I am going to get a little personal with you and I hope you don’t mind. My Grandmother and I were super close and one of the last conversations we had was about me working too hard and never taking time off. She was insistent on me taking some time to myself. She has been gone for a few years now and I LOVE what I do every day and I am a workaholic. To be honest, when I started the blog I had no idea how much work it would actually be. Running an Etsy shop and all of my licensing projects are a full-time job so adding the blog was a lot. 

At the beginning of this year, I decided to make a focus on unplugging more and I started the Book Club! I was recently on the phone with a friend and we were talking about movies. The last non-kid movie I saw was back in 2015. (Emma get’s priority when I visit home) So I made an agreement with him and he followed up on his end and well that meant that I would take off work in the middle of the day and see a movie. It had to be a good one since it’s been a while since I have been to the movies. So I picked La La Land after seeing all the oscar nominations. My one request was that we get popcorn which was honored. Why didn’t anyone tell me that Paris has a part in La La land? I don’t want to give anything away for those who haven’t seen it but…

I put my phone on silent and zipped my bag and for 2 uninterrupted hours, I sat at a movie and it was pure bliss. We walked out of the theater to a few snow flurries. My friend dropped me off afterward to do work and attack my growing email box. But here is the thing… Nothing bad happened while I unplugged for a few hours. I still got back to all of my emails in a timely manner and I sold a few things on Etsy which means I brought in revenue while taking a little time off. I am not sure going to see a movie in the middle of the day will be a regular thing but it does teach me that it is okay to step away once in a while. I need to do more of an effort to unplug and not work so hard. Or I am thinking how to work smarter and not harder. We will save that for another post. 

I like to think that my Grandmother is always with me wherever I go. That was her her wish when she passed. She would have really enjoyed La La Land and the fact that I skipped work she would have liked that even better! 

Meetup Details

A little note about tomorrow’s meetup. I cannot wait to meet you all! Not to worry if you haven’t read the book. My goal is to get take the community off the internet and meet in person. Hopefully, you will walk away with a new coffee friend or at least a sweet pastry in your belly. Also, I need help deciding on the next book! If you are in Chicago and you are not on the list for tomorrow please email me at [email protected] so I can add you. Space is limited which is why I can’t announce the location in a blog post! We are at capacity but I can always sneak a few more people in. For those of you not in Chicago, we will be doing a Instagram Live session so we can stream you in for a few minutes. Here is a photo so you can recognize me tomorrow when you arrive. But one thing I didn’t mention is I cut bangs! Which throws people off. I need to do a blog post about them with an updated photo.