Best Week Ever, XV AND BEYOND

Hey guys, do you remember that one time when I didn't post on my blog for over a month?

I feel like my life is equally fast and slow, busy and lazy, predictable and spontaneous. I seem to exist on both ends of the spectrum and figuring out how to stay balanced and not too thinly spread has really been giving me a run for my money lately.

So, let's put it behind us, shall we?

Here's a photo dump from the last few weeks and a list of good things.

Good Things—
encouragement
when the last few dishes at work fit perfectly into the dishwasher
hosting cookouts
Bargain Hunt
americanos (always)
long-overdue talks


Love,
me

Best Week EVER, XIV

Can you believe that X-I-V? I feel like I still just started these posts and I still haven't gotten the hang of it.

This week has been very relaxed, can't help but feel like there are still so many stresses waiting just beyond the trees for their turn at me. Here's my to-do list for the next few weeks:

— narrow down graduate school list.
— contact professors about recommendation letters.
— polish a short story to send with those requests.
— think of a way to make more money. (another job, perhaps?)
— have yard sale.
— make pillows and curtains.
— finish resumé / update LinkedIn.
— keep up with SAFTA posting, writing.

Most of these things d have to do with grad school. It's a lot of things to organize and account for. I'm very scared about all the work and the possibility of not getting in or not getting any money from the schools so I have to take out more loans. It's all happening so fast and I can't help but feel like I've almost wasted this year+ after graduation not writing and not researching.

But I'm happy! I promise! My best friend is about to get married (as are two of my cousins!) and I am slowly closing in on my family's vacation!

Daniel and I went to a Mexican restaurant whose translated name turned out to be, The Loose Donkey.
Okay.

The highlight of my week was probably skyping with one of my greatest friends Alex last night.

We talked for two hours and it went by so fast, as it always does. He lives in LA right now and is struggling to make it his own and stay inspired. He makes me feel like I should really take advantage of my surroundings more often because I don't know where the next few years could take me.

This week I vow to go on one run and one picnic.


Bye y'all,

Best Week Ever, XIII

Ah, so many happy and wonderful things happened this week!

First off, on Monday I got to be apart of my friend and fellow photographer's engagement! Her now fiancé was so kind in inviting me to take photos at the surprise party he had planned for Rachel after he proposed. I am a huge sap when it comes to love and, well, most things, and it made my heart so full to hear both of their sets of parents talk about how great their son and daughter were together and when they each, respectively, knew that their kids' love was the real deal. That's how it should be.

The Groom-to-be's sister made this adorable Pinterest explosion for the party. So special.

Unfortunately the plan was for it to be daylight when they arrived at the house and the surprise party commenced, but they were running late. I was so unprepared for the low light, (I didn't even bring my f/1.8 lens!) but noise in the photos is better than nothing, and Rachel was actually the one who taught me that it's easier to edit darker photos than overblown bright photos. This was tough, though. I feel a little guilty about the pictures not being better.

I've never felt like I knew less about photography, or anything for that matter, in my life than I have recently. People will ask me technical questions about my lens or camera and I'll honestly have no idea what they're talking about, or how to answer. I hate feeling dumb, because I can't just respond with, "but I take nice pictures a lot!" I like what I do, but I can't talk shop. The same thing happens at work when people ask me about different coffee tastes or if they should grind their coffee fine or coarse.

I just... I know what I like, but more than ever that answer feels insufficient when it comes out of my mouth. And maybe that answer isn't enough for someone with my age and the years I've been into this stuff, but it's what I have.

I attempted some more self portraits at my sister's house while I was staying there at the beginning of the week, but I put it off and had to do them in crazy sunlight, and I'm honestly not happy with them at all. The quality just sucks and they are a little blurred, noisy, and just another thing this week that has made me feel out-of-practice. I think I'll do a re-shoot, so maybe you guys will see it later against the new ones that I take.


























On Friday night, my sister planned a surprise party for my brother-in-law, Aaron! He turns 30 on August 16th, so this party really was a surprise being 2 weeks early! We were able to hold the party at our friend Robert's new restaurant, and it was a really good time.

They are pretty great.

Well, kids, hopefully next week I'll have a things a bit more figured, but you know, probably not.
I'm cool with that.

Best Week Ever XII

Hi from Wednesday.

Lots of hanging out & missing & thinking & wishing this week.

Unrelated, here are some photos from a walk I took this weekend with my dog-nephew, Benton.

He is 50/50 adorable/insane. He also really likes exercise and will whine at me when I cut our neighborhood walk short, or I won't run with him at six in the morning. I feel bad but like..  he's a dog and he doesn't need to worry about his figure. He's young. He looks great.

I'm staying at my sister's house this past weekend and a little into this week. I basically treat this time as a little vacation and I really enjoy myself. I eat ice cream, drink red wine, and watch a ton of movies on Netflix that I previously felt I didn't have time for. It's not that I have extra time here, a 25th hour, but in a new space I am prone to becoming new and adopting new habits. I really liked the change, even if just for a short amount of time.

Sleeping in an unfamiliar house is always eerie though. I always sleep on the couch even though they have a really comfortable bed in their guest room. I'm a worrier.

Well, I hope you all have a good and productive week, and I'll be back here soon to share what I've been up to so far this week! Hint: it is actually cute and exciting!


         ♥,
 


P.S. — I was driving in the Fort Sanders neighborhood the other day, or The Fort to all the university students who live there, and I saw this house and it totally rekindled my love for this little neighborhood. I lived here for 4ish years during school, and over and over again I fell for its mixture old and new, history and brevity, and all around good spirits. It made me really want to go on a walk around there and find more gems like this silly house.

There will definitely be a post dedicated to Fort Sanders to look out for in the future.

Best Week Ever, X + XI

I don't know if you know this about me or not, but I'm really good at putting things off. Fortunately for me there are a lot of things that I don't do that I feel like are important, so know that while I wasn't writing this blog post, I was doing something else that felt important like reading, updating my résumé, cleaning my apartment, or feeling useless watching Netflix. Okay, so the last one isn't something that is important, but you can bet that at some point I was doing that.

It's okay to waste some time every now and then. Keeps you sane and relaxed. I like to turn my brain off every now and then, but sometimes I get carried away and I use it to turn off my responsibilities, chores, and even the small things I actually want to do.

I wrote in a letter this past week that I get too much sleep to be an artist. I use too much of my down time being lazy and not completing things. It's one of those things I've been progressively more stubborn about the longer it goes on because I know the problem, I know the solution, and yet… the problem is something I still see daily. Maybe I'm not inspired, maybe it's that I'm distracted or defeated, but either way the mood is going no where if I don't shut up and fix it.

These past two weeks I've been trying! I was able to help photograph a wedding and I took just a few shots this week. They were taken at work, of course, because days have just become a way to waste time between closing shifts.

I couldn't help but make all of these black and white. Obviously it's classic and I've been really annoyed by color editing recently. (Who knew? I definitely don't talk about editing all the time..)

These next few are no exception. These kids got married! It was amaze.

So long! Thanks for listening to my rants and looking at my picture makings. There's more where that came from.

Best Week Ever, IX

So, I've been doing these posts for two months now, and though Sunday is the beginning of the week, my posts have had a bad habit of not showing up until Wednesdays or Thursdays.. Of course it's completely my bangerang procrastination skills that have kept these posts behind, but that's neither here nor there. The blog is still the blog and will be the blog. It's just a nice thought to have a post schedule, you know?

This week I took a self portrait. I fell back into the groove of tripods, remotes, and getting up multiple times in a row to check the back of the camera. I found my light and made sure the neighbors weren't watching, and took my own portrait a la my own 52 Weeks project in 2010.

I am often embarrassed for people to see me taking self portraits, and I always have been. Even before the whole "selfie" craze started (and before "selfie" even became a word) there were hundreds of teenagers on Flickr who were taking artistic self portraits every day or every week and challenging themselves to make art on their own and learn themselves. There's no shame in it really, but I can't help but pretend to be taking landscape pictures when I'm caught.

Also, introducing my first official picture of my lil tat.



Hang in there kids, life is going to be okay!

BWE, VIII: Time Machine

So, here's the thing: I didn't take any photos this week. I took the week off by accident. To make up for this lack, I've dug up some photos I took in March that I never did anything with. I had always planned to throw them on Flickr and revive that stream, but I unintentionally took a break from taking photos. I put down my camera and didn't pick it up for months save for events.

Anyway, this past March I was invited to go on a bachelorette weekend in Savannah, Georgia to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! I had so much fun and I'm really glad I got to go and get to know all the ladies. I wasn't a bridesmaid, but my sister was and I was so happy when they wanted me to go, too! You know that feeling? When people want you in their lives? It's good.

One of the crazy nights we were there, we saw the greatest drag show I have ever seen in my life.

I literally tweeted:

I felt so empowered and happy afterward that I just could not stop thinking about it and smiling and knowing that the world was a good place. I do this thing where I get really emotional if I'm too happy, and I had lumps in my throat and goosebumps on my arms. I just can't even accurately describe it without cliches.

On to pictures—

I've been trying and procrastinating like crazy to choose, crop, and post these photos for like 5 days, so it is a miracle that I even posted. I am even tempting myself to get this post up tonight, by refraining from looking at the photos I took today until this is done.

I've been pretty good at procrastinating lately, but life is happening so fast! I'm trying to be apart of that speed instead of watching it rush by, but it's definitely tricky.

Happy 4th! Bald eagles! Tim Howard!

Best Week Ever, VII

This week I can honestly say that everything that happened outside of work, completely outshone my 25 hours behind the counter. The difference in feelings between this week and last is sort of incredible. Hallelujah to that. I feel like this is what successful and truly happy adults feel like!

On Sunday night, two girls that I've known since middle school came out to Knoxville for the night to see me and C. Unfortunately, C is not going to be able to be at our other friend R's wedding in August because she is taking a big step in here career and working abroad for 4 months. It's sad but also really great and exciting! C and I have also known each other since middle school, but we've had a few tumultuous years recently. It was really nice to hang out as a group and just laugh and laugh. We talked about the more funny moments in our almost decade (!!) of friendship and vowed to visit more.

The next day we went to breakfast as this french café in town that is just delicious. Seriously, whatever you get at Knoxville's The French Market, will probably change your life. Right after we went swimming at a rock quarry.

There were a lot of folks there doing a lot of questionable things, but I really enjoyed myself because we all kind of faced our fears of jumping off the small rock to get in this man-forged spring and then climbing out afterward together.

I don't know if it was the vitamin D or what, but I felt so good that day. I felt like it was a good step for C and I and now I'm pretty sad she won't be around for the wedding.

A couple days later, I hung out with another girl I've known since high school who is also a great photographer. When I was helping Rachel Proctor Photography shoot a wedding a few weeks ago, we realized that we had never modeled for each other! For how many years we've known each other, and how long we've been into photography, it seemed sort of silly. After our adventure I felt like a babe/princess. (Which is what I had really hoped would happen.) I needed some nice picture of me.

Here is my favorite that she got of me. (And future profile photo for every social media outlet!)

And here are a few I got of her that I liked:

I was a little disappointed with myself for not getting better photos. I am really out of practice and lacking the experience, so I hope I can find some more people to make pictures of to get out of this blur-funk I seem to be in.

Okay, so this is going to be a long post (which I hope is rewarding, because it is not Sunday, but Thursday that I am posting this) because I also traveled to Richmond this weekend for a sort of "delayed reception" for my cousin and her now husband! They eloped last fall in Colorado and wanted to come home and celebrate with all of their families.

(Yes, my dad is an iPad-Dad. And a photobomber, apparently.)

I really love going to Richmond. It's where I was born and where a lot of my family members are. I just really never take a moment there for granted since we've live almost 10 hours away for almost my entire life. There are so many trees. I always love driving through the old neighborhoods filled with beautiful trees and trees.

Peace, love, and GO USA,