Written by Candace on April 18, 2012 | 2 Comments

Dresser Full
of Words

I will never forget the epic bike ride. But it wasn’t just the adventure on wheels that made me fall in love with the Ace Hotel. They had a dresser full of written word and the writer in me fell in love at first sight. It was as if every message in a bottle ever thrown out to sea had been collected and stored in one secret treasure chest in Portland.

I will say that a lot of the pieces I read were dark and gray. I appreciated the people’s honesty, but decided I would leave a slice of sunshine behind. I wanted whoever read my little piece of scrap paper to walk away with a smile.

So Vitaliy and I sat down to write each other a love letter. Then we threw it in the sea of other notes. And I couldn’t help but wonder who might discover mine. There is something profound about putting your thoughts down on paper. A permanent profession of my love for Vitaliy. Written down in history, kind of like my wedding vows, never to be broken.

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Written by Candace on April 17, 2012 | 2 Comments

Love Note Journal

Sorry for the little hiatus. Vitaliy and I were feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to keep up with blogging in the midst of our vlogging challenge. We’ve officially made it half way through the challenge and are starting to feel a bit more grounded. For those of you tuning in on Facebook, what have you thought about the videos? We’re definitely considering adding videos to the blog and even have some ideas, but we’d love to hear your thoughts.

So this week, we are going to be talking all about love notes. I don’t know a man or woman that doesn’t love receiving a hand written note from someone they love. Before Vitaliy and I were married, we had a few turns at dating long-distance. They were trying times, but the letters in the mail sure made it all worth the heartache.

Now that we’re married, I will say that we no longer write novels to one another. But there is still something special about putting my thoughts and feelings down on paper for him to keep. Hopefully, by the end of this week you’ll have a few new ideas to get you started.

Today’s idea comes from former wedding clients, now turned close friends. Matt and Claire gave us all kinds of goodies for our five year anniversary, but there was one gift that stood out amongst the rest. It was just a notebook, but it had a very special purpose. Here’s how it works. I just love this idea!

It’s basically a collection of love notes from Vitaliy and I to each other. When one of us feels prompted to write the other, we take out the notebook, write our note, and then leave the book somewhere for the other person to be surprised when they find it. Then that person passes it back when they have something to share. It could be words of encouragement, words of love, or even words of apology. I can’t imagine getting to read through this notebook in later years. And what a gift it will be to our children and grand-children one day.

Thank you Matt and Claire for this ingenious idea! It has truly been a gift to us and now we hope it will be a gift to someone out there reading right now.

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Written by Candace on April 2, 2012 | 3 Comments

Vlog Challenge
Facing Your Fears

We have officially completed three months as Pictilio and I couldn’t be happier! Though I’m thankful for how far we’ve come, we wouldn’t be where we’re at today without the three years we spent as Prokopets Studio. As we began preparations for our current website, there was one wedding that stood out in our minds as a perfect reflection of the Pictilio brand. Callie and Brady were married on June 19, 2010. It’s so encouraging to see glimpses of Pictilio in our work even two years ago.

I’ve come to realize that it’s a fine line between being content with where you’re at today while constantly working towards evolving and refining your craft. So we’re trying to stroll through the process instead of sprint. I’d say that’s a good visual for me to hold on to, still moving forward while enjoying all the life around me.

We launched our new website back in January without a Home page. Some people might have recommended against it, but we went for it. We wanted to just “ship” as Seth Godin would say and refine as we go. That page is in the works and will hopefully be up in the coming weeks to help navigate new visitors to the site.

Sometimes refining can be difficult though. Even painful. Last Thursday night, we shot a video for our home page with Meyer Photography. It was an exciting yet extraordinarily humbling experience. Regardless of what transpires, I’m happiest to have faced my fears. Only good things will come from facing your fears. So you will all get to see that video soon as well.

But we didn’t want to stop there. Why not continue the torture, right? The day after shooting that video, we came across Tim King’s 30 Day Vlog Challenge. Vlogging, apparently, is blogging but through a video format. Wanting to incorporate more video into our brand, we have decided to take on the challenge. The videos will be in line with our current blog content only in video form rather than written word. You’ll get to hear my squeaky voice!

If you’d like to see out first video to the challenge, come join the fun on our Facebook page. We hope to bring you some great content over the next 30 days. If you’d like to join the challenge, you have until midnight PST tonight to take the plunge.

Cheers to facing your fears! One video at a time.

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