Peridot Rose

My name is Sara. I'm a wife, mother, and photographer and feel fortunate in all areas of my life. See our professional site and blog here: Dotson Studios

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Location: Georgia, United States

Thursday, January 28, 2010

A very hard month

I feel so bad that this blog is so neglected. I know there are some of you that just read this and are not on Facebook so I'm sorry that I've not been keeping you in the loop. So here's a quick rundown of the last month. If I keep this short and sweet maybe I can get it out there rather than waiting for a magical time where I have an hour to write a nice long post...because that time will never come!

So Ella got an ear infection right before Christmas, then got RSV immediately after Christmas which quickly gave her another ear infection. She was only off of antibiotics about 4 days before she got a horrible cold and then you guessed it...another ear infection. That was Saturday which was also the day before we had our bridal show. I'll post some pictures of the booth later in this post. Tuesday night in the middle of the night when I went to check on her, her ear was all bloody so we cleaned if off and were pretty sure she just scratched her ear, but it really bothered us that it hurt her so much she scratched it so bad. So this morning I went back to the doc and we got in with her official doctor today which I haven't been able to see the last 4 visits. It was good to talk strategy with him. He put her on 30 days of a low-dose antibiotic to help prevent another ear infection. He said if she gets another infection during this time or the fluid has not left in 30 days then we'll be looking into putting tubes in. I really hope we can keep another cold away for a month, but if tubes become necessary we are willing to do it to bring her relief.

On another note we have been busting our tails trying to get our new booth done. We did a sketch of what we wanted it to look like late one night. Then we bought all of the supplies and called our parents in for help. We build this thing in a week which meant every time Ella took a nap I was painting, and painting some more. I had to prime it, and then do 2 coats of the white color. I primed the brown walls, did a coat of a color that looked too green, then did 2 more coats of a better color. We also painted the back of all of this black. Our first gallon of "black" was not black at all. It was a funky green grey color so some places I had to paint the "black" twice. You can see from the photo we also had a lot of staining. Everything was going well until the 4th coat of brown paint started to drip as it dried. I think I put it on too thick (not wanting to do another coat). It was dripping right where we were going to put the logo lettering on so we had a problem. It wasn't until Saturday (show was on Sunday) that we thought of getting a canvas and paint it brown to put the logo on and hang on the wall.

Saturday was also the day of set up, plus Ella was so sick I took her to the doctor. Oh, and it was pouring down rain too. Grant and his dad went to set up and got the main walls up and the floor down while I worked on the sign and took care of Ella. That night we were up late (Ella wasn't sleeping anyway) finishing up things, printing off hand outs and a number of other last minute things. Sunday morning came quickly and Grant and his dad left the house about 8:15 to finish setting up. I was planning on leaving at 9 with Ella and Grant's mom with all of the albums and small stuff. Again - it was not only pouring down rain, but it was coming in sideways. As me and Grant's mom were heading to the car I realized I couldn't find my keys. I knew this was bad because I had recently seen them on the table. A quick phone call confirmed - Grant and his dad had both sets of my keys...we were stuck at home. I totally lost it. In front of Ella and my mother in law I used words that I don't like Ella to hear and sat down balling. Ella's sickness had taken so much out of me and I felt so overwhelmed with everything. I wanted to be involved in set up and to see people that I normally only get to see at these shows (other photographers) but I was stuck at home and Grant's dad couldn't bring back another set of keys until all of the big things were set up. After I calmed down I decided to iron our shirts that we were going to wear, I redid my hair since the rain ruined it, and redid my makeup since you know crying like crazy does great things with mascara.

Grant's dad was there about 10:45 which put me at the show at 11:15. It started at 12. I had time to carry everything in, park my car, go feed Ella (she's still not taking a bottle), change, and get ready to try to sell our business to lots of potential clients. We finished setting up about 12:05. :)

We really enjoyed the show. We had a lot of traffic and a lot of compliments on the design. We feel good about it and hope to get some business from the event. Grant's parents brought Ella back when it was done and we hung out there until we had it all tore down and headed home. I felt such a sense of relief! I was finally able to just hold Ella and not worry about the show anymore. Now our garage looks like a bomb went off in it, but that's okay. We are in another show in February so we'll leave all the stuff in the garage until then, and then we'll figure out where to store it until next year!

So there's an update on everything.

Here is Ella on Tuesday morning - starting to feel better. Her eyes were droopy and red when she was really sick so it was nice to see my bright-eyed girl again.


Here is a sketch we did of how we wanted the booth to look.


Here are a few pictures of the booth.






Tuesday, January 05, 2010

New in 2010!

Our website and blog for our business:

Dotson Studios

Dotson Studios Blog

A lot of blood, sweat and discussion went into redoing our site and setting up a blog but I will say this...it was nothing compared to the first one. I also want to thank our dear friend Jason who helped us with the logo and was a sounding board for us through this whole process. Nothing is more difficult than for 2 stubborn (and married) designers to try to design together and Jason was the perfect mediator for us.

We feel this look better suits us as photographers that have been doing this for a while now and we needed to stay competitive. Plus since we both work from home now we feel we have a new look for the new staff. :) Ella is great at making coffee for us and cleaning up around the office. (I only wish!!)

We are excited about doing more with the business this year. We are actually involved with the local Fox station to do a reality wedding show and we are the wedding photographers. We are excited about it and hopeful that it could generate some more business.

Anyway, that's what we've been working on non-stop for the last few weeks and it feels so good to have it up.