As we approach a year anniversary since our first lockdown and Quarantine process… a whole year, WOW. I wanted to share thoughts and reflections from this past year. In hopes that maybe someone else will be able to reflect on their blessings. So please read till the end, as I want to share my “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Before I begin, I would like to recognize that my personal experiences are very minimal in the grand scheme of life. Especially, in comparison to those who have experienced hardships such as; mental health, loss of a friend/family member, etc.

My Challenges

This last year for me has been both a challenge and a blessing. I am sure that maybe others can relate to this thought process. This past year had brought many struggles, feelings of negativity and frustration. I experienced financial loss, as my couples who had booked me to capture their weddings and sessions had to cancel and postpone their dates for 1-2 years out. As a result, I began to feel frustrated and discouraged with the situation we were in. Because of this, I often felt paralyzed in thoughts of not knowing what I do next or what action to take.

When it boiled down, I was really struggling with the lost sense of “control.” I couldn’t control the restrictions that were placed on our society. I couldn’t control that my couples and clients were being put in a position to cancel and postpone their weddings and sessions. As someone who feels the need often to “control” everything, I felt like I was living in chaos.

My time of reflection – The beginning of the light at the end of the tunnel

Each year I spend the last couple weeks in December planning, goal setting, dreaming, etc. I map out what I want the next year to look like in my personal life and my business. As I was reflecting over the 2020 year I came to the realization that I had failed.

I failed to SOONER realize that I could have used the past months as an opportunity to pivot in my business. Failed to be better at persevering through the lows that I experienced. I Failed to allow myself time of reflection to have all these “lightbulb” moments sooner. Failed to give myself grace while trying to figure out what to do next and how to handle everything that was thrown my way. Too much time was spent beating myself up for my lost bookings, income and for not having the answers I needed to resolve my situation. I could have done so many things differently, SOONER. Last and most importantly, I failed to turn to and root myself in God and his word. Is anyone else with me in any of this?

But, there is light at the end of the tunnel…

Light at The End of The Tunnel – My Blessings

I said it before and I will say it again, the GOOD ALWAYS outweighs the “bad.” Sometimes, it takes me longer to take a step back and see the bigger picture (as it definitely did this time around). But I wanted to end this post sharing my, light at the end of the tunnel.

We Got Married!

To start, CJ and I got married in 2020. Love will always persevere. I was able to facetime my childhood best friend who was unable to travel due to Covid and share the getting ready process with her despite the huge time difference from Sweden. We were truly blessed that most of our loved ones and friends were able to attend. Those who were not able to be with us were definitely there in spirit. We also had many AMAZING vendors that helped make our day so fun. It was such a fun day that I will always cherish.

Finding Balance

Second, I learned to re-balance my life. I developed a bad habit early on in the start of my business of working from the moment I got up to the time I went to bed. Last year I took time away from my business for several things. I spent more time gardening, reading and baking. Hobbies I didn’t have time for in past years. I will say that last summer/fall was my first successful year of gardening, I was able to harvest WAY more than I thought I would get. Right before quarantine had began, I received my Almond Cow (plant milk maker) as a birthday gift and I had so much free time to try different recipes.

Just as a little side note, if you love nut or plant milks this is a great way to save money. It’s a little bit of a cost up front, however, you will save a TON of money overtime and you will know the EXACT ingredients being used. Plus, I found that not only is it SUPER easy and quick to use BUT I am able to get a lot more milk than when I was using a blender and cheesecloth.

Girls Trip

I went on a trip with all my girlfriends to Palisade for my bachelorette party. We went to this amazing winery called, Varaison Vineyard. We ended up learning so much about wine and how to drink reds vs whites. I was so impressed with how informative and fun this free tasting was. I am proud to announce that because of it I am now able to appreciate red wines.

We also did a short hike in Colorado National Monument and I grossly underestimated how hot this area got in July. Nonetheless, it was still fun. We ended up finding an awesome drink spot called Quench. I ordered 3 different drinks so I could taste test. They were all SO GOOD! We also went to this pizza place, Hot Tomato Cafe. If you ever go there you NEED to order the pizza with palisade peaches, it’s AMAZING! I was so incredibly grateful that I was able to spend a fun weekend with my best friends!

Landscape Photography

The forced break from doing my normal senior and branding sessions and weddings allowed me a break to revisit landscape photography. I finally had some free time to take small road trips to capture the sunrise and landscape. I was definitely out of practice but getting to play around and be creative in this way was a much needed break.

Husband & Wife Projects

CJ and I took on a bunch of projects and when I say “we” I mean, CJ mainly. Probably the one I was most excited about was the Catio. It’s freaking awesome. We installed a cat door I found on Amazon in a window and our fur balls are able to access the catio from there. They love sunbathing in it and bird watching. This winter has been amusing, watching them almost “demand” that CJ scrapes off the snow from the platforms before they go outside.

Another fun addition was CJ made posts for the deck so we could hang string lights across and even made tiki bottles from old bottles we had. He also built me another awesome raised garden bed! I now have 4 and they are huge and I love them. I have already started making a list of everything I need to do to get them prepped for this gardening season. The last project at the end of the year were freestanding porch Christmas trees and Christmas tree yard stakes. They were so cool, we offered them for sale last year before Christmas. This last project ended up being a “door opening” for the next blessing.

New Direction

Believe it or not when I first started my business, I did not solely want to do ONLY photography. Now, to give myself credit, I did learn and add film to my services for weddings, seniors and brands. But again I had so many other ideas of what I wanted to do as well when I first started. I was presented the opportunity this year to revisit these ideas and passions. In October of 2020 I started taking small steps to working on these new additions. One of the first projects I added was my little Instagram Thrift Market for reselling all my fun finds from thrift shopping. My only problem is I want to keep everything I find….. However, CJ is not on board for that. I don’t know why.

The next step was changing the name of my business from Alyssa Lucero Photo + Film to Loosearrow & Co. This change took place not only because my last name is now Stemo but I also was in need of a business name that all encompassing of EVERYTHING I wanted to do and offer. I of course will still primarily be a photographer and filmmaker of weddings, seniors and brands but I want to add in my other outlets that are apart of making me the creative I am.

Coming soon, everything I love to create and share will all be housed under this new name, Loosearrow & Co. This new name also is a fun and sentimental way to honor and preserve my maiden name. A play on Lucero, my grandpa went by this nickname at work and his co workers even made him nameplates with Loosearrow on it. For this very reason I felt so rooted that this was the new direction in which my business journey would now live under.

Coming Soon

I am now working on SO MANY incredibly fun and exciting projects behind the scenes and I CANNOT WAIT to share soon. The projects are a diverse range that really encompasses all that I love as a creative. Each addition I have planned currently will make its debut throughout 2021. As a fun game there are hints to what I am up to in my studio space in the image below.

I am going to be gifting Starbucks gift cards to the first 5 people who can guess some of the new additions to join the Loosearrow & Co brand and website on April 9th for pre-order. Three items will be hitting the website on April 9th. You can place your guesses here.

Some Helpful Hints

While some of the “categories” OR “themes” of the additions may be obvious, the exact item may not be. However, the category OR the theme of the item are all here (some are both present). Good Luck!

Thank you guys for reading, Light at the End of the Tunnel. If you enjoyed this blog post be sure to check out, Our 2020 Wedding.