Pages

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Today is an exciting day. I get to launch the most beautiful website that I've ever designed, and even better, it markets a friend and her business. Kayla Duffey is such a talented photographer, and I feel so lucky that she asked me to design her very first website. I'm so honored and thrilled to share it with you because I'm so happy with the final result!

The Design Process
I've been waiting a long time to work with someone who was deserving of the look and feel this website brings. Don't get me wrong, any client deserves the best, but you gotta stay in your lane. Not just any industry website can be as pretty as one of a photographer. Once Kayla decided she wanted to move forward, I interviewed her. It is important for me to understand the vision my clients have for the final result. Otherwise, how can I deliver a satisfactory product?

Kayla's photography is light and airy, so it was important to portray that same look in her website. First things first, filter through all the images. And let me tell you, that part didn't suck! Her work had me longing for photos of my own. Besides identifying the right images for her site, we had to find the perfect script font, identify the topics that needed to be covered and sections of the website that would draw future clients in so that there would be no other choice in photographers.

I can't tell you how laid back Kayla was to work with. She is a super busy mom of two in school, and she's already booked out into 2019. I was constantly surprised at how fast she was able to get me all the things, like her bio and so many other things that a designer depends on her clients for. With behavior like this, we were bound to produce a beautiful thing!

What You Get

The result is stunning! The entire site is desktop and mobile friendly, allowing both audiences to navigate the sticky menu with ease. Kayla's Instagram feed is to die for, so this is an aspect I had to feature throughout the site which will give site visitors a new look each time they land anywhere within kayladuffeyphotography.com.

My Favorite

I think my very favorite aspect of this website is how each page scrolls on a desktop. It feels modern, but yet looks so classic!

I also love how Kayla detailed and what each of her packages include and the price. As a shopper, I want to know if I like the style of the photographer and can I afford her. And Kayla answers these questions for her audience.

The Detail

Did you know Kayla Duffey is a 15 time published photographer? And there are new publications up for review right now. Whether you're looking for engagement photos, a warm wedding venue or just want to know who your photographer is, you'll find it here when searching for the Top Newnan Wedding Photographer.

Please take the time to visit and look around the site. I would love to hear your feedback, so leave a comment below. I certainly hope you love it as much as I do - so be sure to check it out from your mobile and a desktop! If you are already to book a session for 2019, click here, and mention my name! Did I mention she will travel? Now, it's time for Kayla and I to pop the champagne and celebrate!

Monday, November 12, 2018

I entered one of the biggest transitions of my life, recently. And with it came heartache and tears, joy and happiness, laughter and friendship, and so many more adjectives. Honestly, I don't know how I am already reflecting on the past four amazing years that I was given! But the days of parenting at home with my boy all day, day after day have passed. Now, we're a few months into our new normal.

It's funny. I had all these plans for how I would spend my mornings while he is in PreK, but it seems those dreams need to wait a little longer. God threw a few blessings my way which are blossoming into these beautiful projects that make me feel accomplished and even a little giddy. I didn't realize a little techy project could fulfill my inner soul so.

If you know me well, you know that before parenthood, I designed a few websites here and there, managed a few small businesses social media, and dabbled in a few other marketing strategies, but did you know I've been doing it again?

Yeah, so get this. A sweet client from my past called and wanted to run a few web solutions by me. He said that he'd been approached by several companies trying to convince him he needed to update his website, but,note, they all said the same thing. While your site doesn't have a current design, it's doing its job, well. The funny thing about this one is that we new when we put that site to work over 5 years ago, it wasn't a savvy design then, but to keep cost down, we worked within the parameters that we were given. In other words, he had a small business that needed a solution to fit his budget. I made that happen then, and he called me back.

I seriously told myself that I didn't want to do this kind of work again. But as we sat discussing what these companies were selling, I couldn't stop myself from getting back in the game. So it seems, I should stop saying, "no, God!" Because He's gonna keep saying, "yes, Tiffanie!"

Back to when I mentioned "reflection". Wow! God, once again, knew what we needed. A little extra income, new friends, a community of people who need the solutions I can provide and even a confidence boost for a mom who has self-doubted herself since the moment her smarter-than-she-is boy began to walk and talk. (Read between the lines. Parenting an infant was sweet and beautiful, but as soon as infant became toddler... life got messy and harder than ever.)

"It's all messy, the hair, the bed, the words, the heart, life."

I'm so proud to say that we are settling into our new season. The new Newnan Routine feels pretty good, and I sure adore witnessing my boy come home talking about all the things he's learned with all the friends he has made. The website that started all this was published, and I can proudly say that it's shuffling all the daily traffic and it meets today's design standards too.

If you want to hear more about my next few projects coming down the pipe very soon, stay tuned. As it turns out, affordable small business solutions are scarce. I, however, can help! Newnan Small Business Solutions are just a phone call away from me.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Before I became a parent, I had several friends who entered the parenthood world before me. Way before me. I experienced the roller coaster of emotions that came with my roll as a kid-free-friend. And if you're a woman whose friends started having children before you, you know what I mean.

Picture life before kids. Always busy. Dinner plans a few times a week. Dinner, drinks with the possibility of local music at least a couple weekends out of the month. Concerts a few times a year. Vacations. Oh, the days of fitting in vacations with friends. This is the time of your life when you're choosing your framily, friends who are like family. You cannot imagine life without them.

Then someone gets pregnant. Because you love them like family, you're thrilled. You can't wait to plan baby showers and celebrate their growing family. And you really can't wait to get your hands on that itty-bitty-baby. These are the moments when you imagine being the best aunt in the world because, of course, you'll be just as involved; you're already sharing life with these people.

You and the besties plan a baby shower and invite all of the other friends who she has been doing life with. It's so much fun because everyone is giving cheers to the parents-to-be. It's the best baby shower that has EVER been thrown!

A few weeks later, you get the call that the mama-to-be is in labor. They're heading to the hospital and updates do not come often enough. But FINALLY, that call comes in. It's a healthy baby girl. She's 7lbs 10oz and 20.5" long. You can't wait to get to the hospital for a visit, but wait... Your framily just requested no visitors. They want privacy to settle in as a family. A few days will do. They said,

"Maybe you can come by the house in a few days after we get home and settled?"

Jaw On The Floor.

As the next few weeks and months pass, you find yourself questioning your friendship because (what felt like) the sudden change in lifestyle with these friends who you chose to be your family has you all up in your head. In fact, after you find them seeking out new friends with babies, you begin to mourn the life you had before their baby arrived and these feelings come with a lot of guilt.

If you were the first friend to have a baby or were expecting your first right behind her, you may not have found the connection to this story yet, but keep reading. You'll find a connection before I'm done.

What's the saying? Time heals? I don't know if this is actually true in any loss, but what is true is that time allows you to find a new normal. This is a good time to learn and pray,

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

And then guess what happens next. You become pregnant. If you're in similar shoes to mine, you've been through the world wind I just described enough times that it became the norm. Those changes were no longer something that lived in your conscious. And now that it's your turn to enter the other world, you aren't even thinking about the differences.

You are living in your moment. You're blissfully happy about soon being a mommy. The only subjects you know are pregnancy and baby.

Your friends start planning the best baby shower every thrown. And it's fun, all right, but instead of soaking in what will possibly be some of the last moments you share with a few people on your guest list, you're thinking about your baby's wardrobe. Dreaming about how these amazing gifts you were just showered are going to set you up to be the best mom in the world, having the most fun time in your life.

Then, labor comes and baby arrives. It's healthy baby boy. He's 8lbs and 20 inches long. Even if you don't ask for no visitors, it's now, it's that moment when you have your first flash back. You flash back to moment when your friends asked for privacy to settle in as family and you get it. You GET IT.

As you live in every single moment that comes over the next few days, weeks and months, you gradually start to recognize how drastic your lifestyle has changed, and you compare how different it is to when you thought someone else's change, changed your life so much. Are you following me? Let me say that another way. As time goes by and you settle into parenthood, after catching up on some much needed sleep, of course, you gradually start to compare the difference between the change that just happened in your life to when your friend had the first baby and you were still kid-free. A light bulb or two might go off in your head as you start to relate to "that other world" which you could-not-relate before but are now living.

The next few years bring around many more light bulbs that are similar to that. But sometimes, you find yourself experiencing confusion and doubt again, just like when you were kid-free. While you may have mourned the loss of the lifestyle you had before your friend had the first baby, when everyone was doing life together, now you find yourself mourning the friendships you feel are lost due to your having the baby. Because seasons. Seasons come and seasons go, but some things stay the same.

I'm not claiming expert status on life as it has to do with friendships, new moms, or life's seasons, but I do have experience in these departments. Isn't it experience and the sharing of experiences that make navigating life changes easier?

This morning, I found myself missing many faces. Faces that I use to see daily, weekly or at least monthly. I can't name the last time that I saw a few of them, though I think of them often and imagine if we were back together it would feel like life just stood still. Like not a moment passed. Yet I'm finding the absence to feel like eternity.

If you are the person in this story who is kid-free, consider the changes happening for the new mom in your life as a natural progression. These changes are not pre-calculated or expected. And as much as this may sting, these changes are not about you, because of you or for you! New moms have no idea how their lives will drastically change because the only thing they pre-calculated was throwing that kid on their hip and toting them right along with them. Reality just slapped them in the face, honey. And it was a bigger shock to them than the feelings you are having.

If you are the new mom in this story, whether you've had a friend go before you or not, consider that your kid-free-friend is not experiencing the natural and progressive changes that are happening for you. They do not and cannot understand, but they are also experiencing a change (though it be different from yours) which also impacts them big time. A change that also matters.

Which side is your story doesn't matter when it comes down to how this knowledge can build stronger friendships and understanding of the gap between our worlds. What matters here is how you act. What you do or don't do.

I recommend that either party put in a little extra effort. Effort you might feel the other party should make first. Take action. Send a text when that person crosses your mind. Have Siri dial them and have a chat, long or short, while you're driving down the road. Do something that let's the other one know you still care. You still think of them. These actions can simply reassure someone that you look forward to the day when our faces meet again, if even for a different-than-our-usual-visit, if only for a quick hug, if we just take the chance. The chance to hang onto a friendship through life's seasons of change. The result just might be beautiful.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

It's so funny because just yesterday a friend shared a link to a blog, Perfection Pending. I read this re-post to husbands about their angry wives. Not only did I laugh out loud, but I felt like the original author, Jesica Ryzynski of Her View From Home, was dead on the money! Because I too often feel like an angry person, myself; so through my life, I've had to create coping skills or good habits to help me manage. Some people might think that I am just bottling it, but really, I'm just trying to buy time to figure out what I am really feeling and why I am acting angry before others feel the repercussions of that anger.

So, as you can imagine, this article about angry wives is on my mind, but I get up and walk through my morning today like an angry wife. Sure as her article stated, my husband asked me too, "Are you okay? Something seems to be off with you this morning."

Well, duh. The list Meredith gave husbands to deal with their angry wives... I hadn't shown him the article yet. I must need to stop and read it to him. Or... I just need to use those coping skills and get to the root of my mood swing.

I chose honesty. I also chose to leave it alone after sharing the issue. You know? Rather than nagging and harping on something that I just explained once. It turns out, I got more results than when I keep up the complaints and the nagging.

Maybe I will eventually show my husband the article that Meredith re-posted, but for now I'm just going to let him be himself, and I'm going to love him through the mess because I'm my own mess too. If I haven't perfected him after 15 years of marriage, I'm probably not going to get perfect. But I sure do love his imperfect, perfect for me self.

So here are a few of my tips for the moody wife whose husband might read as angry: