Saturday, July 28, 2012

The Amador County Fair


Hello!
I wanted to share a few images I shot of the kids at the Amador County Fair....
You can visit my facebook wall if you would like to see more images of the kids showing their steers at the fair...
Bethany actually wasn't supposed to be smiling at me in this picture, she was supposed to be paying attention to the judge... : )


The girls getting ready to go wash their steers off for the evening....


My son Trent won reserve Champion Market Steer.....


Nicole won the county 4-H local bred class....




Sunday is the final day of the fair......


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On a final note....
It is so hard for me to believe how much my three older kids have changed in the past year...
Honestly I am not quite ready for it....
Nicole will soon be turning 18 and is a senior in high school....
Trent is 15 and wears a size 14 shoe and is about to pass his Dad up in height...
Bethany is now officially a teenager...
Where does time go?
It goes way too quickly that is for sure : (

Enjoy the rest of your weekend...
Take Care,
Maria





Thursday, July 26, 2012

A Winner and Simple Decorating for the Fair


Hello!
I hope you are all having a great week...
I wanted to announce the winner of the 600.00 Sadie Olive Gift Certificate Giveaway....
The winner is.... Sarah of the blog Sarah and Drew B, Sarah has a beautiful inspiring blog, I did a lot of exploring on her blog yesterday and I hope you get a chance to check it out, there is lots of inspiration to be found.
If you missed my interview with my friend and website designer Sara Duckett, you can read it here, Sara truly is an inspiration to me.
You can check out Sara's design services here,
Sara's Shops here and here, and Sara's blog here...
Thank you to everyone that participated in this giveaway, I enjoyed reading every one of your comments....

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On another note....
The kids and I made some decorations for their stalls at the fair yesterday....


We made a memory board for each one of the kids....
I had another idea planned for these and didn't get a chance to make them how I had hoped : )
So we picked up some ugly cork boards, I made a bag out of the grain sack and slipped it over the cork board and sewed the open end up by hand.....


We added a few pictures along with a short write up about each kid....
We had to use a lot of tacks to secure the pictures otherwise the fans in the barn 
will blow the pictures away.... 


We also made some bunting to go around their stalls....
I just cut triangles out of the grain sacks and just sewed the tops over the twine....
The kids show their steers tomorrow...
It will be an exciting day!
Enjoy the rest of your week!

Take Care,
Maria

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Last Chance...


Hello!
Hope you all enjoyed your weekend.
This is my kids' favorite time of year... 
Our fair is this week, so the kids are busy getting their steers ready to take to the fair.
I will be sure and post a few pictures from the fair...
On another note...
I wanted to remind you that you still have a chance to enter the $600.00 Sadie Olive gift card giveaway.
The giveaway ends Tuesday July 24th at midnight.
I will announce the winner on Wednesday.


On a final note....
I snapped this picture while taking product pictures the other day...
The kids and Rambo decided to join in on the fun....
This image makes me laugh, Rambo always looks like a giant when he sits down. : )
I will share more pictures from this shoot later this week.

Take Care,
Maria


Monday, July 16, 2012

An Interview with Sara Duckett along with a $600.00 Gift Card to Sadie Olive Giveaway



Hello!
I hope you are all enjoying your week!!
Today I wanted to share an interview with the sweet and talented Sara Duckett of Sadie Olive with you....And she is rather gorgeous as you can see : ) I am in love with Sara's unique beautiful style....
I will also be giving away a 600.00 gift certificate to Sadie Olive... 
The winner will be allowed to use the gift certificate on design services or it can be used in Sara's shop....
Giveaway details will be at the bottom of the post.
Sara designed my shop website as well as my blog....
I can't tell you how happy I was with how everything turned out, I love Sara's work and highly recommend Sara's design services....
Sara truly is an inspiration to me in so many ways, that is why I am so excited to share her inspiring interview with all of you today... I hope you enjoy the interview and don't forget to sign up for the 600.00 Sadie Olive gift certificate giveaway if you wish to do so.



Tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to start your design business, Sadie Olive.

 I was always inspired by the small boutiques my mom and I used to frequent to buy home décor and knick knacks while growing up. I often dreamt of owning my own shop and imagined how much fun it would be to purchase inventory and stage the products that I sold. One weekend in 2007 I was reading a magazine about women entrepreneurs and I was literally compelled to jump up and make a go of it. I decided an online shop was the easiest way to start, so I filled for a business license, registered a domain name and the rest is history. It was supposed to start as a part time venture, while I worked full time in the mortgage industry, but a few short months after I started the business, I was laid off from my underwriting job. I was devestated thinking I had to give up on my dream, but after I was unable to secure another full time job, I started offering design work to my blog readers. Much to my surprise and delight, several of them hired me to help with their own blogs and soon I had fairly steady stream of clients coming my way.


 I love the name Sadie Olive, is their a story behind the name of your business? 
 Sadie Olive is the name Josh and I picked for a future daughter while we were struggling with infertility. When I started my business, I was terribly depressed, and the business was a perfect distraction from all of that heartache. I thought it was fitting that I use the name for my new venture. 

Sara and Josh recently adopted a beautiful baby boy named Finn.

What type of design work do you specialize in? 
I specialize in blog and template design for small business owners like myself. 
(You can read more about Sara's website and Template Designs here)
(You can read more about Sara's blog designs here)
(You can read more about Sara's design packages here)


On an average how long does it take to have a website built such as an online shop? 
 About a week. Most of my clients with online shops use a ready made site from Pappashop.com, the website and shaping cart are already built in and ready to use when I start my "design" process. So my job is to style the site and create a look that reflects the business and the owners message and personality. All of my designs are custom made for each client. 

I will send a series of questions over along with instructions for signing up for their website. I usually ask for color preferences, font choices, and design notes on anything specific they might want. Then I will use those notes to create a first draft and let them critique the design. And once I received their comments, I will use those notes to make revisions until we get the site just right. 




You also have an online shop, can you tell us a little bit about your shop? 
 I have some retail products that I stock in my main shop on sadieolive.com. I mostly sell linens, small home décor and some paper goods. 


It's just a small collection of items that I hand pick to keep in stock. Our Etsy shop focuses on vintage home décor and accessories. 
  You also have an etsy shop, what are the benefits to selling on etsy and what are the benefits to selling on your own website? 
 My main shop is really just new items, while the Etsy shop is all vintage. (Although some of the linens that we sell, do appear on both sites, as they are made from vintage fabric). I find Etsy is great for selling vintage. I love that there are always people on Etsy searching for vintage items, so I am able to reach some of those people just by being a seller there. Of course, with Etsy you do pay fees for each transaction, and with your own website you do not. However, the amount of money you can spend just trying to drive traffic to your own website is far more than any fees you pay to Etsy. With your own website, you can obviously customize much more than you can on Etsy. Like the size of your images, the layout, the categories, and more. 

 How do you keep from getting burned out creatively with all that you?
I get burned out ALL the time. But I try to switch my focus from one job to another when I get too burnt out. For example, I will focus on my photography or my vintage shop when I am tired of design work, and vice versa. 


 Do you have a favorite place you like to go to for inspiration? 
Etsy is a big source of inspiration for me, as are blogs and magazines. I find inspiration all over really, other websites, at Anthropology, from a business card or a photograph. It doesn't take much to get my creative juices flowing.


Thank you Sara for taking the time out of your busy day to do the interview!

Now for the giveaway information!
One lucky winner will receive a $600.00 gift certificate to Sadie Olive.com 
The winner will be allowed to use their gift certificate on design services and or 
can be used in Sara's online shop...
The winner will be chosen by random.org
The giveaway will end at midnight on July 24th.

Giveaway Rules!

1. All you have to do to be entered in the giveaway is a leave a comment stating how you would use 
your 600.00 gift certificate to Sadie Olive if you were to win....

OPTIONAL
If you would like to receive additional entries.....
(in order for additional entries to count please leave a separate comment for each additional entry)
2. Share the giveaway on your blog (optional)
3. Post the giveaway on facebook (optional)
4. Post about the giveaway on Twitter (optional)
5. Post about the giveaway on Pinterest (optional)

Thank you Sara!

Take Care,
Maria

Saturday, July 14, 2012

French Farmhouse Items Sneak Peak


Hello!
I have lots of fun French Farmhouse items to share with you which means I have lots of photographing to do : ) 
I wanted to share an image from today to give you a sneak peak of some of the new items that will be available in the shop soon....
I will be posting items to my facebook page before loading them into my shop...
You don't need a facebook account to visit my wall either : )
Also at the beginning of the week I have an interview with the sweet and talented
 Sara Duckett of Sadie Olive along with a fun giveaway...

On another note....
Thank you to everyone who shared their favorite summer activity on my last post about Souvenir....
It was fun to read all of your favorite activities....
I also wanted to share the link to the magazine Souvenir Lifestyle again just in case some of you missed my last post....
You can view the free preview by clicking on the image...


Enjoy your weekend....
Take Care,
Maria 


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Vintage French Bistro Chairs and the Souvenir Summer Issue is here


Hello!
I hope you are enjoying your week.....

I am so excited the summer issue of Souvenir is now available....
It is a beautiful issue filled with inspiring stories...
There are 122 pages of content and it is ad free!
Congratulations to Heather Bullard and all of the contributors...
It is available digitally or you can also purchase a print copy via the website....
You can sign up to be on Souvenir's mailing list here...
You will receive emails that will notify you of when the new issue is out...
I wanted to giveaway 5 digital copies of the magazine today....
The first five people to state their favorite activity to do during the summer months will receive
a free digital copy of the magazine....
You can also see a free preview below of the magazine : )
Thank you Heather Bullard for having me as a contributor!


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On another note....
I finally got a chance to take some new product pictures for my shop....
Here is a peak at what you will find in my shop...












(this one has sold, I do have more enamelware that I will be adding this week)



I will be adding more products to my shop over the next few days.....

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Grain Sack French Farmhouse Kids' Aprons


Hello!
I hope you all had a great fourth of July....
I wanted to introduce you to our French Farmhouse Kids' aprons.
My sister Liz makes these from European Grain Sacks...
We use twill tape for the ties.


 Yuridia was my little model for the shoot....
I am so mad that grass was blocking Yuridia's face : (


She decided to feed Lili some of her blueberries and we discovered Lili loves blueberries.


I also was able to get some bistro chairs shot and those will be listed tonight.


Enjoy your day!

Take Care,
Maria 


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Beach Tables from Holland and a Sneak Peek


Hello!
I recently found these sweet little vintage tables.
They come from Holland and were used in beach houses.
They make the perfect coffee table...
I shot these pictures last week for my shop....
I went with a patriotic theme in honor of the fourth of July : )
You will find these tables







I love how simple these little Dutch tables are....



These raspberry tarts came from Andrea's Bakery....
If you are ever in Amador City, Ca it is a bakery you must check out....

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On another note I wanted to share a sneak peek of the Souvenir Lifestyle summer issue...
The issue will launch July 10th!
I am so excited to see this issue....
I have a couple of projects I worked on for this issue,  and I can't wait to see the
other contributor's stories.

You will then be notified when a new issue has launched....
Congratulations Heather Bullard!


We were also encouraged to share a behind the scenes image.....
This is my little friend Yuridia.....
Yuridia helped me bake a few things for my story as well as helped taste test the food : )
You can catch more behind the scenes images on Souvenir Lifestyle's Facebook Wall....

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On a final note....
I wanted to say a special thank you to Stacy of Red Door Home for featuring my home
on her blog!  Be sure and check out Stacy's Blog and etsy shop, she makes beautiful items!

Enjoy your day!
I am off to San Francisco with the girls...
Take Care,
Maria