weekend in review: YM&C and some insecurities

This weekend I ate out for pretty much every single meal.  On Saturday I had breakfast with Z at IHOP, then met my friend Sara at Panera for lunch, then joined my family (including my aunt, who lives in Phoenix and hasn't been to California since my grandmother's funeral in 2007) at El Charro in Montrose for a yummy dinner (during which I got to play with my awesome two-year-old cousin Rowan for most of the time!).

On Sunday, my cousins Sophia and Mackie (they're twins) celebrated their third birthday with a Disney Princess bounce-house!  They LOVED it.  And us grown-ups loved our champagne brunch as we watched.  Then Z and I have Chipotle for dinner in between the moving in of our new kitchen appliances (!!).  We've lived in our new home for three months and have been living with just a mini fridge and a microwave -- now we're fully-equipped with oven & stove-top, full refrigerator, and washer-dryer!  YES!!

Some Instagram love from the weekend:


Left to right, top to bottom: (1) New kitchen appliances: I never thought I'd be so excited about an oven; (2) Self portrait Saturday; (3) chandeliers in trees in someone's front yard, Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California; (4) bought Fiona Apple tickets on Friday!  She is one of the musical acts I've always wanted to see live but haven't yet had the chance; (5) My new Blowfish wedges getting their first whiff of downtown Los Angeles air; (6) Mint nails with an accent of white & pink polka dots.

♥ ♥ ♥

This morning, my week started off right with the debut of my Q&A feature over at Dianna Agron's blog, You, Me & Charlie!  They asked me some good, thought-provoking questions; hope you'll head over and check out the who feature, but here are my favorite highlights:

YM&C: If you could interview one person, who would it be and what would you ask them?
Emily: I wish you hadn’t said “person” because I’d really love to interview my dog!  And I have so many questions!  Do you like the food I give you?  Do you prefer walks or the dog park?  What’s your real motivation behind licking me?  What are you thinking when you stare at me?  Are you happy?

YM&C: What question would you like to ask the You, Me & Charlie community?
Emily: If you could wake up tomorrow with a new career (totally trained and ready to go without the need for transition), what job would you choose, and how far a digression is it from what you’re doing now?

Check out my front-page status on You, Me & Charlie!  :)

Finally, I think I need to take a moment to channel my inner Eeyore.  The cyber friends I've made in the few short months that I've been blogging, and in the Etsy community before that, are kinda important to me -- maybe that sounds weird or lame, since I don't know most (any?) of them in "real life."  But I think it's pretty cool that a community of handmade, creative bloggers seems to have formed, and I've enjoyed wiggling my way into what I consider a very cool circle of ladies.  It makes the Internet (even more) fun and boosts my self-esteem when I'm able to connect with other like-minded indie business owners.

My insecurity comes from the fact that I AM still pretty new to the blogging world so I'm still finding my voice and carving my niche (which is sorta true for photography, still, too -- Anna Delores Photography is only a year old, after all!).  My desire to be liked and accepted by others sneaks in and maybe even sabotages me a little, because maybe I blog about certain topics in an attempt to fit in more than I do to give myself an HONEST voice.  I try very hard to stay true to myself, and I think for the most part I succeed -- I just have the occasional moments of self-doubt: "was that a stupid comment to make?" "Did I tweet one too many times this past hour and scare off any followers?" "Am I asking too much?" "Should I include my URL in this comment or is that too self-promote-y?"

I also recently connected with a fellow blogger-slash-graphic-designer to give my blog a freshening-up (doesn't it look great?!), but because I am still solidifying my brand, I was all over the place with my ideas, and even though I TRIED to be as un-annoying as possible, I don't think I succeeded.  I may just be uber-sensitive, but this blogger that I look up to (as much as is possible via online interaction) seems like she's keeping our interactions to a minimum, even after I sent a "sorry if I seem a little crazy" e-mail, and the whole experience makes me feel a little unsettled.

Sorry to be so Debbie-Downer; I like to be as positive as possible around here and I think we ALL want to project our more awesome selves into the blog-o-sphere, but once in awhile, I just gotta get real.  And let's face it, it's not all rainbows and unicorns ALL the time (even if sometimes we make it look that way).

{ UPDATE : things I'm afraid to tell you }

Thanks for listening and allowing me to rant (although I guess you couldn't have stopped me, eh?).  ;)  Here's to Monday and back to all smiles on Tuesday!

xo,
Emily