Thursday, September 29, 2011

Pinterest and Pumpkin Patches

Over the weekend, my husband and I spent some time at Red Barn Farm in Weston, MO with our dear friends Erik and Jenny.  They are pregnant... with twins.  And, this is their first time!
Considering Jenny and I are both semi-addicted to pinterest, we found lots of inspiration for some maternity photos and wanted to re-create some and have some fun!  We definitely had fun out at the pumpkin patch, and Jenny makes pregnancy look so beautiful!  Here are just a few photos from our adventure.







We certainly had a blast and ended our visit with some apple dumplings, which were divine.  Jenny is due in December, and both babies are super healthy so far!  Wish them luck in their twin journey!!

P.S. If you aren't on pinterest, you should be!  There is so much you can find and keep in one place for inspiration!  If you'd like an invite, just leave your email address:)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Mulva Monday!

Movie Star Mulva, Take 2:

The last time you saw Mulva in a movie, she had a small, supporting role.  About 5 months ago, Mulva was offered a starring role with her best friend Boone in a video about best friends!  Boone belongs to Erik and Jenny Stewart, who come to hang out quite a bit.  She was very excited to take part in the short film, and she was even more excited to do it with Boone.

You see, Mulva is a very sweet pup, but she doesn't make friends very easily.  She thinks maybe she tries too hard to make a good first impression...  She loves everyone she meets, but for some reason, that love isn't always returned.  Her aunts Reina and Mattie don't like to play with her, either.  They will play together, but if Mulva tries to join in, they will stop playing.  This hurts Mulva's feelers:(

But, Boone is special.  He loves to play with Mulva!  So, they are best friends forever!  Without further ado, here is Mulva's first starring role:

Monday, September 12, 2011

Mulva Monday!

Chunky Mulva

Well, Mulva and I have come to realize something.  She's a bit chunky for her breed.  Well, not necessarily "chunky," just not as slim and muscular as most other dogs like her.  I broke the news to her the other day, and she wasn't surprised.  She admitted that she had snuck some chocolate chip cookies from time to time when she wasn't supposed to.  She thinks she may be an emotional eater.  I told Mulva I was partially to blame, because I haven't been exercising her like I should.  Mulva wants to change things, though, because her 4th birthday is coming up, and she doesn't want to start going downhill already.  She wants to be around and still playful when she has a little brother or sister some day, so we decided to get in shape together!  While neither of us are overweight, we could both use some toning and healthier habits.  We don't want to continue at this pace and wake up unhealthy one day, so we're going to help each other stay on task!

This morning, we began.  We walked for about 25 minutes around the neighborhood at 6 AM!  We have a HILLY neighborhood, so it was good for both of us.  Brandon (my hubby) was a little surprised that Mulva and I actually got up that early and walked with him...  We usually like to sleep in while Brandon gets ready for work!   Needless to say, we both got directly back under the covers for another hour of sleep after our morning walk:)



This is Mulva.  She's a cute pup!  Still a slim pup, but we've got some toning to do:)



This afternoon, I got home from work, and Mulva said she still felt tired from our little walk this morning.  She took a big stretch and plopped on the floor.  She'll keep at it though, and we'll be healthy together!

When she does this, I just say, "Stretch it out, Mulva."

   
Still tired from our morning walk:)


The journey to fitness is to be continued...

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Etsy Changes!

Well, I'm making some changes!  I'm a girl with very eclectic taste, and this comes through in my crafts.  In my one little shop, I had flowers, african jewelry, simple designs, and now clutches!  After some extensive research and many helpful blogs on the good ol' world wide web, I decided to break out Impact Jewelry into multiple shops.  So now, I have 4!  It will be A LOT of work to really get them up and running well, considering I plan to take new pictures of everything, getting new banners for each shop, and will need to make TONS more stuff to fill each shop...  But, I think it will be worth it in the end:)  I'm hoping to give buyers a more cohesive brand when they find my shops, instead of just a bunch of different stuff all jumbled together.  This means I also need to work a lot on my photos and make them cohesive within the shops, as well.  Photos always seem to drive me nuts!!  I try to do white backgrounds, but they always don't seem quite white...  I found a good blog advising against it, and I took it to heart.  I plan to make some changes and see what looks best for each shop branding.  If you'd like to read the blog, you can find it here.  If you'd like to see the beginnings of my new shops, you can find them here:

impactjewelry.etsy.com
simpleimpact.etsy.com
impactsquared.etsy.com
practicalimpact.etsy.com


So, I've opened all the shops - now I have to fill them with products and awesome photos!  I've started to work, but I've got a long ways to go.  Here are a couple of examples of one of my first experimentations with photos.  I appreciate any feedback!


New photo - wood background

Old photo - white background












New photo - wood background
Old photo - white background