Happy weekend everyone!!

In an effort to complete #3 on my 101 in 1001 list, I have decided to introduce a new category to my blog: MJ's Faves. It's not a new idea by any means -- I've seen lots of bloggers do this -- but I wanted to open up and share some of the things I love and am completely smitten with on more of a regular basis. So here goes! The first installment of MJ's Faves!!

#1 -- Promise Tangeman
(photos by Ashley Bugg)

This girl is adorable and I would totally marry her IF she wasn't married to her cute hubby Brian AND if I liked girls that way. Promise is a local artist/graphic designer/photographer who I have gotten to know over the last couple months. When I first saw her website before meeting her personally I thought she would be totally intimidating. I mean -- have you seen her website and blog? She's an explosion of style and creativity!! But I've gotten to hang out with her and she's totally kind, humble and grounded. On top of all this she loves Jesus and totally lives for Him. I love finding Christians who are unbelievably good at what they do and use it for His glory! If you're looking for inspiration definitely check out Promise's work! And check back here next week because if all goes as planned, Promise & Brian will be modeling for the upcoming MJ 2 Day!!! Can't wait to point my camera at them.


#2 -- iCal

This is a screen shot of my iCal for this month:
I LOVE schedules, to do lists and anything that has to do with being organized. I kind of have a little of Monica from "FRIENDS" in me. And iCal feeds my disease. If you don't have a great calendar system, or you're not using iCal to it's fullest -- YOU SHOULD. I have 12 categories (on left) that are all color coded so that I can easily differentiate between scheduled items. And I love the To Do list function (on right) that helps my office assistant and I keep track of our separate tasks and even rank the priority of those tasks. Anytime I need Stacey to do something, I put it on the TO DO list in blue and mark it's priority between a 1-3 so that way when she comes in, she can see at a glance which tasks she should do in which order. She can also pass things off to me when it's my turn to work on them. It's pure organization bliss.


#3 -- The Container Store

This week I drove 27 miles to visit a little piece of Heaven on earth -- The Container Store. I usually shop online for most everything business-related but I decided to make the trek so I could touch all the goodness myself. This divine store feeds my love for organization as well AND it's just so pretty!

I ended up buying the store out of these great wire mesh containers that I use to display my brochures:
My brochures were recently redesigned by my graphic designer, Sarah, so we're in full bow-tying mode at Melissa Jill Photography. Actually, I just pay my sis to tie them while she watches TV :). The reason we get so many of these great little containers is that we send one out after every wedding to the venue that we worked at along with a 7x7 book with my favorite images from the day that really show off their location. It makes it easy for the venue to share my work because they can just set the container on the table with all their photo books.

I also placed an order for a bunch of these flat files in red:
These are going to be perfect for our "new client kit" that is currently in production!


#4 -- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet
This is one of the books I finished reading this last month that I absolutely loved. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars on goodreads.com. It is a historical fiction novel set during WWII in Seattle's International District. It focuses on the forced evacuation to internment camps of the Japanese people during that time -- and specifically on a friendship between a young Japanese American girl and Chinese American boy. So well written and just a delight to read.


#5 -- Amy Butler's Bucharest Bedding

I'm looking into possibly getting some new bedding for my bedroom and came across this yumminess:
Amy Butler's site is where I found my new rug and I just love her style. I love bedding with texture that looks comfy so I'm thinking this looks like a good fit. If you know of any other sources of bedding you love, definitely let me know!

That does it for the first installment of MJ's Faves! Let me know your thoughts and please feel free to share some of your favorite finds in the comments as well!
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