The Holidays Are Officially Here... Happy Hanukkah! Some Life Updates & Epic Holiday Party Pieces
So many things!!! First of all, happy Hanukkah everyone! I can not believe the holiday season is officially here! How did that happen!? Second, I took lots of hours collecting ONE HUNDRED of my very favorite holiday pieces available right now for you to shop for all of your holiday parties, NYE parties, work parties, name your kind of party and I've got you covered! THIS dress is so unique and perfect for the holidays!!! Who else is obsessed with this color!? Shop this dress HERE and below... AND! Scroll down to shop all my holiday faves! Last but not least, I want to apologize for being MIA here. It's absolutely not my intention, the last month has just been so insane. So let me touch on that a bit.
The Holiday season is so wonderful, but so busy. Everyone is gearing up for the holidays and time off work, meaning, everyone is working extra hard to get ahead before that lovely lovely holiday time off. Working for yourself is interesting year round because you never "leave" the office. I've struggled for a long time with finding a work/life balance but this last month has gotten out of control.
I think most of you know that I am a photographer full time. I actually fell into shooting other fashion bloggers when I moved back to Chicago 2.5 years ago. I also co-own a jewelry business with my Mom! Before I continue, I want to say that I love my job (you can also find my post about the pros and cons of running your own businesses HERE). During the holidays Mom and I have a ton of holiday trunk shows for Just The 2 Of Us! It's a total blast and I love doing it but it means a lot of travel and time away from the blog... As a photographer, I have the best clients in the world. I get to work with inspiring, hardworking women (and a few gents) that I look up to and admire. I couldn't feel luckier!!! But, this is part of the reason why I have a hard time saying no.
Holidays are busy for everyone. Holiday deadlines are a serious thing, for us bloggers too. I love my clients, so... I have been saying yes, to all of them on all of their holiday deadlines. Don't get me wrong, this is what I want to do! I don't feel like I have to do it! Seeing clients happy with their photos for campaign deadlines is amazing... and seeing my work on the pages and websites of so many people I admire is so humbling. But, I have totally lost my work/life balance and have had pretty much no time for the blog (hence this being the first post since November 21 :(... ) I have been working 80-100 hours a week since I can remember.
So, I wanted to take a few minutes to say I AM SORRY! I am not writing this to complain about work... I'm just writing it so you can understand by absence. I write this blog for you and I know you count on there being a new post here every Tuesday and Thursday. This absence isn't going to be a normal thing and I have some really exciting content coming to you soon that I can't wait to share! Starting now I am going to force myself to schedule time for me, my health, my well being and THIS BLOG! A work life balance is so important and I need to work on being better about this. I'm upset with myself for missing blog posts, workouts, missing out on sleep (most days I've stopped working to go to sleep around 1am) and mostly, letting you guys down.
I hope you guys are all having an amazing holiday season so far and that this season brings you only happiness and joy. Happy hanukkah to all my fellow tribe members, and even if you're not jewish, happy Hanukkah to you too!!! So, let's light the menorah, fry up some latkes put on your best hanukkah shirt (mine HERE 50% off with code: LATKES) and fill some donuts with jelly! Scroll down to shop all of my favorite pieces for every occasion!
Photos by: John Philp
Shop my favorite pieces for the holidays here:
