Rivers (You guys. I found a new favorite author this year)
   4. Quitter- Jon Acuff- A very inspirational read for all of you business owners out there who also work full time!
   5. A Simplified Life- Emily Ley- Ok, I really did not think I liked this book at first. It does make my top 5 books from the year, and this is why…the whole first part of the book was about purging your house and simplifying things in your space, so I went on a purging spree in like February. I got rid of so much and organized so many parts of the house. After I read the book, I thought, “Meh, this book was fine.” BUT, now…my house is still organized and it has actually made a difference. Yay!
4. Grow in my relationship with God- This was another biggie that I am so happy about. Part of my “self-care” routine was waking up an hour early every morning and just spending time with my coffee and journal in prayer. I also loved reading the Blessed is She daily devotional this year, and did it almost every day. This has become a huge part of my life, and I cannot imagine my days without this personal prayer time. This time of peace and prayer has become very important to me, especially when dealing with personal struggles. I am so thankful that this has become a part of my life this year.

 

Couple Goals:

1. Save more money- This is so generic, haha, I mean who doesn’t want to save more money?! BUT we reached a very exciting savings goal of ours this year, which I am pretty pumped about! 🙂 We definitely could do better about spending money on going out to eat and online shopping (aka..me…I need to stop online shopping lol)
2. Go on at least 1 date every month- We pretty much did this! Small dates and big ones. We tried a few new restaurants that we loved!
3. Go to exercise classes together – Guys, we did not go to one. LOL
4. Eat dinner at our dining room table- OMG, we started doing this and it made a world of difference! We used to eat at tables on the couch every night. We have a beautiful dining room table, and we wanted to spend more time in conversation, enjoying that space in our home, rather than eating on the couch and re-watching episodes of The Office for the 10th time (don’t get me wrong, we still do that sometimes, haha!). Eating dinner in the dining room sparked some awesome conversations; one that even turned into an idea for hosting a Trivia Party in April (this ended up being the best party we ever hosted, and we want to host a Trivia Party 2.0 this coming spring!) It also made me realize how I wanted to decorate that room, and now it is 10 times “homey-er” than it was before. 🙂

 

2018 has been quite a year. Thank you so much to all of the amazing clients that booked with me in 2018! I feel so honored that you trusted me enough to capture your important moments. I do not take that responsibility lightly, and it is so rewarding to see my wonderful clients posting their photos from our sessions, sending Christmas cards with our photos on them, or printing and hanging our images in their homes. I can’t see where 2019 will take Elizabeth Alice Photography!

One of our favorite things to do together is to travel! This year, Dan and I traveled to Asheville, Atlantic Beach, Washington DC, Austin, San Antonio, Boston, and Acadia National Park in Maine (to name a few places). We also celebrated the Red Sox winning the World Series!