Life + Loving

It has been too long since I’ve shared a life update around here, and I totally blame that on being in launch mode for Kickstart Your List for… oh, about a month? I’m really excited to ease back into my usual editorial calendar, and I thought the perfect post would be a life update especially since the last time we talked in a more personal way was June! Can you believe that? Since then things have calmed down quite a bit, and here’s what life has looked like –

Getting settled in Georgia

When I wrote my last life update, we had just closed on our house and were beyond excited to finally have our own space again after being in limbo for about a month and a half with our move. Since then, we’ve gotten all of our stuff delivered, and we’re really settling into our house and the area. I still find myself missing our old house and Charleston, but I know that we could always visit the area if we wanted to (we moved just about 4 hours south of where we were). Despite a few hiccups with the house, we still love having our own place, and y’all… Zoey loves having her own fenced yard.

Reading lately

I don’t know if I told y’all, but I set a massive goal to read 100 books this year. I couldn’t help myself after reading over 50 last year, and I just went for it for 2016. However, since things have been so crazy I’m so far behind. It’s a challenge to make time for reading when you have about a hundred other things you want to be doing. However, over the last month or so I’ve been forcing myself to shut the computer down and actually go to bed to read before going to sleep. If you don’t do this, I dare you to try it. It’s helped me sleep so much better, and it’s helped me inch forward to that goal of 100 books. I’m currently working on finishing Wake Up Happy by Michael Strahan, but I’ve recently also read The Opposite of Loneliness. I’m still slowly working my way through Think and Grow Rich as well! It’s a long book, y’all!

I’ve been working on

If you follow me on Twitter, you likely saw the updates last week when Krista and I announced that we’re working on a WordPress theme shop called Coded Creative! It’s been so much fun to flex my creative muscle and play around with what I’m creating. Our themes are built on the Genesis framework, and with each and every one we’re making sure that the design is not just pretty to look at but will actually help you grow your blog / business. We’re currently hard at work putting the finishing touches on everything and preparing for the shop to open on September 1st, but in the meantime, we’d love to have you sign up for our email list for updates, and by doing so you’ll be entered to win a theme of your choice!

Finding new hobbies

I don’t know if I’ve shared this much around here, but I absolutely adore abstract art and paintings. I think I like more organic art because there’s so much less pressure than when you’re doing something like painting a still life. So of course, when Caroline mentioned that she was looking for beta testers for her new Acrylic Explorations class I jumped on it, and I’m so happy I did. I’ve always wanted to paint, but couldn’t let go of making things perfect or “pretty”; however, her class totally helped get rid of that, and I’ve had a lot of fun just playing around. I’ve done 21 paintings since becoming a beta tester at the end of July, and it’s definitely become my new favorite hobby. I have no idea what I’m going to do with all of these paintings, but for now I’m just focusing on having fun with what I’m doing!

I’m loving lately —

Lara Casey has been one of my favorite gals to follow over the past couple of months, and I absolutely adored her post on five easy ways to grow meaningful friendships.

I’m always on the hunt for new books to read, so I definitely bookmarked Ashley’s list of her favorite business books.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been seriously leaning in to all things woo-woo, including a few minutes of meditation each morning. If you might want to try meditation, Rachel shared 6 powerful shifts that happened since she started her practice.

A subscription service that delivers a new book to your door each month? Sign. Me. Up.

I dumped Basecamp back in the Spring and have been using Asana since I got back to work in June, and I’ve loved organizing things thanks to Nesha’s post on how to use Asana best with clients.

I’ve been literally obsessed with the Olympics this year, particularly swimming and gymnastics, so I thought this feature on Simone Biles was really cool!