Now that I have a somewhat regular weekday work schedule, Fridays have become exciting to me again. They mark the coming of the weekend, when I generally don’t work and focus on spending time with my family instead.
This Friday is pretty simple, as far as work days go. I get up around 7 am with Maple, get her ready, and off we go walking to daycare. It snowed during the night, and there’s just enough snow sticking to the ground to make it feel a little magical. I try to get a photo but it doesn’t do it justice!
After I get home, clean off muddy dog paws from our walk, and have breakfast, it’s time to print and pack orders from the day before.
Next it’s time for some new photos. I’m finishing up a guest post for another blogger, and I’d like to have some better photos of my pets to include. I photograph Amber on her new Charlie Cushion in the nursery.
Next I resort to bribery in an attempt to convince my shy cat, Aretha, to not flee from the camera. She loves hanging out on her Catnip Cuddler on the chair in the living room, but every time I pull out the camera she gets a look of terror in her eyes. After a lot of treats and even some wet food, she becomes complacent enough that I’m able to get some decent shots.
Sidenote: I’d love to invest in a really good professionally styled shoot showing my products in a gorgeous home, but I’m not ready to spend the cash on that yet. For now I’m trying to do more semi-styled shots in my own home.
I brew a new cup of coffee and head down to my office to edit photos. After editing I add the new Navy Combo Charlie Cushion (from Maple’s nursery) to my website.
At lunch time I shower, and then decide to Caffe Amouri in downtown Vienna for lunch. Actually, I walk to Chase the Submarine, a new artisanal sandwich shop that the owner of Caffe Amouri and chef Tim Ma just opened. The sandwiches are melt-in-your mouth delicious, made with local and sustainable ingredients such as meat from the well-known Polyface Farms.
I’m treating myself to lunch because I worked incredibly hard in a focused, productive way in January and February, and the results paid off with multiple new wholesale orders and steadily increasing sales. I say focused and productive because it’s easy for business owners to work busily in a disorganized way that doesn’t lead to success. I should know, I’ve done that a lot in the last few years 😉
But that’s a post for another time.
Unfortunately my dreams of a pastrami sandwich and glass of wine are dashed because the power is out at the sub shop! I head down the block to Caffe Amouri where I’m almost as happy to have a Chai Tea Latte, grilled cheese and brownie as I read my new book, a murder mystery set in Venice.
After I finish my lunch, I get some more coffee – this time a single origin espresso – and dive into editing and polishing my guest post for the blog Cuckoo 4 Design. Julia has the most beautiful black and white home, and I’m feeling flattered but intimidated that she’s asked me to participate in her Living Pretty With Your Pets series! I’m on my third or fourth edit and the post is due today.
I’ve found that working once or twice a week from the coffee shop is a great way for me to refocus and break up the monotony of working from home. Today is no different – I plow through my edits in a super focused way. It’s well worth the cost of a few cups of coffee.
Around 3 pm Ryan picks me up as he heads home from work.
At home once again, I take some more photos of the dogs in the house. I wasn’t happy with all of my photos from the morning. I work on editing them, and then it’s time to pick Maple up from daycare.
That evening Maple is getting fussy and seems to be under the weather, and I worry she’s fighting another cold. Dinner happens at some point, and is nothing exciting. After that we give Maple a bath, which brings her temporarily out of her funk. This kid loves baths so much that she’ll crawl/cruise to the bathtub and pound on it, squealing with happiness, when there’s no one in it.
After Maple finally goes to sleep – it’s later than usual, because she’s so fussy – I do a final edit on my guest blog post and photos, then shoot it out. I’m nervous as heck, but it feels good to have it done.
And that about sums up my day. Time for the weekend- hooray!
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