I’m Alive . . . Somewhat

I am so sorry to everyone who has been waiting for more posts.  You all have been so patient!  Honestly, I don’t know when they will be coming.  I’m guessing from now until May, posting will be very sporadic, but I’m hoping after that I will have more time to do projects, think of things other than teachingteachingteaching, and have some goodies to share with you!

I’m into my third week of student teaching and I must say, I love it!  Does it make me very nervous?  YES!  Is it rewarding?  Of course!  Are some kids naughty?  You betcha.  However, overall, I am very happy to report that it’s something I can see myself doing for a long time.  I am teaching seventh grade literature and writing in a Catholic private school.  It’s very different to anything I’ve ever been exposed to, but it is amazing.  Dream job!

As for my photography business, it’s been going really well.  I second shoot my first wedding the weekend after this one and can’t wait.  I’ve had some very random calls about maybe being featured on a very well-known website, but I don’t want to say much more in case that path leads to nowhere, which it very well could.  I’m really excited to see what the summer has in store for me with my business.  It’s going to be crazy juggling the business and teaching once I find my first teaching job, but it will be worth it, I hope.

This should probably comes as no shock: we are back to house hunting.  We are working with a different lender (MUCH better – he really loves his job and wants to help us get the most for our money).  We’ve been looking at townhomes and are still considering single family homes.  If we don’t find anything using solely Mr. Converse Sneakers’ income, we will renew our lease monthly and use my income once I have summer job and/or am teaching full-time.  We could not find any apartment we liked that was less than a mortgage would be, so we decided now is the time to buy.  I’ll keep you posted on that as things start happening.

I’m sorry for such a boring, random post, but I wanted to make sure everyone knew I am alive and will be back.  I really will be back, I promise!

See you . . . soon-ish!

Quick Update: Super Exhausted

Hello, everyone!

I'm just dropping in to let everyone know I have begun my student teaching semester, so things around here might be a little sparse.  Teachers work extremely hard, so as a learning teacher, I am working double time just to learn the ropes, finish my class work, and meet new people.  It's exhausting and it's only the third day of the semester!  I'll try to post when I get the chance, but honestly, my teaching and my well-being come before my blog, and I'm also working on my photography business as well.  I don't want to ever let the blog (or at least my online presence in general) fade, but it will be pulled back during this time because I just don't have time to do it all.

I hope you all understand and still stop by to check in once in a while! :)

Decorating for Two: Living Room Edition

When I was describing the house offer situation earlier this week, I left out a couple details.  I would like to think that I did not get emotionally attached to the house, but the truth is, I didn’t even try to stay away from letting my emotions cling to the house.

You see, I’m very good at rationalizing things to myself and my hubby.  Before we even saw the house, I was dreaming of how we would decorate the house if we got it.  Surely, by making a few moodboards (that took a few hours to create), I would not get emotionally attached to the house.

Yeah, right.  I promise I’m not as dumb as I seem!  I’m just a passionate dreamer!  I rationalized the mood boards by telling myself that we could easily use the moodboards for a different home – I was simply trying to determine our style before we got to a house.  It’s a very important house hunting step to determine your style first, right?  Hmmm….not really.

Instead of letting the mood boards go to waste until we find a house (if we even use them when that day comes), I thought I would share with you what our combined decorating style is, since our apartment is definitely not the best reflection of it (read: no time or money to make our apartment pretty at the moment and we were waiting to get a house before we went all out on décor).

My decorating style could be described as feminine, colorful, bright, cottagey, and quirky.  Mr. Converse Sneaker’s decorating style is more masculine, with more neutral colors, darker tones, and less bright.  After living together for a while now and sharing our likes and dislikes, we have started to be drawn to similar rooms.

Here are some rooms we both like (neither of us are in love with any of the rooms, but we both like most of each one).  Click on any of the images to be taken to the pin on my Pinterest.











We both like:

• A large amount of neutrals (usually white, light gray, or deep mocha brown) with lighter pops of color
• Light-colored sofas (I prefer an English roll arm sofa and Mr. CS likes anything that looks comfy)
• Nothing that is overly matchy
• Fun, quirky details
• Vintage/retro details

When I saw our dream house, I knew the entry way living room would make a perfect place to create a multifuctional room that works as an entry way, living room, office, and library.  This is the mood board I came up with:



Click here or on the image to head to the original mood board on Polyvore (where I created it) to get get more details about each item.  I wasn’t going for a specific source list we would use, since we would probably find most items by thrifting, researching like crazy, or making them ourselves.  This was to serve as a jumping off point for the room.

I started with the entry way area, which is on the left side with a console table that would hold papers, keys, gloves, and boots.  Above it would be some really awesome abstract art that would serve as the piece that determines the room’s color scheme.  I saw some cute hooks with the letter “s” on them since both our names and our last name start with “s” that we could hang our keys on or even dog leashes once we get a dog.  I really had it all planned out!

We would get a cute owl umbrella holder (Mr. CS loved that detail) and hang a wooden wall pocket system by the closet door to sort our mail.

The living room portion of the room is found in the middle of the image.  Of course, it would have an English rolled arm sofa (my absolutely favorite) with some fun pillows.  The curtains would be layered to make the room a little fancier and would pull in the blue.  The rug would add a graphic trellis pattern and more blue.  Instead of having all white furniture since we like to mix and match different finishes, the coffee table and media console would be richly stained wood.  I had plans of including a whole wall of art and photos since I’m a gallery wall fanatic.

Then, along the back wall of the room that would also act as a hall and the first thing people would see when they walked in, would be two white bookshelves flanking a secretary desk.  The book shelves would be beautifully styled (of course) to bring in more color and personality.  The secretary desk would serve as our command center where we would pay bills, write letters, meal plan, etc.

As much as this mood board was catered to a very specific room in mind, we could easily take many of the ideas and plan them to a different room, perhaps even in an apartment.  I was sad when I found out we would not be getting the house because I was really excited for this room, but at least now we have a point of reference that we both love (yes, my hubby is fully on board with the design scheme, I can barely believe it) that we can turn to when making decorating decisions.

What do you think of our combined style?  Have you ever planned an entire room, only to learn that it would never work or the room you planned it for would never be yours?

Linking up with Five Days . . . 5 Ways

The Good News that I Didn’t Share

Wow, what a bad mood this blog has been in this week!  I’m very happy to report that just a few hours was all I needed to get over the house.  Once we knew it wasn’t ours, I realized that it was definitely not in our dream area and it had been built-up a little big in our minds.  Was it our dream first house?  Yes, of course.  But, are there other dream first houses out there waiting for us to buy one day?  Definitely, and they are in our dream location.  We are still going to wait until the summer or fall (or even later) to look again, but we are not discouraged any more.

Now, two days of discouragement and bad news calls for some good news, right?

Last week was just a huge whirlwind of emotions.  I cried some of the most happy tears I’ve ever cried in my life and also cried in sadness, however all of it was meant to be and has me feeling completely humbled and blessed right now.



Do you remember this little photography business I started last year?  Yeah, I almost forgot about it too because nothing was really happening with it.  Last fall was CRAZY with finishing up my last semester before student teaching (that I start in less than a week – scary – let me know if you want updates on that as well), so I really had no time to put into the business.  However, I was still thinking about it a lot, practicing my photog skills, thinking about logos and branding, and researching as much about small businesses as possible.

Now I’ve had all of January to prepare for student teaching and to get my business on track.  I have an engagement session lined up with one of my best friends, Tiffany, but other than that, I had no plans.  I had asked some photographers I know and really respect for some help (like to allow me to second shoot some weddings for free or to sit down and chat with me), but I did not have much good feedback.  Mostly, they were too busy to be able to commit time to help me, which is completely understandable.  However, I became extremely discouraged that I would never be able to make this dream a reality.

Then, last Wednesday came and I was struck to post an ad on Craigslist asking for someone (anyone) to help me gain experience.  I then decided to put the rest in God’s hands because I felt called by Him in the first place to jump into the photography business in the first place.



Literally, an hour after I prayed about it and let it go, I received an email from a local woman (I’ll share her identity once I know everything is going to happen before and once I sit down with her) who is newer in the business and has five weddings coming up starting April.  She is not charging a lot because is new, so she can’t afford a second shooter, but she told me that she really likes my style and would love to give me the opportunity to work as her second shooter.

PLUS, she told me I could use the photos I shot on my website (which is usually never done with second shooters because the lead photographer normally owns the rights to the photos) meaning I can show others that I have experience and hopefully gain my own clients.

I emailed her right away with exclamation marks after every sentence because I was just. so. darn. excited.  I wouldn’t let the fear overtake me that normally does when I get close to doing something big and scary.  I told her that if my excitement didn’t scare her away, I would love to second shoot with her.  She told me she was just as excited and we got to planning!

I literally sat in our living room, laptop on my lap, listening to this song that I talked about last week, and sobbed.  Bawled.  I don’t even think there is a good word that describes the crying.  I have never cried such happy tears, except perhaps when Mr. Converse Sneakers proposed to me.  Mr. CS wasn’t home, so when he called me mid-tear flood to tell me he was on his way home, he thought something was tragically wrong. 

“What’s wrong?  What happened?!” he asked.

“I’m second shooting FIVE weddings,” I blurted out through tears.

“WHAT happened????” He could not understand my muffled words.

“I’M SECOND SHOOTING FIVE WEDDINGS,” I yelled, hoping that would make the words more clear.

And then, after understanding that my parent’s dog Stewart Wallace hadn't died and I hadn’t gotten into a  horrible car accident (which were just a couple of the thoughts that were running through his mind when he heard me crying), he got extremely excited and joined in the joyful celebration, sans tears, of course.

THEN (I know, I ramble a lot), I got an email from another photographer saying she is shooting a wedding on a lake in February and would be willing for me to tag along to practice.  Six weddings!

Six weddings, people!  You know how much I am going to learn after second shooting SIX weddings?

Plus, another photographer I know is getting back from networking in another state in March and is willing to sit down with me as well.  By the end of the summer, I should be able to branch out and start shooting weddings on my own.

I can’t wait!  If you take anything from this completely way too long post, take with you that the Lord is completely wonderful and has unbelievable plans for each one of us, that fear should never stand in the way of you and your dreams (it just shows that you really care about your dreams), and that discouragement should feed action.

I can’t wait to update you on more photography adventures!

The Little House that Couldn’t

Thank you to everyone who showed me some love and support yesterday!  It really did help with the whole process.  Unfortunately, all the well-wishes and prayers in the world couldn’t have bought us that house.  It just was not meant to be.

You see, we are new to this whole house-buying thing, so we contacted a local bank (with the initials W.F.) to get preapproved, since a friend did that and had no complaints.  The man preapproved us (well technically just Mr. Converse Sneakers) for a modest loan, and then we set out to find a house.  Two moldy, heck-no houses later, and we were pretty sure we would be waiting until I was working full-time come the summer or fall to look again.  However, this beauty popped up on my screen after our realtor expanded the search to homes a little over our price range thinking that most of them could be brought down through negotiation.

I showed her like this yesterday:



Now that she’s not ours and never will be, I’ll show other photos, so you can understand just how heart-breaking this whole things was.  Here is the un-altered photo of the front:



Do you see the red shutters?  The nice roof?  The two car garage?  I thought, “This is way too good to be true, it must look like crap on the inside,” when I saw this exterior photo pop up in my emailed listings.

Until I saw these:



The light!  We aren’t used to seeing any light in our dark little basement.



This is when my heart started beating a mile a minute.  Wood floors throughout the entire main floor.  Not just an updated kitchen, but basically our dream first kitchen with custom cabinets that extend all the way up to the ceiling and have undermounted lighting!



Small, but completely reasonable two bedrooms on the main floor.  The master bedroom’s closet was a great size with custom closet shelving and dresser inside.



The cutest little bathroom that we wouldn’t change a thing about.  It even had a great linen closet.



And, the mother-of-all-man caves for Mr. CS downstairs, complete with a built-in mantle/media center that actually was a great use of space since the room was fairly narrow.



And, to totally add the cherry on top, it had a tremendous third light-filled bedroom that probably would have been our office/my craft room.



Even the backyard was pretty perfect, with a beautiful deck, a garden shed, and plenty of space to roam.  The back of the house even had the same red shutters!



We just had to see and try for this house.  When we saw it two days ago, it was even better in person.  Nobody could find anything wrong with it!  It had every one of our “must-haves” and basically all of our “wants.”  We never thought we would even find a house like this close to our price range, so we knew we had to try for it.

We headed to a local coffee shop (that was surrounded by literally every one of our favorite stores only 2 minutes from the house) to go over our offer.

Our plan was to submit the offer for what we were preapproved for and ask for closing costs.  Well, apparently the house had an offer on it that fell through about a week ago, so the seller (the bank in this case because it was a short sale) was not willing to even look at any offers less than the full asking price.  We were left in a bind.  Our realtor asked if our lender had said anything about the preapproval amount being “conservative,” which I admitted that he had said, so our realtor got us on the phone with a different lender who normally gets the job done.  We were so close to being approved for the asking price that we were willing to do just about anything because this was our DREAM first house.

Due to the many upcoming showings on the house and the other offers that were being worked on, we fought hard to get the offer submitted that night.  Our realtor got it submitted and we worked hard to figure out a way to get all of the necessary paper work over to the new lender so he could work on an approval amount for us.  We also had to come up with “earnest money” to show the seller we were serious and set up a home inspection, which my dad was going to do.  We worked like crazy people all night, scanning and faxing, calling my parents to discuss all the details, and pacing back and forth in fear.  We were not expecting everything to turn into a huge stressful dilemma so fast.  Not only did that bank have to sign the offer saying they would consider it and later accept our offer (which could take 30+ days), but we also were waiting on an approval to say we could even afford a mortgage of the home’s price.

Yesterday morning, we were a wreck checking our email constantly and jumping at the sound of anything that resembled a cell phone notification.  We got a call from our realtor saying the seller had signed the offer, meaning we were the first offer in and we would probably get the house since they weren’t accepting any offers lower than the asking price.

We were ecstatic.  Surely, we thought, we would get the house because we were already preapproved so close to the price of the house.

Well, a few hours of dreaming about how we would decorate and floating on cloud 9 later, the new lender called.  The phone call started with, “I’m not sure your previous lender knew what he was doing . . . “ and from there, the tears started to well up.  He told us far more than the first lender had told us, about debt-to-income ratios, and how the whole approval process works.  We knew a lot of this stuff, but figured the first lender took it all into consideration when he was preapproving us.  Well, apparently not.  The new lender told us that he would not even approve us for what we were originally preapproved for, or even close.  It was devastating news, but we knew that he was very good and worked his hardest to preapprove people for as high as possible in these types of situations.  He told us our options (have someone co-sign or come up with a larger down payment), but neither of these we could do or would consider because we knew it was not the house for us.  Plus, we didn’t really have time to shop around for different lender or even contact our first-lender since we needed to know that day if we could afford the house.

We got off the phone and sat in silence.  Then the tears came.  As much as I tried not to get attached to the house, as soon as our realtor told us that we basically had it in the bag once we got preapproved for the amount, we were attached.  We already named our new puppy we were going to buy!  Not a good idea, people!

So, that’s where we are right now.  We decided to wait until I’m working full-time so I can be considered on the loan and we don’t run into these types of problems.  We now know not to focus on houses above our preapproval level and to shop around for a mortgage lender who knows what he is doing.  You may be thinking that we should have stuck with the first lender since he preapproved us for more, but he never looked at any of our documents, so we think had we gone with him and even been approved for the asking price of the house, the loan would have been denied once he collected that information.  I’m glad we didn’t have to drag it out that far.

This was definitely a learning experience and something I don’t even want to think about doing again for a long time.  I’m not the kind of person who can detach myself from things I’ve dreamed of my whole life.  I’m going to get emotionally attached to a house we love and think we can afford (which technically we could have made the payments on but could not get preapproved for) no matter how much I try not to.  It’s the “passionate” person in me.  I just hope the next house we fall head-over-heels in love with is just as nice and we are able to call it our first house.

Now on to apartment-hunting! :P

The Scariest Day of My Life

I am very tired and stressed, but I wanted to update you all on our house search.  Yesterday, we put in an offer on what may be the world’s cutest house.  We saw it a few days ago and knew we had to see it.  If it looked anything like the photos online, we were going to try for it.

It did not go as planned.

It is a short sale, so the seller did not want to negotiate, which led to panic and a lot of calling back and forth with a mortgage consultant, knowing that many others were writing up offers on the house.

I am not sure if they have considered our offer and will not know (if they do decide to even consider it) if they accepted it until probably a month from now.  We went into it thinking we could get a lower price, but the seller would not even consider anything but full asking price (which is already a bargain for this house but still more than we wanted to pay).

I will keep you posted as the time goes on.  Right now, I just need to not think about it.

So, I’ll let you think about it by showing you a tantalizing altered photo (just to be on the safe side).



It’s basically our dream first house and has been updated to the max, so we really would not have to do anything (as long as the inspection goes well).

If you would like, we would greatly appreciate prayers that our offer gets accepted and everything goes smoothly.  After putting in one offer, I can honestly say I would rather not do this again for many years.  My heart can’t handle this kind of stress!

If we get it, we will definitely show more pictures, but until that time, I don’t want to do anything to risk or jinx us from getting the house.

Hope your weekend was stress free!

Random Redheaded Thoughts

I’m having one of those days where I have a lot on my mind.  I love when blogger post random posts, so I thought I would just spill it all out for you to meander through at your own discretion.



We’ve started reading the Bible together, which is something we have never done before.  It’s really a beautiful thing to sit down and read the Good News together and to reflect on what it means and how we can follow Jesus better.  We have started with the Gospels and will be slowly making our way through the whole thing.

Source: Katelyn James Photography

Over the course of the past week, I have read or skimmed through every post on Katelyn James’ photography blog.  I am obsessed with her style, her brand, and her openness about her life, faith, and business.  She has greatly inspired me to pour my heart into my teeny tiny little photography business.  You should check out her blog.  She is also a redhead (don't be confused by the photo above - it's not me - I have green eyes)!



As promised, I will update you on the whole house hunting excursion we just started yesterday.  We saw two houses yesterday with our current realtor (not sure we will stick with him because he has been late both times we’ve met with him but seems like a good person and realtor).  One was cute on the outside, but was falling apart on the inside.  The basement was completely covered in mold.  I felt sick the rest of the day just thinking about it.  It was in a great neighborhood, but I told our realtor “Not in a million years.”  The second house was a little better, but still a huge no.  Some of the walls were mysteriously placed at an angle and the basement ceiling were about as tall as us, and we are short.  It was way too small as well, but at least it wasn’t covered in mold.

We have started looking at apartments too because we don’t want to be stuck in our current apartment once our roommate moves out since the entire rent costs as much as our top-end monthly mortgage payment would be (including taxes, mortgage, and property insurance).  If we don’t find a house in our current price range (which I am guessing we won’t, but we will keep looking just in case), we are going to move into an affordable apartment, save up most of my full-time income once I have a full-time job, and get preapproved for a higher amount figuring in both of our incomes.  We are happy with either scenario, but would love to find a super affordable home in our current price range.  I do believe in miracles!




This song (which I found on Katelyn James’ blog randomly) has been played at least 20 times since Sunday.  I absolutely love it!  I haven’t been that big into Christian music in my life, but last year I really started getting into it.  Listening to it throughout the day causes me to point my thoughts toward Christ, which is something I’ve been working on for a long time.  I have teared up many a time listening to this song, just feeling so thankful for being alive with such a magnificent Creator and Savior.



I haven’t written much about my photography business because I was so busy last semester that I barely had time to do anything not school-related, but it has taken up much of my thoughts over the past few months.  I am at the point where I really just want to gain experience, especially with weddings, but I have had the hardest time finding someone willing to let me jump on board with them.  The industry has changed drastically when it comes to mentoring since more people are getting into photography leaving people guarded to share their experiences, which makes sense, but this has me feeling very discouraged.  I’m trudging on, but it is not easy!  And, yes, above is a little snapshot of our kitchen that is always chaotic.  We were just about to take out the garbage, I promise!


Yesterday I curled my hair just for fun.  I had myself believing I couldn’t do anything cute with my new short ‘do, but I was wrong!  I snapped the photo above with my iPhone since I am horrible at taking self portraits with a heavy DSLR.



I’ve had these magazines since the week before Christmas.  They followed me around my parents’ house all Christmas break, as I eagerly waited for a time to read them but found no time.  Now, they have been staring at me to open them up and tear out their beautiful pages for my inspiration binder, but still, three weeks into January, I have yet to get to them.  I will soon!

While I’m already being random, I’d love to offer the chance to ask me anything in the comments.  I try to share a lot, but I know many areas of my life do not get covered and there are probably things others are wondering about.  Please ask any questions you are wondering about in the comments!