Five on Friday: New Car Edition

One
First I have to say, how in the world is it already October tomorrow!? I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by yet I'm 100% embracing the fact we are well into fall now! Florida just needs to get with the program - we've been having storms every afternoon, that junk needs to stay in summer...

Two
Some big things happened this week - I upgraded my car on Monday and bought a mom car!! Now, I realize I've been posting a lot of things lately that most people post when they're pregnant and still hiding it lol I want to calm everyone's nerves (because I'm sure everyone is concerned about it jk jk) and say we are not trying for kids right now. We wanted to buy the car now so we can save the money back by the time we do have kids, I can enjoy my clean new car for a little while and I was able to get a little more money for my trade since it's in great operating condition. (Having 2 engineers under our roof = lots of planning).

For a while we knew we'd want a bigger SUV for when we have kids and since we keep our cars for 10 years, we knew we wanted a 3rd row. We were looking hard at the Toyota Highlander and the Honda Pilot. We decided on the Pilot and I couldn't be more happy about it! I am definitely having to adjust to driving a big SUV but the Pilot has such a smooth drive which is pleasantly surprising after driving a few other SUV's that were a little more sticky on the pedals.

Three
Another thing that made me super excited this week is our prints from our anniversary shoot came in from Mpix!! Once again, we're super impressed with the quality of the pictures and I immediately went and filled the frames. The picture isn't that great because there's not a lot of light but we're so happy that the frames are filled with beautiful pictures now :)

Four
For my birthday, my mom gave me an adorable "H" pineapple flag for our front yard. I knew I wanted to put every season out there and was able to snag an adorable "H" pumpkin flag from Kirklands this week!

I couldn't find the link online :(

Five

I'm sure most of y'all have seen by now but my sweet friend Kelsey started a vlog! So far, she's got some great fall decorating videos which is fantastic! Go check out her videos!

Custom Stickers with StirckerApp

Last year, I won a blog giveaway for a custom phone case with CaseApp. I was so impressed with the quality and I still love using it! Well, CaseApp now has a sister company called StickerApp in which you can create custom stickers in any shape, size or form.

I knew I wanted to create some custom stickers for my new business to use mainly for packaging. I wanted to make sure that the stickers would reflect the quality of my business. After deciding on my business logo, I wanted that to be made into a sticker. StickerApp is so customizable that I was able to upload my design and have the sticker shape follow the design. I love that the sticker isn't just a plain circle or square shape (although you can make them that way) because I think it adds some pizzazz and makes my delivery package special.

How fun are these!?

StickerApp was so user friendly and I seriously can't get over how good they turned out!

Through October 8, you can get 20% off your customized sticker purchase with the code HANGINGWITHHIRSTS20 - have fun creating!!

This blog post was done in collaboration with StickerApp. I was gifted the stickers but all opinions are my own

3 Year Anniversary Photoshoot

A few months ago, I realized Stephen and I hadn't had any professional pictures done since our wedding 3 years ago. We still won't be trying for kids for another year or so, so I really wanted to capture this sweet time in our lives. Being married for 3 years is so much sweeter, yet different than any previous times (and I'm sure it keeps getting better as the years go on :)) so I wanted to try to get some pictures done before maternity ones head our way. I checked a few photographers out but it was hard to spend the money - we decided to have my dad take them of us while we were there for Thanksgiving (note, he's not a photographer - he has a good camera lol).

While at dinner with our friends who live in GA a month ago, Logan told us that she's working on starting her own photography business and would take some pictures of us for her portfolio. We were so excited and couldn't wait to get them done! They've been asking us to come up and visit for some time and when we had a few weekends without plans in September, we knew that was the perfect time to visit.

Unfortunately, the cotton fields weren't brown to take pictures there but Logan scouted out the perfect locations! We had so much fun and Logan was such a great help with telling us how to pose and making sure she got the best shot. I'm obsessed with how the pictures turned out and I can't wait until they finally arrive in the mail! I desperately need to fill the empty frames in our living room and the pictures were so good, we ended up ordering some for all 6 frames. It's also going to be really hard picking out a picture for our Christmas card ;)

She was so sweet and even suggested some pictures of my for my blog and business

If y'all are in the Central FL or Southern GA area, look Logan up!! She's amazing and I can't wait to have her capture our growing family in the future!

Linking up with Jessi

Weekending

Before I get started with our weekend, I wanted to thank everyone for the excitement and well wishes about my new business! This community is such an encouragement and a huge blessing - thank you!

This weekend was a blast!! Friday night, the younger couples from our church got together at a local brewery. The brewery was so neat - it was decorated with a really cool rustic-chic vibe. It was fun getting to know some of the younger people at our church.

Since it is almost October, I had to dress a little more fall-y yet still deal with 90 degree temps

Saturday, we celebrated one of our friend's birthdays with a trip to the springs! We got there super early but it was well worth it since we were guaranteed admission. We had so much fun and ended up staying until about 3pm! The water was freezing but it was so relaxing floating down the river - we even saw a handful of manatees and swam with 2 of them! 

After the springs, we drove back to their apartment for dinner and video games (well, the boys played video games and the girls made dinner ;)). We had such a fun time! Side note: our buddy's lifeproof case did NOT work and get water in his phone :(

After a relaxing day on Saturday, Sunday proved to be busy as can be! We did the usual - church and Publix but after lunch, we ran over to Lowes to pick up new blinds! So far, we have 3 out of 7 windows done - of course the blind cutting machine was out of order so we have to go back and get 2 sets cut. Also, they didn't have blinds wide enough to fit our 2 front windows so I'm thinking of ordering those off Blindster. I also tried to make homemade humus and it turned out pretty good! I'll share the recipe either this week or next week :) 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm going to need to start baking pumpkin things this week ;)

Linking up with Biana

Premium Pineapple Embroidery

I'm so excited to officially announce that Premium Pineapple Embroidery is open for business! 

I have decided to take a step out of my comfort zone and open an embroidery business. I love all things monogrammed (even my co-workers make fun of me for it) and living in FL, it's a little bit harder to find someone to embroider than it would be in the South. I decided to figure out how to embroider on my own and thus, the beginning of Premium Pineapple Embroidery.

How it's going to work: As of right now, I do not have any inventory i.e. I don't have an Etsy profile or stock items I can embroider and send out. I am located in Central and East Coast Florida and will gladly do meet-ups to get your items, embroider them and then return them. I am more than willing to work with you on a case by case basis if you are not near me and would still like an item. Please email me and we can work something out! My goal is to, one day, have inventory and an Etsy shop so I can provide services throughout the U.S.

I will work with each of my customers on an individual basis to provide the best deliverable. During these email transactions, we will discuss design, colors, pricing, etc. Please feel free to email me with any questions :)

I am so excited to start this journey and share it with all of y'all! Since this is my first time starting an actual business, please bear with me and send any tips my way!

Follow along on Instagram @premiumpineappleembroidery

Five on Friday

One
The Hirst household is officially ready for fall! Even though it's still 90+ degrees and we have summer storms every evening, the house is decorated for fall and all I need to do is start making pumpkin recipes ;) After getting my fall stuff out this year, I realized I had a fair amount of things I didn't want to use and I had a ton of fall foliage. I tried to spread the fall decorations around the house - so I just have some small touches throughout the major rooms.

This is my favorite print out - I have a feeling I will use this site for all future prints ;)

 

I thought I was going to change out the flowers for every season, but I like them too much to change

Two
After getting back from our Colorado trip, we knew we wanted to get a bunch of pictures printed for the house and to hold onto for the future. I love printed pictures, there's something so special about being able to easily look through my parents' photos of us as kids. Every time we've used a drugstore in recent time, the quality has been sub-par; I knew it was time to find an online service. Owen recommended using mpix for prints and I am now a lifetime customer. The website was so easy to use, even with shipping it was cheaper than our local drug store, they were delivered within a few days and the quality is amazing!

Three

To go along with #2, I knew I wanted a bunch of different picture frames for our Colorado pictures so I browsed the isles of Homegoods and hit the jackpot. I'm really happy with how they all tie together and match with the house :) 

Stephen was so sweet and hung the left 3 pictures for me last night :)

Four
We are so excited because we're visiting our friends in GA this weekend! They recently moved up there and we've never visited them before so we knew a fall trip was a must. Even though it'll still be hot, at least it won't be FL hot ;) Our friend is working with photography and so graciously offered to take our pictures for us. We're so excited but I had the hardest time picking out outfits! Here are the ones I've settled on (ignore the dusty mirror):

I want a tassel necklace but only have a black one so I'm not sure if it matches however, I LOVE these Laura Cox necklaces

Five
I'm pretty sure the blinds we currently have are original to the house = they're awful... We desperately need to update them and are willing to do them ourselves. I'd love to find out if any of y'all have installed new blinds before, what kind did you get and where did you buy them?

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!