Time for something new

FYI - I'm heading over here.

OMG

I forgot to post a recent card.

I think it speaks for itself.

You know, OMG Facebook told me you were engaged. Congrats!

or OMG You got the job! Wohoo for awkward first day.

or OMG I'm so envious of your new Toms.

Really, its a card for many occasions.

Year 2: Cotton

Dear Weekend

I'm so glad you are here. And you brought pie.

You are the best.

Love,
Your Biggest Fan

P.S. The discovery of this made Friday just that much better.

I knew that hole punch would come in handy

A friend asked me to design a label for a fundraiser for her Young Life kids.

First of all, I love labels.

Second of all, I secretly love it when I can use my 2 inch hole punch. It's not every day I have a need for cut out circles.

With that said, its a good thing for Avery Labels that already have a preset 2 inch circle. After about 3 whole punches I'm over lining it up and making sure it fits.

Sorry hole punch, you go back in the drawer.

Thanks to my printer and the trusty hole punch, this design went from this

to this

And because three is my favorite number, you get to see this one too.

the Almost Farm

I believe it started with a garden. Lots of zucchini, kale, lettuce, and tomatoes. Oh and more zucchini.

Then some chickens came along. They were happy chickens that brought happy eggs for me.

I believe a few feeder pigs came in too. I didn't want to meet them because I didn't want to get attached.

Bees came in the mail, but a little to early. I'm still hoping for more bees because I do love honey! (Yes, bees are shipped via the US Postal Service!)

There are even goats.

Did I mention this is all within the city limits? It's about 20 minutes from my city block neighborhood. You could ride your bike to Stricklands, so I hear, from this place.

Somewhere between the garden and goats it was referred to as the Almost Farm.

Saturday Market Find

Reason number 437 why I love this time of year.

Pretty in Pink

Here is a tip for throwing a surprise party.

Have the party 11 months late!

This weekend was a 50th surprise party, and I really enjoyed being a part of the celebration and scheming.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day.

I'll take that one in every color

I changed my shirt 4 times today.

I'm indecisive, to say the least.

This little problem show up when I'm designing something too. Take the logo for a new etsy shop, The Little Birch Tree, I sent the owner 4 options because I just can't decide!

It all started with the font. Oh, it always starts there. I wrote out The Little Birch Tree in all the fonts that seemed to fit the look we were going for or that I just liked, alot. Within minutes, I had 9 versions of The Little Birch Tree on my screen.

The owner wanted a script font that was all connected. No problem, right? There are tons like that. Fun fact though, when spelling birch in a script that is all connected that little r looks more like a t. Funny, but probably not that brand image she is going for. Wouldn't you be interested though in that etsy shop? Just a peak.

Anyways, I had to drop the script fonts, which was good because it narrowed down my list. I was down to about three fonts and couldn't decide. I think part of me actually liked one more than the others, but little pieces of me just loved the other two too much to decide.

So, I asked Jared.

Thankfully he is decsive. And! He even has reasons behind his decision not just because one font had this etsy shop's name written all over it.

Add a birch tree and the logo was in business.

One problem, I liked it in multiple colors. Crap, here we go again.

Do you see why I can't pick?

I love the first one, but it has green in it. So do I just love it for its green? The shirt I picked to wear today was green. Maybe its just my go to color.

Second one. Have I told you how much I love grey? Our kitchen cabinets are even grey.

Third one. Multiple shades of gray. This is really not looking good for me to decide.

Fourth one. Add a little texture to make it a little different. Oh and we're back to green.

Moral of the story: Rachel of The Little Birch Tree now has 4 logos to choose from. Decision pressure is off my back.

I love Spring, I do

But why do creatures that live OUTSIDE, think they should come INSIDE?

Case in point, there is a snake in our office today.

It wasn't invited.

I put a trash can over it until someone else comes to remove it.

Good thing I convinced my boss to buy those sharpies. The sign on the trash can warning of the snake underneath looks so much better with a sharpie.

Bandanna

I don't know if you have ever met this friend of mine. Well, it is about time that you do.

Perfect.

This summer she is going to be a part of the Susan G. Komen 3 Day in Detroit. The money raised from the walkers goes to support breast cancer research. Oh, and did I mention that during the 3 Day they walk 60 miles? Ya, that would be like me walking from Akron to Cleveland and back.

Well, she asked me to make these cards for her to send to family and friends. It's the kind of thing you can hang on your fridge and then when you see it remember to pray for her about this event.

Now, my favorite part of the whole card is her team's name. Bandanna. It's like bandana, but this walk is in honor of her mom, Anna. Get it? Bandanna.

Ya, imagine playing her in scrabble. Let's just say it's hard to beat her triple word scores.

Here is the important part. If you want to help support Debbie, go here. Make a donation.

Too Many Kids in this Tub

I know you are on the edge of your seats right now. How did the Poetry Cafe go you ask. Well, I'm so glad you did ask.


Minus the snow (Ohio you better have it out of your symptoms because I put on my flip flops and there's no going back for a few months!), it was such a fun night. Really, I give those kids extra points for getting up and sharing their poems. The fifth grade version of Laurie would have been so shy and tried to hide behind my ridiculously big glasses. Not these kids those, they hopped up on stage like it was nothing new.






So do you notice the snazzy sign at the top? That was a, "hey do you think you could pull this together" kind of request that came together so nicely. Little did I know that Office Max and Kinkos wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for that banner. Thank goodness for google. It helped me find a printer who only wanted $30 for a 5 foot banner. At that price, I think we need to start including banners in regular celebrations. Look out Jared for you 24th birthday!


Well, it's awhile till his birthday, so I'll leave you with my favorite poem from the night:


There are too many kids in this tub
There are too many elbows to scrub
I just washed a behind that I'm sure wasn't mine
There are too many kids in this tub
-Sheldon Silverstein

It's a 3s World Out There

Did I ever tell you that Jared is a teacher? Well, he is. Glad we got that cleared up. Some of his coworkers are putting on this Poetry Cafe for their kids. They really are going all out. It's a special night, the kids are all dressing up, & Jared & I are taking pictures (reality, he's taking pictures because he is better at it than me, but I come along for support and to look cute, hopefully)

Anyways. He came home last night and asked that we design a little something for the event. I'm not sure if they will use it, but if I was a 5th grader I would be stoked about it.

So funny story. Adding the ripples to the cup was well an issue. We knew three would be the number of choice because it's my favorite number. That my friends is a for a whole different post that would include why I love having 3 ice cubes in my drink.

Back to the story. We spent awhile arranging the ripples trying to get it just right. I was happy with how it turned out. As i'm saving the design, I ask Jared if he's happy how it came out.

Pause.

Never a good sign. Apparently he would rather have the diagonal ripple be up a little more, but he knew it would be too symmetrical and it would drive me nuts. He knows me so well! Everything inside of me would go crazy because it would be too lined up. Ah! Really, he should be glad. I mean whenever we go to hang pictures on the wall I can't have it exactly perfect. Slightly off is much better, thank you very much.

Fill in the Blank

I can't tell you how many times we are about to walk out the door for someone's birthday or event or whatever and Jared asks me if I have a card for it. Pause. Nope. Really? You make cards for other people, why not make some for yourself? Pause. Ummm. Ummm. I'll work on that.

This leads me to what is below.

We were invited to a friends Shower/Bath combo. What's a bath you ask? It's a family tradition of a man's version of a shower full of tools and random things you would find in a garage. Oh and in my family the Groom gets thrown in the pool and is NOT allowed to hug the Bride while he is wet. Ok, the second part may have been my rule.

For the shower, I made this card for the Bride to be. Little do you know it matched the bowl I gave her and secretly wish I would have bought a second one for me.

Then, I made this one for the Groom to Be. Now, this isn't what I wanted it to say. I didn't want their to be a blank. I wanted to say what people really say prior to needing the Home Depot Gift Card that was inside.

Oh Shit.

I haven't been avoiding you, I promise.

I've just been lame and haven't posted the latest things I've worked on. Sorry about that! New updates coming soon. Pinky swear.

In other news, I was a guest blogger for ChoBusiness. Check it out if you are more interested in a shoe commentary of American Idol.

Lets put that on the wall

This is the shade of green I want to paint our living room.

Well, at least in my mind it is the perfect shade of green.

My husband will tell you, however, that what is perfect in my mind doesn't always work out like I think it should. If it did, we would totally take out a wall of our kitchen, but it's probably an important wall.

Anyways. This little guy, is a self print invitation. One little way to save a few extra bucks!

You had me at S

It's Friday night and I am pretty pumped right now. One, it's Friday. Two, popcorn is probably going to be my dinner. Three, I just finished this:

The font really just did me in as the tv came together. And I get really happy about a good font.

The s won me over.

Time for popcorn.

broken

It is Thursday night and I do wish it was Friday already. It's just been one of those days where your day starts out with a cup of coffee and a cookie instead of a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal or a piece of fruit. Ya know?

Anyways, I just finished a project I wanted to share with you. This is a new one for me. My first poster. I did have fun making this. I started with broken pieces of glass left over from my mosaic projects and took various pictures of it.

like this

Then add in a few more layers and steps with photoshop and here we are.

Should you be in the Akron area these weekends, you should check this event out. Bonus, there is one this Sunday should you be interested.

ChoBusiness

What? You missed the the Bachelor last night because your tv was taken over by video games.  Oh wait.  That was just me.  

No worries dear internet because I have Meg, who is sometimes better than the real show.

You may not know Meg. Too bad. We are going to fix that.

Internet meet Meg.  

See, we have been friends since high school. Meg is perfect to go to a concert too. She always gets up front and she is a complete head taller than me. So I stand in front of her and she still has a front row view. Perfect if you ask me.  She is the friend who you go to the Backstreet Boys concert with in your personally designed tshirts. She may or may not have prayed the night before for a Backstreet Boys glow stick to complete her boy-band glow stick collection.  

She is also the kind of friend who comes over when your trying to figure out how to roast a 25 pound turkey.

Meg has an uncanny ability to win prizes from Pioneer Woman. This has resulted in 2 new boots I believe.

Anyways. Why am I telling you all of this? See I hear Meg's comments on life. But you miss out on our emails. It's really for the best.  Why would you want to hear about office life?

This year though, she is sharing her two cents to say the least about the Bachelor, the Biggest Loser, and American Idol. You may not be into these shows, but you should still check her blog out. I promise it will make you laugh as only Meg can.

So long for December

So it's been over a month since I have blogged anything. Oops.

I promise I have been busy.

I went to a wedding with friends. This is random, but I wore a dress that I picked up at Target in a last ditch effort because I wore the same dress to the past three weddings in a row and I needed a break. Being me, I just picked up a dress without trying it on because I generally know my size at Target. Perfect plan right? Merh. Wrong. It had this weird spanx like material underneath the dress. Way to high maintenance for me. Ironically I wished for my go to winter dress that I wore to the three previous weddings. This is why my husband will just shake his head at me.

Oh! These little guys were made earlier for another wedding in December.

Actually just the reception. Fun fact about this party, they were going to put the invitation design on the cake and the baker wouldn't do it because my image was copyrighted. I felt so special. If they would have called me up I totally would have gone for it!

We were supposed to go to Pennsylvania to visit grandparents for Christmas. Then it snowed a ton and we were snowed out. I say snowed out because Ohio had a yucky mess of slush, but where we wanted to be had a foot and a half over night. There went that trip. Soooo we painted the kitchen!

One of my helpers :)

Thank you ethereal mood.

There were a few Christmas cards that came out this year too. This one was my favorite. It was for my friend Meg. She fell in love with the song on the card by Alli Rogers. Well, so did I. It became my Christmas album that I listened to over and over and over to at work. Yep, I'm that person who can listen to the same 8 songs all day long.

Then there was this guy. I determined I like blue more for Christmas than reds and greens.

Lastly, we had this good looking fella. Last minute order that worked out perfectly.

There are more projects to come in January. For one of them, my clumsiness may come in handy because I need broken glass. We'll see how that works out.