Happy Friday!

  Hooray we made it to the end of the week!  I don't know about you but this week was a bit of a struggle for me.  Feeling out of balance of sorts mentally and feeling some stress at my 9-5 job.  Most of those unplasant feelings have diminished a bit as I was able to sort out feelings last night in my hot yoga class. It's only been my second week going, but when I say it's transforming, I mean that I feel like a calmer, saner, and healthier being when I leave the class.  It's the best way (I've found so far) to decompress after a long week of work and it leaves me feeling totally refreshed to finish my last day of work on Friday.  Not to mention I sleep like a baby at night!  Transforming, I kid you not! And it's a fun way for Joe and I to schedule a gym date every week too! 

  I wish I could tell you that my weekend will be relaxing, but Joe and I have lots of exciting plans in the works for our new business adventure called Coach House Pictures.  So we will be designing business cards and website pages to get that side of the business more organized. Until next week!  Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for joining me this week :)

All Into Fall

Hi everyone!  I first want to give a warm welcome to those who have found my lil blog via BYW.
And a giant thank you for all your sweet comments I've received this week.  It has truly inspired me to keep posting everyday this week (so far), yippee!! Today I wanted to share a small table top duo I shot around this time last year.  Along with them I wanted to share a few tricks to compose a shot like this, without emptying your wallet.

  I'm always looking for fun and interesting surfaces to photograph on and this one I used cost only 99 cents at my local Michael's  craft store.  It looks pretty close to the worn surface look I was seeking.  Another source for inspiration is taking a trip to your local farm stand, farmers market, or orchard.  They tend to have the freshest in session produce you can find.  Plus they make for great holiday decor around your home after you've photographed them.  And finally try going on a walk in your neighborhood. It's fun to collect fallen leaves from the trees and inspect all the different varieties that surround you.  After your done with them put each leaf in between pages of a heavy book and come Thanksgiving you'll have a festive and creative element to add to your festive table!  Have fun!

Shades of Autumn

It never truly feels like Fall until I get to experience something in nature.  When the air is crisp and the smell of burning leaves fills the air.  This past weekend Joe and I packed our car and headed out of the city for a much needed time in the country.  We met up with some friends in McHenry at Stade's Farm.  It's a quaint family owned farm located 50 miles outside the city. It was definitely worth the trip!  We had a blast taking a hay ride to a REAL  pumpkin patch were we picked out the best looking gourds.  My friends jokingly asked if this was better that shopping at Aldi, where I usually go to buy my pumpkins.  And oh was it ever!  We stayed until the sun went down indulging in there famous hot apple cider donuts, hot coco, and sweet corn on the cob.  Later that night we headed back to my good friend Alise's house were we carved our pumpkins and roasted all the yummy seeds! We had a blast and can't wait for next years fall outing!

Pattern by Orla Kiely

 All Photographs found in Pattern.

I poured through this lovely book by Orla Kiely called Pattern as soon as I got it home and since I've
been totally inspired by the BYW e-course I'm currently taking, I thought it might be a good idea to parallel how other successful creative's work and how they are influenced to keep creating fresh and new ideas into the world.  Orla Kiely is one such influential designer with a hugely successful global brand that started out with handbags and has since expanded to include accessories, travel & homeware (you might have seen some at Target), and a womenswear line.  Despite how big her brand has grown in size, it was refreshing to read that her ideas come from practicing new ways of learning to see the world around her. By discovering what you gravitate towards in shape, colors, moods, and themes, you start to develop a confidence in your own preferences which trains your eye to be a more critical editor.

"Inspiration is always the beginning of the design process. Next comes the research phase, where you delve into it all in more detail, gathering information of various kinds and trying out ideas in sketches and drawings." I've included just a few of my favorite patterns and photos from this book, but it truly is a great visual resource of inspiration and a wealth of information about building and sustaining a brand with new ideas that have a lasting impact.

Free Download: Vintage Bias Tape Labels

  I thought I'd start the week off by sharing a fun free download I worked on over the weekend.  I have a small but plentiful collection of vintage bias tape that I've been sourcing from flea and antique markets for the past few years.  And having been inspired by Katrina lately (and all her lovely design downloads), I decided to share with you a few of my favorites from the collection, in 3 color ways, and turned them into labels for your personal use.  I like to use these as captions in my posts and I'll probably be using them as labels for my sidebar tabs sometime in the near future, I hope :)  Until then, enjoy these here!

Photo Frame: EV Photo Chic

Weekend Works

Hello Friday!  You're here and I'm so happy that you are :)  Joe and I have a jam packed weekend, starting with a trip to the pumpkin patch and corn maze with friends tomorrow.  As for the rest of the weekend I will more than likely be spending it behind the sewing machine creating a paper project for an upcoming event for Coach House Pictures (we are shooting are first wedding together in a few weeks, eep!) I'm so excited to be taking on this new photo adventure with my best friend by my side, none the less :) For now we still have lots to plan and will be working like bees up until the day!  I can't wait to share with you highlights of what we capture!  Until then, have an inspirational weekend!

Photography: evphotogal
Photo frame: Pugly Pixel
Font: Fling

Loving: Lost Type Fonts

Recently I've been on the hunt for a font to spruce up our Coach House Pictures logo and yesterday I may have found it.  Or, so I thought!  I found this little jewel of a site called Lost Type fonts.  It's founders wanted to create a unique place where its designers get 100% of the profit they make from each font but here's the other fun twist, you decide how much you want to pay for each font!  Check out the library of fonts they currently have available.  These are some of my favorites above.  Time to start deciding which one of these will make the final cut!  Which font speaks to you the most?