Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Happy Monday Photography & A little bit sassy!!!!

This is a conversation between myself and Gretchen of Happy Monday Photography and a little bit sassy.


How long have you lived in the area?
This time? lol My family and I lived here from 2002-2007. We are a Navy family so we moved down to the San Diego area for awhile and returned to this area again last August. Unfortunately we will have to leave the area again next August. We look forward to retiring here in six years.


How much family history do you have in the area? 

  • None in the Kitsap area. I spent most of my childhood in Bellevue.

    What is your favorite thing about the area?
    I love the “small town” feel but the fact that it is close enough to so many different city type activities.

    What would you change if you could about the area?
    I take away to stupid Toll on the Narrows Bridge. :):)

    What made you start your own business?
    I felt VERY strongly that I needed to be a stay at home mom. I have attempted many different home based business and was never successful because my heart wasn’t in it. Before my 3rd child, a baby girl, came along, my husband bought me my first “real” camera. I have been interested in Photography since I was a teenager but I fell in love with it when I started taking pictures of my children. My passion for creating images evolved when we were in California and after a year of portfolio building, Happy Monday Photography was born.

    Where would you like to see your business be in 5 years?
    I would like to be in a beautiful studio filled with the sound of little feet, belly laughs and lots of love. My goal is to have a boutique in the front where I can sell all my crafty stuff. :):)

    What is the hardest part of having your own business?
    Its all up to me. Whether I succeed or fail, its on my shoulders. I love the challenge though, it keeps me on my toes and gives me the opportunity to continue growing artistically.

    Where would you like our town to be in over the next five years?
    I would love to see Downtown Silverdale become something more than buildings filled salons. It would be so great to have a bustling area filled with a nice variety of businesses, galleries, resteraunts, etc.

    What is your favorite thing to do in our town?
    Our family LOVES geocaching!!! Never heard of it? Check it out, www.geocaching.com. It is a real life treasure hunt and is such an awesome activity for families to do together.

    What is your favorite Store in town?
    Goodwill. I LOVE transforming wood furniture into perfect pieces for my house.

    Do you give to any local charities you work with?
    I make several different products with a Breast Cancer Awareness theme. I donate a minimum of 50% of the profits of those items to the Susan G Komen Foundation.

    What is your business motto?
    “Leave Boring at the Door”. I am a fun person and I want my clients to have a carefree, relaxed, candid and fun time when we are together.

    Tell me anything you would love to share about your business.
    I do this because I LOVE it. I love giving people the gift of Heirloom quality images. Lets have some fun and capture the important moments in your life, big and small.





  • Thursday, September 15, 2011

    Sometimes you only have each other.

    A few weeks ago some family drama emerged like a wreaking ball it destroyed some amazing relationships but what it didn't do is destroy my relationship with my husband it made us closer. The time I have been taking away from writing has been so that I could nest in our new home and snuggle closer to my husband.

    My hub's works. A lot. I work. A lot.We are about to have two beautiful baby boys born in January, who will fill up a super amount of whatever little time we will have left. Add that to bills that keep showing up every month. A almost 40 year old home that needs to be up dated and made into the home that we will raise those boys and our family in, it never has a day go by that goes with out a creak or complaint and the typical everyday American life. 

    I realize how much I miss the man that I get to proudly call my husband everyday. The vows of "to love and cherish." that keeps getting drowned down with the "payment due" or the truth of "living day by day and paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. " 

    So with the ideas of what we want our home to look like especially the yard. "Hub's" and I started to plan the entire landscape DIY projects.  We have started this out by a weekend a month to work on it. I don't work outside of the home and don't really feel that once the babies are home and safe if we will be more of my job to work around the house. We will tackle the shed remodel ( I am making it into my get away room and craft area, I think)  I was thinking back to all the projects that we have done together in the past. I think back fondly to the project that we did in our back yard in our first home in Kingston. 
    We did a beautiful patio. 

    I knew that we were in trouble when it took the whole day to place stakes and string to start the perimeter.  I would love to rewind and watch the funny arguments between us. Like any husband and wife the banter back and fourth wouldn't be funny in the moment but looking back it would be funny now.  It was almost evening by the time the two of us started the strong willed of the two of us would keep that banter going for hours. Then over dinner and cocktails we discovered that we were going to take a few weeks to get the entire section done.  We made trip after trip with a half a dozen gallon buckets along with a few kitty litter boxes filled with dirt  to the dump, then back to the house to fill more dirt and then back to the dump.....over and over again we were able to do load after load. 

    The hum of the road, wind blowing in our hair, sunshine pouring through the window and the heat  feeling so wonderful warming our skin for a few seconds.  If we were able to close our eyes we would have felt like we were on a mini vacation for a few seconds. By day 7 of our 2 day project we had laughed and enjoyed our time together laughing and joking that we were to be the next HGTV show leaving his real life job to become the landscapers that we have now become. 

    We had gained so much more then a patio we gained a togetherness that we were so blessed to have been a part of.  Him+Me= family. So every so often we walk the property with a notebook & pen and jot down our honey do together list. Allowing us to dream big and plan that mini vacation of staying home and building our relationship and value of our home.