These are Sophia’s adorable save-the-dates, label designed by her sister, Yvonne.

It’s been slow going, since designing for yourself always seems 1,384,592 times more difficult than when working on a client project. But, I feel like I’m starting to hit my stride with product design. So, fingers crossed that things start going more quickly from here on out.

I’ve started what seems like at least ten different business since graduating from college six years ago, and each one has been a service based business. From web design to graphic design to photography, oh and a little food blog… it’s all been service based. But oh no… this time, I’m launching a product based business.

Oh, don’t mind me, just peed my pants.

Just kidding. I think.

Yeah, I’m scared out of my mind. But that’s okay. Because I’m ridiculously, completely and hopelessly passionate about this new venture.

Swaymai – clothing and gear for female water athletes, with a mission to give back to ocean conservation.

I have been in love with the ocean since my first scuba diving trip four years ago in Cozumel, Mexico. I have been in love with the feeling of being deep below the surface and swimming peacefully with the animals that call the seas their home. After my first trip beneath the ocean’s surface, I decided that I wanted to make it my mission to contribute to ocean and marine life conservation.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been hard at work at some t-shirt designs. Fingers crossed for a Spring 2013 product launch! (Here’s a sneak peak)

Yes, sea turtles just might make an appearance on our products *wink wink*

This little city of Radford, Virginia was where I spent the first 18 years of my life. There were some good times, awkward times, great times and not-so-great times.

In front of my parents’ restaurant – they lease the building out these days.

The most vivid memory I have of my hometown was how ready and excited I was to leave it behind. To get out of that tiny, middle of nowhere town and head south to the big city of Atlanta. And that’s just what I did, happily. I moved down to Atlanta, and that’s where I’ve lived for the past 11 years.

Atlanta is home now.

But going home to Radford is something that I have come to look forward to. It’s a welcome change of pace to leave the city and spend a few days in the relative quiet of the Appalachian mountains. We only visit about once a year, it’s too far of a drive with the new baby now.

These days, we only go to see family. All my childhood friends have also moved away to the big cities (New York, Washington DC, etc.). Mini-me will never think of Virginia as home. The suburbs of Atlanta will be her hometown, and that’s okay.

For me, Southwest Virginia will always be home.

So for a few days this weekend, I am home.

Focus.

I’ve been needing this lately.

With the new role of “mommy” that I took on four months ago, it’s been a struggle to get work done and stay productive. I’m lucky (and ecstatic) if I manage to get 45 minutes of quiet time to sit down at the computer. In fact, right now I’m typing as fast as I can so that I can hopefully get this blog post up before Mini-me wakes up from her nap.

Before motherhood, I had the privilege of doing a lot of things. Part time commercial photographer/graphic designer/web designer/food blogger/dreamer. Full time dabbler.

After four months of raising a baby and attempting to continue with my dabbling ways, I’ve realized that if I don’t focus, I won’t get anything done.

So, here comes the tough part. What to cut out?

Truthfully, I’m not completely sure yet. I want to dabble. I love to dabble. But something must go. And I know that motherhood is the one non-negotiable role.  So it looks like I will be building this in 2013, making this a side-business and freelancing here. I realize that it looks that I’m dabbling still, but it’s a big step for me (prioritizing everything)

Also, I’ve resorted to this:

A super duper broken down checklist.

With each task being something that I can accomplish in 15 to 20 minutes, or less. It’s been amazing.

So, focus. Here we go…

I am a huge fan of making lists, it keeps me in line and pushes me towards my goals. Luckily, Esther also loves her lists. Last year, we would get together for business accountability over tea discuss our lists.

Esther made a 13 in 2013 list for her New Year’s Resolutions. I loved that idea. Especially with the resolutions being SMART goals. It’s so important to have specific goals that have a purpose and deadline.

Since I’m the type of person who needs a visual guide to everything in life, I made a vision board for my resolutions. The one I made last year out of a poster board and magazine cutouts was so effective, I thought I’d give the vision board another go:

These first few weeks of being a new mom have flown by, and while I haven’t spent much time here, we have been busily taking pictures, video and documenting our new life with our little one. Finding the energy to take pictures was near impossible at the beginning. There are many photos that I wish that I had remembered to take while we were in the hospital, but I’m trying to make up for them now.

This week has been pretty amazing. My Mini Me, Lyla, has been sleeping very well at night.

Meaning: I finally have energy to photograph, edit and blog again!

Now that we have family in town with some extra helping hands, I’ve taken some time to reflect on the past month and everything that I’ve learned and how we’ve grown as a family.

10 things that I’ve learned about motherhood:

Delivery

1. An epidural doesn’t always take away all the pain. Enough said.
2. Having a wonderful obstetrician makes all the difference in the world.
3. Glad most friends visited while we were at the hospital, because entertaining visitors at home with a newborn wasn’t something I wanted to do right away.

Life at Home
4. Sleep when your baby sleeps is great advice… that is very, very difficult to follow through on.
5. Nighttime feedings are pure torture, at first. Then you and baby start getting better at time management.
6. Dinners at home become a necessity. Dinners out are a luxury.
7. Taking a shower everyday really does help you feel more human.

Motherhood
8. Knowing how to calm your crying baby isn’t instinctual, but thankfully you learn fast (and I’m still learning).
9. The love you feel for this tiny human being is overwhelming.
10. You finally understand how much your own mother loves you.

This year, I feel that I have so much more to be thankful for than in previous years. It’s amazing how a baby really does change everything.

I’m thankful for…
- a healthy, beautiful baby
- a wonderful, supportive husband who is an amazing father
- being able to take time away from work and spend it taking care of our little girl
- family who came to help us out in the first couple of weeks
- friends who have given us so many sweet words of congratulations and encouragement
- social media, because otherwise I would feel completely disconnected from the world right now – ha!

I hope you’re enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family! And hope that you have plenty to be thankful for this year as well!

After some brainstorming (and lots of Pinterest browsing) I landed on creating this photo series, accompanied with a short letter to Little C on each photo.

I loved the idea of her getting to see these photos and read the letters when she’s older. I hope Little C loves it as much as I had fun creating them.

My trusty tripod, timer on the DSLR and Photoshop were all I needed to take these self-portraits.

My little brother is heading off to the University of Denver for his PhD this week, and since he won’t be taking a car with him till next year, his dog is staying on this side of the country till next fall.

Angie will be living with my mom for most of the time, but for the time being she is bunking up at our house till the end of October. Wish us me luck while we get ready for Baby Crane to arrive and foster a dog at the same time.

We managed to take a few photos of my brother and Angie before dropping him off at the airport this morning.

Although I am terrified on most days, feeling as if I’m staring down the barrel of a gun, I am excited about my “new project” that will commence in early October. It very well may be the most rewarding and fulfilling “project” of my life, and I am fully expecting it to be.

Being pregnant hasn’t been the “kiss of death” for my business life, as many people in corporate America may think. I haven’t become (more) distracted or given up, just because I am now toting around a basketball-sized belly.

Quite the opposite, actually.

Here are 5 ways pregnancy has helped me simplify things in my business:

1. Firm deadlines
The baby is coming in less than three months. There’s no arguing it. There’s no pushing it back (sorry for the pun).

The thins with setting goals for your own business is that since you are the boss, other “more important” things come up and accomplishing those goals gets postponed. I have set some pretty big goals that need to be completed before the arrival of Little C, and as much as I would like, there’s no postponing the deadline.

2. Time Management
Even though “mini-me” hasn’t arrived yet, she has already affected my brain and energy levels.

There are days when I can’t work for more than 3-4 hours before my mind gives up and I head directly to the couch for a nap. Thus, time management has become crucial.

To work through this, I went through and analyzed how I was spending my time, and immediately eliminated tasks that weren’t moving me towards my end goals.

3. Project Management
Because of the limited amount of time, important things needed to be moved to the front of the line. Once those items were checked off of my to-do list, everything else became a bonus task.

What qualifies as “Important”:
- Projects that immediately make money (client work)
- Tasks that contribute to the new business (website launch coming tomorrow! Announcement will be coming via FB & Twitter)
- Networking to build my personal and business brands (via social media and in person)

4. Boundaries
Work-life balance has slowly become more important than ever. The impending arrival of Little C means baby registries, nursery decorating, doctor’s appointments, keeping up with exercise and the dreaded nesting instinct.

Even though my mind tries it’s darnedest to pull me away from work, setting boundaries means that during certain hours I need to shut out the “mommy brain” and only work on business related activities. And outside of those certain hours, I’m allowed to indulge that “mommy” part of my mind and clean & decorate to my heart’s content.

5. Set Priorities
With the impending lack of time, and birth of baby, something in my head clicked and suddenly I started to re-think my priorities.

Was I happy with my current career? No.

Well, there isn’t a better time than now to change that.