Sarah's Moving Announcement

If you asked me (you did ask me, right?), I would say that I don't really struggle with getting older.  I mean, there was the unfortunate incident on my 30th birthday when all of the sudden I moped about being 30 for a few hours before my husband asked, "Jenny...what is so horrible about your life?",  snapping me out of my funk (because the answer was nothing, and I was just being overdramatic).

But other than that, I firmly believe that you are only as old as you feel, and since I feel like I'm 23 on most days, I'm content with that. 

However, every now and then one of my college friends throws out how long we've known each other and then I think that maybe I should stop trying to convince myself that I'm 23, suck it up, and accept that I really entered into college 14 years ago this coming August. Which means that in October, our class will get together for our 10 year reunion. 10 years...since college. Which means it has been 14 years since I started the crazy/scary/surprisingly wonderful/life-changing experience in a little town in Tennessee.

14 years since I cried to my parents on the curb outside my dorm because I thought my life was over because I was so far from home and didn't know anyone (like I said, overdramatic). 

14 years since I sat in a meeting with the other girls on my floor, looking around and sizing them up, not knowing that they would be like sisters to me throughout our four years together.

14 years since I completely fell in love with the state of Tennessee.

14 years since I met girls that would become some of the best friends I've ever had.

14 years since I quickly realized - about two hours after my parents left me to head back to Michigan - that I had to admit that they were right and that college was kind of a cool experience.

And then I realize that even though 14 years since I started college means that I'm getting a little older than I'd like to admit, it also means that my life is so much better because 14 years ago, I decided to go to a tiny little college in Dayton, Tennessee.

Sarah was one of my freshman year floor mates. Our rooms were right down the hall from each other and if I remember correctly, we quickly became friends. In fact, we became friends with most of the girls on our floor and we ended up being a sisterhood of sorts. We all might go off during the day and do our own thing, or go out on the weekends with other groups, but we always came back to each other at night and to talk about our day, or have a late night snack together (snack of choice during freshman year was Raman noodles, upgraded to Easy Mac by senior year), or just goof off, or cry together...whatever we needed to do that particular evening. 

The thing is, we were just always there for each other. And as far away as we've moved from each other post college, and as many years as we've gone without seeing each other, there's always this bond that we share because we were a part of something pretty special when we all lived together for four years.

So when Sarah came to me and asked if I could do moving announcements for her, I happily agreed. And during our work together, I got to remembering all of those fun times we spent together, and even those hard times (we just happened to go through rough break-ups around the same time, which pretty much cemented our bond) that brought us closer together. 

In the last few year, Sarah and her family moved around a bit. In fact, in two years, they moved three times. And the funny thing is that the house they left during move #1 was the house they moved back into with move #3. 

And with Sarah being who she is, she wanted a moving announcement that fit their situation perfectly - that they had come full circle and were now right back where they belonged. 

So Sarah had the idea to have her family pose in the picture you see here. In a circle. And then we put that picture...in a circle. You see the theme, yes? :)

And then I thought some fun chevron stripes behind the circle would be cool and that using the font Chunk Five would be fun, too.

And then we added a picture of them on the back, on the steps of their new (old) home. Happy and content, right where they belong.

Each invitation or card I do becomes so personal to me, which is why I always share a little bit about my own life along with it. This one reminds me that no matter where you move, or how many times you move, you always have those people who will be consistent. Who will keep you grounded. 

Which reminds me of 14 years ago, when I would come back to the dorm after a night out, eager to see my forever consistent and loyal "sisters" and talk with them about life over a big bowl of Raman Noodles. 

Want to hear more about the value of custom invitations? Check out this post. 

Joe's Mad Men Graduation Party

Graduation is such a fun day. My own graduations are behind me (at least for now...I think about going back to school pretty much every other day), but 2012 was a big year in our family for graduations. 

First, my brother Jeff (who I affectionately refer to as Jeffé) graduated from the police academy in August. I travelled down to Virginia with my parents so we could be there with him and it was fun being the loud northerners in the audience of quiet southern folk (at one point we were like, "wait...are we not supposed to cheer?").  Here's my younger - but quiet a bit larger - brother officially becoming a police man. 

No big deal, but he did win two out of the six awards that they gave out that night. We were so proud. Here we are, later in the evening, back at their (super cute/adorable/I love it so much) house to celebrate. 

I'm still not scared of you, Jeffé.

In December, we had another family graduation. My other younger brother Scott graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in Criminology. I went with my parents, and my sister-in-law and her family to his graduation ceremony (he didn't have enough tickets for everyone, so my husband was the obvious one to get the shaft). 

We all enjoyed the ceremony, especially the honorary alumni speaker who happened to enjoy stringing different quotes together to make up his speech. Luckily, Scott had his phone and was able to discretely send me some texts during said speech. 

My mom loves sharing some quotes on Facebook... 

Please tell me you know the Mean Girls reference. If not, you might just think my brother is insanely mean to me. 

Seriously though, we are so proud of Scott, too. He graduated with honors and plans to attend law school next fall. 

As always, folks...Derek Zoolander.

To sum up, my brothers are the best, and graduations are another great time to celebrate with family and friends.  

Which is exactly what Joe will be doing this month with his family and friends (my transitions are just phenomenal, aren't they?!).

Joe found me online when he was looking for some Mad Men inspired invitations for his own graduation party from law school. The invitation he found is by far the one that has been requested the most from clients who have happened to come across it on the internet. Here's the original from this blog post. 

(Fun fact - this is now available in Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop! You can purchase them for your own party here.)

I put this Mad Men invitation together for one of my BFF's husband's birthday party. And just with it being out there on the internet via my little blog, I've had several people email asking if I could design something similar for a Mad Men themed party that they were throwing. 

Joe was one of these people. He emailed me a few months ago about designing a Mad Men themed invite for his graduation party. We emailed back and forth about what he wanted and then I started putting something together for him. Here's what we came up with. 

Anyone who watches Mad Men or has seen the ads for the show should recognize the familiar format of the invitation. I really wanted to keep the front simple, since we had greater plans for the back. 

I love the wording he chose - Gents, look dapper. Ladies, get your heels on.

The glass of whiskey was the actual inspiration for the invitation. Very Mad Men like. (I've honestly seen four episodes...what do I know?) Instead of putting it on the front, I decided to use it on the back, along with this quote from Henry David Thoreau that Joe liked.

I'm always nervous when I work with guys that the invitations will not be "man" enough for them. Luckily, I think that we managed to make a masculine graduation party invitation thanks to Mad Men.  At least Joe was extremely happy with the result.

I honestly love working on these fun side projects, and during the wedding off-season I'll be sharing a lot of other projects I've been working on. Next week I'll be showing some super cute moving announcements that I did for a dear old friend from college. :)

Until then, congratulations to all of the graduates out there!

Want to hear more about the value of custom invitations? Check out this post. 

Jaime and Dan's Thank You/New Year's Postcards

It's the first blog post of 2013. 2013. Seriously? How has this happened? IT'S 2013. 

I do hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve. We spent the night ringing in the New Year with some of our best friends and their little daughter (our goddaughter), Kaylin. We did the same thing last year (minus the unborn child) and I'd just like to say this: if being in our pajamas by 9, playing Pinochle for a couple of hours, and then being in bed by 12:30 is wrong, I don't want to be right. Here's hoping that you spent your New Year's Eve doing whatever it is that you really wanted to do, too. 

But onto a fun New Year's project. 

You've already met Jaime a few times on this blog. Here, and here, to be exact. And you will see her again when I blog about the wedding extras I did for her wedding back in August. (Yes, August of 2012. I'M BEHIND, OK?!) 

Jaime wanted to do something fun for her wedding thank you cards, and since the timing happened to be right around the new year, she thought mixing their thank you cards with a new year's card might work. 

I think it did. :) 

Jaime didn't have her wedding photos back yet, but she had this one that was snapped on their wedding day. Instead of doing the traditional thank you card, we thought thank you postcards would be fun.

(I got all crafty with our Christmas tree this year, if you can't tell.)

The back was simple, with a little New Year's greeting so she wouldn't have to write that on every single thank you note.

I have to say, as much as I love opening up a letter that's tucked into an envelope, I love getting a fun little postcard in the mail. Hopefully her guests feel the same way. :)

Happy New Year, everyone!

Want to hear more about the value of custom invitations? Check out this post. 

Merry Christmas

{This card is now available at Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop. Click here to visit!}

So...it's not Christmas anymore. But, I am still hearing a Christmas song or two on the radio and it's currently snowing pretty hard outside, so I think I'm safe to post this Merry Christmas blog, a day late. 

I truly hope your Christmas was a merry one with your family and friends. My husband and I spent Christmas Eve with his family and Christmas day with mine. However, we actually didn't get to see my brother and his wife yesterday, so we're about to leave to go see my family again and do one last little celebration together.

But first, I just wanted to show the Christmas cards that I designed for me and my husband this year. 

You know those cards that are all over Pinterest? The Year in Review cards? As you can see, that's where the general idea came from.

This year has been big for us, so I thought that another year in review card would work well, just like last year's card.

The beginning of 2012 had us wondering where we'd be living at the end of 2012. We knew we had to be out of our condo by April, but we had no clue what would come after that.

Well, on June 1, we moved into our new house. A house that I seriously still get a little giddy about each time I pull into our driveway.

And then in October, my husband got a full time teaching job, after we had just spent the summer discussing how we were completely content with him growing his guitar business (he had about 30 students and was doing really well with it) and substitute teaching on the side.

And then in November, I got a call from my regional rep from The Knot, who told me that my business - yes, this here little business - had been selected as one of The Best of The Knot for 2013. I have honestly never worked harder on anything in my life, so to say that I was excited about this honor is a complete understatement.

So it's safe to say that our year held a few surprises for us. And I just wanted to document that, so that one day when we're 80 and look back, we can remember that this was an exciting chapter in our lives.

Here's hoping that your year held a few surprises for you, too. Merry Christmas!

Laura and Aaron's Christmas Cards

{All of these cards are now available at Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop. Click here to visit!}

I have to show off this Christmas card.

It's totally one of my pre-made designs (you can get it right here from my Etsy shop) and I previously stated that I would only show custom Christmas designs on the blog.  But this card is a little extra special to me, because of who I made it for.

Meet Laura, and her little girl, Liya.

Laura and I became friends in college. We suited together our senior year, and along with our friends Ruth, Amanda, and Lisanne, we kind of became a little group. After college, we decided that we needed to make sure we kept in touch, so we planned on taking a trip once a year to visit each other.

So in 2005, we all met up in Seattle, where Amanda and her husband, Jason, lived.

In 2006, we met up in D.C., where Ruth was living, and took a quick trip to Annapolis, Maryland, to visit Lisanne's home, too.

In 2007, we met in Charleston, SC, where Laura and her husband, Aaron (a pilot in the air force), were stationed.

In 2008, we came back to D.C. to celebrate Ruth's marriage to her Australian army man, Andrew. I would put a picture here if I had a picture of us from that wedding (sad, I know). Instead, here is a random photo of us that I like.

Our friend Ruth is eating an apple in this photo. For some reason, that gets me every time.

Unfortunately, after Ruth's wedding, we lost her to Andrew (stupid marriage!) and they moved to Australia, where they're still living today.

So in 2009, when we got together in Michigan for my very own wedding, Ruth wasn't with us, but we still managed to have a little fun with help from some more college friends.

And the last time I saw these girls was in 2010, when we got together in Dallas, and took a few days to go up to Altus, Oklahoma, where Laura and Aaron were stationed at the time.

The trouble with asking some random person outside of a saloon to snap a picture of you.

Because of all of our trips together (and emails and phone calls), we knew when Aaron and Laura started trying to have kids. We also knew when they were having trouble trying to have kids. Then we knew when they started undergoing tests to see why they weren't having kids.

And it was really hard to see that happen to our friend. It was hard to know that she was struggling. It was hard to know that some of her other friends were having kids and she wasn't able to be as happy for them as she'd have liked. It was just hard to know that there was something that so many people had no problem doing that she was having such a tough time with.

But then something great happened. Laura and Aaron attended a conference where they found out more about adoption. After years of struggling, they felt like it was time to move forward. It was time to step out of their comfort zone. It was time to start filling out paperwork and getting references and waiting and hoping for a referral to come their way.

I'll never forget when Laura called and said that they had decided adopt. There was a peace and joy in her voice that I hadn't heard before. There was a sense that this was what all of those hardships had led them to.

And I'll definitely never forget the call when Laura told me that they'd received a referral from Ethiopia (after they had waited so long and been so patient). She told me about the little girl, about what she looked like, about her travel plans (Aaron deployed around the same time they had to fly to Ethiopia so Laura ended up bringing her sister-in-law along).

So, after nine and a half years of marriage, a trip to Africa, and a two month stay with a family in Ethiopia, Laura brought her little girl back to the U.S. where Aaron was waiting at home for them. There was something special about knowing that Laura had met her daughter for the first time, but there was really something special about knowing that Aaron, Laura, and Liya were home together, just like they should be.

So here are Laura and Aaron's Christmas cards. She picked the 'Year in Review' design, which I think was perfect, since so many people were invested in her year and I know they would want to read a little recap of it.

I so want to let these cards speak for themselves, but I do just want to say (for you font lovers out there) that the fonts are Cafe Rojo and Antipasto.

I couldn't believe how stunning this picture was when Laura sent it to me. But as beautiful as the photographer's work is (Mallory Krieger, by the way), the most beautiful thing about the picture is the huge grin on that baby girl's face. And let me tell you, she should be grinning, because she hit the jackpot with parents like Laura and Aaron.

Kauri's Christmas Cards

We're moving right along this week with the Christmastime shenanigans. Today I have a custom design that I did for one of my best friends, whom you have previously heard about a time or two on this blog. 

Meet Kauri.

To be specific, Kauri of "Rachael, Heidi, and Kauri." The girls who are my BFFs. The girls who know what seems like every part of me and love me anyway. The girls who I keep in touch with weekly, even though we are miles apart. The girls who have been nothing but supportive of this business since day one. And most importantly, the girls who I get to see in just over two and a half months when we all come together in Boston for a much anticipated reunion. #cannotwait

These are the girls who I can't imagine navigating life without, and as much as I wish that we lived much much closer to each other, I think the distance makes us really appreciate what we have.

But this post is about Kauri in particular. 

I thought it might be fun to ask Rachael and Heidi to sum up Kauri in one sentence, just to see what they say. Here are their answers.

[Kauri is the] perfecter of the side heel-jump, like the coolest snuggie evah, the belly laugh that you don't want to end, like that drink of cold water after a long work-out and of course the friend that everyone wishes they had and you're so grateful that you do. - Heidi

Kauri is a food connoisseur, a loyal friend, an expert event planner, an insightful listener, a perpetual student and teacher and a truth seeker. - Rachael

The thing is that we are all just very aware of what a great friend Kauri is. She's hilarious (she was often asked to make announcements in our college's chapel because they were ten times funnier when she made them), she's practical (I've called her before and was like, "Kauri, wouldn't it be great if I flew down to see you girls next weekend!" and she'd respond, "I'd love to see you, but think about this..."), she's empathetic (she's a counselor, for crying out loud), and you just know that she values your friendship just as much as you value hers. 

Kauri is a great friend and I'm lucky to have her. When she told me that she wanted to use me for Christmas cards this year (I didn't even have to force her to!), her support meant the world to me. 

So I set off designing something for Kauri, knowing that her only wish was to incorporate Isaiah 9:6 into the design. 

A side note about designing something for a friend:

The advantage to custom designing something for someone you're close to is that you already know their style and can use that to design a card that you know is "them."

However, the disadvantage is that if you are off and design something that's not so much "them," it could be potentially awkward. So when I emailed Kauri the draft of her card, I said a prayer that she wouldn't respond with the following:

Hi Jenny - 

Our friendship is over.

Take care,

Kauri

Luckily, I heard back from Kauri right away and she loved it (phew...crisis averted). 

Here's Kauri's Christmas card.

I knew when Kauri gave me the verse that I wanted to make the names of God a lot larger than anything else (she also may have requested this...I can't remember). I also knew that I would like to use a picture of the world on the card, to represent the gift that was given to all mankind that first Christmas, with no exceptions.

While I like things as bright as can be, Kauri's color choices tend to be a little more muted, which is why I chose the brown and light blue, and added just a little bit of color for the names.

As far as fonts, I'm on a Clarendon Bold Condensed kick lately, so that's the font I used for the verse. I also used some of my favorites for the names. Wonderful Counselor is Context Reprise. Mighty God is BD Hanover. Everlasting Father is Samantha Pro, and Prince of Peace is Antipasto.

This card reminds me of all the friends who have been so supportive of this business from the beginning. Whether they've bought from me or not, they've encouraged me and loved me through each step and I am so grateful.

More Christmas cards to be shown next week!

{Click here to visit Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop!}

Sarah's Custom Christmas Cards

Alright, y'all. It's time for some Christmas cheer up on this blog.

I have to be honest. So far, my Christmas cheer has been a little up and down. There have been some great Christmas-y moments, like going ice skating at Campus Martius in Downtown Detroit with my family.

Me, my husband, my brothers and their foxy ladies.

My sisters. We cracked each other up this night. It helped that our cocktails at the restaurant beforehand were a little strong.

(I would have included a picture with my mom and dad, but my mom kept her coat's hood on in the picture and she thinks she looks like a Conehead. We don't speak of this anymore.)

And going back downtown a week later for 'Noel Night' got me all in the Christmas spirit again. Our night ended with singing Christmas Carols outside of the Detroit Institute of Art, which was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

(I straight up stole this photo right off a Facebook friend's wall. Without asking. No shame.)

But as far as Christmas spirit on the home front, this is what's going on.

(Cue the collective WOMP WOMP.)

I could write a whole post on how the above picture makes me feel, but that would suck the life right out of this blog. Instead I'll say that I'm glad that Christmas is more than just the state of your Christmas tree, and I'm glad that tree stands are returnable. 

Moving on. 

As you all know by now, Vivian Elle opened an Etsy shop, right in time for the Holidays. I don't plan on sharing any of my pre-made designs that were purchased, since you can see those by visiting my shop, but I did want to share some of the custom designs that I did this year. 

Like this one for Sarah from L.A. 

Sarah emailed me all of the cute things she bought to set the stage for her perfect Christmas card. First up were these adorable aprons. Seriously...how cute are those?

She also bought that amazing Holiday Blue Velvet Cake, which apparently was on one of Oprah's Favorite Things Lists.

Font? Please...it's my new fav, Samantha Upright Script. It is the best.



She wanted the colors to match the colors of the apron and the cake, so I went to work to make sure they did. I love using different Christmas colors (Except for at my mom's house. Her house MUST be the traditional red and green, always.).

The back. Love it.

More Christmas cards to come in the next few weeks!