A full heart after a quick weekend.

I got a last minute invite to hang with two of my favorite girls on Friday, so after a quick dinner at home with Caleb, I was off. I love that these girls could've been doing anything with their friends on a random Friday night, but they wanted to hang out with me! I'm so thankful for them and the fun we had together! We watched RV (seeing Robin Williams on screen nearly made me cry!), learned a little bit of John Legend's "All of Me" on the keyboard, and of course, played with every last Snapchat filter there was!

Caleb texted me and told me he went to my Aunt and Uncle's to watch Hacksaw Ridge (again) with my Uncle since he hadn't seen it, so when I left the girls, I went over to their place and watched it with them! Seriously, such a good movie.

We slept in Saturday and after Caleb made breakfast we each worked out. I REALLY didn't want to, but Caleb convinced me that I'd feel awesome afterward, and of course I did, so I'm happy I did it! We really just lounged around all day doing a lot of laundry, cleaning and napping.

I made some BBQ Chicken Stuffed Peppers for us for dinner and they were SO good! You need to click this recipe and make it tonight!

After dinner we spent the rest of our evening with some of our best friends doing what we do best; GAME NIGHT! Erin and I of course won our traditional puzzle race (yes, those are a thing in our households), we played a hilarious game of Disney Monopoly and I discovered my love of Racko!

Sunday was pretty freaking incredible. We slept in (whoops) and even got to cuddle our adorable nephew for a while and hang out with E&J some more!

THEN! I was able to photograph (actually, I was one of about 10 photographers that were split up into 4 groups) TWO styled shoots at a local venue called Urban Artifact. This was a project we'd been working on putting together for a couple of months through our Tuesdays Together group, and it was so fun to see it all come together. I haven't uploaded all of my own current photos yet so for now you get this google photo to paint a picture for you...

via

The point of these two "styled shoots" was to showcase all of our creative talent within the group and to give everyone more portfolio material! We've got everything from photographers to videographers, florists to calligraphers, bakers and event planners! You name it, we've probably got it. It was so much fun to spend a few hours snapping away and getting to shoot alongside some other photographers! The point of this group is "community over competition", and it was really cool to see everyone work so hard on something and see how BEAUTIFUL it turned out.

Over a month ago one of the sweet event planners reached out to me to see if I knew anyone who'd want to model for us and I had an answer for her right way; Olivia and Sean! They are adorable and so SO in love and it was so great seeing her yesterday!

If you want some awesome behind the scenes footage check out The Rising Tide's Instagram story from yesterday! It was a lot of fun! Since I don't have them uploaded/edited yet, here's a quick #backofcamera sneak peek!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Of course it went WAY too fast, but what else is new?!

Stepping out of my comfort zone.

Lately, I've felt comfortable in my routine. Going to work, skipping the gym, eating a mediocre dinner or ordering take-out, then getting to bed way too late, being too tired in the morning, lather, rinse, repeat.

Caleb has inspired me to step out of my comfort zone a little bit this week. He had the idea on Sunday night that we would go to the gym together the next day (we haven't done this in forever) and hit the swimming pool to swim laps as our workout. "WHAT?! I have no idea what I'm doing"..."no way"..."people will judge me"..."I'll look like a complete idiot"... yadda yadda yadda. 

We walked into the gym and I could feel my heart racing. I told him I'd need a lot of metaphorical hand holding to make this work. Isn't that silly? I have SUCH anxiety over the smallest of things sometimes. I just couldn't believe how nervous I was over practically nothing!

Well, he talked me into it, and I put on my suit, strapped on the goggles, and swam those dang laps. Sure, the entire thing was exhausting and slightly embarrassing since I had no idea what I was doing... but I did it, and that's what matters. I felt pretty awesome afterwards!

Fast forward to last night. I joined a group in Cincinnati that stems from The Rising Tide Society, called "Tuesday's Together" (its basically a group for creatives - business owners, designers, photographers, planners, calligraphers, florists, etc. - who get together to learn new things, encourage one another, and just hang out). I pull into the lot where last nights meeting was, and could literally feel my heart beating through my chest. I decided to check my heart rate on my fitbit, and I couldn't believe it. It was at 94. I was just sitting down! Trying to work up the courage to walk into this meeting full of people I didn't know, and my heart felt like it was about to beat through my chest.

I said a little prayer because anxiety is real for me, and thought to myself, what's the worst that can happen, Kayla!? It won't kill you. So I got out of my car, and walked into the meeting. Almost immediately, my anxiety and stress went away and I had fun getting to know everyone!

There were only about 13 of us total, but it was SO encouraging to be in a room full of people who have similar questions/concerns as you regarding running a business, etc.! I left feeling refreshed, encouraged, and most of all, inspired. 

So it goes to show, stepping out of your comfort zone is not only good for you, it really makes you grow. I'm proud of myself this week, and that feels so great! I'm challenging you to try something new in the next few days. Something that scares you a little!

Happy Wednesday, friends!