MOVING!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to take a moment to let y’all know we are working on streamlining our social media tools and our website experience. To do this, we are moving our blog! Now we will have our website and blog integrated into one site! I’m pretty excited about this, and it’s a pretty big change for us. Please pardon the dust while we get it all ironed out.

If you’re following us here, please head to our NEW blog/website and follow us there to keep up-to-date! Check us out HERE.

 

Thanks y’all!

SPOTLIGHT: Rachele of BabyLove Brand | KariBelle House of Dongo feature

Welcome to a new feature to the blog… the SPOTLIGHT!

I am honored to share with you one of the people who has inspired me in the crochet world – Rachele of BabyLove Brand.

Rachele was born in Austin, Texas, lived in the Houston area, and now calls Cypress, Texas, home. While she started off knitting, once she picked up a crochet hook, she was….well… hooked

Rachele has been crocheting for six years now, and has the wonderful creations to prove it!

Rachele has made various things, but everything starts off as a blanket in her mind: “Well, I see everything as a blanket. Scarf pattern? Blanket. Cool shot of multi-colored pebbles on Instagram? Blanket. I’m utterly addicted to them, and if I try to do a small project like a hat, I actually experience anxiety! Comfortzoneitis.” She studies color in fashion, bedding, interior design, and uses sites like COLOURlovers and PANTONE for her color inspiration. Rachele also considers new shapes and textures while trying to put non-crochet ideas into a crochet format. Rachele loves taking inspiration from various talented pattern designers and springboards her own designs often. She even makes various iterations of the same idea, producing different results, from some of those new ideas and designs. Her biggest inspiration though, comes from mostly non-crochet sources.

So where did the name “BabyLove Brand” come from? Well, Rachele doesn’t want to just pencil herself into crochet. She has no ‘end-game’ in sight for her crafting…. maybe one day it will be selling hand-crafted wooden cradles or baby clothes. Either way, by not adding ‘crochet’ in her brand’s name, the possibilities are endless — the sky is the limit!

With all her wonderful creations, there are still challenging aspects of crochet for Rachele. The biggest challenge? “Putting my crochet obession in a box when it’s time to live life.” Beyond her crochet life, Rachele has three beautiful little girls and a wonderful husband. She jokes, “ I am still trying to overcome the urge to move to Abu Dhabi with nothing but my hooks and yarn.” In all seriousness, she lives by this rule: “ if time management isn’t a challenge for me then I don’t have enough on my plate.”

Rachele has been crocheting for a while now, and to fellow crocheters she offers this advise: “stretch your boundaries and be more flexible with what you think you can and cannot do. When I was a young tyke, my uncle told me “‘Can’t’ means WON’T!” Meaning that if you say to yourself that you can’t do it, well then, guess what? You won’t. Stay mentally flexible.” For new crocheters, don’t worry…. Rachele has a few words of wisdom for you too! “Check out the great bloggers out there. Reading about where other people started and seeing their creative journeys is a great tool to learn and get inspired. Attic24 is everyone’s fave, and Lucy is wonderful.”

Everyone has to have a dream within their passion right? When I asked Rachele what hers was….. “Great question! My dream is to inspire. I want to do and do and do. Pattern design, blanket sales, more following friends, and unique pieces. Oh, and a blog. I need a blog.”

Here are a few of Rachele’s crochet “favs”

• Favorite stitch: Crochet Moss Stitch
• Favorite colors to use: Red and turquoise
• Favorite style: anything with lots of color!
• Favorite yarn brand: Hobby Lobby‘s “I Love This Yarn”
• Favorite thing to make: Blankets
• Favorite part of crochet: “My favorite part is the light bulb moment. I love the adrenaline rush of creative inspiration that sends me hunting down my notepad and raiding my stash.”
• Favorite project so far: “My most popular project is the Geometric Lace Blanket followed by the Textured Circles Blanket. My favorite project might actually be the one I’m working on right now! It’s waiting for a name to be chosen by means of an Instagram contest. Stay tuned!”

Parting words from Rachele: “I’ve really enjoyed the positive response and hooky love for my creative endeavors. Many thanks to everyone!”

So now that you know a little bit about Rachele and BabyLove Brand from Rachele…. let me share what I’ve come to learn about her . Rachele is incredibly encouraging and willing to help a fellow crocheter! She’s not afraid to share what she knows with someone else (she’s helped me a couple times!). Her patterns (found in her Etsy store) are amazing, easy to read, easy to follow, and produce a great product. Her creations are beautiful and, well, incredibly creative! She is inspiring… she inspires me and makes me aspire to learn more and to continually improve my crochet.

Want to find Rachele out there in social media land now that you’ve heard all about her? Good!

Here’s where you can find Rachele of BabyLove Brand…..go find her, follow her! I promise, you won’t be disappointed!!

Website

Tumblr

Etsy

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram: babylovebrand

Spring is Here!

Spring is finally here! We rang in Spring by a random trip up to Port Huron on a rather chilly spring day and then our first trip out to the playground for the year!

We have been busy getting our goals and “wishes” for 2012 in line and the plans together to accomplish at least the majority of them, and admittedly we’re a little behind… but the good news is we have all year One of the things we’re really focusing on this year is something that is near and dear to us, which is Hurlers Awareness and supporting one of our friends and their family in their twin boys’ battle against Hurlers. In my previous post, we gave you a glimpse into what we’re trying to do and the reason behind it. Now one of the boys has had his transplant and the other should have his next month if all continues as planned. This family still needs our help and support, so please take a moment to head to our Facebook page and see how you can purchase one of our items in the New Hope in Blue line to help them. My husband also has a music venture under Kari David and has a song that was inspired by and dedicated to the Hurst brothers. It is now available on iTunes and Amazon … search Kari David and New Hope in Blue… all proceeds go to the family!

I need to be better at committing time to the blog here… we get so wrapped up in our day-to-day activities that it is one of the things I let slip over the past few months. One of the things I would like to start doing is a month in review type post…. and the reason I tell you is to help keep myself accountable We had to take a break from our Project 52 for a little over a month, but now we’re back at it… so I will include our photos of the week for our Month in Review!

I’m still excited for what 2012 holds, and even about some of the changes to what we thought the year would hold when we were evaluating a few months ago! We are putting a bigger focus on our boutique side and will be working hard to grow this side to join our photography side so the two will be a hand-in-hand venture We’ll also be giving the website another overhaul for 2012 so please bear with us while we get everything switched around… it will be more user friendly and streamlined for y’all to enjoy!

With that, I think I will close with a few of our favorite shots from Port Huron and the trip to the Playground.. enjoy, and don’t forget – we love hearing from you, so drop us a line here, on Facebook, on Google +, on email… wherever you find us

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Hurler Syndrome Awareness – Please join us!

About six months or so ago, a friend of mine shared some really sad news with us — that her nephews, twin boys, had a genetic disorder and this disorder has no cure. Her sister gave birth, full term at that, to two wonderful twin boys in March of last year. The boys seemed to be healthy as any other newborn, but as the Hurst family would soon find out, their little boys were about to enter the fight of their lives. The boys began to experience breathing problems and hernias. They had surgery to correct the hernias and it was supposed to help relieve the breathing issues. However, it did not and the family was referred to a genetic specialist. It was confirmed at that time that the boys are identical twins and that they both have a very rare genetic disorder called Hurler Syndrome.

Hurler Syndrome has no cure – all that can be done is manage the symptoms of the disease. It is an MPS I enzyme disorder (MPS Society) in which the child is missing an enzyme that is essential to breaking down the mucopolysaccharides dermatan sulfate and heparan sulfate. These mucopolysaccharides are stored in the cells of the body and cause progressive damage because they are not broken down completely. Infants show very little sign of the disease, but as more and more cells are damaged, the symptoms begin to appear. The Hurst brothers began displaying some of the symptoms. Among them: course facial features, ear infections, inability to straighten arms entirely, the start of claw hands, very low muscle tone, heart conditions, breathing problems, difficulty swallowing, collapsible palette, weak voice box & wind pipe, distended belly and hernia.

Now even though there is no cure, there are bone marrow transplants and enzyme replacement therapies that can help manage the disease. Without treatment, most of the children with this genetic disorder will not survive beyond early childhood (18 months-2 years). The Hurst family was put in touch with the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital who not only specialize in treatment of Hurlers, but are the ONLY place in the world that performs a very specific type of bone marrow transplant that targets the area of the brain that Hurlers affects. Prior to being able to have this transplant, both boys have gone through enzyme replacement treatments over the past few months and their family has been preparing to move to Minnesota for about 6 months. They will leave their home in Ohio and live in Minnesota during the bone marrow transplants and chemotherapy treatments… and as long as it all goes well, they will return home to Ohio. The family departs tomorrow for Minnesota and while they have received a lot of help so far, there is still a very long road and numerous expenses that they will need help with.

This is where we decided we wanted to help — this family aren’t just our friends – they are like family to us, and these little guys need our help in a big way to get through literally the fight of their lives. We struggled for a little while on how we can best help the Hursts. My husband, and partner in photography, also has a music project as Kari David. He decided he would write a song for these boys and dedicate it to them and their family. Once it is released for purchase (on iTunes and such), the proceeds will all go to this family — so keep your eyes peeled for the release so you can purchase it! In the meantime, you can find it on YouTube in it’s “rough” form … click -> Hurst Brothers New Hope (in Blue) .

For KariBelle Photography, we are going to be releasing a new line very soon to go hand in hand with this song — the New Hope In Blue Line. We will be making all the items of our boutique in this color scheme (done in Wedgewood with a touch of dark purple… the Wedgewood for the boys, Purple for Hurlers Awareness since purple is the color for Hurlers). 90% of the proceeds will go to the family and the other 10% will do into the purchase of more materials for the New Hope In Blue line… we will not keep any of the funds from the sales of the New Hope In Blue line.

Here are some “quick” links for you to check out more on Hurlers and keep up with the Hurst’s journey:

- MPS Society

- Hurst Brothers website

- Hurst Brothers blog

- Hurst Brothers Facebook

Valentine’s Day Giveaway

We recently added a boutique section to KariBelle Photography, and we’re really excited to start getting orders! We’re building inventory daily and will be getting photos up for all our items and yarn colors, but don’t worry, if you don’t see a particular yarn color, let us know and we’ll see if we can get it ordered.

To celebrate the opening of our boutique and Valentine’s Day, we are having a giveaway!

Here are the rules/ways you can enter:

1. Go to our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/karibellephotography), “like” it, and share this blog posting on your page and/or profile.

2. Tweet this blog post.

3. Comment here with your favorite thing about Valentine’s Day and why it’s your favorite. (Feel free to follow our blog!)

4. After Facebook sharing and/or Tweeting, come back and post here that you’ve done it (This is a must for entering via Facebook or Twitter.. if you don’t do this part, your entry is invalid).

These are the 3 ways you can enter… and each way gets you an entry (so if you do all 3, you get 3 entries). Entries will be verified/validated.

Winner will be selected randomly on Sunday, February 5th, between noon and 2pm Eastern Time. We will post a blog posting (which will show on Facebook & Twitter).

Now that you have the rules and ways to enter… I bet you’re wondering what you are entering to win! Fresh off the needles, you will receive either a headwrap or a hat (winner chooses which one) in one size of the winner’s choosing (infant, toddler, child, adult), in Valentine’s Day color yarn… multi-colored pink with a touch of grey. Below is the yarn color as well as a sample of the hat or headwrap.

Giveaway is open…….. NOW! Start submitting entries and we’ll pick a winner February 5th!

Project 52 | Weeks 1 & 2… and more of 2012!

We began our Project 52 this month… Week 1 was The New Year/Newness and Week 2 was Body Parts… here are the photos Kari and I took for both weeks:

Our photo projects are off to a great start, so I am looking forward to continuing on our journeys. We’ve found a few items for the scavenger hunt with A Classic Pinup (head to Flickr to find them), we have a photo due with NJ Photography this week – Laughter. That’s a tough one…we want to be original, crafty, and we’re excited about the challenge!

The bridal show was good – close to 2,000 brides were there with friends and family checking out all the vendors. I’m sure they were bombarded with information so we’re looking forward to checking back in with the brides and welcoming new clients from the show!

We’ve begun our “non-photography” goals already! We’ve been developing digital papers, drawing up some fancy things, and beginning to get our digital paper items all ready for everyone to be able to purchase, use and enjoy! We’re pretty excited about this addition to our KariBelle arsenal and we can’t wait to share them! Digital templates will be next as well as developing custom actions for Photoshop users.

We also decided we are going to begin boutique items! We’ll be offering hats, wraps, and many other accessories! We’ve not decided on an official release date for the boutique, but we’re building inventory right now so we should know in the next month or two when we’ll be “going live” with the boutique side.

Don’t forget about Valentine’s Day… it’s not that far away Our mini session is in just a few weeks, February 4th, and we’re looking forward to sharing in the love!

With Valentine’s Day coming, we’d love to hear from you… what is your favorite thing to do (or wish you could do/could be done) for Valentine’s Day?

 

Bridal Show.. 2012…. exciting things coming!

I don’t have an image to share tonight — sorry for that! But… We’ve got some exciting things coming in the next couple days and for 2012 that I wanted to share with you.

We will be at the Bridal Celebrations Bridal Show at the Palace on Sunday, January 8th from 12-5pm! We are super excited to be a vendor for this event — they are expecting THOUSANDS of brides, not to mention the friends & family that will come along too! How exciting! We look forward to seeing you there, and please spread the word! We’re offering gifts of 25% off wedding photography,  a free engagement session, or a gift basket from Bath & Bodyworks this year, so we’re pretty excited to see who will win these prizes and meet everyone who stops by our booth! We booked a session from last year’s show in Troy that is so unique (I’ve never even heard of this theme for a wedding!) that we are still anxiously awaiting the wedding day! These clients are such wonderful people & they were our grand prize winners last year… but y’all will have to wait until 2013 to see their photos (a teaser if ever I read one!). Will you be the couple that stands out this year?

One of the first things we’re trying is to identify when most of our friends & fans are seeing our posts on Facebook. We have a lot of exciting things coming in 2012 and we don’t want anyone to miss any of it… but with all the changes Facebook has made, we want to make sure we’re posting updates as they happen or during a time that most of our wonderful fans are online and can see it. That’s the first part of our goals

In addition to photography related goals, we are trying to do more things with the business this year than last year.. not just because we want to grow and do more things, but because we feel these new additions will round us out and allow us to provide our clients with the best possible services and other options as possible! We plan on offering digital toys… actions, templates, digital papers/textures and more this year! It will be closer to spring/summer before the first are released, but we are super excited about adding these to our arsenal!

Due to other circumstances, we have to redo our entire website.. this is not so great..BUT the new website… I am happier with it and we think y’all will enjoy it more and find it to be more user friendly, especially with our future goals in mind.

 

We are offering mini sessions this year too… 4 this year. February will be the first one as a way to celebrate Valentine’s Day… February 4th.

We’re super excited about the offering of digital toys! This is completely new for us. We don’t anticipate releasing these until close to summer, but we are working on getting some of these out as freebies before the official launch.

Many photo projects this year — a project 52 we’re doing on our own, Project 12 with MCP Actions, Project 52 with NJ Photography, and a scavenger hunt with A Classic Pinup! We’re so excited to be joining with other photographers this year and improving/enhancing our skills!

 

So that’s the short version of 2012.

On that note… hopefully we’ll see you at the Bridal Show! But if you’re not able to make it, swing by our Facebook to say hi (http://facebook.com/karibellephotography)!