Friday, December 29, 2017

Palm Springs // Travel Photography

Hello All! I made it back over to the blog. It feels like a lifetime ago that I was in grad-school only working weekends and had SO much time to spend working on this space. Those days are long gone, but the exciting news is that my business Charcoal & Ash is growing and I was able to purchase a MacBook Pro which means BLOG RE-Launch! I want my blog to be more in depth, more of me and my thoughts and my art and less keeping up with the fads so hopefully you will find inspiration here and be fueled to go out and create your own beautiful somethings.

I have been dying to hop onto my blog and share our amazing Palm Springs trip!
Palm Springs was a dream come true. 2017 was an absolute whirlwind for Paul and I and the week that we left for Palm Springs the Pacific Northwest was hit with torrential downpours so it felt wonderful to walk off the airplane into the Palm Springs airport and feel the sun hit my skin.

We stayed at the Saguaro Hotel in Palm Springs and LOVED it! Every room is a different color based on desert flowers. The hotel itself felt very hipster, like I felt almost not cool enough to be there but then that passed and we soaked it all in and it was actually very relaxing. The center court of the hotel was a pool and lawn area surrounded by flowers covered in cute almost tame hummingbirds. Some of the highlights of our Palm Springs trip were spending the day in Joshua Tree, driving out to Salvation Mountain and fitting in a day of the most Instagrammed places. Palm Springs was such a needed trip it felt so good to soak up some sun and be away from work distractions for both Paul and I.

2018 is going to be a year of growth and I can already feel it starting. Every year I like to pick a word a theme that I center myself around and focus on. Last year the word was balance and I really do think I was able to balance myself a little better especially in my career choosing to part from my 2 job 6 day a week schedule and stick with one full-time job with a 4 day work week. That worked wonders for my health and family life and I am very grateful that I made that decision. This year I thought about Sustainability, Consistency, and Progress as my word but I have ultimately settled on GROWTH emotionally and professionally. I am excited to see what the year brings and I am super excited to be back on the blog!

Have a wonderful New Years all! and check back on the blog for more fun updates.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Charcoal & Ash // Life Lately


I made it over to the blog! it's a miracle seriously. I thought I would pop on over and let you know whats been going on. It has been a crazy productive year and Paul and I have been carefully creating new experiences and navigating our lives in the creative direction we both want to go and it has resulted in us being insanely busy non-stop.

Since I last stopped by, Charcoal & Ash has been busy, busy, busy! I participated in my first farmers marker and another art show at the Factoria Mall. Paul and I created a promotional video for the shop which you can see in my about page! View my video HERE. We went on a weekend adventure to the Hoh Rainforest and Seabrook and we are planning a bigger tropical adventure towards the end of 2017. 


Paul made the jump to full-time freelance and is now running his own business from home and I couldn't be more proud. We have this crazy dream of both being able to work from home and travel one day and we are making some huge movements in the right direction. A few things that I am dreaming of doing in the last few months of 2017 is a Scorpio Queen inspired photo shoot (to celebrate turning 30 of course! I am also dreaming and scheming about creating exclusive Charcoal and Ash Christmas cards! creating beautiful calendars, and possibly a coffee table book. Oh and I will be participating in a photo contest more on that soon.

So many other things have happened in my life over the last few months, so many great great things I just don't have the time to share it all. But please enjoy these photos from my last photography shoot in Seattle and follow me over on Instagram @charcoalandashpnw for updates on all of the exciting things I'm planning for the rest of the year.