365 - Year 1 Blip

3...........6..............5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made it to one year!! Saturday 22nd December was a great day in more than one way.

Let me tell you!!

I'm currently writing this at 40,000 feet above Spain/Portugal!! (Today is Sunday but image taken on Saturday at the hotel!)

Saturday was a ridiculously busy day (when do I not have them?!) as we're trying to get over to Gatwick for the evening to go to Lanzarote Sunday!!

Saturday morning saw an early start to get over to our lovely friends house for breakfast. Mel had also planned for a nail artist to be there, so we sat at the table getting our nails done and the boys stood drinking coffee, eating croissant and playing with the dog. Perfection!

Packing, sort house, out for dinner, into Steve's family annual drink briefly, then off to LGW. We managed to get there with no problems and good time considering.

The evening just got better. Only people on the car park bus, the nice man was going to take us to the hotel, but we could drop our bags off early as it was an early flight. He dropped us right at the door. Then we checked in. Nobody but us! We were told the hotel was a good 15 min walk which we started to do. Then we came across a brand new Premier Inn that was connected to the terminal. We thought we'd give it a chance to see if it was ours, it was!! Quickest check in ever again, and up to our new smell clean room!

Quick drink at the bar whilst I used the wifi to get blips up to date for this week. Then off to bed for a 5am alarm on Sunday.

Sunday sees us going to Lanzarote. Christmas in the sun. Quite different from our Scotland or Berkshire Christmases. This is a Christmas preset from my Mum. I was so shocked when she told us, but will
be a lovely way to spend Christmas together this year. So grateful.

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

This year. Wow what a year. As this is my last blip for the 365 day project and will be the last page in the book, I just want to mention the things that happened over the past 365 days and have got me to this point.

Left Heathrow job in February. Tough decision, but one that followed my head/heart to get back to photography. Freelance at a studio in Windsor. Didn't pay me until I started sending letters. Got paid in the end. I decided it was the best lesson learned - how NOT to do business. Customer service is a river that runs deep within me and is past onto my clients and suppliers. Paris in March - decided to definitely run a Paris photography trip in 2013- made contacts with suppliers. Best friend got engaged whilst we were in Paris/Im bridesmaid+photographer! Advertised/marketed/networked over the Summer. Launched my photography workshops. Cracking feedback from all courses. Lots more people through than expected. Lots of lessons learned on how to remodel for 2013. Started a temp job in may for 2 months. Went well, extended longer at part time. Up to Lake District for photography business course, changed everything. More portrait sessions, weddings booked in and more awareness. Great. Started sessional photography work at local college, going from strength to strength. My portfolio is amazing, im so pleased with my brand and where I've taken the business. I won 3 bronze awards in December from the Guild of Photography which recognizes my work as a high standard in the industry. Such a high to end the year.

The purpose of this blip blog was to track my progress of my businesses first year and all the relational and social relationships alongside. I feel
I have done that perfectly and I'm happy with what this blip looks like. Every year I shall get it printed and will be a treasured book of memories.

Thank you to all those in Blipland for the comments, stars and Facebookers too for the great likes and comments. It's great that you enjoy this as much as I do.

Next year? A few challenges. Don't cop out and take another photo of something in the house on the iPhone! Plan them. Also, I want to do a week of portraits. I think that would be great fun. Maybe a month if I muster up the ability to approach people!

Thanks for dropping by xox