{Planny Pants}: Head Scratching Start to 2011

Ranting, Rambling, and Musing about to commence so hang in there with me.

2010 was a wonderful year. Hand in Hand Bridal came back in a powerful way and we are moving forward into the year with excitement and anticipation for good things.

As you probably know balancing all the balls in ones life can be a complicated process and sometimes you have balls that are so beautiful you don’t ever want to drop them. Sometimes you choose to drop the ball to lighten your load and other times you just hold it up there struggling to know what to do with.

In my particular case, there’s a few balls that I have crafted carefully and let me tell ya they have turned out beautifully. These balls I cherish and cultivate and they become more beautiful with time and energy. Those balls are my marriage, my children, and my family.

There are some balls I have recently dropped because I realized the number of balls I was juggling were just way too many! I couldn’t give the kind of energy and effort they deserved and had to let them go knowing that they will wait patiently for me to pick them up again when I’m ready.

Then there’s those balls that you hold up wondering exactly what you should do with them. For me there are balls that I just don’t even know what I want them to look like or how I want them to fit into my life. These balls are the ones that make me scratch my head and struggle to move forward.

NOW… I must say I am a professional and perpetual ball juggler. I rarely say no. I’m always coming up with more balls to add to my agenda. Often I find myself texting or chatting with my best friend telling him how overwhelmed I am and how I’m not sure how I’ll get everything done I’ve committed to doing. He always reminds me of the last time I did this and how beautifully everything turned out or how well I completed the tasks last time. Now I ALWAYS have good intentions to cultivate these new balls and turn them into something beautiful but somehow still don’t know what they should look like or how they fit into my life.

By now you’re wondering what all of this BALL talk is about? HAR HAR… get your mind out of the gutter… !

THIS BLOG!

This blog is one of those things on my agenda that I just haven’t been able to cultivate… to make beautiful… and be authentic. I’m still not sure how it fits into my everyday life and or how it relates to the reader. It’s definitely not beautiful in my eyes and it certainly hasn’t been a great representation of myself and who Hand in Hand Bridal is as a company.

In 2010 we created a blog roster like… well everyone. We had a plan for exactly what we would post every month for the whole year. I thought maybe it would help to keep things on track and create some interest from all of you. And… I did just that.

SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

The problem is I’M BORED! And my blog looks exactly like everyone else’s blog. Style Me Pretty created this standard that now every bridal blog is trying to live up to. And frankly I fell into that trap. I tried very hard to give resourceful, creative, beautiful ideas in each post. The time involved in finding those great ideas and writing the post was outrageous and honestly not me at all. Seriously… gag me with a ball jar already!

WHAT IS ME THEN?

You would never see my house in Home and Gardens or Martha Stewart. I know… shocker. Not because it’s ugly, mismatched or cluttered. As a matter of fact my house is stunningly gorgeous just not in the same way wedding blogs are portraying typical design to be. I have a very warm, rustic, and French home. Don’t think shabby chic… Think gorgeous warm/rich downtown apartment.

Like this. So while the truth hurts… I have gone away from my true style. Call it poseritis… I don’t know. But it has GOT to STOP!

NOW WHAT?

So the other day I’m sitting at my desk just head scratching away about the blog. I like many others have a few favorite blogs I read occasionally. One of those is written by an American woman who married a French man and lives in Paris. She just… chats. She talks about life as an American in France. It inspires me. It makes me laugh with her and at her. I feel sad for her when she’s sad. That’s because she’s being real! Real with her life all together. Although… she does call her husband Big Cheese?????

MY RESOULTION!

I am starting a personal and one person reaching campaign for honest blogging. A day in the life of a mom/wife/business owner/stylist/diva/wedding planner/ teacher/ crafter/ church worker/ designer/ woman!!! Everyday I’m working on something… thinking about something…. doing something. So why not share it here.

This way brides who click through from my website hoping to learn more about me as a planner/stylist/designer will get a better idea about who I am and what I’m doing. This way other vendors who humor me and read my blog on occasion will hopefully get a good laugh at my crazy ways.

WARNINGS!

I am not a super interesting human! How dare I say such a thing! But unfortunately it's not totally inaccurate. I don’t hob knob with Preston Bailey and Colin Cowie on the weekends. I don’t always lunch at new five star restaurants. I’m not the foremost expert on the Royal Wedding… nor do I care to be. I’m just a local wedding planner with local challenges. Hiccups, unique thinking, ever pleasing, and overly-extend, I’m just me! And this is it! This is what you’ll be getting from here on out. Just me. Honest, upfront, broken, fabulous, REAL!