Next month will mark my four year blogging anniversary. I can hardly believe it’s been that long. And definitely find it hard to comprehend how much I’ve learned – and changed – since my first post went live in 2009. When Andrew and I both moved to Chicago in early January of that same year, we had both just graduated from University and certainly had high hopes for a new start in a new place together. Andrew had accepted his first full time gig as a sales engineer at an HVAC company and I was determined to find my first job too within the journalism industry. Armed with a boatload of determination, over 50 addressed demo reels headed out to any and every news station, and a heavily loaded resume sparkling with numerous impressive internships, I didn’t think it would be tough to find my groove in the career world. Yet sometimes our plans in life sort of fall through, falling a bit short of our expectations don’t they?

What I never anticipated was how hard and unlikely it would be for a fresh out of college journalism grad to find a job in the second best journalism market in the country; in the middle of an economic crisis. Throw my Canadian citizenship and restrictive Visa status into the mix and I literally felt like I couldn’t catch a break. Slowly but surely I started to blow through my savings account as I tried so hard to be a loving and supportive fiance, who handled the groceries and made home cooked meals just waiting on the table for when Andrew arrived home from work. I tried to make our little one bedroom apartment feel cozy and inviting. But I felt helpless, unmotivated, unencouraged and most of all, sure that this lifestyle would fall through sooner than later. I hated tapping into my savings account to buy things that I thought would give us the life we were supposed to be living, but wanted so badly to have some sort of supposed normalcy.

Before Andrew and I officially moved to Chicago, I had set up a part time internship as a writer at a tiny magazine called College News. You can check it out here. I really thought this would be my big break and if all else failed, would be something to at least fall back on until I landed a job I really wanted. Except when I started to settle into my internship schedule I learned really quickly, this wasn’t the gig for me. Between the long unpaid hours and the ‘newsroom’ that was far too quiet and predictable in contrast to a lively, bustling never-know-what-you’re-going-to-get telvisions newsroom, I found myself absolutely bored out of my mind and uninspired with my daily duties. I remember so clearly having to write a story for the CN blog about the Chris Brown and Rihanna incident when it first broke, and I thought to myself, if this is the kind of work I’m destined to do forever, then I must be selling myself short.

Eventually my lack of fulfillment at my internship, led me to pursue personal interests at home. And all at once in between job searching and emailing news editors until my fingers were blistered, I found myself up to my eyeballs in cookbooks, baking soda and cupcake pans. One day at the internship while writing a story for the College News blog, it dawned on me that I too could have a blog! One that would highlight my favorite recipes, along with a little commentary in my tone of voice and it would hands down be much more fun than writing about celebrity gossip or trivial things that I had no interest in. It would allow me to be creative (bonus), in control (double bonus) and if the blog ended up falling short of my expectations there was the option to quit and move on. With that Pink Sugar Desserts was born. Along with a plan to open a storefront. All at once I had these big ideas and even bigger plans to do something.

I eventually said good bye to the College News internship, and instead stayed home to juggle the ongoing and exhausting job search with the obsessive amount of baking in our tiny little kitchen. I soon after discovered Bakerella and decided I too needed a Canon Rebel to document my kitchen creations so I went out (spent more money) and bought one from a camera retailer who was going out of business. I started to realize that in putting a little effort into my posts (like well thought out images) and a little personality (like a conversational tone of voice) led to very slow but sure increases in traffic. People other than Andrew and my Mom started to read. And at once I was hooked on blogging.

Here’s a couple photos of some treats I baked back in what we shall call my domestic prime :)

You can read Part II here.

Happy Friday, blogettes! And slow down January. This year is going by so fast like I expected it would.

I’m shooting for another social media free weekend starting tonight at 6:30 pm and I’m hoping some of you will join me after reading this post here (seriously though, leave a comment below if you’re trying it this weekend too! A little accountability can go a long way.) A colleague of mine is being honored at a baby shower tomorrow and I can’t wait to be there and celebrate with her and the other women in her life. Then next week is full of client meetings, decor proposal, taste tests and an incredibly fun little production I’m looking forward to sharing with you next month! It involves hopefully a few heart shaped hydrangeas like the one I was lucky enough to find in a recent floral order. I’ve been a bit more open to the idea lately that God gives us signs in life, even if they are as trivial as a flower that’s shaped like a heart. Make your weekend wonderful and I’ll see you back on Monday with some more goodness! xoxo

I’m obsessed with my phone. My Mom jokes that I probably take it to the washroom with me.

Sad truth: I do.

Late last year, after reading and following Lara’s The Challenge, I decided to tackle a social media free weekend myself. I knew it would be hard and I secretly dreaded being without my phone for two point five whole days. While it’s rather embarrassing to feel so attached to something so trivial, the worst part is I failed miserably at my first attempt on going social media free. I was half of a day into my weekend and somehow found myself that Saturday afternoon refreshing my instragram feed and updating my facebook status while I silently tsk tsk-ed myself. It wasn’t until this year, that I realized I needed to make some serious changes and give social media free weekends another chance in my life. So rewind to last Friday night, when I left my phone in my office at 6:30 pm only to grab it to take the the gym with me (on airplane mode) and I can tell you I did it this time with success. And it was glorious. Here’s what happened:

I got my life back. When you put your phone down you reconnect with life. If you’re like me you probably check your phone when you wake up, when you’re in the car as a passenger with your significant other, when you’re waiting at a doctor’s office, when you’re out for dinner with a friend, when you at the grocery store in the check out line, when you’re holding a wall sit at the gym, when you’re on the couch after work, when you’re eating, when you’re blow drying your hair, when you’re in the bath, when you’re in bed falling asleep and sometimes when you’re in the washroom doing your thing. I’m so embarrassed I just wrote all of that out. Excuse me for a minute while I break up with my phone here.

Putting my phone down to do all of those things with my undivided attention resulted in more in depth conversations with my husband, more conversations where I felt good because I knew I was actually listening, more involvement at an MSU gymnastics competition because my eyes were on the athletes and not my phone, more time in the kitchen cooking and enjoying my food instead of enjoying my social media feeds, and more enjoyment and overall contentment with doing things I used to have no problem doing before I became dependant on my phone. Like sitting on the couch, snuggling in bed when the sun is rising in the morning, working out and knowing your huffing and puffing is from burning calories instead of trying to maneuver an elliptical machine with your instagram filters. You know what I mean, right?

I know once wedding season hits it’s going to be next to impossible to avoid my phone on the weekend but I plan on soaking this up for as long as I can because one of the biggest lessons I learned last year, is that life’s too short to focus on the things that absolutely do not matter. And you should do the same! Have any of your tried, and possibly even failed, at a social media free weekend? I am so here to hold you accountable if you want to try it :)

Photo of me and my phone by Kelly Braman Photography.

Happy Friday, friends! It’s been a marvelous week here in the Mid West. I think I love 2013 already.

I finally received my new collateral pieces bringing this rebranding process to a final close! Now the fun (and rather important) part comes and that’s continuing to use the tools I’ve been given to achieve success and reach my goals. I’m so excited about my calendar full of amazing events for this year and a few fun projects and collaborations in the works like a darling little editorial for Valentine’s Day. It’s been a couple years since I last did anything creative for the holiday based around love sweet love so I’m looking forward to getting my fix soon! This weekend I’m heading back to Michigan State’s campus to watch the gymnastics team’s first home meet, a first since I last competed there in 2008 (when I scored my Perfect 10!) and I’m working on having a social media free two days. In the meantime, tell me more about how all of you have been doing thus far with the new year. I truly hope you’ve been making new changes, new habits, and new goals for a purposeful and fulfilling year. Happy weekend, blogettes. Make it one to remember xoxo

P.S. The winner of the relaunch giveaway tote filled with amazing goodies is mentioned over here :)

When people ask me what I studied in college I always tell them journalism (truth) because it was one of the few majors that didn’t require much math (partial truth). I always wanted to be a news anchor and for six years put on my best reporting face until one day I decided the wedding industry was instead where I belonged. I never doubted I could successfully run my own business. But I never actually prepared for what it would take to make the back end work. Meaning give me a bride who loves glitter and unicorns and I can dream up a stellar wedding aesthetic but ask me the difference between an expense and a cost and I might get a little weak in the knees (and not the same weak in the knees I get around peonies. Bummer.) It wasn’t until last year that I really realized I’d need to invest in my business in more ways than just photo shoots and instragram. So I hired a CPA. And left his office that day in big ugly toddler tears.

Turns out an IKEA storage box full of receipts with pretty short hand on the top of them, doesn’t do my CPA too much good. Neither does just thinking and not doing much about owning Quickbooks. But on the flip side there’s people called bookkeepers and my goodness am I ever glad I found an amazing one thanks to Ben and Laura. Hiring my amazing bookkeeper was by far my best decision in 2012 and something I would recommend to any business owner just getting started (or to any business owner who has been around for while but doesn’t yet have one.) If you’re unsure where to find a reliable one check with any industry colleagues or even friends and see who they can recommend for you to use.

A bookkeeper can really give you so much. For starters they can take that big scary box of receipts and make sense of them for you. I’m pretty good at keeping things and labelling them as I go but knowing what each receipt means and how it should be tracked is foreign to me. And totally boring. Enter a bookkeeper. They can also log all of your spending, earnings, draws, expenses and costs into Quickbooks so you can see in front of you how much your spending in each area of your business (for example I have ton of transactions filed under Business Development in 2012 and Florals for obvious reasons). Without getting into too much detail, the best part is come time to meet again with my CPA I can hand him a USB that my bookkeeper loaded my entire business onto, so he can do my taxes quickly and with ease.

Last Friday I met with my bookkeeper to give her some final December receipts and I have to say working with her has been such an eye opening experience. I’m not the greatest with money and wanted to make sure I became better in 2013 with it. Seeing my bank account listed out to the last penny in front of me (I’m very much a visual learner) and in front of a total stranger is a really good lesson on establishing wants and needs a bit better. Paired with the experience of adopting a family in need for the holidays I really am so thankful for everything this new step has taught me about money, value, organization and being accountable. Remember that whole living with purpose and intent? Amen to that.

To all of you other business owners out there, do you do your own bookkeeping and taxes?

Side note. I want to take a minute to address my Starbucks addiction. I drink way too much of it. And I know this is fairly obvious but I think I turned a blind eye to it late last year because I was that embarrased. Sort of like the girl who can’t quit buying Coach purses, or smokes, or baby clothes from the GAP or whatever your vice is. When I saw all of the charges from Starbucks listed out in my Draws Report for 2012 I took a really big pause and vowed then and there to cut back for the sake of my wallet and my sanity. And I’m happy to say I’ve done pretty good lately. So for old times sake, we’ll throw the above photo in here because it’s cuter than a photo of my IKEA storage box full of receipts; and I have what I like best in my hand, a lovely white and green Bucks cup. Happy Monday, friends. Love you Shay! xoxo