Wednesday, October 27, 2010

There are Angels!


Angels Foster Family Network is a non-profit organization that my husband and I support because what they do for babies is critical! I was blessed to be asked to design their anuual luncheon invitation and related printed collateral. "Honored' would be another word to describe how I felt when that call came in. "The Power of One" was their theme and I believe it is so true. Just ONE person can make a difference in this world!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A Country French Pumpkin


Seriously. Should I have been doing this yesterday? I do have a print job to work on but I've been seeing these darling fabric pumpkins everywhere lately so I decided with a tutorial from My Desert Cottage I would just do it! You know, you're online clicking from link to link and blog to blog and suddenly 17 hours have gone by! Exaggerating? Sure, but I'm honestly not sure how I ended up on that cute blog because it was one of those days. I had in my stash almost all the supplies needed so I grabbed some leftover fabric from a tablecloth I made years ago and went to work. So often in the evenings I'm making my padded hangers while watching TV and a nice chubby pincushion is what I've needed by my side. Darling year-round, functional and matches my family room decor. What could be better? Thanks to Karen from My Desert Cottage!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

My New Favorite


It's a brooch, it's a pin, it's a belt accessory. I've already worn it a couple different ways and I'm thinking up other options. Could it be added to a hat? Cowboy or otherwise? Just maybe!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Hitched!


Wedding signs are the rage. Cute wooden ones that say "Mr. & Mrs.", bunting that spells out "Love is Sweet", a pennant that says "Yay!", and even some that say "Hitched". It seemed like the perfect word for one of my recycled jeans pennants. Darn cute!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Babe in the Woods?


Oftentimes I make the short jaunt over to my local paper stores to get inspired, and that's exactly what I needed to do last week. My mission was to come up with an invitation for a baby shower. Not a women only shower but a couples shower so I didn't want the invitation to look completely girlie, but the parents-to-be are having a baby girl! So pink needed to be in there somewhere. My client gave me a couple other pieces of intelligence like "they like the outdoors and they bicycle". Humph.

So I wandered around looking at colors and gift wrap and greeting cards and toys and calendars... and I came upon a wood grain embossed paper! That says "outdoorsy" to me so I grabbed some. Next was to find something pink but not too pink and the rhubarb envelopes caught my eye. Ivory wood grain for the outdoors, rhubarb pink for the baby girl and a touch of brown to make sure the men feel comfortable showing up!

And I think we all remember the rhyme from our childhood "Blank and Blank, sittin' in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage." Therefore the wood grain and the "tree" all came together. And since I was getting a bit silly I thought that everyone would know the words to the rhyme so why not just put in blah, blah and yada, yada instead! My client said "do it!" so I did. Love that wood grain paper! The backside of the invite shows it nicely I think.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Party Dogs


by Stacy Reeves


4 Eyes Photography

by Simply Jessie Photography

Whenever we have a bigger party my sweet husband wants to send Cory packing. Cory is my Wheaten Terrier with an aka: Hors d'oeuvres Dog. I don't think sweet husband is that concerned about the dog eating inappropriate food, he's worried there will be people in attendance that don't like dogs, or are afraid of dogs, or are allergic to dogs, or whatever. Our last party was chock full of Cory lovers so he stayed. Besides, all the friends that have been known to babysit the uninvited Cory were at the party! And darling Cory was party-ready too. A trip to the groomers, a brush of the teeth and a lovely satin turquoise bow for his collar and he fit in just like all the other party-goers. Since I didn't get a photo of him I decided to show proof that there are Party Dogs even at weddings! I found all of these photos on a fav blog Style Me Pretty.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Halloween Party Planning Alert!


Some years it just works out so well. This year October 31 lands on a Sunday, which means you can plan a pumpkin carving party on Friday or Saturday night. It doesn't get any better. I suggest menu of some kind of chili, my favorite is turkey eggplant, a green salad with fresh apple pieces (as a nod to my favorite autumn fruit), and a cheesy bread. A pumpkin ale is a must for beer options! Just make it easy for people to grab a bite whenever because some of us are slow pumpkin carvers. I mean me. Don't forget the invitation that is "so cute it's scary"! (as my sweet friend said) because you know that's what gets them to show up! And BYOP (bring your own pumpkin) means you don't have to lug around 100 pounds of pumpkins.

Friday, October 1, 2010

They're Engaged! Part Two




Despite the fact that I love details, and I mean LOVE, it's the people that make the party. The family the friends the laughter the smiles. But back to the details... I had to use the "Danielle & Bill" logo on the water bottles followed by h2oh so in love, and the ribbons on the wood boxes that matched the invitations. And sweet Danielle & Bill wearing the appropriate colors was perfect and I'm sure they knew it was expected of them. And Bill's mom and dad joined in the color coordinating too with their brown and turquoise. Yay. And of course they won the "traveled the farthest" prize flying in from Idaho, although Grams did fly down from Seattle so maybe it's a tie. Three Cal Poly college roomies made the long trek, the local friends the short trek, to give long overdue hugs. And the tapas? The Promiscuous Fork rocked the yummies!