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Everyday Avenger

Life is About Creating Yourself…

Life isn't about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw

I’m all for celebrating who you are, exactly as you are. I think it is critical to be true to ourselves.

What I’ve learned over the past few years is that it is even more important to think about who you want to become.

I’ve never been much for planning or for setting goals. I’m not sure how that started, but I think a lot of that stems from several years in a relationship that was so tumultuous. I felt like I never knew if I was coming or going, so why bother plan if I was just going to be disappointed in those plans falling through? Why even bother.

It is easy to drift along in life like that. When you are in it, it actually doesn’t seem that bad. Looking back, I wish I had planned more. I wish I had more goals, set the bar higher for myself.

I’m working on that these days. I’m learning to dream, and to DREAM BIG. To think about how I want to create myself. Still true to me, but an even better version of me. Creating yourself doesn’t have to mean being a fake, being something you are not. Dr. Anil Shah, a cosmetic surgeon, says many of his patients come to him because they want total change, but he advises that “enhancement” is the better approach. People are already beautiful naturally. For me? It means creating the best life around myself possible, making plans and goals for the future – something I can work towards.

Still surgery is really common right now, more and more people is trying to improve themselves from the inside to the outside, so some people try plastic surgery to fix cosmetic imperfection and male surgery is more and more common.

For so many years I felt like I didn’t deserve good things. I’m just now learning to accept that I am enough. Creating myself is a big part of that.

Photograph taken at the Mom 2.0 Summit, overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the Ritz Carlton at Laguna Niguel in California, May 3, 2013 with my Fuji X-E1.

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Everyday Avenger Travel Notes

You Have to be Brave…

Pacific Ocean view at the Ritz Carlton at Laguna Niguel

You have to be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs.

It is one of those sayings that just stays with me. It follows me around. It encourages me to be brave so that I can help others be brave as well.

As I read the announcements about this year’s Mom 2.0 Conference, that one line hit me like a ton of bricks. Ok, I’ll admit it, it made me cry. My friend Carrie, one of the organizers of the event, had already been telling me that I really needed to join them. When I saw that sentence, I knew it was where I needed to be.

It is hard to believe that it has already been 3 weeks since I flew out to California for that amazing weekend. Things seem abundantly clear now, and while I’ve been quiet here, there is much going on below the surface and behind the scenes.

That line still resonates with me. I think I need to make a sign and hang it in my studio. It sums up how I feel and how I think all women should feel. Be brave. Inspire others. Dream big.

Photograph taken at the opening party at the Mom 2.0 Summit, overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the Ritz Carlton at Laguna Niguel in California, May 2, 2013.

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Everyday Avenger

A Blank Slate…

Flying Home above the Puffy CloudsAs I sat at the Mom 2.0 Summit last weekend, it became abundantly clear what my next step for my personal blog needed to be. Surely http://www.theloclab.com/ is my only way to widen my knowledge about business and also my language on how to communicate to my people. Whenever people saw my t-shirt or my business cards, they commented on the Avenger of Sexiness.

My little business has been going great ever since I got this Stripe Payments system for when people decided to purchase items.

Over the past few years, it is who I have become. It is who I want to be, and what I want to write about.

Armed with that knowledge and insight from last weekend, I took the plunge last night after 13 years and 1 day of blogging under BigPinkCookie to announce that I am moving my site to this name, embracing my Avenger of Sexiness status. It wasn’t a choice made without a little bit of fear – after all, I’ve been BigPinkCookie for so long! However, it was a decision made with such clarity that I have no doubt that it is the right thing to do.

Moving forward is always a good thing. I can’t wait to share the adventures of being a Hot Mama photographer!

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BlahBlahBabble Everyday Avenger

13 Years and 1 Day – Changing the BigPinkCookie name…

Avenger of Sexiness Cards

13 years ago yesterday I wrote the first post on this site. The First First Post. It is incredible to me to think that this site has been around now for 13 years and 1 day.

More incredible to me is the fact that I’m in the process of leaving behind the BigPinkCookie name after all these years.

Yes, you read that correctly. I keep trying to “revive” the blog, and I realized while I was at the Mom 2.0 Summit this past weekend that a revival was not what I need. I need a fresh start. A new identity that matches the rest of the changes in my life.

This blog has seen me through so many great times, so many amazing things. I met Mike, we bought a house, got married, Jason grew up, we bought a house in the Heights, we sold our old house. I made new friends, friends that have been with me through a lot of things.

This blog has also seen me through some really hard times. Maybe that is the baggage that I’m feeling, that I don’t want to carry around any more.

Most of all, I have changed. 13 years ago I was working for a web design company. Then another, then a round of being unemployed, time at a law firm, back to school, years as a wedding photographer plus a boudoir photographer.

In 2010, I started working with Jeff Jochum, first through two workshops where I realized I *REALLY* wanted to focus on photographing Hot Mamas, and over the next year or so of coaching with him I discovered … well, I discovered ME. (Matter of fact, the move to the Heights and the physical changes all started after that time.)

I’ve never felt more like myself since … well, for as long as I can remember. I now own my own business, happily working as the Hot Mama photographer. I love my life. While BigPinkCookie helped me get to that place, who I am now is the Avenger of Sexiness. I help Hot Mamas grow their confidence and rediscover their beauty … all while I am doing the same for myself.

It was fascinating watching how “Avenger of Sexiness” resonates with other women as they read my business card or commented on my t-shirt at Mom 2.0 last weekend.

That was when it hit me. This blog? It needs a change. A fresh start. And that all starts with the name. As soon as I can get the geek-fu magic to take place it will become AvengerOfSexiness.com

Writing that out makes me feel like I can breathe again. I’ve known for 4 months now that I need to do something BIG with the Avenger of Sexiness concept, and this change is just the start of it. I don’t know what the future holds, but I can’t wait to find out!

I’m not sure what I am doing with the archives. I don’t know how it will all work. Don’t worry, I promise you won’t get lost trying to find me. For now, consider this post a line in the sand. From here on out, I am the Avenger of Sexiness!

PS – if you have any suggestions of what I should use for my Twitter name, please let me know. @ChristineBPC makes no sense if I’m no longer the BigPinkCookie. To be honest? That is the only part of this name change that is freaking me out!