December 8, 2022

Part III: Nevada & California

My Amtrak ride was close to 18 hours total. I arrived about 930AM after a fun filled day of exploring in Colorado. I caught an Uber to get another car rental and I was off to Truckee, California. For some reason I didn’t realize that the next Amtrak stop would have been Truckee if I stayed on the train! Either way, I made it into California by lunch. I missed the exit initially and ended up wandering around Donner Lake, just south of Truckee. It was a sleepy spot with beautiful views. I pulled off at their snow covered beach area for a few moments. (below) I found out about Truckee during a shoot I did earlier this summer. Friends of the folks I was photographing and I were chatting about my trip. I mentioned I wanted to see Lake Tahoe, and they recommended a stop at Truckee. I’m so glad I followed their advice. Truckee is similar to Blowing Rock, NC… lots of independent shops and restaurants. I had lunch at Old Town Tap, per the recommendation of a gal in the Truckee Variety Co. (a children’s store where I bought Kate a new pair of gloves). She recommended a salad there, but I went for one of their wood-fired pizzas. It was delicious! I sat at the front window of the restaurant. After lunch, I walked around for a few minutes, grabbed a hot chocolate at Drink Coffee Do Stuff and headed towards Lake Tahoe. I asked the girl working at the coffee shop if she had any must-see spots around the lake and she recommended Emerald Bay. I had already heard of it, and had planned to head there anyway…. off I went! I hopped in the car and headed back for Reno about 5PM. I did end up making it back to Truckee and Lake Tahoe later that week to get our kids we had taken there out of the hotel and to do some exploring… my first time driving a 15 passenger van was around the twisty, snowy roads of Lake Tahoe… no biggie! It was magical to hear them all gasp as we made it down to the water for the first time where they could see the giant mountain views! Our hotel was actually in Sparks, the neighbor to Reno. I did go into Reno one evening…. took 2 photographs and we promptly left. It was scary! Overall, the trip was absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to get back out there and explore more!
December 6, 2022

Part II: Sleep Train

“I count the sleepy carsSlower and slowerI count those cars Til my eyelids lowerSleep train…Running down that trackTen sleepy cars going clikety…. clack”– Sleep Trainby: Johnathan London Taking a sleeper car has been a bucket list item for me. I searched and searched routes, schedules, cities and stations to figure out the best option to get into Reno, Nevada on a sleeper car. That’s why I selected Grand Junction, Colorado to fly into. After exploring for about 8 hours in Colorado, I raced from the canyon to the airport to turn in my Toyota Camry and catch an Uber to the Amtrak station. I was so excited, this was the next adventure on the docket, and what I was most excited about. I arrived at the Amtrak station to find a small waiting area, friendly staff and a few people waiting. The guy working let me know my car would likely be just to the right after I went out on the platform, and he was correct. Once we heard the whistle of the train coming into the station, I headed out the doors and over to my car where Janelle was waiting at the car door. She knew my name already and told me exactly where to go. Just board and turn to the left side she said, I was in roomette 14. I could not have been more excited!!! The photo above is probably one of my favorites I took the entire trip. The Amtrak employee was so kind. He stood perfectly there in the door crack long enough for me to dig my camera out of my bag, dial my settings, and take one shot. I’m not big on “street photography” (the art of photographing strangers), but I couldn’t resist. Just after boarding, Janelle came around to give me the train layout… which honestly, went in one ear and out the other…. I was sleeping downstairs, and the sleeping cars only connect upstairs, so I had to figure out which way to walk once up there. I walked though the upstairs of my car and passed into the dining car, through it, and on into the observation car. She let me know it was surprisingly empty if I wanted to check it out. I headed that way since I only had about an hour of daylight. We rode through Ruby Canyon at sunset, following along the Colorado River… it was magical. The photos don’t do any of it justice. The canyons were overpowering, and intimidating, but beautiful. I may have pleaded with God to let the sun set as slow as possible so I could keep watching out the windows. I don’t really have many photos of my sleeper car, because… well, it was tiny, and I didn’t have a wide enough lens to truly capture it. It was cozy, but perfect for just me. It would be tight to share with another adult for sure, but doable. Everyone else around me in roomettes were sharing with someone. It basically had 2 large seats facing each other that folded flat into a bed. I also had a table that folded out from beneath the windows to work or eat at. It had a bunk folded up above me as well, which I was told to test out because it was supposedly more comfortable than the seats folded down. I did test it out, and I didn’t think it was more comfortable…. it also has no windows, which I wanted to be able to look out while I couldn’t sleep. After the sun set in the observation car, I went back to my room to ride a bit before my 7PM dinner reservation. They called for dinner a little early, so I went on back up to the cafe car. I had dinner with one guy, Kev from New York. He was taking the train from NYC to California for his 30th birthday! The other guy was from England and was so funny. He was probably in his 60’s and he said his daughters were terrified he was taking this trip. All they knew of America was gangs, ha! Dinner was pretty good, steak, mashed potatoes, cheesecake, and cocktails. With no wifi on the train, and little cell service, I found myself with time to edit. I’d shot a golf tournament the day before and breezed through their gallery in no time. Then I just sat and rode a while, hoping to catch a glimpse of something. It was so dark outside though, there wasn’t too much to see. I dozed off before we made it to Salt Lake City, the only fresh air stop on my leg of the trip. Overall, I didn’t sleep great. I also didn’t expect to sleep great… so it was alright. I woke up about 530 and just sat in bed watching the sun come up. Once it was up, I headed to the shower. I decided it wasn’t worth trying to wash my hair because I hadn’t packed a hairdryer. The shower had a changing area, decent hot water, good pressure and plenty of towels. Overall, a good experience! My roomette didn’t have a private bathroom, but I didn’t once have to fight for my turn to use the restroom or shower. The downstairs of my car had 4 roomettes, and one bedroom that all shared 2 bathrooms and 1 shower. Breakfast was first come first serve, so after I got ready I headed back to the cafe car. Where I had breakfast again with Kev, and 2 other guys. One had got on in Salt Lake City and was riding to Seattle and the other was riding to California. I think he’d gotten on in Chicago. It’s worth noting, you only get access to meals IF you are in the sleeper cars. If you are riding coach, you can only get to the snack car. I never went to the snack car, I’d been in the one on The Carolinian here in NC, so I figured it was similar. Amtrak is notorious for running a little behind, so I made it to Reno about an hour later than scheduled, which was completely fine with me. I didn’t want to get off! The ride absolutely lived up to my expectations and I will be doing it again. I caught an Uber to the car rental… and was off again….
December 2, 2022

Part I: Colorado

Two and a half weeks ago, I set out on a trip I’d looked to for months. I flew to Grand Junction, Colorado late Monday night… woke up at 6AM Tuesday to make the most of the day exploring. I hit Octopus Coffee on the way out of town… probably the most “Colorado” experience I could have had…. I hate I didn’t take my camera in there, it was trippy. I drove 2 hours to Vail, Colorado, admired skiers and snow… then drove 2 hours back to Grand Junction to see the canyons and trails. All images shot on a Nikon F100 with Portra 400 35mm. Developed at Biggs Camera in Charlotte. Vail, Colorado was sparse of visitors…. I guess high season hadn’t quite hit yet. The charming, Bavarian-esque town was lovely with evergreen landscapes, brick streets and lightly sprinkled with Christmas. At 330 I raced to turn in my rental car for the next leg of the trip…. to be continued…..
June 10, 2019

Man Cave | Plans

Last week over on Insta-stories I shared a little tour of the “man cave.” I shared because we are not only planning to use this as entertainment space, but also as a space for me to shoot studio work. The kind of shoot we did with the Kain sisters.  As much as I love that studio in NoDa, it will be great to have my own space I don’t have to pay rent to use, and it will be right in my back yard! We actually ran all the plumbing to the building back in 2016 when we completed our master suite renovation. About 6 months after that reno, we bought all the kitchen cabinets for the man cave on sale with Ikea. They have just been sitting, packed in boxes since then! We have finally decided to pull the plug, and refinance the beach house (which we need to do anyway) and pull some cash out to complete this project. I’ve slowly been collecting inspiration photos over the last year years on Pinterst, so you can check that out over there if you want even more ideas of what we are thinking. This building is truly what sold us on the house when we bought it. It offered us a secondary entertaining space we really wanted to have. We were not opposed to it being a basement or bonus room inside whatever house we ended up purchasing, but having it a whole separate structure worked too. We have now been in our house 4 years, and we have done very little with this space. Jeremy finally added a double door to the shop (the new gray door you see). It was a single door, but we needed a wider ramp and door to get the riding lawnmower inside. Ready for the tour? Here she is. That red door has been like a stye in my eye for the last 4 years. If we didn’t have plans to just completely replace the doors, I would have painted them. I should have painted them 4 years ago when we moved in!!! Walking in those doors looks like this. There’s a room walled off to your left that was used as an office at one point. Looking right, it’s one big open room. The previous owner or renter put in these strange built in benches around part of the room with speakers. Needless to say, they are going in the dumpster! Looking back towards the left, you see that office, and an open space behind it. Where the ceiling fan is, will be the new bathroom. Looking towards the other front corner. Those are all the boxes of kitchen cabinets stacked under the window. Here’s a rendering I made using the Ikea kitchen planner, which I also used when we were planning our master bedroom project. This is standing outside looking in, if the walls were clear haha. The only drawback to using this program, you have to use Ikea products. So, we likely won’t get our countertop there, furniture or lighting… but you get the idea. Here is the view looking from the back right corner. The two large things, are closets. You’ll walk between them to get to the bathroom (that’s what we are thinking for now… maybe we’ll make one larger closet?) I love the idea of doing something fun and masculine with the bathroom tile. (both images found via Pinterest and are on my board linked above) Here’s the overall look we are thinking. The bar stools and cabinets we already own. The stools are from Homegoods, and the cabinets are from Ikea.  Jeremy fell in love with this chair when we picked out our sofa back in December, so it’s on his must-have list. The sofa pictured is just a placeholder, I think it would look nice, but I prefer something a little lighter since the chair will be dark and the cabinets are black. Both the sofa and chair are from CoCoCo Home. We are looking at a lighter granite counter, and probably a large stainless sink. We already have a fridge out there, it’s white, and I’m planning to paint it with chalkboard paint. The day Jeremy fell in love with the chair…. We currently have our an office/guest room in our house, and we would love to move our office out here too. Here is the current, below it is the plan. Jeremy also determined we will have to completely redo the exterior siding…. ugh. We thought we were going to be able to keep it and just paint it, but he discovered there’s no vapor barrier laid behind it, so it’s got to come down.  We have talked about vertical board and batten style siding, painted white. I’ve also got my eye on some nice window boxes! (images from my Pinterest board linked above) OK, that’s what we’ve got for now! When something interesting happens, I’ll let you know. We are hoping to get started this fall!  
January 3, 2018

I’m baaaaaaack!!!

Hello!!!!! Remember when I was sooooo good at blogging every.single.Tuesday. ?? Yep. Me too. Well, since I’m officially back at the day job today, we’ll just dive right back into blogging each Tuesday (yes, I know it’s Wednesday… but Monday was a holiday, so….) . And yes, Kate is now in daycare… OMG! Where did the last 4.5 months GO?! I miss her like crazy, but am excited to get back to productivity and for her to have more social interaction time. It’s a little like the last 4.5 months were a dream, even though I did work quite a bit… just a measly FOURTEEN portrait sessions and a wedding since October! So yeah… I have lots to blog about! But today, let’s just do a little recap of all my wonderful clients in 2017! *photos of us and some of Kate, by Lauren Jolly Photography           
July 19, 2017

Personal | Babymoon

Back in June, we did a little getaway to the Asheville area. We stayed in an adorable cottage in downtown Black Mountain that was so close to all the shops and restaurants. I hope we can make a trip back this fall with baby Kate! All images are 35mm Portra 400 We ate: My Fathers Pizza Sierra Nevada Brewing The Red Rocker Inn Biscuit Head French Broad Chocolate Company We visited: Mt. Mitchell Looking Glass Falls Blue Ridge Parkway Lookout Brewing Rock Barn Spa     
May 11, 2017

Personal | Nursery Update

Well, as suspected, I haven’t been able to stay on track with the One Room Challenge with my travels and work… but we have made progress!! The only thing truly up in the air at this point is the light. I ordered one, it arrived and it’s tiny! So, back it goes and the search continues.  Check out my other posts here and here! Curtains: The curtains have been finished and hung! I finished them a few weeks ago, but had to wait on the curtain brackets to arrive… then for Jeremy to help me hang them. I am ecstatic to say, they were hung yesterday and are PERFECT! Crib: The crib has been assembled for months (we actually assembled it 2 days before finding out we were pregnant!) but of course the linens took time. They are all in, and I found the perfect blush pink pillow to add to it (just for pretty purposes). The white pillow is from my stash when we sold our old house a few years ago. Roman Shades: The fabric arrived last week and I took it over the the seamstress, hoping they are finished quick because I’ve been SO excited about this piece for months! Dresser: We decided to paint the dresser white! The painter is a little backed up, but it will be completed by July. So…. just pretend the dresser is white, kthanks. Glider: We hit the jackpot! A friend told me about the Transit Damage Freight store in Charlotte, and how they carry the chair we were interested in, the Natasha chair from Best (they can order all Best Chairs, if you’re local!). They didn’t have it on site though to see, and I wanted to tush test it before ordering. We found it in another shop, liked it and decided to go for it. The shop we saw it in was like $600 just for the chair, but at Transit Damage, we got the chair and ottoman for $501! We got it ordered on Saturday, and it should be here my mid June. We ordered it in navy. I also found a little white side table at HomeGoods to have next to the glider. A little perch for water, phone, bottle, etc. Art: I went up in the attic searching for prints I made in high school (and didn’t find them) but did discover an 8×10 print from my first birthday! I hung it over the crib, and will get one of Jeremy to hang with it. I may take them down and re-print them in black and white instead, we’ll see. I still have to get the blanket framed and hung in the acrylic sheets. I think it’s going over the dresser. Sources: Dresser & Crib (vintage), Chair & Ottoman, Rug (old from TJMaxx), Side Table (HomeGoods), Curtains, Trim, Shade Fabric, Curtain Rods, Curtain Brackets (purchased from eBay), Hamper (Marshalls), Crochet Flamingo, Acrylic Sheets & Hardware BEFORE: The navy & white stripe bin is being used as her hamper. Pretend the blanket is framed and hung above the dresser, and there’s a changing pad on the dresser…. and the dresser is white with acrylic hardware…. #useyourimagination *Just imagine the navy glider & ottoman where the buggy is! Still to come…. roman shade install, order & install new chandelier, delivery of glider and ottoman, frame and hang blanket over dresser… paint dresser…. eeek! Only about 14 weeks to go until she’s here! We’ve also got our maternity, hospital and newborn sessions booked!