Wanted:

Graphic Designer. Photographer. Marketing/PR Rep.

Travel Agent. Organization Specialist. Personal Assistant. Blogger.

Studio Manager. Editor. Photography Industry Knowledge.

Ability to put up with me.

Simple enough right? Ha!
This “person(s)” is something I have needed for some time. I have a busy brain and endless amounts of things I am doing and want to do; it is a curse…honestly! I can’t don’t want to say no to the things I come up with, so I just keep adding more and more to my plate. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. I love EVERY single aspect of my business to pieces. Ok, ok…I lie. I loathe paper work…ugh…invoicing, book keeping, contracts….ick! But other than that, I enjoy it. I just can’t do it all anymore, something has to give, or I need to find help. Since I have serious issues with giving something up…it was time to bring someone in.

So how do I find this person? How do I take the job of 20 and mesh them into one perfect being?

Apparently, that person was under my nose the entire time…the stars just had to align and open the doors for both of us. That day finally happened and a  dream has come true.

During one of our late night, sleep deprived chats about The Creative Mama, our photography businesses, art, Savvy Workshop and the photography industry as a whole, Angie Warren made a little joke (one that she may regret one day) that maybe while she is evolving her business in the “new direction” she could work with someone like me (extremely desperate, over worked, and high maintenance). Immediately my mind raced…did she just say that? So I typed “don’t temp me”. We kidded around a little and both just went on our normal night of random chitter chatter. As it turns out that night we both laid in our own beds clear across the country from each other and thought a lot more about the possibilities. Me secretly wishing that any sort of job with me could possibly fullfil someone as talented as Angie. She was wondering if this is a good path for her, but all the while completely intrigued by the idea.

The next day came and I began buzzing in Jamie’s (hubby) ear about the idea! What if? OMG, it would be PERFECT! But there is no way. She has way too much of her own things going on…I walked away sulking and headed back to the reality of my work load. Then she wrote me…and wanted to talk about it more….eeeeek!

The rest is history, or possibly the beginning of an amazing journey and business relationship (we’ve got the friend thing down already).

So what do we call Angie? Me…Saint, Dream Come True, Life Saver, Perfect Fit…I could go on. But I knew I didn’t not want to call her an assistant, worker, employee, etc. She is more than that to me. The only word that we found that fit was Collaborator :). She is going to do a variety of things for/with me. She is behind a good deal of the marketing and design for my new workshop adventure, she handles postings if needed, I hope to have her organize me…cause she is awesome at it, and I suck royally. Right now we are taking it one step at a time to be sure she is happy (I am already giddy). It is a ginormous relief to be able to hand something off and not have to hand hold every step of the way, and know it is going to come back better than I expected.

I * heart * Angie!

Eventually she may handle more of my emails and things, we are not sure yet what all she will take on, but she will be a big part of my projects to come and  my business. So I want to introduce  her here, share her work (cause she has quite a vision), and put a face to her name!

I am sure that it is not news to anyone out there that the East Coast (and a good bit of the rest of the country) has been slammed with unprecedented amounts of snow this year. We normally see an average of 3 inches in my area, I think so far this winter we have had (my yard calculations) nearly 60″ of snow, possible more. Most of that from just 2 storms. This has caused my kiddos to be out of school for two whole weeks! Ask my 7 year old son and it is the best thing ever! Ask my 11 year old daughter and she was ready to go back after Day 1…she loves school and missed her friends. My little Dude is glad to have his big sis and big brother home with him everyday.

Although I adore my children and love playing with them, it has not always been easy the last two weeks. Some Bloggers and Facebookers have expressed their dislike of people getting frustrated with the snow, and frustration with their kids being home. They have cast judgment that everyone should be on “cloud nine” to be able to soak up their kiddos for an extra 2 weeks and frolic in the lovely white snow. That sounds super dreamy and in a perfect world I think would be the best thing ever, but not everyone has the luxury to do that. So, I want to just put it out there, why some (not just me, but others too) are having some difficulties dealing with this unexpected weather and impromptu vacation.

-It was unplanned. Some jobs don’t stop because of the snow. Some people can actually loose their jobs if they do not work (with or without children). My husband and I are two of the lucky ones that we can actually work from home, but we still have to work. And working 2 jobs that require us to log in more than full time hours with 3 kids running around can be less than ideal and will cause undo stress and frustration.

-Some don’t like snow. I personally love it…for a little while. I choose to live in VA because we get a bit of everything in all the seasons…it is wonderful to be able to experience that, but when one season gets outta hand I am ready for it to end!

-The kids bore of it after a few days. The snowmen get made, the forts are built, they have trucked up and down the hills 5 billions times, soaked their snow clothes a hundred times, and now just want to be able to ride a bike, or skateboard.

-Being stuck! We all do not own 4 wheel drive trucks, snow blowers or personal plows. Enough said.

Does any of this mean I have not enjoyed my kids being home at all? No! I cherish the fun things we have been able to do while they were home, and if I did not have to work I would have done even more with them. It does mean that it has not been easy. Does it make me a bad mom? Apparently to some. Expressing frustration that I can’t just drop everything I normally do for 2 weeks (unexpected) and go play with my kids is something some see as shameful. Our kids do grow up fast and we should soak them up while we have them…but we also need roofs over their heads, clothes on their bodies and food in their bellies. Finding the balance is the challenge (challenge being the key word). It is not easy, perfect, or ideal and some days we do get frustrated.

Now that I got that off my chest here is some of our winter fun…more to come.

This is the longest one but one of my favs:

Sunset Snow from marta locklear on Vimeo.

A quick peek at my Comedian!

More Pictures?? from marta locklear on Vimeo.

Ben and I worked for hours on this! The walls were over 3 ft high and 6-10 inches thick and still standing.

Fort Locklear from marta locklear on Vimeo.

Click on the video to see who won!

Helping Hearts Helping Haiti from marta locklear on Vimeo.

It happens suddenly. You step towards the mirror face still heat flushed from spending the last 15 minutes drying your hair. You brush, tweak, smooth and then BAM. WTF is that? Panicked, heart racing, you lunge forward towards the mirror wishing it had instant magnifying powers because surely what you think you just saw, was just a tiny figment of your imagination or brand new highlights from yesterday’s few minutes in the sun. Sadly, neither are the case…it is there…kinky, wiry, shiny and white. You have a gray hair.

The questions then start to flurry through your mind…When did this happen? Has anyone else seen it? Are there more? Do I pluck it? How many more are there? How old am I again? When did my mom go gray?

Just when you thought you could not freak out anymore, you lean further forward nose grazing the mirror and begin filtering through your hair like a Chimpanzee looking for fleas on his mate. Then you see them, a full army for sure…clustered in some areas, singularly mocking you in others. How did you miss this? Has all the years of highlights and dying really masked the truth from you?

You step back a moment, glance down at the sink basin, start to breath again and begin to analyze your life to figure out just when or what did this to you. You are clearly not old enough, it had to be the 3 kids, billions of hours worked, stress of running a business…and having a life. Maybe you could have slowed down a bit. The inevitable may have been delayed for a year or two. In all reality though, this day was going to come….eventually. You now stamp an “Old” label on your forehead.

This happened to me about a year ago. I decided to stop highlighting and dying my hair. It grows insanely fast, up to an inch a month and the upkeep was near impossible for me. So I went O’natural. After a couple of months the truth began to sit in and my Army of Gray was apparent. They were there and they were mocking me. I faced the fact that I would either have to go dying my hair monthly to keep them hidden or just embrace my new badges of age, life and wisdom (got to find some good in this). I chose to deal with them for as long as possible, hoping that I will be one of those lucky ladies that goes gray gracefully. Trust me I have almost caved a thousand times. Some months they taunt me…laughing at me as loud as possible, others I am just too busy to notice.

One day you may find me snuggled back up into a salon seat unleashing my battle against age, but today I sit here at just over a year since my last hair appointment challenging myself to love them for what they are. There is no promise that I can handle it as it gets more and more apparent. The days that I am not carded anymore I am sure are just around the corner and truth is, I just might not go gray gracefully.

So here is to the rest of the Silver Foxess’ (made that up) that embrace their gray and deflect the label of ‘Old’. Men have this one way too easy.