I know, I know…I’m a bit late on getting this blog post out by April.  My April started off on the busiest foot! (Shooting two weddings on April 1st and April 2nd!…it was quite a doozy!)  Now that I FINALLY have a day back in my office, I’ve had the chance to start thinking about my goals for this April month.  Goodness, does my April calendar look filled up already! (It’s ALL a great thing, isn’t it?!)

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Business Goals-

+I’ve finally been able to put a down payment on my new website design, so building and designing the new Emma Loo website is in the works as we speak.  I’m still working with Media Novak, and goodness gracious, Mark, the design manager has been AMAZING to work with!  We’ve already created a new logo for “Emma Loo” and my goal is to have the website designed about 75% by the end of April.  (I’d REALLY like to debut the new logo & website & blog by June! I figured, that’d be EXACTLY a YEAR from going full-time, so it’s fitting right?!)

+I have yet to create sample albums for my portfolio work.  I know. I know. I’m the worst when it comes to ordering for my own self! I want to order some sample albums for my portfolio AND for our very own wedding album.  I’m planning on working with Red Tree Albums or WHCC to do this.  My only question is, should I create a sample album with the SAME wedding throughout the entire album or put some of my favorite images from ALL recent weddings I’ve shot? Decisions, decisions.

+Buying the Canon 85mm 1.2 L lens is a MUST and will most likely stay on these goal sheets for a while. (The lens is about $2000! So it’s WAY out of our budget right now!) I rented it this past month and used it on this engagement session and I just LOVED it.  I MUST HAVE IT.

+Pre-Blogging for the weeks.  This one KILLS me.  I try my best to pre-write my different blogs so I don’t have to use my time to do so on the day-of, but since I procrastinate when it comes to blog-writing, I’ve found myself writing blogs at the very last minute (hence, why I’m late with this blog post too! 😉 ) I’ve been doing a good job at actually WRITING the blogs and posting them when I needed to, but I’d like to get better at pre-writing the blogs and scheduling the blogs to be posted on their certain days and times.  Fingers crossed, I can make this work and keep up the blog writing!

+Changing Current Wedding Collections.  I don’t really want to change much, but I do want to change how I actually DELIVER my Wedding Day Collections to my inquiring clients.  Right now, I have a 35 page PDF file that gets delivered to the inquiring Client, and I just feel like it’s too much.  I’d like to narrow down my collections and the PDF file and make it more along the lines of 10-15 pages.  I’d also like to create a PDF file for Portrait Collections so that I can send that to all my inquiring portrait session Clients.  In the future, I’d love to have a booklet/magazine that I have put together for all of my Emma Loo Brides to be able to use to help plan for their Big Day! I hope that I’ll be able to share my information and experiences with my Brides and put together something that will REALLY help my Bride’s plan for their perfect day!

 

Personal Goals-

We’ve been SO busy lately, with both of us working so much, that we really hadn’t gotten around to really ANY of the personal goals from last month.  So a lot of these goals, are going to be repeated! Better late than never, right?

+Paint all of our interior doors.  This is something we’ve held out on doing because for one, well…painting doors is just a pain! We wanted to wait until it got a little warmer so we could take the doors off their hinges and bring them outside to paint.  We’re planning on buying a paint sprayer and using a sprayer to paint the doors to help make it a little easier! (Hopefully!)

+Take a day-trip to a nearby city or town.  I’m thinking Greenville, SC! I’d love to spend a weekend day away somewhere! Go shopping, eat at a local place, take lots of pictures, and just be tourists for a day! I’ve also thought about visiting Pinehurst, NC (because of my Uncle!) or visiting Concord, NC that’s practically like in our backyard!

+Start planning our Anniversary Trip to Charleston! We’re planning on going to Charleston for our first anniversary and I can’t wait! I want us to do everything “Charleston”, stay in the heart of downtown, take a carriage ride, visit the market, and eat at some of the greatest restaurants in the South! It’s been a while since I’ve been there, and I think since middle school since Phillip has been there! (Crazy! I know!) So getting away to celebrate our first year of marriage, we’re LONG overdue for a weekend in Charleston, SC! Can’t wait!

+Organize my craft closet and dresser! In our guest room, we have a walk-in closet that houses some of our linens, but mostly a lot of my crafting things.  I’ve got WAY too much crafting supplies, which I barely use! I need to sort through everything and get rid of a bunch of stuff! There’s also a white dresser in our guest bedroom that holds a lot of fabric and MORE crafting supplies that I’ll need to clean out! Ever since moving into our house, I’ve learned to “let go” of things we/I don’t need and I’ve tried my best to live “clutter free”.  Being organized is a MUST for me, so having an unorganized closet AND dresser makes me a bit stir-crazy!

+Pull out all of the bushes and landscaping around our house.  Call us crazy, but we’d like a “fresh start” when it comes to our landscaping.  We’re planning on painting the exterior brick of our house in July/August, so I’d like to have everything pulled out around our house to make it easier to paint when the time finally comes! Then we’ll plan on re-planting and laying down mulch after the house gets a fresh coat of paint. (Eeeek!!! I can’t wait!!! Our house will look SO great!)  All of the bushes around the house are old and just worn-out looking…it’s time for them to go.  If our house is planning on getting a “face lift” with some major curb appeal, our landscaping should be the same way! I’m also wanting to make a “trash can station” for our cans to go, hang up a wooden pallet “H” garden on the wall next to our garage, and start planting flowers and herbs in container gardens.

 

That’s it y’all! (Not much to it, but just to do it, right?!) Can’t wait to see how productive April makes us! Thanks for reading! Happy Tuesday! XO! -Emma Loo