Cinco de Mayo
May/100
Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! I’ll be spending most of my evening packing up to head home. My flight leaves at 6 am tomorrow morning. God bless my sweet, sweet husband for driving me the 45 minutes to Pensacola at 4 am. I’m sure he won’t complain once…me, on the other hand…
I’m excited for a fun (but busy) weekend. Let’s see how many events we can jam pack into 4 days. I’m still debating on whether to take the laptop with me or not…so you MIGHT get a Friday Favorite post and photo updates as the weekend goes by.
Shelter Me
May/100
Last week I finished Shelter Me by Juliette Fay. It was an easy read - clean, sweet, but pretty predictable. The story is about a mother of two, Janie, who has just lost her husband (Nik told me I need to stop reading books about people dying - but seriously, all books are about people dying!!). Janie deals with the balance of grieving her husband’s death and moving on to experience the joy that life still has to offer. I was bored at times, almost brought to tears at other times, and then found myself smiling at the happiness that Jane finally allows herself to experience. Overall, it just made me appreciate those in my life even more and acted as a soft reminder that you have to roll with the punches and find joy in the small things.
Design*Sponge May Desktop
May/100
Click here for Design*Sponge’s May desktop wallpaper. Its really cute and calming. On the other hand it seems almost mean to post cute pictures of dolphins seeing that lots of them are swimming in oil slick right now…. 
Blah, Blah Beach
May/100
We spent part of the weekend at our friend’s condo on Perdido Key beach (just a few miles east of Gulf Shores). The weather was crummy. It was as if the atmosphere was mimicking the gloom that has set over the the Gulf Coast the last few days. The oil spill seems to be coming a greater catastrophe than anyone imagined - its incredibly sad watching people who’s lives depend on that water. Such fear of the unknown and how the future will unfold. Even for families, like Nik’s, whose living does not depend on the gulf, but it is their home - their sanctuary - the place that they love.
As the oil edges closer and closer to our coastline, its hard to imagine how it will all pan out. And its so strange that not more could be done - that there were no preventive plans set in place. We can only hope for the best - I know the people of the Gulf Coast will fight for their way of life, and this little midwestern girl will be fighting right along side.
Sewing Away
Apr/101
Last night, I finished one of my projects for Cynthia’s shower that I’ve been working on all week. I am so excited for a few reasons- 1. I think the shower is going to turn out really cute, 2. I really took time to figure out some special details that were kind of out of my normal realm of creativity and 3. I got to play on (I mean use) Sonya’s sewing machine!
Nik captured this photo of me last night - he snuck around the corner and with a smirk on his face and his best southern accent said something like “woman, now after you are done sewing up them here banners, you need to be fixin’ me my dinner.” He knows just what buttons to push. 
I promise to post pics of the shower after next weekend!
Friday Favorite: LIGHTS
Apr/100
Genius. If I EVER have a photography studio, or Nik has a music studio, I want THESE! The leather-pulley light system, designed by the bouroullec brothers can be adjusted to fit your desired look. Thanks to Design Sponge for the awesome post.
Detox Day
Apr/100
I’m kinda having a detox day….which means, I have accomplished about 10 minutes of actual work so far today (its almost 10:30 am).
Nik & I are headed to our friends beach condo on Friday night. After a relaxing day at the beach on Saturday, I will have two shoots and a “Pre-Mother’s Day” meal to cook for my mother-in-law on Sunday. The following weekend I’ll be home for four days and will try to stuff the following things into my schedule: 2 college graduations, 2 college graduation celebrations, a wedding shower, an engagement session, a baby portrait session, lots of meals with family, dinner with friends and a hair cut. I think I can do it….I’ll just have to take a really deep breathe before I board my 6 am flight out of Pensacola on Thursday (SOOOOOOOOO early!).
So, how about this crazy oil spill!?! According to CNN, ” Officials said late Wednesday the estimated amount of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from three underwater leaks after last week’s oil rig explosion has increased to as much as 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day — five times more than what was initially believed.” Holy cow! It is unbelievable.
Photo courtesy of CNN.com
Exhaustion
Apr/100
I am utterly exhausted.
I had a huge weekend at work - a big two-day outdoor concert event hosted by yours truly. Unfortunately, a big storm rolled in on Saturday, moving the event inside for part of it. This meant setting-up & tearing-down on Saturday INSIDE, and then redoing the whole thing at the outdoor venue on Sunday. Fortunately, Sunday turned out so fabulous, that it was worth all the extra work and I finished out the weekend feeling quite successful.
There is something about event planning that uses every fiber of your brain and every muscle of your body. When you spend months planning every detail, and then put in 25+ hours hosting the event (not to mention doing some major physical labor), your body & brains just turn to mush after its all completed. It takes a while for me to let down - I can’t go straight to bed when I go home - I have to unwind. And even after a terrific day off yesterday, I’m still unwinding. I even thought I was going to fall asleep during lunch today.
I promise to blog about something much more interesting this week, but right now, this is all my brain can come up with….except for one last thing: I have the best husband, who helped me all weekend long without one complaint. Its nice to feel so lucky.