When Stephen and I felt the nudge from God to drop our nets and move to Nashville, we literally took a leap of faith and followed His calling.  We were uncertain of what the next chapter held for us, whether we would keep doing photography in a new city, or start exploring other dreams.

Currently… while, yes, we are still doing photography, two other dreams are unfolding that have nothing to do with photography.  One, is something new I’m launching on my own, and you have to wait until November 25 to find out what it is, and those on my mailing list (you can sign up at the end o this post!) will be the FIRST to hear the big news straight in your inbox!

The other… I can FINALLY reveal.  It’s been killing me keeping this secret the past few weeks but we required to keep everything off social media.  But I can finally reveal…. Stephen and I will be on ABC’s Nashville TONIGHT!!!!

But first… let me prep you by saying, it will probably be a blink and you’ll miss it moment, but nonetheless… it all kind of began like this.

So in the midst of unpacking, Stephen saw an opportunity online for how we could go and be extras on the show.  To take a break from unpacking, we decided to go do it for a day just for the heck of it. It’s one of our favorite TV shows to watch together, so if anything we thought it would be fun to go see behind the scenes of the show.

We arrive and next thing we know, one of the casting directors points to Stephen and says “Let’s use him! Come with us!”  Stephen, half confused, then found out he was chosen to be a bartender in a scene at the Bluebird Cafe.  And I got to be a bar patron sitting right in front of him as one of the main characters walks up. That was my cue to scoot off the stool and his cue to take her order.  We also got to cheer on someone special who plays at the Bluebird Cafe in tonight’s episode, but you’ll have to watch to see how that storyline unfolds.

Below, here’s Stephen and I backstage on Day 1.  I got a laugh out of when the wardrobe stylist said the first thing that had to go was Stephen’s faux hawk, so they made him rewet it and do the comb over country boy look.  The next thing they did was throw this flannel shirt on him, and they made me get rid of my sparkly gold heels and trade them in for some boots.  At least they let me keep my cheetah blouse… at… least.

After that experience, we had so much fun and met so many cool people, that we decided to go in for another day they were looking for extras.  We were scheduled for a 3-day shoot to play backstage VIP at a concert. Except the first day, I couldn’t participate because, as I was getting a pedicure one day, I look down at my phone and see a number from Beverly Hills calling.  I answer it to be asked to come in separately to audition for the director of the show to play a specific featured extra part…. ummmm… wait… back up… excuse me…. the director picked MY headshot to come in and audition?  I nearly fainted.

This was the day I auditioned, nervous as heck, but I can conquer anything with red lipstick:

And while I found out I didn’t get the part, just the thrill of being asked to audition in front of THE director of a hit TV show… yeah, bucket list item checked off!

The next two days, I joined Stephen as backstage VIP, and you might be able to see us standing right off the stage in next week’s episode!  While watching the CMA Awards last week, we saw this shot of Stephen in between the two stars of the show in their promo video of what’s coming up on Nashville!  We of course nearly fainted but jumped up and down when we saw this.  Such an exciting moment!  This was one of many takes of us that was shot of us backstage, so keep your eyes peeled for more, and hopefully in a little more focus!  I was told by the director that for one of the shots, where I pass by the character Rayna, they were starting the camera in focus on me and another guy I was walking with in the hallway… he then told me to act excited to be walking into this concert and to take a “selfie” as I walked up… I laughed and said ,”Well you’ve asked the right person!” #guilty #selfiequeen

Leave me a comment here on the blog and let me know if you see us tonight or next week!

Lastly, while Momma was in town, we took her to a benefit concert the cast was playing for a crew member fighting cancer, and that night we got to get a pic with the guy who plays Deacon on the show, Charles Esten (who goes by Chip!)  We weren’t allowed to grab pics with the stars on set, so we were excited to finally get to grab a photo with Chip, who was by far our favorite and kindest cast member we met.  Such a gracious and caring guy, even to the “extras”. And what’s crazy is, while he plays a dark and tortured soul on the show, in person, he’s actually super funny and lighthearted!

The coolest thing that resulted from all of this… Stephen and I were talking about our childhood dreams… and how I was super involved in the drama club and minored in Theater in college… and how he was once with an agent and pursued acting in California…. so we decided, you know what, what if we pursued getting an agent here in Nashville and see what happens?  If anything, it could be a fun side thing…. and a few weeks ago we were excited to get signed by one of Nashville’s best agents, Josh Robbins of BNA Talent Group, who was actually looking for a married couple to add to his roster…. and today in fact, we are on set filming our first acting gig in a national broadcast commercial!  Can’t reveal much details now, but more soon after it airs!

This whole acting thing is definitely the last thing I ever expected to get into again… but I guess it’s all part of this new chapter in a new city.  I continue to wait expectantly at each new door God continues to open and surprise me with…. and I can’t wait to reveal my NEXT big news to you on November 25 to all those exclusively on my mailing list!  Sign up below to be the first to find out what it is!!!

Hi friend!  I know I’ve been out of touch lately.  I’ve been kind of quiet here on the blog lately, but for a good reason.  Of course there was all the distractions of the move and trying to get our new home settled and figure out where all the modern day conveniences of grocery stores, Target and Lowes are.  But also…. also… as we now start from scratch in a brand new town, Stephen and I have been having a lot of long talks about what else we need to start from scratch on.  What’s working, what’s not working, what do we need to let go of, what new directions do we need to take.  Business wise, are we still passionate about what we are doing?  Or are there other dreams still stirring inside of us that we need to give birth to?

Then my Momma came into town to see our new home and our new surroundings… and even more long talks came out.  There’s nothing like a good talk with your Momma to get you to finally to admit some things you don’t like to admit to yourself.  Things like “I’m not happy doing this… I dream of doing that… I feel like there’s something more out there… I feel like it might be this…”  We stayed up late, solving all the worlds problems as we often joke, and did a lot of soul searching.

Just the week before I had been praying to God for clarity of “what’s next?”  It’s been this constant unsettled stirring in my heart this past year, and just feeling like there is something more… something in addition to photography… a constant battle trying to figure that out.  So then I had the late night talks with Momma… and while she always gives me a dose of courage to tackle that next big thing, I still wanted more confirmation that this was the next thing God and I were going to tackle together.

Then I kid you not… I tucked Momma in bed, went to my office to shut down my laptop, and sitting there was an email.  That very thing I had just been talking to momma about… someone I had never met before, yet a Facebook friend, emailed me randomly saying she could see me doing that very exact thing I had just been secretly talking to my Momma about.

I just looked up and said “Ok God… loud and clear… LOUD AND CLEAR… this is yours… give me the courage and strength to do it.”

So here I am…. taking those baby steps toward it.  My goal is to launch it and reveal it to you by Black Friday.  And I’m typing this to put it out there so I hold myself accountable to actually make it happen. I’m starting a mailing list for those who want to be the first to find out.  Sign up below to get all the scoop first!

Here’s me taking that risk and jumping…. Thanks for holding my hand!  Any guesses on what the next thing might be?  wink wink

Ok, so the weekend wasn’t all long talks with Momma.  We had to grab a few #OOTD shots too! Afterall, she is the one who always taught me it’s better to be overdressed than underdressed.  

It’s been just over a month since Stephen and I made the big move from Jacksonville to Nashville… and I’m still half in shock that we actually moved.

We’re currently sitting in a cool hip Nashville coffee shop I once sat in in 2007… when I was dating someone else.  Ok dating isn’t really the word to describe it.  Maybe, getting to know someone else.  Yeah, that sounds more accurate.  He was a soulful writer who attracted me with his way for words.  I took my words and wrote a blog entry about him and my experience in Nashville with him during that New Year’s Eve bringing in 2008 under the snow flurries… only to delete it a few weeks later when the breaking point for us was realizing, I was never going to move Nashville for him, and he wasn’t going to move to Jacksonville for me.

Now here I am… I moved to Nashville afterall… it’s definitely the last thing I ever expected.  And while the old guy I was getting to know no longer lives here, I can’t help but think how ironic it is that a main reason for our ending of getting to know each other was because I was set on staying in Jacksonville… only to… laughing at myself…. move to Nashville in 2013 after all… with another guy.  What’s that saying, when you make plans, God laughs?

I look back over my life and smirk at the little clues God drops along the way.  While I was content in the hometown I grew up in, I admit, back then on my visit to Nashville to see the guy I was getting to know, I loved the creative spirit of sitting in a rustic coffee shop with my laptop typing out my thoughts to the world.  Just this time, I’m sitting with a different guy.  Writing on a different blog.  But looking back, it was almost like a weird foreshadowing of what’s to come… only God had to rearrange a few of the leading characters in the romantic comedy of my life.  Ok, it’s hardly a comedy, but it’s definitely been full of different chapters that all lead me to my happily ever after that has led me to this moment… looking up from my screen to the guy now sitting in front of me who is looking down at his screen on the other side.

He glances up for a second and grabs a piece of his bacon, “You want a piece?”  he selflessly asks in that way he always thinks of me first.

I politely say no and think, “That’s why I married him, he’s so generous.”

And we both sip our coffee and continue on with our eyes back down on our side by side laptops typing in the midst of this average fall brisk day in Nashville.

As much a traveling is exhausting, I secretly love that moment when the flight attendant says “It’s now time to turn off all electronics.” Though a huge part of me flinches with an internal scream of being ripped from my lifeline that the Internet has become to our everyday world, a bigger part of me enjoys that moment in time when I am forced to detach my thoughts from what’s happening in the world for a few hours and put away my phone and email and simply….. be….. still. Because God knows, I don’t do it enough when I’m home. I know I should. He knows I should. That’s why He left that instruction in Psalm 46:10. That’s why He gave us a day of rest on Sundays. Yet, we find all these reasons to stay busy. To multitask. To be attached at the hip to instant communication through a magical brick we hold in our hands.

Yet the plane takes off and my mind is forced to be still and simply gaze at God’s majesty of what He created below me. In that still moment, it’s a reminder of how small my worries are compared to how big this world truly is. It’s a reminder in rising above the clouds that there’s something even more waiting for us beyond this lifetime even above the clouds. It’s a reminder to simply take a deep breath and treasure how much we undervalue a new day to take each breath.

So even though I hate early flights, I am thankful for the early morning flights that remind me to be still. And know that He is God. And just like the pilot of the plane, trust that He is in control of the path of my life.