Jillian Tree

an aspiring photographer.

Encouragement & a Busy Week! February 28, 2011

The other day I received a message from a dear friend of mine. It was such an encouragement to me & completely made my day  :)  Here is a little part of it:

I have seen some of the wedding photos you have taken and they are beautiful. I can’t wait to see you keep progressing! You’ve definitely got what it takes to be an amazing photographer. I really hope we get to see you [soon]. You are such a beautiful woman of God and I am so proud of the person you have become in the last couple of years. I really hope we can keep in touch better…you are such a special person that I love. Hope you’re doing well.

Thank you, dear friend. I may just print that. :)

Especially to read over & over again these upcoming next seven days…

 

Since this week is going to be absolutely crazy. In just a few hours, I’ll be driving to Orlando for the Images For A Cure Workshop, with my friend Adeline. Tuesday is full of learning from the pros & listening to them speak, Wednesday involves an actual shoot with the photographers, and I am soo stoked to meet & work with Becka & Nate from Studio222! I’ll be getting back wednesday night, and on thursday one of my bridesmaids will be visiting me from out of town – I’m excited because I haven’t seen her since my wedding in September! Then, on friday I’ll be driving up to Jacksonville for the newborn workshop on saturday with Alex Michele Photography. Driving home the 5 hours that same night, then making & bringing a snack, lunch meal, vegetable dish & dessert to Church the next morning for the luncheon we’re having, and after that, hanging out with some other close friends that will be in the area only on that afternoon (of course).

So, Fort Lauderdale to Orlando to Fort Lauderdale, to Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale, with no real break in between or after.

Bring. it. on. week.


 

My Week: Fears & Wall Art. February 23, 2011

Our past week has been made up of:

  • David & I painting our house together. We are almost done with the outside trim! I spent an hour on the roof leaning over the edge to get the trim, due to David’s somewhat fear of heights…but hey, when he cleans the shower drains & unplugs the sink everytime for me, it’s totally worth it! The things you’ll do for one another ;) One day I’ll blog about my irrational fear of drains. And I’ll make it rational & perfectly normal, as unheard of as it is! You’ll see. Even while the first thing I do every single time I go to a swimming pool is locate the drain…it is a completely normal thing, that everyone but you (see the irony?) does. Really.*
  • Good, long talks together. These are my favorite :)
  • Not doing enough laundry & seeing it pile up. (this ones just me)
  • Watching David play basketball for hours with a bunch of the guys after Church…and hearing him complain the past two days about being really sore & sunburnt. We are planning to work out way more once he finishes his last online class & gets his Master’s Degree…in just six days!! Yayy!
  • Feeling overwhelmed & being reminded of who my Rock is.
  • Valentine’s Day Leftovers :)

David made me crackle cookies on Valentine’s Day. They are my absolute favorite cookies! If you’ve never had one, you must. They are like brownies in a cookie. Pure amazingness.

A week and a few days later, my roses from Valentine’s Day (delivered to me in the middle of my class last monday-so awesome & sweet!) are still going strong :)

  • On saturday morning, we went garage-sale-ing (yep, I turned it into a verb). It was something David & I hadn’t done together, and there was a really good community garage sale going on not far from us. We found some pretty sweet stuff for our first time – it was quite a successful morning of finding cute stuff for our house, which was my main goal when heading out at 7:20 AM on a saturday (who does that?)! Check it out:

How could I resist these cuuuuute placemats for $2?

And how about these adorable kitchen jars? 3 for $5.


Oh, & I didn’t count wrong. I actually bought 3 jars, and when I came home & un-wrapped them again, was pleasantly surprised to find a fourth jar tucked inside the biggest one! Yayy for the little things that can make our day even better. :)

$2 for this Christmas wreath. Now next year we’ll have one to hang on our front door :)

My second goal was to find wall art. We have plenty of picture frames, but not large ones, so on a big blank wall they would look like postage stamps. I was on a mission for some paintings. Our first acquirement, also for $2:

Our second acquirement was a bit more complicated. It was so huge, it almost didn’t fit in the back of my car. It couldn’t even fit in the trunk, we had to go for the backseat. There was not even one half-inch of space left when we closed the door (we were afraid it wouldn’t close!). This one cost us $15, but it was worth it for the frame alone. The picture is okay, though I’ll be on the lookout for something to replace it. In order to help you understand just how big (hmm..maybe it’s just big to me though, since I’m not a huge fan of going to museums, and therefore don’t see large paintings that often. Whatever, it’s a big painting to me!) this painting is, I put a small square kleenex box next to it (after failed attempts with an iPod & cup first.)

  • Monday night, we also went to HomeGoods to purchase some more wall art. We even went to two HomeGoods stores! Here are some of what we decided on. Love this one!

The following is my favorite.

How could we not have this hanging in our house somewhere?? It fits perfectly.

  • Last of all, David hung up our new clock in the Dining room. It was given to us as a wedding present, but unfortunately, we don’t know from whom! No one claimed it in their wedding card. We have the same problem with a beautiful small golden mirror. (Both of which we lugged from Canada to Mexico to Florida, with only one small casualty; the glass on the front of the clock got broken. But hey, I still love it, & it’s our first wall clock!) So if you gave either of these to us, please let me know! :)

Hope you have a great rest of the week, & get lots done. It’s my hope too!

*PS: I did some research. While Answers.com says this:

“There does not appear to be a scientific name to specifically describe the fear of drains.”

And appears to make my fear ridiculous & rare, I found it isn’t not common (yep, that’s me, making you have to think more):

http://www.unusualphobias.com/plugs.html

I scanned through a few of them & totally feel for the people who wrote the second one & the second-last one!

I am not alone!! :)