2-Week To Do List 04/22/2012

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks.  I hope to get my guest bathroom pictures posted on here this week, but I'm not going to hold my breath!  I would like to get the picture/canvas I'm going to paint done first - haha, silly thought.


Monday 4/23 - have a client coming over after work to determine her print order and design a storyboard of her son

Tuesday 4/24 - Brittany's school play at 7pm which gives me just enough time to get home, grab my camera and pick up Dad & Johnathon.  Won't be home until around 9pm so I doubt I get much accomplished at home, may throw the clothes already in the washer into the dryer.  Have to edit one picture for a client - a special request.

Wednesday 4/25 - I need to go in early, early, early to prep for Thursday's meeting, baseball game after work, order pictures for a client when I get home from the game

Thursday 4/26 - get to work in the early, early am hours again, Board Meeting that afternoon (boo - hiss), baseball game after work

Friday 4/27 - Johnathon has a baseball game after work (away game, doubt I'll go - don't tell), design & order a storyboard for a client, most likely have another order or two to place

Saturday 4/28 - cheerleading competition at 10am, lunch with Martin's at the parents house afterwards - hope to get to take a few pictures with the Martin's, grand opening of Stark's Fitness Center in Benton - make appearance & finish registration (I'm joining a gym!!), Spring Gathering in Marion (kind of a big rummage sale of antiques & 'junk') that I have to be at it before it ends at 3pm, 2-year old photo session in the early evening

Sunday 4/29 - two photo sessions - toddler & high school senior, finish up a wedding decorating quote, edit a photo session, maybe clean my house a little?? maybe

Monday 4/30 - end of the month at work (involves a lot of work for accounting), work on assemblying wedding invites I designed

Tuesday 5/1 - first of the month at work (first day of the month means even more work for accounting), spring band concert at SV High.

Wednesday 5/2 - quarterly financial meeting in St. Louis with the banker, lecture that evening on lighting for photography (this is a fun thing for me), spending the night in STL

Thursday 5/3 - on-hands seminar in St. Louis on photography lighting at a local studio!!  I'm really excited about this, it'll be the first training I've ever had on photography.  Johnathon has a game in the afternoon, doubt I make it back in time.

Friday 5/4 - Johnathon has a baseball game after work, finish all the wedding invites after the game (150 with rsvp to make, easy peasy)

Saturday 5/5 - something is going on this morning but I can't remember what right now, deliver wedding invites to the bride, baseball game, Prom night at SV - I have multiple high school students to take pictures of in the late afternoon, and it's my BIRTHDAY!!! 

Sunday 5/6 - shooting an engagement session, edit a few pictures from the previous weekend

Monday 5/7 and Tuesday 5/8 - audit at work, oh the joy


And that's what my next two weeks involve!
I have all the supplies, tools to install my crown molding in my kitchen - now to find the time....

Snow, Fireplace and Christmas Decorations

Well it doesn't show signs of stoppin'
and I brought some corn for poppin'
and since we've no place to go (tadada)
Let it Snow
Let it Snow
LET IT SNOW

Sunday morning here in SoIL and we finally have our first SNOW! I love the snow!
I really need to be at work today since I have a board meeting tomorrow in which I was given the shortest amount of time possible to get the financials done and then on top of it have to forecast the rest of the year to determine bonus checks. But instead I think I'll sit at home in front of my fireplace and enjoy the scenery. Big thanks to Dad for getting firewood out of the woods out back and starting a fire yesterday while I was at a photo session.

My thermostat is set on 60 and didn't kick on until around 6:30 this morning. Of course I didn't carry wood in last night and had to treck out in the snow early this morning to keep the fire going - well worth it though, I love the feel and smell of wood burning.

Oh forgot to mention, I am officially living in my house now!!

Moved in the day my first house guests arrived (day before Thanksgiving), well truth be told I had to pack an overnight bag with clothes in it after my house guests were here because I only had enough moved for it to be liveable (didn't get around to clothes) and it rained that entire week.

My first Christmas tree.

I'm not ready to show you pictures yet as NO room in my house is done. I've been super duper busy this fall with pictures and have worked 60 hours plus the last two weeks and expect about that many hours this week too so 'things' at the house have been put off. But on a good note, come Thursday afternoon......I'm on vacation until the new year! That vacation isn't going to be a relaxing time but rather a "I'm getting stuff done at the house" vacation. I"ll relax some, but I'm ready to get a few projects marked off as complete. I won't really be able to relax until I get things done.

On the agenda for Christmas break:
*build kitchen island
*faux tin tile ceiling in kitchen
*molding on kitchen shadow boxes
*lay flooring in kitchen
*seal basement floor
*paint basement walls
*maybe build a few shelves in basement
*do a funky treatment on north wall in living room (knocking it out in spring so as of right now it's totally unfinished and ugly - have an idea on cheap treatment to mask look until remodel)
*hang blinds and window treatments in bedrooms and kitchen
*fix paint on kitchen cabinet doors
*hopefully get my handy-men to finish the tile in my bathroom, run electrical hookups to rest of outlets and move my satelitte connection
*re-arrange living room

*lay flooring in closet
*get bed set-up and bedroom put together (matress is on the floor right now), the room is painted but that's about all I can say about it
*maybe if I have time and weather permits, get crown molding installed in two bathrooms

I think that sounds like enough work for a vacation. Here are a few of my Christmas ornaments......well, it's time for me to design a few photo albums and then start working on company financials spreadsheets so I don't have to go into work at 3am tomorrow morning to get them done in time!

Quick update

I know I'm behind on my blogging.....sorry. Life's been busy, what can I say.

Today:
1. Went to my house to start prep on wedding stuff for this weekend
2. Attempted to wash vases & jars in my dishwasher (doesn't work when the hot water heater is turned off, just a FYI for anyone else out there remodeling), so I started washing them by hand - to be continued tomorrow
3. Received delivery of fresh flowers from both UPS and FedEx!
4. Packed my car and dad's truck with tent, tables and chairs
5. Went to Johnathon's ball game in ZR (SV wins!!)
6. Go to MOB house and set up party tent and tables and chairs for rehersal dinner
7. get home about 8pm and fall onto couch, tired

Thursday:
1. Make floral arrangements for rehersal dinner
2. Delivery arrangements to MOB for rehersal dinner in the early am hours
3. Return to my house and assemble all floral arrangements
4. Prep all supplies and 'stuff' for wedding

Friday:
1. Pack up cars with wedding stuff
2. Decorate Kokopelli's for outdoor wedding and indoor reception later that evening
3. Breakdown tent from MOB houses during wedding ceremony
4. Breakdown wedding/reception later in evening

Saturday:
1. Attend two baseball games in Pinckneyville @ 10am and I believe 1pm
2. Take pictures at a 55th anniversay party later that evening

Sunday:
1. High school senior photo session early Sunday evening

......I don't understand why I can't get anything done on my house! Oh and I have about 4 photo sessions to get edited. So that being said I think it's well past the time for me to be in bed, long day tomorrow and then again Friday and then again Saturday. I should have time to do a real house update next week - progress is being made, promise.

Stay Tuned....

I have a big announcement coming next week so stay tuned!!
After this announcement I'll be posting more to my blog too.

Life's been hectic as usual. Junior high track ended about a week ago, of course summer baseball has already been practicing for a month now. Every Sesser team kicks off the season with a home game next Saturday, May 29th. So if you're in the area, drop by the new fields you're bound to find at least one relative of mine there (oh yah, Sesser has 4 new ball fields wooo hooo!!!). I'll be the one behind the camera if you have trouble locating me! I have two nephews (Johnathon and Matthew) and one neice (Katie) playing ball this year. Have absolutely no idea how many cousins, if I happen to see them there great - but don't plan to hunt them all down.

I'm determined to get the pictures from baseball edited quickly and posted to my client viewing website.... http://pfphotography.zenfolio.com in the sports section. Be sure to check out the 1st grade basketball if you haven't seen them already. I'll have this years school junior high baseball posted on the client viewing website soon along with the basketball pictures from this year. Next year I'm not going to take 8000 junior high basketball pictures, they take FOREVER to edit. Speaking of that I've been checking out a few seminars that teach more efficient post editing procedures, I need this training in the worst way. If anyone that reads my blog knows of a good seminar to attend pertaining to this let me know.

I'll get pics posted soon from the Steak & Jazz night (Johnathon plays baritone), Chorus Spring concert and Band Spring concert. Tonight is the junior high awards banquet. I thought about skipping it but was specifically asked if I was going to be there to get pictures of him accepting his awards, so I guess I'm going after all. Sunday night is baccalaureate at the high school and graduation is Thursday. I have a cousin graduating and I'm decorating a party at the church for the 9 seniors from Hazel Dell (one of which is my cousin).

Well, I think that's about all I have to report right now. Burned my thumb on hot glue last night making silk floral arrangements for headstones. Since today is Grandma's birthday I did arrangements in none other than PINK for the two urns on her headstone and did matching arrangements for my dad's parents. Grandma's is getting one of the pink flamingo yard stakes from her birthday party that I still have. Also did red,white&blue arrangements for Shane Wheatley and Grandpa Shurtz for next weekend (Memorial Day). Johnathon will be marching with the band from the 4-way stop in Sesser out to the cemetery. I'll be sure to take pictures of the headstone for those living away from here who haven't seen it yet.

New Business Cards

New business cards I designed yesterday for my decorating company....

three design - front & back (info on the back is the same on each design)

Johnathon's last basketball game was Thursday night! Yeah!! My rear is ready for a break from the bleachers. Either I'm getting older or those bleachers are getting harder, pretty sure it's the latter and two to three games a week can really wear a person out. I created the business card below to hand out to all the basketball parents Thursday night. Now I need to get the 7000 plus pictures taken this season uploaded to my website so they can view/purchase them.
Johnathon informed me he doesn't like the picture, says he's making a retarded face. Oh well!

I decorated a Golden (50th) Anniversary yesterday - congrats to Bill & Judy Rea. Should have those pics up by the end of the week. It was beautiful needless to say. Aunt Eileen and I have done two bridal shows this month and I decorated a quarterly VFW Auxiliary meeting in DuQuoin the weekend between the bridal shows.

Good News - I don't have anything scheduled for this weekend!!! WooHoo! I don't think I have another decorating venture until May (it'll be a BIG one though) so my mother gets her living room back as soon as I get everything completely put away - needless to say she's happy for the break.

The first of the year is always a blast for accountants, not only am I trying to get 2009 financials completed I also have to get all of my spreadsheets redesigned for 2010 and do I ever use a LOT of spreadsheets! Plus our banks & company owners are requesting a forecast income statement for year-end 2010. Which means I have to look into my crystal ball and interpret the sales forecast into a working P/L, forecasting how much profit we'll have in 12 months based on what they 'think' they'll sell.

So after working late every night this week getting the accounting chores done, I'll be working on finishing Lindsey & Ben's wedding pic edits (better late than never....right?). I have all of the actual wedding done, just working on the formal/after-wedding pictures. I tried to up upload some tonight but my internet is running super slow.....

While editing basketball and Lindsey's wedding pics, I also need to get oh three or four afghans crocheted. I haven't crocheted much since having the carpal tunnel surgery. Hope I still can, time will tell. At some point in time I have to find time to SCRAPBOOK. I haven't been in the basement for 'ME' time in soooo long. If you didn't tell my mother happy birthday Thursday, you missed it - oops for you. Also, very happy to report that my Aunt Helen had a successful 4-bypass heart surgery week before last and is now at home and recovering. Well, I think that's all I have to report for now.

Edits Edits and more Edits!

Amy & Heather - Hawaiian Luau 2006

I've been sitting at the computer literally all day long working on spreadsheets for work that I have to have done by 9am Monday morning and editing pictures. I've tried to go back and forth between the two as to not fry my brain on either at any one given point. In case you missed it I did say ALL day, yes my rear is officially flat!

I have determined that I take way too many pictures at one setting. For instance at the basketball game Thursday night I put in an empty 4gb flash card and when I walked out of the gym I had a whooping 18 pictures left on the card - that means I took well over 300 pictures at the game! Now multiply that by 25-30 games......I'll let you do the math, I've shut down my spreadsheets for the night. I just know it's too many pictures to keep up with edits on a timely basis. Now if I didn't have to work, those edits would be a breeze.

On a good note my cousin called and I heard my phone ringing and was able to answer and talk which ended our two week long phone tag! HOORAY! I had a great chat with her tonight, well talking on the phone for over an hour isn't really just a chat but you get the point. I soooooo wish she lived closer to me. She actually understands my frustrations, sarcasm and warped sense of humor. We have similar likes and dislikes which makes our complaints and gossip that much more fun. If I didn't know better I'd think we're related :) I haven't got to see her recently, hopefully she'll get to come for a visit soon. If not I may have to make a trip to VA, hey when is your next wedding shoot - that would just be too much fun!!

Well since it's after midnight I guess I'd better give the computer a rest and get some sleep. I need to continue working on the edits from a wedding & start the edits from a family session tomorrow along with finishing up the spreadsheets for work, edit the basketball pics and I'm taking pics of a Sesser senior in the early afternoon. Piece of Cake!

09.21.09 Update

It's a rainy Monday morning and I'm back at work after taking off a few days last week. Sorry I'm behind on my blog, I need to find about 4 more working hours in EACH the day!

I decorated another wedding this past weekend, it was a little nerve-racking as the bride and mother of the bride are in the wedding business (they sell wedding dresses). Sorry I don't have my memory stick to post pictures, which I didn't take many due to time constraints - but I do have a few from the chapel after it was decorated to post. The entire evening was decorated in white calla's, orchids & roses and dark, dark purple calla's. Big THANKS goes out again to my crew - Arielle, Brenda, Aunt Eileen, Mom & Staci. I was on auto pilot yesterday, got a few things put away but for the most part just 'moved' through the day. Mentally and physically drained plus one of my bottom wisdom teeth has decided to try to come in again - I know, I know I need to have them cut out. The frequency of their attempts to surface has increased so I may make that appointment to an ortho surgeon.

My 20th class reunion and the Art & Wine Festival at the Southern Illinois Artisan Shop is this weekend. I'm partially decorating and photographing a wedding the first weekend in October and decorating another purple wedding the second weekend in October. After those two weddings I just have photo sessions for the rest of the year!!! I've already started thinking about my Christmas cards this year and since I didn't get them out last year - I should have most of the supplies already.

Junior high baseball is ending this week. Flag football for Matthew and Katie (cheer leading) started this past weekend, unfortunately with the events I have going I'll only be able to catch the last game or two. I think we have a few weeks off before basketball begins, but not many. So between sports and my three jobs I keep busy. I don't understand when people post and talk about being bored - I just don't understand that term any more.

Weekend Plans

I'll be headed out the door in a few sec's to take pictures. Three sessions throughout today, great news - beautiful weather - a little hot for me but anything over 80 is hot to me. Met with a new bride last night, now I need to get a quote together for her and make sure everything is in order for the three upcoming weddings in September/October.

Johnathon and the SV Junior-High Baseball team are in a tournament today. Don't know that I'll get to make any of those games, but I'll try if they win the first game which just got underway as I start this post.

Sometime this weekend I need to get the basement put 'back together' after the air conditioner/furnace became plugged up and LEAKED, soaking the basement carpet (just on my side of the basement of course). That job could take an entire weekend since I needed to organize and clean it before the carpet became saturated and dad/I had to quickly get everything up off the floor - which by the way is a lot of stuff. You don't realize how much stuff you have crammed into such a small area until you have to quickly move it all! Lost some of the paper products I had on the floor along with at least one of my shelving units (one of those cheap pressed wood ones - they soak up a lot of water and swell!)

Well, my clients are here so I must go now.
Have a great weekend, I'm off to shoot pic's.

I see the light!

The past two, rather three months have been a little hectic (all my own fault of course). I'll now admit, working full-time and decorating three weddings in two weeks was just a little much :) I have table decor for 12 tables to do for a 50th anniversary party this weekend and two photos sessions next weekend and then I think I'll have a couple of weeks off! I think I may take a few days off from work without having a reason to be off - ME days, I think I've earned a few of them.

My plans for the next month are to get a new dvd burner for the ole computer and start burning the heck out of disks with pictures so I can get them off my computer. It was brought to my attention a few weeks back that I'm OUT of hard disk space on my computer (and I have an 80gig hard drive!) I've been saving the raw pic file along with the edited pic files and I take a LOT of pictures and well my computer is completely full and bogged down with pictures. So I'm going to do some much needed maintenance to clean up the computer so I can edit all of the pictures from this summer.......I'm literally talking about several 1000 pictures - I told you I take a lot of pictures.

And while I'm not sitting on my butt in front of the computer, I've decided to 'make-over' the middle/big section of the barn. My decorating inventory has grown too large for the little garage in front of the house. I've considered renting storage space uptown or purchasing a pre-built storage shed but then realized that I'd spend just as much if not more on those two options and end up with much, much less space.

So I'm going to fix/replace all missing and or broken boards, build some shelves for storing vases/fabric/tablecloths/flowers/etc..., level the ground and pour a concrete floor, run some electricity (someone else will have to do this part - Dad), build a door, and possibly build a loft. The middle section is the tallest, as is with most barns, and there will be a lot of wasted space if we don't have a loft area - well, unless we hang things from the rafters - don't really see that as a option. I'll be sure to take before and after pictures when this project gets started. I love to remodel/redesign and build things and can't wait, of course once it gets started and feels like it will never end I doubt I'll be as excited about the undertaking.

Johnathon starts practice Monday for school junior high baseball. Which means that another series of baseball games (and pictures) will begin in a few weeks - about the time school starts.

My above to do list needs to be done before my next busy time which starts with a wedding on Sept 19th to decorate along with all floral, my 20th reunion (which I'm decorating of course) on Sept 26th which is also the Wine & Art Festival so I'll have to help at Mom's shop some, a wedding on Oct 3rd to photograph and help with some decor, and a wedding to decorate on Oct 10th along with all floral. Of course the quarter ends in September so in October I'll have to have the quarterly financials done once again also.

I have a feeling it's going to be 2010 very, very quickly!

PostVacation Chores

I know those of you who have been gone on vacation for over a week understand what it's like to return to EVERYTHING you must get done while you were gone. It always seems to me that I have 5 times more work that needs to be completed when I'm gone from work for a while, haven't quite figured out why that is yet. I realize I still owe you pictures from baseball season, Sesser 5K fun walk/run, vacation and Lindsey's wedding. The day we returned from Florida, Johnathon and Matthew entered into the end of season baseball tournament - like I could miss any of those games.

Then when baseball ended, Uncle JohnD and Aunt Kathy came for a visit from SanDiego. Of course we always eat well when we have company over and we had fried zucchini one nite which is probably one of my favorite foods. I think I can eat 2-3 zucchini by myself. Since they're fried we don't fix them often, so I made a pig of myself and quite frankly don't really care!! Oh did I mention I LOVE FRIED ZUCCHINI!

With not only the month ending while on vacation, but also the quarter and mid-year point as an accountant my full-time job workload has been crazy since I got back. I have to have the midyear analysis done and ready to present to the banks by next Tuesday which = 12 hour work days through the end of this month ends to get it all done. While in the mean time I have two weddings to decorate this weekend and one next weekend!
One wedding this weekend is black/white/yellow with lemons as the accent. here are a few of the 350 candy bags filled with lemon wedge candy that will be given to the guests.

I also had to do 225 orange candy bags for Lindsey's reception this weekend. I filled hers with orange & tangerine flavored 'salt water' taffy to go with the whole beach theme of her wedding in Destin, Florida - pretty smart don't you think.


Yesterday I received several shipments from FedEx and UPS. Actually they've been coming to my house like everyday for almost a week now. You should see my living/dining room - it's wedding central! Yesterday they brought me the following items:

50 yellow & white freesia
20 orange lilies
100 yellow static
120 yellow spider mums
60 white large calla lilies
20 mini white calla lilies
200 mini yellow calla lilies
400 yellow carnations (filler)
200 yellow roses
150 orange roses
50 hot pink roses
20 yellow garden roses
10 white garden roses
330 yellow snapdragons
4 field bunches of tree fern
3 field bunches of waxflower
The orange and hot pink are for Lindsey's reception, the yellow & white are for Ashlee & Bryan's black/white/yellow reception. Of course the all had to be unpacked, ends cut and bottom leaves removed before I put them in 5 gallon buckets of water to hydrate.

Last night in the midst of all the decorating prep, Aunt Eileen brought over Ben for a little photo session. Our first photo session was suppose to be 2 weeks after he was born, but he decided to go to stop breathing and visit the hospital instead - guess he was just camera shy. Well let me just say, taking pictures of high school seniors is a WHOLE lot easier than babies. That was a learning experience last night to say the least and now that he's not just a couple of weeks old he was too big to do most of the poses I wanted to do but not big enough to do the other one's I wanted to do. Plus I wanted to do some outside shots but once again it was raining here - that has got to stop. The sun is shining right now, maybe tonight I can squeeze in a few outdoor pictures?!

Well, that's pretty much what I've been up to since vacation. I'm getting ready to head out to get my hair cut uptown (going to be late if I don't wrap this up soon!) and then tomorrow the real decorating begins! I'm nervous in a good way and can't wait to share pictures of the receptions with you! Have a good weekend - mine will be without sleep, just not seeing where I'll have time for that! Good thing I LOVE coffee.

On Strike!

I went outside to move my car from the middle of the driveway where I stopped when we finally arrived home late last night to the place I normally park it only to find out it's on STRIKE today and absolutely refuses to go anywhere. After being pack to the rim for a week and 2235 miles driven it wants a day off - so I'm going to give in and let it rest for a day!

Instead of running a few errands as I'd planned to do, I'm going to get some things done here at home. Laundry will be the first order of business and is already underway. I attempted to download some of the pics from this past week this morning only to realize that I'm out of hard drive space on my computer - if it's not one thing it's another with this thing, seriously.

So I'm doing some maintenance work that I should have been keeping up with all along.....copying files to disks so I can get them off the hard drive and backing them up to an external hard drive at the same time. Once that's done I need to complete an engagement session edit from before vacation, 5k Fun Walk/Run pictures, vacation pictures, and Lindsey & Ben's wedding pics. Oh and at some point in time complete all of the basketball and baseball pictures. Plus I need to get them on my blog for everyone to see - I know I'm such a slacker!


For those who didn't get my mobile uploads (taken on my new blackberry which I LOVE), here is a sneak peek of vacation.....Dinsey Animal Kingdom picture of Matt, Katie, Brittany & Johnathon after the face painting - acting like tigers. Sorry I didn't get to blog on vacation, just didn't have time (or energy after loooooong days spent running around)
I need to wash, dry, fold and put away 3-4 loads of laundry and put away everything we took on vacation - my vehicle and the van were packed FULL. It's almost noon and I need to have everything done before 6:30pm so I can get to Matt's baseball tournament tonight..........think I'll get everything done? hehe I don't! Hope everyone has a wonderful week, mine will be busy. Thank goodness we get Friday off!

Weekend Update - 05.31.09

I know I need to get pictures up, but I just wanted to type a quick post to let you know what I'm up to / what I have going on.

Arielle and Bart's graduation party was a success last night - the room looked GREAT of course - that decorator they hired ROCKS :)!! I'll get a few of those pictures posted the first available minute I have to look at them. We broke down a lot of the decorations last night (thanks again for the help Tamar & Lydia). I brought home a car full of stuff that I need to go unload out of my vehicle. I'm meeting the unpaid 'hired' help in a few to finish the clean up and get everything hauled home and put away, I'm hoping it will only take two more trips to complete the clean up.

When I woke up this morning at my typical 5:30am I realized that I forgot to take a picture of the food table last night, so I'll have to show you the food tags without them being displayed by the actual food. Kind of bummed that I didn't take this picture - if anyone else did let me know please! I'll warn you now I didn't really take that many pictures last night. I once considered decorating and photographing a wedding for someone - bad, bad idea. Once you spend 2 days decorating you're pooped by the time the event starts and pretty brain dead. Lesson learned: you either photograph an event or you decorate it, but never ever both.

I've been editing the pictures of my cousin's twins who turned 1 a few days after I took their picture (taken a little longer than I wanted to edit with baseball starting and graduation and.....). I'll have those done this week and posted on the photography blog - cute 1 year old twin girls, of course you'll check back to see those pics.

I have an engagement session to shoot later this afternoon. I was suppose to do it last weekend but the rain kind of ruined our day, FYI outside pics don't look all that great when the subjects are soaking wet. So far today is beautiful, hopefully it stays this way all day so we can get this session taken (I'm really looking forward to doing their pictures).

So that's what I've been up to this weekend. Hopefully during this next week I'll be at home in the evenings some and will be able to catch up on my photo edits. Summer baseball started a few weeks ago (most games have been cancelled due to the mass amounts of rain we've had this spring) but I do have some pictures to get the season started.

Ribs and the weekend

I went to eat at Chili's last night with some friends and got the same thing I always get there - chipolte ribs, loaded potato's and rita's!! LOVE them. Hungry right now, hmmm Mt.Vernon isn't that far.....

I finally did my TAXES yesterday and as expected getting a nice little check/deposit from the US government. I never doubted that I'd get a refund (I play with my withholding to make sure of it in fact), I don't know why I've put off doing them for so long this year - it wasn't even painful - a little time consuming with my three side businesses but not painful.

I finished most of the photo edits from my cousin's shoot yesterday. Posted them on my PhotoBlog if you haven't seen them yet. Today I need to make a disk for my Aunt to take to their house (Jeff & Mary's) Sunday. We're hoping to hear any time now that she's (Mary) gone into labor and their new little boy is en route - no word yet though.

My first load of laundry is in the washer, I've watched Survivor from last night - can't wait until next week when they'll get to vote (anxious to see which plot attempt works), caught up on most of my blog reads, bought a few new cartridges for my Cricut (they're on sale, most just $30 - check them out), baked two packages of the Easter egg sugar cookies by Nestle for Johnathon, Matt, Katie to decorate later - Mom's watching them later today. I have one more wedding quote to finalize, things to purchase for the shower next weekend and grad party and the upcoming weddings. Two photo sessions tomorrow, it's suppose to be close to 60 tomorrow so I'm hoping to do some outside pics. I need to design the graduation invitation in photoshop and my cousin's wedding invitation next week also.

I must find time to clean sometime in the next 36 hour period, it's time to 'make-over' my bathroom with a new look and would love, love, love to find a few hours to spend in the basement scrapping....not looking like that's going to happen but I'm not giving up on it entirely just yet either. I'm making grandma's potato salad for Easter Sunday to go with the ham and that should wrap up my weekend!

If I don't find time to get back on here.....HAPPY EASTER!!

FB

I'm finally on facebook! I always thought it was like myspace (which I don't like much and rarely log into) and therefore never joined. Boy was I wrong! In 24 hours I was able to talk to a ton of people I haven't seen in years. If you haven't signed up yet, just do it - trust me.

I went in for a trim yesterday and ended up having Tiffany cut several inches off my hair. I love it!! I may even take a picture of myself, or maybe not - but I do love the cut.

In other news....
1. Working on several wedding quotes, not at this exact moment since I'm at my ft job as I type. The only problem with working on quotes is that I don't want to wait months and months to decorate. I start researching and finding ideas/pictures and I want to make it happen - right now.
2. Have a meeting with a new bride tomorrow (black/white wedding with yellow accent - great color choices)!
3. Traveling with my Aunt to my cousin's house this weekend to do pregnancy/family pictures. Be sure to check out the photography blog early next week.
4. So ready for it to warm up just a tad bit so I can start doing outside pictures again - several seniors waiting for warm weather.
5. Dad's doing better but still has weeks upon weeks of recovery/therapy ahead.
6. Track starts Monday (Johnathon) - I'm soooo thrilled, I mean we had like one whole week of no sports!
7. Still working on the 1000+ basketball pictures, I'm about 1/2 the way done.

.....and that's about all I have to report at the moment.

One of those days

I need to post the period 13 adjustments I received from our auditor in the mail and close 2008. Which isn't a big deal until I have to correct all of the spreadsheets to reflect the new numbers, which is just a little time consuming. Oh, I have to do this for 3 of the 4 companies (4th won't be done for a while). Not difficult or mind boggling - just don't feel like doing it.

I need to get going on the February financials and sales reports. I do this monthly, not a big deal - just don't feel like doing it.

I really, really, really need to clean my fish tank in my office here at work. I feel sorry for my fish so I'll probably do this task even though I don't feel like carrying all of that water.

I need to re-pot my plants in my office. I get NO sunlight in my office so a few of my plants have decreased in size. About once a year I just add a few new starts to the pot to make it 'appear' that my plants are growing.

I need to clean my office, more specifically I need to FILE papers away. I also need to carry all of the 2006 files downstairs to make room for 2009, make binder covers for 2009, shred a huge stack of paperwork and organize my closet.

I wore jeans, CPI logo tee-shirt and flip flops to work today to do some of the messy jobs on my "I need to..." list and now that I'm at work I don't feel like doing any of them. I getting a headache which has been occurring for a couple of weeks now once I get to work. I've noticed that I'm squinting a lot too. Not sure if the headaches are causing the vision problems or the vision problems are causing the headaches. Too much to think about, I think I'll head to Walmart and get bottled water so I can clean my fish tank.....no thought involved in that task. Just a little heavy lifting.

Saturday Morning

It's Saturday morning and I'm drinking my second cup of coffee, sitting at my computer making out my mental to-do list for the weekend:

1) Wrap presents for Matthew's birthday party this afternoon. (My nephew is having a skating party for his birthday - he was 6 on Jan 15th - Happy Birthday Matthew!!) Oh and yes I will be skating....loved skating when I was younger....haven't been for a while but I'm sure it's like riding a bike!

2) Pack car for bridal show tomorrow (do wish the temp outside was above the single digits for this task - oh well). Items required (3) 7 ft columns, (2) 6 ft columns, (2) 6 ft poles to connect columns, (4) 4x6 net lights to hang from poles, (2) sheer curtains to mask lights,(2) 3 ft columns with mirror tops, (2) column topper floral arrangements in brown & kiwi green, (3) glass pedestal vases, (2) vase floral arrangements in brown & kiwi green, (1) 3" white floating candle disk, (8) mirror tiles, (9) 3" round vases with kiwi green 2" floating candles, (2) lrg round black wrought iron standing candelabras with white candle and floral ring, (2) 5-candle standing black wrought iron standing candelabras with white candles, (4) brown satin bows for candelabras, (4-5) sets of lights for under table's, brown & kiwi satin to swag front table and column's in background, extension cords, business cards, lighter, sign.

3) "Make" floral arrangements for the top of the columns and glass pedestal vases! I guess this should go before #2. Can't pack it in my car until it's done.

4) "Make" a sign with Cricut so that people walking by know that the booth is for "Joyce's Bridal" and the set design is by "Your Event Designer" aka me.

5) Make sure all satin to be used is un-wrinkled!

6) Attend the skating party in DuQuoin @ 2pm today.

7) Tomorrow I'll need to be in Marion by 8am when the event center doors open to start the decorating process. We'll have 3 1/2 hours to have the booth presentable with 1/2 hour to change clothes and make thyself presentable. The bridal show will last for four hours, then break down/cleanup, unpack the car and put everything back into the garage and I should be back in my pajama's somewhere between 7 & 8 tomorrow evening. I plan to get some sushi before I head home tomorrow evening for supper.

8) Take pictures of booth.

9) Take pictures of Arielle who will be modeling at the bridal show.

I had intended to go into work this morning before the B'day party but when I started to really think about everything I need to do today I decided my sanity would best be kept if I stayed at home. Of course now I'm stressed out about what I was going to do at work today that obviously won't get done....need to let it go - it'll just have to wait until next week.

Considering my to-do list, guess I need to get with it and off of here.
Have a great weekend!

Back to work

It's Sunday evening and my week off from work is quickly coming to an end. I only completed 6 of the 19 items on my to do list :( Luckily though I'm almost done with editing another photo shoot, which will be 3 photo sessions complete!! I'm thinking I'll just pay someone to detail my car so that I can check that one off my list - I never claimed I was detailing the car myself. This is one of the pictures from my current edit session that I REALLY love. I'll have more on my photo blog in a day or two. Unfortunately today's weather didn't allow me to do the 2 photo sessions I had scheduled. Near freezing temps with rain/sleet mixture usually doesn't make subjects photogenic.....go figure! Tomorrow I must return to work after a whole week off, but I only have to work 3 weeks and I'm off for another 2 weeks! I always take off the last two weeks of the year, so returning isn't all that bad. Plus I know I'm going to have more than enough work to keep me super busy until my next vacation. I'm going to edit a few more pictures before retiring to bed and a few pages of "Twilight". Oh I almost forgot, when I was shopping Friday a picked up a cute new shower curtain and towel set to redecorate my bathroom for Christmas - plan to do that next week, will be sure to post a pic when it's done! Hope you great work week!

It's raining again

It's raining here in SoIL at the moment and should rain the entire night, ending sometime late tomorrow morning. I love going to sleep listening to rainfall and the best part is that I don't have to get up before the crack of dawn tomorrow! I'm off work for an entire WEEK.


While I don't have to report to CPI world headquarters I do have a lot to accomplish this week. I thought if I post my "to do" list, then maybe I'll accomplish a little more of it.

1. Laundry - caught up and put away
2. "Spring" clean bedroom - AGAIN, yes I realize spring has already sprung
3. Detail car - it really needs waxed before the winter months - then again maybe I should look at trading it for a ??????
4. Finish edits on all photo shoots - honestly this will consume most of my time this week
5. Get wireless router working - AGAIN
6. Clean/organize craft room - take picture if this actually gets done
7. Create this year's Christmas card
8. Make 150 Christmas cards from above said design - lets be realistic this won't happen in one week
9. Create/order PF Photography business cards
10. Create "save the date" cards for the bride-to-be to proof
11. Create multiple wedding invitations for the bride-to-be to proof
12. Work on quote for wedding - deliver to the bride-to-be
13. Get photography website? still looking at cost, not positive on this one yet
14. Work on CPI financial "stuff" before returning to work next Monday
15. Attend 20th reunion planning meeting
16. Shop on Black Friday - duh
17. Two more photo shoots, Saturday and Sunday
18. Crochet another baby afghan (2 actually) and a scarf
19. Eat lots of turkey on Thursday with the family

I think that will keep me pretty busy. I'll get a few pictures from this weekends photo shoots posted hopefully tomorrow. If I'm MIA for a few days, you now understand why. Have a great Thanksgiving week!