I've known Luke for such a long time but we really became friends in high school. I lived in Goochland at the time and my family had a great property for hosting BBQ's, movie nights, game nights, breakfast-for-dinner nights and so on. Really any excuse we could make to have people over and cook dinner was an opportunity to jump on. My mom with her passion for cooking and serving people was always up for these get togethers as well. And if a good time and a plate of food was there, Luke seemed to be there too.
But more than anything our property had acres and Luke had a landscaping business. For years he would come mow our lawn, for hours he would weed eat around the perimeters, and for so many meals he would come inside to eat lunch with my family.
Some people act like guests and that's great. But some people act like family and they are family.
People like Luke know who their people are and that's an amazing gift. So it was when he met his soon-to-be wife, Cassidy.
I hadn't met Cassidy until we all got to Pony Pasture for their engagement shoot but I knew right away how insanely perfect they are for each other.
Let's face it guys, having your photos taken is vulnerable and abnormal to your daily life. It's naturally un-natural. But these two absolutely crushed it!
And that's all because of how in love they are! When you find your person, as cheesy as it is, your home really is wherever they are.
Luke and Cassidy, I am SO stinkin' happy for the two of you! Your love is inspiring and contagious, and I am just so honored that you would allow me to capture that love!
Renovation Vacation
Well it's 2017 and I already know it's going to be a much bigger year of accomplishments than last year. The first reason is the fact that we are officially home owners, which is probably the most rewarding, and equally scary, thing that I personally have ever done. Especially when you're only 21 and you know for a fact that your knew house needs an abundance of care, most of which you have no clue how to go about, in order to even move into. I think most people call this "adulting".
If you haven't already read how we got out house you can do so here.
We knew going into this process that buying a fixer upper would take a lot of time and patients. But let me just tell you that it takes even more focus just to remember to be patient than anything else. I'm constantly reminding myself that we would have never gotten this house if previous owners had taken good care of it. And that the family who originally won the bidding on this property backed out because they didn't want to put the time into fixing all of its problems.
It doesn't help that we are constantly watching Fixer Upper(on Netflix of course because cable television isn't worth it just to watch Wheel Of Fortune) and the biggest projects get done in a matter of weeks because of a large team they have working on any given house. And to take that one step further, one episode is less than an hour. So basically you can watch a full season of Fixer Upper in the time it takes to pull the walls out of your kitchen(a task we still haven't completed).
We want to have it all and have it all now.
It's nuts that we think this way, but in our fast(way too fast) paced culture we expect results immediately. And we barely give a moment to think about our actions before we throw a fit when things don't go as planned.
I mean after two years of searching we are finally homeowners and my husband and I took an entire week off of our jobs to work on this house and we still aren't painting our walls yet?? I'll be honest, owning a home and not living in it is super annoying to think about you guys.
But we are a people who focus too hard on how we want to present ourselves and, even more frighteningly, presenting ourselves as someone we are not.
So today we are not focusing on our highlight reel, like the 90% of all other social media you look at today will be. Today, and for a while, we will be updating you all on the current state our house is in. It's not going to be ideal, it will look gross, and there will be cockroaches(don't worry, I spared photos of those nasty little beasts). But it's our honest and present now. And I believe that living in the present will only help us to build a much stronger, safer and pleasant home in the long run.
Welcome to reality!
Our master bedroom had a sag in the ceiling so we ripped a section out to evaluate the water damage from the roof. It was worse than we thought so we had to take out even more ceiling.
And since it was only about 7 feet to begin with we decided to take out all of the ceiling! We are planning to vault the ceiling to try and make a little more headspace. If I can touch the ceiling with my feet flat on the floor something needs to be done.
This is obviously the damage that went down. But it's also where we met about a hundred little NASTY COCKROACHES. I say little but they were honestly some of the BIGGEST bugs I have ever seen. Yuck!!
Let's move onto the kitchen before I get sick!
Here I'm in the dining room looking into the kitchen. It's not terribly laid out at all! The cabinets are in great shape and the island adds a ton of storage and counter space. But everything seems really massive for the space it's in. Just taking down the cabinets made the room feel twice as big!
I would have taken more "before" photos but the day we closed we went over to our new place and got a little bit too hammer happy! We didn't have power at then so it was already dark by the time we got off work and headed to our brand new place. But you can't just close on your first home and not go give it a big ole hug, right? Well it got a little more than a hug. We started demolishing the kitchen wall that night with a flashlight as our guide. We took out a small section and decided during our "renovation vacation" that we would order a beam and knock the rest of the wall out!
Our living room is super cute and cozy. But we definitely want to make this home one for hosting game nights and get togethers. An open floor plan was definitely the way to go.
And that's where we are friends! It ain't pretty but it's our here and now! We are anxious to be able to move in and continue to work but we are fully enjoying ourselves in the meantime!
We'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas! What would you do with this space if it were your own??
Don't forget to follow the progress on Instagram!! #PierceHomeProject
Till He Appeared and the Soul Felt It's Worth
At the beginning of the year I decided that a lot of progress was going to be made for my photography business. For example, I wanted to double the amount of payed shoots I had in 2015(since that was only a handful). In short, I didn't even meet that small number. I thought it would be so easy to do! But no. As hard as I worked it simply didn't happen. And I'm only saying this to be 100% honest with you. It was just a completely MEH kind of year, at least for my business.
Actually the majority of people I have had conversations with lately have said that this was a very meh kind of year for them too. And oddly enough that really makes me feel better. Not that I'm happy we all had a bad year but on a bigger scale I like to think we can all be united by our meh experiences and strive to help each other succeed in the coming year.
I think the best is yet to come and that perhaps 2016 was a full year of preparation for a lot of us. But even if 2017 is worse(at least as far as business goes) I have come to learn a very important personal lesson to implement into 2017 and it's a game changer.
A month ago, heck even a week ago, I was so worried about my photography business and coming across as a failure to people. I've been anticipating the new year trying to accept that people will automatically see me as "wanna-be-never-good-enough-failure-photographer" forever and completely discard my work because I have not met my own seemingly simple business goals that most people could easily meet within a years time frame.
Side note: Running a small creative business is one of the most vulnerable things you could ever do. It's putting your heart into a song, a photograph, a book, a weaving, and people constantly telling you that it's not worth their time or simply not good. Remember that this is a heart and soul that is represented through whatever is is you are holding, looking at or listening to. Any negativity only damages the ability to do what we are made to do.
"Made to do" are the key words here.
Where I went wrong this year was trying to please people in my business. To gain recognition and hope with all my heart that one day I just might make a dime off this business.
I realize that progression is obviously important when you're trying to run and grow an actual business. But we get obsessed. And the more we are turned down the more obsessed we become. And the more obsessed we become the more shaky our focus gets. And how can you run a business if you can't see clearly? Or you're "doing what you were made to do" but only by the worlds standards?
So what was my lesson that was so important? Well it started back at the beginning of fall when Thomas and I answered a call to come help a new church plant. First of all, just feeling called as strongly as I did was a huge sign that I had not been paying nearly enough attention to God this year.
(We think we need to do it all because other people are watching. We need to prove ourselves to others for some reason. Like a half second nod in our direction or enough likes on a post will actually fill us up with joy or something.)
No. God knows what he's doing.
On top of just helping set up for church each week Pastor Stephen asked me to start taking photos and help take over some social media for them. I've been doing this for a few months now as a service to my church. And these photos are not my usual moody high fashion senior style. It's not what I "love to do". Sometimes it's taking photos of worship on stage, sometimes it's taking photos of the trailer that we pack equipment into so that we can remember how to pack it the same way the following week.
But I can't remember the last time I felt so loved, appreciated and connected with a community. And that's because I'm not working for myself. I'm working with a team for a much higher purpose than my own glory. I'm plugged into a community, a church, where they have such a strong belief that everyone's unique talents are needed and needed greatly to serve our city and to serve our God.
The lesson: When your focus is on something eternal all the earthly things you've been stressing out over and working towards seem to fall into place without actually doing much of your part. But this time you have the right motives. And that's when you find true joy.
It's not a coincidence that after two years of searching we found such a perfect house when we had just joined this community and my focus started to shift.
I wanted a house so that Thomas and I could move out and simply start being our own family.
But I never thought that my little side businesses of handcrafted hats and scarves would make me more money in it's month than my photography made all year. Knitting, a talent I developed at 8 years old but had neglected for so long to focus completely on photography, over night became a huge game changer. Well our house has an extra room that I now realize I desperately need as a studio for NewHumans.
And that's just one tiny example of how the dots are connecting. For so long I've wanted to play around with food photography and since Thomas and I are completely customizing our kitchen the possibilities are endless!
It's all about shifting your focus and having faith. But more importantly knowing what you're putting your focus on.
A few days ago I met up with some fellow creative business owners for coffee and one gal as talking about her word of the year being 'mindset'. Another word might be time, or relationships, or peace. The idea is that you have a general focus of where you want to grow and for a year you use one word to hold onto that.
I've never done this. But last night at church we had a Christmas caroling service. We sang songs together, the kids portrayed the story of Jesus" birth and we all went outside to carol in the streets of our city. My job of the night was to photograph it all and something hit me so incredibly hard. As I was capturing every member of our church holding candles and singing O Holy Night it just struck me that I was worshipping the Lord by using my talent for photography. For the first time in a while my focus was on the Lord while shooting and not on personal gain. I realized that I needed a word of the year and that that word would be Jesus.
"Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth"
I felt frozen inside. I've felt so unworthy for so long because I have this passion, this talent that I know I need to use. Something that I've been pouring my heart and soul into. But it hasn't been used with the right focus in so long. And man oh man has Jesus shown me shown me how incredibly out of line I've been. But in the most loving and graceful way I could imagine. Just like how he entered into our world.
He's appeared. And though it's not always the case, I feel worthy of this gift of photography. And gosh darn it I just want to shut my computer off and go take photos for the Lord!
Merry Christmas friends!
I'm on fire.
-Shannon
