Category Archives: Personal

Merry Christmas.

Hello to all you Christmas celebrating SWR readers out there! I am excited to spend the day with Kai and my family while enjoying this significant holiday. Tomorrow we will be opening gifts, eating a delicious brunch prepared by my mom, and just spending time together. I look forward to this day all year!

I thought today would be the perfect day to share our first family Christmas card, which we ordered through Minted! You may have seen my previous post where I shared some designs we were considering. After taking the pictures for our card, we ultimately decided on the second layout option.

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As much as I wish we could, we can’t honestly take credit for the concept. Kai found this hilarious website and I knew we needed to do our version of the clothes swapping idea. Taking these photos was so hilarious, and a little confusing. We came up with the mirrored concept right before we shot the photos, and getting it just right was mind bending.

Here is a closer look at the original photo:

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and the final version:

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So there is it – Merry Christmas from the Heeringa Family! Kai, Kayley, Shanty, and Epworth.

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Minted Holiday Cards.

This year, Kai and I will be sending out Christmas cards for the first time! This might not seem like a major accomplishment, but considering Kai is seriously skilled in the areas of photography and graphic design, we’ve been married for five years, and are still Christmas card vigins … this is kind of a big deal. Kai is really busy this time of year wrapping up our wedding season so, for the sake of saving time, I chose to order our cards through Minted.

I recently discovered this website and immediately fell in love with many of their card designs. I’m also having such a blast playing around with all the different customization options. The card itself can be personalized by changing fonts, colors, messages, number of pages, border shapes, etc. The envelope can also be gussied up by adding premium papers, linings, and wrap around stickers!

Kai and I have yet to take our photos for the card but here are my favorite designs for our concept this year! To view the card’s design on Minted’s website, simply click the image.

Calling all newlyweds! This one won’t work for us considering our wedding has long passed, but it’s still so adorable.

I’m looking for your input! Which of these cards is your favorite? Are you looking for a fun design of your own? You can check out all of Minted’s Holiday cards here, and then link to your top choice in the comment section!

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A development.

This is a brief post to just give you guys a little Sidewalk Ready update. I’ve always wanted this little blog to be as successful and inspiring as possible, and as of late, I’ve really been reflecting on what that means for the future of SWR. I feel as though I’m at a crucial point in development, and I want to move forward intentionally. So what does this mean? Well, let me tell you.

From what I’ve noticed, you guys love to learn. My tutorials are by far the most popular posts in terms of traffic, and I think that’s awesome! It’s so rewarding to have a readership that has a craving for knowledge. My beauty tutorials have received over 51,000 pins and the measly three DIY posts I’ve done have received over 1,000. I mean, seriously? How awesome is that? It’s pretty clear that my readership has spoken and you guys want more information!

Though it may be true that my hair tutorials clearly have the best feedback. I don’t want to turn SWR into a hair blog, and that’s because I truly love doing outfit posts. Even though I am a hair stylist and I obviously enjoy doing hair, I created this blog because of my for my passion for fashion and it’s been such a great outlet for me. The solution I’ve come up with is to integrate more educational information into my outfit posts.

It’s safe to say that I’m not a style expert. I have no formal fashion education. However, I do my best to learn what I can without having a degree to back it up. I want to share some of what I’ve acquired with you, and hope that you will get more from reading Sidewalk Ready than just beautiful pictures of what I’ve chosen to wear. (By the way, can we give Kai a big round of applause for his hard work on my photos?) Each outfit post will now include a tip or a trick that I hope will provide you with more take-home knowledge. I want you to know WHY I’ve put a certain outfit together so that you can apply it when deciding what to buy and how to wear it.

That being said, the personal stuff on this blog is going to take a backseat, but that’s not because I don’t want you to know what’s going on in my life. Truth be told, my life is pretty routine and sometimes I just don’t know what to say. I feel like I’m constantly talking about the weather or what I did that day – but c’mon – if I’m bored by what I’m writing, I’m sure you are, too. Don’t worry, though, if something exciting does happen, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Now that I’ve made this decision, I’m especially looking forward to the future of Sidewalk Ready and hope that you are, too! Are you going to miss hearing about the ins and outs of my life? Don’t worry, you can still keep track of what I’m up to and receive daily weather updates by following me on Twitter and Facebook. (Just kidding about the weather updates.) Thank you for all of your support and for reading Sidewalk Ready!

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