Pride and...Well Just Pride

So I work my best at night. I get all my ideas at night, I plan everything at night, I'm productive and motivated at night. I may be a vampire or possibly just an owl in human form, that's alittle less scary - although edward cullen's sparking body definitely made vampires more gay and less scary. I'm rambling, this is because I am really awesome by night, but by day...well I suck. Around midnight tonight I decided that I am no longer going to depress about not having a job and there not being alot of work here on the island. I'm taking action and making something for myself. I have a couple plans that I would like to start putting to the test, one I'm not putting out there for everyone just yet, because I don't want to jinx it or get myself excited before it's more than just an idea. BUT my photo studio isn't just an idea, it's my dream and it will happen, I just hadn't planned the "when" yet. Well when is right now, there is no time like the present and really what else do I have to do? I've been moping around pinning and pouting, but no more. I say this while I'm all hopped up on life and sleepy fumes, but I'm going to put my night energy to good use, if night is when I am most productive, than screw daytime hours, I will do all my photography business stuff at night!

I started on my new logo around 12am and by 1:04 I was finished. Here it is! 

Let me know what you think of the new name and the logo! I never much cared for "robyn guptill photography," it seemed so plain and unoriginal. I like this much better and that little robin was a pain in the ass, but she's done and I really like her. I pretty much am in love with this logo right now. I know it's just because I made it and that's when pride gets dangerous because you grow an attachment to your work. So that's why I want some feedback. What do you like and not like about the logo? My main concern is the "photos" font. I may end up changing that. I wasn't overly fond of the "red robyn" font until I got the little robin on it and decided that the font made it look like she was sitting on little branch letters. But please, I won't get offended by constructive criticism, it is welcomed! I am pretty proud of the creation, the more I look at the bottom font the less I like it so I may fiddle around with that. But it's a start and maybe I will just keep it. I have until I re-vamp my business plan to decide. I am definitely keeping the name and the top part of the logo. 

Stay Happy! I'm off to try and get some sleep. 

January Projects For Work

I was going to read, but I decided to blog instead.

I have a few blog ideas that I want to work on and I wish that I could blog more than I do, but finding the time and motivation can be hard sometimes. This post is mostly to keep me on track with projects for work. I need to get some stuff done around the nursery, now that Christmas is over. Still some stuff to un-decorate and then they need to be replaced with other things. I also need to get some advertising done. We have a staff meeting tomorrow. So I will probably write this post tonight and at the bottom finish it off with updates from tomorrows staff meeting before making it public.

Things to do before the 30th or even sooner than that 

1. Take down the Christmas decorations
2. Do up advertisements (posters/fb group) 
3. Photo forms for parents
4. Fundraising Ideas
5. New Recipes?
6. Start survey's with the older age group
7.  Work on colors with the toddlers 
8. Make sensory pads and slotbox
9. Do up the build an inside snowman to do with the kids
10. Work on the video project
11. and I know there was another but I just forgot it...don't you love when that happens? 

Really want to work on colors with the toddles.

slot box

sensory steps

build a snowman inside

Race Track

Surveys

Really loved this poster I saw at a class and really want to attempt
 (note I said attempt) to do one myself! 

2 days later...(today, the stuff before this was written on the 13th)

So I know I planned to post this last night, but I forgot my mac charger at work, but successfully made it through the night without my laptop! On the other hand the staff meeting was a pretty good success and I really like getting together with everyone to discuss issues and things that work or don't work and how we can fix them. It think it will REALLY help us progress, we're a team, a family even and we're all in it together. We have such an awesome group of workers over there that are fully committed to their jobs. It's really nice!

We've come up with some really good ideas for fundraising, programs, progress of our workplace and positive changes! I'm not going to spoil all of that right now though, as they develop and happen.

I can tell you that I HAVE started the color project I am working on with the toddlers and hopefully I should have it finished and on the wall by thursday. I'm not working Friday because the memorial is that night, so I want to have it done thursday. And had I not had company this evening I could have had the sensory pads done, but I will do that tomorrow night.

I really want to bring kids back to the club! It's such an awesome program and we do so much with the kids. I've heard people call us glorified babysitters and that's just completely offensive. We all have first aid and have our curriculum framework, and we do much more than I ever did with kids when I babysat. Much more goes into what we do than people think. I plan to start making post on what we do and the experiences we give the kids. We have to do "documenting" where we constantly document what the kids do and then present it visual back to the children so they can see what they were doing and remember those experiences. It's one of my favorite things to do, because I get to put my photoshop skills to work!

Anyway, that's it for today! I will try to get another post up before friday, I doubt I will do much blogging over the weekend with the 2 memorial services. Not looking forward to the sadness that's to come again, but we'll keep surviving <3

Stay Happy!

Before the New Year

Sitting here today, during this rotten storm, I was thinking "wow, this year has been a complete waste!" but that is so not true, so many great things happened, but just as many bad things happened, so it makes me feel like they cancel out, but really the good things were really good. I have a wicked awesome job, wouldn't change it for the world. I bought a house, a freaking house and although it over whelms me most of the time, I really do love my house. So now that I have to go back to my house, alone, I'm really going to have the spare time to do what I want to it. I need to stop being so lazy and afraid of doing things alone.

I'm a big pinner, I LOVE Pinterest, I waste too much time pinning and not trying the things I find. So my goal - not a new years resolution, this isn't the new year yet that is why I wanted to get this post out before the new year - is to make to do lists for each month of 2013 of atleast 30 things I want to do, and accomplish atleast 20 of them! These are small little to dos, I will also have bigger things that I won't be able to finish in a month, but need to remember to continually work on them. 

First off here are a couple things that I need to continually work on through the new year. 

1. Cleaning off my mac and archiving my photos 

I really want to start a wisdom book and fill it with life lessons
that I have learn,  for quotes and any other bit  of meaningful
knowledge I think suits my life and morals.

2. Documenting for work and for personal 

3. My professional work portfilio 

4. My "Wisdom Book" 

5. Start my physical "House Book" with little things that need to be fixed or replaced in my house, decor ideas, bigger reno projects, and more. 

6. Better blogging, on here and my photo blog 

7. Working on my business! my website, business plan and office. I've really neglected this lately. 

8. Saving money and budgeting

9. My organizer
10. And compile a list of recipes or make it yourself item, (laundry soap, deodorant, etc) 

Those are just things that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm actually going to have to print on this list so that I can actually remember. I put so many things in the back closet of my head so much. And I need to make some of this stuff real physical beings (books) because the internet is so easy to get side tracked and forget about main things that shit just doesn't get done. So cutting back on my internet time is a goal of mine for this new found me.

I had started this "do so many things a month" goal at the first of december, but I totally failed at it and I think I was meant to because of the whole spend time with the family while I could deal. So there are a couple of things that I would like to get done before 2013 gets here, but nothing really crazy, because I am not going to try and pull off unrealistic goal in the next couple of days. Here are the couple of things that I would like to get accomplished before Jan 1st.

The Life Calendar - I really want to find a cute little box for mine to, like the one on the left

Memory Jar

I sure hope that I can atleast get these two things done before the new year. I would also like to get some of these done over the break, or before the end of january.

1. Moved back into my house, all my christmas stuff and the rest of my things from my mothers that didn't make it before. 
2. The whole placed cleaned
3. Re-arrange my bedroom 
4. Get my office function-able and organized
5. My piano moved out of my house

Then there is my Dream To Do list which consists of things that I always want to get done, but NEVER sit down to do it. 

1. Re-write my children's books
2. Write more from my other ideas 
3. Work on my personal photography

And finally there are my work projects at the club. 

1. My professional portfolio
2. My Video Project
3. Documenting year book 
4. Idea Book
5. Coloring pages 

I will post my January list soon and a couple other post. I think I am going to do up some posts ahead of time incase there are time I don't feel like blogging. 

Whoa Whoa Whoa!

The time is finally here! I'm counting down the hours instead of the days...and I think this might even be the hardest art yet. I really wished I had the chance to meet the sweet older couple that had owned the place before me. I did the final walk through with the real estate agent tonight and there were notes in the kitchen from the lady to me about the different plants outside. It was so nice of her to fill me in on little things like that because I am in no way a gardener.

It's very hard for me to realize the actual state of the property right now, because inside my head is my dream of what it is going to be once I start working at it. Some people spend hundreds of thousands on a house that they don't have to touch, it's just ready. Although this house is fit to live in, it needs lots of updates and that's what excites me SO much about it. I get to make this gorgeous old house with TONS of character, into a home that is updated and very "me." Along with the notes the couple left mostly everything in the house, which to me is basically like getting 10 Christmases in one. These next few days are going to be pretty amazing. If anyone really knows me they know I have a huge appreciation for history and old items. Going through the walk through there were so many small vintage items that I was just overjoyed to have been left there. There is quite a bit of stuff that I won't be keeping, partly because I won't have the space and some of it I could care less for and need to sell so that I can get some money to do more renovating.

I can't wait to do some posts after I FINALLY get into the house. I am just too excited to even cope with life right now. I am watching Dexter re-runs and blogging about how excited I am. So I think I will post some inspiration photos of the rooms that I am going to paint.
Our bedroom is obviously the first room that I'm going to re-do, because the bedroom is where we have to feel the most comfortable, so I wanted to really make it feel like my own. Then I thought what other room in the house will we be using most, so I decided to do the livingroom along with the bedroom. 200.00 later after buying paint, I was glad I only chose 2 rooms. I'm hoping to get to the kitchen in the next month or so.

Here are some of my ideas for our bedroom :)

I love so many colors that I couldn't choose just a few, so I'm going with a boho-ish
style and using lots ofdifferent colors. My walls are going to be a neutral -grey-
 and one wall be a bright coral color. I have too many accent colors to do a
small pallet. 

grey - with alot of accents :) 

Lots of bright colors :) and I'm thinking of trying to hang fabric! 

Neutrals with bright colors 

Livingroom

This was the first photo that inspired my living room, the color isn't so blue that I chose,
but I didn't bring this photo with me to pick out mine, but I'm sure I will love my
 color as much as this :) 

Well that's in for now! All I have to do now is sleep, get up, go to work and then at lunch hopefully I will be able to get into the house and start cleaning and going through EVERYTHING!!! :) That's going to be the fun part, it's like a treasure hunt to me. I'm so excited. I will be doing lots of instagraming tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Stay Happy :)

Where To Begin

I wish I could say that I have been keeping busy and not rolling around on the floor whining about waiting to get into my house, but really I've just been working and whining haha. I have been some what productive and packed some things up and met with my lawyer last night to sign the papers. This week has been kinda awful though because I haven't been sleeping, there has been a terrible mess going around at work and it's not even like a visible cold. It's something that eats away at the inside of you and just makes you feel DREADFUL, but people look at you and say "k stop acting like you feel shitty," cause they are coughing and sneezing. So yesterday I was extremely exhausted and on top of feeling crappy and dealing with personal issues I had to dish out a bucket full of cash to pay lawyer fees - shoulda become a lawyer now that I see how much I have to dish out on this side of things haha - BUT it's all going to be worth it come thursday!

Since this whole house buying thing started I haven't been able to concentrate on anything but that, so I really really really can't wait to get it over with and go back to normal life, just in my own house. Get organize and get my ass in gear. I have lots of projects that I want to start working on.

Some new things in my life have been,  I started working out with my BioDad/Aunt/Tonia, we went for a two hour walk on tuesday it was pretty great, we were supposed to do it again but I haven't really been feeling that great so we went for a smaller walk on wednesday and then work and exhaustion took over. We are starting a weight loss plan with another friend from work, just so we have someone else to answer to and weigh us in because we can talk each other out of anything. "oh we can go for a walk tomorrow,""a bag of chips never hurt anyone," "well we fell off the wagon already this week, so we'll start over again next monday," and so on! We weigh in at 11:00 and I am DREADING it, only because I know that I cheated myself and gained my weight back that I lost at the first of the year. I'm really hoping that working with her will keep me on track and she'll have great tips about eating right and she's VERY encouraging and understanding!

I also put my name down for a volunteer program, what we called in school "toast cart," so I will be dealing out the toast instead of getting breakfast from it haha. I'm alittle nervous, I start it in october and its only a couple of days a month. The reason I started was because my grandmother does it and I thought it would be a nice thing we could do together and because the boys and girls club does up the schedule I asked to be put on her days :) And even though it will mean earlier mornings those days, I live next door to the school so I can just hop on over real quick before work!

Once I get into the house and get alittle settled I really want to start re-using and re-creating items, so I've been online yard-saling and buying up some things that I want to work on. So I can't wait to start posting about that. I feel so horrible for not blogging much these past coupel of weeks because work has been crazy and buying a house really made me go alittle nuts and I didn't want to do anything my pin because I was so excited. Now that it's actually a few days away I've calmed down and really just want the 5 days to pass by.

The nursery has been pretty great, I'm learning alot and catching on to things, but because I grew up an only child I have to say the past few weeks have been over whelming for sure! So my mother switched my jobs this morning so that I was able to hang out with my older kids and she looked after the babies. I'm so thankful that we can do that on days when things are just too much for one of us, I really miss my "big kids" and it helps when I'm having a bad day cause they really make my day. They all told me that they want to come visit me at my house and I said they REALLY have to come trick-or-treating at my house this year!!

This weekend it's giving alot of rain and I was hoping to get a photo shoot done to pass some of the time, but by the report I won't be able to, still keeping my fingers crossed though. SO if I don't get to do a shoot, I will get another post up on idea's I have for my master bedroom!! I'm so excited, but really unsure of what to do about it!

Stay Happy!!!

Impatience

Its been alittle over a week since my last post and I really wished I would have posted more as my first house purchase progressed, but really it hasn't been anything exciting. Mostly just paper signing and banking and lawyers, oh and alot of pinning home decor ideas. This is mainly what my post will be about, I won't be able to do many changes to the house, but I have alot of plans for it and I want to post what I am thinking now, so that I can look back after they are finished and see how different it really turns out haha
Another reason I haven't been blogging is because I started in the nursery this monday and I'm working full time. This I am very happy about because I really need to get some cash built up before I move into the house.
I've noticed that I am not only impatient, but a symptom of my impatience is turrets. Atleast 10 times, if not more, a day I yell in weird voices "I want my house," because waiting 22 more days is going to literally kill me. I can't explain to you how impatient I am, it's too the point that I get angry that I can't move in yet haha, I just have SO much planned and know what I want to do that I just hate waiting to get it done.

I am also impatient for Katelynn and Rubyn to get back from their honeymoon so they can see their photos. I really hope they like them, here are a couple sneak peaks before I go on about my house!

Ideas that I have for the house 

The Porch

this color scheme            or               this color scheme

I really like the thought of being organized and neat like this

I think this is so neat! 

I am definitely having a trash station for garbage and recycles!

The Kitchen

I'm between a nice light and warm yellow or a light fresh green! I have no idea which to choose! I think I'm leaning towards the yellow though.

Some things that I would like to do in the kitchen. I really like the stand up draw by the fridge.

I would really like either of these types of store boards in my kitchen!

I am stopping at two rooms because I could go on forever and I am trying to do like 10 others things while blogging and I've been at this for 2-3 hours. I'm multi-tasking too much so I need to cut one things short and it's going to be the blog. But I will post more ideas soon! 

Stay Happy! 

Trials and Tribulations

Geez, where do I even begin. Yesterday was just one of those days where everything seems impossible for the future and what was the present was crashing down around me. Note that things weren't very good for me on the inside because I had missed a depression med and started my period of the same day.

I've been trying to build up a realistic dream of what I want for the next year or so and I thought I had figured it out. I was planning on building a studio and mini apartment/reallybigbedroom onto my mothers place, because currently I just live is what was the "den" on the first level and for a couple to live in it there isn't much privacy. But it just seems that the more I look into it the more it's going on cost and I really don't want to spend that large amount of money on something that I just want to be temporary. I'm a very impatient person, so I am one of those girls that's always been in a rush to grow up, now that I'm here it's stressful but I like it, but I'm still wanting my life to progress further. I want to get my business going, a house built, a family started and I just don't know how to go about it.
Basically my options right now are 1. spend like 75000 and build on to my mothers house and try to live there until I pay it off...which isn't even really an option for me right now.  2. spend like triple that on buying land and building a starter home and 3. buying a house that stands and trying to make what I want out of it, which is looking like what I may have to do and go back to my land plan later. And oh yeah, I'm broke. I do have a full time job secured, but it's been set back after set back trying to get the nursery running. It's so depressing and hard to plan something that is so expensive when you have like the smallest percentage of what you need to get going.

So please if you're an islander and have some spare land or cash lying around, I'm not below charity at this point haha.

Back to yesterday, I was feeling very quite and just wanted to be left alone to mope about my lack of funds. I decided that I would read a book because I was getting quite excited for my birthday gift to arrive. My lovely boyfriend went all out and bought me the new nexus 7 tablet :) because I wanted alittle more than an ereader. I started to read a book that I had wanted to get at for a while and I'm alittle over half way through.

To make my day better, but lovely boyfriend came home and the drama begun, being a young couple with history and trying to work through the past while starting a future, I'm not ashamed to say we fight. We're both dramatic people and each of us have our own special communication problems. I'm loud and get upset easy and he tends to only hear what he wants and likes to exaggerate. So we piss each other off and make the fight bigger haha, but the good thing is we always sit down talk it through and move on from it.
The thing that I've learned the most from our 3yr previous relationship, 1yr break and now our new 5 month relationship is that I seriously love the guy. Even though we drive eachother mad sometimes or pis each other off and do things that we shouldn't, at the end of the day we're mad about each other and go to bed happy. I'm a big believer in never going to bed mad at each other, so I always make sure we talk things out no matter how late we have to stay up, I just can't lie next to someone that I'm angry at.

Yesterday wasn't all bad, things that cheered me up were that I'm doing pretty great at not chewing my nails. They actually look pretty nice, but how long that lasts I have no idea. I've done this before and chewed them after a couple months, but I going to try EXTRA hard not to this time.
I spent a few hours with my Dad and stepmom, we had lunch together and I also got to order my birthday present from Justin :) Yes I am one of those people that likes to pick out their own gifts - I'll probably blog about this control freak problem around christmas. The main reason I got this was because I wanted an ereader, but I kinda wanted alittle more than just an ereader, so I did some research and read alot of reviews and I think that I found what I want for the price we could afford.

 I'm so excited to get it!!! Thanks babe <3

A few other things were able to cheer me up yesterday and remind me that life's still good. I kept checking my phone and looking a a photo of me and one the cutest, sweetest little boys I know. I worked all day friday so I got to spend most of the day playing with him, his twin brother, older sister and all the other kids. Those little people are the best thing to cheer up a girl :) Here are some photos of the kids and things that I have been working on over the past week or so.

He can cheer me up no matter what's making me sad!! 

Last week mom and I tacked the jean quilt she'd been working on for
ages! 

Tinka wasn't that great a help, but she sure is the cutest :) 

Calli didn't want to reading yesterday, she actually hasn't left me alone
for the past two days... oh and she's allergic to Tinka's food and
over-grooms herself that's why she has a sore on her back :(
I'm going to try and construct a fabric collar to stop her licking.

This man always puts a smile on my face! 

Last weekend my friend Lisa came down with Jo to visit :) 

We went to see the alpaca's at Darren's house! (link to their cottage site
at the end!)

They have mini sheep too! 

All adorable animals!! 

I watched the rotary fireworks from the sea this year :)

The reflections on the water made it even more lovely! 

Friday at work Libby did and awesome job coloring her lighthouse!

All the kids love my iphone, but Sabe definitely loved taking selfportraits! 

Me and Lib :) 

 I've been meaning to make more posts or more frequent ones, but my life seems to be upside down half the time these days. But I'll try to do my best this week, I always think of good blog posts when I'm not in the blogging mood haha

Here's the link to the Darren's summer chalet :)

Stay Happy!!!

Looking Back On "New Goals" & More

Back in April I posted "New Goals," I figured I would update and see what I've actually gotten done and maybe make some more goals.

My goals back in April were : 

1. Getting My Daily Life Organized - I feel I've done a pretty good job getting myself organized, although I have been slacking off since I haven't been filling in much at work, but I do have to give myself credit for keeping on track with the things that I need to get done. I just haven't been writing it down. 
2. Get a Job - check! I do have a job, it hasn't started yet, because we still have to get approved, but I do have the position and I am on call until it starts up!
3. Lost More Weight - complete fail on this one. I haven't been good at all! I have been kicking myself in the ass for this one, I have basically just stayed within the same couple of pounds and this needs to stop. I've been trying to get out and do more, I've been doing lots of lawn work and what not, but overall I've been pretty "cozy." I would like to add that I have a boyfriend that can eat whatever the hell he wants and not gain a pound and it rubs off on me because I like to eat think that I can eat that way too, but I can't at all. So I've asked for support from him and I need to get my weightloss brain back in gear!
4. Finish Clearing A Space For The ChickenCoop and Garnden - This I accomplished, but then we decided that both of these things are going to have to be on hold until next year. Which I wasn't too please about, but time and money had to go into other projects, which is understandable.
5. Finish Preparing For Wedding #1 - Check and Cleared, the wedding was great. 
6. Finish Archiving - Made some progress, but far from finished, I still will be archiving in 2013...it's never ending. 
7. Buy A Prom Dress - Check! along with shoes, jewelry and a new hair do. 

A couple other things that I got accomplished were : Getting Mayor (our rabbit) moved down here, moved Justin down here, made a difference in the yard!, fenced in and cleared a path to the rhubarb patch, and kept up on my daily and weekly things to do. 

From the past couple of days these are things I documented

My BioBro's Graduation Party! Congrats Jackson!! See you on the red carpet for prom! 

Yard work! about 5x15 feet of what you see was very tall grass that I mowed. I also moved the bunny over
where his new pen will be.  

1's - flowers that I bought. 2 - giant lilac bush/tree that I chopped down this morning. 3. new bbq (where the bunny pen used to be all the way over to the other doorstep. 4. bird feeder. AND 5. which you can't see, but right inside the door where you can see my lovely mother tending to laundry, we got a new washer.

I've been craving lobster so my father brought me this beast tonight. Nothing like a lobster that is the
size of your dog. She wasn't impressed at all that I made her may beside him, took me five minutes to
convince her to stay.

My Tinka girl waiting for us to come to bed. 

Justin sleeping. 

Stay Happy!