HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, LHD!!!

It's our very first birthday! We've been creating beautiful little hats for a year now and I am pleasantly pleased with all of you wonderful followers & the beautiful fans we have over at Love, Hadleigh Designs Fan Page. You all have been completely amazing and super duper!

We've actually passed our actual first birthday because to be honest...I forgot about it back in the hustle and bustle of January. I know I'm a horrible person right?

I am here today to make it up to you =)...."how" you may ask?

Well I will be giving away a hat tomorrow and having a sale the rest of the week. SO...get over to LHD and join in the fun! =) 

Say happy birthday and have a cupcake (you might have to make your own!)

On this day I do want to stop and say thank you...for making this all possible. Without my followers and fans I wouldn't be in business today. Sharing my joy with you and it really just warms my heart to think how lucky I am to have all of you! =)

Maybe if I'm feeling up to it on Friday we'll have a game night...just because I literally have such a BLAST playing with all of you! So lucky me and lucky you!!

So here's to the past amazing year of Love, Hadleigh Designs and to a year getting to know so many of you!!

xoxo,

Saturday night? What's that?

What'd you do on your Saturday night?

I'll tell you what I did on mine....I'd show you photos...but I can't...my camera is slowly heading to the final resting place of dead cameras. It hates me. So until it's replaced...my memories will have to do.

To start off my Saturday evening...we had some fabulous friends over. Matt & his adorable little underlings, Rowan & Gio. My boys adore Matt & love it even more when he brings them little playmates.

Gio & Hadleigh are about 9 months apart in age. hehehe...moving on. Hadleigh being the elder. They get along great and actually spend most of their time staring at each other...following each other or hugging. I love it all. It's just adorable!

Well we enjoyed "playtime" with 8 kids in the house....in case you count wrong...my kid count goes like this...

Nathanael, Thomas, Rowan, Brien, Hadleigh, Gio, Studley & Matt. Yes, you know it as well as I do...that men are just giant children. They'll agree if they're being honest! =)

We stuffed our faces full of pizza & washed it down with root beer floats. All 4 of my babies crashed around 8:30pm. A full half an hour past normal bedtime...will they sleep past 7am tomorrow...doubtful.

As soon as they're in bed, I find my cell phone and bust out EVERY SINGLE COLOR OF YARN I have on hand. 

My sister in law (genius photographer & awesome in general) (you can find her HERE or HERE!!) 

texts me & says "I need some crowns...." follows that with I'm not sure what colors...let me see what you've got" 

he he he.....its a massive amount and I don't think I even sent everything. I was pulling yarn out of places I wasn't sure they could be...and NO not there. You're gross.

She picked her colors and I settled in on putting away and REorganizing all of my yarn. Which literally took me about 1.5 hours to do. Yes. 1.5 hours. I have so much & in so many colors. But I finally got it all done, looked at Studley and said...I think I need more baskets. 

I laugh. Mostly because when you come into my home...aside from projects sitting around on "my" end table and a giant aqua mason jar filled with notions, every size crochet hook they make & a bunch of knitting needles...you wouldn't know I have a hoard of yarn and run my own "crochet" business from home. People ask me "where do you keep it all?" I say...hidden in every nook and cranny. And now as of tonight...it is back to being color coordinated and in the right place. It's been a long time coming.

And then I sit back, look at Studley and say..."whoa babe, watch out...I'm a woman on the ledge. Spending my saturday nights organizing yarn....uh oh. What's next?"

He just laughed. Apparently he already knew I was crazy. Who knew!

Although who would have thought my idea of a Saturday would be spending it with some crazy children & organizing yarn...and be completely ok with that! =)

What a day! Sweet, sweet Saturday!

Pinddicted

Oh Pinterest.

Have you all gotten addicted yet?

I LOVE Pinterest.

It's an amazing way to keep track of about 129387283461823729347 new projects you want to start...I love everything about it. It's easy to use and completely and utterly addicting.

Here's my issue.

I now have a ton of stuff I want to make. I will have to eventually find the time. But when I do. Yes I plan on doing each and every one of them...or at least that's my goal. Finding the time to add in addition to the rest of the stuff I have to do is my problem!! Where do these people find the time? 

I manage some time here and there...and let's be serious here....when I'm out and I'm bored doing whatever it is that I should be doing...like waiting for pizzas at Little Ceasars...I'm PINNING on my iPhone. Because come on now, that's one of the most amazing apps. I love it!

I just pinned. From my phone. hehe

I haven't been on in a few days, other than my phone, which is fine with me, but I can hear it calling every time I'm on the computer. It's hard to stay away, but I know that everything else comes first. AND then I get Pinterest. I also know that when I'm on Pinterest I need to slot a few hours. Not because I'll spend them all on there, but it is a possibility to lose track of time and it stretches INTO hours lol.

It's just an amazing thing though. To have all of these beautiful ideas and interests in one spot.

I love to think that these people are completely genius who think of these amazing things.

Genius.

Go follow me.

Love, Hadleigh's got a board. 

Let's spread the love!

Ok I'm off of here to go do some actual work...wait until you see the beautiful goodies I'm working up!

remember...I love hearing your comments. I read every comment ever posted...no matter where it is.

Coming out from under the bed.....

So I literally feel like I've been hiding from the blogging world.

I know so many people say...Oh it's so hard to work and spend time in the Blogosphere. BUT let's be honest with everyone...

I have 4 kiddos. 

I now have a completely successful business.

In having a completely successful business it requires all of my extra time. And when I'm not working until 12-1 am on orders...I do try and spend time with my insanely handsome, Studley.

So I guess the real question is:

In my blogging hiatus...what have you been doing?

I've been popping out some new styles, working on orders and trying to stay sane.

The McKenzie

I love this little variation of the Chloe. It also comes in these colors however is not limited to these colors. Remember I work in the beauty of YOUR imagination if you so choose...

The McKenzie

How about this one?

The Aviator

The aviator was actually inspired by a client. She said...I need something like this. Can you make it?

Let me tell you.

I AM ALL UP FOR A CHALLENGE.

I don't think that many people realize that if I don't offer it in my shop and you find something you like...

EMAIL ME. 

Because I love an excuse to make something NEW!

There are some other new beauties. 

So go check out:

Love, Hadleigh Designs on Facebook

become a fan (if you already aren't) and keep up to date with EVERYTHING going on.

Like our newest referral contest on Facebook.

Get involved, bring in some friends and get a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to use on your next order.

Interested?

Here's what you have to do.

Have your friends come on over to Love, Hadleigh Designs!
Have them like our page.
Have them post on our wall to tell us that YOU sent them. (I'm gonna need your whole name to keep track.)
They must stay fans, they can't just come like and then disappear.
SHARE SHARE SHARE!!!

This contest will start today and go until February 27, 2012.

The person who refers the most people will win a $25 gift certificate to Love, Hadleigh!!

So come on by and join the fun!

My goal is to keep up with everything...but you all know how fun that can be at times =)!

Enjoy and I'll be back soon.

xoxo,

Our Thanksgiving Day Trip!

Oh..hello there...it's Me...I know. It's yet again been awhile. I'm reaching the bottom of my list of orders...well at least over the extremely large hump. I think once I can breath a bit I'll be happy. But for now I'm happy to take a few minutes to say hi to my readers. 

So hello.

Ha...I won't leave you with that.

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! I know I did!!

I was re-reading my blog and I saw the post from 9/11. I teared up. Mostly because as non of you know (since I didn't tell you) for Thanksgiving, Studley, my dad (pop) and my step mom, literally PILED the 4 kiddos into their Honda Odyssey (yes that's a shameless plug hehe) and we drove up to New York City.

We had such great seats!! Almost so close you could touch people. The boys got countless hugs and high fives from passing people IN the parade. They had a BLAST. This was our second trip up to NYC for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It SHOULD be on EVERYONE's bucket list. You have to go once. It's such an amazing experience.

This was our view for the parade!

We really didn't do as much sightseeing as we did our first trip, but that was mostly because we had SOMEWHERE to be. I was so honored to be able to visit "Ground Zero" this trip. Mostly because 9/11 had such a profound impact on my immediate life. The kids knew what happened on 9/11 but to them its some boring event in their history class. They weren't alive when it happened, it wasn't as sensitive an issue for them.

The South Reflection Pool (this photo doesn't even do it justice)

The whole atmosphere was just so quiet and respectful. It was such an amazing place. To be honest it was completely sobering to be there and to know why we were there and what had happened to be needing to create such a beautiful memorial. Even now I tear up. It was completely moving.

 

Freedom Tower

Definitely take the time to check out their website 9/11 Memorial.

Get your tickets to go visit. It's definitely worth the trip.

All in all, our Thanksgiving was wonderful. I am completely thankful for my family & extended family. I couldn't live without them! 

Happy Holidays!!