1000 Follower Celebration (Mabels Labels)

Today is our 2nd giveaway for the 1000 Follower Celebration!

Talia started school this week, so it seems like an appropriate time to introduce Mabel's Labels! :)



Below is my video review:



Things to Know:

- labels are dishwasher, microwave and laundry safe
- labels are customized with a child’s name, choice of colours and icon
- you can fundraise with Mabel's Labels
- shipping is free in Canada!

Giveaway:

One of you will win an Ultimate Back to School Combo (worth $42)!

To enter, just fill out the rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Don't miss yesterday's Pick Your Plum Giveaway! And by the way, there's something pretty cool going on over at Pick Your Plum today- don't miss it!

1000 Follower Celebration (Pick Your Plum)

Today kicks off the giveaways for my 1000 Followers Celebration!
Today I'm going to tell you all about Pick Your Plum!



First, feast your eyes on some of the kinds of things you might find on their website:



Now, I'm going to tell you some more about Pick Your Plum in this little video:

Video Review:



Things you should know:

- 1 awesome product is up for sale each day (M-F)
- crafting, fashion, baking, and home decor swag at amazing prices
- sign up for the Pick Your Plum newsletter to get the daily deal in your inbox
- deals are posted on the Pick Your Plum facebook page 1st!

The Giveaway:

Pick Your Plum is celebrating with me this month by giving one of you a $25 Plum Box full of swank crafting, fashion, baking, and home decor swag!

Just fill out the rafflecopter form below, to enter the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

More 1000 Follower Celebration giveaways to come! All giveaways will be open until the end of September.

1000 Followers Celebration! (And How To Make Fortune Cookies)

Last month I hit a blogging milestone:



I hit 1000 followers on GFC!
I wanted to do something special to celebrate,
and to thank those of you who continue to read my blog. I'm so glad you're here!

So, I have some special product reviews & giveaways coming up this month, that I'm excited to share with you! All giveaways will be open until the end of the month.

I also have some blogger friends who'll be visiting to share some creative tutorials with you.

So, stay tuned, there're a lot of fun things to come this month! :)
(the first giveaway goes up tomorrow- you won't want to miss it!)

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P.S. I'm posting over at HowDoesShe today, sharing a tutorial on how to make your own fortune cookies!

Cherish the Dress (Amber)

Yesterday I wrote about my thoughts on the "Trash the Dress" trend in photography.
Today I want to share with you my first official "Cherish the Dress" session. :)

It was so fun to get out with my sister & create these photos!



We had to get some shoe photos- these were carefully chosen & needed some attention!


This is my favourite photo from the session. I love the setting, I love the way the dress looks. This was one spot we knew we wanted to use and the first place we headed when we set out to our location. So happy with the way it turned out!

If only we could've had someone along to take "behind the scenes" photos of this session. Oh, we had a great time hiking through weeds, climbing fallen trees, balancing on rocks in rubber boots, walking through freezing creeks to get edge-of-the-water shots, etc. Some great memories there :)





Now I need to clone myself and get some pictures of myself in my wedding dress! :)

If you'd like to see Amber's engagement photos, check them out here. :)

Trash the Dress, Rock the Frock, etc.

Have you ever heard of a "Trash the Dress" session? How about "Rock the Frock"? Or "Rock the Dress"?

When I first heard of "Trash the Dress", I saw extreme photographs of women in wedding dresses, effectively ruining them. Dresses on fire, covered in mud or paint, drenched in water, and so on.


Photo by John Michael Cooper

I've always loved the contrast of beautiful, new, fine things (like wedding dresses or fancy clothing) against an old, worn out, decaying setting. So this "TTD" trend sparked my interest. These daring, creative, edgy photo shoots drew me in because they were unique and they had that interesting contrast.

The symbolic idea behind trashing a wedding dress was that you wouldn't be needing that dress anymore. You're married, you're committed, the dress has served its purpose, so you trash it.

I love the idea of getting beautiful photos of a bride in a wedding dress.
I love the freedom of shooting the wedding dress without the wedding day concerns about getting a little dirt on the dress. I also love putting the bride in a setting you may not expect or that you probably wouldn't have the opportunity to do on a wedding day.

But I'm not all about trashing the dress.
I'm about cherishing it- creating beautiful photos that will be cherished. Beautiful memories that remind you of your wedding day. Photos that show off the beautiful dress you chose to wear on that important day.

I just felt the need to explain my take on this trend.
It's been on my mind a lot lately because of a couple of stories in the news about accidents when shooting brides in or near water. It's also been on my mind because my sister and I have been looking forward to the nice weather this year so that we could get out and create some special photos of her in her wedding dress after her Fall wedding last year.

In discussing our goals for her session, we agreed that sometimes these "Trash the Dress" sessions end in the water just for the sake of getting wet or saying that you truly "trashed" your dress. So, we set out to create photos that meant something to us. Daring, unusual, unique? Love it. And if she wanted to "trash" her dress (for real) in some way that had a meaning & purpose? I guess we would've done it. But that wasn't our goal for this.

I hope we succeeded. We had so much fun with it! I'll be sharing a sneak peek at the photos soon!

And I've decided I'll be calling this session a "Cherish the Dress" session. :)

September 2012 Sharing Time

I hope you've all had a GREAT summer!

We've got some really fun things coming up in the month of September including a celebration, a bunch of special giveaways, and some guests who'll be joining the party to share some really fun tutorials with you!