Hello and Welcome. If you are reading this, you have landed on my blog. Which honestly gets neglected 80% of the time, and then some love other times! I have never really found a good time/workflow to get blogs out, but I want to. I AM GOING TO!

So why not start today huh?

My Birthday. My 34th Birthday to be exact.

So Let me introduce myself

My name is Carrie Stadelman. I am a wife to my amazing husband John, and mother to our awesome kids Theodore(who we call Teddy) and Emmy. Like you will hear most moms and wife’s say, my family is my life, my heart and my soul. And this will be 100% true for everyone that says it.

The two faces I see each morning, and cuddle with at night really are a piece of my soul. Their eyes that look into mine are an extension of me. My heart walking around(and many times yelling at me), for all to see and hear. It’s beautiful, exhausting, terrifying and worth every second.

Next, I’m a business owner; for 10 years actually. WOW that seems crazy to say, but yup. I started my portrait business 10 years ago. I have gone thru many different changes, and looks and styles, but I feel most at home now where I am. So much so I need to have my business look changed to match where I am now.

If you are wondering why my website is so bad/bare/uninformed, that is why. I’m transitioning to a new website and new look and new info! I couldn’t be more excited(and terrified) about it. It’s a lot of hard work, but again..it’s worth it.

Third, I am also a Color Street Stylist. For someone that uses her hands all the time(talk with the hands much?) my nails were AWFUL and I would chew them off. Since I discovered Color Street almost 8 months ago, I haven’t bitten my nails and they are actually LONG. WOO HOO. For more info on the 100% nail polish strips that I do as a fun side gig, you can hit up my website HERE

Ok so instead of continuing to go on about me and my life, I thought a blog today, on my 34th birthday, on the things I have learned over the last 10 years would be more appropriate. So Here we go.

1.)Self Love is a real thing and you NEED to have it.
Loving yourself may sound bizarre or unnecessary, but I am here to tell you, if you want to live the life you want, you NEED to learn to love yourself. Everything you encounter in life, work, school, or social environment will test your ability in this area. To learn to love yourself, is to know that you are WORTH all of the amazing things you dream of. It starts with you, b/c you can’t expect anyone else to LOVE you, to RESPECT you, to LOOK UP to you, if you can’t do any of that to yourself. Being comfortable in who you are, where you are and what you need to do to get to where you want to go is a part of self-love. There are many ways to improve this in your life if you feel the need to so I won’t go into huge detail but will do another blog series on this later and how I work on this in my life DAILY!

2.) Be Fearless in the pursuit of your dreams
Each year I work with teens/young adults and get to talk with business owners or those who want to run their own business. The one thing I see that holds people back is fear. Fear of failure. Fear of the unknown. Fear of ANYTHING. If you let this tiny little thought creep into your mind you will become paralyzed from anything. And lets be honest, the inability to move forward is the killer of dreams. You get stuck in the same place and do the same thing day in and day out with out taking that fearful leap into something you may love. So today, try to do one thing that scares you or a step toward a goal you have been wanting. If you think it’s worth it, it’s worth working through that fear to get it...promise.

3.) Don’t get sucked in to judging others.
”Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” Think about this every time you look at someone walking down the street, eating in a restaurant or even a friend you see on the street. Life is hard enough. With trying to work, pay bills, be with your famiy, going to school, taking care of yourself, etc, life can be sucky all on its own. Adding the judgement of others who have NO IDEA what you are going thru everyday is an added pain that doesn’t need to be there**. So take a moment and realize what your thoughts and your words are saying and doing. What do they say about you when you are judging and belittling someone else? I believe the more you judge and hurt others, the more darkness that creeps into your soul.

**To work on not letting the haters bother you, see #1

4.) Your attitude can make or break you.
This is something I have struggled with a lot in my life. Being very negative about circumstances or actions that happen in my life. What I have read, and learned is that the more negative I become, the more negative things happen to me. If I drop something first thing in the morning and break it, and get angry, other things will start to make me angry. It’s like you are putting negative energy out into the universe, so the negative particles are finding their way to you! This can be a hard shift in your mind, but try to keep a positive attitude and you will start to attractive the POSITIVE that you want to have in your life.

5.) Hate starting over? Then stop quitting.
I hear this every week when I work out with Autumn Cabrese in my beach body on demand app. It’s simple but really makes sense. I finally made it a priority to workout to feel better about myself. Almost everyday get up at 4:45am and go to the gym by 5am. Sometimes I’ll have my workout buddy there, but many times I don’t. It’s easier now b/c I have been doing it for 4 months, but some days I really just don’t feel like it when my alarms goes off. But I remember Autumn. “If you hate starting over, then stop quitting”. If you have anything in your life that you are pissed you keep starting over, then be more upset and keep at it. Don’t let yourself quit something you want to accomplish. You got this. You are better than the excuses in your head. Simple as that!

I hope my 5 life tips that I have learned over the last few years and that I use everyday help you out too. I have many books I have read and a stack of ones I want to read and will totally be posting about those too in the future.

To end this birthday post, here are 5 random facts you may not know about me.

1.) I received my degree from Albion College in Biology, and was on my way to dental school to become an orthodontist when I decided my passion lied in the arts and photography. My SENIOR YEAR I decided that…
2.) I played basketball all thru high school and 2 years at Albion and love it so much I would still play today.
3.) I have just entered my 10th year in my photography business!! Doesn’t seem like it has been that long!
4.)My older sister and I share a birthday and are 4 years a part
5.)I don’t have any wisdom teeth. My mom didn’t have any either. My sisters on the other hand, had to have all 4 taken out!

Thanks guys for checking out my birthday post and my journey to blogging more! I would love to know what you thought so please leave a comment for me!:)