Newborn Sessions and Baby Fever

GAH! Baby fever strikes again!

Last weekend I got a call to take newborn pictures to the family that I recently did a maternity shoot for. And needless to say the little dude was ADORABLE! Unlike other newborns I've taken pictures of, this little guy had his eyes open almost the entire time. He was so alert and knew how to work the camera for only being 3 weeks old.

So now that I've been around and held this little precious guy, my baby fever has definitely returned. And that's so bad, lol. I'm sure other parents out there understand. Or even just females who have a random urge to have a baby, or even get a new puppy. There's something about little babies that just give you that urge. New baby names are just floating through my head…I'm pretty sure my boyfriend is going to murder me. (whoops)

Please excuse my little ramble about this new disease I like to call baby fever.

Recreation.

Aside from spending time with my family, the one thing I wanted to do while I was in Florida was recreate a photograph that I found at my Great-Grandmother's house. As I was looking through her photo albums, I found an old picture of the Disney entry gate. Like most tourists, the Walt Disney World Entry Gate is the first picture of the vacation. After I saw the vintage 60s-70s coloring of it, I knew I had to recreate it! I adored the way the color went with the style of the gate, and the clouds in the background. 

Luckily when I drove through the gate on my Vacation, the clouds were big and puffy (because a little Florida shower was on the way) and the gate was looking beautiful as usual. I'm so happy with the photograph I produced, and the way I colored it to kind of match the style of the photo she had. One major goal for me is to start printing out all my photos that I take and put them into picture books, or albums. I did this forever ago, and kind of lost track of it once just "putting photos on Facebook" became a huge thing. The last time I got pictures developed is when Madalyn turned one (She's almost three now). So yeah, I need to start doing that again. Hopefully one day soon I'll start on that project! Let's hope I remember! 

Florida Vacation: Day One

HELLO DOLLS!

I've been away on a holiday for the past week. I've been visiting my parents in the good ol' Sunshine State. FLORIDA. And boy, was it amazing. Ever since I've moved back up to Maryland, I've missed Florida so much. I miss the high speed limits, the non-crazy drivers, the atmosphere and most of all…the beach! As I uploaded all my photos from my week long trip, I've realized there was no way possible that I could fit all the pictures I wanted to share in one post. So for the next couple days I'm going to be sharing some experiences I've had when I was down there. (And there were a good many). One of which is when I (finally) ate at the British Pub I've been wanting to eat at for the past 6 years!

Anyway, here's an overview in pictures of the day I spent with Derek, Madalyn and my brother, Marty in Downtown Historic Saint Augustine. I love how old and unique everything is down there. And when I lived there, I didn't really appreciate it. But (as you can probably tell by the pictures), that changed a bit.

Fried Gator Tail…. Mmmmmmmm, yummy. ;)

Sunshine State

For the next week or so, I will be in Florida visiting my family. So my posts won't be so up to date, every day. But thus far! It's been amazing. I love spending time with my family that I haven't seen in a while, and plus my little sister turns 19 today. (She's not so little anymore, which just makes me feel old) 

To kick start vacation, my family and I went to the pool and just had a good old time. And afterwords we went to one of my favorite restaurants in Jax Beach called TacoLu. TacoLu is a sugar skull themed Mexican restaurant, and it's just simply amazing. The atmosphere is so relaxed and inviting. Plus the food is cheap and flipping amazing!! 

The decor in TacoLu definitely inspired me for some home decor ideas as well. I'm so excited to be spending the rest of my time here in Florida and sharing it with you guys. I will also be pigging out a lot so...expect to see more food. ;) 

Cupcakes and Mason Jars.

So as we were preparing for our fourth of July get together, I got a bit crafty. It's just in my blood, I can't help it! As Madalyn watched cartoons, Derek made sandwiches and homemade iced tea, I made the cupcakes and mason jars. The cupcakes were (of course) Red, White and Blue. Making multicolored cupcakes are really easy and simple to do. All you have to do is mix the batter as stated on the box, then separate it into separate bowls, add food coloring and then mix the colors when you put it in the cupcake tin. Granite it's extra work, but it makes for extra cute cupcakes!!

As those were baking, I started making a Mason Jar for all of my friends that were coming with us. It was Derek's idea to put their xbox gamer tag on their mason jars, and they loved it, haha. Here's all you have to do to make custom Mason Jars for any occasion. 

1. Get Mason Jars. I got mine from Michaels and Walmart. If you're buying a lot, I suggest going to Walmart. I got 12 jars for 8 bucks. At Michaels it's a dollar and some change for one, so you'll be saving money.

2. Buy Glass Paint. I got Martha Stewart paints. These were three dollars for one, so it was a bit pricey. But I wanted to make sure that they were washable and weren't going to peal off.

3. Start decorating! Derek wrote some of the names (except for mine…cause I'm greedy) and I decorated them. I like to do something different for each person, and be a bit creative. Luckily they loved them!

4. Bake them! If you don't want to bake them, it takes 21 days for them to air dry completely. So I suggest popping them in a completely cool oven, and then letting bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Pull them out and let them cool before touching-- glass is hot my friends.

After they're baked and cool, you can dish wash them and everything! Happy crafting! 

Fourth of July Picnic

Yesterday was amazing! Did you guys have a great FOURTH?!

We decided to get most of our friends together, and go on a picnic lunch at the river by our house. We found a nice little spot that had a mock beach, an area deep enough to swim and even a rope swing that hung from a railroad track. It was the perfect spot! And luckily the weather stayed perfect too. It wasn't too hot, nor too cold, and it stopped raining.

I even got my DIY on and made cute things for our lunch picnic. First I made these cute little decorated Mason Jars for each person. We took cupcake liners and placed it between the lid and the cup, poked a straw through it, which allowed us to just sit them down and not worry about bugs floating around in our drinks. I'm going to do a DIY post on in later this week, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

On top of that, I also made Red, White and Blue cupcakes. :D I'll do another lifestyle post on making those tomorrow. Overall the day was super amazing and great. It was a great time swimming and hanging out with friends. And I don't know about you, but I saw rope swing, and I instantly reenacted The Notebook scene. You know which one I'm talking about. ;)

I hope you all had a great fourth of July and celebrating our Nations independence! And if you're in a different country, I hope you had a great day!! 

Easy 4th of July Craft!

The Fourth of July is tomorrow!! (insert dancing here).

I'm so excited to celebrate our independence of this country. Even if it doesn't feel like it now a days. Sometimes a little "School spirit" will go along way with me. Time to dress up in the Red, White and Blue and have a good time. If you have a little one and want to do a little bit of crafting tonight or tomorrow, here is one easy one to do!

I simply put Madalyn's hand print in blue on the left hand side. You can add cute little white stars on the inside if you'd like. I didn't have white paint though. And then take your fingers and make the stripes of the flag! She loved getting her hands in the paint, and it's a cute gift to give or even hang on the fridge! I hope you guys have a great 4th tomorrow!! 

Make it Happen.

Do you have your own business? Are you looking to start your own business? Have a dream or something that you really want? Don't just sit around and hope it comes to you or works out for you. Sometimes all the schooling in the world doesn't even help! So what do you do? 

You, MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Lately I've come to realize that it doesn't matter what college you went to, how many degrees you have, or the lack of children you have to be successful. All it takes, is YOURSELF. You need to wake up each morning in the right mindset, get yourself on a schedule and apply yourself to your main goal. My biggest challenge has been becoming a morning person. Lately I've been waking up, getting breakfast, getting a coffee and then taking Madalyn to Barnes and Noble to play with the train table (That's her thing). Doing this every morning just puts me in a better mood, opens up my mind, and allows me to think clearer when I'm trying to get my business schedule together.

A few things I've been planning on working on is getting and being a sponsor to blogs, becoming closer to bloggers and actually creating a relationship and also mass marketing my brand. All in which is very important to my goal. Other little things I've been working on is actually planning out my blog posts, instead of randomly deciding what to blog about that day. And finally I'm in the works of creating my very own newsletter. So hopefully everything will take off the ground, and into God's hands!

On that note!

If you'd like to swap ads, sponsor, product swap, spotlight swap or simply just chat it up then email me at: brittanyhugs067[AT]gmail[DOT]com. 

A Beautiful Mess App

Hola dolls!!

So one app that I'm completely obsessing over right now is A Beautiful Mess app!! If you've never heard of their blog I highly suggest you go check them out {here}. Their little slice of Blog heaven is based around life. Emma and Elise's blog features DIY projects, Recipes, Lifestyle, Photography and Fashion. It's seriously one of my go-to blogs I look at every morning.

Their app is one of a kind! It's a photo editor app that allows you to edit your photos with style. This app allows you to add filters, text, borders, doodles and pre-written words to your pictures. Its only available in the itunes store right now, but will be available for android users in about a year. You cant go wrong with this 99 cent app! This pretty much creates the cutest pictures for Instagram and your blog! 

Let me show you some of the features :) 

As you can see, this app is sure to add some flare to your Instagram photos, and even maybe your blog photos! I definitely recommend giving this glorious app a try!