My goal for April, according to My 2018 Goals, was to do a photoshoot in LA.  Here’s where April landed . . .

Chris and I went to LA earlier in the month. I was heading to Rachel Hollis’ conference called RISE (read the conference recap here) and Chris was tagging along for hiking and a little fun. We were landing on Wednesday evening, had Thursday free, and then I would be in the conference Friday and Saturday. My plan was to book the photographer for Thursday in hopes of getting some new shots I could use on my blog, while sneaking in a few pics of Chris and I together, and having the photographer snap a few pics of Chris by himself too so he could just have some great pics in case he ever needed them.

This idea was coming from a few different thoughts:

1. I think everyone needs to get professional photos (or at least have your best friend who has a very nice camera do the job) every couple years or so. You never know when you’ll be asked for a headshot or wish you had a nicer photo to use for something, and the last thing you want is some old pic of yourself when your hair was a different color and it doesn’t even represent what you look like now.

2. When you’re married and do not have kids, it seems the idea of “family photos” don’t really exist. I think it’s all the more important to make sure you’re still getting photos taken together even if you don’t have kiddos joining in (more thoughts on this topic here).

3. As my friend Emily says, you don’t need a special event to get a great photo. Just do it.

So, I did in fact reach out to the photographer I was really wanting to work with – but, she didn’t respond. I would normally be persistent in contacting someone to set up such things, but I ended up deciding that if Chris and I only had one full day together in LA, I didn’t want to fill it with a photoshoot if we could get a photoshoot done when we were back at home. So, I decided to let the LA photoshoot idea go. I thought it would be better to enjoy the experience of LA and book a photographer for a later time. Sometimes you have to adjust your goals based on what is happening in life, and there’s no shame in that. I’m viewing these goals more as a guide and I’m learning to be more flexible for what makes sense at the time.

It turns out, my second cousin who I hadn’t seen since I was four years old lives in LA, so her and her husband picked us up on Thursday morning and took us EVERYWHERE one would want to go in LA and then dropped us back off past my bedtime. It was great! And I don’t regret not doing the photoshoot. We got to connect with family and we got to see the Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive, the Walk of Fame, had lunch in Beverly Hills, we went to a TV show taping, and had dinner on the Santa Monica Pier.

I still have “book photographer” on my to do list, so there’s still plans for a perfect beach waved hair/pretty lipstick/new outfit photoshoot coming to a blog near you soon. Also, April ended up as an awesome month since we also used the time to launch Little Red Bird Press Online Magazine too!

My goal for May is “pitch month” where I plan to pitch my writing to various publications. Since I’m now the Publisher of my own online magazine (an idea that hadn’t been solidified at the time of creating my goals list this year) and I’m working on my second book — I’m still debating what May will look like and what I hope to get out of it. In short, I know I’ll be writing. Stay tuned!

Hope you had a fantastic April too!