Hello lovely!
Since it's officially 2016, I figured now would be a good time to review 2015. Man, what an amazingly blessed year I have had. Check it out:
January: We started the new year right with a Lewin family vacation to Florida. It was so nice to get some warmth in the middle of winter.
February: February was fun as my husband and I started Dave Ramsey's Leaving a Legacy course. It was so awesome and so helpful as we have been investing in all things adult such as: life insurance, renters insurance, identity theft insurance, disability insurance, etc. Also, we were lucky enough to go to a conference Dave Ramsey was speaking at. He was so inspiring. Another awesome moment for me was when one of my best friends Laura asked me to be her bridesmaid. It was so special because there were many times where we would hang out and dream about what her husband would be like so when she found him it was pure bliss. Lastly, I got to shoot my first wedding of the year in February. It was such a sweet wedding for me because it was one of my childhood friends who was saying "I do." It was awesome!
March: This was the time where I decided to invest in my photography and go to a workshop held by the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. It was so helpful and inspiring that I decided to do more workshops throughout the year. Along with the workshop I started B-School. It's an online intensive business school for creatives and it was so good! I plan on doing it again this year! One thing I enjoy doing is calligraphy. Last year I took an online calligraphy class so below are a few pages where I was practicing. Finally, the last few photos are of some of our family that came into town. My husband has wonderful siblings and some of them live out of state so they came to visit us along with his grandmother. So fun!
April: MY BIRTHDAY MONTH! I turned 25 in April and I celebrated by going to NYC with my husband, which was a first. We had so much fun exploring the city and see all of the main attractions. Also we got to see The Lion King on Broadway and it was amazing!
May: May was full of some goodness. Talk about the warm sun, soft beaches, tropical air, and best friends or A.K.A the Bahamas. Yep, we went on a cruise with Davids brother and his wife who are pretty much our best friends. Then when we got back one of my childhood friends visited from Texas and I got to take photos of her with her daughter and family.
June: Holy cow June was AMAZING! First off I had the absolute pleasure of quitting my full time job to pursue photography full time thanks to my husbands job and having a good budget. My life literally changed the first week in June when I said goodbye to the corporate to literally living my dream! To kick off my first month of being self employed I was entrusted with photographing the wedding of some of our sweetest friends Chase and Kate in Minnesota. We hit the road and drove all the way there from Colorado and spent the weekend riding their boat on the lake, playing yard games, and just relaxing. Then on our way home we got to see Mount Rushmore which was another first. Then when we got back I jumped right into work mode and getting serious so I joined the Sandler Training program with my hubby to really learn sales (still working on it). Lastly, one of the most important moments in our family happened. My brother got engaged!! We are really close so this was such a special moment!
July: Oh wonderful July! Talk about an amazing month of networking and dreaming and learning. In July I did two workshops. One was completely focused on photography where we had fun practicing shooting with different models, practicing off camera flash, figuring out why we do what we do, etc. Not to mention I got to meet a girl who is literally my twin and kindred spirit: Gretchen. Too bad she lives in Indiana but she is amazing and one day I will visit her! The second workshop was all about styled shoots. I was SO pumped when I found this workshop because for a whole year (maybe longer) before the workshop I dreamed of doing a styled shoot but had no idea where to start so this workshop really helped. Plus I got to meet some of the most amazing ladies that I have been able become friends with and collaborate with on multiple shoots. I also got to meet one of my sweetest friends Rachel whom I absolutely adore and would consider not just a great friend but also a mentor. She has inspired me and encouraged me has invested in me more than she knows!
August: 4 years married. Yep! 4 years already. My husband and I really wanted to celebrate our anniversary by riding in a hot air balloon. Obviously they are super expensive so we budgeted to put money away every month for it so by the time August rolled around we would have enough money for it. Then a week later I got to visit one of my best friends Laura (the girl who asked me to be her bridesmaid) in Cali for her bachelorette party. Literally.so.fun! Also, August was the month that I shot the most epic sunflower photo shoot. I still can't get over those photos! Soon after that shoot I was inviting by my sweet friend Rachel to assist her on an epic shoot in Telluride for Rocky Mountain Bride Magazine. We literally drove all night to get to the shoot on time and spent about 8hrs working on the epicness. It was absolutely beautiful and so worth only getting 2hrs of sleep. Finally, at the end of August I got some sweet news that some of my art journal entries were published on the inside covers of a journal for those wanting to experiment with art journaling. What an amazing month!
September: I don't know if it's possible but this year felt like every month got better. In September I trekked back to Cali with my hubby for my girlfriends wedding. We had such a good time celebrating a couple we absolutely love! Once we got back it was styled shoot time. All of my dreams and plans came together and some friends and I put on a killer styled shoot! Then it was wedding time once again but this time it was my brothers big day and boy did I cry like a baby! To top it all off I got to assist my sweet friend Rachel with another shoot. This time it was for a wedding dress designer named Rebecca Schoneveld who flew in from NYC and wanted to get photos done for her look book. Her dresses are absolutely stunning!
October: More travel!!!! As you saw before we love hot air balloons so David and I decided this year that we were going to hit the Hot Air Balloon Festival in New Mexico and boy was it worth it. On our way there we hit Garden of the Gods and Sand Dunes National Park and we are so glad we did. Those can be crossed off of the bucket list now.
November: More styled shoot goodness! My friend Caitlin of Zeal Living approached me about doing a holiday inspiration styled shoot with her using the products from her awesome boutique! Once we were done we submitted it to Couture Colorado and got published! A couple weeks later one of my favorite worship bands United Pursuit came into town and I about died seeing them live at a house concert. That same week my favorite conference called Resound kicked off and we got to see some more awesome worship bands such as Fuego, House Fires, and Ryan Ellis.
December: December was full of fun, family, friends, and holiday goodness. The business slowed down a ton (but that was expected) so I enjoyed my time resting and hanging out with family and getting ready for my trip to Europe in a week. December was crazy busy with holiday parties, shopping, decorating, caroling, etc. I don't even know if I would have had time for more shoots than what I already had because of all of the festivites. But that's ok because Christmas is the best!
So that was 2015! It was an amazing, emotional, terrifying, exciting, overwhelming, fantastic, adventurous year! I just hope 2016 will be able to top it and so far, it's lookin' good.
Alicia