Currently Crushing :: Watercolor Art

During this past year that my husband and I have been in our first home together, I have been having such a great time discovering my design aesthetic through my adventures in home decor! I'm always on the look out for fun, interesting things to make our home "our home"...and even when I'm not thinking about home decor, my subconscious mind is doing a living room makeover for the eleventieth time.

One of the things I realized about myself in this decor adventure is that I really love watercolor art. There's just something about it that resonates with me more than most other art mediums. I love the organic nature of how the colors flow together, lack of well defined lines, and the incredible gradient of dark and light shades that can be created with a single color! And color without form can elicit so much emotion while leaving everything to the imagination!

Is it strange to get so excited about color?

Needless to say, I'm always on the lookout for great watercolor art that I can incorporate into our home. My current project is to put the finishing touches on our master bedroom and I have found some fantastic art prints from minted! Here are some prints I've been eyeing...hopefully, one or two of these will make the final cut. I'm pretty sure I'm getting that ink-blot print, as it is a fun nod to my psychology roots.

Geometric + all of my favorite colors? Yes, please!

This one reminds me of relaxing in the ocean and the happy colors evoke all the great vacation memories we've had.

Or a sweet daily reminder of what's important in my life...

Have you been to minted? Not only do they have gorgeous work by artists from around the world, they also do adorable prints for all special occasions, like Minted's new save the date cards.

Which of these should I go with?? 
Stay tuned for which prints I'll choose for the bedroom makeover!

Where to begin...

 

2015...it still seems a bit surreal to type that set of numbers together in that sequence. The last time I officially wrote a date down, I believe it was 2007. It was the year I completed my dissertation, which I guess is pretty official. It was also the year I had my first baby, another rather official event in my life. Oh, and I also got to marry my soulmate that year. This was not the correct order of events, but you get the idea. Big changes happened and they all happened that year. I then officially decided to suspend my career path and pursue this full time parenting gig. And the next thing I know, it's 20friggin15!!!

I don't know exactly how it is for others, but having kids and being home with them full time tends to make me feel like I'm living in one big blur. The past 7 years has been the quickest 7 years of my life so far. It also raised the bar for being the most challenging yet the most incredible. I have loved almost every minute of it, but if it weren't for my DSLR and phone cameras, I don't think I'd be able to remember any of it. I'm excited for 2015! And this year, I'm going to get a better handle on it.

So we're already well into January and it's time to think about what I need to do this year. First thing I need to do is get organized. Clutter makes me crazy and that is easily done with 3 small kids and their million-part toys. It's also very easy to clutter up a small jewelry studio as you can imagine. And to add to the challenge, I like to surround myself with the things I adore and find beautiful and inspiring. This certainly does not help in my mission to keep things minimal. It's a constant act to maintain balance, but I am a Libra and that is my fate. Stay balanced or die trying. But at least the wall in front of me is organized and ready for action (see photo)! So organization...check! 

Next up is to carve out some time for my business...real actual segments of time. Time that I can actually do work and nothing else. I can't continue doing things minutes here or a half hour there, during nap time, after the kids go to bed at night, or whenever I have a free moment. It's unpredictable, the free time is rare, and my use of it is completely inefficient. One of my biggest frustrations has been feeling like I'm spinning my wheels and I think this is the primary reason why. I have ideas pile up in my mind, then when I get a moment to do work, I feel completely overwhelmed and don't know where to start. So many times, I've gone into my studio, looked around to figure out what I want to work on...then I take a deep breath, exhale, and leave feeling defeated. I'm striving to prevent this from happening this year. I've always been an organized person, but having kids totally kicked that out of the window. I'm generally organized with child-related events and happenings, but everything for me has just been relegated to fitting in where they can, if at all. And I've come to learn that I can't possibly grow a business this way.

And finally, I need to break out of my comfort zone. That means reaching out more, taking more chances, and just doing. It makes me uncomfortable simply thinking about it. But I will never get to the next level if I stay comfortable.

Let's do this!!!

What are your goals for the year? And what do you do to stay on top of everything?