This is a 10 mile run that starts at Temple University, then you run through Center City and end at the stadiums in South Philly.  I know I’m capable of doing the run, because I used to run cross country in high school, but I’m SO embarassingly out of shape right now.  I’ve been going to the gym at 6am a few days a week for the past 3 weeks, and MAN, all of the sudden I am DRAGGING and it is such a struggle to just run 25 minutes!  I’m hoping it’s just a bad week – does anyone else just have weeks where you can’t get going and working out is a huge struggle?

I have to keep the training schedule plastered right next to my computer to keep myself going:)

And here are all of the PSU girls that are doing the run – thank god you are all doing it with me, because knowing you’re all working out keeps me motivated to get up at 6am to run!

I’m excited to do the run because it will be awesome to do it with all of these girls, but I’ll be honest, I’m not looking forward to it.  When it’s a struggle to run 25 minutes, I keep wondering how I’ll get up to 10 miles!  Hopefully next week is a better work out week…

I went back and forth between two places….there was the Fuel House (the house they had the Real World in when it was in Philly)….which is an amazing, contemporary location for your wedding – and there was the Top of the Tower, which was right in Center City, and had STUNNING views.  Ultimately I went with the Top of the Tower, because the views sold me – as soon as I stepped off of the elevator and saw the views through the floor to ceiling windows, my jaw dropped and I was sold….I just knew THAT was where I wanted to get married to my best friend.  I feel like this city is so much a part of us as a couple, that I can’t think of a better place to have our wedding:)

So here is a picture of the city sky-line, the brown-ish building on the left is where we’re getting married, on the top floor:)   And the little white building on the right is where I used to live when I was in the city – looking at this picture makes me TOTALLY miss living in the city….it was so much fun living there.   Jay and I already decided that when we retire we’re just going to buy a condo in the city and live the city life again:)

As if you can’t tell, this picture was taken WEEKS ago, because now all of Philly is covered with ugly brown snow.  I’m SO sick of all the snow we’ve been getting, and how gross and grey it looks outside….I can’t wait to see green grass and blue skies again!

Check out the amazing-ness that is Rachel:

Your boudoir shots are then packaged in this discrete little album, from the fabulous Leather Craftsmen:

I am in love with the quality of these albums – I love the thickness of each page:

These are flushmount, hingeless albums, which allows each page to lay flat:

And of course, the only boudoir pictures that appear on my blog are approved by my clients first:)

And now it’s time to brace myself for the next snow storm…..is anyone else totally OVER snow at this point in winter?  Can it be spring already, or what?

My Valentine’s Day morning started off in a GREAT way – I shot my first engagement session of 2010 in Center City!  We met up at the Art Museum (the Rocky steps for all you non-Philadelphians out there) and hung out there for as long as we could last in the windy, cold weather.  I should have taken pictures of people sledding down the stairs on random pieces of cardboard while we were taking these pictures….just keepin’ it classy Philly:)

Anyway, on to the pictures!  I think BOTH Jenna and Ryan have the most amazing smiles ever  – don’t you agree?

Love this city:)

Hot couple.  That’s all I have to say about that:)

And I’ll wrap it up with my favorite image of the day:

Thanks Jenna and Ryan – I had so much fun spending Valentine’s Day morning with you – can’t wait for the wedding in July!

While you check it out, make sure to follow me!

Love, Tina

The morning started off with a lot of snow (so bad we couldn’t get out of our driveway), but little did I know that was nothing yet:

Check out the mondo icicle outside our bathroom window:

In the afternoon it started getting a little worse:

Then by dusk it looked like nothing I have ever seen:

Here is what it looks like from my front door:

Looking down my sidewalk – it looks like the sidewalks are shoveled, with just a dusting of snow, but the snow on the sidewalks is up to my knees at this point, and the mounds of snow are almost as tall as me (and I’m no shorty):

I do have to admit, it looks pretty with all the snow:

Jay and our neighboor shoveling out our driveway:

Looking left down my street (keep in mind this road was plowed about 5 times already):

Looking right down our street:

And one more shot from our front porch:

This past Saturday we got 23 inches, and today I think we’re up to 12-18 inches already.  UGH!  Jay and I are going to attempt to take a walk and check out the area – I think we’re both getting cabin fever and just have to get out for a while.  I’m just happy we still have power!  Hopefully everyone is surviving the storm ok!

1.     I was SO excited Jay got me a Flip video camera!  We agreed to not do any gifts this year for anything since we’re saving for our wedding, but he surprised me with this Birthday/Valentine’s Day gift…..I just got it in the mail today and I can’t WAIT to use it!  I see some “vlog” posts in my future:

2.      My mom got me the 1st season of Mad Men – I had heard SO many good things about this show, but hadn’t ever seen it.  Well, Jay and I are now officially hooked.  We’ve watched at least 1 episode every night, and we’re almost done with the first season already!  I might have to buy season 2 ASAP.  I keep wondering if that’s really how wives acted toward their husbands 50 years ago.  Whenever Betty Draper says “whatever you think is best dear” to Don Draper, Jay looks at me and says he wants me to start responding like that to him.  Ohhhh wouldn’t that be the day…..sorry Jay, not gonna happen:)

3.      The Herstyler.  Oddly enough, I was first introduced to this gem when I attended the MJ 2 Day workshop in Arizona back in May 2009…..one of the attendees raved about this straightener, that can also double as a curling iron of sorts.  I said I didn’t believe it because my hair is stick straight, and curls NEVER stay in my hair.  Ever.  I always wished they did, because I am in LOVE with curly hair, but I’ve just realized that my hair can’t be curled (despite my attempts by getting a perm my senior year in high school – not a time I like to remember).  Well she whipped out her Herstyler, curled a section of my hair, and I was astonished.  It curled my hair.  And I needed it.  ASAP.  I always kept it in the back of my mind, but hadn’t bought it for myself – so I was SUPER excited that my dad got me one for my birthday……check out my curls!  Trust me….if you have stick straight hair, you need to buy this thing:)  What do we think of the new curly look??

4.      A Vera Bradley overnight bag.  So for this gift I was too lazy to take a picture, so you’re going to have to deal with a screen shot:)  I’ve needed a new overnight bag for a LONG time now.  I don’t know why I never just bought myself one, but for whatever reason, I didn’t.  So now I’m thrilled to give up the ghetto-ness that is my overnight bag, to use this fun bag:)  The pattern is called Raspberry Fizz….I’ll admit, the name makes me love the bag even more:)

Well, those were the presents that helped me officially enter into my late 20’s.  Late 20’s.  I kinda can’t believe it.  I’ll admit, sometimes I still feel like I’m 15 inside:)  Oh well, now I’m 26, and it’s time to do big things.  With awesome curls:)

I am in LOVE with my new business cards:)

It feels so refreshing to have all of these updated supplies now!  What do you guys think?  Anyone else as dorky as me and LOVE this stuff?

Mary and Sarah had my absolute FAVORITE cake delivered to me from a local bakery!  I almost didn’t even take a picture because all I want to do is dive right into it…..so that’s what I’m off to do!  Thanks again everyone!

So that’s just what I did last night.  Is my laundry basket spilling over with 5 loads of laundry that need to be washed?  Yep.  Is my sink full of dishes I haven’t gotten around to washing?  Yep.  Is my diswasher full so even if I WANTED to do my dishes, I’d have no where to put them?  Yep.  But instead of crossing more things off of my to-do list last night, I went out to dinner with my friends Sarah and Mary.  And as we sat there for a 2 hour long dinner, drinking wine, talking about life, work and guys, I realized how lucky I am.  I’m ashamed to say I sometimes forget that.  So thanks Sarah and Mary, for making me remember how lucky I am (even though you probably didn’t even realize you were doing that!) – our dinner last night made me realize how lucky I am to have such amazing friends….life long friends that I love more than anything:)  So here’s to not forgetting that, and taking a step back to enjoy life.  Even if Jay did run out of clean shirts:)

Here is a picture of Sarah and I probably from back in 2007 with an old point and shoot HAH:

And MARY – I realized we have NO pictures together!  And we have NO pictures with just the three of us!  That will have to be corrected next time we get together:)  Love you girls!

**EDITED TO ADD:  Mary was able to find a picture of the three of us!  Woohoo!