Emily and Joseph's Mackinac Island Save the Dates

Well, hello, faithful blog readers! I just want to take a quick second today to show you some Save the Dates that I am pretty smitten with.

I met with Emily a month or so ago and we talked all about her gorgeous Mackinac Island wedding (for those of you who aren't Michiganders, it's pronounced Mac-eh-naw). After picking out the card stock she would use for her invitations, Emily took a few of the same pieces and decided to use them for her Save the Dates.

Emily really liked the idea of a ferry ticket Save the Date (not to be confused with a fairy Save the Date - I was telling my sister-in-law about Emily's wedding last week and she thought they were having a Tinkerbell wedding :)). In order to get to Mackinaw Island, you have to take a ferry, so the ferry ticket style seemed to fit. 

Here's what we came up with.

The patterned paper you can see is actually the back of the Save the Date - like, when you turn it over, that's what you see. I got to play around with so many different fonts for this one - Allura, Rosewood Std, Clarendon Bold Condensed, Currency Regular, and League Gothic.

I also just really had the urge to put a bike on the Save the Date. A common thing to do on the island is to bike around it, so it seemed like the right thing to add on. I was so thankful that when Emily saw the design for the first time, she commented on how bike riding was one of her and Joseph's favorite things to do on Mackinac Island. 

Envelopments' patterned papers are absolutely gorgeous. Check out this close-up.

I'm loving this color combo - perfect for a summer wedding on an island.

So consider this your sneak peak of Emily's wedding invitations. I think she picked out beautiful colors and I can't wait to see how it all comes together once everything is completed.

On Thursday I'm going to start a series of frequently asked questions - first up is how to figure out tricky wording on your wedding invitations.

See you then!

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

James and Stacey's Wedding Invitations

It's time to post some wedding invitations, y'all!

This is going to be a quick post, mostly because I was away this weekend (more on that later...) and I've been playing catch up all morning. So while I was going to post about my weekend today (and show off a baby announcement at the same time), I'm going to do a little swicheroo and post about my trip later in the week when I have some pictures to show. 

Side note - I am horrible at taking pictures. If I had just decided to post about my trip this weekend with the pictures I took, it would be three pictures of a historic library (which I took for my dad), one picture of a friend standing in front of an inappropriate statue (you're never too old, yo), and one picture of the sweetest little girl that I had the pleasure of hanging out with for a good part of the trip.  Oh, heck. I'll post that one now. Let it be a little sneak peek of what I did this weekend. There were children involved. 

Two things: how cute are those boots and can you see that strawberry hat? ADORABLE. 

But back to wedding invitations. Coral and navy are one of the hot color combos right now, and it just so happens that the first invitation suite I made this year went right along with this trend. 

Here is James and Stacey's wedding suite. 

We decided to bring in the coral with some flower artwork and the envelopes. I loved that they used a navy pocketfold.

Yes, this is actually a pocketfold invitation, though it may not look like it at first. When James and Stacey's guests turn the invitation over, this is what they'll see. 

We kept it simple with one insert and an RSVP. We combined directions and accommodations onto one piece of cardstock.

Then we added in a cute little RSVP card. I love that they wanted to go with "Will you be our Guest?" instead of the normal "RSVP" or "Kindly Reply."

On the left side of the directions card, we created a little map so guests could easily find their way from the church to the reception. It was such an easy route that it's probably just better to look at the map instead of put it in your GPS. And a map is always fun, right?

So wedding invitation season is officially kicked off and I'm so very excited about it! I have such unique invitations this year and can't wait to share them. :)

Next week I'm going to show off a Save the Date and start a new series on FAQs about wedding invitations. On Thursday I'll be right back here to show off the baby announcement for a little guy that I finally got to meet this past weekend. See you then!

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

Brayden and Conor's Birthday Party Invites

Birthdays as a kid were the best.

I remember waking up on my birthday as a child and the "birthday ferry" had come. My room was completely decked out with streamers and balloons and it started off my entire day as a celebration. It probably cost my parents - errrr...I mean the "birthday ferry" - very little money, but it made me feel like I was the most special thing in the world.

Melissa reminds me of my own parents. I used to work with her and she is one of those moms who you know just loves her kids to death and wants to do anything to make sure that on their birthdays, they feel like the luckiest kids alive.

So Melissa came to me to create the perfect birthday invitation for a joint party she was doing for her two little boys at a gym. Here's what we came up with.

I've worked with Melissa enough to know that she loves to have invitations that match the theme of the day, without being too "little kid-ish." I knew if I sent her an invitation with a big teddy bear on it she would most likely fire me immediately. So instead we went for modern rainbow chevrons (man, I hope those never go out of style). 

I love how fun and happy these invites are, while also being distinctly for a boy's party. 

Melissa wanted to announce the ages of her two boys somewhere, but it just didn't seem to fit on the actual invite. Instead, we added their ages to a bunch of balloons on the envelope.

Melissa's boys are so fortunate. I wholeheartedly believe that every child should have someone in their lives that loves to celebrate them, and she certainly does that for her little boys.

Next week I'll share about a fun little trip I'm about to take this weekend and show off a little baby announcement I did for one my BFFs. And then...weddings!

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

2013 Goals

If you recall, last year I did a little post on my goals for 2012. Specifically goals for this little business of mine. Well, I found out something by doing that - sharing goals publicly is really helpful. 

You see, I only shared two of my goals from last year, even though I always make five. And you know how many I actually accomplished? 

That's right, people. Two. The two that I shared right here on this blog. 

I did so poorly with the other three goals that I gave myself a flat out 0% on two of them. One of them was to do yoga weekly. I literally did not do more than one minute of yoga the entire year. 

So this year I'm publicly declaring all five of my goals for 2013, in hopes that doing so helps me achieve them. Because it's a few months into the year now and I came up with these goals at the end of last year, I was able to look at them again and revise them as needed (which just meant I added another goal and merged two existing goals together). 

So here goes. 2013 goals, declared right here, right now. 

I joined Etsy in October. I was pleasantly surprised by my first few months and I want to continue doing better in 2013.

I'm really still just trying to figure everything out though. There are some things that have surprised me - in both good and bad ways - that I'm still adjusting to. But overall, I think it's worth continuing on for now. 

As far as new designs you can expect to see by the end of the year, here are some specifics:

1. Have 10 pre-designed wedding suites (I have 4 so far)
2. Have 10 pre-designed wall prints
3. Have 10 pre-designed Save the Dates that match the wedding suites

This is primarily a goal for my business, but a little positivity in anyone's life is always good, right? To be honest, it was pretty easy to stay positive last year. I don't know how it happened, but I was constantly receiving the answer "yes!" and I felt like I was being encouraged like crazy in my first year of business. It's not that this year hasn't gone well or I haven't been as encouraged, but 2013 has brought new and different challenges. And the newness of last year is wearing off and now I'm dealing with the actual ups and downs of having your own business. 

In addition, for the last several months I've been dealing with a lot of restlessness. I'm not sure what it is, but even if I have several things I should be doing, there's been this restless feeling in my heart. 

(Side note - my first thought when this happened was naturally MAYBE IT'S TIME TO PROCREATE! After much contemplation and a talk or two with my boo, we realized that it's just not the time for us. For right now, I have to deal with this restlessness without trying to fill it with a huge life-altering change.)

But because of feeling this way, early in the year I found myself dwelling on all of the wrong things. So my thoughts were like this:

Why didn't that bride email back/why did that bride cancel and never reschedule/why does it seem like things are starting off slow? 

instead of 

I have way more projects this year/I started off the year with zero debt/I'm more efficient/brides are saying yes/I still love what I do. 

It's much easier to focus on the negatives than the positives, so here's my action plan when I'm doing that:

When I'm starting to dwell on something negative, I immediately do one of two things:

1. think of something positive that's going on in the business
2. think of something I can do for someone else

This takes a bit of mental training, but it's what I've been doing this year, and it's been working so far. Positivity 2013!

In case you haven't been reading this blog for long, I was so honored this year to be selected by brides as one of the Best of the Knot 2013. I even have the plaque to prove it!

My goal is to be awarded this honor again next year, which means I need to keep focusing on my brides and making sure that their experience with me is the best it can be. 

Specifically, EXERCISE.

I got off track this winter. I need to bring it back around.

This goal is going really well so far. In fact, after nagging my husband for all of January and the better part of February, he joined the gym with me. Nagging works, my friends. Huzzah!

Having my husband go with me to the gym has made a world of difference. My membership started back up at the beginning of February (I put it on hold because I like to be outside as much as possible) and before Luke joined, I went once in a two week period. Since Luke has joined (about 15 days ago), we've gone nine times. It's hard to work it in during the week, but we're trying to be proactive and do the best we can.

I also signed up to run the Detroit Free Press Marathon this October. At this point, I'm just trying to get back into shape by running on the treadmill and lifting some (10 pound...please, hold your applause) weights, but when it gets nice I will start doing an actual training schedule outdoors. I've done two half marathons before, but never a full. I'm scared.

It struck me at the end of last year that I work really hard to make sure that my house is put together nicely, but I don't necessarily do the same for my own appearance. Now, I promise you that I don't go out looking like a frumpy hag all the time, but I could just do a little better when it comes to my fashion sense. This doesn't mean I'm going to go out and spend a ton of money on clothes this year, it just means that I'm going to put a little more thought into what I wear in public (because you know I'm still rocking the sweatpants and oversized t-shirt when I'm at home) and try to buy pieces that go really well together.

So that's it. Hopefully some over-sharing of my goals this year will help me achieve them and it was kind of therapeutic, to tell you the truth. Thanks for listening!

Later this week I have a super cute birthday invitation to share. And weddings are right around the corner...I'll be sharing some awesome invites and save the dates in the near future! :)

Kitty Haw Vintage's Calling Cards

My friend, Trish, opened her very own Etsy Shop a few months ago. I was naturally giddy, and just so glad to have a fellow Etsy shop owner that I already knew and loved.

Trish's shop is called Kitty Haw Vintage (named after her great-grandmother) and it is the perfect fit for her. For as long as I can remember, she has always been in love with all things vintage, so to see her take that love and make an Etsy Shop out of it was so cool.

When you visit her shop (which you can do here), you'll see all kinds of different vintage pieces. Dresses, coats, shoes...she even has a 1970's R2 Sweet Tooth Cookie Jar for crying out loud. Her shop is cool, people.

Here are a few of the things you'll see when you visit. Click on any of the links to go straight to the listing.

1970's Rainbow Sundress // A Day in May Dress

Vintage 60's floral and starburst cups

80's Pop Star Black and White Checkered Pumps

Trish seriously has such great style - make sure to visit Kitty Haw to see for yourself (but then come back here so I can show you what she had me do for her shop. :)).

About a month ago, Trish contacted me to help her with her business cards. Only she didn't want business cards at all. She wanted something to match the vintage-ness (not a word, I'm pretty sure) of her shop, so she wanted more of a calling card. Like the cards that people would give each other back in the day that pretty much just said their name. I loved the idea and was super excited Trish came to me to make it happen.

Here are the calling cards that we came up with.

We made the front nice and simple, with just Trish's name.

How much do I love the 'Remember Me' up in the corner? See it there, just nice and subtle?

Since we don't live back in the day when you can just leave your name with someone and they can most likely find you easily, we thought we'd add a back to the cards with Kitty Haw's website address.

The map is something that Trish's boo found for her. It's an old school map of Detroit.

This was truly a unique project and I loved that Trish contacted me to carry out her plan. :)

So seriously, go now to the following and check out Kitty Haw Vintage for yourself:

Kitty Haw Vintage on Etsy
Kitty Haw Vintage's website
Kitty Haw Vintage on Facebook

If you see something you like on Etsy, make sure to 'like' Kitty Haw on Facebook to get 10% off your order. :)

Wall Prints

This past week, a friend and fellow blogger featured our house on her blog.  Lexi, from Clean, Smart, Simple Style is starting a series of home tours and she asked if I'd participate. Since I love any excuse to 1. talk about my house and 2. clean my house, I gladly obliged and sent her some photos. You can see how she put the pictures together here. 

As I prepared everything for the home tour, I noticed that there were several wall prints that I just hadn't taken the time to show on this blog yet. And then I realized that I've done a few more wall prints for other people that I haven't shown on this blog yet. So I thought it was high time to get these wall prints out there for the people to see.

It just so happens that the first one I did was for Lexi, from Clean, Smart, Simple Style. Lexi came to me before Christmas wanting to know if I could help her make a gift for her brother. He lives in Austin, Texas, where their motto is "Keepin' it Weird."

The frame is mine; I just threw the print in there for picture taking reasons. I absolutely love how Lexi's print came out, maybe because I was born in Texas so it means something to me, too. :)

Back in the fall of 2012, my sister-in-law, Heather, also asked me to do a print for her. She was preparing to teach special education that year and she wanted a quote to hang up in her classroom.

The quote is so powerful and really shows the heart my sister-in-law has for her students. :)

I also did a print for the best friend's wedding last October. All of us bridesmaid's chipped in to share our favorite memories of Amy. I put it all together for her and then I gave it to her sans frame when I saw her a few months after the wedding because I completely forgot to give it to her on her wedding weekend. #MOHfail #toomuchonmymind #aremultiplehashtagsstillcool?

Photo by Amy Sayre Photography

The next three are prints I did for our own house. The first hangs in our "wall of frames" hallway, and is so meaningful to me because I LOVE the quote.

Here it is right in the middle of a bunch of photos. I love how it breaks the photos up and adds a little interest to the frame gallery.

The second one is hanging in my office, but for some reason I took a picture of it on the floor.

A huge thing I've learned from this business is the benefit of being proactive. This quote speaks to me on what proactivity really is and my office seemed like the perfect place to put it.

The last print is an idea I got from Young House Love. I've long admired the magazine monogram print they hung up in their hallway.

Image from Young House Love

When I read about how they did it, I knew it would just be easier to do it myself using Adobe Illustrator. I took a look at one of our Harry Potter books and basically just designed what I saw.

For all you Harry Potter fans out there, the chapter I used was the one when Harry first meets Dobby (though Luke initially thought it was from a love story because of "May I take you..." It's actually "May I take your coat" :)).

This print now sits on top of a book shelf in our living room.

So those are the wall prints I've done. I actually get asked about doing prints quite often, so if you're interested in me designing something for you to hang on your walls, just shoot me an email and we can chat.

I'll be back on Thursday with some unique business cards that I did for a really cool Etsy shop. :)

Amy Sayre Photography

My best friend, Amy, moved to Chicago in 2004. She had a degree in journalism and had no idea what she was going to do. A couple of years into her time there, she was working at a dentist office. She wasn't doing what she wanted to do. She hated her job and was ready for a change. She had hit rock bottom. We all know the feeling.

She ended up going back to school to be a paralegal in 2006. Shortly after, she wound up at a law firm where she met her future husband (whom she dated secretly for a year and a half before they "came out" to their office - man, I love that story). She now lives in the outskirts of Chicago with him, their rescue dog, Taylor, and their cat, Oscar. She's happy and I personally couldn't be happier for her.

Through all of this, Amy loved photography. She had worked at a photo lab in high school and for as long as I can remember, she loved to take pictures. In 2007 she began to really get into photography when her now husband, Mike, bought her a fancy camera. Within a few years, people were asking her to take photos of their families and she was beginning to think she might be able to make this hobby into a business. 

Well, she most definitely has made her hobby into a business. Throughout the past few years, she's moved, gotten married, adopted a dog, switched jobs, and still managed to start up Amy Sayre Photography. She's had a consistent flow of clients since then, mostly through word of mouth. It's Amy's drive and motivation that have always been so inspirational to me, especially when I started my own business. She is good at what she does and she gives great customer service. 

Fast forward to today. In the past few months, she has been actively working to revamp her business and its image and she came to me for help. She has always had a blog and a website, but it wasn't necessarily something that completely reflected her and her business. She wanted me to make a new logo that defined Amy Sayre Photography. She gave me four colors and four words that defined her business. Then she put me to work.

Amy wanted a logo that could stand alone, but could also be used as part of a larger frame. Here's what we came up with.

That's the logo that she can put on her photos. That's the one that she can use on stationary, a business card...anything that she wanted to put her stamp on.

Then we put it with a larger frame.

This is the logo that is at the top of her website. Here's a little screen shot of how it looks.

Go here if you'd like to check out her website. Be sure to check out her 'About Me' page, which is full of fun facts about Amy (my personal favorite page). But also make sure to just stay on that first page for a while and enjoy the slide show of beautiful images, like that one of that sweet little girl above. Amy is so talented, and her photos reflect that.

And if you in/around the Chicago area, look this girl up. She does child and family photography and she is no joke, I promise you. :)