Better than a Sharpie

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?

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

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

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

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

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

He delivered these.

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

Little Birdie & Tandem Bike

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!