Williams Family Photoshoot

This year for Mother's Day we gifted both of our moms a family photoshoot. We planned for weekends when we could get everybody into town and really do it right and they both turned out awesome! We're still waiting on Derrick's mom's pictures to go through the final edits but I wanted to share some of the favorites from the Williams shoot!

 

This was the awkward one where Jay had to hold my arm. Obviously it went over well :)

We used Jagg Photography for both of the shoots and they were awesome! They did the wedding photography for two of our good friends and I enjoyed working with them then as a bridesmaid so I knew I'd like working with them for this. It's a husband and wife team, Jamie and Richie, and they are so easy to work with. I would highly recommend them if anyone is looking for any sort of photography! They make it easy, fun, and their shots are beautiful!

Marcey Louvre

I've been thinking about adding a gallery wall up our staircase for a while and when Derrick went to Seattle for a week I got bored and got to work! I was able to use only frames I already had. At first I tried to decide if it would look better if all the frames were the same color but I didn't have enough just dark or just white frames. Also, that's a little too perfect looking for me.

I have a ton of brown craft paper from Thanksgiving so I used a lot of that to make templates of all of the frames I had and tape them on the wall. That way I could figure out placement without putting a lot of unnecessary holes in the wall.

Then it was just as simple as placing the pictures in their right place! I used some nails, a few anchors, but mostly command strips since a lot of the frames are light weight and sometimes we throw Crosby's ball down the stairs :)

I'm thrilled with how it turned out. It's fun and quirky. We have very few photos around the house...not because we don't want them up, but we just really haven't gotten that far in decorating, so I'm glad to have this wall with some personal photos.

This is one of my favorite parts. I had this old piece of scrap wood and we got our free USA Ultimate sticker in the mail (we get one every year) so I just stuck the sticker to the wall and whallah! Instant personal art.

I still have some changes to make. All of the frames have exactly what they had in them already so I need to switch out some pictures. For instance, this 3-frame has a picture of our friend Blue and her dog and a note she wrote to us. It was part of a shower gift and her way of gifting us the frame and it's hilarious. Unfortunately, we'll probably end up switching out the picture for family photos but I think it's hilarious she's on our wall right now.

I'm very happy with how it turned out! Hope you like it!

30 under 30

I realized I never announced my exciting work news that I alluded to two months ago and I really should because it's very exciting and a huge honor.

Earlier this year my broker in charge (BIC) started asking me a bunch of elusive questions and he told me he couldn't tell me what it was for. He asked about my mom and my business and my client experiences among other things. Then, randomly, I got an email telling me I'd been nominated for one of Coldwell Banker's 30 under 30 and they needed proof of my age.

What??? Is this real? Nominated for 30 under 30?? Needless to say I was completely floored and flattered.

Well....just a week later I got an email "from" the CEO of Coldwell Banker International congratulating me on my selection as one of Coldwell Banker's inaugural 30 under 30 real estate agents.

WHAT???!!!!???

At first I looked at the email and didn't really know what I was looking at. I got the email in the car on the way to brunch with Jack and Jay. Then I said it out loud to them and they both freaked out which made me realize what a big deal it was. And then I had more time to think about it and continually become stunned, honored, and humbled over and over and over and over again.

This is the first year that CB has given this award so no one really knows what it will entail but one of the perks is a free registration at the huge Coldwell Banker conference in Chicago in September and and entry into the elite invite only portion of the event. I think there will also be a recognition breakfast at the conference.

My firm made a nice announcement here: http://blog.hpw.com/2015/07/13/hpw-happenings-coldwell-banker-30-under-30-list-spotlights-laurie-marcey/ which made it sink in even more.

I want to say thank you to everybody! This is an incredible honor to be chosen and I have so many people to thank. Derrick for believing in me enough to support me quitting my job 3 years ago and devote full time to RE. My family (immediate and in-law) for the encouragement and support along the way. My Mom for blazing the RE path and always being there for advice or to hear me out and really be able to empathize. My amazing friends and the entire triangle frisbee community who have rallied behind me and gotten my business to where it is today, and my awesome clients who  I have genuinely enjoyed working with and learned so much from. I also can't forget the office management staff, mentors, and colleagues that have helped me along the way!

This is a true honor!

Last Days in London

Can you believe I'm finally wrapping up our vacation? It only took forever! Before we begin our next journey I needed to make sure I shared this gem.

Ok, moving on. After the tournament ended Derrick and stayed in England for a few more days to sight see and make the most of our time across the pond. I had been to London before but Derrick had not so we wanted to make sure he got to see the city while we were so close. It was still super fun for me too because Derrick is an all star trip planner and planned all of these fun activities that I had never done before!

This was our first view after we got off the train.

Our hotel was steps from the tower of London so right when we got there we dropped our bags off and headed over to explore the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

Pro Tip: Get to the Tower of London right at opening time and immediately get in line for the crown jewels. This happy accident saved Derrick and I about an hour of line standing!

I felt like we spend a lot of time at Tower Bridge. We walked over it a few times and drove over it twice.

These were new since the last time I'd been there. The Tower used to have a ton of live animals that had been gifted throughout the years so they had these cool wire sculptures throughout the grounds.

We grabbed lunch from a street vendor under the bridge and then walked across it. Sausages and mash!!!

One of the fun things Derrick found for us to do was an escape room. They are very popular in London and steadily coming to the states. After a frustrating time finding the location we finally got started and escaped the room with 5 minutes to spare!

We stayed one night near the Tower of London and then we spent the next night next to Russel Square at hotel Russel. It was a great hotel with fantastic service! I would definitely recommend it.

The Hotel Russel was only a couple blocks from the British Museum so that's where we started the day on day two. It's huge and amazing! We did a self guided highlights tour and it still took us a good 2-3 hours.

These two were my favorite things we saw in the museum. They are so cute and I would love to have them in our house!

I took this picture for my Mom...first version of a violin.

To end day two we took the metro around to some of the big sights including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham palace and the Natural History Museum.

As we were walking to the palace we stopped and listened to a national band practicing outside.

That night Derrick scheduled us for a Jack the Ripper tour. The tour took us walking around to sights and scenes of all the Jack the Ripper murders and important places in the victim's lives. The tour was not quite what we expected it to be....we pictured a little more dramatic flair, but it was interesting. I'm not sure if I buy the royal conspiracy theory though.

Finally, on our last day there Derrick found us a text message scavenger hunt around the city. It was super cool and a fun way to see a new part of the city that we hadn't seen before! Again, we had a frustrating start to the hunt because of cell phone issues but once we got it sorted out it was one of the highlights of the trip!

Solved the first clue!

And 14 clues an 2 baguettes later we finished!

We took a double decker bus back to our hotel before catching a ride to the airport.

Told you....that bridge was everywhere!

Loved this view of the sunset and the clouds!

Overall this was a trip of a lifetime! It was an amazing time to spend with family. Jack's team won the gold, and Derrick and I got our first European trip together under our belt! Can't wait for our next adventure!