a year of thanks

Last month, October 23rd marked one full year since launching this "new little corner of my design world", with a hope and passion "to create more pretty in the world through collaborative graphic design."  

Its been a busy, fun, and stretching year, but I think that's part of the beauty of starting something new! It's an adventure, with twists and turns along the way to whatever the destination may be, and ideally, your life becomes more enriched through it.

Parapalla has been a good, sweet gift to my life, and I am so thankful to my heavenly Father for all the ways He has led, inspired, and encouraged me along this path. 

reflecting on a year

In the spirit of reflecting, for parapalla, some of the "twists and turns" that were not in the original concept were . . . 

The birth of "random fact friday" (RFF) posts (which I realize I'm a little behind on, but will be picking back up real soon!) 

Oh, the perils of pyrex; a hard lesson (but kinda funny story) I shared in the "around the house" RFF series; and on the right, proof of a failed attempt of speaking (or trying to speak) French, in la transaction, what???, a spring RFF series about second languages. 

The newer "behind the seen" posts (which I've learned in the process, I really LOVE compiling!) A new one featuring friends, Mark and Ashleigh, is coming up right around the corner, and I'm super excited to share! Ashleigh shared this past summer about her birthday sky diving experience . . . a fun read if you missed it! 

If you missed these sweet behind the seen stories, here are links for Liza and Trey (left) and Rianna and Steven (right).

And then for me personally, there were the sometimes awkwardish and frustrating times of figuring out just "what do I blog about on a consistent basis?" and "what do I post on my parapalla Instagram?!" I shared some of those thoughts about mid-way through the year in the post that also went into the background of what parapalla means. 

I found the blogging got easier as I cut myself some slack and allowed for room to grow. I find now it's less of a "have to" that way and is way more enjoyable. And on the latter, I had so much fun last month with my random #23to1023 photo-a-day series and can see new possibilities for that feed now! So, I'm more excited for that outlet too, as I look ahead. 

what's your "parapalla?"

I'm a big dreamer, and I know it's hard a lot of times to keep believing in your dreams (this one was about ten-plus years percolating.) So my thought and encouragement for you as you're reading this is, if you have a dream that's been stirring but maybe not fully formed, I hope you'll keep praying about it and thinking about it, and even if you're not 100% sure what it fully looks like, but are pretty close: 

1. Give yourself a target date. Giving yourself a target date to begin some kind of movement towards your dream helps get things rolling. It doesn't have to be anything crazy big to get going; just a start.   

2. Tell others what that date is! This helps so much with accountability and follow-through. For parapalla, I told friends my plans and published a splash page with the date publicized on it too. It definitely helped me to meet that date, knowing others were anticipating it and were looking for it! 

3. Take the logical steps you need to get it going. For this site, that meant asking a lot of questions of people who knew things I didn't, looking at different hosts and domain providers, defining a core starting point and vision, and then creating initial pieces that fit the vision. I wanted to do enough to get started and not be overwhelmed, trusting the rest would come in time. So far so good. 

4. And then DO it! Half the fun (and, okay, stress, ha . . . ) is getting there, but I think it's worth it if it's important to you. So just get started and see what happens along the way! Give yourself grace to grow and don't be too hard on yourself.

You may have heard the expression, "comparison is the thief of joy" . . . ? Well, I think that's true, and so part of my year has also included being self-aware and trying not to compare myself to others and their success or try to be anyone I'm not. Part of me would love to do a lot more with what I have here, but it's just not where I am in life right now, and I'm okay with that :) 

a thankful heart

On this happy Thanksgiving day, I want to say I'm so happy to be here and so thankful for each of YOU being here too! It would be SOOO boring and not at all fun without you! Thank you for reading, liking, and/or sharing outright with me your sweet support via posts, messages, and in-person too. You have no idea how much it truly means to me and how much it's helped me keep going. Thank you!!! 

Also, I'm thankful for opportunities to purposely get to know more about my friends this past year through these new blog series and have loved getting to share those stories on my blog -- it really has been fun! I'm also thankful for new challenges with design projects (my favorite being the Birmingham birthday book for my friend Courtney), and I hope for more to come.

Back to the opening sentiments, I do feel like my life has been enriched through this endeavor so far, and I sincerely hope maybe yours has been too! I really had no idea what all this would look like in a year's time; I just knew I had a desire to get it started and that I needed to trust the process, my dream, and my Lord, to fill in the gaps along the way. At times it's felt bumpy, and at times it's felt smooth. And I'm sure there's more of that to come. Growing pains, right? :) 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!