Its back...Won't you join me??

I know...Its Saturday, but I had to get let you know about this now so you could think about it over the weekend.

So, I've mentioned before that one of my favorite bloggers is Liz Lamoreux. She just has a very special insight into personal reflection yet at the same time can inspire the best in you. I don't know what it is, but I really appreciate her writing, and she's drawn me in ever since.

So as you may have read, back in October I took part in one of Liz's (free) online adventures called
10 days of saying YES to this Moment.  It was a great experience for me and I took you through a peak of what was a very personal journey for me.  In that post I was hoping to share some of the practices I learned with you so that maybe you'd be inspired to try some of them in your life.

But its back!!
Liz is bringing Yes, this 10-day adventure back! 
And I'm in for another round.
 
 
 
Won't you join me this time??

Don't just take a peak! Come and experience this wonderful 10-day adventure for yourself,
but not by yourself.  Let me know and we'll all go on this journey together.

So that's it! Again, think about it! It starts this Tuesday, February 4th, and you still have time to sign up!

For more information and to register head over to Liz Lamoreux's link here. 
Remember, its FREE!!

Have a great weekend!

From my corner to yours...lets say "YES" to this moment together.

Foto Friday...the golden hour

Hi there! Its my first Foto Friday of the year and I'm excited to get this theme going again. As I always mention when I share new pictures, I am practicing and trying to improve my skills and I'm always trying to do something new. I am working on doing my part to read, learn and gather inspiration from photographers who's work I admire. But the only way to truly learn is by putting it into practice right? So I've been doing some more of that as well.

One of the looks that I've been loving lately are those pictures taken as the sun is starting to set. Its not only my favorite time of the day, but its the prettiest time of the day as well. It is apparently known in the photography world as the "golden hour."

So as soon as this year started I had the privilege and the sweetest opportunity to shoot these adorable girls- The Salazar sisters. The girls are daughters of Mikey's former Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Salazar and who was referred to me by my friend Angie, who's daughter I have been taking pictures of since she was born. Sarah's only goal was to hopefully get just one good picture of the 3 of them... together in the same shot. Lol, having 3 boys who I've tried to pose when they were little on many occasions, I totally understood how difficult this could be. I couldn't make any promises other than I would do my best, but I think we succeeded in trying.

So this is Grace, Mary and lil' Diana- Such beautiful classic names for these girls.

Grace- The oldest of the girls, and she couldn't have been given a better name. She is total grace, the nurturing older sister, and such an old soul. She also knew exactly what the camera was for. She knew how to turn her head and she even seemed to know what poses she wanted. Such a great subject to shoot.




 






Mary- the free spirit. Boy did this little one make me laugh and she reminded me so much of Mikey at that age. She was very quick and totally marched to her own beat, and that's what made her so wonderful to picture. All she wanted to do was to pick flowers for her mama. 




 Diana - 6 months old and such a bundle of yumminess!  Look at her! The camera seemed to scare her at times which would make her cry, but her mama and her sisters helped me out by making her laugh. Lets just say she is a huge fan of her big sisters and her mama.

I had to work quick. I had to take advantage of this golden hour as much as possible in conjuction with the fact that as most of know, children lose interest in anything real quick, and they do not like staying in any particular pose for too long so I ended up getting the majority of shots in their natural state which I love.

 Here are a few of my favorites to share of them:

 

 

 

Thank you Salazar family for trusting me, for giving me this 

wonderful opportunity with your beautiful girls, and for letting me share them here. 

 

Thank you all for stopping by as well, and have a great weekend!

From my corner to yours...Happy Foto Friday!

My One Little Word for 2014...

I have been picking a 'Word for the Year' for each of the last 5 years. I was first inspired to do so by my SIL, and the last few years I have personally taken further steps to really understand what it means to pick a word that can truly impact my life for at least a year if not a lifetime. Ali Edwards, make this process easy through her One Little Word class in which she helps you really understand the definition of your word, how it relates to your life, your goals for your words and what you truly intend to get out of your word to help you personally grow in some particular area of your life, and she makes it a creative experience as well!

"You live with it. You invite it into your life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads. There are so many possibilities."

These words from Ali have been all too real for me. I have allowed the following words- Inspired, Moments, Beginnings, Create and Growth- into my life. They have lived within me. They have spoken to me in sooo many ways at different times, and I have truly followed my words and they have led me to where I am today, and are still leading me to the many possibilities of whom I can truly be in life.

Last year's word, Growth, has been my most impactful to date. It has been the one I've struggled with the most (so far), but its the one that has opened me up the most as well. You have to understand that picking a word is not a cure all either. I am still working on myself, and the word Growth is one that I will forever take with me and build on since personal growth is never ending.

So my One Little Word for 2014 is:

Patience-

the capacity to endure hardship, difficulties, and inconveniences without complaint. 

However, I really liked the following definition as well:

Patience emphasizes calmness, self-control, and the willingness or ability to tolerate delay:

Patience is the level of endurance one can take before negativity

 (something I battle against also).

Anyway, I picked the word Patience because I've realized that I have none or lack a healthy amount of it.  Yes, really! I'm just being honest. Part of this exercise is taking a hard look at yourself and realize the areas you need work on, and its not always easy.  But this word seemed to have been following me for a while.

I don't know if my fuse is getting shorter (with age??), but lately I hear myself say, more often than I'd like, "I don't have any patience for this" or "I don't have patience for anybody today", including my family and those closest to me and for that I sincerely apologize.  I have a really hard time being patient especially when driving (road rage anybody?), when my body doesn't work when I need it to, when things don't go as planned or get more difficult than necessary...Ugghh!! So guess what? I need to fix that...right? I'll be even more honest in telling you that I'm already struggling with it...its so hard!!  Its going to prove to be a difficult one to conquer! I've considered changing my word because it would just be soo much easier to be impatient, get mad, and over-react...isn't it? Well unfortunately, for me it is...sometimes. :(

My goal is to find a balance between patience and a healthy amount of emotional self control, some peace and acceptance when necessary, but still feel like my feelings are validated AND avoid making difficult situations even more difficult. Also, I apparently need to learn to let go? Hence the gut punch this poster gave me and a concept my husband Jerry has explained to me on more than one occasion. Yes babe, I  know... I promise I'm going to try!


So now that you know one of my many flaws, you also know I'll be working on it this year. Its my new journey. And I'm truly looking forward to more change and personal progress. This exercise sometimes leads to unexpected meanings and I'm looking forward to discovering those too.

Have you picked out your word for 2014? If so, I would love for you to share it with me in my comments.  I will be sharing as much of my journey as possible I go along and hopefully show you how you can implement some of these ideas into your lives.

So I'm off to find some patience...Won't you join me? ;)


From my corner to yours...Thanks for stopping by!

BTW-  If you'd like to pick a word but need to know more behind this idea, I encourage you to go to Ali Edward's site where you can sign up for her class if it you're interested. You wont regret it!

A new day...a new look

Hi there! Welcome to an updated version of Sandy's Little Corner.

Every year I like to find a way to update my blog and give it a fresh new look if possible.  It not only gives my blog a new life, but I feel like it renews my spirit and it gives me a creative incentive to keep writing and keep things hip and fresh. Well, at least I'm trying to, lol. 

I think this represents a little bit more of who I am, what I'm concentrating on this year, and of course my family.  I also tend to pick my colors for the year which I incorporated as well as a way to keep them present and in my sight.  So I may still tweak a few things as I go along, but I'm looking forward to making this cleaner, simpler version of my blog work for now.

I hope you like it too ;)

From my "new" little corner to yours...Have a great week!

Looking ahead at 2014...

The holidays are OVER people!!!

Here we are again...The new year has begun and its all back to normal, right?
Well kind of...NOT!

If your life is anything like mine right now, it will still take a few days (weeks really!) to get your groove back and your normal routine back in order. Lets face it- the kids are still at home, Xmas is still not put away, you're still waking up after 8am and your body still thinks its eating for the holidays. And the new year's events will begin to roll in without any consideration of this, and we find ourselves trying to catch up already.

Anyway, despite all of this I am still trying to find the best way to start off this year. I had mentioned in my 2013 wrap up that my family will be starting off with some challenges already, but after I wrote that I realized that I didn't want to get caught up in the negative, so I started to think of what we have coming up this year to look forward to and concentrate on that.

First off, I went on my traditional New Years Day walk. I started this 3 years ago when I started my health journey, and now I truly feel that its a great way for me to set the tone and my commitment for the year for myself.  Its just not a resolution anymore- its a true priority in my life, and so no matter how tired I am from my NYE festivities, I make it a point to go out for a walk.  So yesterday, I went out a little later than usual, but it was worth the wait as my boys decided to go with me. Chris walked with me, and the boys decided to ride their bikes a little ahead of us. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and it was the right amount of warm, and we did about 2 miles. It felt great to accomplish this together!


In general, this year I am looking forward to:

• Getting my mom home from the hospital, settled and some logistics taken care of
• My mom's full recovery from her accident
• Seeing the boys start new chapters in their lives
• Seeing some other opportunities and ideas finally come to fruition
• Christian starting his Senior year of high school and going through the whole college selection process with him 
• Continuing my Project Life album for 2014
• Finding some organizational peace within me for balancing work, home and my hobbies 

Some events my family has to look forward to this year:

•  A first birthday, a First Communion, and a Confirmation
• Christian getting his license- (although I'm not sure if I should be happy, relieved or very afraid???)
• 2 graduations- Mikey from elementary school and Danny from middle school
• More family reunions (maybe even out of the country?)
• Our 20th Wedding Anniversary!! Wow! (still planning on what to do)
• The possibility of a family trip and some smaller ones too?
• A family wedding 
• And any other event that may present itself throughout the year

So keeping things in perspective, we've got lots to look forward to and it gives me a good vibe to work with.  Do you have your list of things to look forward to this year? Its a nice list to keep handy to remind ourselves of the good things coming when things get a little tough.


From my corner to yours...let's make it a great 2014!!

XO