Life + Self

Life, Lately

March 22, 2016 by Abbigail Kriebs 6 Comments

A few weeks ago, I posted on Instagram about being in a “Middle Season.” Now, after the rush of launching The Chasing Creative Podcast and making a dozen decisions on our house, we’re back in a middle season with not a lot to report. Instead of trying to force out a witty blog post about a semi-relevant topic, I decided I would share what I’ve been up to in this Middle Season, because even when we feel like not a lot is happening, it often is.

So, lately I’ve been…

Listening

To my friends Jenna and Josiah Hazel. They recently released an album and I have it on repeat all the time. Their band is called Settling Houses and you can listen to their first album, Drive and Never Stop here.

Also, this Tiny Desk concert by Asgeir, again and again. Perfect for writing.

And podcasts, of course! I’m in love with The New Yorker Radio Hour. And recently, my friend Gracie got me back into listening to Freakonomics and I am hooked.

Reading

I’ve been reading a little more for fun lately, to wind down at the end of a day. I read Brooklyn and it was OK. Pretty, but not grand.

I just started The Paris Wife after hearing Paula McLain give a talk at the Madison Public Library last week. I fell in love with her words in person, and I hope to love them on the page as well.

I’m still slowly, slowly working my way through Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. Trying to take this one a chapter at a time and really think through some of the questions that it raises for myself and my creative life.

Watching

Scott and I recently watched Aziz Ansari’s Master of None on Netflix. While I enjoyed the social issues that the show addresses, issues like feminism and race in Hollywood, sometimes it was a bit too crude for me. The show did end on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I am excited to see where Season 2 goes. Even if the jokes don’t always hit home with me, I feel like it’s important enough to keep watching, and to support a show created by individuals of color in a world where a lot of comedy T.V. isn’t.

I’m still in Season 5 of Downton Abbey, so don’t spoil the ending for me! I’ve managed to avoid it so far and am 100% happy about this. At the rate we are able to watch the show, I will finish Season 6 sometime in 2018, I do believe.

Doing

We’ve been working on plans for the house. A few weeks ago we picked out flooring, and just a couple of weeks ago we chose kitchen cabinets and decided on what kind of trim we would like throughout the house. We’re still waiting to get a driveway in, but then the real fun begins, or so I hear. I’ve not built a house before, so I really, really have no idea what I am doing. Glad my contractor does.

I’m excited that I signed up for Brooks Editorial’s Content Challenge. I may be biased, as Ashley is my podcast co-host, but I really do think its going to be awesome. Anyone who can run a business and a blog while working from home and raising a toddler AND podcast on the side is someone I want to learn from, STAT.

Podcasting

Speaking of podcasting… Chasing Creative now has nine (!) episodes out in the world. Ashley and I have had such a great time chatting with our guests and learning from them as much as our audience is. We cannot believe how much love you have all shown us in just these nine short weeks, and we can’t wait to see where it goes next. We are trucking along behind the scenes, recording and editing more episodes every week to keep them rolling out to you. We hope you’ll join in the discussion over on Instagram and Twitter using #ChasingCreative.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. What about you? Reading, watching or listening to anything astonishing? I’d love to hear about it?

6 Ways I’m Simplifying Life to Better Focus in 2016

January 12, 2016 by Abbigail Kriebs 2 Comments

Since this year is all about FOCUS, I thought I would share some ways I’ve simplified life to make more room for what I want to be doing in life and business. It’s easy to get sidetracked when there are so many wonderful things out there to see and do. I love new and exciting too much, so keeping some of life on automation is key to also getting stuff done in a timely fashion.

1. Stitch Fix

I’ve not really shopped for clothes in more than a year, and I have Stitch Fix to thank. If you’ve not heard of it, Stitch Fix is an online personal style service (that sounds way too fancy for me) that takes all your measurements, preferences, and inspiration boards and sends you five items at a time to try on at home. Occasionally, a friend and I will hit up some local thrift stores, and we had one epic strikeout at the mall a few months back, but really, Stitch Fix has been the way I have built my professional wardrobe over the last couple of years. It comes to my door, allows me to try on clothes alongside what I already have in my closet, and then I send back what doesn’t work. No spending time at the mall, no waiting in line, leaving me more time to focus on what I do and not what I wear.

2. YNAB – You Need A Budget

I talked about YNAB about a year ago – it’s the budgeting software that Scott and I use to keep all the transactions of a two-person household in one place. It doesn’t seem like our finances should be that complicated with just the two of us, but all those little charges for milk, fuel, and cat food add up to a large pile of receipts at the end of the month. When we are diligent, we put all our transactions into YNAB as we make them, and then there is no pile staring at you all month long that you feel like you should take care of. These last couple of years it has helped us pay off my student loans and save toward building a house – and it made it really simple so we could focus on other things. Use this link to get $6 off.

3. CoSchedule

For all of you bloggers on WordPress, this is your new best friend. CoSchedule integrates with your WordPress blog to lay out all of your content in one easy-to-see calendar. It also allows you to schedule your social media shares, leave notes and reminders for yourself, and adjust all of these things by dragging and dropping them onto new days when plans change – because plans always change. CoSchedule is one of the biggest reasons I was able to blog 2x week all of last year – it kept me organized and still does.

4. Keeping a LogBook

I’m trying something new this year and keeping a logbook. I’m following Austin Kleon’s method of jotting down little tidbits from each day so that I can look back on 2016 and remember all the little things that made it big. I snagged this Moleskin daily journal to keep me on track. I’m also using Momento, an app for iPhone, to save pictures to days that I don’t want to share on social media, but that I still want to remember years from now. So far, I’m finding this method far less heavy-feeling than keeping an actual journal, which means its working.

5. BackBlaze

BackBlaze helps me sleep at night. It keeps my computer automatically backed up and all times to the cloud, and would allow me to re-install all of my files onto a new computer should anything ever happen to my current one. It’s less than $5 month for unlimited storage, and that means all my files and photos are safe. Less time worrying about data loss, more time to focus on other projects.

6. Meal Plans

I’m getting back in the swing of planning out our meals a week or two in advance, hoping to eliminate that 6:05 PM question when I walk in the door: what are we having for dinner? I very much dislike deciding every day what we need to eat (sad, but true), and I find if I sit down and decide all our meals for two weeks, then it’s less taxing. And of course, let’s me spend evenings rockin’ out the side business instead of staring at an open pantry wondering what magic I might be able to bring forth. This year, I’m using the weekly planner from Creatives in Transit. I was using a horizontal version, but I’m hoping I can print two copies on each sheet this way and save some paper.

That’s how I’m making life a little more simple these days. What about you? Anything I don’t have listed that I should try?

Most of the links in this post are referral links, meaning that if you click on one and sign up for a service, I may get a kickback. I only recommend services I love, so rest easy.

Hello, 2016

January 5, 2016 by Abbigail Kriebs 3 Comments

It’s me.

(cannot leave an Adele reference hanging, guys. Can. Not.)

Well, it’s 2016. It came, no matter how hard I tried to hold on to the old year to keep the calendar from turning, it did anyway.

It’s that time of year where everyone is reassessing, taking a look back and then mapping out their tomorrows like madmen and madwomen.

And I am no different.

It might be a cliche to “start over” January 1st and all that, but it does indeed create a natural break in time perfect for measuring. Plus, you have to buy a new calendar anyway so you might as well make the most of it and buy one in bright colors that motivates you. Or at least keeps you awake.

So. How was 2015? It was a mixed bag, but I think most years are. Yes: I accomplished my goal of creating more than I consumed, but I also didn’t make much progress in other areas of life. Did I finish a novel? No. Did I go to the gym? Haha. Did I eat more salads and less cookies? No – but I’m just now realizing I would probably eat a lot more salads if they had cookies in them… sorry. Got lost in daydreaming about salads made out of cookies.

2015 In Review

I read 53 books.

I wrote 104 blog posts, 2 articles for cash monies (coincidentally, they were about money), and ~125 pages for my book, and will probably scrap most of them. Some will need re-written. We’ll see.

I edited part of a book for a friend.

I photographed eight shoots and countless hikes.

We also went on seven hikes as part of our #50HikesWI project, and managed to somehow slip away for three vacations: Louisiana in May; the Apostle Islands in August; Wyoming & South Dakota in September.

That’s actually quite a list if I pile it all together, huh? And then add to it that I also worked a full time job that sometimes spills over into the weekends and I sound utterly crazy.

What’s working.

Sharing online here on the blog. It helps me stay committed, so I’ll keep doing it. I like having this blog as an outlet to connect with other readers and writers on the internet. It refreshes me, really.

Working with a critique partner on my novel. The accountability is great, and its so important to get the story out of my own head and get someone else’s opinion on it.

Asking and not being afraid to hear “no.” I’ve put myself out there a few times this year, bracing myself for the inevitable “no.” And it didn’t come every time. So I’m going to keep asking to do things and be part of things that I think are “too big for me” to stretch myself and my world. And I might be surprised when I hear the answer.

What’s not.

The Inkwells & Images Facebook Page. The writing has been on the wall for a while guys: Facebook is just not where it is at these days, at least not for pages. Articles like this and this help me not feel that I’m the only one saying this, either. I’m still deciding whether or not to delete it, but I do plan to ignore it for now and focus on other social media efforts this year, rather than try to fragment my attention all over the place.

Posting twice week here on the blog. I’m making this work, but I’m not entirely sure it is the best use of my time at the moment. In the New Year, I’m going to focus on quality, not quantity. I’ll plan to aim for 1 blog post per week, and maybe add an additional “bonus” blog post if need be. But really, I think I’m going to focus on growing the business side of the Inkwells & Images endeavor, growing my client base and building things behind the scenes so that when I am ready to leap, I can leap.

Which brings me to: My Word of the Year for 2016.

$My 2016 Word of the Year: Focus \\ Inkwells & Images$

With my magical clean slate of the New Year, I of course plan to ~~recharge my life and do all the things~~ move forward with very specific goals for once. I love saying yes to new projects and I get excited about new endeavors, but that tends to fragment my attention and run me a bit (or a lot) ragged. Last year was my lesson in discipline here on the blog, and this year I’m taking it a step further.

My word of the year this year is FOCUS and here’s what I am going to focus on:

I will blog once per week. This post will be more long-form, quality content than what I have been putting up.

I will develop a business strategy. Inkwells & Images has been a great place to blog personally, and I still want the blog to be an extension of me. However, my original intent with this site was to create a space for people to hire me to do what I love: writing and photography. I’ve moved away from that, both in content and in how I spend my weekend hours. I’d like to develop a strategy for the business behind the scenes this year and do a full site overhaul. I’m planning to FOCUS in on my business, what I love to do, and what I’m good at and extend it all out into the world to help people do what they love better, too.

I will make progress on the novel. This year, I am not going to say that I will finish my novel. With the other two points above paired with the fact that we are breaking ground on a house in a couple of months, 2016 is going to be full. And that’s good – but it means I may not have much time to devote to this passion project. But who knows: maybe by telling myself I won’t work on this as much my rebellious side will kick in and sneak in some hours here and there.

I think those are enough for one year. Because really, it’s only 365 days. How much can one person get done in the in-between hours and still maintain their sanity? Ask me next January.

Onward, with FOCUS

What are you focusing on in 2016? Or do you choose a Word of the Year? I’d love to hear how you are planning to spend your days and what your big, scary goals are. We should all have at least one of those we’re working on in each season of life, even if that goal is to merely survive each day with a smile.