fearless..

Joanna Brown Photography

It's funny.. when I first started this photography business I felt completely fearless.. I wasn't afraid to do things my way.. to push it.. to choose the opposite road.. to be myself.  But as our first year turned to two.. then three.. and now we're hitting our fourth year.. this fearlessness is harder to hold.  You get comfortable knowing you can do your job.. you know you can do it well.. you know where the shots are.. you know the ebb and flow.. you want to be consistent.. you want to keep being wanted... you're doing well.. why rock the boat?

You're busy.. you shoot things.... you now and then play it a bit safer.. and then you stop.  You tell yourself to open your eyes.. to shake things up.. to be completely fearless again..

Making that leap is always easier the first time.. you've got nothing to lose.. nothing to prove.. the second leap is always the hardest..

It's time to be fearless again..

us...

I love him.... I love him with all my heart.
Today we've been together 7 years....
Seven years ago today... I found Pete on Myspace.. yep.. Myspace.

(images by the wonderful Featherlove)

I was living in Birmingham and only knew my flatmate... I was in between Acting jobs and saw that Pete lived in Brum and had pretty much the same taste in music... and he looked fit in his photo... so I sent him a message and he replied.  We got chatting and he gave me tips on where were the good places to go and we realised we'd been in the same pub on New Years Eve too but never saw each other!  We then exchanged numbers and Pete had played it cool saying if you fancy catching up some time then give us a text... great.... HUGE ball in my court.  So on that Thursday I knew he was in town and I text him (cue wandering around town for a few hours trying to keep busy waiting for a reply). He text back saying that he was meeting some mates and I was more than welcome to join them.. oh christ... have to walk in to a pub on my own, not 100% sure what he looks like and he's with his mates.. also I'd found something to fill some time that afternoon which was actually giving blood (sounds random but I'd tried to go the day before and it was closed) ...so passing out was another concern.

I walked in and stood at the bar, called my mate, saw him walk past (he didn't have his glasses on so wasn't sure it was me) and then plucked up the courage to go over... luckily his mates consisted of another couple so I sat down and we got chatting... we then went to another pub and chatted some more.. we then headed to a club (a pretty dead one) and chatted some more.. then Pete stopped chatting, stared at me for quite a long time (to the point where I actually asked if he was ok) and then he kissed me... all together now... 'Ahhhhhh'... we have been inseparable ever since.

Pete actually sent me a message (via Myspace) two days after we met and I feel the exact same way about the last seven years...

Pete, I wanted to tell you that I've had the best 7 years.
So much fun, so easy and natural..
Your girl xxx

..weekend..

Have a great weekend guys! This weekend we have no weddings so we are GETTING SHIT DONE. (i.e. finish painting the house and all that jazz)..

life lately..

So the past few weeks have been kinda busy.. shooting some yummy shoes and some beautiful stationery, keeping Maximo entertained in the house as he's not keen on this continuous white stuff.. oh and we had a lovely feature about blogging in February's Photo Pro Magazine.. :)  Wedding season is just around the corner and we have some more Welcome Home Workshops coming up in a couple of weeks (they come around fast) so we've been busy getting ourselves ready for the mayhem.  We're also STILL in house makeover land... which is taking much longer than expected.   We've now painted 80% of the house and we should have new carpet and a new kitchen floor (fingers crossed) in the next couple of weeks. The problem we've had is that our house is SO small.. and every time we've painted a room, we've first had to take everything out and put it in another room (and sleep in it).. to then have to put it all back in to paint the next room and so on. I'm actually starting to realise just how much stuff we have and the other night I couldn't sleep staring at all the stuff piled high literally surrounding the bed and asked myself.. if someone took it all away tomorrow and you never saw it again.. would you really care?   If you know me you know that I'm a little bit of a hoarder.. I love a car boot and a charity shop and over the years I've brought home typewriters, chairs, mirrors, plates, lights, cupboards, bikes, clothes, a deck chair (it'll be useful in the Summer!!!).. as I can't bear to walk out of the shop and leave them without a home.. but our home simply isn't big enough.. and do I really need five typewriters?!?! So once the carpet is down and we have some normality back I'm going to sell some bits and bobs and anything we make is going towards our travelling fund.. I think it's a really good exercise as the hoarder in me sometimes needs to be kept in check..

So.. I've just got to decide on what's best.. ebay?, maybe a yard sale on the blog?.. I might even do the Saturday Flea at the Custard Factory where our office is.. what do you guys think?

..every day..

..is amazing with this guy by my side...

ahhhh our first dance.. :)

Ahhhh this little video has just been posted on Facebook by our friend Becs.. thank you hun for filming this on your phone.. brings back so many amazing memories.. :)

house makeover..

If you follow me on Instagram you may know that we've been doing a bit of decorating the past few weeks.. well, we're trying to make the most of being a little quieter in January and getting some things done before wedding season really kicks off.  The main thing for us was the house.. we've had this little house for a number of years now but have rented it out a few times, done a lot of quick fixes.. and now it really feels the right time to make it our home.  Over this quiet period I've really been thinking about this coming wedding season and how I want it to be on a daily basis.. it can be very easy to work every day.. all day and then all weekends and before you know it 7 months have whizzed by and all you've done is work.  In previous years I've always preferred to stay at the office.. I loved working and what I had to come home to wasn't what I would call my home.. it had all my stuff in it but I didn't love it.  It was practical.. sleep there and dump my stuff there.. that's what it became.  So this year is all about enjoying my space.  I want to want to come home of an evening.. to slouch around on a Sunday.. to have people round.. I want to make it as inviting as my work is.. and the first step is to decorate..

You'd think we had a mansion for how much mess we've made but it's slowly starting to come together... although my non existent patience doesn't really help the process as I want to dress everything before paint is dry and am so ridiculously indecisive that pretty much everything has had about 9 coats of paint in a rainbow of colours until I can decide..

In the past any time we've decorated I've always played it safe.. this house isn't our forever house so I always steered away from doing exactly what I wanted as I didn't want to put people off if we were going to sell.. well.. we've now been in the house for about 6 years now so I've actually just wasted all that time when I could have had it how I wanted it.. so no more waiting.. :)

I also love it that I've finally been able to find a home for all the things I've been collecting.. the mustard sofa was an ebay purchase.. most of the frames and pictures were from car boots and flea markets and my favourite is the kitchen wall unit that we found in a skip.. obviously they all have to have Maximo's seal of approval before they are permanent members of the family..

We've still got a little way to go.. there's still rooms to paint and we're getting carpet and a new kitchen floor which I'm actually fighting to contain myself on how happy that makes me.. it is so long overdue and I literally cannot wait for it to all be finished and for me to come home from the office and enjoy our little home..

lick of paint..

Yey! The website has had a little facelift for the new year!! We now have some new galleries to feast your eyes on and a few little tweaks to the home page too! It's always nice to give things a lick of paint and to swop things round a bit.  I love it.. and I'm currently going back every now and again to take another little peek myself.. :)