Studio, Part B - THE WALL

I am so proud of my husband! He worked extremely hard this weekend and managed to survive a very long trip at Menards, work a shift at FedEx, sit through a traffic jam, build a wall, watch the kids during my photo shoot, purchase donuts I actually like, help me carry in a PILE of groceries, and kill a very fast spider with a pretty small stick. :) Oh, and did I mention he built a wall?

It was his first wall and, having done a bit of framing and drywalling myself in the past, I have to say....his wall looks great! Of course, he is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to his work..... but I digress.

Here is an update to show you how our studio is coming along:

Here is my hubby working hard! (Well, not really. He's actually just posing for the picture. But he was working hard right before this.) :)



I have no idea why this picture is blurry, but just ignore that.



The completed wall:



We still have a bit of spackling left to do. Then we'll spray on the texture and paint and we'll be FINISHED! Yay! Oh, and just for you, Katy, here's a picture of our "new" kitchen...which, by the way, we happen to think is still pretty big.



I rewarded Daniel with one of his favorite treats: Hershey's Special Dark. Mmmm.

I will keep you updated as the wall progresses. :) Also, my backdrops should be arriving later this week, so I'll be sure to post more pictures when I get those all hung up and in place.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Happy Monday!

The clock read 1:59 when my head hit the pillow this morning. This weekend was packed with a senior shoot, LOTS of work on the studio, grocery shopping, church, garage-saleing (totally a word), organizing, and cleaning. Along with all that normal parenting stuff, of course. :)

Since I have about a million photos to process, here are a few more spring blooms to hold you over:

Coming Soon...

Sit tight, folks. Coming this week are updates on the studio, a new senior session, and whatever else I can pull out to post!

If you're a studio-type person rather than an outdoor, on-location person....Indy Photography is coming to the rescue!

Studio, Part A - DEMOLITION

Last night we had a pro come and inspect our kitchen/dining room. Nooo, we didn't pay to have someone come and look at our house. There's a man at our church who owns a custom home building company here in town and he was so gracious as to come over and give us a few pointers.

The first thing he suggested doing was to remove the molding at the bottom of what will be the adjoining walls, so shortly after he left, my husband got to work doing that. I have no idea what inspired my husband to DO such a thing while the kids were still awake, but....I digress.

The girls had a really great time "helping" Daddy with the demolition part of the project. (Keaton was upstairs in bed already due to some - eh hem - discipline issues.) Taking off the molding was really the only "demolition" we had to do before we build the wall, but I like to make it sound like it's a much bigger deal than it actually is. :)

Enjoy some pictures....

This last picture has absolutely nothing to do with the demolition of the kitchen, but I think it's cute, so....you'll have to suffer through. :)

Do You Barter?

I know there are lots of photographers who frequent this blog and lots of non-photographers too. Regardless of your line of business or what you're doing, I'm curious how many of you barter rather than paying out cash.

Personally, I love to barter. Business-wise, I've bartered pictures for music use, pictures for an iron (don't ask), and am in the process of bartering pictures for some yard landscaping. Personally, we barter babysitting all the time. If two parties are both in need of a service, why bother paying out both ways?

I'd love to hear some of the creative things you all have bartered for! (That is, assuming I'm not the only one who does this, of course!)

And because posts are ALWAYS better with a picture, here's another sign of spring that I caught today on the way home from breakfast:

Exciting Times!

*****PREFACE: This post is going to include mostly blabbing about new and exciting things. If you only visit for pictures, you may want to scroll down or come back another day. :)

_______________________________________________________

Well, things are always changing here in the Stone household and this week is no exception!

So, for today's news: I'm pregnant!!!!!

Oh, what? You already knew that? Oh. Well then, I guess I'll have to pull out something else....

For real though, there are some exciting things going on. For one, we've decided to turn our dining room into a small studio. I've told several people that this week and I think every one of them looked at me inquisitively and asked, "What dining room?"

There's really no distinction between our dining room and our giant kitchen and I think that's why everyone seems so confused at first. But the truth is, there is a difference. (Or at least, that's what our homebuilder said!) The dining room is officially an 8x12 foot area. We're simply going to add a wall in between that and our kitchen and - wahlah! - a small studio space!

I am really really really really excited about this. Like, ridiculously excited. Like, you'd think I was building an entire house from scratch and putting in my dream 20x30 foot studio. But I'm not. I'm just transitioning our dining room into a studio. Or rather, I'm just helping (read: watching) our dining room be transitioned. But really, those are just details, right?

In anticipation of the upcoming studio, I'm also in the process of gearing up for several sessions this summer by buying some more props and backdrops. I have to admit that I looooove shopping. I just don't really love shopping for me. But when I get to buy things for my business......so fun. That probably sounds really dorky, but...whatever. I enjoy it. A lot.

So yesterday I decided on 4 colors for my seamless paper purchase. (For non-photographers, that's a backdrop.) :) Then I decided on one more. And then today, yet another one. But can I really help it? I mean, shipping is cheaper when done in a large order. So I'm really saving money. See? Here are the paper colors that are waiting in my cart while my Paypal transfer completes itself:

Red, yellow, and blue for the modern crowd - gray, ivory, and brown for the more traditional. :)

Since I don't feel like redoing our entire floor, I've decided to purchase one of these bamboo floor protectors instead of a true floating floor. They roll up out of sight, so they're portable. And they're sooo pretty. :)

Today I also decided to wander on over to Knotty Baby Wear's Etsy site and purchase some leg warmers. These things are DARLING and I know already that I have several baby shoots coming up this spring/summer, so I am excited to get those in the mail! The store runs a photographer's special so I got 5 pair for just $31! Again, see how I'm saving??? :)

(( In all seriousness though, I firmly believe that nobody should go into debt to open a business and therefore I only spend what money I've made during the 10 months I've been in business. If you're just starting out, I really really encourage you to do that same. ))

Anyway, back to Knotty Baby Wear.....

If you have an infant or will have one soon, you absolutely MUST check out that site. They make THE CUTEST leg warmers. Ever. And if you plan to schedule a photo shoot, do yourself a favor and get a pair or four. They are darling and you won't regret it!

So I suppose you're waiting for some sort of picture in this post, right? Well, I've only got one for ya. Here's our dining room pre-construction. The wall will go where the red "box" is:

Try to look past my horrible computer drawing skills. And obviously, the trash can will NOT be in the studio come the post-construction pictures. :) I honestly have no idea what weekend we will plan to destroy - errr, recreate - our kitchen, but just know that it won't be much longer that it will look this way. :)

Oooo, I just can't WAIT!!

Alright, I think that's all the exciting news I have for you today. Stay tuned for updates......

She Walks!

Nineteen months later, the little munchkin has FINALLY decided it's time to get around on two feet!

"Who? Me?"



She's pretty proud of herself. And I'm not gonna lie. I am too.



Of course, crawling is still the fastest way to get around.
And seriously, I can NOT get over those ADORABLE curls!



Soooooo cute!

Oh, and Sienna wants you to know that today she's sporting a bright green frog band aid. Because, you know, she couldn't let her sister steal the whole show.

On an entirely separate note...

Will somebody PLEASE teach me how to knit? Or crochet? I'm not entirely sure what the difference is, but I know that I simply MUST learn so I can make adorable handmade blankets and cocoons for the darling newborns who sometimes grace my presence.

(Plus, I seriously need a pastime just in case it rains the entire time we're on vacation in June!)