Living Room

The living room is looking pretty good... just need some curtains!

More of Gordon...

Our dog is so stinking cute.  :)  I had my camera out doing some photo work, and I couldn't resist snapping of few of Gordon.

This is his new collar... Joe got it for him :)

On the couch :)

Loved the shadows in the living room yesterday

Hello :)

It's Coming Along...

Today was a crazy weather day here in Frederick!  It was cold, then warm, then really hot and sunny, then it rained sideways, got sunny again, rained while it was sunny, then got chilly when the sun went down- weird!

But while the weather did its thing, I was working hard on my booth.  I painted the PVC piping with a special spray paint for plastic (you don't have to prime!), finished my wire frames and cut out the photos for it, made my table cloth (cut and hemmed it), and started picking where everything is going to go on my table.  

Joe has been incredibly helpful and supportive- in fact, our dining room table is my "practice" table with all my albums and stuff on it. :)  I love him!

I can't wait for my sign to get here this coming week- it'll go right between the two wire frames.

The Beginning of a Booth

I have been super sick with some sort of stomach thing for the past 36 hours, but it seems to have subsided, and I couldn't be happier- I was so stinkin' sick!

I have a small bridal show next Saturday and I am starting to get my booth together.  You've seen the lip balms, the sign, and now here's my background!  Joe built it for me :)  He did good.  I need to do a bit of work on it, but I am verrrry happy with it.

So much more to do!  But I've ordered all my paper products, now I just gotta pull it all together!

Sign! :)

So I don't have it yet, but the woman who made my sign sent me these photos- WOW!  I love it!  I think I'm going to have her make a sign for our wedding too! :)  I am excited to get it next week. :)

Lip Balms!

So I have a very small bridal show coming up and I wanted to do something cute, so I got these adorable lip balms. The flavor? Peppermint! They are tasty :)

I will be attaching these to some 5x5 cards that I'm designing right now... I think I'll get them printed on linen paper and I'll round the corners. I am excited! It'll be a lot of work, but hopefully it will be worth it.

A sign I'm having made is also coming this week, and I am pumped- woo! :)

My Boys!

Poor Joe is still working this crazy 6pm to 6am shift (plus he has to work out *after* his shift- like, running six miles!) and he's being such a trooper about it.  He tries to help me in the morning after only a few hours of sleep... I have no idea how he's still standing after getting two hours of sleep the fast three nights! 

Understandably, around 1pm, Joe collapses on the couch for an hour or two before he has to get ready for work again.  Little Gordon has been his faithful companion.  Yesterday the two fo them were so cute that I couldn't resist taking a few photos.  I love these two boys so much!

Gordon loves to snuggle under the covers

soooo cute.  I *love* this photo!

Home Made Oreos

In a bout of domestic-ness, I made home made oreos today.  I only ate half of one, as the rest went to work with Joe... gotta feed those hungry soldiers :)  Heaven knows I don't need to be eating a lot of these! :)

In the bite or two I did have- YUM.  They are super sweet, so you can only eat one in a sitting, but I really enjoyed it.  These would be great for a party.

You can see the recipe here (I adore King Arthur and their blog!) and even a different version I'd like to try- peppermint!

Spring is Here!

On Sunday I did some headshots in DC and as I was walking back to my car I saw these beautiful blooms.  I took a few minutes to take some photos before I drove home, and I'm glad I did.  I am planning on putting these in my Etsy store and also making them into Polaroid transfers.

My Office!

I finally tackled my office today.  It took me a few hours, but I got everything put away.

Sometime this week we'll hang everything up and maybe I'll even paint.  I'm thinking of painting the back wall (the one in this photo) and also painting some of it with chalkboard paint. The rest will stay white.  The only other room I think we're going to paint is the bedroom.

I'm happy to have an office again and be able to spread everything out and play!  :)

I also sorted through the pantry, which made me realize that we have an insane amount of room in there!  I guess if you had a big family and bought things in bulk you might be able to fill it, but Joe and I will pretty much always have an empty-looking pantry.

Not much else to report.  We're all feeling pretty settled, including our little zoo.  Everyone seems to enjoy the windows and the warm sun, including me!  The only issue so far is that a GIANT (I'm talking 150 pounds) dog lives next door and doesn't seem too friendly.  Nothing's happened so far, but when you have a dog who is eight pounds, you get worried.  Hopefully everything will be fine, especially if we get a fence.  (hint hint, Joe! hee)

I'm headed back to DC tomorrow for a long afternoon of meetings, so organizing the house will have to be put on hold until later this week.

We're Getting There!

Today we got a grill!  It's great for us to have because we can eat a lot more stuff now!  I don't eat red meat, so it's hard for Joe.  But now I can have fish and he can have a steak and it's not like cooking to entirely different meals.  Woo hoo! It took longer than anticipated to put it together, so when it got dark out, we had to bring it inside... I just thought it was a funny scene.

 

I made up some marinade recipe and got some veggies ready to get on the grill... yum!  I also made red potatoes, and garlic chicken.  Yay for a good, but very late dinner :)

Our mattress came today!  I loooove our bed, the night stands, the bedding... everything!  I only took this one photo, but I'll be sure to take more soon... we are painting the bedroom, so once I do that (Hi Kate!  You gonna help? :) ) I'll take more, too.

I'm exhausted.  My feet are so tired, it feels like I've been on them for days, which is kind of true!  Joe and I both have to work tomorrow, but we'll still be plowing through things when we can.  

Moved In!

I'm back!  And we're moved in!!! :)

I'm really loving spending quality time with Joe putting together the house.  Today was one of my favorite days together ever :)

The move went really well.  Movers showed up at 8am on the dot, packed everything up by noon, weighed in, moved, and put everything in our new place by 5!  

Joe and I started putting everything away the minute boxes started coming in.  We got the kitchen done first, followed by the living room.  Our goal was to have zero boxes in the downstairs, and we accomplished that, minus one box that is full of frames/decorative items that we're not dealing with just yet.

Then we had to do the guest room, because we have to sleep in there until our mattress comes tomorrow.  We passed out right away and all I remember is waking up to a trumpet at 6am- welcome to living on base- I'm going to hear that and taps every single day!

Today we cleaned up the old place- patched up picture holes, etc.  I'm going to miss it, but we had such a good opportunity here.  I'm glad we moved.  

We also finished our new master closet and most of the master bedroom and bathroom.  When I finally unpack my real photo equipment, I'll have to take a picture of it with my wide angle lens.  It's insanely huge- we have plenty of room in there even with a dresser (in the closet!), and me hanging up way more of my clothes than I did in the condo.  Crazy awesome :)

We also put the bed together which I looooove.  Joe loves it too.  He calls it a "big kid bed."  And yeah, he's right, it's awesome.  We also built the night stands and Joe is currently putting together the lights for them  :) 

We also picked up all the animals today.  Gordon likes the new place, I think.  Frankie is meowing for no good reason, like "when are we going home?!"  It's funny.  

I made some spaghetti tonight with a salad... I love the new kitchen because I can make food and still watch March Madness :)  It's really feeling like home!

We're both exhausted, but are going to power through tomorrow!  We both have to work on Sunday and have busy weeks ahead, so we gotta get a lot done tomorrow.  The mattress gets delivered, I'm going to finish the upstairs closet (it's so darn big that we just threw all the boxes that we didn't want to deal with in there), and *maybe* start on my office.  

Moving Day and Moving Cards!

I bought these about three weeks ago on Etsy, and they are so stinkin' cute!  They are cardboard postcards announcing our move to friends and family.  The studio is vol25, and I love her! :)

This photo doesn't do them justice, but I am too lazy to get the 5D out, so the iPhone will do.

MOVING TODAY!!!

Also, I LOVE CRAIGSLIST!  I got rid of some furniture I didn't want to bring to the new place... so now we have cash in our hands and less to bring to the new house!  Woo hoo!

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow we'll be in our new place! Woo-hoo!

Today is a bit hectic around here, but knowing that tomorrow we'll be in our new place, with wood floors,  new washer & dryer, new sofa & loveseat, a king sized-bed (the mattress doesn't come till Saturday, though!), my new big office, a guest bedroom, and two patios!  We're getting our cable installed tomorrow, too, so I can still be working and so Joe can watch basketball.  

We have a few things still being shipped to us- the side table for the living room, our big canvas wrap of one of our photos (I'm so excited about this!), and lots of other little things... hopefully they all come this next week! :)

I didn't schedule any work stuff until Sunday so that I can spend Friday and Saturday with Joe getting the place in order... but come Sunday I am full steam ahead with photo stuff- head shots, family shoots, and meetings with brides.  It's finally photo season and I'm going to be busy from here on out!

Time to finish sorting stuff, and making a list for tomorrow- wish us luck!

As a girl who has a name that's so Irish that it hurts, I love me some St. Patty's Day :) I remember Irish dancing every year from first grade to 10th or 11th grade at different events on this day- some of my greatest memories!

Sadly, I'll be "celebrating" by meeting with brides allll day. But hey, I'll celebrate if I book them :) I'll in Alexandria, DC, and end up near AU for my last meeting of the day. I'm kind of excited, because I'm going to hang out in my old digs at The Davenport- the coffee lounge I used to work at, in-between meetings :) I have a lot of photos to edit, so hopefully I get some done.

Also- moving so soon I can't stand it! Two days!!! :)

Wedding Favors... maybe?

While doing non-wedding related web surfing, I came across these ADORABLE favors, and I think these might be what we get!

They are faux wood stumps that have your initials and wedding date carved in them! The inside is empty so that you can fill them with your favorite goodies, which, of course, for Joe and I would be sour gummy worms! :)

They would go perfect with our decor and I just love 'em :)

On another note, WE ARE MOVING SO VERY SOON! We might even get the keys to the place a day or two early, which would be great, so we could move some stuff in that the movers won't take (cleaning supplies, food, etc). But I won't get my hopes up just yet, this is the Army we're talking about :)

Go Eagles! :)

American University is back in the big dance!

Last year was the first year ever, and I was in Burma so I didn't get to celebrate!  They are a 14 seed, but hey, they're still in!

At a school that is dorky and nerdy and everyone has internships and cares about school so much, it's almost funny to see AU in the tourney... but hey, I'm an alumnus, so I'll celebrate! :)

As we say here, "Once an Eagle, always an Eagle!" :)

Gordon!

Gordon has been baaaaaad lately!  We love him and all, but geez!  Take a look at these photos of him with food all over his nose- bad doggie! :)  The last one is of him being a good boy :)

Saves the Dates!

Here are the saves the dates!  I've had them done for awhile but we've been so busy!  I finally took photos of them today while I was taking photos of a few of my new albums.  We'll be sending them out in May, right before the postage hike!

The front & back

The goods :)

Just Another Day in the Battles Household...

My favorite boys :)

This photo melts my heart!  

Poor Joe is exhausted from working his twelve-hour shifts, then coming home and getting 3 to 4 hours of sleep before he gets up and runs errands/gets stuff done around the house with me.  I cannot wait for it to be next month so he starts a NORMAL shift of 6am to 6pm instead of 6pm to 6am!

Since he doesn't work tonight, he was so excited to watch college basketball on the couch, but instead he's catching some much needed z's on that couch.  Gordon loves his daddy and is more than happy to snuggle in with him.

On another note... a week from today we move!

More Inspiration...

I'm finally getting into this wedding thing... but just a little.  The idea of me having to pick the color of the linens, the types of flowers I want, picking out a dress (barf), and having to pick out all the food doesn't get me excited at all.  It's just not my thing.  Regardless, I still want an awesome event that isn't over the top, a relaxed atmosphere, and fun.  So I gotta plan some stuff...

Here are a few images that I really like and I think would be something we might do for our little shin-dig next June...

love the dress and the shoes!

love this headband

This sign!  So perfect for our wedding... I like the balloons, too

great idea for table cards

I'm loving this cake, although I want a smaller one than this

This is a great ceremony idea... and totally DIY-able

so cute!  

Ready to Go!

Joe and I have ordered or bought all the big things for our new place that we needed ... bed, mattress, night stands, bar stools, washer & dryer, and the sofa and loveseat. We've made appointments for things to be delivered, done the change of address forms, called the cable company, and we're even finishing off our the food that we don't want to bring to the new place.

It's all done... now we want to move!  

We're just a week away, and we are so darn anxious.  It feels like moving is the only thing we talk about anymore.  The thought of being settled in, able to have friends over, and enjoying our new house sounds so nice.  We already have a few overnight guests penciled in for April and May, and that is so exciting!

I'm also excited to paint (nothing crazy! just a few walls in a few rooms) and Kate has graciously offered her services...  Thanks, Kate! :)  Joe wants to paint our bedroom, so we'll probably get to that first.  After that, I want to paint a wall or two in my office, and maybe the guest bedroom... we'll see how adventurous I feel!

I guess what makes us even more anxious than anything is that we don't have to pack.  Yes, it's the coolest thing ever, but it also keeps us from really moving forward... you know?  If we packed, we'd feel less anxious, I think, like we were doing something.  But soon enough, the 19th will be here and we'll be in our new place.  Yay!

For now, I've been doing silly little things when I feel really anxious... I've taken all the frames and artwork down, put all of my things from my travels in a central box, and started to put all the linens together... makes me feel better!

Any advice to keep me sane, other than a xanex? :)