It’s been a lot of hard work, late nights, blood, sweat, and tears to get here but it has ALL been worth it!

Thank you to everyone for supporting me, spreading the word about the business, and being the best fans/friends/family/customers anyone could ask for!!!

I’m looking forward to another 8 years – hope you’ll come along for the ride!

It’s been a rough few days here-if I typed it all out you would think I was making it up…

I am looking forward to being 100% self-employed and working from home so I have more time to spend with my family. I’m super motivated and ready to be super successful! Actually, I feel like I’m already there.

I’ll update more when we get settled! XOXO

we’ve been busy working – lots of tattoos and design stuff and artwork coming out of this family! my business is doing super well! I had a new shopping cart installed on my site just recently and it has been a HUGE hit! it also has taken a big burden of order filling off of me since the entire process is now automated! YAY!! a huge thank to you to all of my family and friends for their support – I couldn’t have done it without you!!

hard to believe our baby is going to be FOUR this year! WOW! time is flying by – but he is more amazing to me every day. he has such a huge vocabulary and says some things that sometimes make me do a double-take and wonder “how did he get to be so smart?!”. I love him more than anything and he is the reason I work so hard — I don’t know where I’d be now if he hadn’t blessed our lives.

Scott’s been busy tattooing – a few new ones on me (still working on my two half-sleeves!!) and lots of cool new pieces and cover-ups on friends and other clients. I’d love it if we could open our shop this year — we’ll see what the stars have in store for us!

I know we’re ready for this snow to end – but today brought us another lovely blizzard. UGH! as long as it isn’t snowing on my birthday, which is coming up soon, I’ll be ok! hard to believe it is almost MARCH already anyway!

I can’t wait to wear my dress and my pink shoes!! and we were gifted a honeymoon to Amish Country – 3 nights at the Inn at Honey Run with a couples massage on Monday! I can’t wait to soak in the hot tub in our cottage and have some peace and quiet from all of the chaos!

Nana was so gracious to take Patrick (and Max!!) for us – what would we do without her?! The gift came from my WONDERFUL boss and her husband. we were totally surprised and ecstatic! we can’t wait to leave!!!! LOL

I’ll be sure to post pictures when we have them! SPECIAL THANKS to my awesome BFF for photographing the event! the official announcements are going out with our holiday cards this year, so if you want to make sure you’re on the list send me your mailing address!!!

love and hugs to all!!!

I’m ordering my shoes today:

We already have the cake toppers, a fantastic find in the Halloween section at Target – cost us a whole $5!

and a friend is making my dress for me – because you know there is nothing traditional about me and therefore a store-bought gown will just not work! I am SO thrilled that she is able to do it – I can’t wait to go fabric shopping!!!

so, that’s the latest. kind of spur of the moment, but not really when you think that Scott did propose back in 2005 – December actually.

we’ve been BUSY! Scott’s been tattooing all of the East side of Cleveland and I have been designing my butt off! back in June I decided to give up web design except for my existing website customers and to focus my creative energy on bringing awesome, unique designs to the professional digital photography world. I re-launched my website in July and opened up a store over on etsy.com for additional exposure and the response has been AWESOME! I even have a facebook fan page to keep everyone in the loop with what’s new and upcoming!

we’re not ready for the snow – but that’s why we’re going to FL for Thanksgiving. LOL we need a break from the hectic life and we’ll be kickin’ back on the beach for a week. oh, who am I kidding? I’ll still be working when I’m down there, LOL!!!

Here’s a few of the final images…

more to come! she took a lot of pics and I know she got a lot of great shots! Patrick was really very good and sat so well! I’ll post more as she gets them proofed!!

Scott’s been busy tattooing. he did a guest spot down in W. Va. which unfortunately didn’t turn out to be quite as good as we expected. at least he got to see the family for a good length of time – too bad Patrick and I weren’t able to go due to my hectic job! since he’s been back he’s been busy and I know Beth has been busy lining up some business for when we get back down there!

we are all looking forward to Labor Day weekend when we will be back down in W. Va. for a wedding and the annual Cutlip Family Reunion. I am planning on taking TONS of photos and hopefully catching sunset on the mountaintop. heck, I don’t even care about seeing the sun set really – I just want to go enjoy the breathtaking view and the dead silence. it is just surreal! I was in awe the whole time we were up there and I did not want to go back down!!!

We’ll be heading down to FL in November – right at Thanksgiving – to see the FL family and that new Cutlip baby – Jacey Ann! should be a fun time – especially since I have never been to FL before and I would enjoy seeing some palm trees! I also LOVE the ocean and am looking forward to relaxing by it for a bit, too. This will be my first vacation in a VERY long time so I’m planning to make the most of it…even if that does mean lots of R&R and not a lot of anything else!!

I decided to take my design business in a new direction and have started focusing more on graphic design than web design. Website projects are good money and I usually enjoy them but they generally take a lot of time and can be a bit of a hassle. so, in an effort to spend at least a little less time working and a little more time with my boys I’ve switched gears a bit. easier said than done when you’re a work-a-holic like me, but hey – I’m trying!!! So, with that being said, the main focus I have now for my business is design resources for professional photographers. Specifically meaning greeting card, announcement, thank you card, save the date, and wedding announcements – to name a few! I’ve also started whipping up some digital goodies for digital scrapbooking and whatnot.

I love designing this type of stuff and find it actually to be stress-relieving and with a little push from my best friend to actually get off my butt and DO IT I finally jumped in feet first! So far the response has been great! I’ve got the online shop up and running: sassy-designs.net as well as some items for sale on etsy.com. If any of you have a facebook page please consider becoming a fan of the business! You can find it here:Sassy Designs on FaceBook. and I’ve started a twitter account where you can follow us, too: I give away freebies on twitter every week!

so, I think that about sums up the latest news for us. we’re still planning on getting a mobile home of our own down in W. Va. – hopefully sooner rather than later – since the girls have made us the offer to take a piece of the mountain and call it our own. that will be a dream come true when it does happen because I just love it down there. I seriously feel like I am meant to be there. and the girls have already given me their blessing to be buried in the Cutlip Family cemetery, since they are the trustees – now I just have to get my living will drawn up!