On Thursday, I took the day off work to run some errands and clean my place. Well needed and I enjoyed having that free day to get things done. Amanda got in around 10:30 and we stopped at a bar where some of the volleyball people were having a few drinks before we went home.
Friday we had a jam-packed day. In the morning, we got up and went to get mani/pedis. Then, we had just enough time to stop at home and change before we went over to Goose Island for our VIP brewery tour.
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Brooke hooked us up with the Regional Sales Director who gave us an in depth tour of the place and LOTS of background information. We were able to taste a few new brews that they are working on and then walked across the street to bourbon barrel storage area. If you don't know, Goose Island was the first to release in the US a bourbon barrel aged ale/stout. It was amazing to see and it smelled like bourbon in that room!
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Then, we ran into the master brewer who invited us to join them in their tasting panel. They were tasting a few of their regular brews and then a tasting of a new batch of one of Brooke's favorites, Fleur.
It really was a unique experience to get to see that (though I felt extremely out of my element).
Of course, we ended up staying there much longer than anticipated, so we barely had time to run home so I could shower and let Samson out before we headed to our photo shoot.
The photo shoot was an absolute blast! Right away when we arrived, we were the only people there. They told us to throw on a robe so we could get out hair and makeup done and then could browse though the outfits. I managed to snag one picture of the hair and makeup while I was in the dressing room.
Nothing like a few victory rolls to get you into the spirit.
It was much more difficult to pick out outfits than I expected. I was thankful to have Brooke there to help make suggestions. I found my first outfit, a retro style bikini, right away, but finding outfit #2 and then the outfit that Amanda and I would do together was much more difficult. It was important to me that if I was doing pinup photos, that I was going to try to go as authentic as I could. Those of you that know me would not be surprised by that last statement.
Finally, after trying on a ton of stuff and plenty of hemming and hawing, I figured out my last two outfits and a flurry of posing later, we were all done. Heather, the owner and photographer, was absolutely amazing. She was super supportive (for a girl who does NOT like to be in front of the camera) and made all the difference with posing help. She knew all the classic pin up poses and made prop suggestions. If it wasn't weird, I might consider moving directly into their studio.
After we got changed, all three of us sat down with Heather to select all the photos we wanted to be included in our online viewing website. This meant getting rid of all the ones where you are mid blink or look almost exactly like another one. I appreciate this process to weed out all the weird ones right away. It also gave us a nice preview. We had to remember to keep in mind that there would still be some touch ups to the final pictures, but we had some really good laughs and some excellent photos. I should get an email with the link to review my pictures sometime this week and then I have 30 days to decide if/what I might want to purchase.
Amanda and I were joking around all weekend that it was TORTURE to have to wait because we just wanted to look at the photos. It led to some funny stories with the three of us all weekend.
After the photos, we stopped for dinner around the corner and then after a quick change, headed out to a bar on Division for a little fun. I called it an earlier night heading home at 2am and Brooke and Amanda stayed out for one (or two) more drinks after that.
On Saturday, we made a quick trip to a few boutiques for Amanda and then got ready for my holiday party. I had a great turn out and I think everyone had a blast. Well, everyone except Samson maybe...
The last group of people left around 12:15ish, so it was a relatively early night.
On Sunday, Amanda and I decided to take advantage of my Art Institute membership and walk around a bit. I really enjoyed that because it's been a while since I had been there. I managed to take one photo in the Thorne Miniature room (probably my favorite exhibit). I find it fascinating how exact they are and how you can see the progression through time. This was one of my favorite rooms.
I believe it's a French entry hall... or maybe English. I should've paid more attention. :)
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