New Year's Rezzies

Well its that time of year again... The decision to make any New Year's resolutions, and the decision to actually keep them...

Do you make any resolutions, and do you keep them? That is the questions!

Here are my top 10 resolutions for 2012!

1. Buy a unique piece of furniture for my home! I am saving my pennies for the lucky chance I find an amazing vintage dining table. I want to pair it with some new modern dining chairs!


Although I love this white dining table, I am hoping to find a dark wood table and white chairs!

2. Have one of my Dad's photographs printed on a large canvas for my walls! My dad is an amazing wild life photographer. He recently went to Africa with a photographers group. They camped out in the wilderness to be as close as possoble to the action. He got a ton of amazing shots, and all sorts of great stories to go along with each one. This is one of my favorites below.


Two very large Bull Elephants chatting at a waterhole in Etosha, Namibia, Sept 2011

3. Buy a cool piece of jewelry! If you know me well, you know I am a lover of all things accessories! I use to make and sell jewelry before I got into making hair accessories, but now I just make pieces for myself. I would love to indulge and buy myself a nice pair of earrings. I have been admiring these beauties from an etsy shop in the Netherlands.

4. Stop biting my nails when I get stressed!!!! A bad habit that I have done since a toddler... I reward myself with gorgeous polish!

5. Wear more leopard print! Spruce up the old wardrobe!!

6. Cook more make ahead meals... I love to cook, but with two kids and activities, I often find myself struggling last minute trying to come up with a dinner plan!

7. Do something cute with my hair that is easy to style! I have been growing my hair long, but it often ends up in a messy updo or ponytail. I would like to get it texturized for some added volume! P.S. need to find a new hair dresser as mine as moved... Bummer!

8. Download a bunch of upbeat songs that make running more fun! I hate running... Like really hate running, but recently bought a gym pass. The gym has this amazing track that makes me motivated to run!

9. Get another tattoo! I got my first tattoo almost 5 years ago now. I have been itching to get another one,and found one I am in love with! Friends of ours own a tattoo shop so I know I will be in good hands!

10. Buy more fresh flowers! I love how my house looks and smells with fresh flowers in my little vintage floral vases. I made it a New Year's rezzie to buy a bouquet of fresh flowers once a month. If you cut the stems short, the flowers last longer. Also, add one drop of bleach to the water to help ward off the bacteria that grows in the water and kills the flowers faster!

More than anything else, I want to dedicate 2012 to just enjoying life. Stop sweating the small stuff, sit back and take it all in, imagine with my kids, and spend even more time laughing with my husband! Life is a beautiful thing!

Happy New Year Everyone! Wishing you all a hugs full of happiness!

xoxox

Things Inspiring Me Right Now

I must say I have been in creative overload lately... So many fun things are inspiring me right now. It could be anything really... A specific color or color combo, a theme, photograph, art work, flowers.

My motto for the NEW YEAR!

For months now, my obsession has been Christmas, but now that the end is near, I am really excited to start focusing on other things.

Here are a few images I have been loving lately!




I am really loving hot pink and seasprite green! So vibrant and reminds me of spring! You will start to see lots of vibrant colors in the Giddy Up & Grow shop!

  I have been designing some Disney Princess Hair Clip sets for the shop, as I was getting a lot of requests to bring back the Disney Halloween headbands I had in the fall. I wanted to make something that was a little less costumey, and more wearable for every day. So I made smaller versions. Here are a few examples of the sets in the shop, with some of my inspiration!

I was recently contacted by the style editor at Babiekins Magazine. Currently an online magazine, with their first print magazine to come out this spring! I love the way this magazine focuses on photography, and they are really picky about the types of images and products they feature in their magazine. So, I was thrilled when they asked for me to send them one of my accessories for an upcoming photo shoot!

This is the accessory they asked to use, so I can't wait to see how they shoot it!

Also, I currently have a promo on the mini studded bow hair clips! Buy 2 Get 1 Free, for a limited time only! I get so many compliments on these little guys, and I wear one myself all the time! My daughter calls them her "hair pretties"!

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday with your loved ones!! I know I am looking forward to playing with the kids, sledding, eating and eating and eating!! New Years rezzy is to go to the gym!! LOL

Love you all!
xoxox

Images courtesy of Pinterest and www.giddyupandgrow.etsy.com

A Fresh Look!

Over the past month or so, I had the pleasure of working with a very talented artist! Her name is Stephanie Fizer Coleman, and she is the owner and creator of The Fox & the Teacup! I came to Stephanie back in the fall with the hopes that she would design anew business card look for my shop Giddy Up & Grow. She said YES, and I was thrilled.

She came up with several ideas, but what we ended up going with was a hand sketched version of one of my headbands! The perfect look to showcase both her work and mine! Here is what my new card looks like, and you can start to see them in the New Year!! Thank you Stephanie!! xoxox

On another note, I hope everyone is having fun gearing up for the busy holidays! Are any of you traveling to see family or perhaps a tropical location?? We are staying put this year! In fact its just our little family this year, as the rest of our family is headed to Mexico... Yes, without us! We are ok with that though, as the idea of traveling with two kids, stuck at a busy airport,with the weather we have, is very unappealing to me.

Instead, we plan on having a white Christmas, staying warm by the fire, eating, drinking and of course lots and lots of Merry!!

This is what a "classic" Christmas photo looks like at our house!

Our Christmas tree is now up, and did look like this the first day!

It now looks Brazilian from the mid point down, as my little one keeps collecting the ornaments as treasure, and hiding them.... Oh well!!

Happy Holidays!
xoxox

Holiday Spirit!

I am just itching to put the Christmas tree up, but alas the hubs insists its too early. I say its never too early for Holiday decorations, and the amount of effort it takes to hall everything up from the basement... Oh boy! But they look so darn great!!

Well,I guess I will settle for some festive Holiday baking for now. Like these amazing cookies from Oh,Sugar Events. These are way to cool to eat! I am trying to convince this company to ship these to Canada!!

I also love this idea of truffle hot chocolate. What a neat gift this would make for a hostess, or teacher! Balls of chocolate you just drop into hot milk! How decadent!

Here is a fun Christmasy activity for the kids, or kids at heart! How about playing with Gingerbread play dough!!! Ahhh I bet the smell alone makes you want to eat it, and hey if your like my kids, you probably do eat it!

If you plan on attending several Holiday parties, you might want to check out Rachel Pally! One of my favorite designers. Her clothes are effortless, super comfy and you can wear them over and over for many occasions. Just change up your accessories, and you have a different outfit every time! The caftan dress is my favorite style. This dress got me through two pregnancies, and they look great with gladiator sandals or heels!

The Giddy Up & Grow Holiday collection is almost sold out! It will only be available until December 1st, so don't wait if you plan on getting any holiday accessories for your littles!

The Heart Giddy Valentine's Day Collection is also in the shop now! Check out some of the new items! Lots of hot pink, glitter and sparkle! These make great gifts!!

Its Wednesday (hump day), so have a terrific res of the work week!!

xoxox

Its November!!

I can't believe we are into November already. Aside from the cold, snowy weather here where we live, I love this time of year! Full of festivities with family and Friends, snow sledding, warm drinks and hot fires! I can feel the excitement building as we draw closer and closer to the "big day". It seems on a daily basis, that there is another new "huge" flyer or holiday shopping guide on my door step. The kids love looking at the wish books, and picking out the toys they want to tell Santa to bring in his sleigh.

I love all of the special food that is created over the holidays. Small bite sized anythings is always a favorite! These bite size cheese and cracker tuxedos are super cute! Found at this amazing food website!

The gift giving is also fun! I love watching the smiles on my friends faces when they open a package prepared special for them! Here are some really cute printable gift tags I found!

I love flowers all year round, but I thought this was a fun, festive and clever way to jazz up your fresh flowers for the holidays! I found this idea at this festive blog called "Deck the Halls".

Giddy Up & Grow is of course in full Holiday swing! The Holiday collection has had great reviews, and I love seeing pictures of your little ones wearing one of my creations! Feel free to post to the Giddy Up & Grow facebook page!

The Holiday collection is only available until December 1st, so don't wait! These make great hostess gifts, birthday gifts and stocking stuffers!

Hope your first few days of November are fantastic!

xoxox

My Goofy Kids!

Totally for the g-parents!! The pictures were taken on Thanksgiving at the local Pumpkin festival!

Behind the kids is a 500 pound pumpkin that was dropped by a crane onto a crappy car. The pumpkin crushed the car!

We went on a horse wagon ride!



On the wagon ride!



Watching a motorcycle show!

Hope you enjoy Danny & Tampa!

Thank you to my Peeps!

First, I want to say "Thank You" to all of the people who have "liked" my Giddy Up & Grow facebook page either recently or from the start!! So in my loudest voice "THANK YOU"... Its great to know that so many of you like what I do, and I have been receiving so many comments lately about how your recent photo shoots have turned out beautifully!

As a way to thank you, I recently had a Buy-Two Get-One free shopping event at the store. It was a huge success for both the shop and the shoppers. Everyone came away with some great accessories!

So now on to other topics!

I don't know why, but I have had this topic come up in conversation many times recently... "My kids don't sleep!". Mine included... My oldest did not sleep through the night until he was 3 1/2 years old, and even now at almost 6 still wakes up in the night from time to time.. My youngest at 22 months, is awake 1 or more times throughout the night, and awake for the day at 5:30am like clock work! Long gone are the days of sleeping in! What I have learned throughout the years though, is that things change all the time. Two months from now, they change their schedules and its a new set of issues. I try not to stress over the little stuff, and drink LOTS of coffee. Thank you Tim Hortons and Starbucks!

I thought this was beautiful and also multi-functional. You could use this board for many different Holidays, and just change the message up!

I love this Winter wreath too! Such a neat idea, and you could easily use a pair of old vintage skates found at the thrift store. The more banged up the better I think!

I guess I have my mind on the inevitable here... Living in Canada often means winter shows up early, and stays for a long while. So to get through the cold, I think of fun ways to accept it!!

Hope you all have an amazing Sunday!!

xoxox

All images courtesy of Pinterest.com

Turkey Coma!!

Ahhhh we had our Thanksgiving feast yesterday! My husband is the chef in our family, and he did an amazing job! A gorgeous turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, greens, gravy and the list goes on and one! After we ate an enormous amount of food, we said what we were grateful for!  My son was the sweetest... at 5 1/2 years old, he said he was most grateful for having good friends, a happy family and lots of Thanksgiving food. he then said he was thankful for his big bin of lego!! Made us all smile!

This weekend we also enjoyed some "fall fun"! We attended a pumpkin festival and enjoyed a horse drawn wagon ride!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can now focus on Halloween! Decorations and costumes need to be finalized for kiddie parties and of course the "big night"! My daughter will go as a lion (hand-me-down costume), and my son wants to be Indiana Jones, his idol!

I have been truly amazed with so many awesome handmade costumes that I am having a hard time deciding! I saw this one on etsy.com and thought how clever to be two characters in one!

Little Red Riding Hood with Wolf ears and tail!

I also get a kick out of people who dress up their pets! Our dog (wiener dog named Oscar), is now eleven years old and could care less about the Halloween festivities. He would rather lounge in front of the fire, so we will leave him alone this year!!

Hahaha I had to chuckle at this one!

I love this idea for pumpkins this year... I found this idea on www.marthastewart.com. You can buy the plastic vampire teeth at your local dollar store! You just carve a mouth, and slide the teeth in, brilliant!!

Halloween items are no longer available in the shop, since I want to make sure they arrive in plenty of time! But..... the new Holiday Collection is now available for all of you early Holiday shoppers. I used both traditional and modern holiday colors for this year's collection! You can view the entire collection here at Giddy Up & Grow.

xoxox

Images provided by Pinterest and Etsy