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. :)

We've Moved!!!

It's official. Or maybe I should say it's been official. My husband and I moved into our new house on June 1. And no house should be moved into without a little moving announcement going out so people know where they can find us.

Last week, I sent out these moving announcements and this past weekend we officially had people over for the first time. So it's been a month and I feel like we are making progress. I would call the house "livable" at this point. There's still a lot to do, but since we're sticking around for a while, we'll have plenty of time to do it in.

But back to the moving announcement. Here she is.

We had a pretty sweet place we lived in before. I'll admit that when we first thought about moving, I never thought we would find somewhere that we loved as much as that first place.

I was so wrong.

This house just fits us. It has rooms that are just so practical for our lifestyle. It's cozy and comfortable and has so much character and I just can't get enough. I didn't know how to put that all on a moving announcement, so this was the best I could do.

Three of the four colors in this moving announcement are similar to colors that we painted our walls. I thought that once I moved into a "real house", I might use muted tones. Not so.

I thought I'd throw a little snarky comment in there about Luke doing yard work. He loved it, believe me.

The back of the announcements. I love that little house.

So...I am aware this is not a home improvement blog. However, some people out there have asked to see some before/after pics. And I sort of want to show some.

Here is the living room when we first walked through the house in January.

And now.

A few comments:

1. That lamp on the right side of the room behind the couch is there only because we need light there. It will be replaced ASAP with a much cooler lamp. I am slightly horrified that I forgot to hide it, but too lazy to retake these photos.

2. The basket on the ottoman (on clearance from Target about 3 years ago) usually holds magazines. But we've only had two delivered to us at our new house. So lately it holds a cat instead.

3. Yes, I have more planned for this room. We've only been in here a month, people!

Lava couldn't help himself...he had to get in a picture. 

Yes, we have the smallest TV known to man. And it's not even hooked up yet. So that tiny thing is purely for show.

And yes, magazines should be in the little green magazine holder to the right of the loveseat. But in my crazy purging of everything before we moved, I gave all of our magazines away. So now it's just there. I still think it's kind of cute.

Why didn't I move the laptop cord before taking these photos?

Fun fact - those were the third pair of curtains to go up in our living room. Third time's a charm, though...I love them.

Moving on to the kitchen.

Here it is when we did our first walk-through of the home.

And here it is after.

We have a kitchen nook! I love it love it love it.

I hate that I didn't hide the washcloth over the sink.

The previous owners left this IKEA drawer for us. How excited do you think I was about that? It fits perfectly and I can display my Kitchen Aid mixer so proudly on it (a gift from the grandparents for our wedding). 

Hi, Kitchen Aid mixer. {I love you.}

This photo (which I remembered to move the washcloth from) is for Ms. Heidi Rew, who gave me the sweet little jars from Anthropology for my birthday. Aren't they the cutest?

(Also, do you think I need new dish soap?)

Two words: OPEN SHELVING!!!!!!!!!! I was overly excited about these shelves and they were one of the first things I decorated. I do have plans to paint the backs of them. Eventually.

Magma showing you all her yoga moves.

I just took this because I love the clearance towel I got from Target a week ago. I think it matches the kitchen perfectly.

There you have it. Young House Love - Haddad style. I truly fell in love with the house after about five minutes of our initial walk through. But now that we have made it more of our own, I love it even more and it's feeling more and more like home.

Next week - more weddings!!!!!!!

Vivian Elle, My Birthday, and a New House

Let's look at some numbers.

31 - number of years I celebrated living a couple of weeks ago.
3 - number of friends that traveled from Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia to visit me on my birthday.
1 - number of pictures taken with an Oreo in Wal-mart while those friends were in town.

1 - tiara these friends made me wear when they took me out to breakfast on my birthday.
20 - approximate number of people that stared because of my tiara.

2 - number of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) books by Mindy Kaling I received for my birthday.

7 - number of times I considered not posting the above picture for obvious reasons (but then thought, "ehhh...who cares?").

1 - day it took me to exchange one of these books for Bridesmaids.

8 - days it took me to read my Mindy Kaling book.

20 - times I had to refrain from posting every funny quote I read to Facebook.

25+ - number of videos that my husband compiled for me for my birthday of friends and family from all over wishing me a happy birthday.

100+ - number of times I've talked about how much I loved the videos.

40 - number of Christmas cards I've completed so far this year for Vivian Elle's Christmas Collection.
3 - number of samples I will now reveal.

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

54 - total number of days between first going out and looking for a home and signing on our adorable little bungalow. 

2 - pictures we had taken of ourselves in front of our new home right before closing. 

1 - number of pictures I was able to pull off the internet of our new home. 

Sigh. I love it.

16 - days until we need to be out of our condo.
5 - weddings I am currently working on, attempting to get each done in the 16 days before we move.
30+ - boxes I already have packed.
61 - number of days we have between moving out of our condo and moving into our new home.
61 - days we will be bunking it up with my parents, who have graciously offered their home to us.
99 - percentage of time I spend thinking about how I'm going to decorate our new home.
1 - moving announcement that I already have designed, but will keep secret until I send it. :)

too many to count - number of times Luke and I have said how grateful we are for the support we've had over the last couple of months.

There you have it. These are the numbers that have been floating around in my head lately. In the midst of it all, there has also been a lot of Vivian Elle activity - buying another new printer, having boxes of product left at our front door, printing, assembling, stuffing...I love it all. For the first time in my life I can say that I daily love the work I am doing. And all of my brides make that possible. So to them - and anyone who has used me for any kind of invitation - thank you!