Fundraising and Picture Taking...

So, wow! It's still November, I'm still busier than a one armed paper hanger, the DDJ is still making me crazy, but I remain (much to my surprise) upright and breathing! All I can say is that I will be SOOOO happy when the Joint Commission has come and gone. Perhaps the PTB will regain their normally even keel, huh?

We had our fundraiser out here at the studio on Saturday. While we didn't have an incredible turnout, we were able to acquire almost four huge boxes of groceries which we delivered to the Taylor family, and needless to say, our timing was wonderful. :)

During the weeks leading up to our fundraiser I was able to complete the Sperry photoshoot, some of the portraits I am posting here. I've got two more shoots coming within the next week, and because they were booked during our fundraiser, I am able to contribute 30% of our proceeds toward the benefit.

I just want to give a shout out to all that helped us get this thing off the ground. Specifically: Lori & Aaron Carver, Rhonda Dutton, Brenda Warren, and Cindy & Kevin Konig. Without these people, our benefit would not have been as successful as it was, and I want each and every one of you to know that I appreciate your participation, your encouragement, and your fellowship on Saturday. Can we all say, "Laminin"? I knew we could! God is GOOD, y'all! :)

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to keep up with all this craziness! Blessings to all!

Now it's November & my hands are full!!!

Good grief! What a busy month it has been!

A very good friend of mine had major surgery last week. He had cancer ("had" being the operative word, as the docs think they got it all and he's going to be ok), but he will be out of work for 12+ weeks. They are a one income family and his short term disability pays 60%, which is good, but not good enough. He and his wife have four little girls at home and they are going to experience a financial hardship, so my fellow small business group of girlfriends and I got together and brainstormed, and the result is fundraising for my friend and his family. This Thursday night we will be having a benefit Pampered Chef party, which will be the culmination of a month-long catalog show we have been holding. Two days later, I will be hosting a benefit bazaar featuring original handbags and gift baskets from Brenda's Creative Designs (remember Brenda, my boss, from my early posts?), facials from Mary Kay (my friend Rhonda is my sponsor, but more about that shortly), and Tupperware with my good friend, Lori. Oh...and Wall 2 Wall Photography will be there, too. A percentage of sales proceeds will go to the Taylor family by way of gas cards and groceries, etc. We are also hoping we will have earned enough from our Pampered Chef party to earn free product that we can raffle off. 100% of those proceeds will go to the Taylor family. We are having a silent auction for arts and crafts (another 100%) and are seriously considering a 50-50 drawing. If anyone in the Goldsboro, NC area is interested in further information, please leave me a message here, or email me at info@wall2wallphotos.com.

And while that has kept me hopping, I also had the Sperry portrait shoot on Sunday, and have been retouching photos this week.

To further keep me busy, I have decided to be a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. I love my Pampered Chef, please don't get me wrong, as I will probably be one of their best customers, but I thought about the pros and cons of the many income streams I have available to me, and Mary Kay seems to go hand in hand with the photography business, and I can very easily integrate the two. Should any of you that are reading this be in need of pampering, a facial, or just need a "Mary Kay Lady" please visit my other site: www.marykay.com/juliewall .

Wall 2 Wall Photography is also offering other services as well as portraiture and art images. We are now doing custom "cd" or "record album" covers with interesting tracks listed on the image. (Check back here soon for an example. I went off and left the file on my hard drive at work.) We are also offering bereavement sheets, which are basically a memory sheet with a picture of the person that passed retouched and placed on a sheet with a border and information about the individual. These sheets will be available for donations only. There are no "set" prices for this service, due to the sensitive nature of the product. Email me at info@wall2wallphotos.com for more information regarding either of the above services.

So with all of this going on, you can see that, in addition to my day job (which we lovingly refer to as the DDJ-Dreaded Day Job), I have a full plate until November 16, at which time I will be able to more actively persue my Mary Kay-related goals and my holiday portraiture.

I hope that you all have had a wonderful couple of weeks. :)

More soon!

~~Julie

The Busy Season!

Oh, boy! Who knew October would be so busy? I sure didn't. The day job is keeping me hopping, I'm looking into selling Pampered Chef, and it's Holiday portrait season. :) I also have a couple of events to shoot, which I am totally looking forward to!

The day job entails a Joint Commission inspection, and this year one of our requirements has changed, which means that a LOT of our policies are changing, too. Translation? A lot of work for my staff and me, and a lot of long hours.

Pampered Chef? Oh, wow! Did I mention I love this stuff? I love to cook. I love to eat. I love to meet people. I love to talk. Can you think of any other requirements that would be needed to sell a product I love so much? Stay tuned. I will keep you posted.

I've got Christmas and holiday portrait sessions coming up. If you haven't booked yours yet, call me! They are going fast and if you want to have your package in enough time for cards and gifts, book now, while there are still sessions available.

I have two events to photograph over the coming weeks and will post details on all as they become available.

This is the busy season, so the blogs may be fewer and futher between. :)

Until next time!

~~Jules

Photos From the Family Shoot

So, I finally have had the time (between the day job, package pricing, and continuing ed classes) to get back in here to post some pictures from the family photo shoot last month. I tried to add the images to my last blog, but I'm having problems editing posts. I don't know if it's on my end or not, so I thought I would go ahead and create a new post so that I can share.

We have had a lot of changes over the past weeks. I don't want to go into a lot of our personal drama, so I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that there was enough activity on a personal level to throw our business back a few weeks regarding goal setting and a timeline. I would like to be able to upload the remaining pictures from our shoot, but the editor will not let me place my cursor where it needs to be and I honestly do not have the patience to try and work it out at this point.

I did my 8+ hour shift at work yesterday, then spent 3 hours in a business plan writing class, and then 8+ more hours at the office today, and have been trying to work my way through ODesk for some information, but am hitting dead ends there, too. I think it's time to pack it in and call it a day.

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Alrighty, then. I figured out the cursor problem. Hadn't ever seen that one before, but rectified it and got the remaining image uploaded, as you can see.

So now it is off to profide some computer support to a friend of mine and get started on having a weekend.

Ciao!

Personal Life Versus Professional Life....

Wow. So here's the deal: My 16 year old son decided, the night before he was scheduled to come home from a summer visit with his dad, that he didn't want to come home. Of course, I pulled parental rank and told him his tail would be on the plane to come home and tie up his loose ends, one of which was 300 square feet of bedroom/walk-in closet that looked like a bomb went off. He was NOT impressed, to say the least, but did come home.

He was in town just shy of two weeks before he flew back to Nevada, leaving an upset mom, brother and step-sister. During the middle of this time, Wall 2 Wall Photography had a grand opening open house, a family portrait session scheduled, and our own family portraits to do before he left.

Needless to say, it was hard to be motivated, because I was incredibly sad prior to his departure, but kept my scheduled appointments accordingly.

I'm glad that I did. While it's not professional to let your personal life get in the way of your professional life, there is a point where you have to find some middle ground.

I shot some really neat images of this family and it helped me not only get my mind off my issues, but reinforced the confidence I have in myself regarding my ability as a portrait photographer.

Even though I was upset and sad, we sat for a family session in our studio before my son left, and somehow we came out of it with some of the best family shots we've had of ourselves to date. I don't know how I managed to look as happy as I did (I was miserable on the inside), but we will always have the images posted in this blog (coming soon) to remember that we were a family.

To anyone that is contemplating cancelling any kind of professional engagnement due to personal issues: My best advice is this: Don't do it. You will feel much better if you can continue to act as if nothing is bothering you in your professional life. It helps counteract anything that might have you questioning your performance as a person in your personal life.

Thanks for listening. Until next time.....

Julie