Scatter, ScatterBrain!

**Tomorrow marks the one-month countdown until the big day and I feel like my mind is racing in 100 different directions at any given time of the day. Life is SO crazy right now and I'm beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed! I'm trying to keep calm and plan on, and to remember that this is the only time in my entire life that I will be a month away from marrying the man of my dreams -- so I need to embrace this time and enjoy it!

**Last weekend, we were able to escape to Hot Springs for the weekend to have some summer fun on the lake. It was such a relief to get away from it all and just focus on having some fun in the sun! We saw some beautiful sunsets, ate plenty of goodness and got some much-needed R&R.

**Work has been pretty hectic this past week. Just a tad bit crazy, but with my senioritis wedding-itis I'm having a hard time focusing on a single thing...especially when there are 50 other single things waiting on me when I get home! Last night, for example, I came home and worked at my computer for 5 hours on part of our rehearsal dinner slideshow. John and I each picked a song to play during pictures of us growing up, and I did my section first since I had everything I needed already. Y'all, I did good (not to toot my own horn or anything.... hah!) but I'm totally getting overly-emotional about the simplest things! I'm becoming my own mother :)

**This weekend, John and I are going to stay home and crunch down on some wedding things: like getting John's ring engraved (see below!). He's going to have it engraved with the same phrase that is found on each of his own parents' rings, which I find extremely sweet and romantic. They have been married for 28 years so let's hope it brings us luck and love in our own marriage.

I'm also going to get some wedding stuff done this weekend (cross my fingers, that is!) One thing I need to do is get a "here comes the bride sign" (see examples below). Since our little flower girl and ring bearer are so young, we thought that having them walk together while carrying a sign together would be 1) easier on them and 2) the cutest thing ever. And so far, my Etsy scouting for a sign have turned up empty (bah!) so I'm thinking I may have to resort to making one myself (just another thing on the list!)

**In other news, my camera lens finally came in (yahooooo!) and I'm so excited! Have I played with it yet? Nope. I'm so bad. But when I have a spare minute, I have it and it's ready to go!

**Like today's pictures? They're all taken and edited with Instagram (read about my Instagram obsession here). Follow me @katiwessinger to see my pics as I take them!

**I realize I never showed you the "after" of this bathroom makeover. I'm sorry y'all! Please forgive me and be patient. I've gotten all scatterbrained!

That's all the word-vomit I can handle right now. Peace out!

My New Nephew, Gus!

Meet my new nephew, Gus-Gus! Yeah, so what if he's a puppy...he's my sister's BABY so I love him like my own :) He is only 10 weeks right now and still small enough to hold. Since he's supposed to be a 50+ pounder, we thought it'd be good to go ahead and document his little puppy phase. Introducing, Mr. Gus-Gus!

Lens Pro To Go + 24-70mm/2.8L Lens

Today I wanted to just write a quick review on an amazing company, Lens Pro To Go. This past weekend, I rented a lens from them for the second time and just thought others might gain some useful knowledge from my past experiences with this company.

The first time I rented from Lens Pro To Go, I rented a Canon 35mm/1.4L. To recap, I had a few questions while ordering the lens so I gave their customer service a call. To my surprise, the phone was picked up on the second or third ring by the nicest man, who was able to clearly answer all my questions and even share some insight into how the lens would work on my Canon 60D. He ordered the lens for me over the phone and it arrived promptly that Friday. I was pumped to finally get my hands on this professional lens, but quickly noticed a few less than wonderful qualities. For some reason, the edges of my images were blurring dramatically with this new lens (see images below)

I quickly turned to my trusted photography source, Clickin' Moms (don't laugh...it really is pretty amazing!) and posted a few of my images for some of the women to review. Immediately, they told me I had gotten a bum lens and that I should call the company and request a replacement.

After giving Lens Pro To Go a call, I was again amazed by how wonderful their staff is! They soothed my worries, and let me know that they would be shipping a replacement lens overnight to insure I had it in time for my first photo shoot Saturday morning. They said that the lens had suffered from a bit of jostling during shippment, but that it rarely happened (and I think they were a little upset that it was only my first time renting!) To hear it was not my fault (I'd only had the sucker for 15 minutes!) and that I was operating the camera correctly was such a relief! Here are some of my favorite images from that weekend with the 35mm:

By the way, this lens is totally on my wish-list!

{I also shot a boudoir session that weekend and the 35mm did amazing! I totally want to do more of those so if you know of anyone who is interested, send them my way!}

So this time, when I decided to try out a new 24-70/2.8L lens for a birthday party I shot this weekend, I knew exactly where to turn: Lens Pro To Go! I tried ordering the lens online but was having some problems with my shipping address working, so I turned to my trusty phone once more. A great guy answered the phone, double-checked my order, and went ahead and ordered the lens for me over the phone. Easy as pie! I was told it would arrive Friday morning, and at 10:30 that day, it was in my arms. Hooray!

One thing about this lens: it's HEAVY! Much heavier than any other lenses I've used. But that bulk was a good thing! It's professional, people.

Moving on. I took the lens home and shot with it all weekend. MAN it was a dream! Here are some of my best pictures from this weekend (some of which you've already seen):

The main things I like about this lens? For one, it's got a zoom, which is really useful when taking pictures of moving things that don't follow commands well (i.e. kids and dogs). Also, it works really well as a macro lens (which means close-up), like the picture of the present with the gift tag. Love that about it!

Unfortunately, I had to send in the lens yesterday -- but at least it was easy (seriously, all you have to do is put the lens in its original box, stick a sticker on it (which Lens Pro To Go includes when they mail it to you) and drop it off at a UPS store. Easy as pie!

Since my heart was so heavy about losing this lens, I did the only logical thing I could think of.

I bought one. 

Used (3 months old) and for about $400 cheaper than it is here, I bought my very own L-glass lens. i.am.so.pumped.and.i.want.it.now! But I'll have to wait a few days as it's currently in the mail on its way.

So why did I buy this lens? Honestly, I want the 35mm/1.4 more. But this lens is so versitle. It's a great replacement to my "ish" kit lens and I know I can use it for some great wide-angle shots until I can pool enough money for the 35mm. But one of the main reasons I bought it is that it'll be PERFECT for our honeymoon! I'll be able to zoom in on monkeys and zoom out to show whole landscapes, all with one lens. Which means less baggage and weight to carry around and more time to just capture what I see!

Anyway, I guess I got a little off topic about the whole Lens Pro To Go theme, but U-turning it back to that, they're a great company and I couldn't recommend them more. And they didn't even pay me to say that. Although they could. Anytime. :)

Peace. I'm out.

Party Like It's 2009

This weekend I was asked to photograph one of my favorite little boy's birthday party. You may remember this family from last year when I took their Christmas family photos. Anyway, Jack turned THREE this weekend (how is he already that big?!?) and his mama threw him a little backyard shindig. And it was darn-near perfection! Everyone just chilled out in the backyard; the kids played, the adults mingled and cake was eaten by all. Hope you enjoy this HUGE share! I had too much trouble picking my favorites!

Happy Birthday, little man! And Jackie, thanks for giving me this fun opportunity!

Instagram Phone Dump

I'm doing this post because I still haven't found my memory cards for my camera. Might need to buy a new one since I'm taking pictures this weekend. Moving on.....

If you're not using Instagram yet, you're missing out.

Basically, Instagram is a free app for your phone where you can take and post pictures throughout the day. Think twitter, but more geared towards us visual people. It's really fun and I enjoy posting lots! So I thought I'd go through and give you a little glimpse into the things I've captured on my phone in the past few months. I'm going to try to do a weekly or monthly update too, but this is just to get you all caught up.

Left to Right, top to bottom: 1) crepes on my bachelorette weekend. 2) working on wedding layouts. 3) wet puppy dawg! 4) fun pink shoes. 5) picking paint colors for master bedroom. 6) invitations came in! 7) bestie doing sister's hair. 8) me and my little sister on my bachelorette weekend. 9) heart coffee. 10) fresh strawberry snack! 11) writing out invitations. 12) luggage gifts that made me SO pumped for the honeymoon.

And a few more that are a little more recent. Think past two weeks :)

Left to Right, top to bottom: 1) after a long Saturday morning run. 2) my sweetie & I. 3) Bon Iver concert at Rivermarket 4) weight watchers meeting. 5) a beautiful sunrise on our run. 6) sleepy pup! 7) john working on bathroom updates. 8) bad wrist problems. 9) my dog and sweetie takin' a nap together. 10) big sister's graduation! 11) love my sisters! 12) last time to see invitations before they're mailed out.

Want to follow me on Instagram? Just look for @katiwessinger and click Follow! Or if you just want to follow along online, view my feed here.

A Bathroom Makeover. Part 1

I'm not sure if you remember, but last time I posted, I mentioned I had another update for you too. Well, here it is: we repainted the bedroom AND the bathroom last week. And now we're pooped. Haha :)

Sorry. Mature hat back on now.

Anyway, before we redid the bathroom, it was great. The sink is nice and big and the whole bathroom is big enough for all of my stuff so that makes me happy. Plus the shower is amazing. But since it's the only full bathroom in the house, and since it's the bathroom our guests use, we thought it could use a little...sprucing up.

And by sprucing up I mean repainting, new mirror, new cabinet-thingie above the toilet and new shower curtain.

Anyway, here's the before:

Please note that the top of the sink is not dirty, it's just like that naturally. It kind of bothers me because it looks like I spit toothpaste all over it, but I didn't. Swear.

I'm actually just gonna try to get over that. Why? Cause I am not exactly sure how I would fix it.

Moving on. The problems with the bathroom were that it was kind of cave-ey to me. Dark. Small. Wet. I thought a little light in there would do a sister good! So we got to painting. This time, John helped :)

And after painting, the new bathroom accessories came to play. And now it looks AH-MAY-ZING. Like, holey guacamole I'm pumped about it! I'll share an after pic with you tomorrow. Prepare to be floored!

UPDATE: I have misplaced my camera cards (I know) so until then, you'll have to wait on your updated pic. I know, you're on the seat of your pants (is that the phrase) but I promise I'll get to it as soon as I can!

Is My Dog Cute....

...or is my dog cute?

Every morning, Ella likes to stay in bed for as.long.as.possible. Which is, quite frankly the cutest thing in the entire world. Unfortunately it makes it extremely difficult to wrench yourself out from under the covers because that little fur-ball is so warm and so soft. Finally captured just how cute she can be when she doesn't want to get up.

P.S. Doesn't the new wall color look lovely behind her? 

Tidewater is on the walls!

This past weekend, John was away at a fishing trip with my dad and my sister's boyfriend, so I was able to concentrate a bit on some things around the house. After a round of dishes and laundry, I went to my mom's house to work on putting my wedding invitations together (pictures of those to come in a few weeks!). When John got back on Saturday, we decided that we would dedicate Sunday and the following week to working on the house. So on Sunday morning, I got up bright and early to start bringing Tidewater to the bedroom! (Tidewater is the name of our paint....see that post here)

As I was prepping the room, I thought to take a quick snapshot of the before since I hadn't showed it yet. Sorry for the poor quality. I'm apparently terrible at taking room photos (womp womp!)

Yeah. That's sad. What else is sad is that this is actually pretty true-to-life of what it would normally look like. See why I was so sad about my bedroom?!?

After pushing all the furniture into the middle of the room, I got my paint on. Yep, I was rockin it out.

Two coats later, the bedroom was magically turned to THIS:

Again, my photos aren't spectacular here. I expect more from myself but this was taken right before work this morning so let's just go with it.

And, just for visualization purposes.....here's a little photoshop magic of what I am actually envisioning in this room. See? It'll look better as we go. Promise.

Stay tuned. We painted another room in the house and I can't wait to share the transformation!!