spoken for

Not really sure how it happened, but I think I have a problem and her name is Vera.  Vera Bradley.  Actually, I know exactly how it happened.  It all started early this year when Stacey told me she had too many bags she’d never used and her husband wanted her to sell them and I said, “Oh, Kayleigh’s diaper bag is ripping to pieces, got anything I can use for a diaper bag?”  It’s all downhill from there.  Apparently I’m hooked.  But admitting the problem is the first step, right?

It’s just so strange because historically I haven’t been really girlie and I’ve never wanted to stand out.  I always try to blend in.  I don’t typically wear bright colors and while I’m not what you’d call a tomboy, I’ve never really been ornate or girlie in any way.

So I got a Pleated Tote in Bali Blue from Stacey which is a great diaper bag, by the way, and a Villager Tote in the same pattern for my crochet bag.  In my defense, I really did need something to keep my current project/yarn in – I took it in a basket once for a long car ride and that was a total disaster.  Then she called me later and said that the Lisa B. bags were on sale and she was placing an order, did I want one… so I ended up with a matching one of those for only $10.  Then we were headed to shoot a wedding in Ohio and I realized that I didn’t really have anything to put clothes in except this backpack that is getting really old… and she hooked me up with a large and small duffel in the same pattern.  And you were wondering why her husband wanted her to sell some stuff…  Really, I use them all the time.

I’ve ended up with a couple of purses that I snagged on sale while ordering Christmas presents for some of the ladies in my life for later this year.  My sister got a Pleated Tote from me at her baby shower (in a pattern she picked out), she tells me it’s an awesome diaper bag.  She doesn’t read here so I think I can safely say that she’s getting a matching purse for Christmas.  I am not totally lost, though, I cleaned out my closet of my old purses, giving all of them away to good homes except a solid black one I keep on hand and a sweet white one that I also plan to still use that was a gift from Linda.  Even though (before now!) I didn’t buy a purse but maybe twice a year if my other one broke, I’d accumulated a good collection over the years.  I was always getting one with some of my Christmas money from my parents.

I slowed down after that but my parents gave me some money for my birthday, and I got lost again.  Well, what I actually lost was my stupid wallet.  It still hasn’t turned up, it’s got to either be somewhere in this stupid house or it went out with the trash thanks to Kayleigh.  No one ever tried to use my credit cards.  But anyway, that wallet was also in Bali Blue… but I got a different pattern, Mocha Rouge, for my replacement wallet.  So for my birthday, I got me a Mocha Rouge Squared Away bag (pictured).  Goodness, I love this bag, haha.  It’s huge though, bigger than I normally use so I had to put in a couple of other things I don’t normally carry.  Funny.  Also funny: usually I avoid pink like the plague.  Mom’s always been telling me that pink looks good on me because of my skin tone, she’d like this irony.  I got mine new with tags on Ebay for a decent amount less than retail, and free shipping.

At least I do still have some brains.  I haven’t bought things full price, all either on sale or on Ebay when cheaper than the website, and aside from having a couple of extra purses now, the rest has been things I do need such as the duffels or the couple of beach towels I got (half price or so) that I need for going swimming with Elijah during his weekly lessons.  Did you know that after you’ve been married for 11 years, the towels you got for wedding presents are now pretty much crap?  I do!  I also do hereby solemnly swear that I’m not buying more stuff!  At least not for myself.  :)  (Truth be told, all spending that’s unnecessary is going to come to a halt, aside from Christmas, we’re going in to lock down again.)

My favorite patterns are the Bali Blue, Mocha Rouge, Baroque, and Barcelona.  That encompasses all that I personally have.  Each person I’ve bought a gift for is going to be getting a different pattern.  I guess that sort of shows my plainness, though, many of the patterns are much too bold for me, such as Loves Me, which is Stacey’s fav.  It totally fits her personality though, she’s so outgoing and sweet.  Our business has several large bags that we’ve acquired from Stacey’s stash in various patterns, mostly Pirouette.  I don’t particularly care for it much but we have to have something to carry all of our lights and bulbs and cloths and various other things and carrying Vera is a lot more professional looking than carrying Wal-Mart bags.  Yes, I have been known to just throw everything into plastic bags.  I also think I like Cupcakes Green, but I don’t have anything in it and don’t plan on getting anything in it!  Oh, the beach towels don’t match anything else I have, either, I just picked out two when they were on sale, but I don’t care, they are big and soft and way absorbent.  I also love that these bags are proving more durable than purses I’ve had in the past.  Maybe I just bought cheap crap but so far I haven’t had any of the problems I’ve historically had with my purses… straps coming away from the bag, zipper pulls coming off, rips in the outside fabric, stitching coming out, etc.  And they’re machine washable.  I tell you what, that “diaper bag” really needs it about now…  I also like that at least some of them I have say Made in the USA on them.  And they hold value.  I bought one that I used twice and then regretted, I was able to re-sell it on Ebay very quickly.

The only thing I really wish was that they had a decent laptop bag for my behemoth.  I had to get this big black thing from Targus or someone and I swear, that bag is heavier than the actual laptop.  But I was having a hard time finding something that the stupid thing would fit in!

So, hello, I’m Valerie and I’ve become a bag whore… someone save me.  :)

So remember when I pulled my back out or something?  It was right after our last wedding in August, the same one where we had our backdrop at.  I’ll bet I threw myself into all that pain by carrying too much at once down to the car when we were packing up.  I was so tired and wanted to go home, I probably pushed it too far.  A few days later it got really really bad and Stacey took me to her massage therapist.  She was great and helped me get my back in order so that it felt a lot better pretty soon thereafter.  It took me about another week to feel back to normal, though.  A couple of weeks later, I went to the massage therapist again, this time for a *real* massage.  The first time, she had to work with me special, because of my back, of course, but this time, I got the whole experience.  Wow, it was great.  She even got my sinuses to clear, at least temporarily.  I’m looking forward to another massage.  I really do think I probably should be going regularly.  I’ve had back problems since the summer before 7th grade when I hit a cable I couldn’t see and went flying through the air, landing on my knees and elbows.  I’ve never been to a chiropractor, either, and some of my friends swear by them, but my insurance doesn’t give me chiropractic, only for Steve (what’s up with that?) so why not?

Weddings wear us out.  At first I thought it was just me, just my fault, being out of shape, overweight, etc., but then I talked to other people who do or did wedding photography and they all swear that no, that’s just the way it is.  It just takes a lot out of you.  However, after this last wedding, I noticed I was less tired and in less pain than normal, in both my back and my feet.  By the time I went to bed that night, I was totally beat, but I’d also stayed up to something like 1am.  So of course I should have been tired.  But I wasn’t as drop down dead as I’ve been with a lot of the others.  Sarah suggested that maybe I’m getting used to it, and I guess that could be part of it, but I think largely it’s the massages.  When the therapist first looked at me, she said that one half of my pelvis was pointed forward, the other backward.  I know exactly why that was, it was caused by how I was sleeping… on my side with the bottom leg straight and the top leg bent, my body actually turned half on my side, half on my stomach… twisted.  So since I’ve hurt my back and recovered, I’ve been making a point of having better posture when sleeping and with my feet when standing.  If I sleep on my side, which I do for the most part now, I’m supposed to have my legs in the same position (both bent, or both straight, not going opposite ways) and when I’m standing, my feet are supposed to be both pointing forward, straight (historically it’s always been more comfortable to have my toes pointed outward and that’s apparently a no-no).

So, yes, looking forward to another massage.  I need to get Stacey to make us some appointments together.  She watched my kiddos for both of the last ones, the first time she took them grocery shopping and the second time she took them to play at the park while they waited for me.  We’ve talked about going one after another, she’s claimed the second massage – watch my kiddos for an  hour then get her massage.  That’s perfect for me – she can wear them out at the park then I’ll make them sit in the Jeep and take a nap while we wait for her.  HAHA.

I’ve also been wearing those Sketcher Shape-Ups shoes for many moons now.  I didn’t get them so much for the “shape-up” aspect (though that would be a plus) as much as because their soles are uber thick and I have that plantar fasciitis issue (caused by stupid martial arts on a gym floor).  In a nutshell, when I’m off my feet, even for a few minutes, the tendon on the bottom of the foot tightens up and when I stand and try to walk… pain!  …until it stretches back out.  And it’s rough other times, too, if I have to be on my feet for a long time, etc.  I used to run around in flip-flops as much as possible but now I need major arch support.  Something happened right around the time Stacey and I shot our first wedding together (go figure) in April 2010, and it’s sucked ever since.  I’ve had to go to wearing tennis shoe types since then.  The Shape-Ups, though, have been great.  Yes, they cost way more than I was used to paying for shoes but I guess that’s part of the reason I’m in the shape I’m in now.  The first day I got them, it hurt my back incredibly because I didn’t bother to read that you’re supposed to start with only 15 minutes of the day.  But I think they’ve helped my posture, the back pain was gone the next day.  In June, after my back hurt horribly all day during a wedding (which was a longer day than some), I got some dressier black Shape-Ups for weddings and those are helping now, too.

So we’re getting there.  Getting older and trying to take better care of myself.  Can’t just keep running like I’m still 18…

So what’s new?  I totally suck at writing anything down these days.  Not just here, but in the kids’ books, too.  I really need to figure out how to manage my time better, I feel like I’m a total failure at it.  In part, I blame it on children.  Some days I am way productive, other days it seems all I do is clean up poop.

We shot another wedding this past weekend and, if I say so myself, we totally rocked it.  I’m making pretty good progress on processing the images already, too.  It was such a pretty day, though, and pretty darn near a wedding photographer’s dream.  Beautiful weather, not hot, not cold.  We didn’t have to do split shooting before the ceremony, I did a few of the bride getting dressed then we shot the ceremony and did family pictures at the church before getting our wedding party all by themselves at our session location.  Beautiful lighting there, too.  Then to the reception where it all went great, including our backdrop set-up.  This is the second time we’ve done this now, having done it at a wedding we did in August.  Last time we used our black and white damask backdrop which fit perfectly with that wedding’s theme and colors.  This time we had a soft brownish backdrop with a sort-of damask pattern, though daintier, but as per the bride’s wishes, we set up a lot of things with it: straw bales, pumpkins, mums, corn stalks, etc.  Actually, she just wanted a couple of straw bales, two pumpkins, and an extra centerpiece she’d done, but we kinda went whole hog.  It was a lot of fun.  My only complaint was a lighting issue with the backdrop that I just couldn’t figure out, but to think about it now, I think I know what went wrong and it was an issue out of our control.  I also think I can fix the majority of the problems.  However, Stacey keeps telling me I’m being too much of a perfectionist and it’s not a big deal so don’t worry about it.  lol

Also speaking of the world of photography, we are very busy.  Weddings are on a hold for us at the moment now, but we’re busy everywhere else.  Newborns and children and families and seniors, oh my!  Lots of fun!  In between my kiddos and regular life stuff, it is all keeping me very busy.  And with more photography has come a new addition to our website.  We finally bit the bullet and bought a real shopping cart program geared towards photographers.  It’s totally amazing.  So many things you can do with it and it looks so much better than what I was using before.

I’ve also got some photos I’m totally itching to post… but I can’t… alas, and woe is me… they’re for a Christmas present for some people so I am forced to wait.  83 days!!!