{where were we: part 1...}

"So...where were we?!?!"

This is a question that I find myself using quite often now that I have a baby! It seems that regardless of what conversation I am having...it ends up getting cut off mid-sentence thanks to some child related need! A couple of minutes later, yet another crisis is averted and those four words pour out of my mouth in a desperate attempt to pick up where I left off!

It's been working for me so far! Granted, it's not the eloquent conversation starters that I'm use to dishing out, but what can I say, I'm new at this! It's got a nice ring to it though...it rolls off the tongue so easily! So it's become sort of like my personal mission statement as I aggressively pursue my desire to finish what I've started...and my blog is no exception! Who knows, maybe it will make the perfect title for my autobiography one day!

So...let's begin, shall we?!?!

* My computer died! And I don't just mean that it had slight heart palpitations and then declared it a "close call". I mean, right there in the middle of Starbucks, it full on flat-lined! It was a rather stressful day in the Smyth house as we frantically tried to retrieve the work that I had done on it that morning, only to find that things would go from bad to worse very quickly when we made a very fatal error that caused my external hard drive to kick the bucket at the very same time. Awesome! So there we were, at 2:30am with my laptop in the freezer {because someone in cyberspace told us to and by this time we had nothing to lose!} while my husband fixed my backup. Long story short; the external hard drive pulled through...the freezer actually worked {seriously!}...Apple so graciously replaced my laptop hard drive for free...and my boys bought me a 22" imac for my birthday! So forty-eight hours of total panic turned out pretty well for us in the end!

* Hudson got sick for the first time a few weeks ago. The poor little guy got an ear infection and my normally brilliant little sleeper spent the night waking up every fifteen minutes screaming. It was wretched. What was even more wretched though is the discovery that a new mother with a sick baby for the first time could, quite literally, drive herself completely insane trying to self-diagnose on Google! During the dark, sleepless hours of the night, I had successfully managed to convince myself that my baby was dying and let me tell you...it wasn't pretty! Sure enough though, we saw the doctor early the next morning who not only reassured me that Hudson had nothing more than an inner ear infection...but also suggested that Google and I take a little break from each other for a while!!

* It's going to be August in three days! Crazy! This is somewhat terrifying as I realize how quickly the summer is passing us by! But August is also going to be an amazing and very exciting month for me! I often think that as photographers, the learning curve evolves; you tend to go through waves of inspiration as the seasons come and go, and you also go through times of repetition, in which case it can be easy to lose some of your motivation. As a business owner, I tend to experience much of the same cycle as I get better at my work flow or improve my marketing skills. Everything just seems to have its time and place. I've decided though that this summer, I would like to experience something a bit different on the learning curve; something other than new venues or new equipment...something a little more personal. For many, many months now I've been following the blog of Ewan and Brianna Phelan; an amazing couple who give you a completely beautiful glimpse into their world as wedding photographers. In a couple of weeks, I'm going to be heading to London, Ontario so that they can take me under their wing and show me what it's like to be The Last Forty Percent. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to spend time with these two and to learn from their brilliant minds as both photographers and very successful business owners. And to top it all off...just as I was finalizing some of the details of my time with them...I got booked to shoot in wedding in {wait for it...} London! I suppose this would be a marvelous time to thank fate for its impeccable timing!!!!

* Speaking of The Last Forty Percent...my high school boyfriend is getting married this weekend and guess who's doing their wedding pictures?!?! You guessed it {or at least I hope you did...because that was kind of a dead giveaway!}! Julio was my first serious boyfriend...my first love...my first lust...and my first of many broken hearts! We were together in the time of CrazySexyCool and Motown Philly. He took me to my senior prom and I'm not going to lie...we got in lots of trouble from our parents over the course of our relationship for various rule breaking in the name wanting to see each other!!! But he was the best first boyfriend a girl could ever ask for and I'm beyond excited for him and his stunning fiance {whom I've never met but I can only assume that she is fantastic given his absolutely stellar taste in women!!!!}. Julio and Candace...I wish you an amazing wedding and an even more amazing life together! You make a truly gorgeous couple {we even have the pictures to prove it!}!

And on that note, I hear a little man downstairs in need of a bath and a bedtime story!!! Bath time has officially become my favourite time of day...mostly because it looks a little something like this...