GIVEAWAY: love banner

ok people. i need your help. i'm thinking about either opening up an ETSY store or trying to sell some premade banners locally. what i need from you is if there is still a market for these (do you want one?) and if i were to make a custom one for you what would you want it to say? 

in exchange for said help i will give you this. made in mind for a baby girl's room, but you could really put it anywhere you'd like. 

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. all you have to do is become a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post with your answer and i will randomly pick a winner by monday, february 28th, 2011 at 2:00pm. make sure to leave your email address or someway i can contact you if you end up winning. good luck!

if you want to see some other ones i've made in the past you can click here, here, here, and here. 

thanks friends, i REALLY appreciate your help!

and the winner is: LEAH OHLSON!!! congratulations!! please email me your home address so i can mail it out to you.

Jesse & Holly: MARRIED!

FINALLY, some paper. 

i have the privilege of knowing some awesome people. in that lump of awesome people are holly and jesse. i knew holly first, we met 5 years ago when she started singing for my mr.'s band. she has managed to make both of my kids, at separate times and for totally different reasons, fall in love with her. and me, and countless other people. then came Jesse. and he snatched her up! separately these two are some extraordinary people. but together, now that is something special. i can't wait to see what this couple brings to those who love them. 

so, i love them. and they love each other. and that love was made forever through some pretty awesome covenant vows that my mr. and i had the privilege of witnessing on saturday. it was a beautiful wedding. and i got to be a part of it in a small way. this is how.

holly and jesse really wanted something vintage and travel related. so i recreated an old telegram for their invitation card.

she didn't really give me much more input other than those two objectives and the wedding details, so i kind of just went for it. i loved the map i made for heather & aaron's wedding so much that i made a similar one for holly. something about vibrant colors on brown paper bag make me swoon.

since they created a wedding website for people to RSVP i whipped up about 10 of these little postcards for the few people she didn't think would have access to internet. i printed them from home, so the quality is not as nice as everything else i outsourced, but i love the design.

ah, the wrap around label. i push for these with almost every client because they are SO. MUCH. FUN. thankfully they went for it and i added some old school air mail stripes and a little dingbat to give them a vintage touch. 

 i love this wedding invitation suite and i hope you do to!

Baby Announcement: Welcome Hawea!

several months ago i had the pleasure of creating birth announcements for the brand new daughter of someone i love dearly. new mommy, Kahea, and i were instant friends and i miss her tons now that we no longer live near one another. i am also super bummed that i haven't gotten to hold her sweet baby girl yet! soon, very soon.

Kahea asked for a monogram, and right around the time i made these i was super excited to find a free monogram download from the Wedding Chicks blog. you can personalize a monogram for yourself here.

matching wrap-around mailing labels.

welcome sweet Hawea, i can't wait to meet you!

Christmas Card

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Pack it up, pack it in, let it begin!

here is our Christmas card for 2010. i used the free pattern from Lovely Design and altered it a little to match our clothes. the amazing Jackie Wonders shot our family. hope your holiday season was a good one. thank you for reading my blog. if you're not a follower you should totally become one. wink.

now i need to clean out the kid's rooms and make room for stuff. Neighborhood Thrift needs to get ready cause i'm about to unload a bunch of gently used toys and clothes on them!

have any resolutions for this year? i haven't really thought about it. i feel like i should cut out sugar or something that will only last for a millisecond... i just don't get into all that reflecting and making broken promises stuff. one thing i would LOVE to really be serious about (and this is not uncommon to other days of the year) is to really, truly, and whole-heartedly seek a deeper relationship with the Lord. as a stay at home mom of two youngins i find it difficult to be consistent in my quiet time. like, i only read my bible for a couple days in a row, once a month. dude, i'm just being honest. i suck at making my time with God a priority. i'm beginning to find that there are idols in my life that are taking my attention away from the Lord, like looking at blogs, or social networking. i don't think i want to completely stop or anything, but i definitely think i need to "do my homework before i can go out and play", you know?

anyway, does anyone know of any good "bible reading plan/daily devotional/commentary for stay at home moms who only have a 5 minute attention span that won't make my OCD jump into high gear when i miss a day by having dates and stuff in it"? let me know if you do.

ps. here was last year's Christmas card. i also used Lovely Design's free pattern. i REALLY like her patterns. can you tell?

Heather & Aaron's Invitation Suite

this invitation suite is one of my most favorites to date. not only was it for my best friend, who i share an almost exact stylistic taste with, but there are also so many elements to it that very much speak into all the things i love. each piece is unique in it's own tactile way and we were able to incorporate so many fun little details into it all.

the invitation itself is backed in vintage floral fabric that the bride had to track down. she almost didn't find it and it was a miracle straight from the good Lord in heaven that she did.

the RSVP card was stitched with a zigzag stitch that matched the envelope and had the cutest little icons to help you select your meal option.

this map... oh, this map. this map is my one true love. we laughed together, we even cried a little. i almost dumped it but we made some changes and fell back in love. seriously, i gaze lovingly at this map. printed on craft paper and folded up real tiny into the cutest little envelope in all the earth. what's not to love?

can't forget the vintage stamps. the bride hunted these bad billies down and painstakingly applied each and every one, just so. doesn't it look wonderful? i bet people were so excited to see what was inside.

i know i was.

MARRIED: Anne & John

like, forever-ago.

man, it has taken me SOOOO long to blog about this wedding. in my defense, i did pack, move 6 hours away, and unpack my family in the past couple months. now that things have settled down i have to play some catch up.

first on my list of catching up is telling you about this beautiful wedding invitation that i made for Anne and John. the bride was referred to me by her wonderful mom and i am so glad i was able to work with her on this super fun design. her mom, Lori, makes the most beautiful aprons with vintage and new fabric and we traded a custom made apron for myself and a matching one for my daughter for the invitations. so. fun. i'll try to post pictures of them soon!

Anne and her family made the envelope liners from a stamp from Paper Source. they turned out so perfect with the design of the invitation.

full invitation suite: wedding invitation, RSVP postcard, envelope and matching wrap-around mailing label.

love it. hope you do too!

Super Hero 4th Birthday

super hero 4th birthday party (read: spiderman party masked as super hero party.)

see this blog post. :)

this lovely handmade cake was made by the one and only Kahea from the blog Tickle Cake. she's an artist turned cake decorator and she made this cake for me as a trade for her daughter's baby announcements. i love trades. they make me happy.

some of our close friends picked up some spiderman comics that we used as decorations around the room and on the cake wall. thanks chris and melissa!

bunting, of course. made out of comic book pages and the polka dot paper that lined the envelopes for the invitations.

my favorite part: the decorate-your-own-super-hero-cape craft. it was so cute seeing all the kids running around with their very own cape.

just a little sticky back felt and glitter foam board. i precut the fabric and hot glued velcro to the straps. i kept the craft was super simple because we had over 20 kids and it was a parent-assisted craft so i wanted to make sure it was fast enough for everyone to make one.

one of many spiderman gifts big A received. all in all, it was a hit.