Home at Last

Pssst ... Hey, guess what?

That key up there ...

... goes to this house here. And the key is on MY key chain! Nathan and I officially own a darling 1940s colonial. I love it. And, I can't stop smiling. :D

Once we got our keys we had our first dinner in the house, complete with champagne. Being the super fancy people we are, we chose to eat Wendy's and drink a $7 bottle of champagne. Hey, we have a mortgage now!

But seriously, we're both so, so thankful that we are able to call this house ours. Although we saved and saved and saved for our "one-day house," now that it's here we can hardly believe the key is in our hand. As we sat on the floor and made our way through salty fries and sweet champagne, we talked about plans for the house—what would go where, the best paint color for in there—and my heart was so full. Sometimes there are no words to describe how incredibly thankful I am  for the life I live every day; it just feels right. And I know what an unbelievable blessing that is.

I'm so excited to share our house with you, faithful readers. Stay tuned for before-and-after pictures as we slowly make this place cute and cozy!

101 in 1001: #19 Upgrade my camera.

I just have one thing to say: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! :)

I've upgraded my camera to the Canon 5D Mark II! I've been thinking about this for awhile and the time has officially come.

Allow me to be a camera dork for a minute ... the biggest difference between the Canon 30D (my "old" [now back-up] camera) and the 5D Mark II is the ISO capabilities, or the camera's light sensitivity. On my old camera, ISO 640 was just about as high as I could get (meaning I need more light sensitivity because I'm shooting in low light) without the grain getting really bad. On the new camera, I can shoot at ISO 1600 (SO high!) with hardly any grain. So crazy.

Can you see the difference? These are straight out of the camera and were both shot at the same settings (ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/30).

And, here's the zoom so you can see the grain.

OK, dorkiness over! :) Can't wait to use the new camera this upcoming wedding season!

101 in 1001: #9 Join the [b]School.

I've been thinking a lot lately about 2012 business goals. It's exciting and overwhelming at the same time. But mostly exciting. :) There's so many things swimming around in my head, it's going to be hard to narrow the ideas down to a manageable number. But I'm gonna do it, and I'm gonna share them with you all so I will be held accountable. Get ready! Before that though, I have some other end-of-the-year posts to get out there ... starting with another 101 in 1001 check mark! I wanted to join the [b]School to help with my networking. The [b]School is a social network for professional photographers, and so far I've only been on like ... two ... times. So, I've technically joined; now I just have to learn to utilize it. Stay tuned for my 2012 goals for that one!

And in case you're in need of a little inspiration as we near year's end, check out this awesome photography blog, Ground Glass, that's actually great for non-photographers too. My friend Leah sent me this post about how to love what you do. I am absolutely amazed by people who can take a complex, overwhelming concept and break it down into beautiful, relatable, encouraging writing.

101 in 1001: #69 Take a class at the YMCA.

OK, all you spinners. I don't know how you do it. I consider myself fairly in shape, but spinning? It's pretty hardcore. When I was looking at the classes our YMCA offered, I was, quite honestly, looking for "pretty easy." On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the hardest), I thought a class that was a 4 would do the job. I wanted a workout but I didn't want to be in extreme pain afterwards.

Believe it or not, I am one of those people who actually doesn't mind working out. Having done gymnastics most of my life, I'm used to physical activity, but gymnastics is so much different than going to the gym and riding a bike for half an hour. I learned that pretty quickly in college. Gymnastics was fun! We got to flip, jump and dance for three hours. Pedaling a stationary bike on the other hand was not quite the same.

But I did it. In college, I made that kind of working out a priority because I knew I wouldn't always do gymnastics. And once it became a habit, I didn't mind it! It was still a release, even if I wasn't flipping.

Still though, I generally do no more than 30 minutes of cardio (on a good day!) so spinning for 50 minutes sounded pretty intense. And it was. My lovely friend Branden, who agreed to accompany me to the class, can attest to that. But guess what? I've gone back three times! And THAT'S what my 101 list is all about. Getting out of my box and creating new, better habits that will hopefully stick.

That being said, I'm still jealous of you hardcore spinners who sit in the front row and pedal faster on FULL resistance than I can on, uh, ZERO. Maybe one day ...