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Week in Review

Exactly one year ago this week, I decided to start an Instagram account for my blog versus just using my personal account. I would be lying through my teeth (or my text, I suppose) if I said I was not incredibly nervous and self-conscious about starting afresh. I very rarely used to share details about blog posts on my personal Instagram, as I felt that my friends didn’t sign up for that when they chose to follow me. However, I knew that Instagram was a powerful tool for bloggers and photographers, and so I bit the bullet and created @SnapshotsAndMyThoughts. I think I had about 15 followers for the first few weeks and was nervous it would stay that way indefinitely (can we talk about #firstworldworries?). More than just being concerned about follower count, which didn’t matter all that much to me, was the fear that people would judge me for posting too much about my life. Blogging in itself is pretty self-centered – Hey, do you want to see photos of my life? Hear about my fun weekend? See how I styled my new bookshelves? I write this blog not because I want to talk about me-me-me, but to have a journal of our lives that I can look back on, and also to hopefully share some fun products we try, ideas I’ve got, styles I love, etc.

The very best thing about the blogging and Instagram journey is the people I’ve met. Yup, super corny, but so true. Over the last 52 weeks (and before that too!), I’ve met some of my new closest friends and have, through those people, worked on some exciting projects which has helped me launch a new business venture – Snapshots by Ailee Petrovic.

This is a really long way of saying ‘thank you’ for following along with me. For making this journey exciting. For your ‘likes’ and sweet comments. For sharing your lives with me as well. I am so incredibly appreciative.

This week was especially fun, as my sister-in-law was in town and I love spending time with her. Bar a nasty stomach bug that knocked most of us out for at least a day, the last 7 days were filled with lots of laughter. Some of the highlights include:

  • Dining with my very best friend, McKenzie, at Ruggles Green on Friday night and talking about any and everything. Life gets busy and sometimes we don’t see each other for a few weeks, and I hate it. She really is the best. 
  • Catching up with my former co-worker and now friend, Jess, over coffee at the house on Monday. We worked together at Accenture what feels like many moons ago (but really was just 3 years ago!).
  • Eating an early lunch at Local Foods in Rice Village with Meredith after our date to SnowBlock was uprooted by it not opening until noon!
  • Meeting with Leah at The Monogram Shop to talk about a new project she’s working on that I’ll be helping with. She’s the best, and I am excited for what’s to come with the store!
  • Shooting with Elly Brown on Sunday at the Police Officer Memorial and Discovery Green. Not only is she drop dead gorgeous, she is so sweet and I loved spending the afternoon with her.
  • Celebrating our friends’ wedding on Saturday at St. Luke’s Methodist Church and the Nouveau Antique Art Bar. It was so much fun, and I’m glad I ordered this Monique Lhuillier gown from Rent the Runway. 
  • Spending almost every day at LifeTime gym doing week 12 of BBG getting ready for Wednesday’s shoot with Paige! 
  • Shooting with Esther and her gorgeous family at Fat Cat Creamery for this big announcement.
  • Meeting one of Sasha’s best friend’s new son, Archer, who was just one week old and so tiny… not to mention, absolutely adorable.
  • Getting my new mouth guard at the dentist (Dr. Matt Nickolas – go to him!) to help my TMJ. I cannot wait for my jaw to feel better!
  • Dropping by my friend’s house to shoot the exterior of her home for this house tour post. Isn’t her house stunning?
  • Finding a cheerleader outfit at Michaels (of all random places) for Isla’s doll and tossing around her pom-poms for an afternoon. She loved it.
  • Photographing our friend’s daughter and her two sweet cousins at Memorial Park on Saturday morning. Getting three kiddos to smile is always a challenge, but they were so cute in their little coordinating outfits – we got some adorable shots.
  • Spending time with all six of Isla’s grandparents (Sasha’s parent’s are divorced and remarried) and two of her aunts! She’s a spoiled and very lucky little lady.
  • Amongst healthy eating and lots of exercise, sneaking in some TCBY (my absolute favorite). Life is all about moderation, right?
  • Finally busting out our Breville juice machine and then making a million juices. I cannot wait to try new recipes (from JennyJourney.com!).
  • Eating veggie burgers from Buff Burger. If you live in Houston and haven’t tried it yet, you need to! They are so delicious.
  • Hosting a Shop Small giveaway, which ends tonight at midnight! Make sure you’ve entered!
  • Getting the prettiest package from Lindsay Marcella in the mail. Our bedroom makeover is seriously almost complete. I am so excited!

How was your week? What were your highlights?

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Week in Review

Alas, our trip in Durango has almost come to an end! We are embarking on our last week here, and although I’m so ready to see family and friends at home in Houston, I’m going to miss the gorgeous weather here in Colorado. We have a “punch list” (as Sasha calls it) of things to do before we leave on Saturday – most of which includes doing certain hikes and eating at our favorite restaurants. We made the most of the past week and plan to do the same for the next five days. I’m even taking a “blogcation” from Wednesday onwards so that I can spend every single second with my sweet family!

Speaking of family – yesterday was our second year anniversary, and we are so engulfed in the laid back mountain lifestyle that we had no idea what the date was! We figured it out when a friend posted an anniversary picture on Instagram in the evening, and I checked the date right after. We had a good laugh about it, then I walked two streets over and bought a bottle of Chandon Rose and we celebrated 730 days of marriage. I love that man to pieces.

Some of this week’s highlights included:

  • Making two trips to Maria’s bookshop – I finished The Girl on the Train and We Are Called to Rise – instead of having a second reading list post, I decided that I will just update this post as I read new books! But in short: you must read both. The latter is one of my favorites ever. Sasha also read Into the Void and loved it. We read every evening on the front porch with a glass of wine (i.e. I was in heaven).
  • Joining the Durango Recreation Center and spent three days playing in the splash pad and sliding down the fun slides – watch two short videos of her sliding here and here.
  • Eating meals at Himalayan Kitchen, Fired Up Pizzeria and Grassburger – our top three favorite restaurants in Durango (you can read my full guide here).
  • Taking morning hikes up to Fort Lewis College – the view is so gorgeous (photo here), and I will miss it so much!
  • Shopping at the Durango Farmer’s Market and getting some delicious treats from local farms and restaurants. There are some great markets in Houston, but this one is definitely my favorite.
  • Perfecting the “Neiiiigggghh.”
  • Riding our bikes to the numerous nearby parks where we did lots and lots of swinging – Isla loves it! The Yepp bike seat is a hit around here.
  • Playing soccer with a beach ball at Buckley Park – Isla was getting so into it! Belle loved it too, but she burst one of the balls we bought, which was a slight inconvenience!
  • Drinking oodles of flavored water – even tried Codi of Creative Wife, Joyful Worker’s kiwi mint recipe here. You can read my healthy basil lemonade recipe here.
  • Getting featured on Annie’s blog for her #theprettypursuit roundup. MontgomeryFest is one of my favorite blogs out there and you should definitely be reading!
  • Updating my website – Snapshots by Ailee Petrovic – with some new photos and cannot wait to add even more after the 8 shoots I’ve got lined up when we get home. So excited about them all! Incredibly appreciative of this journey so far. I also spent time working on a client relationship management database, which is so dorky, but makes me so pleased to have things become more organized!

How was your week? I’d love to hear your highlights in the comments below!

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Week in Review

Whew, what a week! We celebrated Isla’s first birthday on Thursday, then busied ourselves until midnight on Friday prepping for Isla’s confetti-themed party on Saturday. My sweet, sweet friend Meredith (of Cake & Confetti) had me over on Thursday evening to make the floral arrangements for the party, then was over until 11:30pm on Friday helping to set everything up (including our insane balloon arch!). She’s insanely talented, and I cannot recommend her enough to help design any event in Houston!

Now that her birthday and the party are over (photos to come tomorrow or Wednesday!), I’m finally taking a deep breath (and plan on catching up with all my favorite blogs!). There are tons of decorations that need to be put away (but where?), loads of thank you notes to write and lots of laundry and cleaning to be done. But for now, I’m trying to soak up the feeling of not having any trips to organize or parties to plan.

Other highlights from the past week include:

  • Isla getting her first ‘You’re a star’ type ribbon at her gym class at The Little Gym of Memorial. The semester is over, so all the kiddos got awards for their outstanding participation! Isla just wanted to steal other kid’s ribbons. She’s such a sharer (yikes!).
  • Seeing so many family and friends at Isla’s party. It felt like our wedding, but on a mini-scale (by mini, I mean there were 60+ adults and 20+ kids, so not far off our wedding count!).
  • Watching Isla transition from mainly crawling and sometimes walking, to mainly walking and sometimes crawling. So cute! And scary.
  • Seeing Isla play with her new baby doll(s). She adores pushing them around in their little umbrella stroller. It’s the best. I don’t know why she didn’t have one earlier!
  • Having all of our parents and my sister over for family dinner on Thursday to celebrate Isla’s first birthday – she was very, very tired, so the meal didn’t last more than 30 minutes (and no gifts were opened!).
  • Wading pool fun with Isla after unpacking on Monday. She then proceeded to hop in the pool days later with her clothes and shoes on. Lesson learned: never turn your back. Ever.
  • Taking photos of two adorable little babies – Tucker and Pierce – two friends who gave birth to boys just days apart! I love it! I cannot wait to share photos from Pierce’s shoot soon! I got to snap a few photos of my friend Julie’s kids, Evie and Kerr, beforehand – they’re too cute!
  • Celebrating my friend, Brittany, at her bridal bruncheon at Ouisie’s Table. She’s getting married so soon in Vail, and it’s going to be gorgeous!
  • Spending time with my sweet sister-in-law, Ivana, who came to visit for Isla’s party. She lives in San Francisco (so jealous), and we cherish the time we get with her when she’s in Texas!

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Week in Review

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny Sunday, so I decided to take our wading pool (currently used to house play balls) outside for a little ‘swim.’ Isla had been standing by herself for 10 second stretches of time in the last few weeks, but hadn’t really taken many purposeful steps (just a few between objects, like from her walker to the table). While we were in the pool, she got very adventurous and began taking 4-5 steps from one side of the pool into my arms. Sasha was at Home Depot getting tools for my projects (thank you, love!), and when he walked into the backyard, he was floored (and very excited!) to see her waddling across. After we dried off inside, she started doing longer walks in our playroom before expressing her exhaustion by having total Jello legs (short video here). There were lots of ‘Yay, Isla!!’ chants yesterday, but I’m equally nervous about how many breakable items we have at reaching distance. Time to get serious about baby proofing! Isla’s favorite Instagram-friend, Livi, is totally motivating her – check out this video that her sweet momma posted yesterday. She’s amazing! Go, Livi, go!

The definite low point of the week was getting my first cavity filled. I am such a baby. I opted in for the laughing gas, and I still felt like I was going to faint. And then the ache in my jaw all day long? I’m brushing five times a day now and going to start using Act. No more cavities for me!

A few highlights of the week included:

  • My seriously amazing husband bought me a Canon 5D Mark III camera and the 50mm f 1.2L lens to show his support of my photography business, which I’ll be sharing more details about soon and hopefully ‘launching’ in less than a month! I am still learning the ins and outs of it, but I adore it. Half of the photos below are taken with the new camera, and the others are with my iPhone and my trusted Nikon D5000.
  • Meeting one of my college best friends, Blake, at Sweet Paris after church on Sunday – Sasha ordered my vegan crepe, which we laughed about as it arrived covered in powdered sugar and Nutella. I joked that he was trying to get me back for the one time I ordered him a salad and it had a cream dressing. Needless to say, I picked out the fruit from the crepe. I do love Sweet Paris though – especially the restaurant’s interior design. See my friend Christie’s post about it here.
  • Going to Tiny Boxwood’s with one of my favorite people in the world – Brooke – on Saturday for a mid-afternoon drink. Tiny’s has the best drink in Houston (in my humble opinion) – the white wine mojito. Yummm.
  • At long last, my bestest friend, McKenzie, and I celebrated her birthday (ahem, which is in July! Yikes!) with a spa date at the Houstonian’s Trellis Spa. We enjoyed the sauna, our treatments (massage and facial), and a glass of bubbly in our robes afterward. It was pure heaven!
  • Enjoying a wine and cheese night with two girlfriends on Tuesday – I am guilty of eating the entire Brie triangle. I cannot stop myself. I love spontaneous girls nights like these!
  • Getting my hair cut and colored by Eric Vaughn at Estilo Salon. He is so wonderful, and although I am the world’s least patient person and almost didn’t survive a three hour appointment, I love the outcome and had The Paris Wife to read while letting the color set.
  • Family visits from my mother-in-law, dad, and my older sister! She came over for dinner and a game night of Bananagrams, which I’m slightly addicted to. Since we’ll be spending most evenings in during our trip (except for our night out in Paris with a babysitter!), I’d love to hear any fun two-person game suggestions!
  • Being treated to TCBY twice in one week. With all of the self-serve places popping up, my loyalty to TCBY that was built during college sort of dissipated, but it’s back. We are addicted!
  • Receiving my first Voxbox from Influenster. I will be reviewing the products this week!
  • Finally hanging up our new West Elm mirror in our master bedroom and selling our futon – now all that’s left is to get a bookshelf and have the room painted, and the room is complete! I’m so excited.
  • Carter’s Instagrammed about my Baby Hospital Bag giveaway last week, which helped spike entries! I got very excited to see all of the giveaway pins on Pinterest! Thank you for participating. The winner of the giveaway is Daphne K.! I’m so excited for her and her sweet baby girl due in May.

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Week in Review

Week in Review

Can you believe that March is almost over? I’ve having slight anxiety about how quickly the year is flying by, and I’m totally convinced I’ll have an emotional breakdown sometime before Isla turns one. Given that we’re getting closer to that date and because we’ll be gone for close to two weeks right before her birthday, I started the birthday planning process this week. Papellerie is designing her invitations, and I’m so excited to see what that incredible team creates. They are responsible for our wedding invitations + all paper goods, and I loved everything they touched.

Last week, our nanny started part time, as I’m still waiting for confirmation on my role and we had set her start date earlier in the month. She’s coming this week again, and I’m taking the opportunity to do the wedding calligraphy for one of my best friends, Brittany. She dropped off the envelopes this weekend, and they’re gorgeous! I cannot wait to celebrate with them in Vail this summer.

Other highlights from the week include:

  • Working on final wedding details for Amanda’s wedding – guest favors, programs, welcome bags, etc. – we’ve got back-to-back weddings the next two weekends (one in Austin, one in New Orleans) and I’m so excited for both!
  • My mom and sister were in Durango for the week, as they’re renovating the second and third floors (which used to be very vintage), so we went out to lunch at Ruggles Green with my dad – of course, he and Sasha had to argue over who ate more (see photo below)
  • On Saturday, we had a date night with Sasha’s friend from the UT MBA program (familiar face?) – we ate at Giacomos (one of our favorites!) and then had cocktails after dinner at Anvil – their French 75s are scarily good
  • We ate at Carrabbas twice – this is pretty much the definition of a good week for me (Insalata Fiorucci, all day, every day)
  • Listening to Jamie Winship preach at Bayou City Fellowship, and then going to lunch afterwards at True Food Kitchen, where Isla ate her first muffin, scrambled egg and (yuck) turkey sausage – so far, she’ll scarf down anything except for beets!
  • Taking photos of a friend’s puppy for his first birthday! It sounds so ridiculous, but I loved it – dogs are easy models because they don’t worry about how they look! I cannot wait to share more photos soon
  • Meeting baby Kerr and taking newborn photos in the hospital – what a special project! I want to do this full time! You can see the photos here
  • Finishing the Russian visa application process, that involved about many hours of paperwork, passport photos, cashiers checks, as well as three visits to the application office! I am praying our trip is worth it!
  • Going to Isla’s first music class at Fundamentally Music – I think I had just as much fun as her, singing songs, dancing, blowing bubbles, shaking tambourines, etc. She starts swim lessons this week, and I’m so excited for those too!
  • Enjoying every ounce of sunshine between rain clouds by going on family runs and making visits to the park

What were the highlights of your week?

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