I’m excited to have Tonya from Letters for Lucas here to be today’s Feature Friday Blogger! Her blog is always full of encouragement and inspiration. I love popping over to see what she has going on and I always come away feeling encouraged; either because she’s made me laugh or stirred something in me emotionally. She’s definitely one of my “must reads” so be sure to check her out! You can find her on Facebook, poking around Twitter or spilling it on her blog.

Tonya is a stay-at-home mother to two-year old son, Lucas. She writes Letters For Lucas as a way to document his childhood and maintain her sanity. Turns out listening to Dave Matthews and consuming lots of red wine help too. I also freelance for Smart Mom Style.

Best Friends

We were close once.

Inseparable.

Best friends.

College dorm mates and then rented our first apartment together and then two more after that.

We helped each other navigate through some of the toughest decisions of our lives.  We wiped each other’s tears and shared each other’s clothes.

This August we will have known each other for 21 years. That’s a long time to be friends with someone. But even the best of friendships wane and things go left unsaid and feelings are hurt, opinions are expressed and lines all crossed. We suffer and vent in silence and before we know it, it’s been six years since you spoke to one another.

I wonder if we’d still be friends.

Not just Facebook friends, like we are now, but real honest to goodness friends who talk every day, share secrets and books and tears over wine?

If you had stayed that is, I wonder if we’d still be friends?

Would we have scheduled play dates with our children or tried to get them into the same school together? I remember being almost as excited as you were throughout your first pregnancy.  I met your daughter but not your son.

Would we have planned family vacations together and double dates? I remember when you met my boyfriend (now husband) and I am certain you knew before I did that he was The One.
Would we still laugh at the same jokes and dance wildly with abandon together to The Cure’s Just Like Heaven?

If my parents hadn’t died five years ago, would you have ever reached out to me? I could not bring myself to respond to your e-mail or voice mail. I was too hurt and angered that it took something so catastrophic to make you want to connect again.

What happened to us?

If you had told me 10 years ago that we would only be Christmas card friends now, I wouldn’t have believed you.

We were too close.

Best friends.

People told us we could have been sisters.

I’m sure you had your reasons for moving your family across country without telling me, but it doesn’t mean it was fair or right.

Didn’t I deserve more? Didn’t our friendship mean anything to you?

Even through it’s been six years since I heard your voice, it’s safe to say I still miss your presence in my life.

I’m more careful with my heart now.

I don’t let myself get that close to anyone anymore.

I never questioned what I would do with my life when I had kids.

It was always just a given that I would become a stay-at-home-mom.

My mom was always around growing up. She went to class parties, did the PTA thing, softball games, you name it. She was always a presence in my life and in my sisters life. I knew that when I had kids of my own that I wanted to be the same way.

I wanted to be a part of everything. Bake cookies and brownies for the bake sale. Haul kids back and forth to soccer/football/whatever practice. Be at dance recitals. Sell Girl Scout Cookies. All of those things were on my little black agenda book for parenting, and I never had intention of doing it differently. My girlfriend and I used to joke in college that we were only there to get our MRS (as in Mrs. Courtney Kirkland…) degree so that we could settle down and have kids.

But, then something happened.

I actually did become a parent.

And for a while that was enough.

Until it wasn’t anymore.

I had postpartum depression pretty bad when Little Man was born. I had no energy, had no excitement, had no drive to do anything. I didn’t want to go anywhere. Didn’t want to do anything. Just wanted to sit. And truthfully, I didn’t even really want to do that because after the first six or eight weeks of a colicky baby who never slept, I really just wanted to run away.

But, then I started blogging.

And blogging led to designing and redesigning my blog to keep up with those fabulously pretty blogs that I followed.

And then blogging led to photography and my attempts to learn how to make my photos look like the ones that  admired and swooned over so much.

And now here I am.

A business owner specializing in Graphic design and Photography.

I never knew that this is where I’d end up. Or even that this is where I wanted to end up.

There came a point not too long ago when I realized that no matter how much I love my son, being a mom just isn’t enough for me.

That while I enjoy every single activity and every single play date and all of the fun things that come with being a mom, I needed something for me. I need something for me. I need a break from refilling juice cups, playing cars and trains, and listening to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

I need creativity. I need energy. I need passion for something other than my family.

And that’s what I’ve been blessed enough to find.

And that, in itself…is why I do what I do.

Why I design…

Why I photograph…

Why I parent…

Because the parenting…the motherhood…the being around and with my son spending my time loving on him and taking care of him…

Makes me want everything else.

Looking to up your photography skills? Make sure you check out the weekly series Move to Manual hosted by myself and Amy Earle. Don’t forget to enter the Camera Strap Giveaway going on right now through March 1!

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I’m always in search of cute, quality photography accessories to go with my fancy-schmancy camera. Back when I first got my camera, I bought a camera strap cover from the “it” camera strap girl at the time. It was a good strap. A quality strap that I never had any issues with. But, she went out of business. I was left with just one lone strap cover for my camera.

When I upgraded my Canon Rebel Xsi to my new Canon 7D, I knew that I wanted needed a new strap cover to go with the new camera. I searched all over the internet for the right one. Some were cute, but didn’t offer padding or lens cap holders. Some were obviously very poorly made and didn’t fit my style. Some were just plain over priced.

Then, after tweeting that I couldn’t find what I was looking for, someone sent me over to Lisa’s Etsy Shop. I knew with one glance that I’d found what I was looking for. These straps were beautiful, different from some of the typical straps that I see everywhere, and AFFORDABLE! I ordered my first strap within minutes of landing on her site. It arrived within a week and was even BETTER than I had hoped it would be. The lens cap pocket was sewn tight enough that I don’t have to worry about my cap falling out. And the strap cover itself was long enough to cover the entire strap, so none of the ugly Canon Strap was hanging out the bottom.

I got to know Lisa in the coming weeks and she quickly became one of the feature sponsors here on my blog. A little about her and her shop…

I am a former Kindergarten teacher turned stay-at-home mom and nursing student. Never one to be idle, I decided that I wanted to try a new hobby. I taught myself how to sew in January 2009 and opened the shop in February. I initially made pillowcase dresses and crayon rolls.  The shop evolved into products more centered around photographers. Married to my high school sweetheart.  Our children are 12, 8, 5 and 4.

Take a look at these gorgeous strap covers she’s created…

 

How You Can Enter (mandatory entries):

• Subscribe to this blog via RSS or E-Mail.
• Head over to A Diva & 3 Dudes Design and pick out which camera strap you’d like to win! Then come back and leave a comment letting me know what you’ve picked out.

Optional Entries:

• “Like” my Facebook Page.
• Like A Diva & 3 Dudes on Facebook.
• Follow me on Twitter.
• Follow A Diva & 3 Dudes on Twitter.
• Share the Giveaway somewhere in this wide world of Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest) and leave me a link letting me know you did.

Winner will be chosen via Random.org. Giveaway closes on March 5, 2012 with the winner announced on March 7, 2012 here on the blog. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me with their address and prize information or a new winner will be chosen. Must be 18 to enter.

Disclosure: I purchased one camera strap from A Diva & 3 Dudes Design and was provided a second for free in exchange for this review and giveaway. All opinions expressed here are my own. How could you not like these straps? I mean, seriously?

In case you missed the first two installments of the Move to Manual Series, so far we’ve talked about composition and perspective in your photographs and how to find great light. Make sure you check these two posts out!

My desire to learn photography and own an SLR camera came from the desire to achieve beautiful photos. Those crisp, sharp images where part of a photo was in focus and the rest was blurry? Those images mesmerized me. I spent hours scouring the internet looking for tutorials on how to achieve that effect. I kept getting words like aperture and depth-of-field but had virtually no idea what they meant or how I was supposed to apply them to my photography.

In my opinion, next to knowing where to find great light, aperture is the single most important aspect of achieving a great photo. The photos that you see where a small, minuscule amount of the image is in focus and everything else just sort of fads away? Those photos are created and controlled by your cameras aperture.

This is probably the most complicated and frustrating part of learning to work your camera, but once you grasp this and can understand the power that your aperture holds and how to utilize it, the rest is much easier to  pick up and put into place.

In short, your aperture controls the depth of field. Depth of field controls how much of a photo is in focus. If you have just a small amount of your image in focus, then you have what we call a shallow depth of field. If you have a large portion of your image in focus, then you have what we call a wide depth of field.

When understanding depth of field, it’s important to understand how depth of field works. Focus in an image doesn’t register in points, but rather in planes. This means that everything in same plane as the object you are trying to focus on is going to be in focus, while everything outside of that plane is going to be blurry. For example,  in the photo below I wanted to focus more on the soldiers that Little Man was playing with, rather than just on him. I used a shallow depth of field to make sure that I just caught the toys in focus and not him in the background. As you can see, the area with the circle around it is on the same plane as my focal point, so this area is also in focus.

And again here with the trains. The area to the right and left of the train is in focus, as well as the area above and below it because they are in the same focal plane. Whereas the area that is closest to the camera and the area farthest away from the camera are out of focus because they are not on the same plane.

In the photo below, pretty much the entire photo is in focus because I’m using a wider depth of field. I wanted to capture everything that was going on, instead of just pieces of it, so there isn’t a lot of the image that is out of focus.

What controls your depth of field? Aperture.

Aperture is the measure of the amount of light that your camera lets in. It can opened or closed to allow for more light or less light. The larger the opening, the more light that will enter into your camera. The smaller the opening, the less light that will be let into your camera.

Amy compares aperture to having your pupils dilated in her workbook. If you open your eyes up really wide, you let in tons of light and everything gets blurry. Well, when you open your aperture up really wide to let in lots of light, you get an image that doesn’t have a lot in focus (shallow depth of field) and things are blurry.

Whereas when you squint your eyes to focus on something in more detail, you are letting in less light and are able to see things more clearly. That’s the same as using a SMALL aperture. If you use a small aperture and a small opening, you keep light from getting in and end up with more of your image in focus (wider depth of field).

Let me go over that one more time, because I know how confusing it can get….

• A larger opening in your camera (aperture) lets in a lot of light which will result in less of the image in focus (shallow depth of field).
• A smaller opening in your camera (aperture) lets in just a little bit of light which will result in more of the image in focus (wider depth of field).

How do you measure Aperture?

Aperture is measured in f-stops. These are the little numbers you see on the end of your camera’s lens. Numbers like f/1.4, f/2.8 or f/5.6. These numbers measure the size of the hole in your lens that lets light in (your aperture). Your aperture settings are controlled by your LENS and not your camera. This is why you will hear professional photographers recommending that someone upgrade their lens before they upgrade their camera. Because most photographers want the lowest possible number they can get on their lenses.

For example, I own a Canon 50mm 1.4 and a Canon 50mm 1.8. Both of these are good lenses (and I highly recommend the 1.8 to anyone who is looking for a portrait lens without breaking the bank. They are available for both Canon & Nikon for less than $150), but the 50 mm 1.4 has a better aperture.

This is the part that gets tricky, so I encourage you to read and re-read this section until it registers. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t quite get it to start with. I had to write it down on a piece of paper and keep it with my camera for a few weeks until I finally “got it.”

The LARGER the f-stop number (such as f/12 or f/15, etc) the SMALLER the aperture’s opening (the hole that let’s light in).

The SMALLER  the f-stop number (such as f/1.4 or f/2.8) the LARGER the aperture’s opening (the hole that let’s light in).

F-Stops are fractions and we could spend hours going over how the inside of a camera works, etc. But the main thing to remember is that the bigger the hole (which means a SMALLER number), the more light that you let in so the more blur you get in your image. The smaller the hole (which means a HIGHER number) the less light you let in, which means that more of the image is in focus and there is less blur.

Typically when I’m shooting portraits or pictures of the little man, I keep my aperture at about 1.8 or 2.0, to create a softness around his face and help him stand out from the background. If I’m shooting pictures of more than one person, I’ll use an aperture that’s a bit larger. I read somewhere that a good rule of thumb to keep everyone’s face in focus is to go with the largest aperture that matches the number of people you are photographing. For example, if I’m photographing two people, I’d want to shoot at f/2.8. If I was photographing five people I’d shoot on f/5.8, etc. Since I don’t do a lot of group portraiture, I can’t attest to how accurate this is, but it seems to work.

As we continue to learn more about shooting in manual and how to control lighting, you will learn that most photographers build their settings around the aperture setting. I always set my aperture first and then the rest of my settings around it. I love the creaminess and softness that it adds to the background. That creamy, blurry background is called Bokeh and is the bee-knees when it comes to portraits.

Is your head spinning right now?! Don’t get overwhelmed! I’m going to use a easy and pretty popular “homework” method to help you guys understand aperture a bit better.

Take a look at your camera and notice that it has an Aperture Setting, usually depicted by an “A” or the letters “Av.” This means that YOU get to set the aperture and your camera will control the rest of the settings to give you a properly exposed image. Set your camera on this mode so that you can practice applying what we’ve just learned about Aperture.

Homework for the Week:

Grab a toy, a stuff animal, or a just some object that you can photograph and set it in front of you (near a window or outside!! Don’t forget to search for great light!). Take a series of pictures testing out different aperture settings. If your lens will go all the way down to 1.8 shoot the object at f/1.8, f/4, f/7 and f/12. Play with the numbers and the aperture and see what you get. Take some time to examine how the numbers change your depth of field and the bokeh in the background. Upload your photos to the Group Flickr Pool so Amy & I can see what you guys have been learning!

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions in the comment section if something isn’t quite making sense! Make sure you come back next week for Amy’s post on Shutter Speed. And be sure to check in tomorrow for a chance to win a fabulous Camera Strap from my Featured Sponsor: A Diva & 3 Dudes Design!

One night recently, the family was sitting around the table. We were having some Bible study time. Now that the girls are a bit older and we feel they can really hash out some principles, we’re trying to be faithful in that area. Honestly, it’s a practice we should have started long ago but we just didn’t. Better late than…

Well, as we finished the story of Jesus at the wedding in Cana, 7-year-old Maddie suddenly asked a peculiar question.

“So, Jesus came before or after the dinosaurs?”

Will and I exchanged a glance and a grin. He said, “Actually, many, many years after the dinosaurs.”

Maddie: “Okay, um, what about the pilgrims?”

“Maddie, they came many, many years after Jesus.”

“Okay, well, that’s really hard to think about.”

I know how she feels. I can spin my wheels keeping up with the details of my faith and life in general. I think that’s why when it was finally pointedly asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment?” or “What do we really need to know; what do you want us to do?” Jesus said this {paraphrase mine}: “Don’t get bogged down in the details. Just love.”

Since I’m more convinced than ever that this is the most important thing we can ever set our heart to do, I’m setting aside the time these days to dig in and allow myself to be challenged about what a life of loving really looks like. How can I serve more, give more? How can I just be available? If God comes knocking in the shape of the homeless or the sick or a friend having a bad day, can I answer?

Am I noticing the world and the millions of others in it, or do I live as though it all revolves around me?

Most days, I am so overwhelmed with my to-do list and the bills that are due and the errands that need to be run, I quickly justify that I simply don’t have time for much else. Of course, I would like to make a difference, but there are only so many hours in a day. Good intentions. Nonexistent follow through.

C.S. Lewis is right: I “go down to that Sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash, careful not to get out of my depth and holding on to the lifeline which connects me with my things temporal.”

But, can I tell you something that is hard to admit? I am growing to hate that because my everyday choices are so driven by my own interests and agendas, I readily sacrifice people and relationship. I confuse wants with needs and fail to meet actual needs all around me because I’m hoping to fund a vacation, expand my wardrobe and upgrade my photography equipment.

My priorities are beyond out of whack. They are corrupt. My life is so full of ME there’s hardly room for anyone else at all. Maybe my hubby, kids and close friends get a little. I’m saddened by how many times even that hasn’t been true.

Time for a fresh start, for grace bold enough to believe His mercy is bigger than my faults and shortcomings. Time to take seriously the call, His call…Follow me.

Several months ago, I began blogging on behalf of Compassion International. Will and I have sponsored a child since the beginning of our marriage, nearly 13 years now, and I encourage you to visit their site, read the stories and consider how little it takes to have an incredible impact on a child for life.

But, that’s just one step. There are so many possibilities. The world is so big, and our place in it matters. We are called for a purpose. Let’s find it!

Please visit me over at A Bold Grace, so we can journey together.

My name is Kathryn. I am a recovering perfectionist with a fondness for coffee at breakfast and cheap red wine at dinner. I can’t breathe without grace and am discovering little by little what it means to let go, to take hold of what really matters. I am wife to Will, mother to Banana and Moose and believe Jesus saved my soul. I bare my heart and hard lessons learned at aboldgrace.com. Stop by anytime and say hello!

This has been a somewhat rotten week. Little Man and I have both been sick. First him with a crazy-high temperature and stuffy nose, and now me with a fever and some crazy, nasty sinus issues going on. Thankfully, the husband hasn’t gotten sick yet because nothing is worse than a “man cold” we need someone to take care of us.

We had a wonderful Valentines Day, despite the sickness that hung over our heads. The husband ordered me some beautiful flowers and we spent our evening with our closest friends and their children, stuffing ourselves with homemade tacos and decorating cookies. It was the best kind of Valentines Day.

While the husband and I aren’t exactly newlyweds, we aren’t what I would consider an “old married couple” either. But, we enjoy spending our time with our son and our friends. We don’t really feel the need to get out all the time by ourselves and enjoy late night conversations in our bed or on the couch over crowded restaurants and movie theaters. Besides, there is only one theater in town and they play one movie at a time. So…movies aren’t exactly an option. And no one wants to spend Valentine’s Day walking around Walmart.

So, this is how Little Man and I spent our  Valentine’s Day morning…

I really wish you guys could have seen me taking these pictures. I’m sure that the people driving by thought I was a lunatic. We have fantastic light in our living room thanks to three giant windows. The only issue is that our living room windows face the road, so anyone riding by during the day can see inside with no issue. I was standing on the arms of the couch, doing some crazy balancing acts to snap these photos. I was up there for a good 30 minutes, just waiting for him to roll over or something. It was quite humorous. But, the photos were worth it.

Noah gave his little Valentine a gift yesterday. I swear, these two the absolute cutest kids you will ever see. They are the very best of friends and I am beyond thankful that our families have managed to meet and connect over this last year. I’m so sad that they’ll be leaving us this fall, but we have big plans to keep in touch and (hopefully) vacation together some in the years to come. There are just those people that come along in your life that you just click with and this family has been one of those.

And yesterday, despite the snow and the rain and the wind that we’ve had off and on all week, the sun decided to make an appearance for a while. It came out, went away, snowed, and came out again right as we were getting ready to go get groceries. Our commissary is right near where I always go to take photos of Little Man, so when we came out, we set off for a drive and I was able to snap a few shots for this weeks 52 Faces linkup. The light outside was gorgeous and I was so excited to have been able to snap some great backlit shots.

 The sun honestly lifted my spirits more than I thought it would. It was like a precious little reminder that winter and cold doesn’t last forever. Soon enough it will be summer and the daylight will be dominant for more than 18 hours a day. But, at least the sunshine makes for great photos, right?

So, what photos did you capture this week? Write a post and link them up below!

Interested in how I captured these backlit shots? Make sure you check out this weeks Move to Manual post on Finding Great Light over at Amy’s blog. Great light is one of the key components to capturing a great shot, so this is a post you do not want to miss!

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I don’t know about you guys, but I am completely addicted to Starbucks Cake Pops. I tweeted out the other day that not only had I eaten one but two of those little devils while walking around the Safeway. In my defense, I didn’t deliberately buy two just for myself. I bought one for myself and one for little man. He didn’t want his. So, to avoid food going to waste, I decided I’d better eat it myself. I mean, why throw away a perfectly good cake pop, right?

But, despite my infatuation with this little treats on a stick, at $1.99 a piece, they add up if you insist on getting one every time you go to Starbucks like I do have a child who usually inhales them whenever we get him one. So I decided to try my hand at making them myself. I found a variety of recipes, including one by the infamous Bakerella and one that was posted on A Beautiful Mess, but neither of them quite suited our tastes, so I wanted to give it a go with a few different cake flavors.

Since Valentines Day was coming up, I decided to try my hand at Valentines Day Cake Pops.

How To Make Cake Pops

What You Need:

•  A Cake Mix of your choice & the ingredients needed to bake said cake.
• 1 Can/Jar of Frosting in the flavor of your choice (We used regular Vanilla Frosting, but depending on the cake flavor, you could also try Cream Cheese or Chocolate)
• Lollipop Sticks (I found these at Walmart for $2.00 per pack of 50, but I know you can get them at Michaels, etc.)
• Parchment Paper
• Cookie Sheets
• Almond Bark or Candy Melts in the colors you want to use
• A block of Styrofoam (Again, found this at Walmart over by the artificial flowers)
• Sprinkles, nuts, and other goodies to decorate with.

First, you are going to have to find an assistant. Because, what baker doesn’t need someone in the kitchen to help them pour ingredients and test the batter to make sure it’s good? Lucky for me, I had two…

Next, you just bake a cake according to the recipe on the box. For these, I used a Pillsbury Classic White Cake Mix and a Duncan Hines Devils Food Cake Mix. For the white cake mix, I wanted to go with something a little more “Valentinesey” so I added eight drops of red food coloring to the batter to give it a pink tint.

Once the cakes are finished baking, you’ll need to make sure that they cool completely before starting on the cake pops. It took both of these cakes about 33 minutes to bake and about 45 minutes to cool all the way through.

Next, you’re going to take the cake(s) and crumble them up in a bowl. Doesn’t matter how you do it (you can cut it out and then mash it up, or do like we did and just dig it out of the pan in handfuls).

Add the container of icing to the crumbled cake and use your hands to mash it all together. I’m sure you could use a spoon/fork/stirring utensil of some sort, but since Little Man was helping us out, we decided to go all out and just mash it up with our fingers. He had the best time and thought he was SUCH a big boy helping with the baking.

Once the icing is all mixed together, roll out some parchment paper and roll the cake mixture into quarter size balls. You could technically make these cake balls as big as you wanted, but we found that the bigger that they are, the harder they are so cover with the candy topping later on. The ones that were a little bigger than a quarter size worked perfect for us. Each cake mix (using this size cake ball) will make about 50 pops.

Once you’ve got all of these rolled out, place them in the refrigerator to firm up for one or two hours. We sped up the process a bit and stuck them in our freezer; they were ready in about 30 minutes. While these are firming up, you can get your candy coating ready. I bought two packages of White Almond Bark because we can’t find the Candy Melts here on the island. Again, since we were going for Valentine Day themed snacks, I added several drops of red food coloring to one batch of candy coating to make it pink. I also add a little bit of Canola or Vegetable Oil to my Almond Bark (per my grandmother’s advice growing up) to keep it from sticking. Make sure you heat the almond bark on low to prevent it from burning or it won’t smooth out properly.

When the almond bark is ready and the cake balls are firm, dip just a portion of the lollipop stick into the almond bark and stick it in the cake ball. The almond bark helps hold the stick into place and gives it a little bit more of a foundation so that the cake part doesn’t fall off when you dip it. Turn these upside down and let them set. Fortunately, candy melts and almond bark set pretty quickly, so you won’t have to wait long to get started decorating.

Once you finish putting the sticks in the cake pops, you’re ready to start dipping! Dip the pops in the candy mixture and then stick them in the styrofoam to let them dry. I found that holding the bowl at a bit of an angle and carefully twirling the cake pops made for an easier coating. Make sure you let all of the excess coating drip off before you put the pop in the styrofoam or it will run down the stick.

Once you’ve got these coated, you can go back and drizzle a little extra candy coating on top of them for decoration. We topped ours with pink and red sprinkles…

These took a bit longer than normal because we did so many, but they were super easy to make and definitely something we’ll do in our house again.

Have you ever made Cake Pops? What’s your favorite flavor of cake?

 Disclosure: I did not invent Cake Pops (obviously), but tweaked the recipe I’m sharing a bit to make it my own. 

Thanks so much to all of you who have provided such awesome feedback and encouragement on the Move to Manual series I’m co-hosting. I mentioned last week that I’ll be partnering in this series with my friend and fellow photographer Amy Earle of Simply B Photos! Amy’s a remarkable photographer and the brains behind all of the family photos you see here on my blog.

Today, I’m sending you guys her way to check out her tutorial on how light affects your photos. She’s got some great insight on what to look for and what to avoid when you’re shooting outdoors!

I’ll be back over here next Monday to talk about aperture and how it impacts your photos!

And just because I don’t want to do a post without a photo….here’s a fun snapshot of little man.

Head over to Simply B to learn more about lighting >>>

Instead of blogging all of my designs individually as I finish them, I decided that I would just blog each months designs at one time. January was a busy month, but February looks like it’s going to be even busier! I’m so excited about the designs that I’ve finished recently and the new ones in the works right now! Here’s a peek at the latest designs from yours truly:

Senior Spot Chicago is a Couponing/Discount site targeted at reaching the 55+ community. I was excited to work with Nicole on this project and hope to be working with her again in the future as her LLC grows. She’s planning to add 30+ new cities to her Senior Spot Group in the future.

This was actually just a revision for me. I worked with Jamie a few months ago on this site and she found a color scheme that she liked way more (you can view her old design here). I spent some time revamping and redoing her colors to make it pop a bit more.

I was excited to work with Christy on this project. She’s actually a local business owner and fellow Coast Guard Spouse here in Kodiak. Her project was a bit different for me, but I love how her site turned out.

Priscillia was a fantastic client to work with! When she got ready to start her design, she sent me a detailed outline of how she wanted her site laid out as well as a handful of images that she wanted included in her site. Not to mention, she wanted her site to be only black and white. She’s not quite finished adding content yet, but make sure you check it out.

And lastly, I had the chance to redo my BFF Amy’s photography site. She was my very first WordPress Client back in the summer last year and I’ve been itching to up the ante and give her site an overhaul. It’s not secret that as you learn you want to improve the things that you did when you first started and her site was no exception. Her logo is one of my favorites to date and represents her as an individual (she has a thing for stars, so we were excited to incorporate it into the new design and logo). I also did her Family Blog back in November. Make sure you check out her new site!

Looking to make the jump from Blogger to WordPress? Or do you just want to revamp the design you currently have? Fill out my Potential Client Questionnaire and let’s do it together! I’m currently accepting clients for the month of May!

I am so excited to have my lovely friend Michelle for the Feature Friday Blogger this week. Like most every other blogger out there, we connected by chance…mingling over virtual coffee & Twitter before becoming Facebook friends. Visiting one another’s blog and commenting back and forth. It’s only been recently that we’ve connected over our passion for design and  Color Boards and gotten to know one another as individuals instead of just as bloggers. Michelle has a beautiful heart and I’m so excited to be able to call her a “real life” friend and not just someone I’ve connected with virtually. She’s awesome, so be sure to head over and check her out! 

Hi! My name is Michelle and I’m the writer & designer behind The Momma Bird. I’m addicted to my iPod, coffee, and Grey’s Anatomy. I stress out over a messy house yet mine is always messy. And I’m an animal lover, despite the loads of hair that falls off my dog on a daily basis.

I’m a former teacher turned SAHM turned WAHM. I am married to a military man which means we have the pleasure of living overseas in England! I love writing about our life, parenting, being a military spouse and showing the world my sarcasm.

Life changes us.

Most of the time for the better. But sometimes it’s neither for better or worse – it’s just a change.

I have changed. In my younger, high school years I was outgoing, spontaneous, independent & FUN! Always the life of the party, doing something crazy with my friends and looking for new adventure. On the weekends you could catch me stealing those big orange cones and putting them in various places around our town, throwing mattresses in the community pond, or jumping off a roof of an abandoned house onto five stacked mattresses. Yeah. Insane!

In college I kept up with most of those attributes but toned it down a bit as I was planning my career. Instead you would find me studying on the weeknights but then letting loose on the weekends. I pulled all-nighters, went to clubs, pranked random people throughout the campus and took weekend trips with my friends. Still fun & outgoing – but not as wild.

After college I was still fun but now I had a “real” job. I had to be up early and actually change the lives of children in the community! Whoa! During this time is when I met my man. He & I started dating – one thing lead to another and we were married with two kids, living in England – all in a matter of 4 years.

If I were to describe myself now, it would be – loving, busy & paranoid. I’m always thinking of crazy scenarios that could land us in a life or death situation, cleaning up after my 2 little boys, designing blogs and trying to make sure our house is a home. On the weekends you’d find me staying in PJ’s all day, not showering until the late afternoon & being completely content not leaving the house. Every now and then we may take a trip to London to go be tourists, but that’s not a regular occurrence.

Life changes us.

I may not be the exact person I was 10 years go. But I’m still the same person in my core. I still love with all my heart. I’m still the most loyal friend you’ll ever have. I still know how to make people laugh with my witty sarcasm & I most certainly still try to be silly – even if it now involves dancing like an idiot or hitting myself in the face to make my kids smile. And if that means I take less risks than in my younger years, so be it. I have a husband, children, family and friends who still love me the same.