I’ll be taking a photo of August sitting in the Eames rocker and wearing his pin each month until he’s two years old. I also took monthly photos of his older sister, Eleanor, until she turned two.

Previous Photos
One Month Old • Two Months Old • Three Months Old • Four Months Old • Five Months Old • Six Months Old • Seven Months Old • Eight Months Old • Nine Months Old • Ten Months Old • Eleven Months Old • View All

© 2012, published by Making it Lovely as Twelve Months Old (August’s Monthly Photo) | 3 comments

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© 2012, published by Making it Lovely as August’s First Birthday Party | 64 comments

August gets in on the action sometimes too.

They’re good.

© 2012, published by Making it Lovely as Jam Band | 14 comments

Tuesday: Nervous

The usual thoughts ran through my head. Did I pack the right things? Was my panel prepared? Would my family fare well while I’m gone? Could I get through all of the work I needed to do, before I had to leave?

Wednesday: Eager

I had prepared as much as I was able, and it was time to go. I was on the very first panel at the first Alt Summit in 2010, and I watched the summit via twitter last year, sad to be missing out but too pregnant to travel. I was excited about going back again, and looking forward to it. This was going to be fun!

Thursday: Reaffirmed

Alt came this year, for me, at the tail end of a lot of work. I’ve been doing more than ever, trying to juggle my blogging commitments with my family life, taking on too much at times, and having to put my head down and work. Being surrounded by my peers though, so many passionate, hard-working, and successful bloggers, reaffirmed that I’m heading in the right direction. I’m fortunate to have a job, unconventional as it is, doing something I love. I want to see Making it Lovely grow, and realize all of its potential.

Friday: Happy

Jordan, Kelly, me, and Maggie spoke about Growing a Readership. I’ve put together a recap of the Twitter conversations that happened throughout our panel, which was one of the most well-attended! My weepiest moment of the day came as Ben, the co-founder of Pinterest, gave a particularly inspiring keynote and received a standing ovation. His infographic feels especially relevant right now.

The entire conference was amazing; everything I’d hope it would be and more. Thank you to Gabby, Sarah, and Kate, and to all of the people who help make Alt the blogging event I most look forward to each year.

Saturday: Delayed

And homesick. De-icing the plane, flying against a strong headwind, and landing in an airport that was under construction all contributed to my plane landing two minutes after my connection left. I was placed on standby, with a confirmed seat on a plane for Monday afternoon. I spent the night in the hotel closest to the Pheonix airport.

Sunday: Scared

The next day, while other passengers lost their tempers and berated airline employees, I was able to get a confirmed seat on a plane home in the late morning (it’s always better to be nice). We were delayed though, and spent an hour sitting on the runway before takeoff due to weather conditions back home. We were finally given the OK to fly into Chicago, and I arrived home approximately 25 hours after first leaving the hotel in Salt Lake City. I then picked up the kids and immediately turned around to go to my mom’s house because we were supposed to be there for a birthday party.

All of that made for a very long day, but it wasn’t the reason I was scared.

Brandon lost his job. He had found out on Thursday, but he waited to tell me until I had finally arrived home with the kids late Sunday night, after we had put them to bed.

Monday: Hopeful

Our dream has been to reach the point at which Brandon could leave his job. While we had assumed it would be in a planned, responsible way, we will have to embrace our new circumstances.

Do we go all-in on the blog? I’m not making enough to solely support my family, but we have to look at the numbers and see if I could get it there. How long would it take if we were devoting all of our time and energy to it? (Six months? A year? Longer?) Should we do something a little crazy, like buy a store? It has never been a goal of ours, but if you’re one that believes things happen for a reason, the universe seems to be aligning in that way. Or does Brandon look for another steady, 9-5 job? He has been the rock that has made it possible for me to get to the point I’m at today. While the benefits and stability that come along with traditional employment are reassuring (especially with a family and a mortgage), I’d love for him to be as fulfilled in his work as I am. These are all things that will be weighing heavily on us, and we need to figure out our next direction.

I’m hopeful. But I’m still scared, too, to be honest.

© 2012, published by Making it Lovely as A New Direction | 211 comments

Brandon and I are buying our first house. Tonight we met with our realtor and signed a contract. We’ll find out soon (tomorrow night?) if it’s been accepted. We may soon be official home owners! How grown up of us.

Oh, and hi. I’m Nicole Balch, although I’m better known as the owner of Pink Loves Brown.

(Spoiler alert: We got the house.)

My stationery shop, Pink Loves Brown, had been buzzing along for two years already at that point, and I had built up a decent following. I mentioned the blog in my shop’s newsletter and I was off to a good start with a couple hundred people reading everyday. I was also familiar to a couple of bloggers too, through the shop and through Flickr. I was looking through my archives and reminiscing a bit, and I was curious about what my first bit of press was. A mere eight days after I started this blog, it was written about by Victoria of SF Girl by Bay, and I see that Holly, Kim, and Becky commented on it! All ladies who are still doing incredible things and whom I have deep admiration for.

That’s something that has really amazed me about blogging; There are so many personal connections forged. Three and a half years after being mentioned on Victoria’s home on the web, I was staying in her home in San Francisco. How else but through blogging could that have happened?

And it isn’t just other bloggers that I’ve connected with. I have some of the smartest, most thoughtful readers. Thank you all for sharing in this blog with me, whether you’ve been here from the beginning or have just found me today. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Here’s to the next five years.

© 2012, published by Making it Lovely as Five Years | 94 comments

I napped. August napped. We missed the daylight and had to turn on the lights in the room. It kills me that the lighting is so different from the rest of his photos!

I’ll be taking a photo of August sitting in the Eames rocker and wearing his pin each month until he’s two years old. I also took monthly photos of his older sister, Eleanor, until she turned two.

Previous Photos
One Month Old • Two Months Old • Three Months Old • Four Months Old • Five Months Old • Six Months Old • Seven Months Old • Eight Months Old • Nine Months Old • Ten Months Old • View All

© 2012, published by Making it Lovely as Eleven Months Old (August’s Monthly Photo) | 16 comments

We had beautiful weather over the weekend, with highs in the mid-forties, so we decided to see the Zoo Lights at Brookfield this year. August is sick, so Brandon stayed home with him, but my Uncle Ray was able to join me and Eleanor. Brookfield Zoo bills themselves as having the largest light display in Chicagoland and after having visited, I don’t doubt it.

The wind was chilly, but we popped in to some of the indoor exhibits to warm up every so often. Then Eleanor rode the carousel before leaving, and everyone ended the ride with a joyous exclamation of “Happy Zoo Year!”

It must be odd as the ride operator, having to shout that hundreds of times in an evening. It made our ride feel special though, which was appreciated… Especially after waiting in line, realizing I had to get in a different line to buy tickets, and then waiting in line again with tickets in hand. Happy Zoo Year, indeed.

But then hey, we did get our photo taken with some furries. So there’s that.

Happy new year!

© 2012, published by Making it Lovely as Happy New Year! | 14 comments

I’ll be back on Friday with an Honor Roll post, and then I’ll be back to my normal posting next week (next year!). This will be a working break for me, as I’ll be trying to get a redesign done in time for Making it Lovely’s upcoming fifth anniversary in February. I do all of my own coding and design work, which I love, but it takes time. The past few months have been some of the hardest I’ve had, with me taking on more work than I ever had before, and all while trying to keep up with the two little ones. This feels like a good time to slow down and concentrate on one thing at a time, instead of the usual plate spinning I do. I’m excited about my plans, but I need a little break to think and to really finalize everything to make it the best it can be.

Thanks, all, for being such a wonderful part of my day. I have good things in store for you!

© 2011, published by Making it Lovely as Taking a Little Break | 10 comments

The kids have a new favorite toy, and so do I. And Santa filled our stockings with fun things. (I forgot to show you this little part of our home, all decorated for Christmas. There are brass deer.)

My Secret Santa was good to me too. I still don’t know who it is though! Another package arrived, this time with a set of personalized colored pencils nestled in more pink tinsel. Eleanor has been decorating the tree with the sparkly pink garland.

And then, a separate shipment arrived. Is it from my Secret Santa as well? It came directly from the shop, so no packaging to tip me off. It’s from someone who knows me well though — I wrote about wanting one of these camera straps a while back.

Santa is very thoughtful.

© 2011, published by Making it Lovely as Santa Visited | 20 comments

Our new easel has been getting a lot of use.
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© 2011, published by Making it Lovely as Budding Artist | 37 comments