The Journey | Cozystyle

What I’m Saying Yes to in 2016

This is the second post in my goal setting series. First post is here.

I’m continuing with my 2016 goal setting with the prompts from Lara Casey’s blog series and after taking a look at what did and didn’t work last year the next step is to determine what I’m going to say yes to in 2016 and what I’m going to say no to.

What I’m saying NO to in 2016:

burn out
mindless scroll on social media
comparison
distractions

What I’m saying YES to in 2016:

progress over perfection
building and strengthening relationships
unplug, rest, and recharge (physically, mentally, and emotionally)
weekly/monthly goals to help keep me focused on my larger goals

I feel really good about setting some boundaries or direction for myself by determining where I’m going to put my energy this year. And when I look back at 2015, so much of it was full of running around with no focus and allowing myself to get completely burnt out in every sense of the word. And with that craziness, yet another year went by where I felt like I never reached my goals. I love the idea of choosing a word for the year, so my word for 2015 was Intention (actually, now that I think about it that may have been my 2014 word too. :/ ugh) And what I’ve learned about myself is that I can get so caught up in the “thinking about” and the “planning” that I never actually get around to the doing. So, for 2016 I chose a more appropriate word, one that also embodies my intention for the year.

So, now that I’ve decided what I’m saying yes to this year and what my word is for 2016, Lara then has you put together a vision board. I’m a very visual person so this step was really important to me. I wanted to be able to look and my vision board and have it trigger me to evaluate if what I am doing right now aligns with my goals and ensure I’m taking action to make them happen. I’d started a vision board over on Pinterest, but I wanted to have something that I could print out and keep somewhere I will see it every day to remind me of where my focus should be. So, I put this together this afternoon and I kind of love it!

I wanted to be sure to have something that represented my marriage and its importance above anything else. Then of course I have a few things that are great ways for me to recharge – meditation, journaling/my daily Bible study, yoga, reading. I wanted to also show my focus on health and fitness through working out, eating whole foods, and of course my essential oils. Throw in some travel, making a home, and creating abundance through my business and you have my vision board for 2016.

So, that’s it for this installment in my goal setting series. Next week I’ll be back to share my goals and how I’m going to work to achieve them.

Making Things Happen

On January 1st I started reading Lara Casey’s book Make it Happen: Surrender Your Fear, Take the Leap, Live on Purpose. I had been introduced to Lara’s blog last year and had wanted to read this book for awhile. I’ll spend more time reviewing the book itself in another post soon, but today I want to share with you some of the work that came out of reading that book and also Lara’s blog series on 2016 goal setting. As with most years, the beginning of 2015 started off very promising and I even blogged about living a year of intention back in January of last year. Somehow, as often happens, things went off course. So, I found myself in December wondering where the hell 2015 had gone and feeling defeated that I hadn’t accomplished all those things I’d wanted to do. So, this year, and we’re only a couple of months in, I’m already finding that the key to making things happen is 1) to take action – actually go and do stuff, and 2) tending – if you don’t monitor those goals and keep focused attention on them, you can’t actually accomplish them.

So, for 2016 I am going to work through the goal setting process and share my progress here not only as a way to be accountable, but also because hopefully someone else will benefit from it.

The first thing Lara has you do is to first check in with yourself – how are you? I won’t share the epic novel I wrote, but the main theme is that I’m feeling very disappointed in myself for getting so off course last year and feeling like I was basically in the same place that I’d started the year at. Also, I had a life-changing lightning bolt moment recently of discovering what my purpose is. And although I feel this huge sense of relief from having identified where I’m going, I’m feeling a bit lost though not knowing how to get there or what it’s going to look like. But, I’m willing to have faith that as long as I move in that direction, I’ll have the guidance that I need.

Next, it’s time to take a look back at 2015…

What worked:

I detailed my crafty accomplishments and new endeavors over on my Cozyegg blog here
I was re-introduced to essential oils through my friend Sylvia and became an independent distributor of Young Living essential oils
Read the Red Tent (my New Year’s planned start for 2015) and 9 other books
I got to reconnect with my friend Marty and visit with other high school friends, plus help raise money for Adele’s retirement
Eric and I celebrated our 9^th wedding anniversary
I completed my first Whole 30
I made some new friends
I was able to take all of my vacation time and holiday time without having to check in to work at all
Eric and I went to visit my Dad’s grave at Christmas, which I’ve been meaning to do for three years
I reached out to my mom to try to begin healing that relationship
I had a huge attitude shift with work and on letting go of the stress thanks to my essential oils (Stress Away!)

Three Lessons I Learned from What Worked:

I don’t have to kill myself with working so much, I am better if I completely unplug and rest
Essential oils have changed my life and using them daily makes a difference
I do better focusing on one thing until it’s done rather than jumping around. Also, I do better doing my own thing rather than being dependent upon someone else’s participation.

What hasn’t been working?

Allowing myself to get burnt out
Running around with no purpose/no focus to my actions
I feel like I can’t do it perfect so I don’t do it at all
Allowing myself to be totally thrown off course by someone else’s stuff
Comforting myself with things that are bad for me (eating junk, overspending, mindless internet time-wasting i.e. the mindless scroll)
Health challenges
Dealing with feeling unbalanced/unsatisfied in some areas and then getting bogged down in the sadness of everything
Missing my family so bad it hurts
Feeling burdened with the weight of financial stress
Procrastinating and not moving forward, staying stuck
Completely wrecked over some work situations and office politics
Feeling like I never have enough time

Three Lessons I Learned from What Didn’t Work:

Don’t get sidetracked by distractions – distractions can be other people’s stuff, shiny & new, want to vs. have to, mindless scrolling
Take time for me – rest – mentally, physically, emotionally. I need time to recharge.
Concentrated focus is what allows me to be most productive and stay on target with my goals/purpose/projects

What Season Are You In?

I feel like I’ve been in winter – it’s been a really hard season that has stretched over the past several years. I think the beginning of last year was like a false spring, and then winter returned. At the end of the year I was able to do some reflecting and be still and really look at what’s important to me. I feel like now I am in spring, and reaching toward summer when I dig in and get my hands dirty to do the work.

So that’s my look back at 2015. And I feel like really taking a hard look at what I’ve learned from what worked and what didn’t work will be very helpful in starting to define my goals for 2016 and what I can build on. Check back soon for the next installment of this series and how I’m working towards defining my goals and working daily to achieve them.

And So We Begin

Late in 2013 a friend directed me to this post on a favorite blog. We talked about wanting to make 2014 the year of living deliberately. I was inspired to be more discerning in where I focused my energy and choosing to plan over my usual flighty approach to things. Shortly after the new year my world tilted on its axis and while there were some good memories made in 2014, I carried with me some things that weighed heavily on my spirit during the year. My eyes were opened wide with wonder for the new experiences I embraced, which was a much-needed counterbalance to my heart’s ache over the empty spaces.

It was only in the last weeks of December that I was able to pause and be still and sit with it all. What I learned in those solitary moments bathed in white twinkle lights was that it is truly time to slow down, to take care of myself, and to be deliberate in my actions. So much of my life is internal. I get caught in my thoughts and my dreams and my plans, but to really and truly live deliberately I have to put actions behind those intangible thoughts. I have learned that I am resilient. That even when it seems as if everything that was a constant in my world is stripped away, and even when it feels like God has hit me over the head with a 2×4 to get my attention, I’m still standing.

So now the challenge is what to do with what I now know? What do I want to create in 2015 for my life?

I want to focus on good stuff. I know that sounds overly simplistic, but that’s what I want to do. I want to be happy. I want to be my authentic self and all that that brings with it. I want to be excited about life and not just going through the paces. I want to open myself up to all that life has to offer – even though that means being vulnerable. I don’t want to look back on 2015 and say “I wish I could have…” And the critical thing for me lies in the act of doing, not just thinking about and planning, but the actual doing.

So here is what I’m doing –

★ I want to nurture my relationships. The past few years have been so full of protecting myself from hurt and anger and all those messy emotions that are just part of life. I shut down and insulated myself against anything that might find the smallest chink in my armor and unravel me. I want to allow myself to love and be loved, to reach out and connect and be open to giving and receiving. I’ve already started working on a clean slate and letting the past go and have reached out to a couple of people in the hopes of starting a fresh conversation between us.

★ I want to read more this year, and read more involved books and a little less of the potato chip variety. I set the same goal of reading 25 books that I had last year on Goodreads. I’ve started reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. After seeing the mini series, it was a perfect choice to pull off the shelf.

★ I want to spend more time on my spirituality. One of the things I thought about last year was reading the Bible. This weekend I downloaded the She Reads Truth app and started the Bible in a Year plan. It’s feeding my soul.

★ I want to be more active. I’ve spent so much time thinking about and goal-setting about losing weight and getting healthy, etc. but it’s time to focus on the doing. The 2,015 miles in 2015 challenge on Instagram immediately struck a chord with me. What better way to encourage myself to get moving? One step at a time!

★ I want to learn new things. In the past I have allowed myself to become paralyzed by not doing new things for fear of failing. But if I never try, I never practice, I never take that first step – I will never grow. I’m learning to knit and I’m practicing because it’s not perfect and I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing, but I’m learning. And I’m learning because it makes me happy.

I think 2015 is going to be challenging, but I hope also it will be rewarding. I like to think that January is an empty bowl, full of promise and possibility of what’s to come.

And so it begins…

August in Photos

I always feel that my birthday and then Labor Day signal the end of summer – marking the change from longer days and saturated color to cooler weather and wardrobe layering. Even though I’m sure we’ll have many more 100 degree days in front of us, my thoughts immediately turn to the new season. And judging by the number of Pumpkin Spice Latte pics I’m seeing on Instagram, I’m not alone in this.

August is, of course, my birthday month and it brought with it a much-needed vacation from work and time to get together with friends. I’m still enjoying breaking out some statement jewelry pieces, which has been great fun. I was also treated to some new nail polish, new (much needed) perfume, and a blow out. I even made it to the gym again.

I finished reading City of Glass and moved right into City of Fallen Angels – both so good. I’ll have a review of this series up soon. One of my birthday outings was getting together with a friend to see the Mortal Instruments movie on opening night. So good. So much love for Jace. Go see it if you haven’t yet. I’m looking forward to reading the fifth book.

I also spent an afternoon with another friend and we met for lunch at Bluebonnet Bakery, which was absolutely delicious. I had their famous chicken salad sandwich and then we both topped off our lunch with a slice of Italian Cream Cake. To. Die. For. I haven’t had Italian Cream Cake that good since last April!

For my birthday, Eric bought me new perfume. As I’d mentioned on this post, I was in dire need of some new perfume. I ended up with D&G Light Blue for a lighter, summery scent and Thierry Mugler’s Alien Essence Absolue for my deeper fall/winter scent. I love them both! He also took me out to dinner at Ziziki’s, which I just can’t stay away from for my birthday dinner. Everything there is absolutely delicious. I had the first glass of wine I’ve had in awhile, I can’t go wrong with a Riesling and this one was fabulous!

We also hit a milestone with Ramses and Thutmose. We decided that they were finally old enough that our Moroccan pouf would be safe to put out again. It has been locked away almost since we bought it, so it’s nice to actually have it out in the living room again. If we can get to a place where the other kitty-proof measures can be done away with I’ll finally be able to share our living room redo.

August was a good month, and I had a wonderful vacation and birthday. Exciting things are on the horizon for my new year!

July in Photos

This summer is just zooming by like nobody’s business. Frankly, July was a rough month. Started out fine but then it took a nosedive. My crazy work schedule took over again and a lot of late nights left me feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Near the end of the month I made some adjustments in my attitude and did my best to start looking at things from a place of gratitude and abundance. Amazing what a difference that makes. Two things that have really helped me are the IG posts from @tarotandtea, particularly her daily tarot advice, and Katie O’Keefe’s blog and IG. I’m loving watching her moving through #intentionalaugust and #mth (making things happen). Both are two roads to the same destination, a destination of re-engaging with myself and what means most to me. All a work in progress, but I’m feeling a lot better equipped to deal with the “stuff” that’s going on in my life right now.

So, what adventures did I get up to in July? It was so nice to have a long weekend for 4th of July, and you can see I celebrated with a fun mani. I spent a day with some girlfriends over that weekend too – I even baked cookies! Eric and I opted to not go out to see fireworks, but instead we enjoyed the evening at home and watched some of the specials on tv.

We had lots of rain in July and it actually made for a much cooler summer than we’re used to in Texas. I love it when it rains, so it’s always a little bonus.

As part of my attitude adjustment, I spent some extra time on myself – nails (of course), some new makeup (eyeliner and powder), dug out my favorite summertime heels (don’t those cherries kill you?), and some summery statement necklaces like my starfish that jingle! I even went through all the lipstick I have hoarded in my purse. Amazing what you find in there.

I had a little bit of relaxation time that I spent working on a gift for my Goddaughter (a summery yellow quilt) and catching up on my DVR’d shows, namely the red carpet from the Oscars. Yes, it was in February.

Eric and I also did something for ourselves, we finally ordered our frame for the photo we printed from our honeymoon so we could hang it over our bed. The frame is perfect and goes beautifully with the warm tones of the sunset from the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome. Apologies for the reflection/glare in the photo…but trust me it looks wonderful. And it allowed us to mark our bedroom as complete on our home improvement list.

So that was July, and we’re already halfway through August so I’d better start thinking about my August in Photos post!

June in Photos

I really am starting to wonder where the time goes. It’s nearly the end of July and here I am finally posting about June. Better late than never though!

After the craziness that was May, June actually seemed to take a turn for the better. I felt like I was making strides in some of my projects at home and starting to feel a lot more focused.

I started the month off with a Disco Biscuit mani. I mean, how can I go wrong with that?! I also tried a couple of untried polishes this month. I wore Sinful Colors Sugar Rush on my toes and I also decided to give the white mani trend a try. I was a little leery trying it since the yellow mani was such a fail. But the white mani I absolutely adored. It was fresh, it was fun, and it was completely on trend. I will be doing this again for sure. I used OPI’s Alpine Snow for this one. Oh, and I went back to another old favorite – Jade is the New Black. It went beautifully well with my fabric.

I got to go back to Whiskey Cake in June to get together with some coworkers for Happy Hour. That Foul Corsair is absolutely delicious. I kind of wish I’d had the whiskey cake for dessert again though.

I actually spent a fair amount of time sewing in June. I worked on two mini quilts. One got completely quilted and finished and I was able to give it to my friend, Ava, for her birthday. I’m thrilled with how it turned out with the Kaffe Fassett fabrics on the front and on the back. I also started collecting fabrics for the full version of the Swoon quilt (I made her mini quilt out of one block). I’m going to use Anna Maria Horner’s Field Study line for my Swoon. So excited about it!

June unfortunately brought with it a series of car “things” that were probably directly related with Mercury being in Retrograde. I started off the month buying new tires since two of mine were completely bald in order to pass inspection. Middle of the month I got my first speeding ticket in like five years or so. And then at the end of the month I had a car accident on the highway because my brakes went out. I couldn’t tell you the last time I was in a car accident. But, luckily very little damage was done to either car and everyone was uninjured. But I had to get new brakes – my brake lines had apparently completely worn through.

But the biggest and most exciting news is that I am taking a trip in the Spring to see my sweet friend, Sylvia, in Germany. I will spend a few days in Germany, but the most exciting part is that we are going to Paris! It is an absolute dream come true. I can’t wait. I will be there for a total of 13 days I think. I can hardly believe it. But the flights are booked and we are renting a little apartment in Paris for the two of us. But part of my preparation was to get my passport out and make sure it doesn’t expire any time soon. I found my old passport though, while I was looking, and it’s one lone stamp. Of course, the stamp was for our honeymoon to Rome, so I’m ok with it being the only stamp in there. It’s a special one!

Before you know it, it will be August, so hopefully I can make it back here to blog more frequently in the next weeks. And I realized it’s been forever since I did a book review…so I need to get on that. Currently reading City of Glass by Cassandra Clare. So good!

May in Photos

I’m looking forward to June and the start of summer. May was rather a rough month for me. It started off well, and then took a bit of a nosedive.

At the beginning of the month our guild had our first workshop of the year, and I got the chance to finally meet a friend in person for the first time when she came to teach. She designed a beautiful piece for us and it was lovely just to get to give her a big hug and visit while I whisked her from place to place. We had a lovely dinner that evening at Via Real, with margaritas, of course!

Our guild meeting on the first Tuesday of the month also brought another visitor from out of town, a woman who collects and lectures on Mexican Samplers. What a treat that was to hear her speak and get to see some of the antique samplers she brought.

Work got crazy busy around the 7th of the month – I was working 10-12 hour days plus three nights a week I was on conference bridges from 10pm to 1 or 2am and working weekends too with no end in sight. Despite being so tired I could hardly see straight, I tried my best to focus on little bits of gratitude in the every day, whether it be the first BLT I’ve had in years or an amazingly beautiful holo polish.

Eric and I were able to attend my niece’s choir concert. It was a great show, and what a throwback to be in the cafeteria of the same elementary school my sister and I went to. Nothing much has changed!

I finished reading the Jenny Lawson book that I started on our flight back from New York in April and I decided to pick up the last Dan Brown book. Figured it was time I read it, since the new one was being released. I have made little to no progress in it, not so much due to the book, more to do with my limited reading time. But Fridays at the allergists office always offered me a thirty minute respite from my day and time to read.

As you can probably imagine though, I made it through the month with LOTS of coffee and sometimes just sheer willpower. I am so looking forward to June and summer and re-engaging with life.

March in Photos

Something crazy has been going on with my blog and/or WordPress over the past week. I keep trying to come in and do a new blog post and haven’t been able to! So, finally here is March in photos.

March was kind of a month of indulgences. Between the Mozartkugeln from Germany, the yummy homemade pizza, a good book and some nail polish, I was kind of on a roll! Really, I think a good part of it was a bit of escapism from some stuff that hasn’t been so fun to deal with this month.

One of the best things this month was going to the Dallas Quilt Show with a friend. I haven’t been to the quilt show in years, and it was such a fabulous day full of inspiration and even a little shopping. And the inspiration hasn’t left yet. I’ve been itching to sew!! Once I finished my Kate Spain quilt in February, I was dying to get back to my Kiss Kiss quilt. In March, I managed to get all of the cutting finished and also got all of my pieced blocks sewn together. Next up is starting to assemble the rows. I can’t wait to see this beauty come together! And I finished up a hexy pincushion for a friend’s birthday and sent it on its way. And a beautiful little thank you card came in the mail for the birthday gift I’d sent to another friend last month. Isn’t that little bird with the blue and white bowls adorable?

Some days it really started to feel like Spring, and the trees were blooming with glorious color. But we keep getting days of temps dipping back into the 30s and 40s, so I indulged in a little Mexican hot chocolate in the evening.

In family life, my boys are getting so big! They are a year old and we are feeling so fortunate to have them in our lives. Their daily shenanigans really keep us on our toes!! In June it will mark one year that we’ve had them, which I find hard to believe!!

As always, I appreciate you stopping by! I’m really enjoying sharing some of what’s going on in my world here.

Honoring Her

Easter never used to be more than a holiday for me. As I mentioned in my last post, over the past few years it has been made more special by spending our honeymoon in Rome for Easter. Eric’s love of family and traditions has also changed my perception of it, and we celebrate with a special meal and his special cake. But, this year things seemed to all fall into place to change me at some deep level, to focus on the true meaning of the days leading up to Easter.

On Good Friday, Eric’s grandmother passed away. And suddenly, we were faced with mourning this amazing woman who had helped to shape Eric into the man he is today. The past few years have been so full of loss, but somehow this was different. In the midst of our sadness and grief, we were presented with the message of Easter and for me at least, it brought some comfort.

While I had intended to make Eric’s special cassata cake for him, because of the tradition his Grandmother started, once we got the news on Friday I knew that making Easter special this year was something we both needed. When I did my last post and posted the photo of my dining room table decorated for the holiday, it reminded me that other than Christmas, I have done zero holiday decorating in several years. So, I decided that I wanted to make this Easter as special as possible for both of us. So, on Saturday, while Eric was gone I dug through my holiday decorations and did a little decorating around the house. Just a few touches, since I knew it wouldn’t be up for very long. I was so happy to see our dining room all dressed up for Spring.

I especially love my little glass bunnies. I think I got them from Williams Sonoma years and years ago. But, aren’t they cute?

And I’m glad I managed to get a photo of how pretty everything looked before the hoodlums got up on the table and ran off with an egg ornament in their mouths and proceeded to bat them around the house.

After I got the decorating finished, I got started on making the cassata cake. My recipe reminded me that it’s good to make the pound cake a day ahead so that it is completely cooled before I try to put the filling between the layers and frosting it.

On Sunday morning, I got started on finishing the cake. I made the filling and popped it in the fridge to chill so that it was easier to spread. Then I got started on making the whipped cream frosting. Homemade whipped cream is just the best, isn’t it? Reminded me of my chocolate bread pudding – I need to make that sometime soon.

Once I had my filling and frosting made, I cut my poundcake into layers and then brushed them with rum. I have actually forgotten this step before, so this time I made sure that I noted it on my recipe ingredients.

Once I had the cake assembled, into the fridge it went so that the ricotta filling and the whipped cream frosting could set up. Then it was time to make dinner. Eric made the fabulous Moroccan lamb burgers we’d agreed on for Easter dinner, from a recipe courtesy of our friends in Rhode Island. We opened a bottle of Barefoot Moscato for dinner and it was a delicious counterpoint to the spices in the burgers. Everything was so good!

And after dinner we dove into dessert. I sprinkled the top of the cake with some semi-sweet chocolate shavings. I loved the finishing touch it added.

Here’s a little view of the cake once we’d sliced into it. So so good! And don’t you love the little bees on the table runner?

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday, made all the more special because I felt like we were honoring Grandma’s life by celebrating with a wonderful meal, a beautiful table, and time with each other. She will be truly missed.

February in Pictures

I can hardly believe another month has come and gone. February was a rough month for me. It marked the one-year mark of losing my dad. It still feels fresh, and he was on my mind a lot this month. Work was also very intense this month, but I did manage to take a couple of days off in order to have a long weekend at the beginning of the month. And while January is always very peaceful and quiet, full of new potential…February for me is the first burst of color and seeing progress on new projects.

This February I found myself drawn to pretty spring colors, visually feasting on dreams of Paris and macarons. I found time on my days off to finish some crafty projects – one a gift for a friend and one a quilt I’d started two Thanksgivings ago. It feels so good to be able to focus on some fun things I wanted to do. And it seemed that Lana Del Rey’s music was my personal soundtrack throughout the month (still is – I can’t get enough of it).

Eric and I celebrated Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras with a King Cake and dinner out. It’s been several years since I made a King Cake (this one was bought)…maybe next year? I managed to spend an afternoon with a good friend (much-needed girl time) and wrapped up the month with a very delicious work dinner.

Despite the memories February brought with it, and despite the craziness at work, it was a good month and I’m so pleased to have been so productive and even steal a little time for myself!