Previously owned pieces before my no-shopping challenge! Scalloped Skirt (similar here) // Ribbed Ruffle Sweater (sized up to a medium) // Over the Knee Boots // Purse // Necklace 

Good morning, friends! It’s the last week of January (YAY!) and I’m ready to finish out the month strong. This month has been a whirlwind – from giving up sugar for the first few weeks of the month, to kicking off my no-shopping challenge for a month, to working through the final details of our Super Bowl campaign at work, I’m excited for this month to finally be over (phew!), but it was definitely a memorable month too.

The other day, I was chatting with my friend Justin. We’d worked together at my first agency in Chicago, and we’ve since both taken jobs at big companies in-house. We chatted about how busy work has been, how we’ve essentially gotten to a place at work we always dreamt about (working at big companies in Chicago), but still feeling like we’re in the process attempting to figure it all out. He asked me the question a lot of friends have asked me over the years – “Would you ever consider being a blogger full time?”. And while there are days I definitely still dream about being a full time blogger, I do love my job, and I don’t know if that would be the thing that would make me feel fulfilled.

As we kept talking he then asked, “Well, if you weren’t blogging, and you weren’t working the job you have now, what would you do?” And honestly, it was a question that stopped me dead in my tracks, because I wasn’t totally sure how to answer it. It’s hard when you’ve worked for so many years on one singular dream, and once you get there, you’ve never really considered doing anything else.   So I took some time to think of it (as directed, over a glass of wine and watching Netflix) and thought about what crazy things I would do if I wasn’t doing what I was doing right now. And while

• Become a photographer – and learn to be good enough to be able to be a blogger photographer, do engagements and maybe even weddings one day
• Learn how to edit photos in Lightroom like a wizard
• Travel the world. Pack my life into a suitcase and spend a few months traveling all the countries I’ve always wanted to visit – Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Southern Italy, Croatia, back to Paris, South America…pretty much everywhere 🙂
• Get a dog – literally a lifelong dream.
• Be that magical person who does yoga, drinks matcha, and gets 6-pack abs like someone who has time to work out 😉
• Learn how to do videography – and get the guts to take more videos of myself and my travels around the world
• Learn how to make cocktails like a real bartender – really delicious ones, and memorize how to make a ton of them that I can rattle off at a moments notice
• Really learn how to cook, and be the kinda magical human who makes fancy Sunday dinners every Sunday
• Volunteer more – spending time tutoring kids and spending time with older people who’d like some company of a energetic, spunky, nearly 30 year old
• Get married, have cute little kids – all those good things that make life more exciting because you get to spend it with other people you love.

Okay, so now I just need to win the lottery so I’m able to do all the above. Wish me luck 😉

While it might be a little pie in the sky to make a list of all the things you’d do if you weren’t doing exactly what you’re doing now – it was a little eye opening to realize that a lot of the things I have on my list are things I can work on, or start learning now.

So here’s to hoping I spend a little more time learning, getting creative, and practicing those photography, cocktail-making, cooking, videography skills that I’ve always wanted to be good at. There’s no time like the present, especially when the lottery isn’t looking like a real possibility anytime soon 😉 xx