Hey there! You look familiar.
Wow! I can’t believe it’s been 16 months since my last blog post. The post where I sang about getting engaged in Paris and all of the magic of the City of Light. Since then, so much has changed.
Let’s catch up in photos…
John and I moved to a little house in Upper Arlington just two blocks from Whole Foods. We built a fence and a patio so we spent all spring & summer outside. Breakfast on the grill is now my new favorite thing.
I was off the grid for a while pitching NextChapter from New York to San Francisco. Six months of layovers, flight cancellations, early morning meetings, bad airport food, big scary pitches in large VC firms, dodging into the closest Starbucks for a quick phone charge/email check between meetings and interview after interview for accelerators. More on all of that in future posts.
I became Director of Production for a few large scale website projects for John’s company, Postali. I formed a group of talented models and actors, and combined them with a killer production team to create amazing photos and videos for law firm websites, which have since won awards in the legal category for Best Website and Outstanding Website.
My little nephew, Weston, turned one and I was there to celebrate at his birthday party!
My company, NextChapter exhibited for the first time at a startup conference in Las Vegas called Collision Conference. Out of thousands that applied across the entire world, we were one of 150 startups selected. It was a great experience and I even have fancy NextChapter branded Moleskines now!
John and I got new cameras and took a photo trip to Portland, Maine. The views were spectacular, weather was perfect and the lobster rolls… unreal. We even spent one evening in sailboat wine school!
Dress shopping, wedding planning and trips to the venue were consuming a lot of our weekends but all totally worth it! John and I wanted our wedding to be very personal so every detail mattered. More on that in coming posts.
My mom, John’s mom and our aunts put together a spectacular bridal brunch for me, right in my own back yard!
And then the day came – October 17th, 2014. Our magical wedding.
Followed by an incredible honeymoon in Maldives.
We celebrated the holidays with all of our family as husband and wife for the first time! My brother and his family came to town for the whole week from Las Vegas and we surprised my mom and dad with their arrival. John and I got to see the joy on all of our nieces and nephews faces when they opened their presents.
Of course, I’ve been practicing mindfulness, yoga, Barre3, journaling, making fresh juice and reading a lot to keep my emotions in check!
The new year started with a new challenge – Whole30! After all of the celebrations last year with the wedding, honeymoon and holidays, it was time to take a break from indulging and kickstart my healthy eating habits once more. We started on January 5th and since then, I feel like I’ve gained an extra day per week in energy and productivity. We’ve been making things like zucchini pad thai and plantain tostados and even making our own homemade mayo.
Now that we’ve covered all of that….
What’s to come in the new year? A lot of boss. 2014 was full of planning: wedding planning, honeymoon planning, NextChapter planning, vacation planning, new home planning. It was a year of changes and discovering faults and weaknesses. It was a year of love and family. It was an amazing year and it’s going to be pretty hard to top.
2015 is the year of boss.
It’s the year of growth.
It’s the year to take action!
What can you expect with this blog?
I’ve been writing almost every day for the past couple years but haven’t published anything online. It’s time to share. I typically blog about everything from wedding planning tips to coding basics. A few other post ideas I have scheduled:
- Actionable business tips for first time founders
- Stories of pitching my startup as a solo female founder in a male dominated industry
- Personal wellness techniques & practicing mindfulness
- Startup marketing tips and tools
- Reading lists
- Travel hacking tips
- Legal tech startup news [because I love legal tech]
- Inspiring women you should follow
- Updates from my first year of marriage
What do you want to see me blog about this year?
Leave a comment and let me know!
It’s good to be back.
Xo,
Janine Renee (Sickmeyer) <– Whoa! Check out that new last name.
