Smile And Wave

Day Six

Grandma Mary's bathroom has pretty paisley wallpaper in it. Ruby gave me about 30 seconds of standing still before she found the nail polish. She now has pretty red toe nails!

xo,
Rachel

A Rite of Passage

She's growing up fast, ya'll!

She's petite, she's expressive, she greets everyone with a "Hi-yee" and kisses her food. At almost 20 months, it doesn't get much better.

This week's reminder that she's a busy toddler soon-to-be angsty teen was her repeated request to have her nails painted. She had asked me, her Big Papi, and her Grandma Mary to help a girl out with the polish. I wasn't sure if she'd sit still long enough to cover one foot much less get them all done and dried without a mess but the squeaky wheel gets the grease, err, polish.

We did her hands in a light pink and her toes in red and after getting over the sight of her pretty little toes being covered in Lady-of-the-Night red, I was smitten. Anything that cute is even cuter with red nail polish. Age appropriate? Does it matter?

Umm...why haven't we done this before?

See! Adorable.

She can't stop staring, either. I think I have a new hobby.

Ruby's wearing: Top, c/o Misha Lulu. Skirt, handmade from vintage placemats. Bloomers, thrifted.

How old were you when you first got your nails done?

xo,

Rachel

Day Five

Ruby's been taking her dragon medicine and is feeling much better. So far she hasn't contracted scales.

xo,

Rachel

Day Four

Sebastian played spray tag with his Big Papi in the backyard tonight. In case you aren't familiar (I just made that term up) it's where you turn the hose on an unsuspecting grandpa and hope he thinks it's funny and spends the next forty five minutes running around the backyard letting you hose him down between hiding spots. A great way to water your lawn or get some exercise.

Sunday loved it. Ruby didn't.

xo,
Rachel

 

My Blog Makeover: Why I Chose DIY

Blog design has always felt out of reach to me. It's a lot of coding, html, working with elements indirectly, and technical stuff that feels unnatural to me. I like to move things around with my hands and then move them back quickly when I decide I don't like it. I like to feel familiar with my tools and confident in what I'm creating.

I also know I need a big challenge every now and then to keep learning and growing.

I had the opportunity to work with Leigh-Ann of Freckled Nest Design back in 2009 on a blog redesign and was so happy with the final outcome. She was easy to work with, very professional, and helped me out with things I didn't even know I needed!

A year and a half passed, my blog grew, and my aesthetic changed. I knew it was time for a fresh look but couldn't settle on a color story much less a whole new design direction. I kept putting it off and putting it off because I wasn't sure what I wanted and other things were taking priority.

Somewhere along the way I had the notion that I wanted to learn to do it myself. I know how important it is to support people in their strengths and delegate when you need something that you don't have the skills or time to take care of but suddenly I wanted to take on this huge project that I knew nothing about.

I was on Twitter one day when I saw a tweet from Elise Blaha Cripe about having one spot left in her new Blog 2.0 workshop and went straight over to see if it was something relevant to my situation. I read the details as quickly as I could and then hit Purchase, holding my breath hoping I'd scooped up the last spot. I was in! Then suddenly I realized what I'd done.

I was terrified that I'd made a rash, unreasonable decision to give time to something I didn't have much time for to create something else that I REALLY didn't have much time for but also elated that I'd taken a leap and done something SO far out of my comfort zone. I haven't been more proud of myself in awhile.

Six weeks later I was holed up in my studio or bedroom every moment the kids were asleep or occupied with Brett. I was learning new photo editing software, Pixelmator, as well as everything offered in the workshop and making progress daily. I had never imagined how much work it would be or how much I would enjoy the process.

Almost everything I needed was covered in Elise's workshop and what wasn't (photo editing, switching blog content over from previous blog) I was able to figure out through YouTube tutorials or late night help from internet friends (thank you, Steven Haddox). I'll share more on what was helpful in a future post.

The ONLY reason I felt confident enough to take this on was because I knew Elise's workshop would walk me through the process, teach me the basics, equip me with tools to use for future makeovers, and leave me with a finished product. After taking the course I am even more sold on it. In fact, you can read my official blurb here.

The good news is that Elise has just made spots available to take her workshop again! If you've been thinking about a blog makeover or a switch to Typepad and want to have a new set of tools in your proverbial tool belt, I highly recommend Blog 2.0. Spots are limited so don't wait too long!

If you're in the market for a blog makeover or website design but don't have the time or interest in doing it yourself I can highly recommend the designers over at Freckled Nest. They offer a variety of styles, are very professional, and will work with you to reach an end result you're really happy with.

I'm already thinking of ways I want to improve upon the current design but I'm really happy with things (and things in progress) and so proud of myself for doing something hard and taking a bit of a risk.

Do you think taking calculated risks and challenging yourself with things that may seem scary are important for personal growth? Have you had success or failure with previous risks?

xoxo,

Rachel

NOTE: The class is taught using Typepad as a blog host, which was how I finally chose Typepad over Wordpress. I've heard great things about Wordpress and might have chosen it if I had the same opportunity but I've been very pleased with Typepad.

 

Day Three

The perfect capture of how things sometimes feel. I should title this one 'Holding it Together' or 'Smile and Wave Flail'. Taken by Sebastian.

I think my kids are turning into little photographers.

xoxo,
Rachel

 

Wanna Sponsor in July?

If you're interested in sharing your vintage clothing shop, home goods, handmade wares, or fantastic blog with Smile and Wave's over 4,300 readers (in Google Friend Connect), you'll want to grab an early spot!

My current rates are only available for two more months so jump on board and take advantage of these prices while you can! For more details and to secure a spot for July e-mail admanagers@frecklednest.com.

Looking forward to another month of pretty sponsors!

xoxo,
Rachel

Day Two

Taken from the parking lot on a potty break while traveling West. At this point the dog had already thrown up in the car twice and we'd stopped three or four times...in three hours. The advice to not feed her was helpful and probably saved things from being much worse. Thank you for sharing your road-trip-with-a-dog advice!

xoxo,
Rachel

A Month of Instax - Day One

For the next four weeks I'll be sharing an Instax a day. It's a fun little project to document our time while Brett is away. Using instant film causes me to want to be more thoughtful about what I capture so I think this will be a fun challenge.

Today I've got photos from our early Father's Day celebration at Gailey's. We treated Brett to his favorite breakfast place earlier this week and gave him his Optimus Prime talking Father's Day card and new wallet early. Sebastian wore his thrifted Transformers shirt and recently gifted Optimus Prime mask (yes, I'm slipping) and sat at the bar while we sat a nearby table and entertained our sick baby girl.

She wanted to play with the Instax camera so I let her hold it and showed her where the button was and this is the result! Her first capture. Interesting, well-composed, and not even blurry. 

You can't go wrong with breakfast food, instant film, and people you love.

Be back tomorrow with a photo from the road.

xoxo,
Rachel

Oh Dear

Brett is leaving for LDAC early Friday morning and we're all sad. Last year when he was gone for four weeks we didn't really know how it would affect us, what to expect, how we'd make the time pass quickly, so ignorance was bliss in regards to the weeks before his departure. This year, we know.

We know it's important for his career and that he'll be more equipped as a leader and a soldier when he's finished. We know he'll come home an officer and all of his hard work thus far will feel like it's gotten him somewhere.

We also now know how much we depend on having Brett around to maintain our happy family rhythm. We know that when he's not here we're all having to work harder to have what we need from each other.

This year I've been dreading him leaving but at the same time I've got a lot less anxiety about being on our own. We're in a different place this year in a lot of ways with Ruby being older and finally sleeping through the night and Sebastian being more independent. We've got great neighbors and friends that have already offered to take Sebastian with them on fun outings, to mow our lawn, and to bring over iced coffee and adult conversation. Road trips to see family are also going to be invaluable distractions.

I'm slowly starting to see the potential in the next four weeks instead of the emptiness. It's no longer a black hole in our summer but a change of pace.

In other news, Ruby has Bronchitis and will be using a nebulizer with a cute dragon mask for the next 10 days. I am hoping she sleeps a lot this weekend to catch up for the last two days of NOT sleeping. Also, if anyone has any advice on how to get our dog from point A to point B in the car without throwing up, I'm all ears.

xoxo,

Rachel