Saturday, October 10, 2015

Robinson Family sneak peak + some transparency


I had a lot of fun chasing around this little family today. Literally, I think I ran for the entire hour. But it was an honor.

Here is where things get real... I've been so hesitant to call myself a photographer for fear of seeming like a fraud.

There are so many talented photographers out there, I couldn't possibly measure up to their experience or expertise. One of my best friend's parents saw a few pictures I took of her daughter and from there work has sort of fallen into my lap. She hired me to take her son's senior pictures, then prom pictures, then gave away photo sessions with me as a gift to some of her friends. I have often wondered if this is where this little adventure is going to end, just being one family's personal photographer. I don't think that would be half bad. I've never set a price or even asked for money. In fact, I'm often prompt to say, "Sure, I'll take some pictures, but I'm not a professional." I always feel inadequate, but I do it anyway.

Then this week a stranger called me. She had gotten my number from a friend (one of the girls who got the baby shower gift), she had seen my work and wanted to book a session. I realized that I can either continue to say, "No, I'm not good enough" and try to talk people out of believing in me, or I can just accept that maybe there is something here. What that something is, I'm not sure, but I feel like this is an avenue worth exploring.

All this to say, this spring I will officially be launching a part time photography business. I feel like the part-time is an important part of that, since I have no plans on leaving my day job. I'm excited to see where this goes. Look for a new website soon. :)

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Navy Blue and Natural Wood

Our bedroom has always been the most neglected room in our house. We have never taken the time to decorate or put up photos. But since we have moved (incase you didn't know, we moved back in May into a beautiful townhouse. We are loving it!) the rest of our house didn't really need a lot of attention. So I'm making it a priority to have a bedroom that I enjoy being in. Maybe that will help me keep up with the laundry?

We have been looking for a new dresser for awhile. Every time we visit ikea we consider buying one, but I am never able to bring myself to spend $350 on a dresser. Perhaps it is a completely reasonable price, but I am cheap. Insert this beauty:


A month or so ago Alex and I were on our way home when we spotted one of our neighbors having a garage sale. Long story short, we walked away with a dresser, painting, milk glass fruit bowl, and a golf club for 50 bucks. Such a steal!

We let it sit in our garage for awhile, trying to decide what we wanted to do. We were about to head to the store to buy white paint when I decided to Pinterest navy blue dressers. I came across this gorgeous piece of furniture art at SouthernRevivals.com. Please go look at her page, the transformation she did on this dresser is just phenomenal. Obviously ours is a completely different style, but I loved the color scheme.

via
 I'm not very good at distressing, nor do I think it would look well in our house. Not really our style. But I did want the natural wood look. So this is what we came up with.


I'm in love! We stripped the paint off the top two drawers and stained them with a dark dark walnut. It turned out just as good as I had hoped. We don't usually go with dark colors but this added such a great dynamic to the scheme of our room.

Here is one more before and after picture for good measure.


Have a wonderful week!

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Automatic Focus


It's funny how much life changes. How a year ago I was one person and today I am someone new. The other day I spent a some time reading back through my old posts. It was fun to see what my thoughts were like at different times in my life. How passionate I was about some subject. The things I thought were funny. The things I felt inclined to share and those I didn't.

It really brought to light how much I have changed over time, and especially made me feel like I'm becoming a grown up. My thoughts and feelings have matured. I am less emotional about things and more logical (for the most part).

A few months ago I got a job, a grown up job. A career beginning job. I have a regular schedule. I am usually in bed by 9 or 9:30, and if I'm not I really pay for it the next day. I've started to make grown up choices, like paying my bills instead of buying new clothes. Every morning I get up, get ready, and head to work. After a solid 8 hours of working, I come home, head to the gym, eat dinner, and go to bed just to have it all begin again the next morning.

Twenty year old me hates who I have become. She hates the lack of adventure. The same thing day in and day out. She hates that I sold out for a career, in a field I never saw myself in. And the only thing I have to say to twenty year old me is that she was wrong. That along the way life changes, and having a life you never thought you wanted can be better than the one you imagined. It may look boring, but its actually peaceful. And peace is something I have definitely been missing in my life.

For the first time I think I know what contentment looks like. It doesn't mean my life is perfect, it means that I can rest for a little while. I can stop striving for something more than I have been given. There are certainly things I would change if I could. Relationships I would mend. Circumstances I would erase. But in this moment I don't have control over those things and I'm letting them go.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

An itch...

It has been quite awhile since I've blogged. So long in fact that I'm not even sure how or where to begin. This post doesn't necessarily mean that I'm back to blogging. It means, I've missed writing. And the strangest part is that I've missed writing for an audience, even if that is only an audience of one or two family members. Every time something happens in my life, big or small, I want to write about it.

After several months of not posting I started to feel like it might be time to close that chapter of my life. To let my domain names expire and officially delete my blog. The primary reason why I haven't deleted it is basically just because it took effort.

There are so many things I don't miss about blogging. Like the pressure I put on myself to make it "successful", to have a lot of followers and dozens of page views every day. And after quitting my job almost 3 years ago, the goal was to try to make some money. It killed writing for me. I felt so anxious about it. When all I really ever wanted was a place to write sometimes and document pictures when and if I felt like posting them. My life became consumed with how good my outfits looked and whether we had a project going on. Every encounter became about how I could turn this into a compelling blog post. Once I got too busy for my blog I realized how silly and petty all of that was. I started to live my life based on what I enjoy and not based on what would make the best posts. After I stepped away I saw that shift from people reading blogs to people reading instagram feeds. I aaw all the comments about how they are annoyed when their favorite bloggers became advertisers in order to make a living from their blog. I saw bloggers switch from one platform to another to maintain their following. And I didn't miss it.

What I did miss was having a place to write when I have something to say. A place to share the very minimal projects that I still work on. Insta-blogging is not for me. Long winded facebook posts? No thanks. That is where blogging differs. People go to facebook and instagram to zone out, when people click on my blog they want to read what I have to say, and if they get bored, they leave. And what I'm left with is a place where I get to share what I want without being an annoying post they have to scroll past. If people want to read they can, and if they don't they won't.

That is why I have missed this, and that is why this blog still exists. Even with that desire to delete it, there is still some part of me that wants a place to write. And so, I might be back, and I might not. We'll see if I have more things to say.