karenika

Taking My Own Advice

Almost a month ago, I registered a new domain.

Some people like to collect domains but not me. In the last fourteen years, I’ve only registered four domain names. One for karenika (right here), one for my photography business, one that I let expire after a year and now this one for my coaching business.

I registered the domain soon after my last class and then let it sit there.

I kept putting off working on it. I wasn’t sure what I wanted it to say. I didn’t know where to begin. I kept thinking it had to be “just right.” I had to have more of a plan before I started. I had to make sure it sounded professional. Or powerful. Exciting. Uplifting. Unique. Amazing.

Perfect.

I had a lot of ideas about what it had to be. And, of course, I was none of those things, so I just let it sit there and fester. I had several tabs open, waiting for me to update, haunting me day after day. A reminder of how I was slacking. A reminder of how I would never have the right words.

So, finally, tonight I decided to take my own advice and start.

I decided that instead of being perfect, this new site would be a living, breathing one. In the thirteen years I’ve had it, karenika.com has gone through many, many iterations. It took years for me to find the style, the voice, the tone, and the balance of what I wanted this place to be. And, of course, all of it changed as I changed. This place grew and morphed with my life, interests, passions, etc. There’s no reason to think that my new site has to be anything different.

Nothing in life is final. (except maybe death…)

After I decided to put all the voices in my head aside. I wrote up a draft, gave it a once over, read for possible grammer and spelling mistakes and then hit publish. I also copied over my blog post about starting since I think it applies to my overall coaching vision. And I was done.

Well, I had started.

I am confident it’s far from perfect. It reads funny and has holes. But it’s a start. And it allows me to take the first step so that others might follow. Sometimes it’s just about getting unstuck.

It all starts with the first step. However tiny.

I hope today you’ll take the first step in whatever you’ve been putting off.

December Daily 2012 – Day Four

Today is all about Breakfast with Santa. I added a 4-3×4 page to add some extra photos. It’s the ornaments the kids made:

and here the back:

and then the photo with Santa:

and here it is with before and after:

that’s it. more tomorrow.

The Savor Project – Week 47 and Final Page

And here’s the last spread in my book:

here’s a closer up of the left side:

this page is about david presenting at school, nathaniel playing with daddy at school, and then election night and voting.

And here’s the right side:

Here it’s eating cupcakes, my science of mindfulness class and david’s puppets.

By then I was done with November and December will be savored through December Daily, so I closed my book with this page:

Thanksgiving photos and the boys decorating the tree.

Art along the bottom as usual.

Another great week. And there we are. Still savoring.

The Savor Project was supposed to be a weekly project for 2012. You can read about my setup here.

A Book a Week – Insurgent

Probably the number one book on my list of “what I am looking forward to reading” was Insurgent this year. I really really loved Veronica Roth’s Divergent and wanted to immediately be able to start her next book. I waited patiently for a long long time before it finally came out.

And then I saved it for my long flight to Turkey so I had to wait even longer. And then the kids wouldn’t let me read it on the plane, so I had to wait even longer.

Oh, but it was so worth it.

I loved this book almost as much. (I still love the first more.) And this one ended with an even bigger cliffhanger so now I have to wait patiently for number three.

Ugh.

December Daily 2012 – Day Three

On December third I got to volunteer at Nathaniel’s class and Jake went to David’s class because David had a presentation about a holiday tradition. He chose to talk about the Train of Lights. So the front page talks about David’s presentation:

and here it is with before and after:

and then the back is my day with Nathaniel:

and here it is with before and after:

that’s it. more tomorrow.

Daily Sketching – Week 86

Here are the sketches from last week.

that’s it for this week.

Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2012. You can see a detailed post on my sketching journey here.

December Daily 2012 – Day Two

For day two, I wanted to share how we went to the movies. We saw The Rise of the Guardians. I journaled a bit and stuck it in the pocket I made out of the movie poster. I also stuck our tickets in there.

and here it is with the pocket in:

and here’s a look at pre vs post:

that’s it. more tomorrow.

December Daily 2012 – Day One

I have this tradition of starting my album with “and so it begins” so I didn’t want to break tradition this year.

Here’s the simple day one page:

and here’s a look at pre vs post:

that’s all. trying to keep it simple this year. more tomorrow.

David’s BoGM – Week 25

Here is the next spread from our book:

this is the paper bag that held David’s valentines’ together. He colored it.

David’s Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here.

December Daily 2012 – Before Pages

This year I didn’t get to post my before pages ahead of time so I figured I’ll share them with you right now. I was lucky enough to use a Gossamer Blue kit which came with the divided pages which I love. I am excited to try this new way of doing the December Daily.

The album is an 8×8 American Crafts one. Here’s the cover:

and here’s the side and a little detail:

and then the inside. I put the first and last pages together since they are both singles as opposed to spreads:

and then start the normal spreads. I put very few (I think only two) numbers in the whole album. As always my goal is to have it be a collection of stories. I don’t worry too much about every single day’s specific story/event.

and then there’s the back:

that’s the whole album. Tomorrow I’ll share Day one.

Happy December!

Weekly Diary – December 1 2012

I must have just not felt like taking photos this week. There are almost none. Maybe it’s to prepare for December or too much work this week. Either way, here are some snapshots from our week:

i love watching the kids play with the Christmas tree in the background.

Nathaniel watching Mickey Mouse while I scrapped for CHA.

david looking up lego ornament ideas online. He made a whole bunch. I will make sure to share them.

I wanted to take our photo in front of the tree this week but the light was so low and so I had to turn other lights on and got bad lighting and color overall. Oh well. Still prefer to have these than not to have them.