1  ENGAGEMENT PARTY SHIN-DIG GALORE - This past Sunday we threw an engagement party for my friends Chris & Krissy. It was AMAZING and fun and such a great celebration with the best people I know. 

The entire party came together in under a week with the help of all the super talented women in my community group and the longest email thread in the world. Seriously. It had to be  50+ emails back and forth. Kind of ridic, but the party turned out great. 

2  DECORATIONS & HUSBAND’S DELIGHT WIN - Well my part in the party planning committee was decorations and desserts. And so I didn’t really have much of a game plan with either but it worked out!

And I know it’s not that big of a deal, but I love doing these things. Must be my Special Events skills kicking in from back in the day (I used to cater and plan large scale parties for a couple years - and I loved it).  My friend Lauren helped me make bunting with little tissue pom pom’s and cupcakes. And then I made this layered dessert called Husband’s Delight which was a big hit! Which was great since I made it from memory. I’m really happy that it turned out great. I just wish I caught a picture in time so that I could make a recipe post about it.  

3  KIDS PHOTO SHOOT - This past weekend I got to do my very first in-studio kids fashion shoot. Say what?! YES. That happened. What was initially only supposed to be 6 kids somehow ended up being 14 kids. Seriously - 14 kids!!

And well, I’m super grateful that both Toby and Katie were there to help me make kids smile and laugh. Overall the shoot was a huge learning curve, but now we know what to do better next time.

I can’t post any pictures until the client sees them, but here’s a behind the scenes pic. 

4  ALWAYS LEARNING, NETWORKING, AND BRAINSTORMING - I don’t know how it happened but I found myself incredibly proactive and busy last week. Busy beyond the regular work and church. 

I joined a networking group about a month ago to help me gain some local business (which has worked!) but I also signed up for a few free resources to keep my brain and creative juices flowing:

• WEBINARS WITH HOMEWORK - I started a 5-week course on Skillshare called “Building Your Creative Empire.” I’m still trying to figure out the whole webinar meetup sitch, but I did brainstorm with another classmate at Intellegenscia last week. We definitely have some ideas in the hopper now! I’m excited.
• HOW TO WORK WITH MODELS & OTHER CLASSES - Working from home has made it easy for me to watch live workshops from Creative Live. So good! There’s still so much for me to learn about the photography industry - what a great resource!
• BEHIND THE MUSIC VIDEO - On Friday I was able to go to the Creative LA meeting and basically listen to the story of how Nabil Elderkin started in the biz. He’s a super talented music videographer who actually got his start when he bought the domain “kanyewest.com” before Kanye West was even signed. A little bartering for a photo shoot for a domain, and boom! Launchpad into a legit career. 

5  MEETING SUPER TALENTED AND AWESOME PEOPLE - Being part of these networking groups and forcing myself to go to meetups actually helps me discover great people out there. One of which is this guy who told me to check out this video on his site.

Let me just say this is an amazingly shot family vid with a great soundtrack. Enjoy!