Step Into My Week 4.26

 I’m back! Although I shared a new post yesterday, writing something more long-winded actually feels like being back in the groove of blogging. I had ideas for posts to share last Thursday and Friday, but sometimes ideas never make it to paper, so I’ll just have to try again this week! I was so thrilled to see just how many of y’all have been loving all of the Target Spring Finds I shared in this post because at least I know I’m not alone when it comes to my love of Target! My week is off to a busy start with a shoot today and tomorrow but should slow down a bit and allow me some time to get everything more organized later in the week. As for last week though, I’m sharing what I’ve been up to below. 

I decided to start last week with an early cycling class at M Power before my meetings began later in the morning. I was able to get showered before getting on my first video meeting of the day for a food shoot I had later in the week, followed by another meeting, but this time with our team of stylists just to check in on how things are going for everyone. By the time those wrapped up, it was nearly lunchtime. I was able to figure out some details for upcoming shoots in the afternoon and tackled my email inbox as well. During a break from working, I vacuumed and cleaned the house just so everything would be nice and neat for the week and then went back to my to-do list. That night was Hunter’s dad’s birthday, so Hunter cooked some different proteins on his smoker, and we took them to his parent’s house to eat dinner with his family and celebrate.

Tuesday was another work-from-home day, so I went to True40 in the morning and spent most of the rest of the day working on stuff for shoots in the coming weeks. I had a meeting around mid-morning to discuss the two shoots I have this week, and then was doing a good bit of location scouting the rest of the day. Finding places to have shoots is definitely one of the harder parts of my jobs, but I’m so thankful we are no longer having to turn our studio space into different settings. Once my workday was over, I went for a long walk while listening to an audiobook before showering, making myself dinner, and getting in bed early.

Wednesday, I had a food shoot, so I was in the office pretty early to pull props and prepare for that. We were shooting various columns, which meant that I had to switch gears every time a photo was approved and make a completely different set, but even with that being the case, we wrapped up a little after lunchtime. I was able to put away some of my props and pull items to use for the following day’s shoot before heading home to work from there in the afternoon. I came home to two Amazon packages and was confused since I hadn’t ordered anything and was surprised to find that my dad had sent me new pickleball paddles. The ones we had previously been using were from Walmart and not the best quality, so I was very excited to come home to that surprise. After work Hunter and I had to go test them out and while I wish I could say they helped me win, they didn’t but I do think overall they will improve my game! That night I went to get pizza with a few friends to celebrate our friend Mary’s birthday! 

Although I had a shoot on Thursday, I decided to go to a 6:00 cycling class at M Power beforehand, which made my morning pretty busy. Once it was over, I quickly went home to rinse off and dry shampoo and blow-dry my sweaty hair before heading into the office. My shoot this day was all baked goods and went pretty well. We finished around 3:00, and I was able to start pulling props for my shoot on Monday after putting away the props already on my cart. Once I got home, I pulled props to order in for a shoot happening in May and emailed one of our assistants to help me with that before finally washing my hair after the morning’s workout. Once my workday was over, Hunter and I went for a walk before making tacos and guacamole for dinner. We turned on Marriage or Mortgage on Netflix at the recommendation of some friends and watched two episodes of that before I called it a night. 

I slept in until 7:00 on Friday before getting through some emails in the morning before running errands for work until around noon. Since my shoot Monday is a home tour, I needed lots of potential props on hand when styling various areas of the house. This meant that my car all weekend was full of pillows, throws, trays, and other home accessories. After securing all those items, I ran by Walmart to get stuff to make a balloon arch because we were throwing Mary a surprise birthday party that night. I made that, cleaned up some, and took it easy in the afternoon before getting ready. Nell was staying with us over the weekend and arrived right before our other friends showed up around 5:30. Mary arrived close to 6:00 and was so surprised. We enjoyed the evening on our deck and had some cake to celebrate before some of us went to an outdoor concert around 8:00 at Avondale Brewery. The concert was for Rebecca’s brother’s band, The Brook and the Bluff. I kind of loved that everything was so spread out and that you could sit and talk to your pod during the concert and would be ok with covid-conscious concerts remaining a thing! I think we made it back to our house around 10:15 and went to bed soon after. 

Nell and I slept in on Saturday morning before eventually eating breakfast and getting ready to go to a workout class at 11:00. M Power has cycling (which I’ve been going to) but also offers pilates classes on a megaformer which I had wanted to try out. Fortunately, there was a free beginner’s class that day, and Nell agreed to try it out with me. I loved it and the instructor was so nice, but I’m definitely still sore today. After the class was over we grabbed salads and sandwiches to-go at Continental Bakery before showering and getting ready for the rest of our day. I went to a crawfish boil with Hunter at his friend’s house in the afternoon and ate more than my share of crawfish. I was really impressed that some of the guys knew how to cook them themselves since I’ve always purchased them already cooked. We hung out in his friend's backyard most of the afternoon and only had to dodge the rain a couple of times. I went back to my house around 6:00 and waited for Nell to get back from her activities before turning on a movie and watching it. I was able to finish my book that night, and I think we all went to sleep pretty early.

Sunday morning Nell and I woke up and walked to Crestline Bagel for breakfast since the weather was so nice. After walking back, Nell left to go back to Mobile, and I went to Trader Joe’s, a gardening store, and Whole Foods to get the remainder of props for my shoot. On my way home, I stopped by my friend Macy’s house to meet her new puppy named Lolly. We sat on her screened porch petting the dog and catching up for about an hour and a half, which was so nice! I came home and finished up my Sunday Styling blog post before calling my parents and going to the grocery store. I showered, and then my brother called me so we talked on the phone for a while as I was meal prepping food for the week. After cleaning up the kitchen, I had salmon and Brussels sprouts for dinner and got in bed to read. 

I hope that y’all have a nice Monday!