Is busyness an illness?

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Gigi in Life Style 1 Comment

#17 gigi

Is busyness an illness?

Yes! Busyness is an illness and I have it bad. This photography business is what has taken me to the edge. There is always something to do, something to finish, someone to call, someone to photograph. Although I love every moment, at times it is a bit much.

I sometimes yearn for those days prior to my photography gig, I can’t even recall what my life was like back then. What was I doing with all my time? I realize now that time is a real luxury item, and being a lover of luxury, I am going to have to figure out a way to tap back into those leisure days.

I don’t like getting sucked into that crazy busyness that causes anxiety and stress. Time is precious and I don’t want to miss out on the simple things that busyness blocks. Like my blog space, I made a commitment to be consistent this year- and those of you that follow, know I have made good on that promise. My blog is my guilty pleasure- I do it no matter if one person stops by or a bunch.

So, I’m going to restructure and figure out what works for me, which is going to look like a max of 8 clients per month- a number that I can give an incredible experience from start to finish and still have my life and time to do what I want to do…a selfish move but at 56 there are so many more important things that I don’t want to miss out on…

How do you manage you time? Can a person have it all? Do you have the busyness disease? How do you treat it, I’d love to know…

Happy Thursday!

Gigi

I need some tea and honey…

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Gigi in My Life Comments Off

First on foremost…I’ve missed coming here and sharing my thoughts and such. Life is zooming by and I have been caught up on a merry go round that won’t let me off. A little bit of what has been going on the past five weeks, 3 friends departed the planet, 3 friends who were in my age bracket. I know that one day we will all depart this earth, but are you ever ready death? BTW I hate F—ing Cancer.

A few weeks ago I met a new friend, her name is Hanifa. Back story I’m part of Face Forward, an organization that provides medical services for women who have been victims of domestic violence, we provide pro bono surgery to women and children who have been disfigured as a result of domestic violence. Our latest patient Hanifa is from Uganda she is an acid attack survivor. She has such a positive outlook and an incredible spirit considering the ordeal she has been thorough. Check out this video about her journey and mission.

I also went on my annual girls ski trip. We spent a week in Aspen and had a ball. I am finally a strong intermediate skier! We had a blast and I can’t wait until next year.

Aspen Trip 2015

My self portrait project is going really well, each week I take a picture of myself with my “real” camera, ie. staging the lighting, scene and mood. I am learning so much about myself doing this project, I am forced to really look at myself inside and outside.

self portrait #1

self portrait #2

self portrait #3

self portrait #4

self portrait #5

self portrait #6

Oh speaking of photography I attended a lighting seminar is Las Vegas. I am determined to learn my craft! There is so much I want to know, nonstop learning.

My son has been home for spring break so I have been doing my uber driving duties, he is planning on getting his license before he goes back to school, keeping my fingers crossed.

And lastly I did the swim leg in a relay triathlon. No, I have not been training per se, but it was short and sweet and I was happy to do an event, did not realize how much I missed doing them. So I am looking for another one to sign up for.

So now that you have the highlights of my last 5 weeks- How are you? Do you feel overwhelmed? How to you balance when your merry go round is spinning out of control? Please share…

I’m going to make my tea and honey…

Xoxo,

Gigi

Busy

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Gigi in Thoughts 2 Comments

Busy is a choice . Tired and exhausted, usually is not a choice. Yes, this past week has been crazy, starting Saturday I had a senior shoot in downtown LA in bazillion degree weather. We went to the Bradbury building where we were quickly interrogated about our cameras and asked was this a commercial shoot, so hence no pics were taken at this location with our client, of course permits are $500 which was not in the budget, so we popped over to tired and true Disney Hall.

Disney Hall senior shoot

Bradbury building

Sunday, the 5 hour turn around trip to my son’s school in Santa Barbara, the drive is long but in less than a year, he will be away at college somewhere and the visits will not be as frequent, so I am cherishing these senior year moments and there is a nice outlet on the way and Erewhon market, one of my favorite places to stop for a treat.

Kabucha @ Erewhon

Monday, week 2 of my new “work out” routine, an hour of yoga followed by a crazy boot camp-ish type class called ETC, one in which I am sure I am the oldest person participating and yes it is kicking my BUTT. They put motivational messages up on the wall to keep us encouraged, but by the time I am done I feel so good so it is worth all the pain and suffering. I got a pair of these yoga/barre shoes and I love them…they are on sale here, some how getting dressed in new workout gear makes it a little easier. Am I the only one that feels this way?

my new barre/yoga shoes

Monday night my film class started at UCLA. I have always been intrigued by motion, so when I saw this class, DSLR Video and Motion I had to sign up, so of course I will be showcasing my work here very soon. My teacher Van Ditthavong has done some interesting projects, including making a short film for nokia using a Lumia phone.

Tuesday, a shoot with 3 lovelies. We were doing portfolio shots for a MUA friend, the models were interesting and fun to work with.

natural beauty

fun shoot

MUA doing her work

fellow yogini

cow girl

Wednesday, Back to the “kick ass” class and then dinner in LA with a BFF who I have not seen since June. We met at one of my favorite restaurants Gracias Madre, they have the best vegan mexican food. My BFF surprised me with an Alexis Bittar bracelet…I love them and I am acquiring a nice collection thanks to my generous girlfriends, love arm candy.

Alexis Bittar arm candy

Thursday, another 5 hour turn around trip to Santa Barbara. I met with my son’s college counselor to work on fine tuning his college list, stressful to say the least. Afterwards we with to Montecito, stopped at an orchid farm, there are so many out there and then to Trattoria Mollie for dinner, where my son was able to practice his Italian with the staff.

Reggie and the orchids

In addition to all the above, I still had husband stuff, family stuff, house stuff, edit stuff, club stuff and “Me” stuff.

I’m not sure if I like being this “busy”, that feeling of not enough hours in the day. I yearn for the idleness of no deadlines, no appointments, and nowhere to be except where I want to be…

This weekend I have a beach family shoot, which I am looking forward to, and another 5 hour turn around trip for my son.

Happy Friday, have a wonderful weekend.

Xoxo,

Gigi

BTW here are a few links I meant to share earlier in the week.

I want to do a personal photography project, so I am always looking for inspiration. This is a project on the underground railroad, that a photographer captured.

Interesting article on social media, I’m guilty of this.

Are cornrows mainstream now? Read this.

And lastly…the older I get the more I think I could do something like this.

Time Goes By…

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Gigi in Thoughts Comments Off

My life is full, but I feel as though it is zooming by at the speed of light. Most days there are not enough hours to do everything, always something hanging over my head. There are those never ending projects like going through all my pictures from the pre-digital era or deleting 1,000’s of emails and of course we can’t forget the dreaded garage.

I sometimes think about how I am starting a new career at an age when most of my contemporaries are retiring. No, I won’t get rich from what I am doing, but my work nourishes me, is always challenging and there is never a dull moment.

work

photographer Gigi

It has been a journey discovering my real self. At 54, I know my limitations, the past year I have had many reminders of the importance of living life to the fullest…enjoying every moment. I take time to laugh out loud and find simple pleasures that put a smile on my face. Sometimes I wear my “after 5” duds during the day, just because and wear non-sensible shoes more often than I should.

I find that balance is the key, knowing that on any given day I do all I can without sacraficing “me” , knowing when to take a break and start fresh again . Accepting that it is OK if I don’t make that deadline and “work in progress” is good.

Where are you in your life journey? Do you ascribe to markers of where you should be in life? How do you balance? I’d love to know your secrets.

XOXO,

GIGI

Gigi’s Meandering Around the Web #13

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Gigi in Thoughts, Web Comments Off

Lately, I have found myself incredibly busy never enough hours in the day to complete my various tasks. I can’t blame it on my kids, since both of them are gone right now, but I wake up early, go to bed late and still have a host of unfinished projects. So I am writing that to say while I was researching tidbits for this post, I was especially interested in “time saving” strategies that I stumbled upon.

Busy

House Pad a new app that is coming out which will keep notes on what needs to be done in your home, and it will store images of closets etc. on how things should be arranged and help you keep track of your household stuff, there has been so many times I am looking for something and I don’t recall where I stored the item, so this would be like having a personal butler.

Interesting quote from Mark Zuckerberg sister’s book “Dot Complicated”--“Re-post unto others as you would have them re-post unto you.” I love this little piece of social media etiquette advice, it is so easy to repost something of our friends and family and share it, but be polite and ask first.

book

Opinion VS Confrontational

Sometimes your opinion can be viewed as confrontational, at my age or shall I say post “50” I have let the truth guide me along with honest opinions, which made me realize, based on some reactions, some people don’t want the truth and take offense. My first 40 or so years I was the queen of sugar coating advice, in fear of losing friendships, or upsetting someone. Now I find that I don’t have time anymore for that approach, and that in the long run honesty builds stronger relationships that don’t suffer from resentment that builds up when you have tap danced around issues.

Yes. I want a personal shopper…Thefind.com scours more than 1/2 million online merchants to help find your item at the best price. I’m going to try this out and will keep you posted.

The find

cute basket

love this from crate and barrel.

This is interesting, you too can have a personal chef like the celebrities, hire a food specialist from Kitchit.com for your next event. Menus start at 25 per person, you select the chef based on various profiles and come up with a menu, they accommodate different diets and you enjoy your time with your guests, perfect for the holidays.

rent a chef

While you’re at it, why not rent something fabulous to wear from renttherunway.com, and you are all set. This company rents designer items, the cost includes dry cleaning and the return shipping, perhaps for that next black tie event that you just want to look fab for a minute. Prices started at 25 on up with designer dresses such as Herve Leger 150 btw these sell for 1500 so for the right occasion this could be a nice option.

rent a dress…

nice…love herve leger

And lastly I love this storage closet system from Pottery barn: I can always use more shoe storage space…

shoe storage

So let me get back to my lists and get “busy”.

Xoxo,

Gigi

TIME MANAGEMENT

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Gigi in Inspiration, Well-Being 4 Comments

Inspirational Quotes about time Benjamin Franklin (Photo credit: hot4sunny)

I’m having a time management problem. I feel as if on any given day I have so many loose ends and not enough “time” to finish anything, I started thinking about why am I not completing tasks. I make lists, have goals, and wake up with the right intentions everyday. I don’t have an attention problem, but I realized at times I am so easily distracted, so I started thinking about this and came to the conclusion that I don’t have a Time Management problem, I have some resistance to some of the tasks that I should be doing.

TIME

So today I decided I am going to examine why I have this avoidance to certain things and how I am going to take charge, because my potential is being blocked, by what I thought was a time management issue. There are 24 hours in each day and I work from home, so there is NO EXCUSE. I decided I would write my list of these obstacles and figure out how I am going to address each one.

TRUE

Here is my list:

WHAT: Photoshop

WHY: I have to learn it and master it PERIOD! I realize I have some sort of block to learning PS. The only good thing is that I have to try and get the best image possible out of camera. I think part of the problem is that I see so much bad PS and I don’t want to become a photoshop monster doing obvious edits that can be spotted a million miles away, I want to really learn it well so that my images still look natural and beautiful.

HOW: I am in an intense workshop and I am taking a class online at Lynda.com. I will learn before the month is over, and you will hopefully see an improvement in my images.

WHAT: Correspondence

note

WHY: I don’t have a have a resistance to correspondence, I just let it pile up and then I am overwhelmed. I will get emails and forget to respond, I only have two addresses, but one I am ashamed to admit has 15,000 emails. This becomes a problem, for example, when I have purchased tickets and I get the email link and forget to open it and then it is “lost” and I have to waste time doing a search for it.

HOW: Everyday I am going to take 15 minutes to go through current mail and a few minutes to delete emails that are not needed and I will get off of weird mail lists like my daughter’s college, she has graduated and I don’t need to read about who needs to sublet an apartment.

WHAT: Clutter

clutter

WHY: Clutter is so distracting! Yes. I admit I have lots of clutter, it is like a dirty little secret, that nobody sees cause it is hidden away…in the garage where no car can park, my kids closets, in a storage unit that is sucking money away each month for items that I have forgotten.

HOW: I’m going to get rid of what no longer serves me. I will give away, throw away, and try my hand at selling a few things on ebay, but the bottom line is I have to clear some of this stuff. today I threw away a bunch of empty shoe boxes I was keeping, because I thought I could use them to store “stuff”.

How is your time management? do you manage to get all your “to do’s” done in a timely manner? I am open to any advice you may have…

Xoxo,

GiGi

Gigi

What IS Time Management?

Time management

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