My top favorite things : Jackson Michigan Photographer : Mid Michigan Photographer

This month marks the sixth year anniversary of Nikki Vaive Photography! This is an exciting time for me and my business as it continues to grow and evolve. I absolutely LOVE my job and celebrating this six year mile marker is huge for me! All month I am wanting share more about me and about the business and today I wanted to share my top favorite things. I hope the blogs for this month of October allow you to get to know me better!

It can be hard to pinpoint all the favorite things a person likes. I like a lot of different things! I am going to attempt to try to write down all the things that

I know I adore on a daily basis. Here it goes....

I love Golden Retrievers! We have a golden retriever named Zeke. He is pictured here. Goldens are such a wonderful breed of dog. I love him a ton! Goldens are just great and so cute! If you book with me though our Zeke stays in one of our bedrooms during your appointment because he is so friendly and pretty hairy plus he would probably clobber all over you! Not everyone is in love with that!

I love Pinterest and pinning ideas. I love getting a visual for decorating ideas and DIY projects on Pinterest and making them my own. I also adore Pinterest for finding new recipes for meal prep, pinning to my business Pinterest boards to help clients get a visual of what we can create together and pinning fashion ideas is so much fun!

I love reading informational and insightful books, learning more about health and wellness and about business is something you find me doing quite often.

I enjoy watching YouTube with my hubby. We have kinda made this a new ritual in our house although he tends to select what we watch the majority of the time! You can learn just about anything on YouTube and you always find something amusing to watch that's for sure! Even Nikki Vaive Photography is on YouTube although it's not something I put much time into. I occasionally post business videos there.

My favorite shopping places are Target, TJ Maxx, Homegoods and Kohls.

I also love to stop at Kirkland's (that place smells amazing) and The Hobby Lobby when we are in a town that has one.

My favorite places to eat are Qdoba. The veggie burrito bowl is the bomb! I get it now every time. Extra guacamole, please! Panera Bread is great for a salad or soup. The baguette is a welcome accompaniment! I guess those are my top favorite places. As I have been slowly leaning towards more plant strong meals these have been my top places that offer tasty vegetable options. Occasionally a veggie calzone from Klavon's with their ranch dressing on the side is pretty sweet and macaroni and cheese from Cracker Barrel is pretty delectable.

Favorite foods and treats to eat for me would be spinach pie, I could literally eat it everyday, corn chowder has became a new favorite, roasted red pepper spread with some awesome bread is amazing, burnt marshmallows from the bonfire,

chocolate chip cookies just out the oven are the best, avocados have become an

absolute favorite thing for me, I like them especially with salmon and probably

fish tacos.

I used to always drink coffee with LOTS and LOTS of coffee creamer so much that it looked like coffee creamer with a splash of coffee! Ha! I have now eliminated most of the dairy out my diet so I don't go out for much coffee anymore like I used to so while I used to love Starbucks for coffee I don't frequent there as much anymore. I do still love some flavored coffee at home with a bit of stevia sweetener. My new favorite drink now is actually fresh squeezed carrot & apple juice. It is really so so good!

I love visiting Chicago. With it only being about three hours away it's a quick and fun retreat to a big city close to home! I love walking the Magnificent Mile and

shopping! It's fun just to soak in all the people and energy that Chicago has. We always love to go the Cheesecake Factory when we go. I love their Korean Cauliflower Appetizer. It's enough for a meal and you'll swear it tastes like chicken! Here I am with my boy in front of The Bean from this past summer.

I love making lists and staying organized. I know, that probably grosses some of you out! I have always liked writing down goals, things that need to be accomplished and having a visual of where I am going in life. Being organized is part of my OCD. I don't have obsessive compulsive disorder?! I'm just kidding. I do love everything being in it's right place and I absolutely HATE clutter and things lying around that I don't need. That grosses me out and really bugs me!

I love lifting weights and strength training. I have a love, hate relationship with

cardio though. I do cardio because I am on a quest to lose weight and am working towards my target weight and because it is beneficial for cardiovascular health but I wouldn't say I love that aspect of working out. The feeling after cardio over is really the best part, it's the actual doing cardio that is a struggle. I LOVE the weight lifting part. I like that feeling of knowing you worked out your muscles the next day after a workout along with the ability to sculpt your body in a way you cannot with just cardio exercise.

Of course, my family is one of my favorites most of the time when they aren't driving me crazy. You know what I mean. We all love our spouse and kids to death but they can really drive you crazy sometimes! Am I right? I wouldn't give them up for the world though. The are truly my life!

Lastly, photography is one of my favorites, for sure! If I didn't remotely like photography and photographing people I wouldn't be a photographer!

Okay, I think that pretty much wraps up my top favorite things. I hope this blog helps to shed some light a bit on who I am as a person and not just a photographer. Thanks so much for taking the time to learn more about me!