TCB Ya'll

This last weekend was a good one! Friday night Matt and I hung out with new people and ate some amazing homemade Creole food. Gumbo, red beans, cornbread, fried catfish, okra, crawfish etouffee. It was unbelievable. The food was particularly authentic because we ate it in a house without air-conditioning, on a night that was probably 90+ degrees. It was sweaty and miserable, just like being in NOLA!!!

I stayed sober Friday night so I could get up and run on Saturday morning. (Example #317 that I'm getting old and dull.) Jen and I ran 6ish miles in 60 minutes, which is putting us at a really great pace for the 1/2 marathon. It was ungodly hot at 8:30 in the morning and we stopped for water 3 times, so we were both blown away by our overall time. NICE!

I then edited 50+ wedding pictures and an entire senior session, cleaned my office, and geeked out looking at office supplies at Target. OMG - Target sells French Bull supplies. Someone help me... It's gotten to where I'm so excited about working at home that I'm asking my parents for business accouterments for my birthday. (Example #318.) I also worked out a plan to get some really awesome business cards and wedding handouts taken care of in one shot. I want something that's a little different than just a business card but doesn't look gimmicky or cheesy. I think I have a good idea and it's not something that I've seen anywhere already. It's also time and money efficient which is concern numero uno since I'm spending every penny I make on my business at the moment. Well okay, every penny I make minus a few pennies that I spent on a Betsey Johnson dress last week. But hello, 85% off, who could pass that up even if they are technically broke?

That just about rounds out my productivity. Unless of course "productive" can be defined by watching most of the first season of Weeds on DVD in one afternoon.

Proving That I'm a Grown Up Business Woman

I've been thinking lately about my need for a legitimate home office, a place where I can consult with clients and not be horribly embarrassed by the pile of shoes under the desk and the stack of junk mail covering the keyboard. Right now the nearest Starbucks is serving as my meet and greet place.

My office certainly isn't in bad shape, it's just not a place that says, "Professional and Capable Person Who Deserves your Business." I need to ditch the clutter, get a cafe' sized table and chairs, and print off some high-impact examples of my work. I recently got a membership through a canvas and photo printer and I get one free canvas and 40% of sample canvases for being a professional member. It would be really awesome to be able hang some examples up and show off what my work looks like in print. I also need to get together some subject-specific albums: babies, teens, weddings.

Right now I don't have a huge need for this, but eventually I'm hoping that I do. Wedding consultation is really the big reason I want to be able to have a nice home office. Brides and weddings is like "big time" for me. I adore wedding photography. I want this so badly. I need this. I've never been this ambitious about anything before and I think the progress I've already made has been great. My goal is to be self-employed by 28 so I'm moving right along...

I've also been reading more and more about business management and researching networking opportunities for creative fields and small businesses in Omaha. My friends and family have been of more help to me than I could have ever asked for, but it's also nice to have other people out there throwing my name around. I know that I'm not a top-notch, world-changing photographer, but I think I have what it takes to be a startup professional in this industry. With time, knowledge and help I think I can really do this.

Before and After: Office

I've given up on waiting until the office is clean to photograph it and post it. In the past 14 months we've lived there, it has never been cleaner than it is right now as evidenced by the following photos.

Before:





After:





I've realized throughout the course of this blog that I am terrible at taking pictures of the inside of our house. I'm terrible at taking pictures of lots of things, but this is probably the worst. I don't know what it is. You can tell me to take a picture of a kid or a plant and I get it. Tell me to take a picture of a room and my brain goes, "What? What do you mean? How? Huh?"

Lazy Sunday

I woke up pretty early this morning, considering I ended up drunk off of Hoegaarden last night. You have to watch it with the Belgium beers apparently. They sneak up on you.

Two pints of Hoegaarden = Hello You're Drizzunk.

Matt's band played at a neighborhood block party type thing in Dundee last night. It was supposed to be the "Spring Fling" but it was like 40%deg; and everyone was wearing coats last night.

I got up this morning and repainted my office. I'll go ahead and admit that I'm really bad at picking out paint colors. The last color was dark gray, the current one is sea foam. The sea foam is a huge improvement. It's still questionable, but undeniably better.

I'm so proud of myself for beginning and finishing a project in one day. I rewarded myself for the accomplishment by ignoring some freelance work and watching TV in bed this evening. Ringo joined me. He was more interested in watching the neighbors than watching TV though.

Awesome Color Combination

I'm kind of in love with this color combination. I saw it on a Design*Sponge before and after post. She used it in a nursery, but I'm thinking it would look awesome in my office... I started redoing it but then sort of trailed off. The grey I painted it turned out pretty awful. Working at my desk is like sitting inside a galvanized bucket. It's about as inspirational as that too.

Looks like someone might be taking a trip to Lowes this weekend...

I think it would really look good in there since I already have an orange sitting chair and I can make cushions out of this fabric that was left over from my failed attempt at recovering chairs. We also bought a really cool navy blue "Summer of Love" print in San Francisco that hasn't found a home yet.

I'm practically half way there! Really, all there is to buy is paint. And paint is generally the cheapest part of any room makeover. Does anyone want to help me paint white and sea-foam over industrial gray this weekend? Doesn't that sound like a total blast?

Mother of All Mondays

Today has been stressful. And I am annoyed. With everything.

But rather than dwell on it, let's look at a goofy picture of my dog.



I feel a little better now.

I also have some new pictures up that I took this weekend. It makes me feel better to know that I'm working towards this photography goal I have. It's attainable and I'm making progress one little step at a time.

Ok, I think I'm good now.

Office Inspiration Board

When we moved into the house, the room I claimed as "office" was painted some horrible beige color, including all the trim. Who would do that? So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to fix it. I repainted all the trim white and painted the walls a color that I have been dying to paint a room since I was sixteen but was never allowed to: dark gray. Ya. Better on paper than in life. Apparently, I thought my dad was lying when he told me that painting a room a dark color makes it look smaller. The room went from beige wasteland to industrial coat closet.

I love the color but the room needs some help. My desk is metal and glass, I have some wire storage racks, and my computer is a sleek white iMac. I'm kind of digging the accidental industrial look. I want to warm it up though. I bought some black and white curtains at Target that have a chandelier and damask pattern on them. (I can't find them on the site or I'd link to them.) I also hung up a couple French movie posters and now I have an idea for the room: Faux-French Pop Industrial. Is that anything? Can I do that? An interior decorator, I am not. I just make it up as I go along.

I made my very first inspiration board to illustrate:



Items from Target, Pier 1, CB2 and Office Depot.

I want to stick with gray, black, white and pink. I think it's kind of hip and graphic. Right now the room is full of junk and I'm a wee bit broke from vacation, so it might take a while to actually decorate the room. Everything in the picture maybe totals $1000 ($400 for a chair? Really Pier 1?) so obviously it's just inspiration. I want to hunt around for some thrift crap that I can fix up on the cheap. There's a possibility though that I need that mouse immediately. And the hot pink desk chair. My current desk chair is a $2 metal garage sale chair with no padding. Hurts the butt.

It really excites me to have an idea finally of what I want the office to look like. I'm kind of anal about my workspace and I find it hard to get work done at home when I'm distracted by my surroundings. Not having an office was rough. My last "office" was a kitchen table in Matt's and my bedroom at the Dundee house. So not conducive to my productivity.