At the Capitol

Hey remember that time we went on vacation last month? Yeah me too. I'm just getting around to posting more photos! Oops! After spending most of our vacation in the Smokies, we finished out the trip by visiting my family in DC. I hadn't been to see everyone up there in 3 years! That's way to long in my book! My family used make the 14 hour trek from Florida to visit twice a year. I loved it. It was so different visiting without the rest of my family this time and with my husband. I guess that means I grew up or something. Anyway, since our trip was short we decided just to go to the Capitol for an afternoon. Though I've been twice a year since I was a baby, Jonathan only went a time or two during grade school. Poor little public school kid. Haha. We went to the new International Spy museum (which was awesome), the Library of Congress and the Lincoln Memorial. Ah, we love adventuring.

The Library of Congress is one of my favorite places in DC. Oh, the architecture! My grandmother actually worked there for a little while!

The Lincoln Memorial is one of my favorites. I love to stand on the steps and look across the pool to the Washington Monument. Unfortunately, the pool was under some kind of construction so it wasn't as pretty as I remembered.

After a long afternoon of sightseeing and sweating, my sweet cousins met us for dinner. They are hillarious. I really wish we all lived closer! Alas! 

Well, that's about it folks! I'm currently recovering from a wonderful weekend full of friends and family. Seriously, why can't all the people I love live in the same town? Boo. However, my sweet sissy just moved to college about 30 minutes from our place! Her first day of class is today! Now I just have to get the rest of them here...

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Show Up

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have it all together in my business. In fact, I'm certain that I'm really bad at the business side of things and I'm definitely sure that I don't know everything there is to know about photography. Sometimes my to-do list is incredibly daunting and other days I wonder what in the heck I'm going to do. My circumstances are probably different than most people building a photography business. For different reasons God thrust me out a full time job and into this. I've had to learn on the fly. It's been overwhelming and just plain hard at times. Through all of this I've learned one thing...

JUST SHOW UP! 

Every morning I try to have a "just show up" attitude. I might not have a clue how what I'm going to do or how I'm going to do it, but I get up and go sit at my desk anyway. Often it's all I can do to hack through my to-do list, but more often than not I'm showing up to see what new things the day may bring. This has been especially beneficial during the slower times, especially in the begining. When I first started there were so many things I needed to master and I didn't know where to start. It was amazing what I learned by doing this. This principle is true in many other areas as well. It doesn't really matter what you're trying to accomplish or how formidable your task may be. If you just show up and put forth effort, you're going to move forward.

"Today what you'll do what you did yesterday. Tomorrow you'll do what you did today. Eventually you'll get somewhere." - Artist, Chuck Close

Do you have something you'd like to learn or accomplish? Then don't worry about how much is on your schedule, a lot or a little. Show up. Be Teachable. Keep pressing forward. Nothing worth having is going to be attained easily anyway.

Happy Friday everyone!

Sweetness in Spring

Last week was pure bliss. My sister stayed at our place for a whole week. We had so much fun together. I love how close we have become since I moved away. You'd think we'd grow a little more distant, but we haven't. I guess we have a lot more in common now. Part of the reason she came was to look at coming to my alma mater, which is pretty close to us! I certainly wouldn't mind if she moved closer! :) While we were in the small little college town we explored some of my favorite haunts back in my college days. We took our floppy hats and set off on a tandem bike...and of course I grabbed my camera too. It's always fun to do little photo shoots when my sister comes in town. She is most definitely my muse. I love to test out my latest ideas and inspirations on her. I'm really loving the use of flowers and hats these days. It's probably a bit overboard, but I'm sure I'll love something else soon enough.

Anyway, it sure was nice to have someone else in the house with me during the day. We watched girlie movies, went shopping, house hunting and plenty of other things. It's only been a few days since she left and I miss her already! I really hope she moves close, but we'll see what the Lord has in store for her! I hope you all are having a great start to your week!