third day | personal

So I had my 101 in 1001 list start on December 30th for good reason. That is the day I saw Third Day in concert. Which means I completed my first item on my 101 in 1001 list!

These pictures were all taken with my smart phone. Of course I left my good camera in the car... I am such a wimp about breaking camera rules. I almost immediately regretted it (though I know it was the right thing to do) because we had REALLY great seats. I had a hard time not coveting the guys who were there to actually photograph the event (and their undoubtedly amazing images)!

So... I love Third Day. I love their sound... their hearts... their message. Pure goodness.

I saw them in concert for the first time back in 2000, before I knew who they were. They were performing at Liberty University while I was visiting my sister for the weekend. (Ironically enough, Tommy was also at that concert. I love that little fact. :)) I loved the show and ended up buying  their latest album (at the time) and I listened to it non-stop for about a year and off and on since then.

Fast forward 10 years... Tommy and I love to go to concerts. We love live music and we love experiencing it together. Since we met we have been to countless concerts, but none that were of my choosing (Tommy is the music guy). I realized that little fact this year while he was deployed (ahh the things you discover during a deployment...) and I decided I wanted to go to a concert of a band that I picked. I am happy to say he agreed with me. :)

So... for Christmas he got me concert tickets to see my favorite christian group... Third Day. And we went on Dec 30, 2010. It was kind of a half-concert because they were playing at the Liberty Winterfest event... and we shared the arena with about 2,000 high school students... which was slightly awkward. Though their time on stage was shorter than the average concert (there were, I think, about 5 other groups that night), it was still totally worth it.

I hope to see them in concert again during the next 1001 days... we'll see!

meet red | personal

It's been a while since I have blogged about our pups and we've made some changes around here! Soon after Tommy came back from his deployment, we got an itch for a third dog. Tommy has said over and over that he would love a larger dog to run and wrestle with, but he always said he wanted a boxer. I don't think any boxer owner would blame me for being hesitant to bring one home. After some talking and weighing the pro's and con's we made a completely different decision. I called my mom and I asked her if we could bring her big dog to live with us temporarily to see how a third dog would fit into our little family. Meet Red. We love him.

We love how in tune he is with us. His facial expressions change like a humans. I swear.

We love that he protects our home.

We love that he curls up into a teeny little ball when he's laying next to you. He likes to pretend he is a little dog.

We love that he wants to be with us all. the. time.

We love that he can run in our backyard anytime of day and let out all of his energy.

While he does add an entirely new meaning to our "dog owner" label (there is no more denying that we are dog people)... we truly love his presence. He's big and kind and so eager to please. We are so glad my mom is generous with him and has allowed him to stay with us infinitely.

So for now? We are good. No boxer puppy needed to take care of our puppy fever! We have another handful of love now and he is already familiar to us. (And potty trained!)

gratituesday: fields of grain

Gratituesday is a weekly blog meme I participate with over here. You should join, too! If you do, be sure to let me know in the comments because I would love to read what you write about. This week is an easy one.

I had a last minute session scheduled on Friday and while coming up with location ideas for a mid-winter, no-snow photo session I had an epiphany.

A field.

Fields look the same in the winter, spring and summer. Add a little sunshine and people in love and they are beautiful! I'm a country girl at heart. I thrive in natural settings... fields... forests... gardens... anywhere where nature blooms. So now I can add the warmth of brown grains to my list of "favorite winter locations."

So... this week? I am grateful that fields are beautiful anytime of the year. I much prefer a location where I can be giddy about the setting and thrive creatively versus a location that just doesn't move my creative juices.

What are you grateful for this week?

101 in 1001 | personal

The past three years I have taken the time to write a list of goals for the upcoming year. (See 2008, 2009, 2010 was never completely scanned in.) It has been a great way to live intentionally and make positive changes in my life. My favorite part about making a list of goals is going back and reviewing them at the end of the year. While doing that for 2010, I peeked over to my 2008 and 2009 goals and I realized a few things. I learned that while there were a few things on my lists that weren't completed in their specified year, they did stay with me and I truly am completing them one-by-one. But I also realized, the goals that are not task related (new habits, new mindsets) are consistently taking longer than a year to really find a solid place in my life. That said, this year I decided to do something different.

One of my favorite photographers/bloggers, Melissa Jill has been working on a 101 in 1001 list. That is a list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days. I have seen lists like these floating around the web for years and I never really thought it was a realistic way to set goals. However, watching Melissa set her goals and complete them one-by-one has been super inspiring. Cap that with my tendency to take a little longer than a year to make changes and reach goals in my personal life and I think I have discovered something that might just work for me. :)

My friend Kate and I came together and started building 101 in 1001 lists back in November. I think we both still only have half of our lists completed. I do have enough to share with you all, at least for now. Here's a peak:

Start date: December 30, 2010 End date: September 26, 2013

1. Complete this list by Feb 28, 2010.
2. Blog every day for a month
3. Blog three times a week for a year on my SLP blog
4. Build a welcome (& thank you) packet to send to couples who book with me
5. Buy a year’s worth of birthday cards, address and stamp them all at once
6. Buy/make/give Tommy 5 "just because" gifts
7. Change portfolio site to no longer be flash based
8. Complete 12 consecutive months of a monthly photo theme or blog meme
9. Complete 52 consecutive weeks of Gratituesday blog posts
10. Do something extra special for Tommy's 30th Birthday
11. Document life more on my blog, even if some entries need to be private
12. Donate $5 for each goal I do not complete
13. Enter some of my work into a photography competition
14. Give a gift of something hand-made
15. Go on a ski trip with Tommy
16. Go to DC during a Cherry Blossom peak weekend
17. Have a book printed of 1 year of Gratituesday's
18. Have all Christmas gifts purchased/wrapped by Dec 1.
19. Improve my business website search optimization
20. Learn Yoga poses/flow I can do on my own without direction
21. Make an album of our wedding pictures
22. Meet Kate Nesi, finally! :)
23. Obtain copies of our parents’ wedding portraits, frame them, and hang them in our home
24. Participate in another triathlon
25. Participate in the creation of a style-shoot for a blog or magazine
26. Read one book per month for 3 months to better my business
27. Refine workflow to have wedding galleries online within 2 weeks of the event
28. Return to Nepal (with Tommy?)
29. Run a Holiday Giveaway Series on my blog
30. Run in 2 races > 5k
31. See Third Day in concert
32. Travel to the West Coast
33. Simplify my internet presence
34. Spend a day hiking
35. Spend more time outside
36. Submit a wedding for publication in a magazine
37. Take a cruise with Tommy
38. Take a dance class (at least 6 weeks)
39. Take a trip on a train
40. Try 5 foods I have never tried before
41. Visit New England in the fall/winter
42. Watch 5 I’ve-always-wanted-to-see-but-just-never-got-around-to-it-movies
43. Write a Will
44. Make the switch from PC to Mac
45. Make my office as mobile as possible so that I can travel often without it interrupting my work
46. Learn how to make sushi at home
47. Attend a (at least 2-day) photography workshop
48. Run another half-marathon
49. Earn a PR in the Smithfield Sprint triathlon
50. Earn a new PR in the 5k distance (so far my best time was 36 mins in 2007)
51. Run in a trail race
52. Have my work featured on at least 3 different blogs
53. Submit images and apply for WPJA
54. Work on lowering carb and sugar intake
55. Make the switch from coffee to tea in the morning
56. Swap our chemical cleaners for home made cleaners
57. Simplify our medicine cabinet by purging a lot of medicines and replacing them with herbs and essential oils
58. Learn how to heal our bodies naturally (and save money in the process!)
59. Travel to Florida to visit my grandmother
60. Travel to Colorado to visit my sister
61. Go on an anniversary trip with Tommy
62. Spend more time finding inspiration through online photo sites
63. Write something every day for a month
64. Create a social media marketing plan and follow it
65. Hire an intern
66. Transfer business status from Sole-Proprietor to an S-Corp
67. Repaint my kitchen walls
68. Incorporate the use of an ipad into my business workflow
69. Enhance Sincerely, Liz client experiences by adding gifts and surprises into my workflow
70. Redesign Sincerely, Liz website and combine all of my online sites into one
71. Rebrand Lynchburg Snapshot Studio
72. Create a marketing plan for Lynchburg Snapshot Studio
73. Develop and begin a preschool curriculum for Sunday (even if that means toddler school for now)
74. Make running a regular part of my weekly routine
75. Make 5 Pinterest recipes
76. Complete 3 Pinterest DIY projects
77. Create a "Sunday's First Year" book/album
78. Go to the Farmer's Market once a month in the spring/summer. Buy and consume more fresh foods.
79. Go geocaching with my nieces
80. Shoot a photo session in an ice skating rink
81. Simplify our magazine subscription list
82. Make a photo album of our wedding pictures
83. Swap out my beauty care products for natural, less expensive versions
84. Go to a dinner theater with Tommy
85. Have new head shots taken annually
86. Start an annual head shot mini session day in late winter
87. Go on a camping trip with Tommy while in Colorado
88. Sell my landscape and art prints online
89. Print and frame images for a collage of "life" in our hallway
90. Take a weekend and "unplug" from all things digital
91. Do a "day in the life" blog post
92. Send a bouquet of flowers to someone "just because"
93. Get a bold haircut
94. Create the habit of making a weekly meal plan
95. Find 3 healthy dessert recipes and make them often enough to no longer need to look at the recipe
96. Host a party in our home
97. Change most (if not all) the lightbulbs in our house to energy efficient bulbs
98. Print at least two landscape canvas prints and hang them in our home
99. Purchase some plants for our home and keep them alive
100. Simplify my wardrobe by making smart accessory purchases and blog about the experience
101. Move the Sincerely, Liz office into the basement from the current office space

I hope to blog about the goals as I reach them. I am very excited about this journey and also excited to be documenting it! Here's to 2011... and 2012... and 2013. :)

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

happy new year! | personal

Happy New Year, friends! My, what a year 2010 was.

Reflection... projection... 'tis the time of year. Taking a deep breath and thinking back over 2010... I have to admit I have been having a hard time seeing past Thanksgiving weekend. I have actually tried to write this blog post about 3 times now and I keep starting over because it is hard for me to see outside of the situation I am in... this time the situation was the holidays. :)

So... here we are... the holidays are behind us and a whole blank slate of a new year is in front of us. Trying for the third time to reflect on 2010... here are a few of my favorite memories:

• our trip to New Orleans
• living in Fredericksburg this summer
• traveling to Oregon
• the deployment ending
• our Christmas at the beach
• 14 beautiful weddings
• the Help Portrait event
• our trip to FL to say goodbye to Dada
• building relationships with other local photographers
• vacation at the beach with a group of friends

So many amazing memories were made in 2010. I am looking forward to 2011 and having my husband home the whole year! :) Looking ahead... we have some huge life changes coming up and I couldn't be more excited about them.

Here's to a fabulous 2011!