Our life, our way

whoohoo!!!

Since engagement over a year ago, I started thinking about whether I was going to change my name. With a decision made, I went domain hunting. My top three choices were all taken. I finally settled on www.kimlmacleod.com

But I own www.luongfamily.com so I also wanted one for my new last name. I coughed up the whooping $18.99 for GoDaddy backorder. The domain was registered at Network Solutions. It went through redemption to pending deletion. I was reading that GoDaddy is really bad and barely ever captures a domain other other domain snatchers….Crap, there goes my money.

To my surprise, a week ago I got an email that the registration was transferred to GoDaddy! I was so happy! I patiently waited for it to be added to account. Instead I got an email that it was now in GoDaddy auctions. WTF. So they bought the domain so that I would have to bid against others?

I later found out they allow more than one back order. So others wanting that domain could have paid GoDaddy too. *sigh* Today was the end of that auction. I waited till 10 minutes to end and sure enough someone bid. I waited till 50 seconds and placed my bid.

We are now the happy owners of www.macleodfamily.com

Now we can have our own subdomains and email addresses.

kim @ macleodfamily.com! yay!

So I’ve toyed with the idea for some time now that I want to own my own business. This past year I’ve done a good bit of freelance. Well, its a good bit for me since I don’ t do any some years. I wanted to dump that money into the family fund to help Brian and I reach our goals sooner.

He, however, wants me to keep all that in a separate account. Our regular salaries go together for family expenses. This separate account is for the potential new business for me. I just want to do all I can for this family because family is number one. And I am so blessed that though the extra money will help, Brian has pushed me in that direction. There’s a little bit of money there and this weekend we went and purchased my first “business expense”…. the laptop I’ve always wanted. Apple never has a sale on their products but they do clearance models out when new ones arrive. If my husband wasn’t selfless, I wouldn’t have been able to jump on the deal.

Just a few more steps and business will be open. Love you Brian!

To dos…..

• incorporate
• find more clients
• build my website …only have a place holder now (http://www.forallthingsdesign.com/)
• find the right CPA

So in searching for a wedding photographer, we also considered who could create us a nice photobook. The one we fell in love with was produced by GraphiStudios. Its edge to edge printing and pages lay flat. We ended up with just a basic package that did not include a photobook. We could also have them do one later.

Since then I decided I should create my own photobook and go through the vendor. Zookbinders and GraphiStudio were my top choices. I would still be paying a pretty large sum of money. Then I found www.adoramapix.com. They were much cheaper so I was a bit weary. So using my engagement pics, I made an 8×8 14 page photobook. The tools online were very easy to use and I didn’t have to use a template. Which is really nice since I like to design my own layouts. Order was placed on May 31st and then I patiently waited.

The book finally arrived in the mail yesterday. First impression taking it out was that the cover looked good. I inspected the spine and all was good. Really nice hard cover. Okay, now the really test. Does it really lay flat and all the pages of good quality? YES!!!

I love it. I’m definitely going to be using this to create my wedding photobook. A great book at an affordable price.