here we go!

hello all, it has been quite some time now, but here I am again for the good! A lot has happened since I last posted. I was very busy working full time and left my creative heart to the waist side for a bit. I started a job as a personal banker and after a year of working full time I then decided that I would give into my hearts pull to invest more time into my creative adventures again. I will start with an update on where my focus has been the past several months. 

Most of my energy goes into my shop on Etsy, Chic Origins. And my photography, KAngell Photography. I have 4 weddings coming up that I will be shooting at! It has been a big step for my work and I am honored to be the photographer for each wedding. It has been a journey finding my style and niche of work and capturing it with my photos. 

                  

It's also been a blast putting more time into my shop. I have been really trying to master the photos of my vintage pieces for the most part. My photos have always been the one thing that bothered me severely. I also have been purging my inventory and gearing up for a more concentrated line of handbags, dresses and shoes mostly. 

I will be going to the Brimfield antique shows with my mother next weekend. We have always wanted to attend them and this is the first year that we are able to see all of the beautiful vendors! I will be posting a blog of our weekend adventures soon after so keep your eyes peeled. 

This is all for now, hope everyone is having a splendid Spring and looking forward to Summer coming so soon! See you all back soon...

a new season

It's a new season! Not only for the weather, but in my journey and others I feel. It was about a month ago that I tried to pull myself together and write of the things that had been happening. I wanted to share my heart here and also things with Chic Origins. I got about 3 sentences in and deleted it all. I have been walking in a cloud I feel for the past three months, but things are starting to clear up and my mind can actually articulate thoughts!

For a while even in my small group, Epic, there was a lot going on where people were just lacking hope and heart for things. I have realized that we all are bound to go through seasons like these. And they are GOOD for us. Balance in life is hard. Of course we should not let ourselves sit and sulk, but there are times that come in life that it seems the hardest thing for us to pull our heads up through even the normalcy's of life. I know this has been the past few months for me, but I have learned so much through the struggle and I am glad.

Don't you feel like the seasons in weather almost resemble where you are at in person at times? Or even spiritually I see that they can relate to where God is taking me or the church. We have had a very rainy spring. All I can say is that I don't love rain, and I know few people that do. Every where I turn the weather is what people all have in common, it's what we always resort back to, especially when it is gloomy. It is like we all have something to share in, whether it's something to look forward to or not. A lady at my church said something to the extent of this recently, "why will we complain about rain when in the bible rain resembles God's presence flooding hearts?" I do think of this often when it rains. Haven't you seen those movies where at the climax they choose a rainy scene to portray the emotion of passion to the core? It is something so intimate if you think about it. Just like the season I feel I, and the church, is about to walk into. We have fought all spring to pick our heads up and I believe it is time that the Lord wants to renew our strength and put a new heart in us.

The key thing I have learned from this past gloom is that this world is so stale. There is nothing that lasts forever, nothing that will not die, nothing that does not loose it's excitement, nothing that will keep giving us satisfaction. I posted a lot of verses from Ecclesiastes in my first blog post and here is a perfect time to reiterate them. I feel before God wants me to walk into the season of rain and passion again I needed to see what it was like without him. Of course He is always here with us, but EVERYONE has times where they cannot see, hear or feel him. In these moments where I feel these things I know it is heightened because there is so much more that I have had a glimpse of, and in comparison to the life without God that I see at times it is so empty when you know the life with God. Once you get a taste of the intimate heart of the Father, nothing is the same. The things of the world seem so mundane. And I am so ready for more. I have heard so many times, even from my friends who do not believe in necessarily one religion and God, that they have always felt that there was something more to them they could not explain. I believe it's the heart of God nudging them.

So to conclude this blog post, I wanted to share something that was inspiring and moving. I have lately been falling in love with creams, golds and whites. It is so soothing and pure and restful which is what I have needed. I am inspired by many things, home decor being one of them. I was thumbing through some random pictures of rooms with beautiful settings and started dreaming of having my own place one day again. The time will come just like my new season is coming. When I do have my own place expect it to look a little like this - on a lower scale, unless miraculously one day Chic Origins makes me a millionaire...

the beginning...

Here we are, at the beginning of my blogging journey. I have been preparing to start this up for many months now and the time has come! There are so many things that I have in mind to write about including my shop that I have been running for about 9 months now, the amazing things that Jesus has done in the past year of being back from school in Atlanta, and many many creative ideas and people that I have come across in the past few months! It will all come in time. I desire this blog to be a passionate outlet for anything that has to do with fashion, vintage, and Jesus Christ. I want to be real when it comes to my life and what is going on and I want to show people a piece of my heart through this.

It is Easter Sunday and what a great day for a new start! (New Giraffe City illustration to the right) I have had a rough past month dealing with a lot of emotions and I feel a change in season coming. I am learning to open my heart in the vulnerable areas to others more. There have been times in the past few weeks that I have thought, "why?" "what is the point of everything I am doing?". I know it is quite a large and contemplating question, but I believe if we do not think like this at times we can easily fall prey to living a meaningless humdrum of a life. I love finding vintage pieces and working on my shop and networking with wonderful passionate people. And I love working hard at my job and making money so I can do amazing things with it and interacting with great friends. When it all comes down to it though, If I am not investing in my heart and spirit I feel empty. Even though I do all fun and fulfilling things, I realize I am still not completely fulfilled. I am glad that this is the turn I am taking on my first blog entry, because this is the largest area of my heart.

Ecclesiastes 3...

¹ For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
² A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. ¹⁴ And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. ¹⁵ What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

In this life, we have to work to survive, we have things and duties that are necessary to move forward. I have found that if I am not careful I can easily become defined by all these things I am doing. I am writing to share that what we do does not define us, but who we are is what really matters. In Ecclesiastes it says that "what is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before". So as we walk through this life why do we take so much time to put importance on these areas that just keep going round and round? I want to do these things with the understanding that life isn't just about THESE things. But it is about my heart in them and how it expresses itself. I do not want this bog to be just defined as "Kat is creative", but I want through my entries and conversations I have with people to go so much deeper. There is a time and season for everything and in these times I desire to live a fulfilling life growing my heart more in love with God and friends daily.

Happy Easter everyone, stay tuned for more coming soon :)