Life Update: Summer Is Officially Over!

This month has been a challenge, to say the least.

For those who know me personally, you know that September is my least favorite month of the year. It’s a long story, but the condensed version is that it brings a lot of negative energy into my life. This year, it has led to a major decrease in productivity on personal projects. And because I haven’t sent any newsletters out by email this month, I figured a life update on the blog would be the easiest way to let you all in on what’s been going on lately.

We may as well start off this life update with some shop talk.

While I have kept pretty quiet about my projects behind the scenes, I think it’s time to open up a bit about my goals and intentions for the upcoming 4th quarter. I’m following the lead of my friend Stefany here… By telling you my intentions for the next three months, I hope you will help me hold myself accountable to meeting these writing goals:

Goal #1: Finish writing my first e-book.

I may have mentioned this one previously. In fact, the e-book I have been working on what initially supposed to be finished in June. Then I pushed the deadline to September… and now I’m pushing it to December. It started out as my senior capstone project – I’ve been researching and outlining it since early April, and wanted to finish it during summer so I could publish it through Amazon.

Of course, life got in the way and I haven’t made time for it the past couple of months. So my new official deadline will be to have it written by early December, have a few friends proofread, make final corrections, and publish. I made a sales page this summer hoping it would push me to get the project done by the end of this month. Sadly I’ve placed it on the back burner.

Goal #2: Launch my freelance website.

Last year I bought my name as a domain (kristanbuck.com). I let it sit empty for months before finally deciding to use it to market myself as a freelancer (#sidehustlelife). The site won’t be going live just yet, but I have been working on it a bit. My homepage is ready for launch, but I wanted to get a portfolio put together before I hit publish. I mean, what good does it do to market myself if I don’t have samples of my work?

For those who are curious, I intend to offer freelance services for virtual assistance and social media management, small business web design, and writing and editing. For VA and social media, I would be available for needs such as drafting professional emails, designing templates and graphics for different platforms (i.e. pins for Pinterest), or creating and scheduling content on various platforms. Writing and editing services will primarily be copywriting or copyediting, blog content creation, etc.

As I said, I’m currently in the portfolio building stage, so I am gathering samples and testimonials of my work. If you’re interested in working together – at a discounted rate while I find my footing, of course – shoot me an email at kristan @ bellesandbucks.com (without the spaces) or DM me on Facebook or Instagram. I’d be happy to discuss my rates and services with you.

Goal #3: Competing and completing NaNoWriMo.

If you haven’t heard of NaNoWriMo, I’m not offended. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNo is a challenge that takes place in the writing every November. While its original intention is to complete a novel – or roughly 50,000 words – you can spend the month working on whatever project you choose. You set your own goals, attend virtual write-ins, and sometimes even do in-person meet ups with others in the community.

I tell myself every year that I’m going to finally do the challenge. One year I started, but never got past the planning stage. But I want this year to be different. For NaNo 2019, I want to spend 30 days cranking out page after page. I want to finally finish a damn project for once in my life. So many great ideas have gone to waste because I’ve not pushed myself to finish them. But not this year.

Home life update…

Things have been pretty laid back. Well, unless you count the stress of wedding planning. My original goal was to have a wedding dress picked out by this month… LOL. At this rate I’m probably going to just go dress shopping by myself. I’ve been tempted to find one online, but just don’t trust the no refund policies I’ve found. Plus I have no idea what kind of style I want, so I need to try some on to find out.

We also decided to cut down our ceremony to only a select group of friends and family. If you read my post on how to figure out your guest list, you know that we’ve got our total down to just under 100 people. But as someone with ridiculously high social anxiety, just the thought of having a hundred people staring at me walk down the aisle makes me hyperventilate. Also I don’t need everyone to listen while I read intimate vows I wrote for Seb. I’m getting hives just thinking about it.

Don’t worry – we aren’t uninviting people. We’re simply having a more private ceremony with about 30 guests plus our photographer. Everyone else will be invited to the reception to celebrate! (Believe me when I say I am so relieved Seb agreed to such a big change.)

Another big life event coming up is Elsie turning two!

Her birthday is officially less than a month away. While she already seems way older than 1 year old, there’s something about celebrating her 2nd birthday that makes it “real” that she’s growing up. Lemme brag on my girl for just a minute though. This kid can count to 20 (when she feels like it, but usually stops at 14 or 15) and count backwards from 5. She can tell you her full name and mommy’s name. She knows how to spell “Elsie” and will raise one finger and tell you how old she is. Potty training is going well – despite a bad day here or there she barely needs reminded when to go and can do it almost all by herself!

I’m amazed at my little girl. She has been into dinosaurs lately, so we talked about doing a dino themed party. But truthfully? I’m tired of playing the comparison game with other Pinterest moms. I think I’m going to sit this one out, bake a cute little cake, and just let everyone enjoy spending the afternoon together. Do we really need to go all out for a toddler’s birthday party anyway? I think not, therefore I will not. Sorry not sorry, but you won’t see any fun kid’s birthday party theme posts on the blog. #endrant

And the last thing I want to ramble about in this life update is NAMI Walks.

You all know I am a huge advocate for mental health. If you saw the shirts I’m selling, you know I plan to start donating 50% of all profits I receive to NAMI. I recently became an official member in Indiana, and found out they have a walk that is taking place in Broadripple in October. So I’ve signed up for the fundraiser with a goal of $500. You can donate by clicking the button on the right side panel.

If you’re interested in reading about my personal journey, check out pieces of my story here, here, and here. Otherwise, I think that’s about it for my life update. I mentioned in my last email back in August some of the content you would be seeing on the blog this fall. That content will still get published, it’s just a little behind schedule at this point. Until next time.