Just a few thoughts on this article I read in the Washington Post entitled, "Famous quotes, the way a woman would have to say them during a meeting. "

Maybe we just need some women to be "shocking", "angry", or "terrifying" for the world to just get used to it. I know women are still trying to find and embrace their strength and not just emulate the strength of men, but I think we need to stop asking ourselves "what will a man respect". Instead we should ask, "what can I respect? At the end of the day, when I've made my choices, did I give it my best? Did I make decisions I can be proud of?"

I made my first movie poster! I know it's pretty simple, but I'm excited about it nonetheless! I've been wanting to start making these for years, and this was my first go at it.

I designed this simple poster for a film written by my brother, David Wells.  We shot all last summer, with him Directing and I Producing. The film is called "Drifter". Look out for the release this summer!

We're just now closing in on the finish line of this film, having entered it in Slamdance and SXSW, and getting it prepped for it's summer premiere. And we've already started pre-production for the next project!

In addition to wrapping up "Drifter", and getting "Domestic" off the ground, the name of David's next film, I've also started off nicely with my own project, THRIVE - a photographic series exploring the diversity of beauty. I've already shot with 8 of 100 women involved in the project and it's been an amazing experience so far! I am a little behind on my interviews at this point that go with each participant, but I expected that the first month would be a little chaotic as I figured out how I was going to pull this off.

All in all, I'm really exciting about the coming year. I'm really excited about doing more producing and learning more about the business side of filmmaking, excited for my own project, all that I'm learning at my new job doing product photography, and continuing the learn the art and business over at Venegas Studios.

It's gonna be a fab year!

Best Wishes,

Amanda

New stack of books. A few recommended by some other entrepreneurs who are light years ahead of me in this game. 2016 has started out amazing. I'm very thankful for the people who have recently come into my life through business, all the insight and inspiration coming from my THRIVE project participants, a another  huge personal goal that I finally hit that, at times, I thought would be impossible for me. I'm very thankful for everything I'm learning about business, about chasing life, and about surrounding yourself with the right people. I had a few really rough years, but I officially feel on top again. I feel strong again. I had to spend a good few years dealing with a lot of demons from my childhood and learning to grow beyond it and acknowledge things so I could feel whole again and have peace. At times, I felt completely lost and bombarded by all the uncertainties, all the pain, the scarcity mindset, and world views that ruled my younger years. It may sound bad, but 2010 was kind of the begging of my decent into a major valley. 2012-2013, I was in the thick of it. Though 2012 was when a light sparked and I had a direction to go in. But I spent the next few years in the mud, just trying to get to the end of the valley, or at least to the edge. 2014, I had reached the edge and began to climb my way out and 2015, I felt like I was halfway up that valleys slope and could see the light again. It's been a roller coaster. At times my health was very bad, years of emotions that needed to come up, came up. It was not easy, but I'm thankful for that journey, because I'm so much happier with myself, with my life. I feel like I can breathe again, like I can trust myself again and I can carry on with my life now and do the things I was meant to do without all the weight I was carrying around before. I had so many bandaid solutions growing up, but this was a time for things to really heal. A time to find inner peace and be really ok. And now to move on to the things I know I'm called to. I'm very excited for 2016. It's started out amazing and I have some great plans for the year. I look forward to all the new people in my path and I'm hella thankful for the ones currently in it.

Cleaning out my life, evaluating how I spend my time and with who. Every day I'm feeling stronger and truer to my old self. Spending time with those who inspire me and who I feel I can add to their lives. Spending more time with family and close friends and less time with people who make me feel like I'm small. Exercising my ability to say exactly what I want to say. I'm committed to living authentically and sucking the marrow out of life. For those who don't believe it can be done, I gladly say peace out ✌🏻️ I'll be here, basking in the sun. Experiencing love and adventure and gratitude. And the daily blessings that, God, people, plants, and animals have to offer. ☺️

While I do a lot of weddings for work, and I do enjoy them cuz let's face it, I'm such a romantic, My portrait work is what gets me excited, what really fills me with drive and passion. It's the work that I can so easily put my whole heart into and be proud of CUZ I LOVE IT! <3

A few weeks ago I decided to create a separate website and social media platform strictly for my portrait work, and I'm really happy I did. It's nice to get a little separation and feel like I can give myself so much more freedom to do creative portraiture without diluting my wedding brand with unrelated content. And again - to have FREEDOM to run with my creative ideas, let loose the flow of ideas that I've been dying to execute. So if you'd like to see a little bit more from the artistic side of my work and join me on this journey, you can find us at:

www.AmandaWellsVenegas.com

Facebook.com/AmandaWellsVenegas

and Instagram at: @AmandaWellsVenegas

Thanks everyone for your support and helping me make this a reality. Without you this would not have been possible. I'm so grateful from the bottom of my heart to be able to create <3

It's those nights when you wake up at 4am and can't get back to sleep... Those days when everything just seems to have crept up on you... I'm very thankful for my life, but everyone gets overwhelmed sometimes and just loses their shit, haha. But it always seems that those are the times that God really speaks to you and the culmination of all the shittiness at last makes sense in one creative idea that seems to have floated down onto your vacant pillow sent by the gods. A project that gives you joy to work on, that invigorates you to think about. I haven't had as much time as I've liked nor the inspiration to do creative photography projects. ...Or just any idea that I really was passionate to make happen.... But last night it happened. In the wee hours of the morning as I fretted over my lack of sleep. I can only credit God, or the universe, or random inspiration cuz these things certainly aren't predictable.. Well I guess that's just an artists' plight. haha. Anyway, I'm excited to announce a new series I'll be working on to hopefully release by late 2015/early 2016. I'm hesitant to share it because the ideas are still taking shape, but I've sent out my model calls and I'm eager to get the ball rolling on this one! I'm going to be needing nearly 100 volunteers of ALL AGES (Female only this time) and I'm so excited to see this all take shape!

I know I'm kind of being bipolar on facebook this morning.. "Ah! I love autumn!..Ahhh eff blogspot, my life!! D:" ...and back to "OMG I love life" But I just wanted to take a moment to say how thankful I am for life. Life isn't perfect, and there will always be little bumps here and there but despite that I'm really loving where I'm at right now. As I stated earlier, I'm super excited for autumn, i don't know why I have such an intense passion for that season, lol, but nonetheless, I'm pretty stoked about it. haha I'm finally at a point in life where my career is getting off the ground and I'm starting to see the fruit of my several years struggle to do a job in the creative field. THAT, to me anyway, is AMAZING. I know I'm not some big hot shot, but just the fact that I can do something that I'm passionate about for hours a day. It just is great. Now that's not to say that I don't work my ass off and work a whole lot to keep this a possibility and keep growing, but I've always tried to be a hard worker and many times it's been working hard at things I don't really care too much about or that I'm not personally going to reap the benefits from. I guess what I'm saying is, if you have a dream, please DO keep chasing it. It's so much more rewarding to work your ass off trying to make something you love work than work your ass off for something that you're neutral about. Another thing I'm thankful for is my family. I'm really thankful to have so many of them in San Antonio, and that I see a good portion of them at least once a week. You guys are great. I'm thankful that we've had a "Family Night" every tuesday for years now and that I get to be a part of your lives. Your consistent company, spirits, and memories are priceless and I want you all to know how much you mean to me.heart emoticon heart emoticonAnother thing I'm thankful for is Manuel!! My awesome husband who is always there for me, who looks out for me, who laughs with me and is just an awesome friend and I'm so thankful to get to do life with such an awesome person! heart emoticon heart emoticon heart emoticon I'm thankful for my pets Benny the cat and Tucker our dog. They're funny and weird. Having pets is a trip. And they're really sweet too, hehe. Ok, this post is getting really long so I'm just gonna end on gardening. I'm really thankful for gardening and how amazing the earth is that it can grow all these amazing things out of a single seed (I'm getting my Master Gardener Cert in February too btw! Super excited about that! If anyone wants to take the class with me!! Let me know!). Oh wait, oh wait..I'm thankful for Yoga, Meditation, and Minimalism because they brought so much inner peace into my life at a time when I was too busy to find any. I'm also thankful for my friends. Though several of you are not in my current city, thank you for the conversations, the messages, the memories. I love you all for being who you are and chasing your dreams all over the globe. heart emoticon heart emoticon Ok ok, that's enough for now, I'll quit being sappy. Anyway, love you guys! Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with pumkin patches right now. Seriously every fall I get a bit crazy about all this kiddy stuff but I freakin love AUTUMN!! Guys! It's already AUGUST!!! grin emoticon
http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/TXpsanantonio.php

I'm so proud of myself right now, haha. Over the past month or two I've donated about 20 trash bags full of stuff that was hiding around our little apartment! And it feels awesome! After hearing about that book "the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo on NPR one day, and coming across a few links online that talk about her concept, I was really intrigued, and just kept thinking, "Man, that sounds so interesting, I really want to read that book." Well I was out browsing at Barnes and Noble on a book binge and I just stumbled across it. (Well not really stumbled, it's in the best seller or hot new arrivals section or whatever) Anyway, her one principal for whether you decide to keep items in your house or not is by asking one simple question: "Does this spark joy?". You either have to have a resounding "Hell Yes" to keep it, Hell Nos are a no brainer, and Maybes automatically fall into the Hell No category. By this one simple method, you're not only getting rid of things you don't need that are taking up mental space, but you're making your home a kind of sanctuary. Imagine living in a world where you were constantly bombarded by things that spark joy in you, that's a pretty happy place to be. Anyway, a couple months into that journey and it's going great, and has even sparked a greater curiosity in me about minimalism and having just what you need and love. I've always been facinated with minimalism, especially for traveling, but coming across this little path has really freed up a lot of things in my life. I spend less time managing all the stuff cuz now I don't have the option to let dishes pile up, cuz I only have a few; I don't have to do a ton of laundry on laundry day, cuz I don't have as many clothes. Cleaning and dusting is way easier just because there are more empty spaces and things are finding homes to go back to into the house. It may have been a bigger initial effort, but it's sure is simplifying my life in the long run. I've always been the messy creative type and embraced that, but it's pretty awesome to feel like I have way more free time and mental space to BE CREATIVE now that running a house isn't so burdensome, but actually quite joyful. If you're one of those people who find you hate doing house chores, you should check out this book! You might end up beating the system, haha.

Man, what a crazy week! The nearly past week and a half has been eating, breathing, sleeping the production of the drifter film. After several 10-15hour days, nights of very little sleep or even time for food sometimes, filming all over San Antonio and San Marcos, TX and coordinating with our actors from Dallas, Austin, and SA I am officially pooped out! haha. Oh and we finally wrapped filming all the scene but 1 last night! Yay! So for now, I'm just gonna slink around my house for half the day and read and recover. Then tonight I've got to get back on my Venegas Studios work that has taken the back seat for the week, AND THEN I'm gonna plan myself a fricken VACATION! haha! I'm so grateful to have my hand in all these different little creative projects. It's what I live for! But I'm so ready to wine and dine myself for a week, and sit somewhere in a semi-tropical location with my feet in the sand.