best of 2014!

Oh hey there! It's been two months since my last post. You know how I do *sigh*. I think I can commit to at least a post twice a month next year. Y'all help me be accountable to that. Managing two blogs is not as easy as I thought.

2014 has been an interesting year. Highs, lows and in betweens. It felt like the year of preparation and realization. Preparing for the next chapter in my life and realizing some thoughts and behaviors that need to be changed.

A couple entries ago, I listed 7 things I was committing to this year and I wanted to update y'all on how I did. I am proud to say I committed to 4.5 of the 7. Lol. I say 4.5 because one won't be done until March. I launched Cultured Mosaic, updated my online portfolio, made (and continue to make) love a verb, still prepping to be Mrs. Ansah and still planning the wedding. The other 2.5 I'm working on. Reading is on my commitment list next year and I really want to not just read but soak up the knowledge in the book to make positive changes in my life. Working out is like a thorn in my side. Lol. But I know I want to be healthy (and look good naked if we're being honest).

I have to share my highlights too. Of course getting engaged is one of the best moments I'll ever experience in my life. Seeing my brother get sworn in as a member of the military. Seeing Lecrae live. Celebrating my birthday with my birthday twin. Seeing Beyond the Lights twice and becoming obsessed. Meeting one of my favorite writers again. Celebrating my one year anniversary with my love. Trusting myself to launch my freelance business. Realizing there is enough room in the world for everyone to have success. Roadtripping to New York and Ohio to see some of my good friends get married. Having a photoshoot with the love of my life. Launching my passion project, Cultured Mosaic. Redefining the meaning of superwoman. Learning to delegate and asking for help. I could go on and on but overall I'm incredibly blessed to have lived to see 2014. 

I am so ready to see what 2015 has in store! I am expecting it to be one of the best years ever. Hope you all have an incredible, productive, and marvelous 2015!

P.S. I can't believe tomorrow is exactly 2 months away from my wedding date. So much to do, so little time. Eeeekk!

 ♥ A.Erika ♥

Cultured Mosaic is Live!

I'm happy to announce that my new blog, Cultured Mosaic, is finally LIVE! *shmoney dances* Lol! I've been working on it for quite some time and I just gave myself a deadline to launch it. Now here we are

Please subscribe and let me know what you think. I can cross that off my commitments list for 2014. Hope this week is treating you well!

♥ A.Erika ♥

Re-committing for 2014

I know this post should have been done in like January and we only have 3 more months for this year BUT I still want to be focused. I have so much going on right now, that I want to be intentional.

I believe self reflection is good for anyone. Humbling as well. It allows you to evaluate yourself and see the pretty and not so pretty things about yourself. I've recently done some self reflection and I realized I do much talking and starting but not finishing. I tend to a lot of multitasking, having many projects/tasks/etc started but unfinished. To me that's unacceptable. After all, a superwoman completes her tasks. You know I'm all about being a superwoman. There's power in finishing. The feeling of accomplishing a goal is exhilarating. At 26, I've accomplished many things but there's always room for growth. A recent sudden death of family friend jolted me and caused me to think how short life is. Then at church hearing a message about procrastination was really conformation that it was time to get focused. So I've decided to share my goals commitments that I am working to complete for this year. Commitments sound more intentional. But it really doesn't matter as long as I finish. 

7 Commitments for the remainder of 2014:

1. Read & FINISH 3 books - I'm currently reading Kingdom Woman by Tony Evans & Chrystal Evans Hurst and The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I hope to read professional book next. 
2. Launch Cultured Mosaic - Remember the blog I was creating focused on art, design, and culture. Well Cultured Mosaic is that blog. I contemplated not doing the blog at all because I wanted it to be perfect. But we all know perfection is the enemy of progress. And I couldn't stop thinking about this project either. Every time I would something relating to my blog, I would be like oh that would be great content for Cultured Mosaic. After realizing there is so much I want to do with this project, I couldn't give up so I'm moving forward.  
3. Update Online Portfolio - As you all know I've been freelancing but I've realized my portfolio is a tad bit outdated. Currently I still have projects in my portfolio from college. O_o I mean I will be celebrating my 5 year anniversary from graduating undergrad so it's about that time to make some change. Plus, I want to show off the type of work that will attract my ideal client.  
4. Work Out 2-3/Week - I've been pretty good on this one. Last week was hectic for me so I didnt make it to the gym but I've got 2 days committed to the gym this week and I'm excited! And if I can't make it to the gym, I try to do some sort of workout at home. A combination of jumping jacks, squats, lunges, and abs exercises works wonders!
5. Make Love a Verb - Love requires actions. Whether it's loving words, spending time with friends, checking on my parents, I'm trying to do a better job of loving on people and nurturing relationships. I can get so caught up in my daily routine that I forget to check on people. Even it's a sweet encouraging text to your friend or funny video to your dad. It makes a difference!
6. Continue Prepping to be Mrs. Ansah - As y'all know I'm getting married. Eeeeeekkk! It feels sort of weird to hear myself say that. Lolol. We have less than 6 months until the day and so much to accomplish in a short period of time. Although the wedding is monumental event, I want that energy to continue through our marriage. I've heard couples have this lavish wedding and after the wedding is over, they say now what?  I feel like marriage is when the fun begins. At least that's how I see it. We both agreed that we are going to continue being the same playful and fun-loving people once we get married. No reason to be all serious just because we are husband and wife. 
7. Plan My Wedding - I consider this my bonus commitment because I feel like it's understood since I'm getting married. I'm doing most of the planning with help from my fiancé, family, and friends. I've got all of the major things complete so that's progress but I'm moving everything along. 

So that's what I'm committing to for the rest of the year. Any commitments/goals for the rest of the year?

♥ A.Erika ♥

Bride Chronicles: Quality Time

I've decided to start series about wedding planning and being a bride called Bride Chronicles. I know I initially said I wouldn't overindulge about wedding details and I plan to keep that promise. However I do want to share the high and lows of being bride and the road to marriage. The journey is exciting, overwhelming, eyeopening. So here we go...

I think we were about 4 or 5 months into dating (maybe later) and we were determining how many times we were going to see each other during the week. You know, a healthy number. Lol. I didn't want him to feel like I was sweatin him. Lol. Then he was like I could see you every day. I was like for real, me? I mean it caught me off guard. Lololol. I know there are some women wishing their baes would say that but y'all hear me out. I barely like being around myself everyday (I'm working on it) much less someone admitting to liking my company. Lol. I mean now we're a year into the game and it still surprises me that he likes me...85% of the time. Especially since I'm an acquired taste, as I like to say. I know I'm not for everyone and I'm cool with that so I'm just glad that I found someone who genuinely likes me for me and sincerely enjoys my company.

In May, we took a road trip and talked about what's important to us since we hadn't been vibing in the last month or so. We both agreed that we hadn't spent much time together just the two of us. Realize that when you become engaged, EVERYONE and their mama wants to see you and talk to you about marriage. O_O. Anyways, those quality time moments is where we build our intimacy and I'm not talking sexual intercourse. I'm referring to strengthening our bond through conversation as we are on the road to becoming one (and even after becoming one). I've realized how important it is for us to talk through everything so that we're always on the same page. The moment when he's page 9 and I'm page 5 or vice versa is when trouble begins. And with us being a new couple, it's vital that we remain on the same page because we are still learning each other. I know him but learning him is a gradual process. As we've been increasing our quality time, the love deepens, the bond grows stronger, and bottom line: we like each other and play like we are on the same team.

♥ A.Erika ♥

Long Overdue: The Engagement Story

Hello lovelies! I hope your summer is going well! I'm staying low key seeing that I have a HUGE event to plan for in less than 8 months. (ahhhhh!) I have some news and I can't wait to share soon. As promised in the last post, I am FINALLY sharing the engagement story! It's so special, everytime I think about it, it brings back every emotion I felt that weekend. I hope you enjoy!

I felt it coming because I kept asking about it. My friends know I was 1) anxious and 2) nosy. So him pulling this off was like an undercover mission. Lol. We like taking weekend trips so this seemed like an ordinary trip. I remember telling him that this needs to be the last trip for a while because we need to start saving. He goes we still need to take another 2 trips so in my mind that meant he wasn’t proposing this weekend. Lol. We get to Savannah and check into this beautiful hotel with an incredible view. We didn’t realize Savannah was an open container city so we stopped at Wet Willies for drinks and roamed around. We went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Dinner was a nice seafood restaurant overlooking River Street. Another nice view! Dinner was quite delicious.

The night was still young and babes said he had a surprise. We get back to the hotel and there is a horse drawn carriage waiting for us. I was like oh this is NICE!! We’re riding through the city of Savannah on a lovely night in a horse drawn carriage! I’m thinking this is the life! So we come to a stop and the tour guide goes well the horse has to use the bathroom so go by the well and make a wish. I’m thinking we’re stopping for the horse to pee; that’s silly the horse can pee or poop anywhere he wants to but I run to the well to make a wish. I ask John for change to make a wish and he obliges. I close my eyes to make a wish and after my wish, I open my eyes and he’s down on one knee. I scream like OMG! OMG! OMG! Babes is talking and I have no idea what he saying. I zone out and ask him if he got permission from my dad. He says YES, babe and then he continues talking and I’m like where’s the ring. Finally he pulls out the ring and it’s a pretty diamond ring. I’m like put it on. Lol. Seeing how impatient I am, he stops talking and puts it on my finger and we hug. At this point, I'm just crying! I'm like I cannot believe we're engaged. We get back to the carriage and the tour guide was like you did good John! Lol. We continue the tour and we headed back to the hotel. After our tour, we got some ice cream and walked along River Street.

The next morning, babes apparently told my parents we would meet with them that day but we had to get dinner with his mentor and his wife. I was not happy about this because it had been 12 hours but I hadn’t told my family. We get to Atlanta to meet his mentor at Maggiano’s but his mentor wasn’t there. My family and close family friends were there to surprise us. It was the perfect way to celebrate our engagement. I was cried all over again. The weekend was so perfect!

And there you have it, folks! Eeeek! I'm one for romance and he nailed it! Gotta love my babes!
♥ A.Erika ♥

Design Chronicles 002: I'm Officially Freelancing

Yes you read that right. I’m accepting clients. I mean I feel like it’s time right. This is my first step in my hopeful entrepreneurial journey and it’s only right that I share it with my blog readers. I know I discussed freelancing about 2 months ago but I really didn't do much to promote myself nor did I have a plan. I went back to the drawing and came up with a plan. Now it's time to execute. Lol. It's funny how focused you can be when you make up in your mind to commit to something. If you need or know of someone that needs design or social media services, be so kind and share my information.
p.s. after reviewing my old posts, I never told the engagement story. *covered eyes emoji* That's the next post. promise!

♥ A.Erika ♥

One Year Down.

The last weekend in May, the babes and I celebrated our first anniversary! I had been counting down the days all week and couldn't wait for Saturday to arrive. This is the first weekend in a LONG TIME where we didn't have anything planned and it was glorious! Although he had to work that morning, I decide to make him brunch and he was so surprised! Steak and eggs with roasted sweet potatoes. I got SKILLS! Lololol. We were supposed to look for some furniture after brunch and I was like can we just relax. And that's what we did. He went into his nothing box and played his new game while I worked on a project for a client. I found myself rooting for him and became his second pair of eyes while he was playing. When he advanced to the next stages, I would slap him a high five! I'm so corny! Lololol! We then went to one of Atlanta's finest restaurants, Chops Lobster Bar, for dinner. Dinner was AMAZING! Like from our favorite drink (Moscow Mule) to the calamari to delectable crabcake! Twas delicious! We'll be back. Afterward, we went to Cafe Intermezzo, where we had our first date, for dessert. We laughed, people watched, and talked about our relationship. It's truly a blessing to be spending the rest of my life with him. This road to marriage has not been easy. Many 'gifts' along the way but we always go back to remind ourselves that we are on the same team. Every day there is something new to learn about him, our relationship and myself. It's always inspiring and humbling when people say that we give them hope for love. We're both like we don't know how because we are struggling ourselves. Lol. But even when it's difficult, through the tears and the tough conversations, we push through because we have agreed that we are NEVER giving up on each other. And that...is the essence of love.


♥ A.Erika ♥