giveaway: paule t.b. illustration

today i have the perfect fall giveaway for everyone!

paule t.b. illustration is offering one reader their choice of either of the two 9"x12" prints above!

all of paule t.b.'s prints are giclee on beautiful, canson acid free watercolor paper. everything is drawn and printed by miss paule herself, in her studio at home. here's an example of how lovely her print quality is!

to enter:

must be a follower of young people in love

visit paule t.b. illustration and let me know which print is your favorite!

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winner will be announced next friday!
good luck and happy, happy autumn time to you!

so much to say

when we're not eating, sleeping, or peeping in our dipe, this is what we're doing.



it's so funny to see her little personality show more and more. from the very beginning, we've always joked that she's been super comfortable at expressing herself verbally. i guess some things just don't change!

but seriously. she does this yelling talking thing alllllll the time.

my favorite fashion blogger: zipped

i'm so excited to introduce you all to my absolute favorite fashion blogger today! 

chelsea of zipped has, as far as i'm concerned, the absolute best style. if i could have any fashion blogger's wardrobe, it would be her's. sure there are plenty of other fashion bloggers out there who also have great clothes but chelsea is the only one who, after looking at her blog, i think to myself, "hmmm. i could actually wear something like that and it would be comfy/make sense/work for my body type/wouldn't look like i was trying way too hard." and i feel like all of those qualifications are pretty hard to find in the fashion blogging world these days. am i right? plus, something about all the cozy layers reminds me of oregon. and that's always a good thing. 

check out zipped. you'll love it. i promise. 

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Hi, all! Thanks so much to Sam for letting me take over her lovely site for the day. As a girl who blogs a mix of personal style and the best seasonal trends, I'm sharing my closet essentials with you all. My personal style sticks to classic comfort, but I like mixing it up with texture and color.

Weekend

When I layer, I always make sure to include a few different fabrics and textures. Here, I layered a cotton tank under a knit sweater and canvas jacket, paired with a pebbled vegan leather bag and natural stone necklace. Because my color palette tends to be pretty neutral, layering textures is an easy way to add visual interest.

Workweek

If I'm not planning an outfit around different textures, I like to anchor my look with neutral basics. Here, I took a basic grey blazer and dark skinnies, and tossed in some contrasting colors: red and turquoise. The fun print of the top breaks up the solids.

Following my basic outline for putting together an outfit, here are my top three items for fall!

Romwe sweater, Current/Elliot jeans, Mango blazer

Thanks again to Sam for asking me to guest post, and feel free to stop by my blog, Zipped, and say hello!

next stop, legitsville!

our new website for kelly arts: films is up and running! chas and i are so happy with how it turned out and can't wait to add more of our work to the site!

we worked with a good friend of ours, stephanie hammer, for the website design. we can't say enough good things about what it was like to work with steph. she gave us exactly what we wanted in our design and is still working on business cards and a logo for us! she's like the designer energizer stephanie bunny! she's also an amazing photographer with a pretty darn cute blog. annnnnd she rocks a pixie cut like it's her job.
check her out!

spots for october sponsors now open!

october is going to be a fun month and we'd love to have you and your blog/small business along for the ride!

email youngpeoplelove@gmail.com to reserve your ad space today!

our weekend

we had some great family time over the weekend! 

friday night, our neighborhood friends hosted an outdoor family movie night. these are the kind of friends who make their own marquee sign (what?!) and have the cutest candy concessions and popcorn machine you've ever seen. the whole thing was enough to blow up pinterest's entire site with adorable-ness. we didn't stay long because it was already past hero's bedtime but it still felt like the most magical ending to summer i can imagine. man, i love our neighborhood and friends here.

on saturday, we drove to provo. ro and i watched chas play on his ultimate frisbee team in the morning and then we went to a chalk art festival and ate pizza with some good friends. back at home, chas and i got creative with our dinner due to having almost no food in our fridge and neither of us wanting to go to the store. hello, nacho quesadilla! (to share. there wasn't enough for us to have our own.)

on sunday, we slept in and spent the day attending the brigham city temple dedication. that evening, hero had some high quality bumbo time while chas and i peeled a bazillion tiny apples which eventually turned into apple crisp. what is it about peeling apples/potatoes/anything that will always make me feel like either a prison inmate or an old-school marine?

and now it's monday. it's chilly, cloudy, and the leaves on the mountain outside my kitchen window are the most beautiful colors. hero just woke up from a 5-hour nap and i can hear her talking to herself.

i'm still in my jammies. and i am happy.

apple picking

we went apple picking yesterday with cousin, banks.

while my mom and sister were filling bags, i was busy taking pictures of my baby in a bucket of apples.  (priorities)
hero was thrilled about the whole situation.

if you have a great apple recipe, please share! i have so many apples now and almost no clue what to do with them.

i (phone) spy

love, instragram @samajama

sorry if these kinds of posts are boring, old news for my insta followers. there's just something about seeing these little snapshots all together that makes me feel oh so very grateful.

at-home date ideas

Hi there! I'm Eliza, the voice behind Case Study - a lifestyle blog that focuses on my obsession with autumn + my love of traveling, knitting, doing the laundry, and wearing stripes. I'm currently enamored with sending/receiving mail + busy checking things off my 22 while 22 list.

Last fall Thomas + I got married, which means our first anniversary is coming up soon - and it's been a crazy, busy year between the wedding, graduation, two moves, and a new job + move on the horizon! Translation - our need for quality "us" time has increased drastically. Our solution has definitely been to put more emphasis on making our day-to-day routine special. Going out for the occasional dinner + move is still wonderful fun, but because we simply don't always have the time/money/resources for going out, we've come up with a few things that make dating at home still feel special.

+ Weekend Brunch // Cook together. Try new recipes. Eat outside. Eat in bed. Get dressed up!

+ Movie + Dinner // Wear heels. Write out a menu of what's being served, and lay it across his plate. Turn off the lights and light candles. Put on some music. Serve dessert!

+ Sleepover // Push the furniture out of the way. Bring out the sleeping bags. Set up with plenty of blankets and pillows. Rent 4 or 5 movies. Get snacks. Put on your pajamas. {Even if you are married/living together, send a text/email early in the day + invite him to stay overnight. A little flirting never hurts!}

+ Share the Love // Bake for the local nursing home staff. Volunteer. Borrow your sisters' kids + go to the park. Be creative!

+ Get-to-know-me // Plan them separately and let it be surprise! Yours might include blogging and deep conditioning treatments. His might involve Xbox and soccer. Whatever activities you choose, do them together!

So if you just had a baby (like Sam!), are spending every moment studying for the GRE (like me!), on a budget (like most of us!), or simply looking to shake up your routine, I think you'll find that these ideas really add a little flair to at-home dates. :)

Do you have at-home dates? What are some of your best ideas?

Thanks for having me, Sam!

I'm always on the lookout for new blogs, so I hope you'll come by Case Study + say hello!

angie + alex: save the date

Angie + Alex: Save the Date from kelly arts on Vimeo.

we had so much fun shooting this little film over the weekend! angie and alex were such a blast to work with and had us laughing the whole time...except when we were all holding our breath ;)

new film! a day on the farm

Day on the Farm from kelly arts on Vimeo.

over labor day weekend, we spent some time down at my in-law's farm in fairview, utah and made a little film to document our fun day!

(for more info on our videography services, email kellyartsfilms@gmail.com)

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and the winner of the shabby apple giveaway is...

congrats! 

and i think to myself, what a wonderful world

it looks like all things cutesy girly blew up all over these jammies. all that's missing are the ponies. but i love how they look on her. such a big girl. 

the weather has been wonderful lately. stormy clouds, a bit of rain, a glorious rainbow, and officially the best sunset i've ever seen in my life. 

i've felt really content and happy with life. maybe it's the new hair. or the way baby ro looks when her bedtime bottle knocks her out, fast asleep. or it could be the rainbow and sunsets. a maybe a little bit of all these things. 

it's not all sunshiney flowers and bunny rabbits but it is good. and it is enough.

rookie mistake

i've been kicking myself lately for taking hardly any pictures of hero with our real camera. it's so easy to just snap a bazillion instagram pics and call it good, ya know? but when we have a decent dslr camera, it's silly to not use it and get some good quality shots of our girl as she grows up.

our amazing friend, holly, made this blanket for hero. and hero is kinda obsessed with it. we have it draped over the side of her crib so she can easily look at it. sometimes, when she wakes up from a nap, she'll be mid-cry, glance over at this blanket, and burst into huge smiles. she also loves to just lay next to it and chat. chas and i like to think that she still prefers looking at our faces over looking at this blanket but i secretly doubt it.

and now i'm reeeeeeally wishing i had shots of her on her favorite blanket when she was a newborn, 1 month, and 2 months old. ah well. starting at 3 months will have to do. better late than never!

we've combined our powers and are officially starting up a videography business!

as you may know, chas has his degree in filmmaking and works as a professional film editor for a local ad agency. for the past few years, he's also worked on making mormon messages and "i am a mormon" portraits for the lds church. since being married to chas, i've discovered how fun shooting video and editing can be as well!

and now, chas and i are super excited to finally be able to tell all you wonderful blog friends about our new project! (if you haven't already guessed, we made the "ries family portrait" video in yesterday's post!)

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KELLY ARTS: FILMS

we specialize in video portraits of families, couples, brides/grooms, save the date, special family events, friends, etc.
we're excited to be able to provide these fun videos for people at a super affordable price!

here's a recent testimonial of our work:

"i've always been reluctant about family photos because they felt very "posed" and not real-to-life for my family. when my wife wanted to have a video made, i thought it would feel like family photos. everything was planned out well and i was worried about being directed. when i saw the final video, i was amazed that it didn't feel posed or planned. the situation of the video became a backdrop that let the character of my family shine through. the video is full of little facial expression and habits and looks that i usually only see in lucky photo snaps. in the end, i felt like the video was a reflection of my family rather than a reflection of the filmmakers. we are definitely planning on having sam and chas do more videos for us as our family grows." 

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so while chas and i finish getting all the business stuff up and running like an official website and business cards, we're going to be running an introductory special: 

sign up within the next 30 days and you can get your own video portrait for an amazing deal! families, bridals, couples- you name it- we'll make it! 

spots are limited (available in utah) so email kellyartsfilms@gmail.com for inquires, pricing info, and to book your shoot!

hint hint...

Ries Family Portrait from kelly arts on Vimeo.

remember how i said chas and i are working on a fun new project?...

check back SOON for more details!

shabby apple giveaway!

i've got a great giveaway for you all, today!

one reader will win a $50 gift card to shabby apple! and you if haven't seen their new "zoology" collection, you're missing out! such cute stuff.

and, for the next month, anyone can get a special 10% discount from shabby apple with the coupon code youngpeopleinlove10off 
so now's your chance to snag the perfect new dress for fall!

to win the $50 gift certificate:

must be a follower of young people in love

visit shabby apple and leave a comment here telling me which dress or item is your favorite

for an additional entry: 

like shabby apple on facebook

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good luck! winner will be announced next friday.
(i wish i could win this)

p.s. thanks for everyone's super sweet comments about my new hair yesterday! seriously made my day so thank you :)

short hair don't care

(sorry for the crappy instagram quality pic but I just couldn't wait to show you all!)

such a fun change.
hooray!

this is happening.

i've always had fine, soft hair. it grows fast and i used to be able to wear it long and pretty. it used to be really nice. but that was back in high school.

after my divorce a few years ago, i lost a good deal of my hair from major stress and it's never been quite the same since. and now, my crazy postpartum hair loss is not helping the situation at all. thin, thin, and more thin. sometimes i wear it down and i think it's looking alright. then i happen to see a picture of myself. yikes. option b? wearing it almost everyday in a gross little antonio banderas ponytail. not ideal.

so guess what?

instead of always feeling frustrated with my hair and trying to make it something it's not, i'm gonna try embracing reality...and chop it all off. shorty short short!

in a time when looooong hippie are all the rage, why not be a bit different? could be refreshing :)

wish me luck!

3 months!

today is september 4th which means our little hero marilyn girl is three months old!

i know everyone always says this, but i really can't believe how fast she's growing up. and while i sometimes wish she would sleep on my chest all newborn snuggly-like, she's more fun in a lot of ways now! chas and i still die whenever she decides to "talk" to us and now that's she's fitting her 3-6 months-sized clothes, it's a blast to try on all her new, big girl outfits.

we've also started this fun thing where after she wakes up and finishes her bottle each morning, we bring her into our bed and just play together as a family for 30-45 minutes before chas has to start getting ready for work. it's probably my most favorite time of the day. just some really special little family togetherness time.

i once heard someone say that instead of being bummed that her kids were growing up, she always maintained the belief that every single stage is fun and wonderful in its own, unique way. from baby, to toddler, to teenager, to adult.

i love that.

so, for now, life couldn't get any better than homemade onesies, baby leggings, and sweet little coos.

a good man

this weekend chas:

worked with me until late at night on a new, exciting project (more about this to come!).

drove all around the salt lake valley with me in search of a new computer (still on the hunt).

joined me in laughing until we cried (craughing?) while trying to say our nighttime prayers. (have you ever tried to pray aloud while you have the uncontrollable giggles for no reason at all? not that easy. not that easy.)

listened, rubbed my back, and got me lots of tissues while i had a reeeeeally big, ugly-face cry.

took care of hero almost all day on sunday (including getting her all dressed up fancy for church).

made homemade pizza with garden fresh basil for sunday dinner.

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a good man isn't so hard to find around these parts.