I'm Back Baby

It's been over a year since my last blog post. Things got busy, I was concentraing on our professional blog, www.roughleyoriginals.com and I just decided to give this one up. I did make the decision, I didn't just let it slip away. But I never did delete it, because you never know.

And here I am, back again! I miss having a place for my personal musings, my writing, somewhere I can see what I've done. I have been keeping a travel journal, but it just doesn't feel the same.  Let me catch you up on our life the past year:

We had an unbelievably busy summer in 2010, working full time, and becoming increasingly busy with our photography. It got to the point that we were working seven days a week. It was intense, hard and tiring. We had our eyes on a prize though: travel.

In December Gareth and I said good-bye to our family, friends, and our home. We rented out our place, and we took off. We headed first to the UK, where we spent a month with G's family, visiting and catching up. Gareth's mom taught me how to make some Roughley tasty treats.

We had a fun trip, which included New Year's Eve in Edinburgh for Hogmany

In the blink of an eye, it was time to say good-bye. Our next stop was Hong Kong, where we spent a week. I'm not gonna lie, it was a rough start. Jet leg and culture shock completely overwhelmed me, and all I wanted to do was go home. We made a bad decision to go out as soon as we arrived instead of sleeping, and then we visited the oldest part in Hong Kong, which literally takes you back 100 years. Markets filled the streets, selling dried fish, dried seahorses, dried lizard...it was overwhelming.

With some sleep and some deep breaths, I sorted myself out and ended up really enjoying our time there.

A Sampan ride!

Next up was Tasmania! We were back in the country we met, and it was a fantastic feeling. So was the sunshine! And so was seeing some really good friends from Tassie, whom I met when I was 18 and travelling Australia. We only get to see them every few years, and we always have the best time.

From Tassie, it was time for our final destination - New Zealand. Gareth and I were armed with work visas for 1 year, and we here to live the life.

It's now July; we've been here for about 6 months and man we have been through a lot. Buying a van that was ready for the graveyard, living in the van which is smaller than a queen sized bed, hot days, long hikes, cold nights, and some very interesting jobs. I have learned more about myself than I will ever be able to describe to anyone in this time. I have been thrown out of my lovely little comfort zone I made for myself, into a world unknown. I have realized that I loved my little bubble, and I don't do that well outside of it. I hope to learn how to change that very soon! I think we're all caught up. I'm so excited to get writing on here again.

S xx

Be Grateful

I am, by nature, a negative person. I have the tendency to think the worst, blow things out of proportion, and assume doom and gloom. It’s true what they say, things run in the family, because this is the way my dad is, hands down.


I try to keep this under control. I try to be positive, upbeat, and always think the best of people and of situations. Does it always work? Heck no. Some days...weeks....sometimes (hopefully not often) months, I get wrapped up in the worst of everything. It drags me down, makes me tired, keeps up me up at night, and puts a lot of strain on the atmosphere of my little home. Last time this happened to me, Gareth started writing me little notes and leaving them on stickies in random places where I would find them. It totally helped lift my mood! It made me stop and readjust my attitude. The reminder to be positive was much needed.

I have been reading Jillian Michael’s book, Making the Cut. The book is, of course, about weight loss, exercise and eating (seeing as how it’s a book written by Jillian Michaels). BUT she deals with what most of us struggle with that is so linked to our health...our mental state. One thing in particular she stresses? Mantras. So here’s mine for now:

Be grateful.

Man oh man, has it ever helped! Whenever I get sad, or down, or worked up about something, I visualize something to be grateful about. If I’m sad about a friendship gone sour, I stop picturing that person, and instead picture someone who is amazing to me. If I stress about work, I think about something great I did during the day. In short, stop agonizing about things, be happy...and BE GRATEFUL!

So...here’s a few things, I’m grateful about right now:

~ My super hot husband who also happens to be the nicest guy on the planet.

~ My crazy awesome friends who pick me up, make me smile and show me constant love.

~ Eating salads every day because everything is so fresh and wonderful.

~ Having the ability to ride my bike to work, partly through the river valley. I’ve spotted some cool photo locations!

~ Having the gym right beside work so I can go at lunch. I don’t know what I would do otherwise!

~ Sleep coming back.

~ Sunshine.

xox
Shauna

Acid & Confidence...Random Much?!

Hello friends! I’m sure some of you have lost faith and jumped ship, but I'm still here! I haven’t exactly been in the “share my stories cuz my life is so awesome” zone lately. It’s been more of a “what am I gonna do?” kind of zone lately. Sometimes my mental attitude reverts to that old adage we’ve all been told, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”


BUT maybe you can help me out. I’ve been BIG TIME suffering from the likes of acid reflux lately, and it sucks. Fruit and veggies are too hard on my system, and it makes it worse. I’m pretty much been forced to revert to bread and pasta to sop up the acid. And trust me THAT doesn’t make me feel the greatest. This is how it usually goes...I stop paying attention to my eating for a few days...I eat a little more dairy, fat and spicy foods than I’m used to. Some wine usually gets thrown in, and before I know it, I’m up night after night, unable to lie flat because of the acid. THEN I can’t eat fruits and veggies because they hurt too bad, so I can’t get back onto my healthy-eating track, reverting me to heavy substances to settle the...dust. IT SUCKS!

So...any suggestions??

Another reason I have been MIA is that Gareth and I have been focusing big-time on our photography. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and a lot of practicing. I’ve always been 100% confident in Gareth’s ability, but much less so in mine. It was only recently that a friend took the time to come with me and let me practice on her, without Gareth, that I got a jolt of reality. She said to me, “Shauna, YOU took these pictures. Not Gareth, no one else, YOU. And they’re great!” This really struck me, because I get the feeling that most people assume that Gareth’s photos are the only ones we use from photo shoots. The reality is that we usually use 50/50, or close to it. But knowing that people assume I’m not very good has hindered my confidence. We both have different styles, and while he’s much more informed and knowledgeable than I am, I have learned enough to finally call myself a photographer.

It’s so nice to have that person in your life who if your total and complete cheerleader. My friend has been interested and supportive since we’ve began this journey. She comments, she asks questions, she tells me what she likes and what she doesn't...and she has helped me learn that that's ok! Constructive criticism is so helpful, if it's delivered properly. There are people in my life who I would have expected the same from who haven’t pulled through, but having that one person who is sincere and honest (because she is DEF sometimes brutally honest!) has meant more than having 10 fake cheerleaders.

So here’s to friends, to honesty, and to confidence!

Have a wonderful weekend,
Shauna

A Bit About Me

Hi all! Are you wondering where I've been? Well, check this out! Mine & Gareth's new photography blog: http://www.roughleyoriginals.com/

We've been working on it for a while, so my blogging time has been focused on that. It's finally finished, and up and ready! Please follow along with us as we document our work, and any fun photos we may take.

Just a quick rundown on our photography. Gareth has been a photographer his whole life. He's owned an SLR since he was 10 I think, when he was so short he used to cut everyone's heads off since his line of vision wasnt that high.

Fast forward to him moving to Canada and settling in. All of our friends knew he was an amazing photographer. When some of our friends were getting married, they asked him to do their wedding photos. Gareth agreed, and we soon thought, hey, you're going to need a second photographer! That's where I came in! Gareth gave me some speedy lessons, and I was learning SLRs...and loving it! Learning on a digital SLR makes your learning curve extremely steep, and I learned pretty quickly. Just the basics, sure, but I discovered something I had always thought about myself...I had an eye for photography!

The wedding photos turned out great...and the rest is history! Since then we've got into photographing couples, kids, babies, moms-to-be, and of course, the wonders around us that Gareth started with. I LOVE photographing people. When I see an amazing landscape, I think about what it would look like with someone in it. I think Gareth still has a first-love-affair with landscape photography, but he loves the challenge of people-pictures as well. All in all, it's a love for both of us. And one day we'd love to do this full time. With some hard work, I think it will happen!

That's all for now, I'm sure you're sick of hearing about me! I'll be back soon to tell you how training & clean eating has been going.

Have a GREAT weekend!
Shauna

Bucket List

I asked Gareth what was on his Bucket List the other night. He told me:


1. A pail
2. A shovel
3. The ocean

Thanks, babe.
We’ve both been thinking about our Bucket Lists. Once we decide on a list, we’re going to post them in our house so we both can look at them, and make those things happen! I’ve been thinking about mine, and looking over my blog, as I have those lists on the left. I am combining some of them to make my “Big Dreams” my Bucket List. I know this list will continually be changing, being added to, priorities will shift. But for now, this is my list, and I’m a-lovin it!
~Visit Paris (was close! Been to France)
~Spend New Year's Eve somewhere other than Canada
~Go to Churchill to visit the polar bears
~Go to Africa
~Go to India
~Move to New Zealand for a year
~Live in the UK for a period of time
~Travel Europe
~Travel Southeast Asia
~Visit Fiji
~Publish a photography book complete with descriptions & stories
~Drink wine in every wine region in the world
~See Mardi Gras in New Orleans
~Become a published writer-on a regular basis
~Skydive
~Live in the Okanagan
~ Be a mom


There is so much to do in this wonderful world. What do you want to do?

Shauna xox

Remember...

I would just like to take a moment to say, you're beautiful. Don't ever forget that. Don't let the pressures of your life, or the insecurites caused by a total surface only, plastic society, tell you any different.

You are unique, and that is a good thing.

You are wonderful, because you are you.

And you are beautiful.

Shauna
xox

Clean Eating Update

Hello friends.

I promised last week that I would update you on how the clean eating is going. All in all, I would say is going decent. I'm not doing amazing at it, but step by step, I think I'm catching on.

What I have taken on board is that I'm eating at least 5 times a day. Unless I'm skiing. Because let's face it, I hold everyone up enough with my constant bathroom breaks, I'm not going to hold them up for snack breaks too! But, on a normal day, I am eating less at a time, more often. I almost always eat a complex carb along with my protein, and I think the combination of that, and my training, is paying off in the muscle department. I am starting to get more definition that I am noticing. I have actually gained weight since I started training, but not inches, so the muscle is definitely packing on!

I am eating a lot of beans, quinoa, chicken and veggies. I tried the tofu thing, and I just can't do it. I think I'll add it to my chili I'm going to be making in the next week, because I just don't love eating it. I tried!

I can't quite let go of my sugar eats. I do love sugar. I've cut down, but I haven't let it go completely. I'm hoping that these small changes will make a difference, and slowly I will cut back. I have decided though, that I will live my life and enjoy my small pleasures. And if that's a really nice glass of wine I shall with my hubby, or my buddies, or my mom (which I did last night, even though it was St. Pat's and I should have been drinking green!) that is what I will do. I love it, so I will do it!

All in all, I feel better, and to me that's all that matters.

I am BEYOND excited to start riding my bike to work, which I have yet to buy! But I will soon. I cannot wait to get my workouts outside, and enjoy the QT outside and forget that I'm exercising.

All in all, life is good! I'm dog sitting this weekend, so we'll be heading down to the dog park that's right across from my house as much as we can.

Cant wait for spring!

Shauna

x