One day at a time.....

So, our business......

We're taking it one day at a time. 


It's stressful, but I expected that.  I just keep telling myself that sometimes you gotta go through the bad to get to the good.  Right?  RIGHT!  Please tell me that's what we're doing --- just going through the bad and the good will come later. 

No, seriously.  It hasn't been that bad.  Things are going, they just aren't going as smoothly and quickly as we planned.  It's actually wonderful having my husband here all the time.  It's wonderful getting to sleep in a little later than I used to.  It's wonderful having an extra hand if I need it.  It's wonderful just getting to be with him and sharing our ideas.  You know, our ideas that we always agree on (wink, wink).   But, the good thing is that I feel like today was a very productive day.  So productive that I had time to sit down and reply to emails (my inbox was out of control!) and write a blog post!  This was probably due to the fact that my dad came and played with the little Stinker from 9:00 to 12:00 this morning and the little Button decided to actually take a nap that lasted longer than a minute today! 

Since my last post about our new business venture, a few new things have evolved.  We did finalize the name of our business.  I'll tell you the name and the story behind the name as soon as JT gives me the go ahead to do so.  :)  It's cute.

[Oh, perhaps I should back up here and officially inform you that yes, John Taylor is starting his own business.  I guess I only hinted around to that before.  PS....started your own business is hard, stressful and nerve racking.  I'm guessing it's rewarding too.  Hopefully more of the rewarding part to come.]

We also now have a logo for our business.  That was a long process.  We just couldn't make up our minds how we wanted it to look and the feel we wanted it to have.  My very talented friend Emily made us a whole bunch of really cute designs, but it just wasn't what JT had in mind for his business.  I decided since I design things for my photography customers (Christmas cards, birth announcements, etc.), I'd give it a try.  So, I played around with some things in Photo Shop and came up with lots of different looks.  Finally we found a font and just knew that was exactly what we were looking for!  And our logo was born! 

Along with designing the logo, I'm also designing and creating our website.  You didn't know all my many talents did you!!!  Well, we are on a very tight budget and since I've created my photography websites the past, I knew I could do it.  It's just s HUGE project to tackle.  It's so time consuming and takes a lot of time

 and patience.  (two things I don't have a lot of right now)  Anyway, it's finally coming together and looks great if I do say so myself!  I knew I wanted it to have a very simple look, not too busy.  Can't wait to share it with y'all!

JT has been busy building.  He's working on little jobs he has here and there.  But, he's also working on sample pieces that will be photographed for our website.  Who will photograph them?  You guessed it!  Well, I figure I have this nice, professional camera so why not!  Well, it has been harder than I thought.  I've been playing around with photographing the sample pieces and it's hard to take photos of something in which you're trying to showcase the color.  The lighting has to be just right for it to look the color it actually is.  We spent a whole day on trying to get things to look right and decided to give it a rest.  We were starting to get frustrated and I think we we're thinking too hard about it.  We had looked at pictures of the same thing on the computer so many times and in so many different ways that we were about to go mad!  It doesn't help that JT and I both are perfectionist when it comes to stuff like that. 

Before I show you a few pics of what's been going on lately, I wanted to tell you about my new baby....my new pride and joy.  Something that makes me SO much better at what I do.  Ok, so it doesn't make me actually better, but it makes me look like I'm better.  It's my computer and oh let me just tell you how much I heart it!  It all started at Best Buy.....

....It was a sunny day and we decided to go look at computers.  You know, since we were starting our own business we needed something good, fast, reliable (unlike our 2006 Gateway that has crashed once and is probably infected with so many little bugs that it will soon crash again).  Yeah, it was just "time" for the Gateway to retire and for us to join the other people in the Mac Daddy computer world.  No, we didn't get a Mac.  Better than that (in my opinion).  Mac Daddy is just a little nick name my sister gave our new computer when I texted her to tell her about it and it's awesome screen.  Her exact words: "May God bless you through your mac daddy screen".  Ok, I'm getting side tracked....focus....Sunny day.  Best Buy.  We had our game face on.  The story goes a little something like this......

JT: Ok now, we're just looking...

Me: Ok, but we really need a computer for our business to run and function smoothly.

JT: I know.  I'm just saying we don't have to buy one today.

Me asking sales associate: Why do all these computers look like that on the screen? 

Sales Associate: Because they have a glossy screen.  Most computers have that.

Me: My computer doesn't look like that.

JT: That's because our computer is 4 years old....

Sales Associate: It's supposed to reduce glare.

Me: I don't like it.  Looks like theres more of a glare to me.  There's a darkness about all these screens.....wait a minute.....what's THAT one........

(I spot a computer pretty far away from us on the end of the next row that has a crystal clear screen and picture.  It looked great.  I mean, better than real life!)

Sales Associate: That's a Dell such and such and such and such (I really wasn't paying much attention at that point because I was so enthralled in the picture on this screen, but I think he said something along the lines of a Dell intel 1.5 CORE with Windows 7 and a 17" HD screen)

Me: WOW!

JT: Oh Lord.....

We walk over to it.  There it sat in all it's 17" HD screen glory with a big sticker on it that reads:

"GREAT FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS AND BLOGGERS"

It was love at first sight.  Game face out the window.  Here I sit today, just me and my Mac Daddy.  Or should I say my Mac Baby.  :) 

Yes, it's a weird feeling to wake up in the mornings now and remind myself that once again I won't be doing all the normal things I used to do every day.  It's like my life has been put on hold to get this business started.  Some days I feel like I'm going to simply go crazy if things aren't in order again!  Dishes and laundry have taken a backseat to things.  Every day I may just go mad and every night I say a prayer that tomorrow I will wake up and God decided to grant me days with more hours.  Little by little things are happening.  Even if it is just one thing that gets done each day.  One day we'll be those people that get to say, "When we first started, we had nothing and we worked out of our garage.....".  :)  We'll just keep taking it one day at a time. 

What surrounds my kitchen sink most days.  No, all days.

A few more ways I found art in what my hubby's doing out in the garage each day......(and maybe a few more hint and glimpses into his new business....I'm so proud of him and I love him so much.)