Self Timer <3

My wedding this past weekend was at the lovely Myrtle beach-front with a super fun group of people. I met the couple online as usual and showed up to find a close knit group of friends ready to have fun. This particular instance makes me smile because I am always the awkward friend who gets to do the self timer…friend pictures, family pictures, you name it… so I met this girl and was like, word, we are kindred spirits for this reason alone.

A saga of swiftness. A narrative of nuisances. The drama of overblown encouragement.

Can you make it on time? Will you trip? Will your winded breathless face show up in the shot? (most definitely).

Three cheers for running like an idiot to beat a timer

(although some of us will never be as cute as this chica in action!)

mums

I’ve been sick of being on the road all the time, so my mom came along to keep me company on my last wedding run! We may have had a few alternative motives (aka, we’d be passing by IKEA). We were supposed to spend more time in charlotte on Saturday morning, but my rental order was messed up and we ended up getting a late start down. Mom was able to explore while I shot the wedding, and picked me up with a welcoming blast of hot air coming out of the car. It was extremely appreciated after the 7 hours spent outside in 50 degree weather.  We had a late dinner together at the outback (mmm steak and salad!).

Then we hit IKEA in the morning! wooo! here’s our lousy phone picture aha:

I had an agenda, to get a giant poster frame for charley’s hedgehog poster print….but I may or may not have stuck a few extra things in the cart. Like these cookie cutters:

Who could pass up woodland themed cookie cutters?!? Especially not ones that include a hedgehog AND Juneau shapes (okay so I know it’s a fox but whatev, it’s gonna be Juneau).

Christmas presents for the kids I nanny:

These little storage baskets for the bathroom. They smell really really good for some reason. They’re made out of some sort of sweet grass I guess.

I also got a Christmas and birthday gift for my adorable niece but I’d hate to spoil it so no photo there

For charley I  got two little pie/tart dishes and a travel mug (so I can stop spilling chai tea on his dash in the morning).  For Bruno’s frame, I got the 27x37 RIBBA frame in birch. I had to trim my 30 x 40 poster a bit, but I was cool with that since no one seems to sell poster frames that big (especially not ones in pretty thick birch). It has Plexiglas instead of glass, but I’m okay with that since everything we put on the wall seems to fall on charley’s head ( he has a curse or something). It’s waiting on the floor until I can find a small enough screwdriver to finish the assembly and get it up on the wall firm and secure.

There were quite a few things I would have loved to have slipped in my cart this time around  but you know how that whole budget thing goes…so we looked, we touched, we sampled, but they stayed there and we’re all a bit happier that way.

In way of admiration, these things look awesome online, and passed the in-person test.

The “I-dream-of-IKEA-list”:

The Hitching Post. Statesville NC

The wedding I was shooting this past weekend was at the lovely two story historic farmhouse called the “hitching post”.  It's a beautiful piece of property in Statesville, NC, decorated traditional country on the interiors. Usually people get married on the lawn, and have the reception in the tent on the back side of the house. We had beautiful shooting light, but it was quite cold. The inside of the house was cold as well except for the fireplaces that people gathered around.

Check out this horse! It was in one of the bathrooms:

overachievement

My husband loves cooking like no one I’ve ever met. He recently had a few days off from work, a break from cooking, and he’s bored stiff. So what does he do? he cooks. It’s like a disease: he must be rolling dough or he’s not happy. All the more reason that I’d love to see him follow his dream and open a bakery one day. So he wanted a burger, so he makes brioche bread for a bun, grills a gigantic slab of ground beef and adds mayo, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and smoked gouda cheese.

and the smell of bacon seems to draw people to our house…including unsocial cats: