Friday, October 13, 2017

The Empty Room | Personal Growth

Let me start out by saying I am not writing this for any specific outcome, but more so to maybe help someone else out there and to express my growth and understanding to myself.
I am a strong person and as someone who is in professional mode lots I try to keep all my ducks in a row.  This can sometimes leave you lacking in your own personal fulfilment and I try to always remember to be human and fill my own cup whenever I can!

My husband and I want a family, we have for sometime.  It is public knowledge but the lack there of we try to keep on a positive note.
I photograph families, children, expecting mothers, bundles of joy and watch the adoring parents with such love and excitement.  I have been so lucky to have all this positive reinforcement in my life and have stayed with a very sunny outlook on it all.  I am defiantly a find the good kind of person.

This carry's over to our personal life and home.  We love our home, it may be older and small but we take pride in the fact we have made it a warm and happy place. We work away at each room decorating, renovating and making it our own.

In our home there is this one room that in the beginning of our journey we set out for our soon to be family.  We decided to empty it and talked about what we would do with it with great excitement.  The room slowly gained a name, babies room, and thus how we have since referred to it.
As time went on we continued to renovate it and have it ready to setup still staying positive that if we worked at it and kept the vibe going it would all come together.

Slowly the room started to loose it's luster and just became a reminder of what we were missing, junk began to pile up in it and door remained closed.  Me being who I am and trying to always pump the positivity would open the door from time to time.  I would look in and think warm happy thoughts, empty all the junk out and close the door.

We have no real issues, so that in it's self is positive and negative. The cards are there they just haven't been dealt our way yet. Whether it be life, a reason we just don't know or simply timing all we can do is think positively and continue on.

We had my grandma come to visit us and with stairs being an issue we had to set her up in babies room.  The thought of doing this really didn't sit well with either of us.  It was like by doing this we were denying our baby it's room.  Seeming ridiculous and unpractical we temporally made it into a bedroom.  Once my grandma left we stared at it knowing we should empty it again and go back to getting it ready for the future. With that came the sinking reminder that it was empty and the battle marched on.

So.......I made a decision, a decision I didn't realize at the time was going to be so big.  I opened the door to "babies room" I cleaned it out and started decorating and setting it up.  Not as a baby's room but just as a pretty room.  I set the futon up as a couch added my favourite pillows and covers, moved some candles and books in and left the door wide open.
This room has amazing sunlight and now it just pours down the hall. As you walk through the house you can't help but notice the beam of light filling the house.  It catches my attention everyday and I wander over leaning in with a big beautiful smile. This room looks so warm and inviting and not empty at all, it brings me joy and serenity and leaves no unpleasant feeling.

I have now started using this room, I sit and listen to music, I meditate, I work and I overall find peace.  This room has become my little happy place.  The candles my blanket and a good cup of tea leaves me feeling calm, happy and full.  The room calls to me and I answer, if only for a few moments I give it my energy and it returns the favour.

As I sit here right now I know that this room needed this as much as I needed it.  It is being filled daily with warmth and happy wonderful feelings.

Where there is peace there is a path to fulfillment! I have taken away the lack there of and replaced it with what I do have the here and the now.  I have a wonderful feeling about this and think there is a reason soon to come!

~smile, Enjoy the little things because they will be big one day~






Friday, January 10, 2014

A Look At 2013 | Angela Ingram

2013 started out already promising to be a better year and all in all I think it did not disappoint. Every year I set goals and make plans like most of you and we take the year by the horns. Sitting here I can not believe it is over, so much in such a short time. (and I blogged so little :( )

Lots of friends of mine got married this year and friends and family both welcomed new additions into this world, so happy I was able to be a part of it all. In July the man of my life and I celebrated our 1 year. For August we traveled to Toronto to witness an amazing wedding, met some wonderful people and made some treasured friendships, I finally got to go to Niagara Falls woot woot. In November we traveled to Costa Rica with 2 great friends, my wonderful cousin and her husband to relax and have some fun. The place holds many memories and attachments for me as it was my father's final place. It was there that Matt got down on one knee and proposed on the beach, I said Yes. This was then followed by floating lanterns in memory of my father. I am just so happy for these moments and to share them with such amazing people.



I set out on another personal health mission and went back to the tried tested and true clean eating. Although not physically overly successful, inside I was feeling great and very happy with the whole way of life. 2014 will be the year to really set it in stone and push. I have spent a few years accepting sadness and really not my cup of tea, I accept happiness and energy, life is so exciting and it is time to dance in the rain again.

For AJ Photography 2013 was also a great year, expanding and ever growing. Met some amazing new people, clients and friends. Worked on some projects that even surprised me, when I stepped back and took it all in. On a plane back from Toronto my thoughts run ramped wondering if Style Me Pretty would ever except my publication and preparing myself for another go at it. As we landed and I turned on my phone I squealed as the SMP confirmation came in, so many emotions and feelings flooded me, I was on cloud 9. Matt redid my office for me as a birthday gift and together we have made it a room I love, still a work in progress, but so happy to have a space that reflects AJ photography and me. For Christmas I received some incredible new additions to my equipment family and feel so blessed it will be wonderful to have them by my side as AJ photography embarks on this new year.



At the end of each year I think we all stop and reflect, what was good, what was bad, what we treasure and what needs to change. It is what creates drive for us the next year and shapes our seemingly new chance at it all. One thing I am going to truly remind myself of this year and years to come, is that it is not the end of the year that gives us that new chance. But rather each morning we wake up, each breath we take and each moment we live in. Life is not just writing on the wall it is a never ending story. Spending time critiquing it, trying to fix it and make it perfect makes no sense. Continue on it's far from over, there is so much left to be written and I wish to read on.


Don't spend each moment as a reflection of your past but rather reflect on the moments as you step into the future. Here's to the future and all it holds may it truly be your story!


Keep Smiling
Angela

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

One Year With My Love | Angela Ingram | Photographer

2012 was a interesting year for me, a lot happened in a short amount of time that changed my life forever but the one thing I hadn't counted on was meeting Matthew; I was just going with the flow, taking nothing to heart, no real plan or direction but finding myself. I met Matthew at a ball tourney near Stony on July 13th 2012 and we quickly became inseparable never realizing where this new relationship was going to take us. Over the past year we have taught each other, shared new worlds and new ideas and even helped each other to grow and rethink. Together we rediscovered who we were and what we wanted. We shared our ups and downs, our laughs and tears. We have fought wills many of times, because that is what 2 stubborn know it all's do, but at the end of the day we are stronger for it all. Matt has supported me and encouraged me so much in my life and my business and I am so thankful for that every day. It has been a crazy fun year of rediscovering life and ourselves, but the coolest part, the part that get's us both is that each day we stare at each other and realize we have so much more to give, learn and are more in love then the day before.

Our One Year day


Car wash cause there is nothing that make that man smile more, followed by a trip to St. Albert's Farmers Market my favorite thing to do!




Yes we our Food Truck addicts


Some chillin with the dogs in the sun while they enjoy their new bones from the farmers market


Our Photo's done by Kristen Harder Photography
so amazing was a wonderful experience


A surprise dinner to the Melting Pot LOVED






Dressy and Classy to Chilled and Goofy in 5 min's flat



Keep Smiling AJ

Monday, September 16, 2013

My Everyday Hero's | Angela Ingram | Photographer

I truly cherish the people I have in my life each one of them unique and important in a different way.  The people we surround ourselves with say a lot about who we are and what we find important. For me it's the people who I can be true with, the ones that make me laugh, the ones I can count on and can count on me, the ones I don't have to explain to and the ones who make me a better person each and every day. 
Each person I come in to contact with has something to show me and teach me. Each person I share a moment of life with touches me in some way. 

These are just a few of my everyday hero's in my life 
Who are your everyday hero's?
























Wednesday, June 19, 2013

A little bit of what I love | Angela Inram | Photographer

I always try to get to know my clients, find things that ring out their personality or that they may enjoy so that I can relate and personalize my sessions. One day I had a client turn to me and say now it's my turn to quiz you and we both started laughing. Hey I am an open book but here is a few of my favorite things.


Everything about it and all it's faces

Bare-feet so free

The smell, the color favorite season hands down

Timeless

All day, any day 

The sound the smell just unreal


 The great outdoor and camping nothing better

The eyes have it all 



If only I could have met her 

Green so happy

Sun-glass obsession ok maybe scarves to

Gimmy Gimmy

Red Hair Oh Ya!

Travel

High heels every women's secret weapon instant feel sexy

Collect them

 All the old guess adds love them one day I will do a whole series around this

Nothing beats the original form of sexy



Yes please

 Each and every day Laugh no matter what it lightens everything



So beautiful refreshing and invokes such a feeling of awe and coziness