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.

Kara's Baby Shower Invites

I feel like I'm having major writer's block this week. I'm looking at the pictures that I've already uploaded for this post and several thoughts are coming to mind, but I have no good starting point for this blog. So here are the things that I am thinking, but am not sure how to organize into any kind of logical order. 

1. I really enjoy designing baby shower invitations. 

2. I'm extremely thankful to my mother-in-law, who has me to do shower invitations for her friend's children. 

3. I am over-the-moon in love with the color scheme we settled on for this invitation. 

4. I hope that when I'm pregnant, I look half as good as this mom-to-be, who appears not to be pregnant if you see her from behind (I already know I won't be as fortunate - I'm short and when I gain weight, it goes to my face first...this leaves me displeased with the thought of pregnancy and half thinking that maybe I should just adopt). 

Now that I have those thoughts out of the way, let's move on to the goods (AKA - the invitations). 

Kara is the daughter of one of my mother-in-law's good friends. She also happens to have grown up with my husband, and we've been fortunate to spend some time with Kara and her husband, Chris, over the past few years. Her mom decided to throw her a baby shower after Kara and Chris found out they were having a girl and my mother-in-law, Cathy, took care of the invitations (in other words, took that job over so she could have me do them :)).  

Kara and Chris had a gender reveal party a few months ago now. A friend of theirs wrapped up a little girl onesie that they opened to see if they were having a boy or a girl. Kara and Chris's friend, Christy, of Christy Lee Designs snapped this photo of them when they had just found out they were having a little girl. 

In addition to pink, Kara really wanted to incorporate Tiffany Blue into the invitation (you know, the color that Tiffany's uses for their little boxes). I love the pink and the blue together so so much.

We finished everything off by having guests' names printed in fun little squiggly frames on the envelopes.

I had the pleasure of going to this shower and can honestly say that the invitation perfectly indicated what was to come at the shower. It was a beautiful pink and (Tiffany's) blue shower with all of the details perfectly in place. The favors were even in little Tiffany's boxes - they were these chocolates that looked like pearls. SO beautiful. And yummy.

OK, so next week I'm going to be posting a blog on something I've never done before - a logo. Eeek!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Winnie's Baby Announcements

Way more years ago than I want to admit, I began my junior year of college with a super cool R.A. She was a senior and just like her good friend Jenny (whose wedding invites were talked about here), she had the best design sense. In fact, to this day, I remember the little name plates she made for the girls on our hall because they were so cute. 

(Did people that went to big universities have their names on their doors or was that just because I went to a small private school? I've always wondered about this.)

Anyways, this super cool R.A. was named Winnie and she contacted me after her third baby boy was born this past April to see if I could do a baby announcement for her. 

And of course, I said yes. Because who would say no to helping someone declare to the world that this face was now here?

Is this picture not the cutest thing?

I just felt like a simple design would do since Samuel's picture says enough in and of itself.

Font is Big Caslon Medium. Free, of course.

I also love the wording that Winnie chose - "loved by brothers Jack and Henry, gracious gift from God for his parents Jake and Winnie."

I loved doing a little baby announcement for this adorable little guy's mom. He is one lucky baby and I'm sure he will always have the most well crafted name displays in his room. :)

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

Conor's Baptism

You may remember Melissa from this blog post. She used me for her baby shower invitations and was my first official customer. She is now my first official return customer as well. She contacted me a couple of months ago and asked if I would do the invitations for the baptism of her son, Conor. Um....yes, please.

What else can I say about this girl that I haven't already said? She is great and I love her. She is one of those people you want around when you have a bad day and you just need to stop, turn to someone, and say, "please say nice things to me now." She would do it and you would immediately feel better.

Mel gave me a price range and a color scheme and let me go to work (have I mentioned that she's super easy to work with?). Here's the final product:

(Confession: I have a really hard time thinking of things to say about each picture. Not just with this blog post, but every single one. I feel like I should have some witty comment or grand statement about the picture. I don't. Forgive me. I will try to get better.)

The best part of the whole process was that after I had dropped off the invitations to her and we were saying goodbye, she says, "Well...I'll be calling you again...maybe for Christmas cards!"

Oh, Mel. You are the best. :)