Abby’s Saturday // One Hundred Eighty-Five

Highlight of the Week

Last night, Derrick & I went down to Shadyside for the Captured::Pittsburgh Open Air Gallery February Grand Unveiling. I kind of mentioned a few weeks ago that one of my images had been picked to be featured for the month of February. The theme for February is “love” and I only have about 2 million photos that pertain to that theme! That being said, I submitted my favorite images from this past wedding season & they picked the last photo of the night from Nick & Casey’s wedding!

So, last night was the official opening of the February gallery set! It was FREEZING. I mean, duh, it’s February in Pittsburgh, but we stood there, on the pavement, for over an hour. I literally could not feel my toes at the end of the night (let’s just say: someone should have been a little smarter & wore boots instead of heels *cough*). Regardless of the temperature, it was amazing & so surreal. Last year, when we went down to the unveiling, I think only 2 other artists (out of the 8 selected for the month) came down for the opening. Last night, only 1 artist was missing! So, it was a lot of fun to see each photographer unveil their image & to sign it! And then, we all literally ran away because it was so cold!

I have so much more to say about being featured – but I’m going to save it for Tuesday’s blog post! So, stay tuned!

Yes, This Happened

• SLEEP UPDATE: We’re officially on day 26 on our sleep journey – and they say 30 days make a habit, so we’re just about there! That was our goal at the beginning & I’m excited to report that Braelynn has been doing amazing. She consistently sleeps thru the night now, without waking up at all (except for last night when the fire station siren went off & scared all of us half-to-death, I’m not sure why it seemed so much louder last night than usual, but it woke all of us up). I’m so proud of her & actually look forward to bedtime now! It’s opened up worlds of possibilities too – like sleepovers are finally possible (which will be helpful this summer, when Derrick & I are out late shooting a wedding)! YAY!
• POTTY UPDATE: Along with sleeping thru the night, Braelynn has also taken another step forward with her potty training! She’s pretty much been (mostly) accident-free for the last 2 months, but it all depended on us reminding her to go to the potty & being very proactive in taking her. This week though, she’s been telling us she needs to go potty before she has an accident (before, Braelynn saying “I need to go potty!” meant, she just had an accident)! So, our big girl is making big strides this week!
• So, I have been slowly making updates & adjustments to my website over the last few weeks. I have a running list of things I want to change/rewrite/update and every day I’ve been picking one thing to work on. A very long story short: I decided this week to update my hosting & change my website’s hosting provider. I did my research & read that it was a very simple & pain-free process, so I decided to pull the trigger & do it. And then, about 20 minutes later, I got a note that said there was a problem. Turns out, my website is HUGE – like GIGANTIC & they were not able to migrate my website over until I reduced the size of my website. I was shocked – I was happily oblivious to this & had truly no idea! I mean, once I thought about it, it makes sense: I’ve had this website since 2012 & have been blogging (a lot of) photos on a regular basis. All of my photos have not always been optimized, in fact, some of the images I blogged in 2015 & 2016 are full, high-resolution files (in other words, HUGE). Needless to say, I now have a bunch of new tasks added to my “website to-do” list! It never ends – being a small business entrepreneur means that the to-do list literally never ever ends.
• We have officially begun planning for Ellen’s baby shower!! We’re at less than 10 weeks to go before her due date – everyone is getting SUPER excited!!
• The Shoot & Share Photo Contest opened this week!! It’s the yearly way us photographers get thru the month of February! But seriously, I’ve entered images every year for the last 4 years & it’s so much fun! It’s so inspiring and crazy addicting and open to everyone! So, feel free to jump over & get in on the voting fun! It’s super easy, free, and 100% fair (you’ll be presented with 4 photos, simply click on the one you love the most & then the page will refresh to show you 4 more photos!) Just beware: it’s insanely addicting, consider yourself warned!
• Derrick & I went to dinner last night before the gallery opening at The Yard in Shadyside. Someone Derrick works with had suggested it and WOW am I glad they did!! It was AMAZING. Seriously, some of the best food I have had in a long long time. The Yard is famous for the “gourmet grilled cheese” – and it did not disappoint. We’re already making plans to go back – it was so good! If you’re ever in Shadyside, go eat at The Yard!!

Feeling Blessed

This is the last official “off-season” weekend! Next Saturday, my 2018 wedding season kicks off with Liz & Harry’s wedding! I’m so excited to jump back into shooting beautiful weddings – and I have more gorgeous weddings booked for this year than any before! They also start even earlier than ever before (normally, my wedding season begins in April or May), but hey – February is a great time to get married! I cannot wait to celebrate with Liz & Harry and you all know what that means – lots of pretty wedding pictures will be coming to the blog on a regular basis again! YAY!

As for this weekend, I have every intention of doing nothing. Well, not “nothing”, I had a few business tasks to take care of this morning, obviously, I’m writing this post (see above where I said that an entrepreneur’s to-do list never ends)! But the rest of today I plan on planting myself on the couch with a cup of coffee, my biggest/warmest/snuggliest blanket, and reading, voting in the Shoot & Share contest, and watching Daniel Tiger with my little munchkin!