Bold Color Inspired by HP

This post is sponsored by HSN & HP.

As a fashion stylist I, of course, enjoy and celebrate bold color and style. When I think about what I am drawn to on Pinterest, what I share on Instagram and what I wear on a daily basis it always is colorful and bright. Well, HP has teamed up with HSN to release an exclusive collection of HP Pavilion laptops in the prettiest colors, and to celebrate the launch of this new collection they challenged me to create a fashionable outfit inspired by their deep purple laptop.

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I gladly accepted because this royal purple hue is not only great for summer, but an excellent transitional color for fall. This color is really easy to spot in stores right now. Even when it comes to maternity fashion, I was able to find two maternity dresses with this hue at Macy's.

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Any color with blue undertones has a great chance of being compatible on the majority of skin tones. Why? Well, because every human's blood carries tones of blue in it, and thus every human can usually wear deep blues (navy, cobalt blue and royal blue) and have it be complementary. Cool, right?!

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Okay, can we talk about the laptop for a second?! I just got a new desktop computer because my old laptop is from 2010, but because I still travel a lot I still need the convenience of a laptop. The Pavilion is a fashionable and functional choice for me. It has 1 terabyte of space, and I need a lot of space for all of my photos. It also has a touchscreen so I can easily use it on a plane and not really need a mouse. Here are some other cool factors:

• HP 17.3” Touchscreen Intel Quad-Core 8GB Ram, 1TB Hard drive

• Bang & Olufsen audio built-in

• Windows 10 Operating system

• Available in 5 Colors – Silver, White, Blue, Red, Purple

• $699.95 with Free Shipping and Handling

You also get lifetime tech support provided by HSN, but you can only get this amazing laptop by tuning into HSN on July 18th! You'll also see some familiar faces on HSN because Brooke and Summer from The Girls with Glasses will be hosting the event along with some other amazing bloggers. It should be a really entertaining time regardless of whether you're in the market for a new computer or not. Find out all about it, click here.

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Photos by Gina Meola.

HP Sprout Review & Recipe Card DIY

This post is sponsored by HP.

As a content creator and influencer I'm always working with images, and as I mentioned in a previous post, working on a laptop isn't always the easiest. Sometimes it really is helpful to see things on a large screen, and with the Sprout by HP I not only have a large screen, but I have an easy way to capture and edit photos and objects. It's a creative's dream computer.

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With their touchable screen and mat, I can create inspiration with a click of a button. Simply lay your objects on their mat, click scan, and voila! You can see them on your computer. You can easily add text to your photo too.

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Check out this cute little screensaver background I made in UNDER two minutes. Yes, it's that fast and easy!

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It comes with a wireless keyboard which is so nice, but I actually didn't really need to use the keyboard much at all. You can quickly eliminate clutter and maximize space by using their touch screen or the keyboard on the mat. It's nice to have the option though if you're writing a lot (like I am right now).

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The Sprout also comes preloaded with fun artwork and games for children. My two year old loves drawing and playing with the Sprout, and it's MESS free!!!

There are endless ideas of how you can use the Sprout for work, but I thought it would be fun to show you an easy DIY for anyone looking for a new home PC.

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RECIPE CARD DIY:

1| Pick your favorite recipe to share. I chose banana bread.

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2| Choose ingredients from your recipe as art work. I chose bananas, of course, but you could use coffee beans, sliced carrots, or even sprinkles of sugar or pepper.

3| Lay your objects on the outer sides of the mat so you have enough room to write, and click "take picture."

4| Save the photo and remove the objects from the pad.

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5| Add your recipe title and save the photo.

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6| Print a 3x5 or a 4x6 photo onto regular paper and write in your recipe (It looks more personal that way).

It's that easy! Want to know more about Sprout by HP? Visit their website, www.sprout.com.

Photos by Gina Meola

Setting Up a Creative Space

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Sponsored by HP.

AVE Styles was launched from a laptop sitting on my couch. I've never had a creative space to call home for my business. I'm a nomad - traveling from my couch to my kitchen island to Starbucks to my bed...That's the nice thing about laptops, I guess, but after awhile you start to want a desk to put all of your papers on and place to leave your job at the end of the day. By not having a desk I often find myself taking my work "home" with me. I spend entire evenings working from the couch instead of engaging in a game with my family. So, I created a creative space with the help of some friends from Junk in the Trunk Vintage Market. Granted, the space came just as we decided to put our house on the market, but for at least for a short season I have been able to experience what it is like to have a place for my business to call home.

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Check out the before and after! Crazy, right?!

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It sure feels good! It feels great to open the door and know my work is waiting for me, and at the same time, to shut it and leave it for another day. I also like that I can't see the laundry basket of clothes waiting to be folded or anything else that reminds me of chores I need to do outside of AVE Styles. I also love that I'm surrounded by objects that make me "feel" more creative. A gold pair of scissors, fresh flowers, old books, a vintage calendar...They all bring about a thought or a feeling when you stare at them, which could be a source of inspiration for my next project.

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As part of setting up the perfect creative space, I said good-bye to the laptop and hello to a desktop computer. Not just any desktop PC though. It's the Sprout, which is pretty much made for visual creatives like me that work with images incessantly. It has built in 3D scanning technology, as well as a full creative suite that let's you edit and draw with ease. Tomorrow I'll show you what it can do, but for now, you'll find my list of creative office must-haves:

Top 5 Must-Haves for a Creative Space:

1. Fresh flowers - they just make me smile, especially when they're peonies.

2. Comfortable desk - if you're going to be sitting there for hours you better like your desk.

3. A journal - all of my best ideas are written down with pen and paper in a journal.

4. Natural light - you can't necessarily buy natural light, but it's so important to my creative process.

5. The HP Sprout - obviously, I've become a fan of using a desktop computer.

Photos by Gina Meola.