The whirlwind that was July...

Whew. I can't begin to explain the running around that lead up to our home celebration and made up the month of July. Errands, IKEA trips, moving stuff, cleaning stuff, decorating, and you name it, we tried to squeeze it in our days. Let's get to some photos.


Oh, new iPhone. How I love thee, especially with MobileMe syncing. We took a half day off work and spent three hours in line. The time passed pretty quickly because I took along Harry Potter, and the waiting paid off because we were just about the last people to get phones. If it weren't for a delivery of 10 more phones during our wait, we wouldn't have gotten phones at all. Then, of course, we had to go through the issue where everyone and their family was trying to activate their phones on iTunes, but that's a whole other story. I got a white one and Dan got a black one.


There's a new addition to the family - a little sister, if you will. We scored a great deal on a Canon XSi (450D) for a second shooter and backup. The 40D is perfect for Dan's hands, and this smaller one is great for me. Surprisingly, it has more megapixels, too. We took it for a test drive during last Sunday's engagement shoot and it stood up to the monster pretty well.


This was the ONLY picture I took of our party. I actually took about three pictures total, but they all looked like this one. This was after all of our family had left, after Dan persuaded everyone to play beer darts in the backyard, and then twisted their arms to play beer pong, causing our kitchen table to relocate to the patio and get beer all over it. Needless to say, and gladly, I had to round up all of our extra pillows and blankets since we had a lot of friends spend the night.

If you know me at all, I'm sure you're picturing me relaxing inside, drinking my iced tea, taking this picture out my back door. And for the record, no kitchen tables were harmed for the duration of the party.

Other than that, I'm glad more of our families were able to see the house. I wish we could have spent more time with them instead of giving an upteenth tour, but we'll just have to remember that for our next party.

(Click to enlarge)
Man, I'm so thrilled with these details. I took some shots around the house to show a few of my favorite things, and the little bits encompass our style perfectly.

1. Living room wall - above couch: I couldn't have picked better pictures for this arrangement and the glimpse into our lives. Funny story - when we got these prints we opened them right away and Urple walked up to check out the package. We got to Merry's big-headed print and held it up to show Urple. Not two seconds later her eyes nearly popped out of her head and she couldn't get away fast enough! When we got to Urple's picture we held it up to show Merry, and she did the SAME THING. We hung all the frames that night and the girls wouldn't step foot in the living room for about a week. Seriously, cats.
2. Living room wall - above television
   
3. Master bath - above jacuzzi
   
4. Guest bedroom: I've always wanted to put a bed on a diagonal, and the guest room was prime opportunity since the door to the room is also on a diagonal. Big Ben is on the night stand, and the art from Dan's London and Paris trips will coordinate on the walls.
   
5. This will be 5-8 actually: we turned our dining room into a spectacular Rye Designs showroom. Thoughts and words cannot express how much I love this room. It is so inspiring JUST TO SIT IN THE ROOM. We bought a little couch, a little chair, mixed in some of our favorite client shots with studio lighting, and hung a wire-full of stationery samples. Not sure why the last photo turned out with a green wall, but oh well.
   
   The mac has a home here so we can show off slideshows to clients, and I find myself working in this room more than our office upstairs. I have plans for the office...mainly to put business documents and packaging, marketing, and yada-yada materials up there (along with the baskets of craft supplies). That way we'll keep the business end away from clients and just keep them involved in the inspiring and fun showroom stuff.
   

The evening after our party I was minding my own business editing pictures and having a lazy day, when I look out the back door to see very dark clouds, rain, and high winds. Within minutes, sirens were blaring and I was wondering if I should go to the basement. Dan was on his way home maneuvering around branches and trees in the road. As soon as he arrived, we hid in the furnace closet with spinach dip, mini bread squares, and our iphones - you know, the essentials. After the warnings and skies cleared, we came out of hiding to find this:


Good thing our party wasn't that evening.

Now we're pretty much up to date, and if you're still reading then I'm impressed.

After the party, the craziness around the house seemed to shift into my work life. With our show coming up in September we are chickens-with-our-heads-cut-off insane. I worked last Saturday and will go in again tomorrow. Bring on the overtime. My house is showing it, though, especially in the kitchen and laundry room. Dan has been a big help in both areas, but it still seems to be piling up to my eyeballs. My boss has been great, approving anything that will save me time (like outsourcing projects), so I can breathe small sighs of relief in that arena.

In other arenas, I'm editing our recent engagement shoot and the photos are looking fabulous. I will have some to post this weekend. It's part of my tweaked workflow to have favorites blogged within a week. For now, it's time to fold some laundry, edit some more photos, and resist stuffing my face with chocolate.

Maybe two out of three is good enough.
Happy eight-eight-oh-eight, yo.