Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic
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#GIRLBOSS: Ryann of nineOnine creative

GirlBoss_Ryann_nine0nine_creativeI first met Ryann at a Cocktails for Creatives AIGA event at Julep in June, and I knew immediately that we would become friends. As a fellow paper lover, I have a sincere admiration for Ryann’s work as a stationery and graphic designer. She is the owner of nine0nine creative, which she explains the meaning of below in her interview. 

I took head shots and product photographs for Ryann two weeks ago (fighting Mother Nature the best we could!) at Meredith’s house, and we had so many good laughs. Her stationery sets are seriously so gorgeous – I love her work, and I’m excited to introduce her as my most recent #GIRLBOSS (read past interviews here).

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Week in Review

Week in Review

Happy Labor Day! I hope that all of my American readers are enjoying their holiday weekend! It’s funny how having one extra day in a weekend  can make all of the difference in the world. This week flew by even faster than others with a few photoshoots – one that I was in for a change (for this Bikini Body Guide review post). We broke bread with friends on a number of occasions, which always makes me happy. In addition to playdates and pool days, I would say this was one of my favorite weekends in ages. I wish it would never end!

Some of the highlights from the past seven days include:

  • Visiting with one of my favorite people on earth – Brooke – at our house on Sunday, and having Isla feed her a million Goldfish. She’s such a joyful soul, and I love her to pieces!
  • Having a playdate with Esther and Naomi at their gorgeous house. Naomi is such a little chatterbox. I love her! 
  • Swimming at our good friends’ house with their little ball of happy energy, Ellery. It was so fun watching her and Isla play… and by that, I mean determine whose things were whose. Isla kept pushing sweet Ellery off of her own chair! Such a little bully! 
  • Worshiping at Bayou City Fellowship and listening to Pastor Derek talk about Godly parenting. I was so inspired! I think I’m going to do a blog post on this topic soon!
  • Taking photos for my Bikini Body Guide review post with Paige and getting my hair and makeup done by Britt beforehand. Paige had a meeting to go to afterward, but Brittany and I ate breakfast at Sweet Paris in Rice Village together afterwards. I treated myself to a mimosa!
  • Eating breakfast at Buffalo Grille on Saturday morning with my older sister, Karine. I love their oatmeal, and Isla adores their pancakes! It was a treat to eat breakfast out twice in one week!
  • Finally getting most rooms in our house painted (we chose Benjamin Moore Classic Gray!) by Alvarez Painting. I didn’t quite think about how ALL of our stuff would get moved around, so the house was super chaotic, but it’s all back to normal now, and I love it.
  • Attending a Memorial High School cheerleading practice to chat about Senior Photos, and having some of the male cheerleaders put Isla into her first stunt! She loved the attention she was getting.
  • Going to Isla’s 15 month doctor appointment at Blue Fish Pediatrics. She weighs 22 pounds and is 31.5 inches long! She’s getting so big – it’s crazy! She did not like the three shots she had to get one bit. Poor baby girl!
  • Taking head shots and product photos for Nine0Nine Creative on Tuesday and Friday at Meredith’s house. Mother Nature was certainly against us, but we made it work! 
  • Meeting my former co-worker turned friend, Nastassja for lunch in Katy at Dish Society on Friday. I always love catching up with her! 
  • Decorating vegan sugar cookies (adapted from this recipe) with watermelon colored icing on Monday to surprise Tata when he got home from work! He ate them all in a matter of minutes.
  • Stopping by DEFINE and briefly catching up with Kasey, who gave Isla a grand introduction to the class she was teaching. I documented it on Snapchat (@aileepetrovic) – are we following each other yet?
  • Eating frozen yogurt from TCBY and getting some for Sasha and Isla at Orange Leaf – it was a froyo filled week! I also treated myself to a number of Sinfull Bakery’s Everything Bars from Georgia’s Farm to Market, which are seriously my favorite treat in the entire world. I would choose those over any other sweet or dessert!
  • Dropping by The Monogram Shop to pay for a gift I had ordered and picking up a sweet gift for Isla from Leah, the store’s social media guru. I love it! I’ve been meaning to snap a photo of Isla with her new bag, which gets carried around everywhere.
  • Eating dinner at our favorites – Garbanzo, Buff Burger, Ruggles Green, Rosie Carrabba’s – we are such creatures of habit, but have a list of new spots to try and are going to make a point to visit them soon!

How was your week? What exciting things did you get up to?

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Personal

Week in Review

Exactly one year ago this week, I decided to start an Instagram account for my blog versus just using my personal account. I would be lying through my teeth (or my text, I suppose) if I said I was not incredibly nervous and self-conscious about starting afresh. I very rarely used to share details about blog posts on my personal Instagram, as I felt that my friends didn’t sign up for that when they chose to follow me. However, I knew that Instagram was a powerful tool for bloggers and photographers, and so I bit the bullet and created @SnapshotsAndMyThoughts. I think I had about 15 followers for the first few weeks and was nervous it would stay that way indefinitely (can we talk about #firstworldworries?). More than just being concerned about follower count, which didn’t matter all that much to me, was the fear that people would judge me for posting too much about my life. Blogging in itself is pretty self-centered – Hey, do you want to see photos of my life? Hear about my fun weekend? See how I styled my new bookshelves? I write this blog not because I want to talk about me-me-me, but to have a journal of our lives that I can look back on, and also to hopefully share some fun products we try, ideas I’ve got, styles I love, etc.

The very best thing about the blogging and Instagram journey is the people I’ve met. Yup, super corny, but so true. Over the last 52 weeks (and before that too!), I’ve met some of my new closest friends and have, through those people, worked on some exciting projects which has helped me launch a new business venture – Snapshots by Ailee Petrovic.

This is a really long way of saying ‘thank you’ for following along with me. For making this journey exciting. For your ‘likes’ and sweet comments. For sharing your lives with me as well. I am so incredibly appreciative.

This week was especially fun, as my sister-in-law was in town and I love spending time with her. Bar a nasty stomach bug that knocked most of us out for at least a day, the last 7 days were filled with lots of laughter. Some of the highlights include:

  • Dining with my very best friend, McKenzie, at Ruggles Green on Friday night and talking about any and everything. Life gets busy and sometimes we don’t see each other for a few weeks, and I hate it. She really is the best. 
  • Catching up with my former co-worker and now friend, Jess, over coffee at the house on Monday. We worked together at Accenture what feels like many moons ago (but really was just 3 years ago!).
  • Eating an early lunch at Local Foods in Rice Village with Meredith after our date to SnowBlock was uprooted by it not opening until noon!
  • Meeting with Leah at The Monogram Shop to talk about a new project she’s working on that I’ll be helping with. She’s the best, and I am excited for what’s to come with the store!
  • Shooting with Elly Brown on Sunday at the Police Officer Memorial and Discovery Green. Not only is she drop dead gorgeous, she is so sweet and I loved spending the afternoon with her.
  • Celebrating our friends’ wedding on Saturday at St. Luke’s Methodist Church and the Nouveau Antique Art Bar. It was so much fun, and I’m glad I ordered this Monique Lhuillier gown from Rent the Runway. 
  • Spending almost every day at LifeTime gym doing week 12 of BBG getting ready for Wednesday’s shoot with Paige! 
  • Shooting with Esther and her gorgeous family at Fat Cat Creamery for this big announcement.
  • Meeting one of Sasha’s best friend’s new son, Archer, who was just one week old and so tiny… not to mention, absolutely adorable.
  • Getting my new mouth guard at the dentist (Dr. Matt Nickolas – go to him!) to help my TMJ. I cannot wait for my jaw to feel better!
  • Dropping by my friend’s house to shoot the exterior of her home for this house tour post. Isn’t her house stunning?
  • Finding a cheerleader outfit at Michaels (of all random places) for Isla’s doll and tossing around her pom-poms for an afternoon. She loved it.
  • Photographing our friend’s daughter and her two sweet cousins at Memorial Park on Saturday morning. Getting three kiddos to smile is always a challenge, but they were so cute in their little coordinating outfits – we got some adorable shots.
  • Spending time with all six of Isla’s grandparents (Sasha’s parent’s are divorced and remarried) and two of her aunts! She’s a spoiled and very lucky little lady.
  • Amongst healthy eating and lots of exercise, sneaking in some TCBY (my absolute favorite). Life is all about moderation, right?
  • Finally busting out our Breville juice machine and then making a million juices. I cannot wait to try new recipes (from JennyJourney.com!).
  • Eating veggie burgers from Buff Burger. If you live in Houston and haven’t tried it yet, you need to! They are so delicious.
  • Hosting a Shop Small giveaway, which ends tonight at midnight! Make sure you’ve entered!
  • Getting the prettiest package from Lindsay Marcella in the mail. Our bedroom makeover is seriously almost complete. I am so excited!

How was your week? What were your highlights?

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Décor

Coastal Contemporary Home Tour

You know how there are some people in life who are just quintessentially cool? Like, whatever they do, you kind of want to do, too? Well, for me, that’s Nina. Sasha has known her since they were little, as Nina’s parents also immigrated to the US from Serbia. Coincidentally, she married one of Sasha’s fraternity brothers, who is genuinely the sweetest – and a pretty impressive entrepreneur too (ahem, see house below). Mike and Nina moved into their custom built home (by Renaissance Builders) earlier this year, and I’ve been lusting over it ever since. The white paneled wood walls, large windows (I’d kill for that much natural light in our house!), gorgeous modern (warm and comfy!) furniture, dark wood ceilings, massive closets, fun wallpaper… I could go on and on.

When I asked Nina if I could feature their house on Snapshots & My Thoughts, she kindly and enthusiastically agreed. They opened up their house for me to photograph the inside and although Mother Nature was against us, I was around again to take outdoor shots. 

I hope you love the house as much as I do (cue me now pinning everything to my Dream House boards on Pinterest). Nina sweetly sourced most of the items featured in these photos (it’s a big house, and I had a hard time narrowing down pictures, but there are rooms and pieces not shown!). If you have any questions for her, please email me and I’ll do my best to track down answers.

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Décor

My Favorite ‘Small Shops’ (Giveaway!)

ShopSmallGiveawayOne of the greatest blessings that has happened this year is the newly formed friendships I’ve made with some incredibly inspiring women. I started my Instagram account almost one year ago, and through it, I’ve ‘met’ (and really met) very talented photographers, bloggers, makeup artists, event planners, and last, but not least, small business owners, most of whom are ‘mompreneurs.’ Being a WAHM (or ‘Work at Home Mom’ – so many acronyms to keep up with!) is not an easy task, as balancing raising children with running a business is no easy task.

I am such a big advocate of the whole ‘shop small’ and ‘shop local’ movement, which I believe was greatly empowered by the creation of Etsy. Although I would be lying if I said I didn’t love buying clothes from big retailers like Gap, Nordstrom, Carters, etc., I do make a very conscious effort to purchase a lot of our outfits and gifts from ‘small shops’ (this always feels like a funny term, since some of the stores below are far from small!). 

Today, I’m sharing eight of my favorite shops, all of whom have kindly offered some of my favorite items in a giveaway (which, to be honest, I’d really like to win!). Enter using the widget below and make sure to read about each of the shops below! Also, make sure to check out my favorite Etsy stores post here for more small shop love! 

PS This post was supposed to be published yesterday as part of the Shop Small linkup (here), but I had a nasty stomach bug! Make sure to check out some of the other posts in the linkup.

Shop Small Giveaway

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Cuteheads: Esther, the owner of cuteheads, is one of my favorite mamas around – you’ll quickly know that from reading her #GIRLBOSS interview here. I’m sad that Isla no longer fits into her adorable cuteheads chambray pom-pom romper. It’s so cute! I am so excited to see the new collection, and I’m even more excited (read: jealous) that Esther is including a seersucker top in the giveaway. 

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