so much fun!

One of my favorite parts of my job as the creative director for a beauty retailer is the model shoots. I don’t work in an environment that has a coordinator for these - so I basically get to meet each model at the model call, then I work directly with the agency, the wardrobe stylist and the hair and makeup stylist. 

Over the years, I’ve been really fortunate to work with industry experts and I’ve learned so much from each shoot. I love the talent that we get to work with. Each shoot brings new challenges, new hair and makeup looks and really fun personalities. 

I simply can’t say enough about Sara Domi, who owns a salon on 5th street in Austin. Whenever I can work with her, I jump at the chance. She is beyond talented and FAST. Another huge bonus is that she’s just a really nice person and very open to new ideas. She always brings fresh styles and usually knows our products so well, that she brings out the best in them. 

Although it’s a lot work to produce at shoot - which usually occurs in a very short amount of time, it’s just a lot of fun. When the shoot is over, I comb through all of the amazing images to determine which ones are the absolute best to select for post production and usage. The models are so talented, they make this part of the project really difficult.

There are days when I come home from work and just realize how fortunate I am. I always feel this way after a big shoot. I hope you have an element of your daily gig that brings this much fun and excitement to your work. If not, try to find some new opportunity within your position where you can do something a little fun. You’ll shine in the opportunity if you are enjoying what you’re doing. Go for it!

new tools: fresh perspective

I had decided before going on my vacation that these two books would be my beach reads. I heard about them from my friend Jen at work. Neither of them are very racy. In fact, I’m sure that to most, these would be pretty sad options for a summery, breezy day - but I knew that I needed to recharge and rethink some of my work habits. These are just the perfect books to help with this.

One book was called, “Making Ideas Happen” by Scott Belsky.

The other was called, “Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind” by Jocelyn K. Glei.

I really enjoyed both books. I gained a lot of inspiration and good tips about organizing my thoughts and daily routine, keeping the creative ideas coming and then understanding how to process the ideas that are worth pursuing. 

In this day and age with all of the possible distractions and time wasting activities (but who DOESN’T love to play a word search game on the ol’ iPad?), it felt great just to get into a good book and complete it and feel like I learned something from the contents.

These books pushed me back into a good mentality - and I needed that. I needed the break from the work stress, but then I also needed the good kick in the pants (so to speak) from the “I don’t have time for myself” pity party. The “Manage Your Day-To-Day” book especially helped with this.

If you’re stuck like chuck, and need that extra push - read these books. They will inspire.

Monday: back to reality

So - we took last week off for a nice beach getaway. 

I really enjoy just sitting and losing myself in a good book while feeling the ocean breeze and listening to the waves. SO relaxing. I don’t need anything else other than an umbrella and tons of sunscreen. This vacation was almost perfect. Perfect is when you can completely leave and be unreachable from the office. I was (of course) completely reachable. Still, we enjoyed a really good vacation. Good and important to get away and rethink daily life.

I love summer. I love that I think it’s slower than school year time - but really it’s not. Our daughter took a class this summer to get ahead of her high school requirements. Our kiddos both are involved in sports that keeps them busy even in the summertime. The main difference is that there isn’t as much homework or school projects in the works; parent meetings at school or required weekend plans. It just seems slower (even if it’s not).

During this summer, the house has been cleaned out of clothes that don’t fit, beach towels that were worn or torn (from the tug of war games with our wet chocolate lab), old toys that weren’t being played with anymore or were broken, and old kitchen items that needed to be tossed or organized.

Today, we’re back to reality. The kids start school today which means that football practice begins for our boy (6:00am at school!) and our girl will be a freshman in high school (TIME FLIES). She spent our vacation reading “To Kill A Mockingbird” for her English class.

Change is in the air at my day job with new leadership coming in and questioning “the way we’ve always done it.” This means a lot of fresh perspective, new ideas, interesting projects, and creative opportunities. I’m excited for the adjustments and can only expect that the hard work with smart thinking will crush the new objectives.

I’m excited for my Monday. I’ve read most of the September issues and have my favorite trends all picked out for inspiration of upcoming projects. I’ve shopped online for some items to help freshen up my “fall standards” (even though it’s still hot outside, it’s ALWAYS freezing at the office). I’ve changed the pedicure from the minty blue polish to a dark shade and went with the same color on my nails just to announce my "fall is here" attitude. 

Thanks to the books I read over my vacation, I’m rethinking parts of my daily work schedule and organization techniques (yes - these are the types of books I read when I’m on vacation!). Pretty excited about being much more action oriented and yet continuing to store my ideas for future purposes. 

So much to too. It’s definitely MONDAY. Let’s change that connotation to a carpe diem type sentiment. Let’s go!!