in the thicc of work | wk. 42 recap
Fall is busy season for photographers, so we’re really in the thick of work over here. It’s stressful and overwhelming, and while I’ll probably spend a lot of my fall days complaining about how I don’t have enough time to get all of the things done that I need to, I am super grateful for the work that I get to do. I mean, I bust my booty June-October just to do nearly nothing all of the other months in between. 🤷🏼♀️
But fall is especially bad—I have weddings every single weekend (sometimes more than one a weekend), sessions every other day if not every day a few of the weeks, and all of the time when I’m not doing all the weddings and the sessions I somehow have to make the time to edit teasers, finish galleries, deliver it all, blog the details, share behind the scenes on socials, keep up with emails, continue to book inquiry calls, etc. Everything all at once can be a little overwhelming. And I know I sound like I’m complaining because right now I am, haha! I just need a breather, whew. Once this season calms down and life gets to the slow holiday bits 🎄⛄️ then I’m going to feel like a new woman.
I want to cycle back and talk a bit about how I’m so grateful for my work though ❤️ When I’m busy like this it can be easy to slip into a negative attitude about everything that’s rushing at me, but pulling away and looking at the whole picture of what I built always brings everything back into perspective. I built this business from scratch—started with only video, moved across the county, taught myself how to take photos, and grew from there. I only work when I want to (which I couldn’t imagine any other way now), and get to chat with amazing couples and families every single day while I document their important life moments. The way that this work functions as far as timing and working from home, as well as, the work that I get to do creatively and with people, is so rewarding and literally perfect for me.
Annnnyyways… this is all I’ve been doing lately. Working on my business, LVP Studios, is my life at the moment. So, posting a weekly recap has to start with that (for now). Here’s everything I shared this week:
🤩 Work stuff I’m proud of
This cute family session that posed with a vintage family truck hit the LVP Blog.
I shared teasers from 3 different sessions (two families with little girls, and one 1 year old cake smash studio session with my cousins kids) on our LVP Studios Facebook page and Instagram account.
We posted over 50 photos from an amazing wedding we did last weekend that was themed with Tolkein vibes 💍🧙🏼♂️ Click the links above for our LVP Facebook and Instagram to see more.
LVP Studios hit a huge milestone recently reaching officially 5 years in business. While I’ve been actually doing this a few years longer than that, we didn’t become legally a business until 2019. So, to celebrate I made a few cool posts and expressed my gratitude to all of our amazing clients.
Okay, now that we’re past all of the work related things happening in my life lately (which is quite a lot), let’s chat about our weekly recap of personal things.
📸 Can Greysen take your picture??
On Monday, we had a session with my cousin and her kids at the studio. Greysen was playing in the studio with me pretending to be the little assistant with his own camera and I snapped these super cute photos of him playing along. The last photo is my favorite, and I sent it to family and friends for a “caption this” moment. Here are some of the best ones:
The face you make when the groom keeps getting distracted by beer.
When your trying to take a cute picture of your dog on a walk and they start pooping.
When mama crop dusts you.
When the DJ says last song but you were having such a good time you forgot it was supposed to be work.
🐙 We’re trading kids every week
A friend of mine and I have decided to swap kids a couple of times a week. This was week one and it was truly amazing 🙌🏻 On Tuesdays she takes my boys, and then on Thursdays I take her boys. So every single week her and I get one single day of peace and quiet, or time to get work done, or a trip out of the house without kids, or whatever we want. But what surprised me the most was just how good it would feel on the day when I have all four boys too. I thought that having all of the kids at the house was going to be stressful, but it was liberating having someone else play with Greysen and Forrest besides me. They were all entertained with each other so well that I was actually able to do housework and have time to knock out some chores that I wouldn’t normally get to do because I would be too busy entertaining my boys alone.
I am so so very grateful for an amazing friend with children similar ages to mine who also has a very similar parenting style. I am at complete ease knowing that my boys are in good hands when they are with her and her family 🥰💙 and I hope that she can feel the same when her boys are with me. We were friends before this and had had multiple play dates which led us to this decision. I can’t wait to continue this new routine week after week.
Another surprising new outcome that came from this first week of swapping kids was that Greysen has learned how to play. Greysen has honestly learned a lot about how to play from her boys. He wasn’t really the best independent player (and still isn’t at times), but just in the couple of play days that we’ve had so far I can tell a huge difference in how he plays. It’s like he just knows how to do it now. Where as before I think he didn’t understand what to do.
🤠 Custom hats & permanent jewelry
On Saturday, my little sister, Blake, and I went to Chiro Coffee (C3) for their custom hats and permanent jewelry event. They had tons and tons of patches to pick from in order to make your own custom hat design that they would then heat press into a hat of your choice. You could also add details like my metal chain across the front and an enamel pin I put on the side. I chose to put a checkered Mama patch right in the center that had a black lightning bolt because I’d like to think I’m a little bit edgy, and then I surrounded it with a rainbow (because it’s pretty), a bee because I’m always busy, my favorite flower: a daisy, and a strawberry.
The hats were cool, but the permanent jewelry part is what really drew us in. I’m the type of person who has a few peices of jewelry and then wears those pieces every single day and doesn’t change. So, permanent is right up my alley. I’ve been dying 💀 to get something like this done for awhile so having this event was literally perfect timing. I chose a cute little silver chain for a bracelet on my right arm. I kind of wanted a necklace too, but I knew that Forrest would probably just yank it off 😒😒😒 so I decided to wait until next time when he’s a little older.
🔮 What am I looking forward to?
Okay, so now, let’s look ahead. I wanna get hyped about what’s coming up. Here’s what’s got me feeling excited in my life:
1) Next month Trevor and I are taking our annual anniversary trip up north to a hotel and spa for a night. It started as an anniversary trip a few years back and has morphed into an end-of-the-season celebration too for when we finish our last wedding of the year! I’m so excited for our couples massages, spending time in the hot tub with my man 😍, ordering room service, and having a night out alone while the kids stay with Nana & Papa.
2) Our trip to Kansas is coming up very soon. We haven’t been since Forrest was born almost a year ago now!! We usually take a trip every July for the Fourth, but Forrest has been awful in the car so we decided to skip this past summer. So, in order to make up for the lost time, we’ve decided to spend an entire month in Kansas with Trevor’s family. We are so grateful that we get to do this because of the type of work Trevor and I both do. I don’t have any sessions or weddings between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and Trevor works on a computer so he can go anywhere, meaning we are able to take as much time away from home as we want. I’m a little nervous about the logistics of spending so much time away from home (think: packing, places to sleep, kids behaviors, etc.), but being with family for so long is totally going to be worth it.
3) We’re implementing a date night again ❤️📅 It’s been on our calendar as a recurring event for probably over a year, but while the event is a great reminder for us to spend some time together, we haven’t actually taken the time to go out on too many dates. I talked with my sister though, and she said she’s free to watch the kids, so we’re going to get out. I think we’ll just wind up going to a local restaurant, but being out of the house spending intentional time together is going to be so nice. My goal is to make this a bi-weekly thing!!
Lastly, here’s what I’m currently consuming:
📖 reading- Shadow Me (Shatter Me, 4.5), by Tahereh Mafi
🎧 listening- Stargazing, by Myles Smith
🖥️ watching- Dr. Odyssey on Hulu
🍦 eating- way too many Oreo Fudge Brownie Blizzards from DQ
☕️ drinking- coffee (this will probably never change every week)
And that’s it for this week’s recap. What are your thoughts on the new blog? How are you enjoying these yappy posts? Be sure to follow me on my socials and DM me on Instagram to let me know what you think! But for now, bye critters!
