Laura Nicole Designs

Time for something new

2010-10-15T15:39:00.002-04:00

FYI - I'm heading over here.

OMG

2010-08-06T11:28:00.003-04:00

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

2010-07-13T08:47:00.001-04:00

Dear Weekend

2010-06-25T14:34:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-22T18:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-14T21:06:00.004-04:00

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

2010-05-25T20:42:00.001-04:00

Reason number 437 why I love this time of year.

Pretty in Pink

2010-05-17T17:30:00.005-04:00

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

2010-05-11T17:30:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-16T08:27:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-08T17:30:00.004-04:00

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

2010-03-30T14:55:00.006-04:00

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

2010-03-18T19:07:00.002-04:00

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

2010-03-08T21:34:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-03-04T09:17:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-02T20:05:00.005-05:00

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

2010-01-15T20:41:00.008-05:00

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

2010-01-14T18:40:00.007-05:00

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

2010-01-12T15:02:00.009-05:00

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

2010-01-06T18:38:00.005-05:00

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.

Better than a Sharpie

2009-12-01T20:38:00.003-05:00

So, I absolutely love sharpies. I mean I'll buy the 36 pack just because my brown sharpie is almost out of ink and my world would end without a brown sharpie because A of all I love the color brown and B of all I love sharpies that much. Let's not even go down the road of the sharpie pen.

Today though, I was given something better than a sharpie. Christmas came early. This new amazing thing is a intuos 4 tablet pen for our computer. I know, sounds lame, but I am on cloud 9. Have you ever tried to draw something with a mouse? It can be one of the most frustrating things. But oh this little pen allows me to do so much more than I could before. I'm in love.

Don't worry sharpies, you still have a place in my heart. Always.

This is one of the things I did tonight. How many more days till spring?

Moral of the story: I have the best husband ever. Hands down.

Looking for Christmas Gift Ideas?

2009-11-20T20:54:00.005-05:00

Maybe you are like me. You've started looking at gifts for other people and keep finding incredible deals on things you would like.

Yes dear, I realize you've been spending time looking for car parts for Christmas, but do you realize the cutest green coat is on sale next Friday? As much as I want your car to sound and look sexy, I just don't know if you are keeping up on this great deal. I love you, but I really don't want an access port or intake for Christmas.

So what did I do? I printed out the picture, wrote a little note about the price, and stuck in his lunch for work. Sure he was expecting a note about how much I love him, but I think this just kept him on his toes.

What does any of this have to do with anything? Well, I thought I might be able to help you out a little. I'm guessing you are probably the one who spends time looking and blogs or etsy instead of your husband. So he has no idea of great gifts available through those sites. He probably never will unless you start dropping hints.

Should you want some of the things I sell, feel free to print out this little note below. Stick it in his lunch. Hide it in the coat pocket. Position perfectly so that he will see it in the rear view mirror. Get creative!

These wall arts are $35 a piece. 8 1/2 x 10

A picture from your wedding with the lyrics from your first dance.

Custom print for your babies room.

All he will have to do is email me at lauranicoledesigns@gmail.com and I'll work everything out. You'll just have fun hiding hints. Trust me, its fun.

Frenchie has a new home

2009-10-31T07:27:00.006-04:00

Do you remember this little guy?

He was made for Norah, who is now here! Well, I really liked Frenchie and wanted to use him somewhere else, but what would I do with a sheep? Decorate the dogs bed with him? Probably not.

Well, my friend thought it would be a good idea to use him for my neighbors, who were having a baby as well! Genius! You have no idea how pumped I was when she gave me this suggestion. Ya, its a bit ridiculous, but that's me.

As of about 10 days ago, little Nick is here! He was early, which i just assumed never happened to first time moms, shows how much I know! When we heard he was here, I had not even start the project. Oops! So I went to work right away during the end of a sad Cavs game. I've come to the conclusion I am bad luck and should not watch, ever.

Anyways, Jared got to meet him first the other day. Not gonna lie, I was a little jealous :) However, the next day I was able to meet our newest neighbor and he is too cute.

We also gave him this:

Also, I feel as though you should know that our dog has a crush on their dog. It's pretty funny. Poor Ruby she just watches him all day through the window. Silly puppy.

At least it's pretty

2009-09-28T20:36:00.007-04:00

Because I'm not ready for fall.

I think I would be more ok with fall if winter didn't take over so much of both fall and spring. Coats, boots, gloves, scarves, snow shovels...they can all stay away, as far as I'm concerned.

Flip flops, tank tops, and humidity to keep my hair curly would be lovely thank you very much.

The apple cider is good this time of year though.

Perhaps I just need to get over this.

New cards will help :)

November will be here soon

2009-09-23T21:58:00.006-04:00

There is something new on my fridge.

Whenever I am invited to something, I love putting the invite up on fridge. One, I can't tell you how forgetful I am and would feel pretty bad for missing someone's shower or worse yet a wedding! So up the invitation goes.

I was really happy to put this one up.

Plus it's cuter than pizza coupons or our calendar on the fridge that we haven't updated since June. But why start now?

Anyways, this invitation is the same couple here and the photo shoot here.

I think he's French

2009-09-17T22:31:00.006-04:00

If only I could use sheep to decorate part of my house because I'm currently in love with this one.

You know its totally normal to have a baby like sheep all over your house even though you don't have kids.

Ok it's not.

Instead I have been thinking about what other print items I can use this little guy in. I mean there are plenty of print items I could put the baby sheep on, but I come back to the same problem...what would I do with it? Oh well, maybe this little guy will be used for someone else one day.

The last thing has absolutely nothing to do with design, but I'm painting the porch this weekend, well hopefully. I am so pumped. Hoping it goes well!

Stork Stopped In

2009-09-01T21:07:00.003-04:00

He delivered these.

Thank you mail lady. I've been waiting for these.

2009-08-31T23:44:00.008-04:00

Little Birdie & Tandem Bike

2009-08-24T21:13:00.004-04:00

2 new updates!

Well, one I told you in the last post about a little birdie that was to come next. The little birdie is here for the baby shower invites for little Norah.

Not gonna lie, if i ever have a girl, the poor thing will probably always have a bow or barrette in her hair. I mean I put one on a bird. Poor kid doesn't stand a chance. Hopefully she'll understand that one day you can't have a hair accessory match your outfit every single day. Then she'll probably move on to shoes...

2nd update is about my friends who are getting married. You know, the one with the tandem bike? (fyi, if anyone happens to know where to find a tandem bike cake topper, let me know so I can tell her!) Well! We took pictures for their invitations and just some other fun ones too. And by we, I mean my husband who is far better with the camera than me took the pictures. Each picture makes me so happy.

Anyways, here is one of my favorites....

Lyn the Turtle

2009-08-19T23:02:00.001-04:00

One of my friends wants to use these colors for her wedding. Well I don't know about the tan. If everything could go her way, it would be a early fall wedding at sunset. When she told me the colors I about flipped I loved them so much. Then we both we realized we needed to move onto to a new topic to talk about. I like odd things, like color combinations. It's just not good to get me started.

Alright, so lately it seems that animals have been popping up in my designs by request. I'm calling this first one Lyn the Turtle. I don't know how Lyn will feel about me naming a turtle after her, but I think if you are going to have a turtle named after you it should be a cute one like this. :)

Stay tuned for pictures of the cards once the order arrives! Plus you might see a little birdie come this way :)

Next Step

2009-08-08T07:43:00.002-04:00

I picked up my new software last night.

Happy Laurie.

Next step, websites.

But I'm leaving for vacation today and won't get to touch this new program for a week. Sad day. Then again, I'm going to spend the next few days sitting on the beach. Not a bad trade off.

Built for Two

2009-08-03T22:35:00.003-04:00

My friends are getting married. I type that with a huge grin on my face. I couldn't be happier for these two. She's going to look stunning in the dress she showed me tonight. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he first sees her on that day. I'll probably cry at this one too.

We all met tonight to talk about the invitations. Hopefully my excitement over paper samples didn't overwhelm them. I think they'll still be my friends :)

Lots of ideas are spinning in my head of what to do. I want to make the invitations very them. Hopefully a tandem bike will make an appearance on the invite. One they like riding bikes together and two they ride the tandem bike together. So I just loved, loved, loved the idea of putting the tandem in the design.

Would you like to hear a funny story? Once they were riding their bikes into this cute little town around here. I think this may have been a few summers ago. Well, she slowed down to look at the wedding dress shop as you enter the town. Apparently he had no idea. He was a few blocks ahead of her before he looked back to see her gazing at the dress of her dreams. Personally, I don't know who wouldn't stop to look! I'm married and still look at the dresses as I drive by. Add in a few bridesmaid's dress and I wouldn't be surprised if accidents happen in front of the store ... Not that I've ever been close to that.

Anyways.

Time to work. Stay tuned to what comes of these fall invitations.

With a Twist

2009-07-29T23:21:00.003-04:00

I made something new. And I can't tell you about it, yet.

It's still in the very beginning stages and I can't put it online. Here's the thing, I'm really excited about it.

What's a girl to do? Sit here and try to think of something else to write about when really I want to tell you how I was so happy to finally use this certain font. Its the kind of font I'm drawn to. It sits in the list begging to be used, but keeps getting passed by. Today was it's day. And I couldn't be more thrilled.

I know, I know. I do get this excited about fonts. Lame but true. It's like the difference between your basic black flats with a pair a jeans or a fabulous pair of blue flats with a cute little twist on top that gets me every time. The black will do, but why wouldn't you want the blue flats? That's how I felt about this font. It's the little detail that makes the piece feel right. It fits.

The other big news this past weekend came in the mail. I came home and sticking out of our mailbox was this little box from the printer. What? That fast? I did the super, uber long shipping because I didn't want to pay the extra money to get it here faster, yet here it is as if I paid for 3 day shipping. Love it.

What was inside? More than I know what to do with of these:

Happy me.

School Project

2009-07-24T20:45:00.005-04:00

This August I want to work on a new line of cards. This idea came from three ladies who work at a local elementary school.

See this all started around Christmas last year. My hubby was finishing up his student teaching at a local school around here, which is close to my favorite Starbucks fyi. Granted, there is this one lady there who always messes up my drink, but it's still my favorite store. Anyways, back to the story. He wanted to get/do something for the secretaries in his building. They had been extremely helpful to him through out the semester and were always asking if the health issues I was having were getting any better. These three ladies really made him feel welcome and helped him out as the new guy in the building. Hubby had the idea of having me make each of them stationary as a thank you gift. I did not know any of them and only went off of his descriptions. Long story short, they were really thankful for his gift and loved the cards.

In fact, they loved them so much that they wanted me to sell them at the school. Now, that school will be starting up again, I want to come up with a line of blank cards to sell. My thoughts so far on the types of card would be Thank You, Congrats, Get Well, Hi, and Baby Cards. Not gonna lie though, I would love to make a card that was a, "I haven't talked to you in forever, but I'm really happy that ___________." Have you ever been looking for a card for someone but nothing really fits because you just don't know the person that well? Like, where am I going to find the card to send to a friend who just got engaged, but the only way I would have found out about it is facebook? I mean who sells a, "I stalked you on facebook and found out that _________, and I'm really happy for you." card?

Not gonna lie, that may be my next card.

Lemonade

2009-07-23T19:50:00.004-04:00

So I work with a lady who likes to have me design things for her here and there. [Perfect!] Plus, her taste is super fun and her descriptions are easy to go off of.

Anyways, her latest request was an invitation for a little shin dig she was having for her sister, who was in town. The party is tonight and I thought I would share the invite with you all. Hopefully the rain held off for them tonight!

[fun fact]

This is my hubby's favorite so far. He thinks I should use a similar patter from the top, but on a black background to make it like a city sky line at night. Could be a fun project!

another [fun fact]

He also wanted this blog to be a funny-complain-about-your-husband kinda blog. Like don't you hate it when he leaves the toilet seat up and ... splash.

I think he still secretly hopes I'll work it in.

Honest Beginnings

2009-07-22T21:10:00.007-04:00

I once decided that I wanted to work at a place where I could bring my dog to work. Once I found that job, I was determined to get the dog. Well, turns out I went for the puppy first (I mean how could I say no when she tilt her head to the side and looked so cute?). But here's the thing, the work I like to do the most is at home designing cards, invitations, and stationary (and hopefully soon websites!). Big bonus, my puppy gets to stay with me! Granted, she is a 50 pound puppy, so please don't get any ideas of a lap dog sitting with me as I work.

What does any of this have to do with this blog. Well, I'll tell you. I wanted to have a place to put any new designs on display. From where I started a few years ago to where I am now has been such a change. I want to be able to look back and see what I did, why I liked something, and hopefully how I've grown. Please, feel free to comment on anything I post. I would love feedback. And if you want to know more about what I've made or how you can get something similar, shoot me an email.

To start off with, I wanted to leave the post with some design. I mean the blogs I like to read are generally the ones with pictures :) So here is one of my favorite designs - a Thank You Card.

This is one of my favorite cards because it reminds me of my roommate. See, the pattern at the top is based off of a picture I took of a gift she gave me. My hubby and I just spent this past weekend with her & her husband while we were in Michigan for a wedding. I love having friends that you haven't seen in awhile, but then it's like you pick up right where you left off. She is definitely one of those friends. Thanks for having us!