Hip & Simple Creativity
Today I celebrate 9 years of marriage to my best friend, Stephen. This post is personal and fair warning, the images are different than what I usually share but I think they are hilarious and well done and I just can’t stop smiling when I look at them. If you don’t like the hint of nudity or humor, please ignore this post.
I’ve been absent from this blog a lot. It’s always been an off and on thing for me. A nice creative outlet and I love it. But I’ve never really known what it should be. It’s kind of random focus and my imagined reader is myself and I think my content reflects that. I’ve gone back and forth about if I should treat this more like a business and “niche” down to more focused and related content. I’ve made peace with myself recently about a lot of things and found that where I am in life right now just doesn’t allow me to make this a business. Holding out for that business possibility holds me back from sharing myself here. I tell you all this because while I have done a lot of creative projects and created some new recipes lately, it’s so hard to put them together in a post. Right now I’m going to school and working full time, plus I am a mom and wife. I still make time for my creative outlets but because of this nagging self voice I have in the back of my mind I feel like I must share it all here or do nothing. I still hope to share it all and have a growing folder of “to blog” photos that I want to share so badly. It’s just not realistic so if I have any consistent readers out there and this content I’m about to share doesn’t interest you, I understand. My focus lately has been on design and creative growth professionally and academically. It’s got me thinking about how to brand and market myself and my work and where I really want to be professionally in the future. That brings me to share my latest side gig of a Salt City Coachworks Branding and Logo project.
I’m playing with ideas on how to best display this information and build a better portfolio of my work and bring it to life a little more than a flat image. Salt City Coachworks is a collision repair and restoration business in Salt Lake City, Utah. While researching and working through my process to approach this project, I drew inspiration from a vintage auto shop.
My husband had surgery last week and so I took off this week to take care of him as well as the kids. Stephen is the Stay at Home Farter and part of his recovery wouldn’t allow him to lift more than 5 lbs so that meant he couldn’t do his STAF duties without help. It’s actually been really nice to be able to take care of my family in this way. One of the things I did to get the kids out of the house and give Stephen some peace and quiet so he could rest was taking the kids to one of our favorite spots, Aldridge Gardens, in Birmingham, AL and take some pictures of our sweet toddlers.
Aldridge Gardens is such a beautiful place. On our first visit, shortly after we moved to Alabama, there was some nursery, plant sale going on and lots of people were there. We had the pleasure of speaking with the former owner of the property and he told us about it. It used to be his residence but the acreage of gardens was just too much to keep up with so he donated it and still participates in the events and loves to see people come and enjoy it. They have a dock where you can go out and feed fish, turtles, ducks, etc. There are trails that go around a large pond area. They have some statues and beautiful trees. It’s just a really beautiful and peaceful place. There are always weddings going on and I’m sure it’s an amazing setting for such events.
While I was still pregnant with my daughter, (who is now 3!) I took my son to Aldridge Gardens to play and took some pictures of him. He was only 18-months old and he’ll be 5 in a couple of months and just started preschool yesterday! The saying, “the days seem long, but the years are short” is completely holding true for our little family.
We recently travelled to Kansas for a family reunion. We flew into Kansas City, MO and had some time to kill before the rest of the family arrived. We took that opportunity to check out the city and specifically Science City – Kansas City, MO.
I’ve talked before about how much we love our local McWane Science Center and how having a membership there has been awesome. McWane is part of the [Read more…]
Happy Birthday to my dear sweet little Libby. I can’t believe how fast this parenthood thing is flying, am I right? In honor of this girl, I’ve got some 3 year old picture ideas to share with you. Be prepared, this is picture and cuteness overload today!
I’m actually not even in the same state as her today! My mom was going to be a few hours away for a work conference and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see her. She will be busy [Read more…]