Coming out of my hole

I’ve been posting so much but not really telling you what I’ve been up to lately.  I thought about telling you everything but then I figured by doing so I might stress you out.  But somehow, through it all, I have not complained, had a freak out, but just triumphed through with a smile.  But, there’s so much I want to tell you that’s been going on so I’ll just highlight a few wonderful things that I’ll be elaborating on soon.

#1 One of my bests had a baby and I was there to see the C-section

You probably saw the quick image I posted on Facebook.  Tomorrow I’ll post about how to capture a birth-story for those who expressed interest.  Three years ago I saw Jen’s first baby delivery which was an unexpected C-section and very unexpected because I’d have no idea I’d be in the room with her as that was going on – her husband gets a little woosie.  So since this C-section was scheduled, I was prepared!

#2 I hosted a 2-on-1 Wedding Workshop at my house

I had thought about hosting a live workshop, but never really got around to it.  Sometimes, you put on these things, e-courses included just praying that one or two people will enroll so you don’t feel like a total loser.  It’s hard to put yourself out there repeatedly and not be sure if it’ll be well received and this was one of those things.  Alan and Poly have taken several e-courses of mine (and had met in one of my courses and became like best photog friends) and they wanted to learn more about being professional wedding photographers to make a good, stable living off it and so out they flew all the way from Florida!  We spent all day going through a structured day of presentations on marketing, everything I knew, relationship building, portfolio review, and even had a styled session by Angela Saban waiting for us with live models!  That post goes up this Friday with a video by Love Story Films.  I’m happy to now offer 2-on-1 mentoring so you can grab a buddy and come out to get all the mentoring you need with exclusive attention.  I don’t know if I could go any larger because I really do care about that teacher, student ratio.

#3 Our yard has been under major surgery this past week

We just installed a sprinkler system. We have irrigation (flooding of the yard) in our neighborhood since that’s how we do it in Phoenix, at least in the older home areas.  In the spring and summer we have irrigation twice a month but come winter time, it’s once a month and we have to do winter rye because well, everything just dies here in the summer so we have to replant life.  So sad, I know.   Anyway, it looked like a gopher attacked our front and backyard. The sprinklers will be great when we plant the winter grass instead of pulling out hoses and sprinklers which was such a pain to move continually.  We have also had another delivery from Whitfill Nursery, a new lime and a pink lemon tree (see the little fruit that looks like a watermelon).  The apriums are ready (mini apricots) and I finally tried my Cuisinart Stainless-Steel ice cream maker and did a sorbet which Mr. Wonderful said tasted “earthy” and then decided he liked it.  The birds who I’ve been inviting into our yard are suddenly pests to me as they nibble on my strawberries and apriums that I have to get bird netting and hoops to keep them out.  I’ll show you what it’ll look like when the box arrives.  This urban-farming thing in Phoenix is huge and it’s been fun to just try new things, if it doesn’t work, you can always get a new one.  I find the magic is really just watering.

In other news, this blog will get a wee bit of a face-lift change by Ribbons of Red hopefully by the end of this week and following that, a few upcoming announcements on my end on what I’m doing with my career and life.  More writing, more thoughts, and as always, more sharing.

Diana Elizabeth is looking forward to summer slowing things down.  Time to take new photos of the home to show you what’s been going on!