Hello 2016, We've Be Waiting for You!

Adios 2015! You were bumpy and quite frankly I was over you a while back. Yes, some amazing things happened in 2015 (YAY for starting my own business! and love the new bebes you brought to the world, as well as the happy couples you brought together in marriage), and I hope those are the things I look back and remember. You were also exhausting and definitely dealt some cards that myself and others had a hard time swallowing. I will say though, I learned a lot about the strength of others (friends & family, you truly amaze me!) and myself. I worked hard to accomplish the resolutions I set for myself last year (still wanting to keep those going!) and to be honest, I went through a lot of lip gloss (you'll have to read through to understand)!

Every year has it's purpose and I'm happy to say that you also got me going in some great directions! You handed me new professional goals, both in my day job and in my small business. You helped Dustin and I work towards personal goals, and I will say, we did some kick a** home projects this year, even if they did take the whole year (powder room, I'm looking at you). You showed me that in people's darkest moments, they still manage to find some light to guide them. We said goodbye to great people this year and I hope I was successful in learning something from each of them.

2016, we are welcoming you with open arms! Ready to continue with the positive directions 2015 ended with. I have many goals and I'm ready to work on those starting now. I want to work on myself, on our family, on my career and on my business. It's going to be a busy one!

I started writing out lengthy descriptions to all of these, but realized you all have goals yourself that you need to get going on instead of reading my babble! I will, however, give a couple comments on the items around Love of Character. Excited to say that we are working on growing! We have some amazing new brands to introduce this year and I am working hard on a new website that will hopefully give more opportunity for growing the site. I also have a great charity project in mind that I will definitely keep you all posted on. As for this little blog, I am making you a promise that I will post more. By more, I don't mean pointless, waste of space posts. I want you to be a part of the great things going on in our life and the business' life. I want to share the crazy things we learn while tackling a new project. A new camera arrived this week and I'm so excited to start taking pictures with it! There are some things we've done I will catch up on posting and then as mentioned above, our project for this year is tackling the upstairs bathroom. Oh, and I guess I still have a lot of wall space needing to be hand painted in the powder room. Let's hope powder room isn't still on the list for 2017! ;)

While you are reflecting on the year ahead, keep this in mind and don't put too much pressure on yourself:

We get wrapped up in trying to make everything happen and end up wearing ourselves out. Do things with a lot of passion, but make sure to pace yourself a little. 2016, I have good feelings about you! Cheers to a year of hard work, pay off and some fun!

To see the sources of the image above, please check out my Pinterest page: Pretty Prints

Lots of Love,

Party Crashing - Bachelorette Party in the Desert!

A couple months ago I shared these colorful invitation boxes for a friend's bachelorette weekend (find details here) and a couple weeks ago we finally had the fabulous party! Ryan, the bride-to-be, is getting married tomorrow, so I felt it was an appropriate time to share the adorable decorations from her last fling before the ring.

Ryan's little sister and MOH, Quinn, did an aMAZing job planning and getting setup for the weekend. We had so much fun and went to some fab places. The decorations were adorable and I already offered her a gig if she gets tired of nursing :) The flamingo ring game we spotted on Sugar & Cloth's Instagram and thought it would be perfect with some diamonds on the rings. Definitely something I'm going to keep in mind for the future. I loved her strands of pom poms she put with the glitter Bachelorette sign and her sparkly confetti was fun on the gift table. Also, her fiesta touches added the extra touches of color needed to decorate the rented house. Here is a list of the fun places we went over the weekend, in case you are wanting some fun ideas for your Scottsdale Bachelorette Parties:

The koozies and sash were actually designed and drawn out by me. I have some more of the koozies that I will be posting in the shop soon and I'm also going to have a custom option available. The sash, I worked on with a friend who is a graphic designer with mad printing skills. Firming up a couple details and then we will also get those added to the shop!

It was such a fun weekend and I cannot wait to celebrate the big day tomorrow! Ryan and I have known each other since 2nd grade and I'm so happy she found the love of her life. How did we grow up so fast!? Had to share a couple funny kid pictures before sharing the fun bachelorette all grown up!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

Cheers & Lots of Love,