At the Pumpkin Patch

Posted on | Monday, October 24, 2011 | 1 Comment

This is the 10th year in a row that Matt and I have picked pumpkins together! Where did the time go? You can view some previous years HERE, HERE and HERE. It's kind of fun watching my hair go from long to short to longer again. ;)
Pumpkin picking sure has changed over the last few years. We've picked in 2 states and multiple cities and it's starting to feel like a real amusement park nowadays. Does anyone else agree? Not that it's a bad thing, but at the local farm we go to in the valley, Heiser Farms, they not only have the pumpkins and corn maize, but the pumpkin rockets, tanks, firetruck, helicopter, petting zoo, train rides, hay maize and lots more. It was pretty loud, but hey - we ate lots of yummy food and found our perfect pumpkins. :)

The sea of pumpkins.

This one might be a winner

Found mine!

Matt found his!

Nothing beats a good old fashioned hayride into the sunset...

Happy pumpkin picking and Happy Halloween, everyone!

My NEW bike!

Posted on | Thursday, October 20, 2011 | 3 Comments

Isn't she cute? A little retro but totally functional. In a pure moment of spontaneity, Matt and I stopped into a bike shop in downtown Salem, OR recently and I saw this bike, test rode it and loved it. I've taken it for a spin around the neighborhood and to the local large park for miles. Indy (our husky) loves to run alongside. She'll pull me for a few miles. I'll try to get action photos soon - at least that's what Matt said he'd do. :) You can check it out on the Trek site HERE. It's made from Eco-friendly materials. I'm going to add a rack and basket. Sooo fun!

Random...

Posted on | Tuesday, October 18, 2011 | 3 Comments

We had unseasonably nice weather today and it reminded me of France...

Need a nice vacay soon! :)

Autumn is definitely in the air

Posted on | Thursday, October 13, 2011 | 7 Comments

It's been wet and rainy all this week. Autumn has hit Oregon big time! I got a bad case of food poisoning this week and then a multi-day migraine so I'm just getting back to all my messages and emails and blogging and such. :)

I do look forward to picking pumpkins soon. I have a BIG long project due at the beginning of November so I'll be hunkering down a bit more than usual - so I suppose the rainy weather forcing me indoors works well.

Someone awesomely decided to copy my branding of pink ribbon/flags I had everywhere so I decided to spruce mine up a bit. I found this vintage mint velvet ribbon in France over a year ago and am so happy to use it. Actually, I used most of it already on custom orders, but kept a strip of it for myself just so I could fawn over its softness and color. Love it so much. You'll probably see more of it in the coming weeks. I think it's a nice change from the pink and ushers in autumn and winter in a subtle and not so typical orange/red/yellow kind of way. Happy autumn everyone!

Update: [blanked out] within a day of this post changed all their [blanked out] to a [blanked out] and then replaced with a bent ribbon like I did above. Ribbons are not original but when you are in the same exact industry and you keep [blanked out] - I think that's wrong. Hilariously, they don't seem to understand that when ridiculous amounts of emulation occur, I move away from what was copied because of them. I change for a reason - proactive. They blindly change for no apparent reason except to continually follow - reactive. When they follow in that way, it's almost like they are agreeing that they were being ridiculous, siding with me without even realizing. Too funny and creepy at the same time!

Update to update: Some behaviors make me feel uncomfortable and uneasy. Creepy behavior is just plain creepy. Like visiting someone’s blog over 70 times a day.

Perfection.

Posted on | Thursday, October 6, 2011 | 21 Comments

A taste of what is to come...

Photo credits: Elizabeth Messina
Headpiece: Twigs & Honey
Hair/Makeup: Madeline Roosevelt

The Luminous Portrait

Posted on | Wednesday, October 5, 2011 | 2 Comments

Excited to share Elizabeth Messina's new book that will be coming out next year. You can pre-order through amazon HERE. Also authoring the book, Jacqueline Tobin, with foreword by Ulrica Wihlborg. That's my birdcage veil on the cover. :) :) :)
Thank you, Elizabeth!

Hello! And more... ;)

Posted on | Tuesday, October 4, 2011 | 3 Comments

I hope everyone had an amazing summer. I would have blogged more but summer is definitely the most busy time of the year. Usually, things start winding down a bit and I'm able to do some R&D during the fall/winter, but this year is particularly special as I have some completely new projects I've undertaken that I am very excited to share with everyone when they are ready.

Flowers from our summer garden.

In the midst of all sorts of projects, it came to light that several online stores have plagiarized my original text. I've also spoken with other creatives and designers who are experiencing the same thing. SO, I just thought I'd bring light to the topic - not just for me - but for others. Just want to point this out once, and hopefully never again. Not to sound too negative about anything, but it is definitely a huge pet peeve of mine when I've taken time to thoughtfully write something - anything - and someone else copies and pastes it into their own website. All the text on my websites are my original writings. I literally studied for years on how to write well from taking college courses to writing my own MA thesis with several professors as my mentors and editors. I only say this because writing is something you learn and develop. I don't always try to write as if it were going to be published, and I goof around at times with tweets and facebook posts, but when it comes to my business, I'm very serious about how I portray the business through writing. I've seen my self-written bio/profile copied word for word and I've seen countless instances of my business story, information and policies copied. Some people change one word here and there, but it's still a bit of a shame.

I know that there are many people who write for a living. I don't, but it doesn't mean that it's nothing for me to throw up some text on my website. For instance, my online policies were written and revised after a culmination of experiences over the last few years. Many times when I'm asked a new question or I have an issue, I'll adapt my policies to cater to my own experiences as they relate to the structure of my business and to accomodate my customers. It's really funny when someone just copies huge passages from my original writings and drops into their website - as if their experiences are exactly like mine.

It feels even more disrespectful, when designers in exactly the same industry copy my original text. You can grab some text from my policies, drop into a search engine and see for yourself. Examples (one of these things is not like the other): here, here, and here.

Sorry to go on and on about it, but it's annoying. I just wanted to say something so that anyone that might be doing it might read this and think twice. I had it really drilled into me when writing my thesis that you must credit your sources - you can literally get into some trouble if you don't. So for those copying my text, please don't. At the very least, link back to my site and give credit where credit is due. If you're having trouble writing, seek help or at least get in touch with me prior to copying and maybe we can work something out. Think about it this way. If you worked somewhere and put your hours in and then, when it came time to pick up your paycheck, someone else had already picked it up (i.e. benefited from your hard work and claimed it was their own) - wouldn't that suck?

Note: Might not keep this post up forever. Some links above I'm assuming (hoping) will change. Just having one of those moments... you know?