2017 Year in Review

The Kivii Life

The Kivii Life was pretty spectacular in 2017. We went to Disney more times than I’m going to list (our happy place!), drank plenty of good beer, and photographed lots of wonderful people. Check out the 2017 Year in Review-Couples Edition for some of that goodness. Here are some of the highlights from when we weren’t hanging out with our “real” cameras, hence the iphone camera aspect ratios 😀

In addition to a great year of photos, 2017 was GREAT for our house when it came to sports. John got a Clemson football championship in January (ssshhhh Alabama fans, we’re still ignoring the 2018 post-season), and I got a Tar Heel basketball championship in April! It’s a rebuilding year now for Carolina, so I’m okay* with how terribly this season seems to be going. (*okay actually means I’m a teeny bit quieter with my cussing).

In April, I went to an AMAZING workshop put on by literal angel Kayla Coleman. It was the greatest group of photographers and I had the greatest time. I’ve shared a bunch of the images on instagram and some on facebook, but I am going to actually blog the workshop one day soon! Here we are being awesome (image by Kayla Coleman).John and I ran our third half marathon at Disney. It was a Star Wars themed race, which could not be any more perfect for us. I made custom Force Awakens shirts to wear 😀During our race trip, I also met Joe Rohde who is a household name in Disney circles. He’s one of the best known imagineers and was the brains behind much of Animal Kingdom, including the incredible new Pandora section. Yes, the movie is terrible, but the theming and rides at Animal Kingdom are amazing – read John’s review over on RopeDrop.net.In May, around the time we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary, John and I enjoyed Free Comic Book Day, and I documented it for our local comic shop:We visited John’s sister in Birmingham and went to visit Sloss Furnaces which was insanely cool. Sometime in the middle of the year, a friend of mine with middle schoolers told me about fidget spinners and, well…

On a trip up to New England, we got to meet up with some guys who have been podcasts/internet friends for a while, but we’d only ever met Dutch in real life. Here’s John and I with Russ, Dutch, and Kip, otherwise known as the Mighty Men of Mouse.

Other random tidbits:

• We discovered an awesome craft beer delivery service. YAY!!
• And then they stopped delivering to residences. Boo!!!
• We launched the new website!!
• Although my standing desk was a *2016* Christmas gift, it arrived and I set it up in 2017. I’ve been using it for a year now and I love it! I still sit some (especially on Mondays when I’ve had a wedding or long run the day before), but I try to stand as much as I can. If you’re interested in moving to a standing desk, I highly recommend the Jarvis desk from Fully. The Wirecutter ranks it as the best!
• We finally got a Harris Teeter in our neighborhood, and it has a bar. What?!? They don’t let you walk around and do your shopping while drinking a beer though.
• I celebrated my 30th birthday in Asheville. John celebrated his 37th at Disney. 
• John is still killing it at his main job. He was named a Rising Star in the Intellectual Property Law field. 
• For me, being 100% self-employed has been excellent. It’s definitely a little scary, but 2017 was my first full year without juggling a law job with the business and I’m getting the hang of it. I’m developing my systems and getting organized, especially now that the incredibly busy fall wedding season has been completely delivered. I’ve also been able to take advantage of working from home this past year. When I was still practicing law in addition to running the photography business, I had zero free time. If I wasn’t shooting, I was pretty much chained to either the law office/courthouse or my editing computer. Now, when I need a break or change of pace – and we all need breaks from time to time – I can go for a walk around the neighborhood, or I can work from one of the amazing local coffee shops. 

A bunch of other stuff happened in 2017, but these were my highlights and even though January 2018 is coming to a close, I wish you all a spectacular New Year!

– E