If I could sum up Instalife Lately in 3 words they'd be: spring, school and design.

I've been spending all of my free time lately doing genealogy and I'm so obsessed. I've been taking mini trips out to cemeteries and towns where my ancestors were born, lived and died and it's been very cool. Finding where you come from and putting faces and names together is very surreal. I highly recommend to anyone to start! Once you do, you'll be hooked!


The rest of life has been filled with family shindigs, design work and school. My parents decided to finally get rabbits at their house so now Conrad is super attached to them. <3 I've been helping a friend with all of her wedding invites, print materials and what not so that's kept me busy. I also have some really amazing design projects going on. I'll share those as they are completed. School is going really great and I'm excited to finish the semester out.

The leaves are all over the trees in the yard and I'm loving it. The bluebonnets are everywhere and everything is just thriving... and I'm sneezing of course. I'm excited for Spring and Summer. I've got good feelings about it. Adventures and new things ahead. 

 

FOUR MONTHS SINCE AN INSTALIFE LATELY POST? GEEZ. I know you are all just dying inside because you haven't see one (joke) but seriously I can't believe I haven't gotten around to it with all of our recent shenanigans! Christmas and Valentine's Day have both come and gone. It's been much more chill lately which is great because that means more time for life.
This past week we had a wonderful 4 day weekend thanks to Texas winter and our inability to handle anything frozen lol. No complaints here. I finished rewatching Mad Men in preparation for the upcoming season finale (whimper). I cooked lots of soup and bakes lots of unhealthy things. It was not productive at all, but oh so relaxing. :-) It's so nice to literally do nothing. (minus the 10 + loads of laundry!) Sadly the day that school was back in session was also the day that we happened to get actual SNOW, and not just freezing mud. Nonetheless we had a great time off.


And it looks like we'll get another early day due to snow! And this time we'll actually get to play in it! See ya later guys!
 

 It's been a while since I've done an Instalife Lately post! I'm much over due. Life has been busy as always, but particularly exciting lately. With Halloween, my birthday and other life shenanigans going on we've been going non stop (big surprise huh?)




I've been having a lot of fun coming up with creative ways to display things in the store. Conrad and I went to the circus with several friends from work. I took Conrad to his first play last month and he LOVED it. We saw Texas A&M Commerce's production of Big Friendly Giant. It's was so fantastic! I've rediscovered my passion for drawing for fun. Its funny how some things can become a chore when you have to do them so much for work. A recent design porject that I've been working on lately has inspired me to create some of my own hand lettered pieces for my shop. (more on that project later!) My hair has gone from red to orange and now plum. It seems like everyone's birthday is in the fall so we've been attending lots of kiddo birthdays.

I recently joined Ipsy! It's so exciting! I love snail mail and fun packages. I also love makeup, so this was a math made in heaven. Try it out if you haven't before! Basically you get a new little cosmetic bag each month filled with different things based off a short quiz that you take when you sign up. So far my favorite thing that I've gotten is a gold nail polish, liquid eyeliner pen and the prettiest shade of wine colored lipstick for fall!

Anywhoo - lots of photoshoot planning, christmas shopping and craftiness in my near future! What have you been up to?

As a designer with soft spot in my heart for helping small businesses market themselves, I'm a HUGE believe in social media and its magical powers to the take your business from nada to mucho. As a small business owner, I'm desperate for any form of free advertising and exposure that I can get. Speaking from my recent personal experience I HAD to share what I've learned with you guys. I'm sure you all use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and your blog in some form or fashion to promote yourself, your product or your service. If you don't, well, please start.

I can finally share the exciting news now that the papers are signed and all that jazz! I'm opening a studio + shop!!!! *Insert my super happy dance* It's been a dream of mine for literally 10 + years to open a studio + shop. I plan to sell my vintage goodies in store as well as handmade items from local artists and crafty peoples.  I'm very excited to not only be opening my dream shop, but also to be able to share it with the community. I already have plans for art shows and community events. So keep your eyes and ears open! Great things are to come. I will still be selling online AND keeping my "day" job so panic for me yet. haha. It's going to be tough and a lot of late nights hours to be put in but I'm beyond stoked and anxious and terrified.


Photos 1-5 : My soon to be studio + shop!! From the original tile floors and tin ceilings to the exposed brick walls, it is beyond what I could've ever dreamed of having. Bonus: it also has a large private back patio with a mini stage. I see many acoustic shows and get togethers happening here. So if you are crafty or an artists and interested in consigning your creations contact me! howdy(at)gypsybeard(dot)com !

Other than PLAN PLAN PLANNING and dreaming, we've been enjoying the summer while we can.  From hanging at the park to going to Brand New concerts life has been full of fun these days. This picture that my mom took of my son in the pool is by far one of my favorites from summer so far. We've had lots of soccer, movie marathons and water gun fights. Conrad's new favorite activity however is catching fireflies. =) I was so excited to get this pretty rainbow picture a few weeks ago. I love photographing rainbows.


I have a fairly HUGE client right now that I will be in it for the haul with so I'm super excited and blessed to be working with them. They couldn't have come along at a better time in my career. Here's a peak of one of the many projects we currently have going on.



Well that's it for now! I better get back to work!
Happy Tuesday!


Kat

So.... are you as obsessed with Instagram as I am? I know a lot of bloggers, including myself, have a feature that in some fashion features Instagram photos. I have "Instalife Lately" to show my photos from the past month or so. So when I saw this cool new idea I was stoked to share it with the world.

Tens created sunglasses that basically change your world into an Instagram photo! I'll admit that I own a few pairs of sunglasses that definitely give my world a reddish or orange hue, but to take it to this extreme is very interesting and super awesome in my book. I immediately went to buy but unfortunately you can only preorder them now. I thought the video was super cool. Check it out!

  

It's been a super crazy few weeks with starting soccer, field trips and work but hopefully I'll have lots of great things to share soon.

Tata for now.

Kat