the day to day | a day in the life
June 28, 2012 ...post 4 from "the day to day" series...
6:30am | Rise + shine!! Chris and I are up + out of bed at the same time in the morning. Right now Chris is on an earlier schedule because he’s working on site all summer. When he’s in the office our schedule shifts to getting up at 7:30am and bed by 1am. We’ve always been night owls!
6:30am – 7:30am | Get dressed-ish, let the dogs out, feed the dogs, make coffee, make my breakfast, make Chris’s breakfast, sit down to eat. I use the words “get dressed” loosely, as it usually means workout clothes, unless I need to leave the house. I know I’m going to work out later, so why dirty extra clothes? Chris used to be all about the PB + J when he was in the office. But now that he has to be on site first thing in the morning, he has to eat at home so there has been a little more variety… toast/eggs/cereal/smoothies/waffles
7:30am – 7:45am | Peruse a few blogs while eating.
7:45am – 9:00am | Work on answering emails and comments and checking in on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
9:00am – 12:00pm | This varies a bit but usually involves making a new recipe and then photographing it. This block of time may also might involve a trip to the grocery store and prepping a 2nd recipe to photograph later. Sometimes I’ll plan to make and photograph a recipe later in the day and will use this time to research photography, equipment, write emails, submit freelance work, etc.
12:00pm – 12:30pm | Make + eat lunch. Chris comes home for lunch now that he is working really close to our house. I LOVE that he comes home mid-day! Lunch is typically something pretty quick like a gigantic salad, avocado/strawberry/goat cheese sandwich, eggs + toast with a small salad, or dinner leftovers. Chris is currently a big fan of tuna melts and avocado toast.
12:30pm – 1:00pm | Round 2 of replying to emails. I try to respond to all emails in 0 – 72hrs. It’s not always possible, as some require quite a bit of time, but I try!
1:00pm – 4:30pm | This time slot also varies a bit. Some days I’ll photograph the morning’s recipe, make a 2nd recipe and photograph it, or make a 2nd/3rd/4th trial of a failed recipe. After finishing up taking photos for the day I import them all into Lightroom and weed out the bad photos. Many days this block is filled purely with photo editing, especially when I have a portrait photos to edit. A portrait session typically takes around 8-10 hours of my time to fully complete: import photos from the camera, weed out bad photos, edit remaining photos, work on artistic edits in Photoshop, export photos, burn CD’s, and write a blog post.
4:30pm – 8:00pm | Break! This is when I walk the dogs [30min each], workout for about 30min – 1hr, clean the kitchen, clean up the house [I clean a little each day!], make dinner, eat dinner, and sometimes watch a little TV. During the dog walks I make phone calls to my parents + friends. I also shower sometime in this block. I never used to be a clean-the-house-everyday type of person but it seriously keeps me sane. I can’t stand clutter when working at home and love having the house clean when Chris gets home from work. Then of course I dirty it again when I make our dinner. 
8:00pm – 11:00pm | Now I’m back on the computer for the rest of the night. At this time I’m editing photos, exporting them from LR and into a new blog post. From there I start writing the post and the recipe. I read through a few times, publish, then submit photos to Foodgawker + Tastespotting and Pin the post to my “Blog” board.
11:00pm – midnight | If there’s time I’ll take a little breather and watch TV or read before bed. We try to be in bed no later than midnight. Luckily I’m usually out cold within 5 minutes. I typically get about 6 hours of sleep and function surprisingly well with that, although 7-8 sounds lovely. Things to vary a bit each day but this is pretty typical. Once in awhile we head out for a quick dinner at La Luz or 415, or meet up with a few friends for a drink. About once a week Kelsey + Eric have us over for dinner + vice versa.
I am extremely fortunate to have such a flexible schedule but do end up putting in around 10-11hrs of work each day. Saturdays are my off day, unless I have a new recipe to photograph. I try to free myself from the computer as much as possible on the weekends. On Sundays I typically put in around 4-6 hours of work creating a recipe, photographing, editing, and blogging. My typical weekly average of time spent working is about 55-60hrs between the blog + my photography site. While there are many pros to working at home there are also many cons. I’ve been asked the question if this is my full time job and the answer is no, but sort of. I’ll answer this question, along with pros + cons of working at home in the next day to day post. While I don’t work in an office setting or have a boss, I definitely work harder than I ever have before doing something I love. My hope is that the blog will help me reach the next steps in my career.
More coming soon about the career I'm trying to create.
Ashley
life, etc. 
Reader Comments (19)
Ashley--> Yes! I use LR for the main editing and Photoshop to apply filters and actions. I typically only use PS for my portrait photos when I'm applying more artistic edits. My daily food photos are less edited. LR is really great for organization though!
This was my favorite day-to-day post by far, as I really have been interested in seeing a little glimpse of "a day in the life of a blogger" - I hope you don't mind that I call you that. You put a lot of work into your writing, recipes and photos and it shows. :) I can't wait to hear about the career you are creating for yourself. Maybe after all these posts you can give us a quick explanation of lightroom? I also want to know what it is and am starting to get into photography, I am shopping cameras (and saving) now.
Ashley--> Thank you, Sonya! I'm not sure I'll be giving any LR tutorials, as it is an extremely complex program that I am still trying to grasp myself. Maybe one day! :) Have fun camera shopping!
Ashley--> Hi Josephine! I have an external hard drive where I store my photos but I also have a mirroring hard drive set up on our network. I store all of the original files [not food..but for my people photography] there and then all of the edits once I'm done. I store my edited food photos there, but not all of the originals since there are so many and I know I won't need them once I edit the photos I like. Hope this helps!
Ashley--> And I love youuuuu!
Ashley--> Thanks, Megan! That means so much!
Ashley--> You're so welcome. Thanks for being interested! :) Best of luck to you as well!
Ashley--> It must have been all those years in college with only 4! haha
Ashley--> Thanks for your support, Christa!
Ashley--> Thank you!! I'm looking to you as inspiration!