Shower Her With Love from Shutterfly.

My sweet friend Erica is pregnant with her third baby, a sweet boy will be here in October! You may remember her from this post a few days back. I had the best time shooting her maternity pics! I wanted to do something special for her, this being her third baby she's already got a ton of baby things and doesn't need a whole lot more. 

I feel like no matter how many children you already have being pregnant and having another baby is to be celebrated! Moms should feel special during this season of life no matter how many children they already have. I wanted to create some special things for her to remember this time in her life, with the help of Shutterfly I was able to do just that! 

I want to share with you some of the amazing gifts I created for my friend, I hope they inspire you to think outside the box when gift giving and celebrate some mamas in your life! 

Every mama needs a stash of stationary cards ready to go when they come home from the hospital. A few thank you notes already on hand can make like a whole lots easier, especially when someone drops by a meal for you. You can quickly write them a note and have it there to give them when they come over! 

Shutterfly has many pre designed notes to choose from, and make it even more special and add matching address labels like I did below. I choose these Dashing Denote ones, perfect for a little boy!

As I mentioned my friend Erica already has two children; a girl and a boy! I didn't want to forget them in this process, sometimes siblings often get overlooked during baby hoopla so I wanted to make them some special gifts they could use to help keep them busy while they are sitting in the hospital with Mom and Dad.

I made them each their own notebooks and gifted them with some crayons. They can color or draw keeping themselves occupied at home or at the hospital. I chose this notebook from Shutterfly and customized them with their names and the phrases "Big Sister" & "Big Brother."

If you would like to download these covers to make your own sibling notebooks simply save the image links below to your computer. Visit Shutterfly.com and choose the 8.5x11 size notebook, personalize by uploading the image, save and order your notebooks. Visit the links below to download these fun designs. 

BIG SISTER

BIG BROTHER

These brothers are going to be sharing a room together, a nautical themed room! I love anything nautical I almost decorated my son's room this way. Since these boys will be sharing a room I thought it would be so perfect for them to have their own name plates over their bed and crib. 

Using an 8x10 canvas I designed these custom images and placed them on canvas. Shutterfly makes beautiful and thick canvas. The color and imaged quality are amazing, and the canvas frames are nice and sturdy. You can either choose to have them framed or as shown below with out the frames. 

Lastly, I wanted to use one of the photos from her maternity shoot and put it on a beautiful canvas. Everyone should do something beautiful with their images. Don't just let them sit on a CD or in albums. Display them in a beautiful way, it's such an amazing season of life to be celebrated. 

Shutterfly has an amazing range of gifts and home decor items, there's no limit to what you can make out of your photos and how you can choose to display your memories! 

Next time you've got a baby shower to attend or a gift to give a lucky mama in your life make it something really personalized with some of these fun ideas. I loved gifting these items to my friend, she loved them and it made for a really fun way to celebrate her and her brand new baby boy! 

This is a sponsored post on behalf of myself and Shutterfly, as always opinions are 100% my own. I strive to only partner with brands that I truly love and feel will be a good fit for my readers and my blog.

Book Review:: Seven by Jen Hatmaker

Remember when I told you I read not just one but two books in August?! Welp, it was a full month of Jen Hatmaker reading. I've followed Jen on Twitter & Facebook for a while now, but then I heard her speak at IF: Gathering earlier this year. She was speaking about a lot of the things God was already stirring in me. 

I was excited to pick up her book Seven: An Experimental mutiny against excess. 

What I love about this book is that she took seven areas of her life to examine, and allow God to challenge her in. Which are probably a lot of areas we all struggle with as well. I know I do. Sometimes I struggle with the balance of things, what is my responsibility in these areas? How do I make sense of these areas the way God would want me to? Is there a relation between these areas and God's word? 

The book talks about it all. It's written in diary format, her thoughts along her journey examining these areas of her life and what God wants to teach her about them and himself. 

This book made me think about my own life. My own "excess" in my life. I already knew that this was a year God was stripping me of things that I'd made idols of in my life, so this book was so timely for me during this season. 

God really used it to speak to my heart. I think we're a culture that craves more and we buy into the lies that tell us we need this or that. We can let it get out of hand if we don't have balance, perspective and Jesus. This could be anything really. Anything that pulls your time away from Christ, anything that isn't glorifying to the Lord in your life could be considered excess. 

I am reminded about what "treasures" I'm storing up, and do they reflect in my life how much I love Jesus? 

So go grab Seven, read on and be challenged. I promise you will be. 

Coffee Date:: Sept 5, 2014

Hi friends! Happy Friday, let's get back to our regularly scheduled coffee dates this Fall! Here's a quick re-cap of our weekend & what we've got planned this weekend! 

coffee date 9-5-14 from Andrea Worley on Vimeo.

background music: Only Your Love by Kari Jobe

GOALS // SEPTEMBER

I started something new last month where I gave you a look inside some of my small but attainable goals for the month (see August here) in hopes that it would give me both motivation and accountability to accomplish those goals. 

I'm happy to report it did! August was a great month, I accomplished everything on my goal list. 

I read not only one, but two books last month. I cleaned out my closets and got rid of some clutter. Last month I also wanted to finish at least one house project and I completed two! Last month was highly productive. I'm hoping to bring that same attitude into September. 

We hung a new light over our dining table and I finished an upstairs gallery wall in our loft area. 

I've also realized that reading a new book every month should always be on the list, I love reading so much and taking a break from Facebook in August allowed me to re focus my time elsewhere into reading. Good for my soul I tell ya! 

So what does September look like? Here's a quick list:

01// Read two new books. I read so much last month that I'd love to keep it going.

02// Complete one new house project. I have so many projects on the 'to-do' that this is a good goal for me to help me accomplish this. You'll probably see this goal for a few more months.

03// Have a garage sale

04// Start a new workout routine. Ya'll I'm so bored with my workouts, I need to get some new motivation.

05// Complete Christmas Shopping for the kids. We started Christmas shopping in July for our kiddos, and I'd love to complete their shopping this month. Plus, I feel ahead of the game as I already know what I'm getting my husband. 

Expecting:: Erica

My very favorite thing about photography is literally the ability to freeze time and remember special things forever. Photography gives us the ability to remember moments, places, smells, and memories every time we look at a single photograph. 

Those special moments in our lives aren't forgotten, but rather celebrated. One of the most treasured moments in life is that of a new life. Pregnancy is nothing short of one of God's greatest miracles that we get to witness here on earth. 

I had the pleasure of getting to capture this moment in my friends life. She's having her third baby, a boy in October. 

Erica, thank you for letting me share this special time with you. Today, we celebrate you and the new life inside of you. Can't wait to meet your baby boy. 

You are one gorgeous and glowing mama and I am thankful to call you friend! 

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