Sunday, July 27, 2008

Claudia's Shoot


Wow, and *whew*!


What a busy week it's been!



We did our first portrait session in the new building last week and it went so well! I had the good fortune to take pictures of some of the neatest kids I've ever met! They were not camera shy in the least and it was so much fun from a photographer's standpoint!


I can only hope that they had as much fun as I did. :)


I'm posting a handful of images from that shoot so that Claudia & Caycee can kind of check them out in the interim between the shoot and receiving the package. :)



I am also posting some of the fun, "unofficial" shots that we took, as well.


We didn't have any malfunctions with the lighting, nobody fell off the furniture, and I even remembered to take the lens cap off the camera, unlike my very first session in the dining room. :)


One of the best things about being a portrait photographer is being able to capture families when they are all together.
Thanks, you guys, for letting me be part of such a fun & special evening!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

OMG! We Are SOOO Overbudget!!!



I am sitting here feeling sooooo stupid it isn't even funny.

I took last night off. Sue me. I was tired...I mean reallllly tired. I got off of work early, thinking that I'd come home and do a little interior housekeeping in the studio, but I didn't. I sat down in the recliner and crashed. Hard.

I was supposed to go to the bank and deposit a check I'd received, but I figured I would take care of that later. I was also supposed to move the remaining funds from the studio savings to the main checking account, too, but I figured I would take care of that later, too. I mean, we came in SO under budget that it almost hurt, so we thought, hey! Let's put the deck/porch/rails up, since we have all of this extra money. *feeling stupid* But move the money FIRST!!!!!

Lesson learned? Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.

Wait...I got that backwards. That's what you aren't supposed to do. Which is what I did. Dangit!

Lesson learned? ALWAYS (no matter HOW tired you think you are) do today financially what you probably shouldn't put off until tomorrow. I.E. GO TO THE BANK WITH THE MONEY!!!!!

Johnny had to go to class in Havelock this morning, so we got up at oh-dark-thirty, and I caught up on house work, laundry, soaps, etc., completely oblivious to the financial issue that awaited me.

Then, around 10:30 or so, I decided a little R&R would be a good thing, because everyone knows that all work and no play makes Jules a dull girl, right? I threw on my swimsuit, grabbed a Nicholas Sparks novel, went out to the backyard and laid out by the pool, swam a little bit, and didn't think a thing about financial stuff. I mean, c'mon. It's Saturday, for heaven's sake...give a girl a little down time! Went inside, took a shower, cleaned some more, and finally got motivated enough to come in and check email and whatnot, logged into my bank, and *gasp* find that I am tres overdrawn!

You have never seen anyone move so fast! I was moving money around like one of those guys you see in the old movies doing the shell game. I absolutely almost never overdraw my account, but guess what? I really shoulda stopped at the bank on my way home yesterday, and I never shoulda crashed in that recliner. I hate an overdraft fee. I mean, c'mon! I almost NEVER get them! I make a habit of NOT bouncing checks, man! I'm serious. I take it personally if I get an overdraft fee. I'm feeling pretty stupid right about now. Why? Because as much as I hate an overdraft fee, I hate four of them even more!

I love this studio. I do, but I've gotten really slack when it comes to the finances. I am usually the one doing online banking every single night of the week and this last couple of days have been so surreal. Thursday night I posted in here, just as happy as a pig in...well...sunshine, and didn't even think to look at the bank balance. I was so busy reveling in the fact that I actually had lights, music, and the Internet, that I completely forgot to move money when money needed to be moved. Shame on me. Really. From financially responsible adult to kid with new toy in record time.

Note to self: Dear Julie....GROW UP!!!!!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Am Posting This From Our Studio!

Ok, so here it is, almost eleven p.m. eastern standard time, and I am sitting in the studio; in my chair, at my desk, at my laptop, with my stereo cranking some classic Journey (ok, I typed this at the risk of sounding old...get over it, I did, LOL).


Johnny and I worked on the remainder of the front deck/porch, plus stairs earlier today, and put the second window trim up, as well, so we were fairly busy, and Peri helped us a good deal with moving props and equipment into the building.

I am going to post a couple more pictures of the exterior, as well as one of the interior on this post.

Did I mention I already have a session booked for the first Saturday of August? :) Life is good.


If you know of anyone that wants portraits, have them contact us. You can see our portfolio at http://www.wall2wallphotos.com/.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Almost Done!

OMG...I had NO earthly idea how much work it would take to put this thing together ourselves.

I do know that if I had it all to do over again and had the ca$h on hand, I would hire someone to install the floor. We started around eleven a.m. on Saturday and by eleven-thirty I told Johnny we'd be divorced by 4:00, LOL. It was close, that's for sure! LOL...Glad that's over.

Peri and I assembled the furniture, and put the lamps out. We put the rest of the "office" area together as soon as we got the baseboards installed. We even put in a mini-fridge for her Hawiian punch and my bottled water.

I got home from work this afternoon and painted trim prior to its installation, went in, painted the door trim (front side), and when Johnny came home, he installed more baseboard, I put the putty into the little nail holes, and Perio came behind me with a little paint brush cleaning up the nail holes.

Johnny put in some more baseboard, I filled, Peri painted, and by 9:30 tonite, I was able to move the backdrop stand, backdrop, lights, etc. into the studio. We're all about stoked. We have our first shoot during the first weekend in August. I will keep you posted and put up some images from that shoot.

In the meantime, here are a few pix of the studio as it sits now. I'm pretty excited if I haven't already mentioned that. :)

Sunday, July 6, 2008

So...We're Almost Done...


So, okay...Wow...We are almost done with the constuction of the studio. We have lights (who knew how rewarding just flipping a switch would be?) and the porch light works,too!


I am really excited, altho it will be a week or more before we are totally done. I spent the better part of today painting and the walls are looking pretty darn good, I must say. :)


Here is a picture of what we've done so far. :)
We will continue to post what we can shoot as things go on. :)
More soon!
~~me