A whole lotta stuff in review!

LAWD HAVE MERCY, this summer has been CRAZY. I haven’t had a chance to really even sit down for a long period of time to update on what’s happening or catch my breath!

Soooo, I’ll start with the bad, and work my way to the good! The bad news. My sister. I love her. I gave her a hard time all through high school that she was working too hard in school instead of having that real high school experience everyone knows and hates loves. She would get up at the crack of dawn, go to school, get home around 3:30pm, and do homework until 2am. Every. Single. Day. On weekends? She’d do homework or work on the play she was in. She wasn’t able to make it to a lot of weddings at the first start of her senior year, which is when I really set out to find an intern – someone wanting to learn, to practice, and to listen. I reconnected with a past client named Paige, and she’s been awesome!! My sister started getting tons of acceptance letters and requests for her to apply at the top universities in the nation. Her plan for what she wanted to do changed at least seven times I think, but she ended up choosing UNC for business and musical theater. Fast-forward to a few months ago… She had graduated, and she began really trying to figure out how she’d pay for UNC. She and my parents tried absolutely every avenue other than selling random body parts and organs, but by the end of her time to get this squared away, they had nothing. The two scholarships she DID get ended up placing her above government assistance, and she was in need of a cosigner for loans. And not cheap loans either. After one last attempt to go to the school to see what could be done, it was determined that she wouldn’t be able to go. { sad face } She held her head high though, and determined that it’s going to be okay, and she’s going to live out her life until next year to see if anything has changed. With that being said, we are looking at combining forces to have her do social media for me and a few other minor things that won’t take too much time, but would help me out tremendously! We are also looking to have her second shoot weddings when we can, and the money she makes from those will go directly to her school funding. Here’s just a couple of images she took at this past weekend’s wedding!

And health. Oh boy. Things are fairly fine, but for the past several years, especially in the summer, I’ve noticed a decline accompanied by a weird rash on my elbows and slightly on my hands. At first I thought it was coffee since I’d started drinking that right about when it started, then I thought maybe it was alcohol since I never really drank anything until I really began meeting new friends and going out with them (even still – once a week is about the extent of that), but even when I’d go months without anything to drink, I’d still have this rash. I’d been to see a dermatologist multiple times a few years back about it, but he wasn’t any help and claimed it was probably a food allergy that I don’t have according to the allergy specialist. And then it hit me. Every time I’d go outside in the sun or if I’m in a situation where it’s hot, I’d get itchy all over my arms, and hives would break out… but they wouldn’t go down. They’d just stay. There’s a thick and nasty smelling cream I can put on it, and it will go away a bit, but it’s stiiiillllll there. I promise it isn’t contagious. It’s more like having a million mosquito bites on your arms. If anyone out there has any ideas on how to treat something like this, I’m all ears! But keep in mind, I AM allergic to like 99.7% of nature. Probably. Anything that grows basically, so essential oils will most likely only make it worse since I tend to break out from those too.

Right in the middle of all this, Chad (my sweet boyfriend) and I started talking about the idea of moving in together. It scared me, honestly. It’s such a HUGE step for two people to make, and I had so many worries and fears about every tiny thing. Turns out, both his apartment and where I was staying had rent going up at least $200. Neither of us would be able to afford where we currently were separately, so after a lot of time searching around, we determined the best course of action would be to just move in together at my home with Roman. We bought a storage unit to house his extra furniture, cleaned out my office room place thing, and we moved him on in a week ago! Everyone has asked how it’s been, and despite his crazy snoring (I mean this with all the love in the world, but I am THE world’s lightest sleeper), it’s been fantastic. He’s helped me out SO much already with taking Molly out when I’m asleep, he helped clear out any old furniture I’d no longer need, and he’s been good about keeping me on schedule. He’s trying to rub off his sleeping habits on me, but considering that I wrote most of this at 3am, I can’t say it’s working 😉

In the past month or so, I’ve also gotten fourteen more acceptances for publications, and was contacted by Revlon. You see, Revlon has a big ol’ spot in Times Square where they are showcasing couples madly in love 🙂 Obviously I have plenty of those kinds of photos, so when they first contacted me, I sent in a ton of images from past clients, and have had about eight currently accepted! I’ll be up in that area next month, so fingers crossed it’s still up and live! There are thousands of entries, and Revlon is going through them and choosing which ones to display. I don’t have any other details, such as time/date/etc, but am honored and excited to know that MY work is being seen in the middle of one of the greatest cities!! Exciting stuff!

And to add to it??? The Knot has started doing this 50 Weddings that represent America each year – one wedding per state, so only 50 photographers possible in the whole nation. I held my breath as I submitted every wedding I could to them, and got the acceptance that the Daniel clan WON! I am officially the NC state rep for this group this year!!!

Soooo yea, this is why I’ve been quiet, MIA, and unable to really respond as quickly as I’d like to everyone! That and I’m currently working with several vendors to produce some pretty fantastic stuff coming at ya in the next few weeks! Stay tuned 😉