Personal – Page 44 – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Personal June 6, 2016

Week(s) in Review

Whew. Well, it’s been silent over here for the last three weeks, and I’m barely surviving! Since my last post, I went to Durango for my sister-in-law’s bachelorette party that I co-planned, got pretty sick with a stomach bug and a sinus infection that knocked me off my feet for a few days, and then enjoyed the last few days of the trip before heading back to Houston, where I hit the ground running. I was unpacking, buying groceries, cleaning the house and buying last minute items for Isla’s 2nd birthday party on Saturday (her real birthday). Besides the endless rain, the party went off without a hitch (except perhaps me stupidly putting a sparkler in her birthday cupcake… lesson learned: toddlers don’t like sparks!!!). I am going to share photos from the party tomorrow! They’re not my favorite photos ever, as it was so dark from the storm that I had to use my flash, but alas, they’re party photos and will be amazing for memories!

I wish I felt some sense of relief now that all of the crazy is over, but I am way, way, way behind on emails and have a jam-packed week of photos – playing catchup with work now. So if I owe you an email, I’d love a little grace!

Some very high level highlights from the past three weeks:

Watching Sasha dominate the Iron Horse Bike Classic race in Durango – it was so grueling and I seriously couldn’t complete 1/100th of the race. I am so proud of him!!!
Spending family time in Colorado – I want to live there year round!
Getting to shower Ivana with love (and lots of exercise!) and getting to meet so many of her closest friends, whom I adore!
Celebrating sweet Isla’s 2nd birthday – I cannot believe that she is two years old, and at the same time, I can’t believe I’ve only known her for two years. She feels like she’s been a part of me forever. I love that sweet girl to pieces.
Doing the Memorial Park 3 mile loop with one of my favorites, Brooke, and getting to catch up on life!
Taking a break from work!

Hope you had a great week/weekend too! xo

Week in Review May 16, 2016

Week in Review

Happy Monday! Unsurprisingly, it is bucketing rain right now in Houston! We’re having some serious cabin fever. April showers were supposed to bring May flowers, not more showers, right? Hopefully it’s very lush in June! Ha.

I leave for Durango on Thursday for my sister-in-law’s bachelorette party this weekend, and then I’m staying another two weeks. Sasha and Isla will join me and my parents on Sunday. I’m excited for a little vacation, and especially for the fun party ahead! The week before a long vacation is always hectic, so Lord help me to get through it!

Last week was jam packed with the following highlights:

Taking photos of:
- Molly at her house and in the Heights
- A mocktail/cocktail shoot with Meg, Monica, Meredith and cheerleader Brittany – find recipes on Meredith’s blog here
- An Emerson Sloan fiesta party in West U
- A M+M Couture jewelry shoot in Piney Point
- Alex near Dish Society
- Destiny at CityCentre twice, followed by lunch at Ruggles Green and another time for dinner at Brios with Sid too!
- A J. McLaughlin event on Tuesday evening hosted by Caroline
- Elly in Rice Village
Running a million errands on Friday to prepare for Ivana’s bachelorette next weekend and Isla’s birthday party when we get back from Colorado, including two trips to Home Depot and USPS, HEB, Hobby Lobby, the dry cleaners, T.J. Maxx and Paper Source
Meeting with Monica to pickup some fun goodies for Isla’s party – then spending Friday night modgepodge-ing!
Going to Memorial City Mall on Sunday with my sister-in-law (who was in town briefly before heading to Chicago) to buy some stuff for the party!
Having my Dad babysit solo for the first time while I photographed an event – he did such a great job. Isla is lucky to have the best Papa ever!
Celebrating Sasha’s mom’s birthday on Friday!
Visiting Papellerie to pickup Isla’s invitations that I had help prepping with Molly and mailed out at the end of the week!
Giggling for ten+ minutes on Sunday night while reading Isla a bedtime story – she thinks that passing gas (‘Toot toot!’) is absolutely hysterical, and she had us laughing so hard as she tried her very best to keep them coming. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in ages, and as we were cracking up, all I could think was: I want this memory engrained in my brain forever. I just love her so much!

Hope you had a great week! Stay dry if you’re in Houston!!

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Personal May 11, 2016

Week in Review

Well, it’s Tuesday evening now (ahem, Wednesday by the time I’m posting), and I’m only now getting around to writing this post! It’s already been a crazy week – six sets of photos done in 48 hours and when to get them edited? Yikes. Hoping I can catch up within the next few days.

A very quick recap of last week’s highlights:

Spending Mother’s Day with my Mom after church and then seeing Sasha’s mom for dinner! It’s one of my favorite holidays, but a little biased on that, right?
Meeting with Monica to discuss a fun project for Isla’s birthday party!
Stopping by Papellerie to pick up some gorgeous sets that I’m styling and photographing! Those ladies are so talented!
Taking Townes’ newborn photos – he is seriously so adorable! Such an easy baby!
Photographing Natalie Weakly and a gaggle of gorgeous gals that she styled for Great Day Houston, Elly at CityCentre, Caroline at Rice University, Esther’s daughter’s beautiful nursery, new classes offered at DEFINE, and sweet Lainey’s second birthday portraits!
Going to Valentina’s slava and spending time with Sasha’s family!
Celebrating Brittany’s 30th birthday with dinner at Up.
Spending the week with Sasha, as it was his first time to work from Houston (i.e. at home) in 7 weeks.
Getting my butt kicked at DEFINE Body with Alex at 5:45am.
Eating dinner with Megan at Brio’s! It was delicious and I always love her company.

How was your week? Hope you had a great Mother’s Day!

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Personal May 2, 2016

Week in Review

Happy Monday! Can you believe that it’s May already?!? Isla turns two in a month and two days, and that is so incredibly frightening to me! I cannot believe it. I’m also not ready for her party, so there’s that!

We had a busy weekend, moving around from Houston to Austin to Dripping Springs, then back to Houston to feed Belle, then to Galveston for Serbian Easter celebrations. It was such a fun wedding – we loved celebrating Danay and Patrick with other sweet friends, and Easter was a lot of fun with the family. Today is a much quieter day, thank goodness – time to catch up on edits and life in general!

Some highlights from the past week include:

Taking poolside photo of Molly and Caroline at a gorgeous pool – one of the On Point Custom Homes! Seriously, it is a dream.
Photographing Megan and Elly (did you see her exciting announcement??) at CityCentre, Lauren at Color Wall and Lyndsey at Tiny Boxwoods and Highland Village (her girls are so darn cute!).
Spending the evening and eating dinner with Destiny, Sid and Truman with Isla for blog photos and a fun video that she’ll share tomorrow. We love the Thompsons!
Seeing Monica to pick up some gorgeous bachelorette goodies and photographing some of her amazing laser cut items – she is so talented!
Having a fun creative shoot for Pour L’Amour Creative with Meredith and Brittany – I love how everything turned out! They’re three talented ladies!
Photographing Joy at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Sugarland – y’all, you will feel like you’re in India when you go there. It’s gorgeous!! Seriously blown away.
Creating a sweet sundae shoot with Meredith to test out a fun new video technique we’re working on – I think we should make a series out of it!! Did you see the video yet?

Hope you’re having a wonderful Monday so far! xo

Personal April 26, 2016

Week in Review

If I were to use one word to describe last week, it would have to be rainrainrainrain. As soon as you thought it would stop raining, it would pick right back up. Tons of neighborhoods in the city were completely flooded, and we were lucky enough to stay pretty dry (or flood free, I guess!). I could not believe what we were watching on the news and even on my friends’ Snapchats!

Since the first few days of last week prohibited photos being taken, the latter half was pretty insane. And I left for Chicago at 7am on Friday morning (those early morning flights are always painful!), which meant I was rushing to get everything done before I left. I was visiting my best friend of 18 years (which means I’m way too old!!) who moved there in December – I kept telling myself it was too chilly to visit her, so booked a flight in April and alas, mid-40 degree weather. In the spring. Yikes. Thank goodness it was the best weekend ever, and we were too busy to notice the cold. We met our good friend, Caroline, at Google for lunch, then went to Cindie’s at the Chicago Athletic Club, took photos by The Bean, then ate dinner at Summer House and wandered in and out of cute boutiques on the way home. Friday night was a relaxing night in – face masks, cheese and rose! Truly perfect. On Saturday, we ate breakfast at Southport Grocery and Cafe, shopped nearby and then went to the Lincoln Park Conservatory (which is a dream!). Afterwards, we drank delicious smoothies at Real Good, strolled down to the lake where we relaxed, looking out at the gorgeous blue water. Then we met up with Caroline, went to Hotel Lincoln (which was ridiculously busy!), so headed to Corcoran’s Pub, before taking a taxi to dinner at The Hampton Social and then a glass of wine at Caroline’s apartment. It was a jam packed 48 hours, and I got to spend time with some people I love so, so much – my heart is still full from the trip! I can’t wait to go back with Sasha and Isla!

Some other highlights from the past week included:

Eating lunch with Sasha’s cousin’s wife at Tiny’s No. 5 – the acai bowl is amazing. I love Melissa – we chatted for a few hours and I didn’t even notice!
Taking photos for Emily Reeves and Kristin Tauber to promote their next calligraphy and floral workshop (details here).
Taking blog photos for Destiny at Kendra Scott (fun collab that y’all will see soon!), Elly (basically in the pouring rain!), and Caroline, at her house.
Meredith consultation for Isla’s party at her house! I am excited and very stressed 🙂
Finishing the craft closet with help from Meggie of Organized Life Design – she is the best, and I cannot wait to reveal the progress and final photos!

I hope y’all are already having a great week so far! xo

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