Insta Round Up: Fave Creatives on Instagram

I love Instagram. As a visual person it allows me to experience all kinds of fabulous in my favorite way. Unlike Facebook I get to filter out all of the fluff and just stick to the good stuff; the pictures. With that said, I would like to share some of my favorite Instagram creatives with you. From food and lifestyle photography to fashion illustration and fine art, these Instagrammers inspire awe and envy in me with their amazing talents and creativity.

If you are looking for some artistic inspiration in your Instagram feed I highly suggest you check out the following:

@paperfashion

@tadwagner

@toolkit04

@alice_gao

@dolcepress

 @glennarthurart

 @heatherbethtay

 @samesjc

I would love to hear your favorite Instagram creatives. Please share in the comments below.  

For puppy pictures, doodles and inspired lifestyle snapshots you can follow me on Instagram @jennielynnjacobs 

Meet Remy - The Spinone Italiano Pup

I'd like to introduce you to Remy. The newest and cutest member of the family - sure give us lots of inspiration and keep us very busy with our cameras.

Remy is our 9 week old Spinone Italiano puppy. We got him at just under 8 weeks and he has been quite the handful and totally entertaining. 

Spinone Italianos are an AKC recognized breed. Bred for hunting and retrieving, the Spinone is a versatile and gentle breed often known for their human like eyes. You can learn more by visiting the Spinone Club of America.

Our top three questions when we take Remy out and about:

1. What kind of dog is that? 
Spinone Italianos are a fairly rare breed. We happened to meet this breed and some breeders last summer by chance. After a lot of research we decided this was the breed for us for is gentle nature and ability to a be great jogging and hiking companion. 

2. Will he stay that size?
Remy will be a big boy. His parents were 71 and 73 pounds and are quite tall.

3. Is he a lot of work?
Yes! All puppies are a lot of work. They take patience and lots of time to train. If you are interested in adopting a puppy from a breeder or local shelter please take the time to do your research! Puppies are a 10-15 year investment in your lives - they are not meant to be discarded or abandoned.

ALWAYS neuter and spay your pets!!!! 6 - 8 million cats and dogs enter shelters in the US each year (learn more at The Humane Society of The United States).

Happy Summer Solstice

Wishing you a beautiful and celebratory Summer Solstice!

Santa Barbara Summer Solstice is know for its wild, wacky and free sprited celebrations. This year we will head down to State Street with friends to watch the parade of half naked locals dance in honor of my favorite season, before heading to Alameda Park for refreshments and Santa Barbara's food truck deliciousness.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Autumnal Insta-Roundup

 I, like most people these days, have an unwavering love/obsession/sickness for Instagram. It's fricken genius - don't try to deny it (even if you did try to deny it and it were right on any sort of level I would still strongly disagree with you because that's just how obsessed I am with it).

That paired with an intense passion for Halloween-esque happy times I find myself

1. gathering/making/surrounding myself with all things cutesy-fall 
2.  proceeding to take pictures of it

Enjoy!

Nourished - A Book Design Experience

I haven't been keeping my blogging up with the rest of my life these days. It's actually quite funny because I blog often for the marketing agency I work for ( check out the blog posts I write for Web Marketing Therapy) and for clients as a ghost writer, and perhaps that has sort of dampened my enjoyment of blogging for myself. Or maybe I just kinda forgot about it - which seems like a common theme ever since I started this thing. Regardless, I am here today and sharing with you a project I worked on for quite sometime and finished back in April - book design and layout for a cookbook!

I met cookbook author Luna Paige Smith last fall through a fellow designer's referral. I found Luna's passion, compassion and creativity in both her recipes and cookbook ideas to be inspiring.

 Nourished - The Art of Eating and Living Well; is a collection of all natural, gluten-free recipes, insights and information for a fresh, feel-good life. Some may call me biased, but every single one of the recipes I have tried in her book is truly delicious (and healthy!).

Nourished was a labor of love and a melding of minds between each of us working on the book. The beautiful photography by Spencer Weiner really brought the book to life. It is self-published, was printed through an on-demand publishing company called CreateSpace and is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

Below are some of my favorite elements of the book.

Back and Front Cover 

The title page showcases the collage look we incorporated into the book and helps to introduce the reader to the illustrations hidden amongst the pages.

Inner recipe page - highlights the simple layout and use of the gorgeous photos by Spencer Weiner.

This is an example of one of the inner chapter pages - it helped to break up the book into specific categories.

Some recipes did not have photos and that was ok, because simple custom illustrations were created by me and peppered the book in fun little nooks and crannies.

Illustrations were simple gestured line drawings in a soft grey.

Yum.

One of the most special things about this book is that Luna Paige Smith is donating a portion of the proceeds of every cookbook to select organizations devoted to providing hunger relief and sustainable living skills to those in need around the world. You can read more about Luna and her cookbook at her site Nourished By Life. I hope you buy a book and get cookin!

Thanks.

 I am never ceased to be amazed by the wonders that this life, and this world, and this place I live in, give me on a daily basis. I am not sure what my purpose is in this great wide wonderful place or where things will end up, but the one thing I am certain of is that life is good and there is no reason why I should not embrace it. As such I would like to say a big THANKS to the things that make my life so wonderful:

Cute kitties in sinks.

 Traveling here. 

My love for this man.

 Amazing friends.

 Delicious food. 

 Family.

This guy.

Girlfriends you can't live without.

A glass of wine.

 Exploring new places.

Good beer.

Yummy things and cooking them. 

Wonderful family.

I am thankful for my health, running, music, living in a beautiful place, having so many fabulous people in my life. I am grateful for laughing and Spin Pins, San Pellegrino and all of my pillows. I am thankful for breakfast cereal, summer and the art of cooking. I am thankful for art and creativity, for lovely dreams and warm embraces. I am thankful for this life I have been given. And so much more.