What better time to write a quick update than mid way through 2016! And man do we have a lot to update on...I feel like I usually update first on all things work but let's start with travels this go around. We were pretty much home bodies during the winter until our first wedding of the year in March. We road tripped up to Sacramento & spent 4 days of there filming a business video and a wedding the following weekend (already getting into work, I can't help it!). While we were up there our close friends told us they were pregnant! We were shocked, as were they since this pregnancy was a complete surprise for them. They're expecting their first little one at the end of October & it's been exciting to see them prepping to become parents.
Next we traveled to Nashville (also for work) in April! I love that city. It's full of so much energy! Last time we were out there we enjoyed it with family & this time was a different experience because we explored totally different parts just the two of us. We were also lucky to spend the last 2 days of our trip with Paul's Aunt & Cousin who took us around the Franklin street fair (the cutest town ever) & back to the ranch where we road four-wheelers, met all of the animals out there & (Paul's favorite) target practice. That was probably my favorite day of the whole trip!
May was our busiest month of work this year, we shot 5 weddings! All local which was a nice change & now I'm playing catch up while editing them all (which I'm doing solo, more to come on why later). Things finally slowed down in June, I celebrated my 27th birthday & feel so old! Haha. 25 to 26 didn't feel like anything too major but man does 27 feel next level. We finally took a non-work related trip with a group out to Palm Springs for a combined weekend of celebrating and relaxing. We rented an amazing house & just enjoyed drinks by the pool, tanning & warm dinners out.
June also meant our anniversary! Paul and I enjoyed a low key evening together on the eve of our 6th anniversary. We rode bikes to Sidecar (our favorite local doughnut shop) & that was about it! This year we shot a wedding on our actual anniversary so we really couldn't do anything too crazy. And now we're prepping for our annual Montana trip! We're heading out on Thursday and making the two part trip, OC to Salt Lake on Thur and then Salt Lake to Hamilton on Friday. Because of how bookings worked out this year we won't be able to take the trip with the family who all go at the end of July, so this will be our first year going solo! Just like we did in Nashville, I know there are going to be so many new things we'll get to experience together in Montana this summer.
Ok, I'm going to stop here and work on a part II coming soon...
Monday, June 27, 2016
Friday, January 8, 2016
2 | 0 | 1 | 6
Happy New Year! I love a fresh start to the year. 2016 is already shaping up to be a successful and exciting year. So many weddings to come in the family, friends having babies, new jobs, homes, travels. I don't have any particular resolutions but I am 4 days into the Whole30 and 2 weeks into Kayla Itsines BBG so that has to count for something?
This year, Paul and I also have a new routine together that I'm hoping sticks around for awhile. He's taken up reading since receiving a couple books for Christmas and with El Nino upon us we've been putting our fireplace to use. So each night he'll turn off the TV, make us a fire and we'll sit have "quiet time." I love it so much! I don't currently have a book I'm reading so I'll usually fill the time with little work to-do's like updating our business blog, write up a contract, reply to a couple emails...but tonight I took the time to write out thank you cards from the holidays. It was so therapeutic and really nice in the ambiance of the fire and complete quiet. We had taken Arthur to Petco earlier in the day so there was the occasional squeaky from his new toy, ha.
Our TV tends to be on almost all the time (mainly ESPN). Sometimes just in the background because we forget to turn it off. I never realized how much I bothered me until this new quiet time that we set aside. I struggle with anxiety from time to time and this has helped me so much! We'll sometimes turn on music, but mainly just enjoy the sound of the fire! Paul has even noticed how much easier it is to go to bed now. His mind isn't as busy and I can totally relate. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a better way to wind down before bed! Cheers to a new year and new routines :)
This year, Paul and I also have a new routine together that I'm hoping sticks around for awhile. He's taken up reading since receiving a couple books for Christmas and with El Nino upon us we've been putting our fireplace to use. So each night he'll turn off the TV, make us a fire and we'll sit have "quiet time." I love it so much! I don't currently have a book I'm reading so I'll usually fill the time with little work to-do's like updating our business blog, write up a contract, reply to a couple emails...but tonight I took the time to write out thank you cards from the holidays. It was so therapeutic and really nice in the ambiance of the fire and complete quiet. We had taken Arthur to Petco earlier in the day so there was the occasional squeaky from his new toy, ha.
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| Via Free People |
Our TV tends to be on almost all the time (mainly ESPN). Sometimes just in the background because we forget to turn it off. I never realized how much I bothered me until this new quiet time that we set aside. I struggle with anxiety from time to time and this has helped me so much! We'll sometimes turn on music, but mainly just enjoy the sound of the fire! Paul has even noticed how much easier it is to go to bed now. His mind isn't as busy and I can totally relate. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a better way to wind down before bed! Cheers to a new year and new routines :)
Monday, November 2, 2015
Hello. It's me
So Adele's song, right? My husband is obsessed. I just want you all to think about a 27 year old white male blasting "Hello" in his Charcoal Toyota Tacoma (most likely with a Corgi on his lap) ok good. I'm glad we're all envisioning this now.
Well...Hello. I've punched out of the clock for the day (it's 10:57pm so I thought I'd call it a night) and am in the bath and thought, "it's probably time I wrote down thoughts & updated the blog." I'm honestly not even sure why I have this thing anymore but I'll pretend I'm faithful to it. Last post I left off talking about counting down days until our trip to NYC. We went, it was amazing (still want to live there, yes). This time it was all about seeing friends, eating & working. We had an awesome Airbnb in UES; which I must admit I'm a little bored with. We spent much more time in the LES, it felt more like our crowd, younger people in their mid-20's, fun food & drink spots and nightlife. UES is just kind of mommies & strollers, which was actually great to come home to such a quiet area at night so it had its pros & cons.
We spent about 5 nights in Manhattan before heading out of the city to Long Island where our wedding was. The day before we had some time to kill and The Hamptons were only an hour away so we took a drive out there. I wasn't expecting anything super cool, but man, it was super cool. Paul said it was the highlight of his entire NY trip. We hope to vacation there in the future!
After NY we had a couple weekends off and then we hit the ground running at the end of September with our last push of weddings for the season. Annnddd it really hasn't stopped since then! We finally had our first weekend off over Halloween but we've had so many corporate video shoots in between that the weekend was mainly spent catching up on editing. I'm grateful to have all this work now before our long break from December - February. BIG NEWS. Arthur (#arthur_thecorgi) turned 1 on Oct 26th. We're straight up obsessed with that dog, it's true. No we didn't throw a party but we did take him to sprinkles cupcakes for one of their homemade doggie cakes. So we're almost to that level of "those people" who would throw their dog a party...
Umm...what else? We're getting new neighbors, which we're super bummed about. We loved our neighbor! She was so sweet & quiet. Fingers crossed that we get someone as equally great this time around. I've thrown out some feeling on FB to see if we can get a friend or friend of friend to move next door ;-) Tonight is the first night it's felt like fall! #welcometothepartyCali With no AC and it being so friggen humid. We're so over it being in the 80's! It finally got down to 60 tonight and I milked the crap out of it. Cue Traders spiced cider, Christmas candles & sweatpants. Hey-yo!!!
Oh, also big news. Paul has been sending his resume out to Engineering firms. He's decided to get settled into a career in engineering. It's going to be such a change after solely working full-time together for 5 years but we're looking forward to something fresh. Although we're so happy with where we're at, if we ever want to buy a house in this area (I think we are Costa Mesa/Newport lifers) we're going to need to hustle for a couple years with dual incomes. The plan is to continue shooting together for a few more years, taking on the same amount of weddings & corporate work to save as much as we can. It's depressing how much homes are right now so we're not in any rush to buy anymore, especially since there's nothing in our neighborhood under $600k (insert crying emoji). We love our place now & super content so we'll see what happens!
Well...Hello. I've punched out of the clock for the day (it's 10:57pm so I thought I'd call it a night) and am in the bath and thought, "it's probably time I wrote down thoughts & updated the blog." I'm honestly not even sure why I have this thing anymore but I'll pretend I'm faithful to it. Last post I left off talking about counting down days until our trip to NYC. We went, it was amazing (still want to live there, yes). This time it was all about seeing friends, eating & working. We had an awesome Airbnb in UES; which I must admit I'm a little bored with. We spent much more time in the LES, it felt more like our crowd, younger people in their mid-20's, fun food & drink spots and nightlife. UES is just kind of mommies & strollers, which was actually great to come home to such a quiet area at night so it had its pros & cons.
We spent about 5 nights in Manhattan before heading out of the city to Long Island where our wedding was. The day before we had some time to kill and The Hamptons were only an hour away so we took a drive out there. I wasn't expecting anything super cool, but man, it was super cool. Paul said it was the highlight of his entire NY trip. We hope to vacation there in the future!
After NY we had a couple weekends off and then we hit the ground running at the end of September with our last push of weddings for the season. Annnddd it really hasn't stopped since then! We finally had our first weekend off over Halloween but we've had so many corporate video shoots in between that the weekend was mainly spent catching up on editing. I'm grateful to have all this work now before our long break from December - February. BIG NEWS. Arthur (#arthur_thecorgi) turned 1 on Oct 26th. We're straight up obsessed with that dog, it's true. No we didn't throw a party but we did take him to sprinkles cupcakes for one of their homemade doggie cakes. So we're almost to that level of "those people" who would throw their dog a party...
Umm...what else? We're getting new neighbors, which we're super bummed about. We loved our neighbor! She was so sweet & quiet. Fingers crossed that we get someone as equally great this time around. I've thrown out some feeling on FB to see if we can get a friend or friend of friend to move next door ;-) Tonight is the first night it's felt like fall! #welcometothepartyCali With no AC and it being so friggen humid. We're so over it being in the 80's! It finally got down to 60 tonight and I milked the crap out of it. Cue Traders spiced cider, Christmas candles & sweatpants. Hey-yo!!!
Oh, also big news. Paul has been sending his resume out to Engineering firms. He's decided to get settled into a career in engineering. It's going to be such a change after solely working full-time together for 5 years but we're looking forward to something fresh. Although we're so happy with where we're at, if we ever want to buy a house in this area (I think we are Costa Mesa/Newport lifers) we're going to need to hustle for a couple years with dual incomes. The plan is to continue shooting together for a few more years, taking on the same amount of weddings & corporate work to save as much as we can. It's depressing how much homes are right now so we're not in any rush to buy anymore, especially since there's nothing in our neighborhood under $600k (insert crying emoji). We love our place now & super content so we'll see what happens!
I guess I'll throw in a pic so this post isn't totally boring. So here's my Halloween door guys...you're welcome ;-)
Wreath // Target
Planter // Home Goods
Painting // Home Goods
Ottoman // Ikea
Table // Made by Paul
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Woah, August.
How have I not been on here since June? Wow, I continue to fail at updating this thing. Well...let's see. July totally flew by! We celebrated the 4th up here for the first time, hosted a BBQ for Paul's family who came up. The 4th is my mom's birthday so normally we do some sort of pool party shin-dig in San Diego, swim, BBQ, have cocktails. It's super fun! This year though, my mom wanted to go to Catalina Island with my step-dad for the day since her big party was the following weekend. She had won this big Luau party at an auction event. Real random but a lot of fun, I totally felt like I was in Hawaii for the evening.
We only had 1 wedding in July which was a little slower than past years but we were totally okay with it! Paul and I felt like we finally had a chance to take a breath. For the past 3 months we had been drowning in our backlog! I'm just now coming out of it. When I begin to get overwhelmed and a tad bitter at how busy we are I have to stop myself and remember that busy is GOOD! We're incredibly lucky & it's selfish for me to feel that way. This has led to me pray more throughout the day or just have little conversations with God if you will. Just thanking Him for all the work He has brought our way! I also just started the devotional, Jesus Calling. I've heard so many good things and man; it's really that good!
Near the end of July we road tripped to Montana! Just the 3 of us; Paul, Arthur and I. Arthur was such a champ. He's such a great road trip dog, just sleeps the entire time or looks out the window quietly. We spent one overnight in Salt Lake City on our way up but drove for 18 hours straight on the way home!! Paul drove the entire way too. I offered to drive many times but he insisted doing it himself. I just think he doesn't trust me with his truck ;-) He also has said on numerous occasions that my driving terrifies him. So dramatic I tell you.
We only had 1 wedding in July which was a little slower than past years but we were totally okay with it! Paul and I felt like we finally had a chance to take a breath. For the past 3 months we had been drowning in our backlog! I'm just now coming out of it. When I begin to get overwhelmed and a tad bitter at how busy we are I have to stop myself and remember that busy is GOOD! We're incredibly lucky & it's selfish for me to feel that way. This has led to me pray more throughout the day or just have little conversations with God if you will. Just thanking Him for all the work He has brought our way! I also just started the devotional, Jesus Calling. I've heard so many good things and man; it's really that good!
Near the end of July we road tripped to Montana! Just the 3 of us; Paul, Arthur and I. Arthur was such a champ. He's such a great road trip dog, just sleeps the entire time or looks out the window quietly. We spent one overnight in Salt Lake City on our way up but drove for 18 hours straight on the way home!! Paul drove the entire way too. I offered to drive many times but he insisted doing it himself. I just think he doesn't trust me with his truck ;-) He also has said on numerous occasions that my driving terrifies him. So dramatic I tell you.
After vacation we came home to shoot 2 weddings & are now on a 3 week break until our next wedding in New York! It's been such a dream to shoot a wedding on the East Coast so saying I'm excited is an understatement. An entire week in the city! We found an awesome Airbnb out there on the Upper East Side just a few blocks from Central Park. When Paul and I went out there for the first time we both loved the surrounding areas of CP the most :) Our friends Troy & Aimee are coming out with us for a few days and then my college roommate Kelsey & her BF are coming down from Boston so hang for a couple nights. I can't wait for all the cute coffee shops, pizza (followed by lots of walking to burn off pizza) & subway riding to come!
Other than counting down the days until NY. I feel like we've been fully taking advantage of this mid-summer break. Taking time to go to the beach (which for living 4 miles from we don't do enough) & going on lots of dates :) We've been really focusing on incorporating more dates in our life. I may have mentioned this before, but we go out with other couples or groups all the time but when it comes to just the 2 of us we were failing to make that a priority. I forgot how fun it was to go on dates together (insert girl dancing in red dress emoji)!
We've also been doing a few home improvements & DIY projects during our time off :) Which...I'm going to save for another post because this one of getting dreadfully long!! If you've stuck with me this long I slow clap you :)
...Till next time (or 2 months from now!)
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Summer loving
It's summer-time!! Cue the BBQ's, beach days & late nights! Last weekend we enjoyed our first weekend off since mid-April, and boy was it good. And the best part is? We have this coming weekend off as well! It was actually planned well in advance...I mean who wants to work on the 4th? Spending the entire day on my feet...orrrr sitting in a lawn chair eating a hot dog?
Last update was when we came home from Sonoma..Since then, we shot 2 more weddings. One in Hollywood and another up Santa Barbara! Both were amazing. In Santa Barbara, we stayed in the CUTEST Montecito bungalow. We've had the best luck with great Airbnb places lately, Paul was so impressed with my ability to find this one. Sadly we were only there one night but want to definitely go back with a group of friends to stay again! Traveling for work with Paul is one of my favorite things. We talk to friends who have kids now and they tell us to really soak up this time of life because work-cations won't always be this easy-going & spontaneous. So we're soaking up every ounce!
Oh and...since Sonoma we celebrated our 5 year anniversary!! 1/2 a decade, wow time is flying. On our anniversary we drove to San Diego to drop Arthur off (before our Santa Barbara trip) with Paul's mom and then went to a quaint brunch place in Solona Beach. We had taken my mom their for Mother's day and had the best time! Gifts were also exchanged..I got Paul a Leatherman & a new belt (he's worn the same belt for almost 10 years, it was time). He surprised me with new perfume, Marc Jacobs 'Daisy' For a year I've sprayed it on me when at any beauty or department store so I think he had a good idea of what I wanted ;-) We had big plans of going back to Hawaii where we honeymooned...and then we paid our quarterly business taxes. Let's jut say it took the wind out of our sails. Oh well, I'm just banking on shooting a wedding out there in the near future, but then again I've been banking on that for 4 years now! One day...
We're home now for a couple more weeks until heading up to Montana for the annual Gilster vacation. Paul has been counting down the days for months now! This year is going to be a little different because we're going to be driving up ourselves. We usually fly because of work and not having a totally reliable car but Paul has his Tacoma now so we're going for it! Still working out the details of which way we'll be taking. I don't mind just going up the I-15, but Paul has the California coast in mind. Stopping in San Fran, Portland & Seattle along the way and then over to Montana! I guess I better up my Airbnb game and get booking :)
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Back home // Sonoma adventures
We're finally home and getting back into routine. It feels like we've been out of town so much lately! We had spent a couple days in San Diego prior to leaving for Sonoma, visiting family and dropping off Arthur with my mom so she could watch him. Road-tripped up there and then drove from Sonoma-San Diego to pick Arthur back up and spend another night down there. Needless to say it felt great to sleep in my own bed. There isn't anything better!
Our trip up to Sonoma was so good!! We drove up Thursday, got to our AirBnb (this was our 3rd time staying at THIS guest house, we both really like it!). Thursday night we went to grab dinner/drinks at Paul's favorite brewery, Russian River Brewery in cute downtown Santa Rosa. All of Santa Rosa is cute but their downtown is just especially cute. Friday was my B-day! We slept in and drove to Sonoma for brunch!! Sadly this place didn't have eggs benedict (my only bday request, haha) but their monster mimosa made up for it. We walked around together and window shopped before heading back to our guest house and taking a nap. I tend to take a lot of naps on vacation...or maybe it was the monster mimosa? Hmm...
Two weeks ago we added a drone to our video equipment collection. During our first flight with it we flew into a tree which ended in quite a bit of damage (this was a major part of my last post about stress). It was so scary!! Seeing thousands of dollars plummeting towards an unforgiving tree trunk was awful. Moving on...We're pretty excited about the new possibilities for our business with this new toy and had been practicing with it all last week (post crash and repairs).
One of my favorite parts of central/norcal are their golden hills with green trees! After my glorious nap, we found a regional park in Sonoma to fly it around and test it out again before flying it at a wedding for the FIRST time the next day. Afterwards I did a little birthday shopping and we went out to a fancy pizza restaurant only to leave hungry after our questionable median-sized pizza, haha. Not gonna lie I could have eaten the entire this myself so I knew Paul was still hungry too! Chick-fil-la was calling our name so we drove thru and headed back to our guest house. It wasn't the way I anticipated to spend my birthday..but I have to admit it was memorable!
I hate attention and having to choose what to do (even with Paul!). He kept asking me throughout the day...so what do you want to do. I'd always respond, "tell me what you want to do!" Making the plans is just too much responsibility, haha. I mean, eggs benedict was all I wanted, that's about the extent of my requests. Our wedding on Saturday was beautiful, held at a private Tuscan estate in Kenwood, Ca. Next morning we ate at a local motel diner (sounds super weird, I know) that's delicious. We've been there a couple times before and guess what?! They had my eggs benedict #birthdaywishgranted...Cheers to 26!
Our trip up to Sonoma was so good!! We drove up Thursday, got to our AirBnb (this was our 3rd time staying at THIS guest house, we both really like it!). Thursday night we went to grab dinner/drinks at Paul's favorite brewery, Russian River Brewery in cute downtown Santa Rosa. All of Santa Rosa is cute but their downtown is just especially cute. Friday was my B-day! We slept in and drove to Sonoma for brunch!! Sadly this place didn't have eggs benedict (my only bday request, haha) but their monster mimosa made up for it. We walked around together and window shopped before heading back to our guest house and taking a nap. I tend to take a lot of naps on vacation...or maybe it was the monster mimosa? Hmm...
One of my favorite parts of central/norcal are their golden hills with green trees! After my glorious nap, we found a regional park in Sonoma to fly it around and test it out again before flying it at a wedding for the FIRST time the next day. Afterwards I did a little birthday shopping and we went out to a fancy pizza restaurant only to leave hungry after our questionable median-sized pizza, haha. Not gonna lie I could have eaten the entire this myself so I knew Paul was still hungry too! Chick-fil-la was calling our name so we drove thru and headed back to our guest house. It wasn't the way I anticipated to spend my birthday..but I have to admit it was memorable!
I hate attention and having to choose what to do (even with Paul!). He kept asking me throughout the day...so what do you want to do. I'd always respond, "tell me what you want to do!" Making the plans is just too much responsibility, haha. I mean, eggs benedict was all I wanted, that's about the extent of my requests. Our wedding on Saturday was beautiful, held at a private Tuscan estate in Kenwood, Ca. Next morning we ate at a local motel diner (sounds super weird, I know) that's delicious. We've been there a couple times before and guess what?! They had my eggs benedict #birthdaywishgranted...Cheers to 26!
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Stress management & Work-cation
I worry from time to time. Ok, a lot of the time. When I'm being irrational, Paul often taps on my head, smirks at me and says, "What's going on in that little dumb brain." It's sounds harsh, your husband calling you dumb, but he's totally right I worry about the DUMBEST things. We're talking things/scenarios that haven't even happened yet! I'm serious. "Well what if this happens..." I say to him. "Well it hasn't so why are you worrying about it?" I recently searched the word "worry" on Pinterest and saw this pin that basically summed up my life.
Sometimes this irrational worry can be almost paralyzing and this worry turns into stress and about twice a year this stress turns into a mild meltdown. These mild meltdowns = escaping from work. I do this with frequent trips to TJ-Maxx, Old Navy/Gap, or Target. Not even to shop, just to escape my office (Which I'm saving for a future post) oh and also baths, like the longest baths ever and a good cry. So I had a week like this last week. "Let's go to San Diego and see our family" <-- See what I'm doing here? Another escape from work tactic. "How come?" "I just need to get away." So we did! Just to justify that I'm not a total runaway, I did bring down 1 hard drive to work on. It was a lot of fun and just the thing I needed. And then we got back and I fell into this worry spell all over again :( One thing I realized is how much I dislike my home office...
When we moved in almost a year ago we did a lot of new decorating and landscaping while the office just kind of sat there. And 1 year later...it's still kind of just sitting here. And I hate it. It's cluttered and not functional at all. My entire life I've never been a tidy person but this year I began to realize how much better and refreshed I feel in a clean/organized house. Now, I'm craving the same for my workspace and I really thing that would make a huge impact on my "dumb" worrying.
Now let's move on from all this heavy stuff...we're going on vacation tomorrow! Or...work-cation :) We have a wedding up in Napa, Ca this weekend! We'll be road-tripping since it's so much easier than flying with all our gear. I'm anticipating many-a-podcasts to help make the 7 hour drive pass by! This trip will be really good for us, Paul gets to visit his all time favorite brewery, Russian River again and We're still brainstorming birthday ideas for me. Turning 2-6 on Friday, yikes. I don't really care what we do that day as long as it starts off with a great breakfast place that serves eggs benedict, Mmmm!
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| I Lol-ed at myself when reading this. |
When we moved in almost a year ago we did a lot of new decorating and landscaping while the office just kind of sat there. And 1 year later...it's still kind of just sitting here. And I hate it. It's cluttered and not functional at all. My entire life I've never been a tidy person but this year I began to realize how much better and refreshed I feel in a clean/organized house. Now, I'm craving the same for my workspace and I really thing that would make a huge impact on my "dumb" worrying.
Now let's move on from all this heavy stuff...we're going on vacation tomorrow! Or...work-cation :) We have a wedding up in Napa, Ca this weekend! We'll be road-tripping since it's so much easier than flying with all our gear. I'm anticipating many-a-podcasts to help make the 7 hour drive pass by! This trip will be really good for us, Paul gets to visit his all time favorite brewery, Russian River again and We're still brainstorming birthday ideas for me. Turning 2-6 on Friday, yikes. I don't really care what we do that day as long as it starts off with a great breakfast place that serves eggs benedict, Mmmm!
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