The Story of Olivia Pig

So, I went to Wal-Mart late last night to get some material to make Olivia's costume for school. After I waited and got several different fabrics cut, I found an adorable dress in the kid's section that looks a lot like Olivia Pig's dress on the cover of the Olivia book. So, I got the dress. We had pig ears left over from the pig birthday breakfast party for my sister Leah, more than 9 years ago (on my wedding anniversary actually - and I'll just leave that story at that). So, I just took those pig ears off the headband they were on and hot glued them to a black headband. I didn't do a nose for Olivia.

Anyway, it was so much easier and less time-consuming than making the opera singer costume or ballerina costume that Olivia wears in the book. It was good enough, considering the short notice and during such a crazy busy week as this. Olivia was happy with her new dress and the pig ears and the braids.

Nice Blinker, Lady.

I'm not as caught up as I thought. I still have a dozen or so things to take care of with question answering and sending out information to some people. Plus, I booked another session yesterday, and I have to get that info. out, make some calls, etc. Oh, yeah, and I just thought of something else (invites for a portrait party that have to get to the hostess, and I haven't even printed them yet).

Then...on top of my already crazy busy schedule this week, I had a note from Olivia's school yesterday that they are having Storybook Day this Thursday, and the kids are supposed to take their favorite book and dress up as the character in the book. So, I have to make a quick costume now, too. I can't even get to my sewing machine right now.

Plus, they scheduled my parent-teacher conference for Thursday, which is also the day I have to take Natalie to get some teeth worked on. (Also the day before all of the family gets here, and I have zero time to make the house as clean as I'd like it to be.)

So, the books for the commercial project came a little bit ago. I was so nervous to open the box, because I hadn't used that publisher before, and I was afraid the books would be really yucky. They are okay. I don't love, love, love them, but they're fine for this. I just don't think I'll be using that printer for a whole lot of other stuff.

Alright, no more boring business talk. A kind of funny story, but not really:

This morning, on our way home from dropping off Miss O at school, I was waiting to turn, and a woman didn't put her blinker on, which made me have to wait for her when I wouldn't have had to, if I had known she was going to turn before getting to where we were. I just said, "Oh, Thanks for the blinker, Lady." Parker said, "Mama, don't say thanks for the blinker, Lady." Natalie said, "Well, maybe her blinker light is broken. Did you think of that?"

Silly Girl

I feel bad about the long, boring blog with no photos, so here you go:

Here are some shots of Olivia from a week or so ago when I was trying to determine if there was a "spot" on one of my lenses. I went outside to take a few shots to see if the spot would show up, and she went out and wanted me to take pics of her doing silly stuff. She was really wired that day after school. I really just needed one or two clicks of some greenery or something to determine if the spot was on that lens, but she wanted me to keep taking more and more of her doing all kinds of silly stuff. She requested the booty shot, too.

Never Done

I'm so very far behind on the blog.

I had a lot of client calls and scheduling last week - good thing.

I had an energetic little client in a session last evening. She didn't stay in one place for longer than 2 seconds - just like one of my other clients. She actually reminded me of her a little. Anyway, it was a busy session, with me going up and down and pulling out different props and moving the baby back into position and fixing buttons and hair bows and quickly moving back into a shooting stance and holding the reflector myself most of the time......I'm sore today. Riley lasted about an hour, and she made it through 4 outfit changes, even though she wasn't thrilled during the last 3. Tough age and super energetic personality. I'm tired.

One big exciting piece of news (exciting for me, anyway) is that I will be using the garage for my "temporary" studio space for now. Well, once we get it cleared out and set up. It means A LOT of work for me, because I have to sort through and sell all of the stuff for garage sale that is piled up in there. Billy will be moving all of his stuff (tools, car care stuff, hunting gear) to the big shed building in the back yard, so I'll have the whole garage (minus the space used up by the deep freezer and canned goods) for my studio. Now, I can't wait to get the chance to start clearing and seeing my plans for the space take shape.

So, I decided to cancel my reservation and not attend the convention in Phoenix in January. It was going to take up 7 days total of my time, plus a lot of money, plus it was a huge strain for me right now. Once I decided to wait on the certification exam and not go to the hassle of the whole thing in January, when I have so much going on during the next several months, it took a ton of pressure from me.

I spent an entire week on my senior marketing materials. I also changed my ordering process to increase sales and make it easier for my clients. Then, I created some new information packets for families, children, and the seniors. I still have so much to do, but I got a lot done over the past week or two. I got caught up on all correspondence and question answering for clients.

The books for the commercial project are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I'm so upset with the company for taking so long to get them done and sent, and it means more work for me trying to find another book provider who won't take so long. I'll be using Preview Books (nice albums for proofing) for my clients from now on, so I obviously need a printer with a fast turnaround and great quality. I've tried several and haven't found the right combination for me.

Anyway............I have to clean the house, because we have a busy weekend, with sisters and cousins, etc., coming in this Friday for my mom's 75th birthday party Saturday.

I can't even think of kid stuff to talk about, even though there's a lot I should have blogged so I could remember.

We get to make a scarecrow for Olivia's school. There will be judging and a winner. Natalie and I are pretty sure our family's scarecrow will win. We'll see. I guess we'll work on it Sunday after the family is gone. I think it's due next Friday.

Olivia still doesn't want to go to school in the mornings. She makes it a bad start to our day. I have to work so hard just to get her up and dressed and out the door and into the door at her school. Once she's there and I'm gone, she loves it. She tells us the songs and games she plays, and it's cute when she tries to get us to learn them and play along.

Parker was helping me clean the other day and he said, "I'm going to clean this really well, K, Mama?" Such proper grammar and such a good little helper. If he had been the only child, the house would never have been as destroyed as it gets now. He really likes things to be clean and in their place. It's the combination of him being with Olivia that creates the big destruction.

Natalie is really struggling with cursive writing. She doesn't like to take the time to do it right. I can't be too upset, because that's just how I was. Plus, I didn't have to learn cursive writing in Kindergarten like she is.

Okay. Sorry for the non-exciting blog. It was kind of a lot about me and my business, huh? I'll try to keep up with the kid stuff better over the next month.

In This Corner...

Poor Baby! (09/12/08)

Apparently, Parker was walking around the outside of the net on the trampoline (naughty), and Olivia pushed him off (naughty). He fell onto a sharp, jagged broken piece of the white column that broke when Joe and Billy were helping to break down my booth last weekend. (Not sure why the piece of column found its way back out of the trash and over by the trampoline, but I have a good guess.) Anyway, it could have killed him or hurt him much, much worse than it did.

We still think he may have broken his nose, even though he didn't get black eyes. It still looks not normal to us on the right side. Hopefully, it's just from the swelling still. He bit a big cut in his tongue, but it's been healing really quickly over the past couple of days.

I couldn't stand to look at him when he came in with blood coming out of his nose and his mouth and crying and hurting. It just made me cry every time I looked at him, and I was so afraid that his perfect little nose was ruined, because it swelled up right away and looked crooked toward the right. His upper lip also swelled up a lot right away, and it looked like a little bird beak.

We were on our way to take him to the hospital, but we stopped by to show Ninny and Papa, and by then, we decided that he would probably be okay without going in. He fell asleep after some Tylenol. He didn't act nearly as sore as we thought he would the next day.

He's a tough little guy.

I've got to get him in for his regular checkup anyway, so I'll have the doctor take a good look at his nose at that time and make sure there's no damage to his nasal septum. I really don't want him to have breathing problems the rest of his life because of this.

Oh...I also forgot to blog about another finding. Last month, I discovered that Parker has congenital trigger thumb (bilaterally). Same thing Natalie had on the right thumb. It's pretty rare, and it only occurs bilaterally in 30% of the cases, I think. Anyway, he'll have to have the same surgery Natalie did.

Our poor babies - such a mess. (Poor us and all of the stress that comes with these poor babies, but I know it could be much, much worse.)

Ft. Worth

So, I figured I should stop and take a break today to post about our trip to Ft. Worth, before I get way too far behind. This will be an abbreviated version, but you'll get the idea.

We left on Friday morning. driving to the train station about 40 minutes away (I think.). Parker was holding Monkey all the way there and telling him secrets. Finally, when we were almost there, Parker said, "We're going to ride the train, right?". (Monkey is his favorite friend. We got him at a church sale thing about a couple weeks after Parker started playing with his imaginary friend, "Monkey". It was perfect when we found a "real" monkey. He loves him.)

Anyway, the train was late. Parker was so excited when he saw it arrive and got to get on the train. He was so happy. It was great riding the train and not having to drive. It was relaxing, roomy, and neat to see another view of things from the train.

We stayed at the Hilton, Ft. Worth. It's really, really nice. It's where JFK stayed the night before he was shot. We just walked from the train station, because it was about 3 short blocks from there. We were waiting for my friend, Steph, and her husband and 2 kids to arrive, so we ordered room service. It was so good. Parker didn't eat anything the whole weekend, except for a couple crackers.

Anyway, I visited with Steph a while after they arrived. Then, we all took a nap. Later, we all walked down the street from the hotel (right in old downtown) and had a little birthday meal/dessert for Steph, since it was her birthday.

Parker wanted to sleep on the sofa in the room, instead of in the bed with us. He and Monkey looked so cute sleeping on the sofa.

The next morning, we had a great breakfast in the hotel (Parker didn't eat). Then, Steph, Billy, Parker, and I went out for a mini photo session for Steph along old downtown. By this time, we didn't have a lot of time to spend on the photos. We went back inside the hotel and did a few upstairs in a lobby area with a piano.

(When we were downtown, there was an awesome shot I was trying to get of Steph in the middle of the brick street with the big clock tower building behind her at the end of the rows of buildings. We just couldn't get it right, because of the traffic situation and trying to time it right and feeling kind of rushed.)

Then, it was time to say "goodbye" to Stephanie, Percy, and the kids. I took some photos of the kids as we were saying goodbye.

Billy, Parker, and I walked down to the water gardens after that. It was hot and a longer walk than we expected.

Then, we walked down and had some lunch (Parker didn't) and cooled off. Our train wasn't to leave until 5:25 that evening, so we had time to just relax. After we ate and cooled off, we walked down to an old fire station that houses a small museum of Ft. Worth. Then, we went to Barnes and Noble, and Parker got to pick out some books (and I got a couple for the girls), and we sat in there and read for a long time. Then , we sat in the eating area, and Parker got a giant cookie. He ate a few bites.

Our train arrived early, and we were able to board early. We had a good trip back, as well. However, when we were going down the stairs from the upper level to get off at our stop, Parker projectile vomited all over me, the stairs, and a conductor guy standing at the top of the stairs. Then, when we were sitting on the bench at the train station, trying to clean up, he did it again. Parker and I both got undressed, cleaned up, and changed in the parking lot, despite the teenagers hanging out in the parking lot. Parker didn't throw up again.

Anyway, here are a few more pics from Ft. Worth, besides the one I posted before (which is becoming one of my favorites of Parker, because he was so happy on his trip).

Waiting for the train.

Spotting the train.

In the water gardens.

At the museum.


Out or order, but no time to fix it.

First Fair Display

My first fair display was a success, I would say. I'm happy with the results of both the booth and the response from those who visited.

My dad did a terrific job building and painting the "walls" of the display - just as I imagined. My mom sat with me each of the 3 days, and she did some great PR - for free.

Since I plan all major events (like birthday parties and holiday parties and fair booths) a year in advance, I had a year of envisioning my booth at the fair. This display was actually like a one-year anniversary for my business being official, because it was just after last year's fair that I decided to start my business. Last year, I entered my photography in the amateur division and won in each category. It actually seems like longer ago than that, because I've been so busy working on the business stuff the past year.

Anyway, I had a year to see my space in my mind, and it turned out pretty much like I planned. The really interesting part is that each time I pictured my fair display in my mind, I imagined it in one place in the convention center. When I arrived to set up, I had been assigned the very spot I had pictured my booth all along. Weird.

It was such a tiring week/weekend, but it was totally worth it. I got so much good, encouraging response, and I received nearly 250 new contacts (potential clients) for my mailing list. I made a booking, and I will have more in the next couple of weeks, after I announce those that have been selected to receive the free sessions.

I had planned to put off trying to enter the senior market until next year, so I could take some time over the winter to plan out my marketing campaign. Now, I'm forced to quickly put together the marketing and my plans, because I had so many interested in senior portraits. I have a big list of kids waiting to receive my senior catalog that I told them would be available in a few weeks. No pressure.

So, the following images were taken with a little point-and-shoot. You can't see how cool the slideshow was, but you get the idea.

I wish I had taken some images of my marketing materials close up and including all of the sides and pages...maybe, I'll do that sometime.

Feel free to comment on the display. I already have most of next year's display planned out. (Some very cool stuff will be happening - fresh and exciting!)

Thank you to the people who have given me support in my business venture. I have so far to go and so much more to learn, and it makes it more pleasant when I have the encouragement of my friends and family.

This was a 12' wide by 10' deep booth.

Marketing materials (left to right):

A rack card that talks about my custom services, etc.

A rack card for my Business Quick Takes session for business professionals needing headshots for business cards and other marketing.

A flyer that explains Portrait Parties (booked one during the fair).

A rack card that explains my session options and fees and that my custom photography is an investment in the family's heritage, blah, blah, blah. (The investment stuff might actually be on the other rack card...not sure and too tired to go look.)

A brochure for the aerial photography that explains the Heirloom Collection and Estate Collection, etc.

In front: Business cards and my maternity/newborn plan cards. I named my plan the "Great Expectations Collection".

This was taken at the beginning of the morning of the last day.

The entry box filled up quickly each of the 3 days.

So Far Behind

Another topic to be discussed in a blog when I get to catch up: Clay Pigeons.

I'll try to start working my way down the list of catch-up blogs later this week.

Sorry

Just a quick apology for not doing my catch-up blogging yesterday or today. I will try to get little ones in here and there during this week (this very, very busy week)!

We were gone all day with Parker to OKC to pick up the stuff I needed. Once again, it was just Parker with Mama and Daddy, because we left before the girls got home from the lake.

We went to Red Lobster (courtesy of Uncle John). Then, we did the shopping. When we went to the mall with the carousel, because we couldn't get something we needed to take back to Uncle John at the other mall closer to where we were shopping, we avoided the carousel, and Parker didn't even notice that he didn't get to ride it. He was so excited about the candy store.

I hope I don't forget a bunch of the stuff I really want to talk about on here when I get the chance.

Topics to be covered soon....before I forget:

Ft. Worth and the Train Trip

The Soldier and the Vagabond

Teddy Bear Picnic

Poodle Party Plans

Double-Duty Costumes

Great...I already forgot a few I wrote down somewhere last week!