The braces saga continues

Yesterday I hurdled over speed bump courtesy of the Air Force. Since we moved right in the middle of my orthodontic treatment, I needed to find a new orthodontist FAST in order to keep on track with my goal of getting them off in the April/May time period. I actually made appointments with several different orthodontists to see who was going to be the best fit for me. Through that I found the perfect orthodontist to finish out my treatment and he actually has the same plan for me as my orthodontist in Mississippi which is really great.

Now for the update... the only way to fix my deep overbite in my time frame without jaw surgery is to use a horrible device called "forsus" which is essentially modern-day headgear.  I only need to get it on the left side of my mouth but wow this thing looks super dramatic (see picture on right). GAH! Isn't that crazy looking? I will pretty much be robo-mouth. Has anybody out there had these before? Are they as painful as they look? Oh goodness. It really is the best method though to fix my problem. I mean, it does the same thing that those annoying rubber bands do but in a third of the time! If all goes well, I will only have to wear this contraption for 3 or 4 months and the braces will be OFF for good! And with time to spare for my sister's wedding...yesss!!

There is a piece of good news in all this (well most people probably wouldn't consider it good but I really really do haha). I am getting my braces off tomorrow for a whole week!! My new orthodontist needs to put on different brackets since they don't use the ones I have on currently (yeah, good job Mississippi) so that means I get them off for a week while my new ones are made. Obviously this is quite the extra hassle but words can literally not describe how excited I am to have them off for a whole week!!! I'm going to dress up and go out and feel pretty, while chewing gum the entire time :)

Change is so good.

Hey! Check me out! Like the makeover? I have OFFICIALLY split my personal and design blogs.

"Busy Thoughts" will live on at its new home (www.busythoughts.com) and will be all about blog design! It's under construction at the moment but I can't wait to get it launched. Stay tuned!

And now this blog is officially my "I can talk about whatever I feel like" blog :) Yay!

Getting away from it all

Even though we've been on "vacation" for 2 weeks at Jake's parents house, we really haven't been relaxing too much at all. Jake's been busy catching up with all of his friends and family and I've been trying to spend time with him as well as keep up on my workload and take care of the puppies - One of us is always doing something and it feels like we've barely even seen eachother! So we decided to take a spontaneous mini vacation to Kahneeta Resort in Central Oregon. The room prices were a steal since it was the Tuesday after Labor Day (which also meant that we basically had the resort to ourselves) and it was just the perfect way to spend some quality time together and get away from it all. We even decided to leave our computers at home {gasp!} Oh, it was wonderful! We played in the pool (a nice warm pool that's fed by the warm springs), relaxed in the spa under the stars, and enjoyed a fun night out. Well, actually, because the resort is in the middle of the desert there wasn't anywhere to go, so we ate at the yummy restaurant at the hotel which stared out over the beautiful desert mountains and then headed over to the Indian casino to test our luck. Apparently neither of us are big gamblers because after $10 worth of penny slots we lost interest in the whole thing. Oh, but I was a BIG winner. Check it out.

After I cashed out my big win, we spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing and people watching. It's so amazing all the characters you find at a casino! We had a lot of fun and it was nice to just be together. Just the two of us.This morning we slept late, enjoyed coffee on the balcony, and savored every moment of our little spontaneous getaway. Like I said, perfect.

And now we are back and I am dreading tomorrow. I won't see him again (my favorite person, my better half) until Thanksgiving and saying goodbye is always the hardest part...

Brainstorming

Since I launched Lindsay Nicole Design Studio in May, I've been constantly brainstorming for new ideas on how to improve and expand the "shoppe". There are so many different ways to go and so many things I'd love to do all at once. Right now my work priority order seems to be custom design work first, school second, and business expansion/research third. I find myself wishing there were more hours in the day because the last item on the list always gets cut short. So on this labor day morning, I'm bumping priority #3 to the #1 spot and trying to organize/set some realistic goals for myself and my growing business. Here are some things I want to do before the 2010 year comes to close - or hopefully sooner :)

First and foremost, Busy Thoughts blog is going to be split into 2 separate blogs, a design blog and a personal blog, and my personal blog is going to go "private" - GASP! Not to worry, anyone and everyone is still invited to read my blog but you will have to email me for an invite or "follow" me to be able to view it. The reason for this switch is pretty simple. I originally made this blog to keep my family and friends updated and also to post pictures, honest thoughts, and little memoirs for myself to look back on. Ever since I have linked my business name to my personal blog I've felt the pressure "edit" or direct my blog posts to be something that I would want potential clients to see (instead of giving my weekly play-by-plays and life details like I used to). Another reason to go private with my personal life is that Jake will soon start going on deployments and TDYs with the Air Force and I would like to be able to talk about his being gone without worrying about who knows that I am home alone. With a private blog, I can more control who is reading my blog posts and as my business grows I don't have to worry as much about my privacy or safety.

So what will the new Busy Thoughts design blog be like?

Oh I am so excited to tell you about this! In addition to giving weekly updates about my studio and showcasing my new premade templates and custom work, I plan to write weekly "how-to" tutorials for blogger and photoshop! Not only will this drive some new traffic to my site but it will help all of you who want to make simple additions to your blog but need a little step-by-step help (such as adding a special font to your posts, or adding a special address bar icon). I also plan to start doing some template giveaways and offer some design freebies.

And the design blog will be a perfect place to showcase inspirational blogs I've found, write about controversial/interesting design topics, and maybe even do some "interviews" with other graphic designers and artists out there to highlight their talent and expertise. So many ideas... now I've just got to find some time to put this all into play!

The premade shoppe will also be getting a good and much needed update. I will be adding 8 new templates this fall and the prices will now range from $20 to $60 so there will be a template for every style and budget! Also "add-ons" will start being offered for the premades, so if you wanted to add (for example) a scrolling header or a specialty font to one of the templates you would just pay the add-on price. That gives you the ability to create a more "custom" blog but for the premade price :)

And I am so excited to say that soon I will start offering custom Wordpress designs!! Realistically I'm not sure this will happen until after the holidays but it WILL be happening :) Wordpress is a really great blogging platform, especially for business bloggers and photographers, and I'm so excited to be able to add this type of custom design to my services. Right now I am getting prepared by taking classes and training specifically to design Wordpress themes... I'll keep you posted when I'm done and ready to officially start!

Whew! I think that's about it for now but I'm ALWAYS looking for new ideas and ways to improve + expand so if you have any thoughts  or advice please email me or leave a comment - I would LOVE to hear from you!

Hope everyone is enjoying a lazy Labor Day :)

Date Night

I love date nights. Come on, with this handsome guy who wouldn't??

Tonight was "First Friday" in Hood River and the weather was PERFECT! Every month during the summer on the first Friday, the shops and vendors downtown stay open late and there is good music and great food and lots of people - pretty much all the makings of a good time. When we got down there we realized that quite a few people had brought their dogs so after dinner we went back by Jake's house and picked up our little dog Bailey (Our other puppy, Badger, is a bit too nervous for crowds, but Bailey LOVES it!). We had a great time walking up and down the streets, while Bailey said hi to everyone we passed, and of course we made a pit stop at the little ice cream shack :)

Okay but here's where it gets interesting...

When we were walking back from ice cream, we noticed a dog in a car across the street barking its head off. It's owner had apparently left him in the car with the windows rolled down slightly and the dog (a little puppy actually) was barking anything and anyone that passed by. Well, as soon as the dog saw our Bailey he went crazy and jumped out of the small crack in the window running straight towards through traffic! GAH! Thankfully we were able to grab the leash quickly but then we stood there thinking "Okay now what do we do?" We didn't want to stuff him back through the window knowing that he would most likely jump through again, so we ended up just sitting on the sidewalk with him waiting for the owner to return. We figured it couldn't be very long considering they left the dog alone in the car, right? Wrong! We waited for a lonnnggg time until the guy finally came back to his car. Oh well, the man was very thankful that we took care of his dog and we really had nothing better to do - not to mention the puppy was really really cute :)

Anyways, tomorrow we are headed off to the state fair with Jake's family and Sunday my sister and her fiance will be coming to visit! Ohh yeah, this weekend is gonna be a good one!