Richmond Maternity

This was my first shoot of the year and it felt great to get back out and take pictures (of something other then my dogs). The weather is warming up and the world is finally becoming colorful again!

Meet the Richmond family and their adorable home.





This is Alex. She is in Kindergarten, my favorite age! She was so sweet and very photogenic!








































These two cuties had to join the shoot as well. Lemolade a.k.a. Lemonade and Doug.









I love the attitude in this one!




This one is my favorite. The camera just loves Alex!
















































I have a bunch of shoots coming up in April so stay tuned. Also, I can't wait until little Jakob comes in May! My blog readers will get to see him as a newborn and as he grows over the next year.

Workouts

Now that my honeymoon is booked I have a lot of motivation to start working out. Also the weather getting warmer and warmer is a good motivator too. Last summer I worked out a ton because I was trying to get in shape for my wedding. There were two workouts I found worked really well for me and I want to share these with the blog world (and any of my brides trying to get in shape)

30 Day shred by Jillian Michaels. Buy it here.

This is a great (quick) workout. I get really bored with long workouts (and I don't have a lot of time). This video goes by so fast the workout is over before you know it. Its 20 minutes and very affective. It works so many muscles and gets you sweaty and tired. Not to mention sore the next couple days. I also feel its very motivating. The things Jillian says aren't annoying (like a lot of videos) and makes you want to work harder.

I started this video a little while back (I've done 6 out of 30 days). My goal is to finish it as close to 30 days as possible (I may miss a day or two extending the deadline) but I'm okay with that.

After I'm done with the 30 day shred. I want to start up the Couch to 5K again. I got about half way through last summer before school started and it stopped.

You can find the workout plan here for free!

I'm the first to say that I AM NOT A RUNNER! Every time I would look at the next week and say, there's no way I'm going to be able to do that. Then, I got out there and did it. It builds you up very slowly and it works. Its also about 20-30 minutes minutes (3x a week) so it doesn't take up much time either. I may even try to find an actual 5K to run in after its over. There's a facebook group you can also join.

One other motivator that I found that helped me keep all this up last year was a friend. My friend Lizzie and I kept a google calendar of our workouts. (we live in different parts of the county so we couldn't work out together) It gave us accountability. We made a goal (to work out 5 days a week) and recorded what we did on the calendar. There were several days where I didn't feel like working out, I'd go on the calendar and see that she worked out and it would make me do it too. Currently I'm not sharing a calendar with anyone so if you are reading this post and would like to do it let me know. It really helps! We would record everything. Even if all we did that day was go for a walk or do 50 crunches. I think I even recorded digging up the garden and other yard work.

By the way, this is my 100th blog post!

Honeymoon

So we FINALLY booked our honeymoon. This is a big deal because there have been MANY times where I wasn't sure it would actually happen. We got married in September and talked about having our honeymoon at Christmas. Then we realized it would be twice as expensive to go during the holidays and we wouldn't be able to take as nice of a honeymoon. So then we had this crazy idea that we may just be able to go that week after the wedding. Well that got shot down right away by my brand-new principal that I hadn't even started working for yet. So then we decided on this summer. After many discussions about money and that it wasn't financially responsible to take a honeymoon right now, we did it anyway. My feeling is if we keep putting if off for whatever reason, it will never happen.

We found a great place that I am really excited about! Its definitely a dream honeymoon. It is an all-inclusive resort in Rivera Maya Mexico near Cancun. What's even better is that our resort is part of a complex of three resorts and the all-inclusiveness goes for all three. That gives us 20 restaurants, 3 big swimming pools (the beach), several bars and all kinds of things to choose from.



*This picture was taken from Orbitz

Matt and I have never been on a real vacation before together. We have only visited friends and met our families for short trips. This trip is long overdue and I've already started mentally packing. (its 5 months away) I've also started mentally getting in shape...meaning I'm thinking about working out but not actually doing it yet. I'm thinking this trip may be the last time I can wear a bikini so I definitely want to make sure my body is bikini appropriate ;) Today it was cold and rainy on the way home and I conveniently was thinking that I should start running after work (of course not today though because it was raining). Oh and I've been able to speak Spanish for years but have never been to Mexico...its somewhere I've always been meaning to go. Oh July, please hurry up and get here!

*I wrote this post a couple days ago and am just now publishing it. I have now worked out twice, so hopefully I'll keep going with that!

My wedding album

Wow, I never realized how hard it would be to make my own wedding album. First of all Pictage (the company I use to make albums) is tough anyway, because every single thing can be manipulated. Its your choice how big, how many and where you put each and every picture. My first idea was since I got my pictures back in October was that I would have my album finished by Christmas to show everyone. Well, I finally have finished my album (March) and I still haven't ordered it yet. (Waiting on some cash first...) Anyway, for now here's what I've done:


My Wedding album (Click here)


Of course all the pictures were done by the awesome Chad Franz Photography. If you are in Indiana and need a photographer, he's the one to hire! I can't wait until I get it printed and can show it off.

Also, I'm thinking I need to make a fresh new album (like this) to show clients. The one I have is waaaay outdated :)

wedding show

I participated in my second bridal show the other week. The first one I did was a smaller place in Indy and it was a total bust. Only about 5 brides showed up the whole time. This one in Statesville was much better. Not only did it help me to meet some local brides, but I've already booked two weddings for this year!

Here is me in my little booth before the show started:





This is the first time I've been able to showcase my canvas prints. I love them and the hang in my home office, but Jake, Oliver, Matt and I are the only ones who see them. I also brought my computer so I could show people my images through a quality screen.

This is the brochure I made a printed out to give to the people who stopped by my booth. They are the fan looking things in the above picture.



Tons of people showed up and the show was a big success. I had around 40 brides (plus grooms, family members and friends) stop by my booth throughout the day. This is something I'll definitely do again next year!

The Fiat

A year and a half ago, I was packing up my house in Indy to come here to North Carolina. Matt flew to Wisconsin to pick a few things up, rent a truck and haul a car down he kept talking about. Matt pulled up in the huge moving truck in front of our Indiana home. I looked out the window and said what the hell is that!? Behind the truck was this car that looked like it had been pulled out of a fire. It was the ugliest car I have ever seen. Then and there, I was like "oh boy".

Here are some "before" pictures:














Fast forward a year and a half and I walk out into our garage and seriously this is one of the coolest cars I've ever seen. And its even cooler because my husband put it all together by hand. He had it painted and the windshield put in by someone else and a few friends would come and help him work on it. I even did a few small things every once and a while on it.

Here are the "after" pictures:











I'll have to say I was pretty skeptical about this whole thing and a big part of me didn't think it was going to get finished. You hear those stories about project cars being in garages for years and years.

Unfortunately the near completion of this car means that the gears are already turning in Matt's head to start on another car. He has in mind what he wants to do and I'll have to say once again, I'm a bit skeptical :P