Hello dear old blog. It’s been awhile since I’ve given you some love. You know, with a real, old-school style blog post vs an Instagram recap. Don’t get me wrong. I do love the Instagram recaps as they’ve been a great way for me to get some regularly updated posts here in this space as I took a much needed blog break last year (2015), but I suppose I’m ready to get back to my regular writing of blog posts. I’ve missed being here. Fully here vs kind of here. Also the writer, journaler side of me is longing to show up here again. To share my challenges, awakenings, family loves/life, business loves/life, and more. But before I dive into 2016 here in this space, I thought I’d recap 2015.
I’m a big believer in recapping our years – to look back, to relearn, to rediscover, to celebrate, to grieve, to realize just how far we’ve come. I’ve been recapping my blog posts by years for the last 10 years. For those of you who may be interested, here are my yearly recaps:
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
* I somehow missed recapping 2014. And that’s okay.
Today’s post is a recap of 2015.
My word for 2014 was Trust. It was such a powerful, life changing word for me that I kept it for 2015 as well. And I’m so glad I did. Trust, trust, trust. I fell deeper into its lessons in 2015 and I learned so much about surrendering ourselves to something greater than we are – that we are held, seen, and guided in perfect, mysterious ways. I also learned to keep letting go, to trust the unfolding, the process, the expansion of all that doesn’t want to stay small. And then the trusting of people. For someone who fiercely holds onto her independence, this was a big one for me in 2015. I learned to cultivate – more than ever – an inspiring group of people who expertly and carefully help me tend to all things in my business.
Before letting 2015 go, I want to answer a couple of questions that my dear friend Andrea Scher introduced me to many years ago (can’t recommend this practice enough!).
1. What do you want to acknowledge yourself for in regard to 2015? (What did you create? What challenges did you face with courage and strength? What promises did you keep to yourself? What brave choices did you make? What are you proud of?)
I’m proud of all the allowances I gave myself. I drenched myself in permissions this year as a way of letting go of the many rules I’ve had for myself that don’t really serve me. This was a big act of trust and it was good soul work for me. I’m proud of that. I’m also proud of the creative work I did on the canvas, in my classrooms as a teacher, and as the owner of a growing creative biz. I also made some brave choices around boundary work – always a difficult. The thing that I’ll likely remember the most about 2015 is how it was the year of working on being and feeling settled. For the first time in probably 10 years, we didn’t have any giant transition to work through. Instead, we settled in. Unpacked the final boxes from our move last year. Settled into not just a permanent home but a permanent studio as well. We rested, regrouped, and paced ourselves. It was amazing.
As for my biz, I’m particularly proud of the Spirit Wings painting ecourse I created. I loved writing it, filming it, spreading the word about it, and I especially love the result of all that hard work: a classroom of kindred spirits making meaningful paintings.
2. What is there to grieve about 2015? (What was disappointing? What was scary? What was hard? What can you forgive yourself for?)
I want to forgive myself for all the times I could have been more patient, and more trusting, for all the times I could have been more loving, and kind. I forgive myself for not following through on the many things I had hoped to dive into. There were many things that were disappointing on the creative biz front, but all small in the big scheme of things.
3. What else do you need to say about the year to declare it complete? The next step is to say out loud, “I declare 2015 complete!” How do you feel? If you don’t feel quite right, there might be one more thing to say…
Thank you for being the year where I settled in a bit, where I caught up on my sleep, on my downtime, and let go of all the self-imposed rules that were not serving me. You were a good year. And I’m grateful.
Some highlights and lowlights include:
– I moved into a brand new studio space. It’s big, bright, and housed in an old highschool. I love, love, love it. I especially love that we painted the floors teal. Full studio tour here.
– I quit caffeine AND sugar for a record amount of time.
– I delighted in the delight of heading to Disney Land with my family. Super fun. Definitely going to do that again.
– Struggled there for a bit and had a little pity party, and learned a big lesson…
– I continued The Wear Your Joy Project (#thewearyourjoyproject) personally and also launched a super successful 30 day ecourse. It was a hit, which made my heart happy.
– I shared my evening rituals/practices.
– Said goodbye to our lovely Bella dog. We had her almost 15 years – a rescue dog with many special needs. But we loved her dearly and were so sad to see her go.
– Launched many new exciting products via various partnerships with gift and stationery companies. This dream continues to unfold. So grateful!
– Also launched a new angel painting course called Spirit Wings. I continue to be blown away by the response!
– I joined the podcast revolution with my very own Possibilitarian Podcast! So love doing these.
– Visited a wishing tree with Andrea and True.
– Revisited my Art in Motion series. I forgot how much I love doing that!
– Had many many adventures with True who turned five this year and our little family.
– Celebrated 16 years of togetherness with John.
– Let my inner child drive the bus…
– I turned 40 and hosted a huge bundle sale!!
– I chose joy and trusted my heart out.
– I traveled to the UK to take part in the Make Art That Sells event – wow wow wow.
– Released FULLY updated version of my popular ebook, Flying Lessons: The Whole Shabang!! This was a ton of work but super satisfying.
– LinkedIn came to my studio to interview me! You can check out the interview here!
– Continued to capture hearts out in the world, including this amazing one!
*Announced my latest collection, True® by Kelly Rae Roberts, celebrating true love, true connection, and true living!!
– Hosted my first original sale in many years…everything sold out in 17 minutes. Whaaaaaat?
*Welcomed Lulu Butter Butter Bean into my heart and life! She’s an English Bulldog and we adore her.
KitchenMaster BedroomLiving RoomDining RoomFamily FortTrue’s room
Here’s to 2016 and all that awaits! xo!
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