The New Digs

Yesterday, I went with the other two photographers to check out the progress on our studio. Walls are up, still waiting on drywall and electrical. It should be finished any day now... In the meantime we have the little task of naming this studio. We started out thinking we'd just name it something like Studio 212 since we're in suite 212. But now that seems lazy and a waste of a great identity. The more we think about it, the more we're collaborating on a new business rather than opening a studio. We're in a sweet part of town with tons of amazing creative businesses. We have the potential of creating workshops, taking on large jobs, combining our skills on photo shoots, working with commercial clients... We want to be more than "those girls" in 212. I think we're going to go the route of consulting with a branding and identity company that's located in the building. And this is the point where I'm thinking WTF have you gotten yourself into??? When did you become so grown up? In the past month I've consulted with a CPA, a lawyer, a real estate agent and a branding agency. This shit is real, guys.

And then just so you can be sure that I'm still a major dweeb, I did something dumb this morning that I'm going to tell you about. I found out that someone I used to date also has a company in the building. I went on Facebook this morning to look him up and check out his biz but I made the mistake of doing so on my iPhone. Well, tiny buttons plus fumbley hands adds up to me accidentally sending him a friend request. I cancelled it as soon as I possibly could, but now I look like a major stalker. Which I am. But people don't need to know that.

How I spent $5000 this week

Taxes! Taxes are so much fun when you're self-employed and married to someone who is also self-employed. I still owed on 2011 and my first quarter 2012 federal and state OH DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE STATE TAXES, CHRISTINE were due today, so I spent about $5000 in the last two days on fun things like government programs and public education. Yes, they need my money and I am a proud tax paying bleeding-heart Democrat... but do they really need so much of it?

And now that I'm totally broke I'm kinda regretting that girl's weekend shopping trip I just came back from... My new shopping policy is that I'm not allowed to buy anything until J.Crew's fall line comes out in September.

Word is out on the new studio. I consulted with my lawyer (because I was doing something that could potentially get me sued), and put in my notice to leave early. Turns out, I won't get sued. And I was able to pay my lawyer with a Whole Foods gift card and free photos. Hooray for bartering! Construction could be done as soon as three weeks. The space isn't technically ours until July but we've been given the okay to move in early to paint and prep.

This is such an amazing thing I'm doing. I don't mean that in a bragging way. I'm just saying that I never in a million years thought I would be doing something like this with my life.

Also equally impressive, I realized the other day that I was typing an email while watching HGTV. Like, my fingers and 1/2 my brain were doing work and my eyes and other 1/2 my brain were learning about the return value of basement remodeling. It was a proud moment.