november 30, 2008 - photo of the day

november 29, 2008 - photo of the day

a great day for a great feature!

i've been working with one of the editors over at cool mom picks for awhile now; sending her samples, running her though the process of placing an order over at fin+roe, all in hopes of a great feature for my holiday line. i've been anxiously checking their site multiple times every day to see if my feature was live yet. well, this morning i awoke to my feature! it was so well written and exactly what i would have wanted her to focus on, had i a choice. and of all days, what great timing! everyone is done with thanksgiving and hopefully moving onto holiday cards now that they have the obligatory family photos taken. i've already gotten a huge amount of traffic from it and hoping that all that traffic turns into huge amounts of orders! you can see what she had to say here. oh, and if you miss out on the black friday (weekend) sale, i'm offering a discount over on cool mom picks until the end of december. (although not quite as big)

november 28, 2008 - photo of the day

black friday (weekend) sales!

our two little shops are both holding sales for black friday weekend! check out the details below!


shades of violet: with everything on sale, there's no excuse not to shop! we've got you covered when it comes to holiday cards, gifts for teachers, babysitter, and any other stocking stuffers you may need for the upcoming holiday season! need suggestions? check out our gift tags, magnet sets, correspondence notes.....they all make great gifts! make sure to buy a few extra to keep on hand for those last minute gifts you forgot to give. (or that person at the office you didn't expect was going to give you a gift!) this big event only lasts 3 days, (november 28-30) so get your shop on now! use code: BLACKFRIDAY for 20% off your entire order!


fin+roe: we're offering a special deal for anyone who places their order this weekend! (november 28-30) just enter code: BLACKFRIDAY at checkout and you'll receive 20% off your entire order!

(don't worry if you don't have your photo ready. you can still take advantage of the discount! just place your order during the sale dates and we'll wait for you to send your photo later! no problem! we'll wait!)

november 27, 2008 - photo of the day

don't forget the giftaway!

don't forget the fin+roe giftaway going on over at operation nice! you need to enter by 8:00 p.m. EST today! yes, thanksgiving day! so if you haven't entered yet, hop to it!

guest post #3 goes live!

a sneak peek at this week's scoutie girl post! this happens to be my favorite item! you'll have to go check out the rest of the items here. enjoy!

november 26, 2008 - photo of the day

photo of the day now on flickr!

my from tha hotness suggested that i upload my photos of the day to flickr. since i'm a people pleaser i, of course, obliged! i'm going to try and update it on a weekly basis. you can check it out here. all of the photos that have been featured so far have been uploaded. (now i just have to find the time to add descriptions.

new designs sneak peek!

i've been designing like crazy to try and get my december release done! once again i'm behind. (i really need to re-implement my "design friday" so i'm not rushing at the end) i just sent my designs off to the printer, so hopefully i'll have them in our studio by the end of next week. then it's another rush to get them all embellished and out the door to the reps! it's critical that reps have all of their new samples before the first of january because that's when they hit the road hard to replenish storeowners empty shelves after the holidays.

i decided to focus on circus/carnival type imagery for this release. with the economy in the dumps i think having fun colorful imagery that makes people smile and reminds them of good times will help sales. (at least that's what i'm hoping for!) above you can see sneak peeks for 4 of the new designs. in total, there are 6 new birthday cards and 4 new everyday designs to replace others that i've actually licensed off and don't have the rights to sell anymore.

november 25, 2008 - photo of the day

grateful

once again inspired by operation nice. today's assignment: gratitude list

i am grateful for:

• my husband who really, truly supports everything i do - every moment of every day.
  
• my two amazing boys. the little dude who amazes me with his brains, and the baby dude who amazes me with his dimpled-smile. i am more grateful for their health and happiness than just about anything in my life right now. 
  
• my parents, who taught me: right from wrong, how to be a good person, the meaning of family, to work hard for what i want, and to never let anyone tell me it's not possible.
• my parents who supported me through all my dreams of being an "artist" and never really questioned it or it's viability as a "job". 
• my artistic ability which has lead me to run my own company which i love. 
• being able to be home with my children every day no matter how hectic it is or how much i want to pull my hair out at the end of the day. i wouldn't have it any other way. 
• my entire extended family - a strong, honest, hard-working family i'm proud to be a part of. 
• my friends in real life and in the computer. i love you all!
• beautiful blogs that fill my soul with art of all kinds and inspire me to do, and be better. 
• my warm, beautiful house, my full belly, my soft bed. not all are so lucky.

i'm sure that as soon as i publish this i will think of a million more things, but these are top on my list at the moment. 
 

november 24, 2008 - photo of the day

november 23, 2008 - photo of the day

art

i'm not usually one for posting videos from you tube, but this one is so, so worth it! i can't tell you how much i love this!


*originally viewed at the mayfly

november 22, 2008 - photo of the day

november 21, 2008 - photo of the day

last chance!

today is the last day to snag the HUGE discount for fin+roe products with the coupon code available at decor8. even if you don't have your photo ready, you can use the code, place your order, and send the photo when you have it! we'll wait! no problem!

baby's first haircut

i couldn't deny it anymore. i had been putting off the baby's first haircut because i didn't want to loose his cute little curls, but there comes a point where it just needs to be done. above is his "before" picture. i planned to only take a few snips around his ears to clean up the whispies. of course like everything else, he was quite a fighter and screamed bloody murder the entire time. it took both the hubby and i to manage 4 snips!


here is the after. and his horrible, pitiful, feel-sorry-for-me face. i have a hard time holding in the giggles when i look at this picture. it's like we tortured the poor kid.


and a side view of the finished product. it's definitely not a perfect cut, but it's the best we could manage with the screaming, wiggling child. i didn't touch his curls at all in the back....i'm not ready for that yet. it's amazing how 4 little cuts can change the way he looks so much.

"gift"away!

i know i've been talking about operation NICE a lot lately, but i can't help it! i LOVE the blog concept and the sweet girl behind it.

i wanted to do something NICE for the holidays so i asked melissa if she'd be interested in hosting a little giveaway on operation nice for some of my fin+roe holiday cards. there's a small catch that makes this giveaway unique....and melissa has appropriately named it a giftaway because of it.....you'll have to go check out the details for yourself!

november 20, 2008 - photo of the day

guest post #2 goes live!

go check out my very second guest post for scoutie girl!
handmade solutions #2 [outfitting your winter wardrobe]
while you're there, make sure to bookmark it and visit often! it's a great place!

november 19, 2008 - photo of the day

créme de la créme

at fin+roe, we have a holiday card that is called the créme de la créme. we call it this because it has 13 photos and captions! this card has been the most popular so far this year by far. (it also happens to be my personal holiday card from last year). i thought i'd show you a fun example of what one of my clients requested using this template.

my client and her husband had recently taken a safari (so jealous!) and wanted to feature the photos they took on their holiday card. in order to give the photos the limelight, we discarded the captions and filled the back with 12 great photos from their trip! check it out!

november 18, 2008 - photo of the day

nice story #1

after reading the lovely new OPERATION NICE blog and contributing a story, i've begun to notice more "nice" things happening around me.

to be honest, when i started reading O.N., i crammed my brain trying to think of something nice that someone had done for me. i couldn't think of anything. i thought surly there must have been stories that i had forgotten. someone must have done something nice for me somewhere along the line. no matter how hard i tried, nope. nothing. nada. i was drawing a blank....i couldn't thing of anything! i'm still sure i'm forgetting something, but in the meantime, it has prompted me to begin noticing the small things. they may not be huge "nice" things, but they are nice all the same. in order not to forget these nice things, i've decided to try and write them down so i have something to refer back to when i forget again! with that said, here's short and sweet thing #1:

the hubby, the little dude, baby dude and i were all at target getting the necessities of life the other night. a little old lady (why do all my stories include little old ladies?) was in the aisle with us and commented on how the little dude looked so much like my hubby. then she made the simple comment: "it's so nice to see a family shopping together these days". it made me smile. it was a sweet, innocent little comment, but it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. i said: "thank you", and we parted ways.

it got me thinking about the fact that we do pretty much all of our shopping together as a family. groceries, necessities, general errands.....we do them all together. there are exceptions here and there, but really, we do pretty much everything as a family and that's something i'm really happy about.

thank you melissa for prompting me to pay more attention to the "nice" things that happen around me!

look real close

it's not much, but it's there. we've had a few small snow-falls this year, but nothing that hasn't melted on impact. it's been pretty cold the last few days so the ground was cold enough to hold a few flakes without melting. the little dude was so excited that he had to call daddy and leave a voicemail telling him to "look out your window daddy.....it's snowing!"

november 17, 2008 - photo of the day

sneak peek

i'm running really behind on my december release, but cranked a couple out the other day. here's a sneak peek at a portion of one! more to come!

november 16, 2008 - photo of the day

november 15, 2008 - photo of the day

november 14, 2008 - photo of the day

november 13, 2008 - photo of the day

that's what he said : part 6

i haven't done a "that's what he said" in quite awhile. there are crazy things spewing out of our (almost) 4 year old's mouth every day. it's just the remembering to write them down that i've been bad about. so here's a little story from last weekend:


scene: in the kitchen. mommy, daddy, little dude, and baby dude are all eating lunch together. the little dude is ecstatic because daddy has said that the little dude can go out and help him rake leaves after his nap. if you know the little dude at all, you know his favorite thing in the whole world is to help anyone with anything. he'd rather dust the house with me than play with toys. if he's helping, he's happy. another important element to this story is that he's been getting to pick one "special treat" out of the halloween dish every day after lunch which he can have after he takes his nap. we don't normally have a lot of candy in the house, so this really is a special treat for him. ok, on with the story.....

little dude is eating his lunch and getting a little lack-luster about his banana at the end.

daddy to little dude: hey buddy, you better eat up the rest of your banana so that you can have a special treat after your nap today.

little dude sits for a minute. you can tell he's really thinking hard about something. a minute later:

little dude: is yard work a special treat?

that kid seriously cracks me up! in his little mind he wasn't worried about not getting his candy, he was worried about not being able to help daddy rake the leaves later. oh how that little brain works! i love it.

*photo taken on their way out to rake leaves after nap time.

guest post #1 goes live!

go check out my very first guest post for scoutie girl!
handmade solutions #1 [outfitting your office desk]
while you're there, make sure to bookmark it and visit often! it's a great place!

november 12, 2008 - photo of the day

before & after

yesterday we got a few new windows in our house. we were in great need. our house is a mid-entry colonial that was built in 1924. from what we can tell, the windows were original. needless to say our heating bills were astronomical in the wintertime. according to the window guys, the average house has 12 windows.....we're "lucky" enough to have 33! and of course, since it's an old house, the windows are huge. which, of course, means more money. our original quote for windows was over 1/3 of the price that we paid for our entire house! several quotes later we found a better deal. even with that better price, 33 windows at once was not feasible. we decided to break it out through several years and yesterday was the day for round #1. we got new windows in our entire sunroom and one in the bathroom we've been remodeling. (figured since it was already ripped apart we may as well include that one!) here are some before and after pictures so you can get an idea of just how bad the originals are.


before #1. the previous owners of this house liked paint.....a lot! most of the windows had been painted shut and didn't function at all which made getting a breeze in the summer nearly impossible.


before #2. some of the windows were able to open. however, they all needed to be propped up with sticks because the counterbalances were broken off and had fallen into the wall. fun times!


after. ahhhh! how clean and beautiful! i can't tell you what it's like to drive up to our house and see the sunroom full of nice, bright clean windows!! and speaking of clean, i can actually tip all of these in to clean them! i'm so excited!

i feel famous!

one of my favorite new blogs is operation nice, which is headed up by the super awesome melissa. she's the sweetest gal you'll ever come across. i sent her a quick story about a little old lady who made my day and she featured it on her blog today! i feel sort of famous! thanks melissa! be sure to bookmark her site.....it's a good pick-me-up full of fabulous people and heartwarming stories.

november 11, 2008 - photo of the day

feathered headband

the hubby and i had a fancy-schmancy grown-up party to attend this weekend. it was our first real grown-up gala and i wanted something a little special to go with my outfit. i had been admiring a lot of feathered headbands that i saw popping up, but wasn't sure i could pull one off myself. i searched etsy and found a bunch i liked, but was afraid they might not arrive in time or that i'd spend the money and chicken-out and not wear it. being the craftster that i am, i figured i could make my own. a quick trip to the craft store and i had my feathers in hand. here are a few pics of how it turned out:



my favorite parts are the little green accents on the tips of a few feathers.


here's a close-up of it when i actually had it on for the party! that's right, i was brave and not only wore it, but felt very pretty while doing so!

november 10, 2008 - photo of the day