portland day 1

Man - I feel like I have so much to catch you all up on!  Well, Matt and I found out we are having a BOY! We are so excited and can't wait to welcome him into the world in a few months.  Craziness.

We decided to go on a a babymoon to Portland over my spring break.  It is a beautiful, creative, quaint place.  We loved it.  Here are a few pictures of the first day there.

The trees were gorgeous.  They were blooming and just spectacular.

Portland has an abundance of 3 things: pizza restaurants, coffee shops, and breweries.  Matt was excited to try out all the local beer.  He was really anticipating going to Rogue Ales but they wouldn't serve him b/c his drivers license was expired...even though he had a temporary.

Matt drinking beer at the wonderful Cafe Nell - my favorite restaurant of the trip.

Me before we went to the Kennedy School - an old school that was turned into a bar/restaurant/movie theater/hotel.  It was pretty great.

what's been going on around here...

You might have noticed that I didn't check in here much for awhile.  I have a wonderful excuse..in my opinion!  

I'm pregnant!  Matt and I will be parents (CRAZY) in August!  

As I've heard from many people, creativity doesn't come easily the first trimester.  That is definitely how I felt.  I was sooooo tired all of the time.  I didn't have horrible morning sickness but I did have a lot of food aversions and a good bit of nausea.  It's all worth it though!  

I'm 18 weeks now and finally have more energy.  I'm starting to be creative again - which is a good thing because I want to make all sorts of goodies for this little babe!!  

More updates to come!

lindy's baby shower

My dear friend Lindy is having a boy next month.  By the way, she will be such a wonderful mama to that boy!  I can't wait to meet him!

A baby on the way means something wonderful.... a baby shower!  Beth, Jessie, and I had so much fun planning and preparing for this special day.  Here are some of the highlights from the shower.

We took an old youth hymnal, added paper, and had people write messages to Lindy and her family.

Lindy loves fabric so in honor of her, we made handmade cloth napkins for each place setting.  They were a gift to Lindy so now she has a set of beautiful napkins.  I'm not going to lie... all of us wanted to keep them for ourselves.

The place setting.  We used 16 oz mason jars for glasses.

Beautiful flowers courtesy of Macall.

This was on a table placed outside the shower.  I'm bummed I didn't get a far away picture so you could get a real feel for what it looked like.  Precious is what it looked like.

There were three tables set up in the dining room using a collection of chairs from our homes.  Wonderful idea, Beth!

I love this picture of these three ladies:  the mama to be, Jessie, and Reggie (Beth's mom).

Lindy, we love you and had such a wonderful time celebrating you and your sweet boy!

paso robles

Matt and I have a little Valentine's Day tradition of going out of town every year.  We LOVE the holiday because, let's face it, we love any excuse to get out of town.  I'm the lucky duck because he plans it and surprises me every year.  I'm one lucky girl, huh?

This year we went to Paso Robles.  We love it there.  It is calm, small, and quiet.  We went to a brewery, Firestone, that Matt had been wanting to tour. 

He looks pretty happy!  

We went to some awesome restaurants, our favorite being Farmstand 46.  

On the way there we stopped in Arroyo Grande, a very cute town.  

Matt got his ice cream.

I got to take pictures using my new camera.

All in all?  Perfect weekend.  

happy heart day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I hope you are able to be with the people you love today.

He is my valentine.

He is patient, loving, and kind.

He is incredibly generous.

He is the happiest, most optimistic person I know.  

He loves me, takes care of me, spoils me.  

Matt, I am so happy to have you as my forever valentine.  I love you!

oh happy day

So many reasons why this is a happy day:

1.  It is my first day of winter vacation. Two whole weeks of sleeping in as late as I want!!

2.  I'm lying on the couch listening to the lovely rain outside.  This is the 4th day in a row of rain and it is supposed to rain two more days!  So happy.

3.  The biggest reason of all????  My wonderful husband and I celebrated Christmas on Saturday and he surprised me with a glorious new MACBOOK AIR!!  I absolutely love, love, love it.  He spoils me rotten.

biggest project yet

Hi everyone!  I've missed this place!  I've been so busy for awhile that I wasn't getting on here.  Then we both got sick and it seems like all I needed was sleep!  In the time that I was gone, I completed the biggest project I've done yet.  I made 210 invitations for a client's sweet sixteen masquerade ball in New York.  It was fun to come up with something different but of course the best part was the fact that they were so happy with the product.

I couldn't have completed this huge project without the help of my wonderful husband - thank you, Matt!  We had a ton of fun but by the end, my fingers were definitely feeling a little swollen and chapped.

I wish I took more pictures of the process but I was on such a roll that I didn't stop to do it.  Here is what the invitation looked like.

It's kinda hard to tell but it had a lot of layering of paper, ribbon, and feathers.  Very masquerade ball-esque.  

Wrapping up and packing all of the invitations...  

I took this with my phone and you can't even tell how many packages there were there.  

It felt so good to accomplish something so big - I know it's not a huge order for a normal business but for a one woman show, it was!