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Monday, March 19, 2012

Spring Break Wrap-up

You know that sound you make when you finally get to sit down when you have been running around all week? Ya. I'm totally making that sound. This spring break has been c-r-a-z-y and I am totally ready for another break now. At least it is only a few weeks until a 4 day Easter weekend.


Spring break started off with a trip to San Antonio so see Opa and Opa and introduce Miss Ellie to her Grauntie. That would be her Great Aunt Adeline, James' aunt. We just hung out around the house for the most part. Ellie and I went out to dinner with an old work friend, Adri, at Mi Tierra on Saturday night. The wait was excrutiating long, but the food was good. Note to self: don't go to a popular Mexican restaurant in downtown San Antonio for dinner during spring break. Bad idea, but getting to see Adri was awesome since she hadn't gotten to meet Ellie yet.

On Tuesday I had a newborn shoot scheduled for a little baby girl. That shoot turned out to be nearly 6 hours (a marathon!!) since she was pretty fussy and wouldn't settle. We ended up with lots of cute shots, but this one is my favorite by far. I think I'm going to get it printed as a large canvas for a sample.


Wednesday was my designated day off. Ellie and I just hung around the house and played. I think this is the first day off where I didn't have work or photography in the last month. It was nice.

Thursday was another newbie, this time the new daughter of some friends from church. She was a doll for me and only peed on 2 blankets! Whoop! Congrats Megan and Adam!


On Friday and Saturday, Penny and I worked her Mary Kay booth at Humble Trade Days and I had a display of my work. It was pretty eh, to be honest. Not a lot of traffic and mostly bargain shoppers. I think we'll try again at the fall show. The other vendors said that one was much better.

Sunday was church and editing and gearing up to go back to work. No rest for the weary I tell ya.

You have probably noticed at this point there are no pictures of Ellie in this post nor many Ellie stories. That is a serious problem that is coming up lately. I'm finding that I am spending so much time on my business to grow it into a livable income so I can stay home, that in the meantime, I'm never home and when I am, I'm still working. James has picked up a lot of my slack as a wife and mom as a result and I feel like I never get to just chill with my girl. It sucks.

So, in order to pull my priorities back in line, I've made some pretty big changes to my business. I am limiting myself to 4 sessions a month and pricing myself appropriately for a custom portrait photographer. My new pricing may end up putting me out of reach for some, but my time away from my family is worth more than what I was charging. I spend a solid 10+ hours worth of work on each session I do, and after I pay for my business expenses and taxes, I wasn't even making minimum wage. Hopefully my clients will see the value in what I am providing and will consider portraits worth saving up for and making an investment in. I've already had a couple of bookings at the new prices, so I know I must not be completely off my rocker, right?

Friday, February 10, 2012

She's Hittin' the Sauce

And by sauce, I mean puree. Yep, Ellie is officially a solids eating bambina.
 

 Note the sweet potato all over her face.


 She seems to like everything we have given her so far. She's tried sweet potatoes (obviously), carrots, peas, squash, beans, bananas, and pears.


 We've done homemade baby food for everything except a brief trip up to DFW where we used those little baby food pouches. And just so you know, baby food pouches = epic awesomeness when not a home.

In fact, Ellie likes her new diet so much that crying typically occurs when it is over. Thus, the need for this.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Christmas Eve

Better late than never....

Here are a couple shots from Ellie's first Christmas Eve, rocking her red satin dress and patent leather mary janes.


Monday, January 30, 2012

Blog-derdash!

I suck. I know. I blame Father Time for only putting 24 hours in the day. 

To prevent this from happening again, I need help. My friend Lydia told me that her sister, Sarah, calls her to tell her to blog something, so I need someone (or someones) to do that for me. Just send me an email, or a text, telling me to give a little update on the beanette. Tell me that you miss seeing those big blue eyes and want to know what her latest trick is. It'll be like an accountablitly partner. So next time you pull up this old blog to see what's new and there is nothing there, instead of wallowing in your sorrow, tell me to get on it!

She is changing so fast and getting so big (hello, 6 months!!!). It kills me that I have let the blog slip. As dear Lydia said, I want to remember these days because they will never happen again. I won't remember the few extra minutes of sleep I lose to save those memories.