Quarantined

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but the Brady family is sick. Between trips to the ER, doctor visits, late nights, fevers and coughing I've had my hands full. We are going on day 9 of being sick. 

This can be over anytime soon.

Lancaster Wedding Venues Brand Worksheet

I'm sharing another old branding projects. It's an oldie but a goodie! I was approached by a good friend who is a local photographer and overall creative entrepreneur. He had the idea to create a localized wedding blog/website to promote the greatest wedding venues in Lancaster, as well as other reputable venders. He wanted a brand that was lighthearted, feminine and modern. I think I accomplished that with the color choices, modern typography and distinctive logo mark. 

The website isn't complete yet, but I look forward to the day it goes live. When it does, I'll share the link on here. 

Enjoy your Sunday morning y'all. I have to get ready for church now! 

Blogging, Pride & Jealousy

I was talking to a dear friend Monday night over tea and was telling her about my blog and why I do it. The conversation was steered that way when she asked me how my devotional life was going. And I told her that it was good and I was having precious time which Jesus nearly every day - even if it's just for five minutes in the morning. I mentioned that blogging is a good motivation for making sure that I'm getting time to hear from God. One of the main reasons I decided to blog was to share Jesus with my family, friends and anyone who stumbles across my site. And if I'm not being inspired, then I'm not able to share what Jesus is doing in my life. I also shared with my friend that having a blog helps me to be a little more exciting in the things I do with Miles and to take more pictures. That was where the conversation turned to how do you do that without being prideful.

I don't always do it perfectly. There are times when I read others' blogs and think of how wonderful their lives look. They seem to be perfect mothers with perfect children and perfect hair. But that's not real life. I love the women who blog about real life – its' struggles, failures and triumphs. If all you ever write about on your blog is the latest adventure you took with your kids or how amazing your husband is, you're going to breed jealously and pride.

I hope to make my blog a place where I can share what we are doing as a family, so it can serve as a good collection of our adventures to remember throughout the years, but more importantly, I want to share my heart, my struggles, my successes and my God. That's real life. I think that if sharing Jesus and what he's doing in my daily life is my goal and remains my priority, that I can steer away from writing with a prideful heart.

How do you keep from coveting others' lives, stuff or families when you read blogs? If you write a blog, how do you keep it down to earth?

Happy 10 Months

Someone is excited about turning 10 months today. I can't believe that I get to be Miles' mom. I'm so blessed to be able to care for this little adventurous and silly little boy. Each month just gets better and better.

Christmas Card Explosion

Christmas comes early for Oneleven Creative. I started working on Christmas card designs in October. I love this season, even though it's a busy one for many reasons. Designing cards is one of my favorite parts of getting ready for December 25th. Many of my designs aren't the typical family holiday card, and I like it that way. I don't think Christmas stuff has to be the typical red and green. My cards feature elements like chalkboard, woodgrain and watercolors.

Take a look at my shop and see what styles are available for 2013: www.onelevencreative.etsy.com

I love my blog readers and want to give you an early Christmas gift. If you use this coupon code: Lifeat111, you can save 15% off any Christmas card now through November 30th.

Fall Family Photoshoot Preview

Two weeks ago, we got dressed up and hit the road to do a photoshoot with our favorite photography studio. Amber Martin from Jeremy Hess Photographers did Miles' newborn photos and we love them, so when we saw the opportunity to take some more photos with her, we jumped on it. This was such a fun 20-minute mini shoot at a new wedding venue in Lancaster County, The Farm at Eagles Ridge.

Here's a quick preview of two photos. I can't wait to share the rest!

Unexcused Absence & Currently

Do you remember in high school when you missed a day of school but didn't have a good excuse? Those were called unexcused absences. And I've been taking one of those with my blog lately. But I have some excuses, however lame they are. Work exploded two weeks ago and it left my head spinning. I was spending so much time in front of the computer, that I couldn't bare to spend one extra minute away from my baby and husband.

Work has settled down a little bit now, but I'm gearing up for hopefully a busy holiday season in my Etsy shop. I launched my new, lower priced custom photo Christmas cards this past week. Honestly, I'm a little nervous I won't sell one card and all this work will be for nothing. But if I don't try, I'll never know. So I'm putting myself out there, and hoping and praying for some orders. Being a business owner is terrifying some days. If I fail, I worry that everyone will know and not be surprised - but that's another blog post entirely.

CURRENTLY: 

I got the idea for this post from Danielle at Sometimes Sweet:

Reading: Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson. I'm only 30 pages in but I can tell this book is going to be transformative. I'm already learning more about accepting and living in grace for myself than just how to show grace to Miles. I'll definitely keep writing about how the book is changing my heart and my parenting style.

Eating: Cereal, and lots of it. I used to hate cold cereals but now I'm loving them. I've been chowing down on Kashi's Autumn Whole Wheat Biscuits and Berry Fruitful Whole Wheat Biscuits. Grabbing a handful here and there helps to keep me satisfied while chasing Miles around. Since I'm still nursing, my stomach is a bottomless pit.

Listening To: Dustin Kensrue's new album The Water & The Blood. Go listening to it now. The entire album is on Spotify.

Enjoying: Miles. He is almost 10 months old and is so fun. I love watching him explore everything. He's pulling up and walking along the furniture, walls, curtains and just about anything he can get his hands on. One of my favorite parts of the day is going to get him in the morning when he wakes up. Miles' excitement to see me warms my heart. It gives me hope that it will be a good day. How can it be a bad day with that kind of start? Not that I didn't enjoy being a mother the past 9 months, but it just keeps getting better and better. Except we had a rough one yesterday. He has four teeth coming in and they wrecked him - he wouldn't sleep or eat.

Watching: Too much, but there are so many good shows happening now. I'm watching Parenthood, Grey's Anatomy and Project Runway Allstars. I typically put one of these shows on while I'm working, so I really only catch about half the show. That's the real reason I have two computer monitors, shh, don't tell Mike. We try not to watch tv while Miles is awake, so I'm limited on how much I can watch - which turns out to be a good thing. There's not too much on tv that's of a whole lot of value.

Loving: My evenings with Mike have been really nice lately. Miles goes down for the night between 6 - 7 which leaves us a few hours to be adults together. I'm so thankful that we get that special time to connect. So much of our time with Miles is about him or trying to get things done and we often miss each other. We participated in Halloween last week and had a blast. Miles was dressed up as a little gray puppy. I love Halloween in the City. We sat on our front steps and little superheros, princesses and goblins walk by with their pillow cases held out for candy. It's one of the times I am reminded just how many people live within a few blocks of us. We bought two big bags of Costco candy and handed out almost all of it in 1.5 hours.

How's your week so far (I know it's only Tuesday)? I hope and pray that you're feeling refreshed and ready to tackle all God has for you!