26 before 27: 9 month update

I can't believe that I only have 3 months left to wrap up my 26 before 27 goals! I thought I'd share my list with everything that I have accomplished crossed out. I do have a few things left; some which I don't know how or if I'll be able to finish. I've made little notes next to some of the goals, because there are some that I've officially taken off of my list.

See my first post [HERE].

First update [HERE].

Six-month update [HERE].

Friends & Social           

1. Meet Amanda in real life

2. Visit my Seattle girls

3. Attend Ignite Boise

4. Reach over 600 followers on twitter - I'll be happy if I reach 500, I'm 14 away.

5. Blog consistently and increase my blog followers [100+] - I have 35 followers. I'm fine with that. :)

6. Host a giveaway on my blog - maybe when I reach 50 :)

7. Meet one or more twitter/blogger friends in real life

Faith

8. Read the Bible cover to cover - I'm almost done!

9. Participate in the Women’s Bible Study at church and be prepared for each class

Finances

10. Get out of debt and save money, create a monthly budget

11. Move out of my parent’s house

Photography

12. Get current on my photo albums

13. Take photos with my Holga and get them developed via the Darkroom

14. Be the top seller for Bella Baby Photography in Boise - I'm no longer working for Bella, so this is no longer relevant.

15. Become a certified Bella Life Photographer - Ditto (see above)

16. Brainstorm photography concepts and create two personal photo series

17. Take a photography class

18. Expand my personal photography business through senior portrait sessions and family sessions

Fun

19. Go on a date

20. Make a dress

21. Have a movie marathon

22. Build a fort/tent inside on a rainy day

23. Develop my personal style, do the 30x30 challenge

24. Complete Red Velvet’s Blog E-Course & Dream Job E-Course

Life/Misc.

25. Maintain organization in my life, personally and work-related

26. View the following documentaries: Beyond The Bottle [Miir] and Finding Kind [Kind Campaign] and donate to each organization

26 before 27: 6 month update

I have 6 months left before my birthday and I thought it’d be a good time to do an update on how my goals are coming along.  You can see my first update HERE.

These are a few things I’ve accomplished since then and ones that I’m currently working on.

2. Visit my Seattle girls: I was able to take two trips to Seattle last fall, in both September and October.

October trip - with Megan & Aimee at a Sounders game

3. Attend Ignite Boise: I went to IB7 with my parents, faux aunt and cousin in October.  I’m looking forward to IB8 in April.

7. Meet one or more twitter/blogger friends in real life: So far I’ve only met one twitter/blogger friend in real life and that’s Brandy [blog / twitter].  We were lucky enough to meet after Ignite Boise.  It was about time!  I hope that I’m able to meet a couple other twitter /blogger friends in the next 6 months.

8. Read the Bible cover to cover: I mentioned this in my last goals post, but I’m excited to say that I’m on track to finish in 6 months.  I highly recommend THIS plan to read the Bible in a year.  It’s been going great.  I’m pretty sure this goal is going to be on my list again next year.  Right now I’m reading The Message translation and I think I’ll go through the NIV translation next.

12. Get current on my photo albums: My sister and I have been attending my mom’s monthly crops to work on our albums.  We finished our 2007 albums and I’ve been slowly working on wrapping up all my traditional albums.  There’s a lot left to journal, but I’m getting through it.  In two weeks we’re going up to Camp Perkins for a women’s crafting retreat.  I’m looking forward to getting away and hopefully getting 2008 done.  Check out Creative Memories HERE to learn more about digital solutions for your photos.  It's not about "scrapbooking" it's about getting your pictures in albums to enjoy.

13. Take photos with my Holga and get them developed via the Darkroom: I shouldn’t have spent the money, but I finally bit the bullet and sent in some rolls to get developed by the Darkroom.  It was so fun to see my images.  I’ll be sharing some of my favorites on here next week.

14. Be the top seller for Bella Baby Photography in Boise: This is something I've been struggling with and is one of my top priorities.  I get paid solely on commission and I've been struggling financially.  I'm putting steps in place to become better at selling.  In the next week or two I'll hopefully be shadowing some of my fellow photographers to learn all I can from them about improving my selling techniques.

15. Become a certified Bella Life Photographer: I’m “pre-certified” as a Bella Life Photographer.  There are a few steps left to become officially certified, like shadowing the lead photographer and then submitting a few more sessions for critiques.

17. Take a photography class: I’d like to take [this portrait class] online via Improve Photography.  I’m hoping to save enough money to take it in the next month or two.

20. Make a dress: I didn’t make a dress, although it’s still on my list.  This past weekend Heather and I had the house to ourselves and deemed it “craft time.”  I drafted a pattern for a skirt and then made it with some gorgeous fabric that a friend gave me.  I'll share pictures of the skirt in an upcoming Wardrobe Wednesday post.

26 before 27: Monthly Update

I’ve been busy the past 6 weeks working on my 26 before 27 goals. I created this binder to help me organize my goals.

I wanted to give you all a little update as to how I’ve been doing on them. It’s been a little hard to prioritize because I want to get them ALL done NOW. Here are a few goals that I’ve been working on:

1. Meet Amanda irl – We’re trying to schedule a good time for her to fly out here to Idaho. Tentatively scheduled for December.

5. Blog consistently and increase my blog followers [100+] – Yikes! This one is hard. I’ve been trying my best to plan out and schedule my blogs. I’m starting with blogging consistently and then will work on increasing my blog followers.

8. Read the Bible cover to cover – I’m really excited about this one! I’ve been reading my Bible every day since July 31. I’m using THIS PLAN I found online. In order to keep it organized I used 7 different paint samples as bookmarks and labeled them with the days of the week. I keep a copy of the plan folded in the front of my Bible to refer to specific chapters for each day. It works great! I love the plan because I get to read different passages everyday.

12. Get current on my photo albums– This is extremely challenging, but I did attend my mom’s crop this month. I have a lot to catch up on, but I think that I need to wrap up my traditional albums first. This might take some goals and planning to make sure I complete this goal.

14. Be the top seller for Bella Baby Photography in Boise– While I wasn’t top seller for Bella Baby in Boise last month, I did reach my highest sales ever. I honestly don’t think that I will be able to become the top seller without being a certified Bella Life Photographer.

15. Become a certified Bella Life Photographer – I am making plans to [hopefully] submit a gallery [or galleries] this month to be approved as a Bella Life Photographer. The gallery that I submit will be critiqued and it might take a few rounds before I’m actually approved.

18. Expand my personal photography business through senior portrait sessions and family sessions – As you may know, I launched a facebook page for my photography. This was something I was very nervous about. I’m very self conscious about my work, so this was a huge step for me. I photographed my first Senior Rep last month. I have a tentative senior session this month and will hopefully book some more sessions from those. I also have two family sessions that need to be scheduled in the coming months!

25. Maintain organization in my life, personally and work-related, via filing system – I put this off for most of the month because I knew it’d be challenging. I got a whole bunch of new file folders and organized my existing files, cleaning them out as I went. I have a new system for my files, including an “In Progress” folder where I stash the things I need to go through, rather than piling them on my desk. I think it’s going to work very well! I’ve also been trying to use my planner in a more efficient way. I also just downloaded the Wunderlist app on my MacBook Pro. I think it’s going to be awesome in helping me get organized! 

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26. View the following documentaries: Beyond The Bottle [Miir] and Finding Kind [Kind Campaign] and donate to each organization – I was able to see Beyond The Bottle documentary TWICE! You can view it HERE. I might be able to see Finding Kind if/when Amanda comes to visit, because she has a copy of it. It might take me a while to be able to donate to either cause but I’m excited that I’ll be able to cross it off my list in the next couple months. 

26 before 27

I must admit my last year’s goals kind of stunk. Okay, they weren’t THAT bad, but I don’t think I was very thoughtful when I came up with them. I was coming up with stuff to put on my list because I had blanks to fill in. Maybe that’s why I only completed like a third of them. I wasn’t SUPER excited about crossing them off my list.

This year I couldn’t be MORE excited about my list of goals! Maybe I got wiser this past year. ;) I feel like I was genuine when I came up with this list. I asked myself WHAT I wanted to accomplish, WHY I wanted to do it, WHERE do I want to be next year and HOW can I get there? I've tried to answer sincerely.

I’ve broken them up into different categories. This was done after-the-fact so that I could be more organized when I’m working on them.

Note: I kept some of my goals from last year on my list, because I really do want to do them.

To make my goals more attainable I’ve included brief notes [mostly for myself] on ways I will be able to achieve them. I’m going to create a binder with my goals and evaluate monthly to see how I’m progressing, as well as see if I need to make any changes. I might even do a blog update once a month to share how I’m doing; a little accountability doesn’t hurt, right? I’m aiming to work on [some goals are on-going] or complete 2+ goals a month.

Friends & Social
1. Meet Amanda irl
2. Visit my Seattle girls [happening October 2011]
3. Attend Ignite Boise [October 2011]
4. Reach over 600 followers on twitter
5. Blog consistently and increase my blog followers [100+]
6. Host a giveaway on my blog [when I reach 100 followers—ideas: photography prints, photography session, etc.]
7. Meet one or more twitter/blogger friends irl [Amanda, Ignite Boise, Seattle tweeters in October]

Faith
8. Read the Bible cover to cover [tentatively following THIS plan, printed & kept in Bible or by my night stand]
9. Participate in the Women’s Bible Study at church and be prepared for each class [Starting September 2011, with Becoming a Woman of Simplicity by Cynthia Heald]

Finances
10. Get out of debt and save money, create a monthly budget [Live like no one else. cc: Dave Ramsey—see #14]
11. Move out of my parent’s house [Spring 2012, plan & budget expenses—see #14]

Photography
12. Get current on my photo albums [attends mom’s monthly crops & scrapbook events, finish traditional album then become strictly digital]
13. Take photos with my Holga and get them developed via The Darkroom
14. Be the top seller for Bella Baby Photography in Boise [become “The Closer” & maintain a consistent income]
15. Become a certified Bella Life Photographer [contact Dina & Stacey]
16. Brainstorm photography concepts and create two personal photo series
17. Take a photography class [lighting? portrait? studio? where?]
18. Expand my personal photography business through senior portrait sessions and family sessions [Senior Reps & Family session add-ons to Senior Sessions]

Fun
19. Go on a date [I don’t know how this will happen. Are you there God? It’s me, Ashlee…]
20. Make a dress [design & sew, make my own pattern, create a muslin sloper first]
21. Have a movie marathon [Steve Martin movies – re: Heather's goals]
22. Build a fort/tent inside on a rainy day [even better if it coincides with #21]

23. Develop my personal style, do the 30x30 challenge [Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer—at least one time, possibly two]
24. Complete Red Velvet’s Blog E-Course & Dream Job E-Course [create binder with all info, complete lessons bi-weekly]

Life/Misc.
25. Maintain organization in my life, personally and work-related, via filing system [clean out old files, new filing boxes—personal & work, monthly folders, research organization methods, systems. find what works best for me.]

26. View the following documentaries: Beyond The Bottle [Miir] and Finding Kind [Kind Campaign] and donate to each organization

source

Fashion Friday: Birthday Dresses

I came up with this fun inspiration board for ideas for going out for my birthday. Heather and I didn't do anything to celebrate our birthdays last year with our friends. This year we're going out to The Matador with some of our local friends. Then we're hoping to celebrate with our Seattle friends when we visit in October. We're going out tomorrow night and I'm not quite sure what to wear yet. My only ideas include these Jeffrey Campbell heels, because really, what other reasons do I have to wear them in Boise? haha. So that's what I'll probably style my outfit around. We'll see what I come up with!

birthday dresses by AshleeRohnert featuring platform shoes

Sheer lace dress
$230 - lagarconne.com

Diane von Furstenberg metallic dress
£134 - matchesfashion.com

TopShop body con dress
$110 - topshop.com

Jane Norman layered dress
£75 - janenorman.co.uk

Steve Madden rhinestone shoes
$130 - zappos.com

Jessica Simpson mary jane pumps
$100 - heels.com

Penny Loves Kenny ivory heels
$90 - heels.com

Platform shoes
$89 - jessicasimpsoncollection.com

DKNY clutch hand bag
$132 - zappos.com

Clutch hand bag
$150 - witchery.com.au

Tasha clutch hand bag
$98 - nordstrom.com

Miss Selfridge clutch hand bag
£16 - missselfridge.com

Music Monday: Steve Martin

As you know, Saturday night the fam saw Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers. The parents took Heather and I as an early birthday present. We had such a great time at the show. Steve is a fabulous performer! He's so funny and has great comedic timing. The Steep Canyon Rangers were truly amazing!

Here are just a few pictures from the show. I hope you enjoy!

Follow Steve Martin on Twitter

my week in pictures

If you're following me on twitter you may have seen some of the photos I posted via yfrog recently. I'm posting a few of my favorites from this past week and some that I didn't post online.

I went to Twin Falls last weekend to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday. Saturday I ended up at Shoshone Falls, which happens to be taller than Niagra. Unfortunately the only camera I had was on my phone. I got kind of snap-happy, but it was so gorgeous.

Lots of birthday celebrations (and dessert!).

On the way home: the Idaho desert.

We stopped at Lowes (at Overland and Cole in Boise) on the way home for the Wish Granters playhouse raffle. Every ticket is $1 for the raffle. This particular playhouse is part of a silent auction. It ends this Sunday (June 19), so there's still time to get your tickets! Check out Wish Granters on facebook.

Yesterday I ran errands with my mom and aunt and we stopped at Starbucks. There's nothing better than an iced caramel macchiato on a summer day!

Hope you've all had a great week! It's almost the weekend! :)