Hello faithful readers!

Where have I been you ask? So many things are happening at work and I have been especially focused these past few weeks. Many changes for our portrait photography business, cobblestone rue and literally our storefront studio that should have happened a couple of years ago. We are excited for all the positive changes, and with all of it comes a shift in priorities and focus. But I am giddy to be blogging again especially this post!

A little history: We launched our portrait brand, cobblestone rue on Christmas Eve, 2007. Yes back then we worked even during the holidays :( Then we announced it to the public on January, 2008. So much has changed, but one brand that has remained constant and still continues to be a source of inspiration for us is kate spade. Our brand colors were (and still are) white and “kate spade green”. I was hooked on this company when I bought my first pair of kate spade sunglasses in 2005 and it came in a hot pink case. I loved their preppy, playful, and sophisticated style and everything that they did made me smile. I loved everything from their customer service to their packaging, and I knew that I wanted to incorporate what they did to our business because I believe in what their business stands for. It was perfect when cobblestone rue was born.

They have launched a campaign, “live colorfully” celebrating every month of this year a different color. In March the color was yellow, this month it is their signature green! So timely for all that we are doing for our brand!

They launched a promo video today on Twitter and of course it is PERFECTLY ADORABLE. They partnered with Adeline Adeline which is a great pairing. Remember my “dreaming of bicycles” post? Well the search is over! Everything else in the video is pretty much fantastic: the music, colors, location, style…the DOG!!!

Well done kate spade, I am a fan for life.

***Oh and one other thing. I have been nominated for Top 25 Party Planning Moms at Circle of Moms! It would mean so much if you vote for me it only takes a second and the best part is that you don’t have to sign up or register! Here is the link: http://www.circleofmoms.com/blogger/cobblestone-rue#_You can vote every day until April 11, just click on the gold thumbs up! Maybe I can throw a party and you are all invited when I make it! I just need to make it in the top 25, crossing fingers and toes! Thanks!

Here we are! We are so excited to share this blog with you and we hope it gives you some inspiration and most of all dream big. We thought we would give you a tour and introduce to you the wonderful features this blog has to offer. So make yourself a smoothie or a cup of tea and prop your feet up…

Sneak Peek: Provides you with a preview of future posts.

Home: The “home” button will always take you to the front page of the blog and the most recent post.

About & Studio: Who we are, what we do, and how cobblestone rue came about.

Advertise: An opportunity for any business who thinks they would be a great fit for our readers. Please let us know how we can partner with you.

Boutique: We travel a lot and one of our favorite traditions when we travel is to find and visit children’s boutique stores. This is a list of some of my favorite boutiques that we’ve visited. Others will be highly recommended by readers. We will continue to update this section on a regular basis and we hope to further develop it in the future. I hope this helps some of you stylish jetsetters out there. We also hope to be a resource for potential vendors including children’s boutiques and brands.

Submissions: Information on how to submit for Out & About, Inspiration Room, etc. We highly encourage you to submit your creative style!

Life: This section contains several more personal topics. It is about our personal life, my insights, a father’s insights on raising girls, Family & Business (interviews featuring real families), Food, Travel, photography, and more.

Style: This section will highlight some of our favorite kids’ fashions, men’s/women’s fashions, Out &About (what our kids wear, what your kids wear = real kids, real clothes), Design, Inspiration Room (real rooms) and what inspires us.

Fun: This section we will chat about: Special Occasions, Books, Giveaways, and Sponsor Features.

Dream: This is my all-time favorite section.

Do you dream? We all do. I love to dream, and even better, I like to write it down. The best way to make your dreams to come true is to put them on paper. So the “Dream” page is designed to help dreamers like me have a place to write down a dream or two…or however many you want! Visit the page as often as you want and share your dream(s), or dream for others as well.

Your dream will be emailed to you and you can print it and place it somewhere you can see it.

If you are dreaming for someone…let’s say your daughter, you can print the dreams they tell you and place it in a box and someday give it to her as a gift so that she will know what she dreamed of as a child. It might just come true.

Give: What is your favorite charity? We work with a variety of local charities and we love being a part of the giving community. We have been involved with some fun campaigns and are working on more we are excited about.

Posts: You can open and close a post giving the blog a nice clean layout. You can also see the text of the post and can click on Read More to open the post. Back to top button is great option as well.

Comment section: The comment section is one of my favorite features. Everyone who has a blog loves to receive comments. And what I love about this comment section is I can find out who is reading my blog as well as get to know them. So in addition to the basic info, I wanted to make it more personal by adding your profile pic, Twitter info and hometown. Once you make a comment or two or 20…you most likely won’t have to re-enter your info each time. This is also a great way to win the fabulous giveaways! Comment often and win.

Social Media Tabs: Along the comment section, there are various social media tabs that allow blog posts to easily be shared on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and Kirtsy.

Connect With Us: Links to follow us on Twitter, find us on Facebook page or Tumblr, and subscribe to our feed.

Sponsors: Lovely creative businesses who we believe in and they in us. Please see Advertise section for more information.

Blogroll: Some of my all-time favorite blogs

Recent Projects: This is where our favorite photo sessions can be viewed. Weddings and portraits will still be posted on our photo blog, www.garrettnudd.net. When we do commercial work for local boutiques as well as other fun projects that might involve travel and persona stuff that is relatable to the bog, we’re excited to have an avenue to share it with you.