Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Happy Hump Day!

Hi friends! 
WARNING: This post is going to be probably really random. I haven't given it too much thought, but I'm waiting for class to start, so I figured I'd catch you up. 


Let's start with some fun inspiration for a Trash The Dress Shoot I have coming up. This inspiration is not really inspiration for the shoot per say, but its more of something I stumbled upon while in my search. Oh how I adore this photo.
Forget "Say Yes to the Dress" say "yes" to the man candy.

Next rambling. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my major? Hm? 
Well, for those of you that don't know, I am a Hospitality Management major. Today's classes are : Food Sanitation, Managing Menu, Quantity Foods, and Wine&Spirits. YES! 
The first three are classes that require me to work at a restaurant on the Island 5 times and then attend a few classes here and there and I only have 3 tests between the three. I love my major. And wine & spirits! What! I haven't gone to that class yet, but I start in an hour. Please wait for my review later. 

On to rambling 3. Have you noticed my new little tabs up top? One night, I got to feeling very lovey dovey. Handsome & I had a great night and it lead me to curing my insomnia by writing my feelings of him out. Well more like our story. 
Read Here
Click on the link to view the whole post, but I figured I'd at least post our little story today. 


And so it goes, 

The first time I laid eyes on Justin Collins Lane was the day after my 18th birthday. I had a huge party at my house the night of and everyone stayed, so naturally, we all loaded up in a truck and went to the local "mudrun". I was hungover sitting in a chair with a grey tanktop, new tattoo, a pair of sunglasses, cut off shorts and boots, and there he was, muscles and all. My friend had just finished talking to him and I asked her who he was? He was too handsome for words. She replied, "Justin, you know so-and-so's cousin." I felt something happen and I just knew one day we'd run into each other again.

Coincidentally, the next week, I ran into his little sister at a football game at school.
"You're pretty, you should date my brother," she said to me. I knew I'd definitely like to give it a shot. So he and I Myspace messaged each other (we still laugh about this to this day) and we set up a date the very night we started talking to each other.
I never knew that it would turn out to be the most memorable first date I've ever been on. 
He picked me up at the school parking lot in his lifted Ford Ranger truck with lights and a whip-intenna. Whew, I knew I was about to get myself into some trouble. He got out of the truck, wearing a blue Dumas and Sons Polo, Carhart jeans, a black pair of duty boots, and that blue HCFR hat. Boy, was he cute. 
As we were on our way to the Hilton Head Christian/Colleton Prep football game, I remember listening to his pager and radio go back and fourth and he showed me the lights in his truck and we began to get to know each other.
He was so easy to talk to...I knew we were going to have a good time. As we made our trip to Hilton Head, we stopped at the Exxon gas station in front of Target. His truck battery died. Justin went into the gas station, brought me out a diet coke without asking me if I wanted anything. Brownie points, despite the situation. He then made me walk to Target to buy some battery charger. As we were waiting for the battery to charge, I was sitting in his driver seat where he walked up to me, grabbed my face, and kissed me. I'm not one to kiss on the first date, but we had a moment. 
After having some man drive him back to Target to buy jumper cables, we finally carried on to the football game.  Once we got to the game, we went our separate ways. I went to the Hilton Head Christian side, he went to the Colleton Prep side (his alma matter). I was sitting with my friend, when I received a text saying, "There is this pretty girl sitting on the other side. She's wearing a black tank top and has a tattoo on her shoulder. She's beautiful." 
I knew then, there was no going back. After the game, our date lead to dinner at Wild Wings and a trip to Walmart. At Walmart, Justin showed his love for guns, bb guns that is. He bought one and swore to me that every time he buys a bb gun, he has to shoot whoever he is with. Before I had time to object, Justin shot me in the knee cap! How on Earth he ever survived to a second date, I'll never know. After our trip to Walmart, he dropped me back off at the school parking lot, where we talked for another hour or so. 
To say the least, there was a second date. We watched Ladder 49, the movie that I watched over and over again with and without him. It made me fall...
We have a special relationship. It's fun all the time. He knows me like the back of his hand and  he always manages to catch me off guard. I've never been happier and more continent with where I am in life and I know he plays a huge role in that. 

 I believe that's all for now. I'm going to work on responding to everyone tonight when I get home from grocery shopping with mom.


Hope you all enjoy your "hump day". Take that however you will ;)
Xoxo,






OH MY GOSH! I almost forgot the best random part of today! 
Ladies, friends, loves, & darlings, 
In the month of January, I'm *hoping* that I'll hit 100 followers! And in the same month, I'll be celebrating my blog's birthday! Wow! So, in order to celebrate, I picked up a little sweet goody for a giveaway. That's right...be ready for A Daring Little Giveaway soon! 

Monday, January 10, 2011

SNOW DAY!

Hi friends! Sorry it's been a few days! 
Here's a brief update on what I've been up to! 


Move aside William's sisters! There's a new tennis duo in town!



Hello new tennis stars!



Oh yeah! This is our "new" hobby. Well, I mean if we stick with it! We went for our first time on Saturday (with our sort of matching outfits!) and then woke up and went at 8:00 am on Sunday morning with my darling, Justin. 
Turns out, Justin was quite the tennis player back in the day. He actually took tennis lessons and he was fully equipped with like 5 rackets, balls, and even tennis gloves! Whew, he sure did show us how it was done! 


As most of you know, I was supposed to start school today and turns out that it wasn't supposed to be because we were given the day off due to snow! Haha, it never ever snows here (except for the day after Christmas this past year) and well, it surely isn't snowing out there! It sure is cold and rainy though! But I'm so glad that my first day has been put off until Wednesday! Woooooo!
Today has been a day full of movies, lots of cuddling with the puppies, and I'm getting around to doing some editing work. 

Hope you all have a fantastic Monday! 
Xoxo



Friday, January 7, 2011

Me? Stylish?

Hello friends! 
Hope you are all having a super fabulous Friday night. Mine was quite fabulous! 
I bought all of my books today for the Spring semester and I hate to say it, but I'm going back to school on Monday :(
Noooooooooooooooooooo.
But I have no choice, so I bought books today and some notebooks and I suppose I'm ready. I assumed with it being Friday night and all, that handsome and I would have some sort of date together. But he talked me into going out with a friend. At first I was bummed that I wasn't going to be with Justin tonight, but seems like he sure does know best because it was just what I needed. He was extra sweet and gave me some money to fund my expensive eating habits. Best boyfriend ever award goes to him, I must say! 
So I had a delicious dinner with my darling friend, Kristen! We went to this yummy Italian restaurant in downtown Beaufort. I had lobster and crab stuffed shells and the best house salad. Thanks honey!


To add to the fabulousness, I'm now at home watching Say Yes to the Dress and I've finished one of my client's set of photos! Hooray! On to the next one! But heres some of what I've been working my life away on! 













So enough of that! On to other business! 
I love awards, and they always make me smile when I get one! 
This is how this works!



There are 4 duties to perform to accept this award:
1.  Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2.  Share 7 things about yourself
3.  Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4.  Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

1. Truly a huge thanks go to the lovely ladies that passed this award on to me! Thanks are in order to Megan at Living4London and to Amanda at The Little Yellow House. These girls are incredible and you need to go visit their little spot on the internet :) Oh and I just noticed that the very sweet Courtney at Vintch as well as Shalyn at Laugh Until Your Cheeks Hurt! Thanks so much ladies! Wow y'all are too sweet!

2. Share 7 things about yourself. 
Where do I begin?
1-Tomorrow I am going with a dear friend to coach her through her first tattoo. This will be the first time ever in my life that I'll be going to a tattoo parlor and not getting any ink done. 
Yes ladies, I have 3 tattoos!


Ew, don't look at my face, notice the little star!


2- I have a serious singing in the shower disorder. I'm like a moth to the light when it comes to singing in the shower. It's like turn the water on and the let the song fest begin! This morning I caught myself singing "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green!
3- I am a sucker for stationary. I love all beautiful things printed. 
4- My favorite color is yellow.
5- My favorite smells are freshly cut grass, men's cologne, and when I see Justin right after a structure fire. That's like the epitome of a manly-I-just-saved-lives smell and it melts my heart. 
6- I can be very nit picky. Like I'm very critical sometimes (wish I wasn't!) and I get very ocd about making my bed and other weird things like that.
7 - I've had a very hard time coming up with this list! But I don't think that counts, but, oh well :)





3. I believe this is the part where awards are to be given!
Ramsey @ Love, Ramsey
Fai @ Letters From a College Student <---Too funny!
Rachel @ The Obrien's

Okay, so I tried really hard to get 15, but it's making my head hurt :(
But each and everyone of you bloggers are very, very stylish.


Thursday, January 6, 2011

Inspiration.

Hi friends! 
Today started out very, very rough. I woke up and lost my very last contact lens and have an eye appointment set for next Friday, so I had to wear my broken glasses around all day today. Then I hit my knee on the coffee table right after I dropped my cordless house phone in my wastebasket right before I dumped it in the big bag of trash from the kitchen. Yikes! That was an interesting morning. 
My day got better once Justin and I went to lunch. After lunch, mom and I went to the business office in town and yes, I, Amy Daring got a business license. 
After much debate, my mother talked me into. I needed to cover my bases and make sure that there was no chance of me getting into any trouble. 


So there I was, in the courthouse, a mere 20  years old, signing my name onto a business license application. After signing, there was a blank with the word "title". Um, title? 
The man noticed my puzzled face and he said, "that would make you the owner."
Gracious!
OWNER? Me?!
No way! Never did I ever imagine that at this early in my life, still a sophomore in college studying hospitality management, would see myself as an owner of a photography business. 
And that I am now. Wow! 
Champagne was opened, tears were shed (my poor mother!) and the bad day had turned into GREAT!


Now, did I think I may have been jinxing myself as I ran home to order cutesy business cards, YES! There's no way this is actually going to be worth all of this work and fun that I'm actually getting out of imagining something good coming out of this. 
But YES! Surely enough, so far it has! I've gotten tons of surprising support from a lot of wonderful people. 
And may I say....


I, TONIGHT, HAVE BEEN ASKED TO PHOTOGRAPH MY FIRST REAL WEDDING! 
Like, I am the contracted photographer for once! Holy moley! 
I cannot contain my excitement. When I was asked, I gave a huge sigh, and I almost teared up. My mom turned and looked at me and said "What's wrong!?" 
"I have been asked to photograph a wedding!"
You see, I study wedding pictures. Like obsess over them. I was actually doing it earlier today while "cleaning" my room. Weddings are my most favorite. I have the greatest job on Earth working for a wedding planner and that's where my heart is, event planning. But I've always loved wedding photos and all that they entail. I never thought of myself as a photographer, nontheless, a wedding photographer. 
The date is set (April 16th) and blocked out on my website. Sorry if I'm being boisterous, but please understand my excitement. 


Anyways, I know that the wedding is a few months away and her bridal portraits are in a little less than that! So I've been stalking wedding photos tonight instead of editing the family photos I'm supposed to be. Oops! 
Here are a few of my favorite. 







How fun is that last one?! 
I'm just overwhelmed with excitement. 
But in the back of my head, I'm wondering, how am I going to pull this off? 
The week before the wedding, I'll be in Atlanta for a vacation|gift that I gave Justin for Christmas. And I'll be battling against time before finals...maybe? I'm not exactly sure when they are yet, but I have a feeling it may be around the same time.
Nonetheless, I'm excited and ready! 
Weddings are my absolute fav! And the bride is an old friend that mentioned to tell me to make sure that I need to have a good time. So it sounds like a win win situation to me. 

Sorry for the boastful post, I'll ease up on these! 

Love to all of you! 
Getting back to y'all now!




all photos were searched on google images! sorry for the no source :(

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

What I love about Wednesday...

Today has been a great day! I figured I'd share my highlights with all of my favorite blog friends.


This morning, I woke up at the crack of 10:00 am. Whew! That was nice. I had nothing, absolutely nothing really to do today. So, not only did I wake up feeling rested and refreshed, I woke up to the most beautiful, wonderful thing in this whole entire world. 



Daisy! Is the sweetest little cuddler. And boy do we have fun doing it too! 

After my cuddle sesh, I started editing some pictures for some clients and one of them I was just so happy about. Ohhhhh its so stinkin' cute!

More to come on this later, but I absolutely loved shooting both of these families! They were all a joy to work with. 


Next on what I'm loving, is that I'm getting ready to watch EASY A! And eat some Hershey Sundae Pie! Oh yes yes yes! 


What else did I love about today? 
Well, I sported a pair of the cutest earrings my boss gave me yesterday for Christmas!
And I was going to post an Outfit of the Day post, buttttt this happened:


Yes, I ripped my pants! 
I was in the bed of Justin's truck and I got out and since it had been raining, I was being careful to not get any water on my pants. Well even worse, I ripped them in the middle of the church parking lot! 
Yikes! But it created a burst of laughter, which I loved. 

Also, today, I'm loving ALL OF YOU!

Xoxo,
Hope you have a splendid Wednesday!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

My oh my, movies.

Do you ever feel like you were born into the wrong era? The world has been made up of so many magical periods in time. I'm most fascinated by the twenties. The best thing about movies is that they allow yourself to get so caught up in a time and place that you could never go back and be a part of. Tonight's feature:



Watching this movie takes me to a place somewhere deep in the south, where the music was good, and work was hard. When I'm watching it, I can close my eyes and just feel love
It reminds me that whenever you truly find love, to never give it up for any reason whatsoever. I live for a love that oozes out of two people. You can feel it in their smile and laughter and thats what Allie and Noah remind me of. 



Boy did they know how to dress!


So much style and so much love. It makes me quiver. I just absolutely love it.

Just remember, whatever you do, follow your heart. I don't care what anyone says. Once you find true love, make sure you hold on to it. 
Nicholas Sparks truly knows how to pull at my heartstrings. 

In other movie notes,
The Black Swan. 
Allow me to being by saying that this movie is completely different than most movies I watch, therefor, I was very surprised. It was good, don't get me wrong. And I liked it, but I won't be buying it. The metaphors were easy to realize once the movie was over. And it was very shocking for the most part. But I liked it, a lot. So I give the Black Swan 4 out of 5 stars. I could have done without some of the "scenes" in it though!

Sorry my posts have been so random lately. I'm inbetween editing two photo sessions and gearing up for the next semester in school which starts next MONDAY! Yikes! 
Love to you all! 
I promise next post will be great!
XoXo

And remember:
"Well that's what we do. We fight. You tell me when I'm being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are being a pain in the ass, which you are 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a two second rebound rate and you're back to doing the next pain in the ass thing. So it's not going to be easy. It's going to be really hard. And we're going to have to work at this every day. But I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, every day."
My most favorite quote of the movie. Reminds me of someone...

Sunday, January 2, 2011

While the boy is away, the girls will play!

Or, just go to the movies! Not really too much playing.
Tonight, Carly and I will go see the Oscar buzzed about movie, THE BLACK SWAN!
I've been dying to see this movie. I read movie reviews all day today at work getting myself excited for it! The costumes look incredible and I love Natalie Portman!

I've kind of been putting off this post, because, well, it's the first post of the year for me! Blogging has sort of grown into this thing that I truly look forward to and I love giving you something to read that's worth your while, but I haven't really had much to talk about nor have I had many pictures to share.

Over the weekend, I rang in the New Year with some of the people I love most, including Justin dearest and his family. We had such a great time cooking and hanging out with all of his sweet family. 
Also, I started the new year off with a new "do". I've been faced with so many tragic hair moments in my life. I've been almost every shade in between blonde and black as far as hair color goes. And cuts! Oh my don't even get me started. 
I was so tired of my shoulder length redish hair and it was driving me nuts! So I chopped it off, all of it! And I tried to get the hairdresser to color it back to my natural color. For some reason, all hair dressers feel that I look best with DARK hair, but I just wish it wasn't soooo dark but I know with time, it will fade some and get better. Trust me, my hair hardly holds color for more than a week. 
So here you go loves, me, my new hair color, my puppies, and my love!


NYE nails ;) topped with a glitter coat

Silly boy!



We got bored waiting on pizza last night, so what a better way to waste boredom than to take fun pictures together!


Anyways, thank you all for your love & support about my website. I know it's a huge step, but the site makes things so much easier (the proofing section is a life saver!). And I live in a very small town, so business isn't exactly booming! So, it's not too crazy of a move for me. 


Hope y'all had a super New Years! And lots of love and hope for 2011 for each and every one of you! 
X's & O's!