This July is going to be a huge huge month for me and Live Colorful. I started blogging back in July 2012. I was living in Asheville, North Carolina with my husband and our poodle Kyra, who we adopted in México while we were living there. 2012 in general was great for us. Many dreams and not much money made us do the best with whatever we had in hand.Jordan was freelancing and working from home. I was spending my days trying to make our basement apartment look like home. I worked on many DIY projects back then. You have no idea how many trips to the Dollar General, Habitat and Goodwill I made that year. I was buying old and ugly things and painting them, decorating them and making them look presentable and pretty. Then one day I discovered a magazine, and in it, an article of some designer with their websites next to their pictures. I ran to the computer and discovered their blogs. Back then I had no idea what a blog was, but I fell in love looking at their beautiful pictures and projects. I loved the way they were sharing their ideas to others, I was inspired.So with some help from Jordan, I started Live Colorful, one day in July 2012 in our tiny, dark basement apartment in Asheville, North Carolina.In 2012, my sister, Lali Valverde, was turning 20 years old. She was studying her 4th semester of fashion design in Mexico City. She was living with a friend, walking everyday to school and taking care of her two guinea pigs: petete and tutu.We used to live together, when she was in high school and I was just graduating from college, sometime in 2008. We developed a huge connection when she left Tabasco to move to Mexico City, we missed each other a lot. We used to see each other every spring and summer break, or during the holidays. I stayed in Tabasco a few years and started a small company that designed themed parties for quinceañeras. Lali was dealing with her new life as a fashion design student in one of the crazies cities in the world. We talk a lot, and often shared our dreams and goals, and yes, we dreamed a lot about the idea of collaborating together on something creative some day.When I moved to the states I kind of left those dreams behind. I had no idea what I was going to do with my new life, I was scared, excited and feeling homesick constantly.Things got better when I moved to California two years ago. I met some amazing people, bloggers and designers, and discovered that this “blogging thing”  could be something meaningful.This year I became a mom and man, things have changed for me and for Live Colorful in a great way. My niño might have been born with la torta bajo el brazo, something that means that he is bringing me luck, but literally that he has a sandwich under his arm, seems fitting to me!A few months back, Lali graduated from college and started working on her first fashion collection that she is planning to sell locally in Mexico City. She came to visit me in California a few weeks back and while we were talking she shared with me how much she felt attracted to the online world as well.It took me a few cherry ICEEs to convince her, but she finally accepted to collaborate with me on Live Colorful. So that's how she became my business partner a few weeks ago (party popper emoji here)!!!!! She will be sharing some fashion DIYs and collaborating with other craft, lifestyle and style projects :) You are to love her projects!More about Lali:

• Her favorite color is purple (like her hair right now <3).
•  She loves cartoon characters, especially the little mermaid and Mushu from Mulan.
• She is also obsessed with desserts, muffins, cupcakes, ice cream and everything sweet and pretty.

She is back in Mexico City now, and we are still learning how to coordinate and communicate together, since we live in different countries. But I’m pretty sure this is going to be great for us and for the blog and we can’t wait to share with you more about our lives, adventures and inspiration.Join us for our first bilingual Periscope (@LiveColorfulCo) next thursday July 2nd, 2015 5:00pm PST to chat about "5 Small Business Mistakes you can Avoid" and about our lives and creative careers. Lali will be there too, behind the camera :) so you will get to know her better too.The chat will be mainly in Spanish but I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have and share some tips in English as well, so stop by and say hello!