Welcome to my office space.

My office is a big part of me and my home. Since I work from home, my children have even grown very accustomed to it. They even know now (finally!) when I am working in there, that I'm "at work", which is nice. And even though they still can come in anytime, it's my only real special place in my entire house that I can call my own. I actually feel invited to go in there, especially now. And so I thought I would invite you in to it also!

Just a couple weeks my husband got done painting my office. I've been having a lot of back troubles lately, so I for the first time ever, I didn't paint a room in my house. (I direly LOVE to paint walls!) Sweet darling hubby did all the painting and he worked on it each night after the kids went to bed. (He's so good.) It went from bland icky probably-never-actually-painted stark dirty white to a crisp oh-so-warm and fresh coat of RED. I love red if you didn't already figure that out. :c)

You also may or may not have figured out that I am a photographer and I work out of my home. I've been working out of my home for over 5 years now. It definitely beats my last (very odd) job as a professional taste tester. While I actually LOVED doing taste testing and found that job exciting because there are not many people in this world that can do that it -- taste anything and EVERYTHING no matter what it is and be able to pinpoint on my palette what attributes the food has on a scale and then spit it out (yes, spit it out in front of people!) -- I still would much rather shoot pictures. It's definitely more rewarding and tad bit more fun :c)

I chose to work from my home because of my kids. When I started my job, I didn't have kids, but I was praying that I would. We had lots of troubles conceiving, but I still felt like God would not have put me in that position if He wasn't going to give me a child. And shortly after that He did. And it's worked out beautifully. Of course there are many a days when I wish I worked outside the house, but most days I'm very happy and content where I am.

I mainly shoot weddings, which is I have all those Martha Stewart Weddings, but I've found myself shooting tons of babies and kids lately, and I'm having troubles deciding which I like shooting better. I'm afraid in the long run, those small cuties will win out, but we'll see. I'm putting stricter requirements on the weddings I shoot which makes it easier for me and much more fun. Who would have thought I would be able to pick my weddings? It's definitely a blessing.


So here it is . . . pieces of my office. It's definitely nothing fancy, but it totally works for me, and in between my actual photography needs are pieces of me. I love having things around me that make me happy. Everything is right there and I actually, for the first time ever (!), feel organized. I could tell you where everything is. It all has it's place, and that's something I didn't have until we moved to this home 8 months ago. Thanks to IKEA, Pottery Barn and reading my Real Simple magazines, I'm turning into an organized Val that I never knew existed. Some of my friends like Chel, Leann, Alexis, Natalie, Kristin, Heather . . . FINE, all my friends . . . will all be amazed by this because it's these people who are already organized or never thought it was possible for me to be!

These Expedit bookcases from IKEA have been a Godsend. I love them. We even have two in our family room. I'd like to have more but I'm not sure where we'd put them. I know how I am when I look at other people's pictures . . . I study them and try to figure out what everything is. So I just went ahead and listed it all for you so you don't have to strain your eyes. (But if you are straining, I suggest clicking on the picture and making it larger.)

Then there is my closet which Neil and I converted into more storage with shelves. It's worked out remarkably well. Back in the back of it where you can't see, I store old client files and negatives, personal photos, and all my big equipment (lights, light stands, reflectors, backdrop stands, light boxes, etc.). So I can hide all the not-so-pretty things out of sight and that's nice because it's all still in one room and not all throughout the house like it use to be at our old home.



And then there is my bulletin board which kind of speaks for itself.


And finally, my daily work space. One of the places I post my entries to Purple Valley from and *the* place I do all my photo editing from. Notice the 3 external hard drives. You can't have enough hard drive storage, which is something I have talked about in the past among some of my digital photography posts. (Speaking of, I hope to post another really useful and valuable post on choosing the right camera --- tune in later this week!!)


Grandma Libby, one of my biggest role models, would be so so so proud of me, I just know it.

There you have it, my work space. Sorry I rambled so much, but if you plan to visit me more, that's one thing I tend to do ;c) But for some reason people just keep comin' back. And I appreciate it. :c)