We have been in beautiful San Diego this week for Pictage PartnerCon 2011! Heading home tomorrow with brains full of new ideas, and renewed creativity after seeing things like the lovely sunsets San Diego has to offer Just wanted to share one with you all tonight! After missing one ferry by five minutes, a long walk and pedi cab to barely catch the other ferry, then a frenzied cab ride across the island of Coronado, we finally arrived at this beach just in time for sunset. Totally worth it

Hope you all are having a great week!

Ever since Chris and I were married, we knew that when Chris graduated, we would be moving away from Bowling Green. We just didn’t know where. In the past year or so we have thrown around all kinds of ideas (and prayed  a TON!)…from Charleston to Lexington to St. Louis and more. Enter our fabulous friends in Nashville. We began traveling to Nashville once a month for SMUG meetings, and have just been completely blown away by how encouraging and wonderful the wedding community is. We’ve made amazing friends with photographers, planners, etc. Not to mention, Nashville is such an amazing city!

After one SMUG meeting, I found myself eating dinner across from Jonathan Campbell and next to Kristen Steele. I mentioned how Nashville was one of the places we had thought about moving, and they were super encouraging and pretty much talked me into it then and there! Added to the conversation I had had earlier in the day with some other fabulous friends (and photographers), I was sure that Nashville was where we needed to be (Chris, luckily, was in agreement haha).

Skipping all the boring and stressful things that came between then and now….we have put a deposit down an apartment, and will officially be residents of Nashville by mid-June! Chris is graduating from WKU this Saturday (I am SO PROUD OF HIM!!!), then it’s just a few weeks for packing and vacation, then we will be in Nashville. It doesn’t even seem real yet! But we are so excited!! I am so thankful for everyone who has helped us and given suggestions while we planned our relocation…you all are awesome

We can’t wait to build even better friendships with the friends we already have down there, make new friends, be a part of such an amazing community, and live in a new city! Not to mention, I am SUPER excited about the fabulous brides we will (hopefully!) be meeting! Bowling Green has been great, and we will miss our wonderful friends here. It’s also been a great little city for my business, and I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without it But changes are comin’….and we will see you in Music City!

And, because no post is complete without a picture…I leave you with this picture from late 2005. Me and Chris, playing Apples to Apples in the dorm lobby of Barnes Campbell Hall. We barely knew each other here…and didn’t start dating until late 2006. Let’s just say it’s funny how God works….and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

*On a separate note, we have been so heart broken watching all the news of the flooding in Nashville, and watching our family and friends pick back up their lives. We were able to go down one day and help my cousin, but haven’t been able to do much from afar Many thanks to everyone who has been able to help and donate to flood relief, and keeping us updated with pictures and Twitter and such!

We started off with a trip to Atlanta with friends Paul and Sara, to see Braves vs. Phillies:

They won, woo hoo!

Then, after some confusing road trippage and a stop for lunch in Atlanta with the fab Lauren Wright, Chris and I made our way to St. Augustine. Here we have the beautiful Castillo de San Marco. I love history!

So fun! It’s incredible how just a few days away can be so rejuvenating to the soul. A time to reflect, reconnect, and listen to God’s small voice for our lives and our plans. So awe-inspiring to sit on a beach and look at the waves and think about the Creator that made every grain of sand and can control the waves is also the God who brought us together. Peaceful, beautiful And now we’re back and refreshed, and I am so excited to get back to work on all things art and business related!

So, I’m back! Woo hoo! My computer is up and running and although I’m still missing some programs I need to track down the serial numbers for (I’m the most unorganized person, ever), we are pretty much good to go! The weather has been mostly gloomy the last few days so I wanted to share a few pictures from my trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina. I was working most of the time, but did get to go out and explore the beach one evening. It was soooooo beautiful. Seriously one of the prettiest beaches I’ve ever been on! These are just a few kinda random photos, most snapped without looking haha, but I hope you enjoy!

A self portrait of sorts. So creative, right? Ha! Jk.

There were some seriously sweet sand castles on this beach! Next time, hubby is coming with me, and we are building a sand castle. Really.

So pretty and relaxing

Someone made a race car out of sand….sweet!

And some flowers for mom

That’s all for today! Coming up this weekend we have a wedding, as well as my brother’s senior pictures, yay! Also possibly my brother in laws senior pictures, and some sessions for some friends. I love spring! I love photo sessions All in all, a good few weeks coming up!

Have a great week everyone!

Tomorrow, I am hopefully going to apply for substitute teaching. Any horror stories to share before I go through with it? Just kidding, a little . Actually, I’m pretty excited to have something to do other than sit around on my rear end all day while my kitten naps on me. I did go to WalMart today though; gag me with a smurf. I hate that place, and probably spent at least 45 minutes trying to find suitable produce. I can’t wait to live somewhere with a health food store/Trader Joes/Whole Foods etc… By the time I got home I was too worn out to cook the dinner I had planned, Cajun Chicken Pasta. I’m fairly pathetic haha. My brother found the recipe for me with an app on his iPod touch, which I’m still amazed about!

This is turning into a post with a lot of random thoughts all strung together, and I think I like it! Still exploring options for after this semester, and just generally excited! So to close this most random post ever, two more photos. Enjoy!

Loooove the angles and lines and textures of this shot of the chapel at the Air Force Academy! We went to visit one of Chris’s long time friends who is a senior there. We will be going back for his graduation in May and we’re super excited!

And a shot from Garden of the Gods. It’s really really tough to capture something so full of God’s magnificence on camera. This doesn’t nearly do it justice, but it will have to do for now!

Chris and I are in Colorado right now, which is pretty cool! We came to visit the University of Colorado at Boulder for Chris for grad school. It didn’t work out, but it is totally ok. My love affair with the state of Colorado is thoroughly over haha. It was a very enlightening visit, and awesome to see our prayers being answered by figuring out that this is NOT where we need to be. Kinda nervewracking to figure out where we go from here, but it is all good!

So anyway, I wanted to share some photos from our trip so far! Last night we went to Colorado Springs to see the Garden of the Gods, but didn’t figure in rush hour traffic by Denver so it was almost dark when we got there. Today we drove out to the town of Central City and the ghost town of Nevadaville. It was incredible! We twisted and turned around the mountains foreverrrrr then drove up this dirt road to the old abandoned town. Very cool. So, here’s some pictures!

A few pictures from Garden of the Gods…should have some more tomorrow, we are hoping to go back and see it in the daylight!

The sign to Nevadaville and the sign for the trading post. Both pictures taken by the Husband! <3

City Hall. Sweet!

The General Store/Trading Post.