A little sneak peak...

Have I mentioned that I love my photographer? Wait...yes. I have. Right here.

Well, it's worth repeating. You see, I came home from work today in one of those moods. Girls everywhere know what I'm talking about. Everything in me was screaming, "get in your pajamas as fast as you can!" And I did. It was just one of those days.

Well, when I opened up my laptop I had the best surprise and it almost brought me right out of my funk (I said almost...I am currently in my pajamas laying in bed and it is 7:23 PM). 

I had an email from Ms. Amy Sayre, of Amy Sayre Photography, telling me that I had a photo gallery awaiting me. That is, a photo gallery of my invitations. I had sent her the projects that I've been working on the past few months and I was anxiously waiting for her to tell me she was done. However, since she has a full time job on top of her photography business and she's planning a wedding and she just moved, I was not exactly expecting anything for a while. But that Amy Sayre...she gets me every time. 

So here's a little sneak peak of some of my favorites. I love them and they'll be seen on my website very very soon. 

I love them. And there are way more than this. The best part is that she still has even more to send me. The surprises will keep on coming. Let's hope it's not at the end of another one of those days. 

To end things, here is something productive that I was able to get done today during my good old planning hour at school (planning, schmanning...I've got a fall to-do list to make). 

This is my official fall to-do list. Ahhh, fall. 

I think I'll make progress on two of these tonight. Update the pictures on my website and be in bed by 11 each weeknight. Or in tonight's case, 8 PM.

Jackson's Birthday Party

If you have followed my blog at all, you know that I have a niece named Vivian Elle. She is precious. I love her and will now share a picture of her, just for fun:

Oh, sweet little thing.

But Vivian has other members in her family too. Let me introduce you to her older brother, Jackson:

Jackson will be 3 this month. He is an adorable little boy. He likes making up games. He loves to read. He calls me Uncle Jenny and then laughs at himself. And he is seriously the most well spoken almost-3-year-old I know.

Together, Jackson and Vivian have bumped me from the "Not sure if I'll ever not be awkward around children" stage to the "Kids are the greatest (in moderation)!" stage. (Whether or not I ever make it to the "I need me a baby!" stage is still TBD.)

But on to the invitations...

My sister-in-law came to me last month and asked if I'd make invitations for Jackson's 3rd birthday party. He was going to have a rocket themed party and she gave me this blog post as inspiration.

My mind started racing. I went over a million different ways that I could do the invitation in my head. I was genuinely so excited to make them. I mean, it's my nephew's 3rd birthday party. They had to be good.

At this point, I really wanted to go into the entire process of making this invitation, but I opted instead to  give you the highlights:

-Ordered green and blue (Envelopments!) card stock to start the invitations.
-Decided to try to find a patterned piece of paper to add another dimension to the invite.
-Couldn't find patterned paper at Hobby Lobby...or Michael's...or Joann's.
-Couldn't find a rocket ship cutout to use.
-Became frustrated.
-Borrowed a Cricut from my mom.
-Made 15 star cutouts and 15 '3' cutouts in about 5 minutes.
-Found patterned card stock in old pile from about five years ago.
-Did celebratory jig around kitchen.
-Assembled invitations.

I can honestly say that this project was one of my harder ones (most likely because of the expectations I put on myself - envisioning my nephew harboring bitter feelings well into his old age because his auntie didn't put together an invitation that he loved). But it was also one of the projects I was most satisfied with in the end.

Here is Jackson to display the final product for you:

He never told me if he liked them or not, but I think he seems pretty pleased in the pictures. :)

Here are some close-ups, taken courtesy of my brother-in-law:

The font is so fun (it's called Stereofidelic) and I adore the wording. RSVP to Star Command? Please. Too cute.

The next picture is my favorite. I thought my brother-in-law was just going to take a couple of quick shots of the invitation, but no. His creativity kicked in and he came up with this little gem of a picture:

Jackson has been talking about his rocket party for a while now - may it be just as much fun as he's hoped it would be!

To end this blog post, I want to introduce you to the newest member of Jack and Viv's family. Here is little Charleston. He's just two and a half months old and as cute as can be.

Oh, and little Charlie's already told me that he wants me to do all of his birthday party invitations. It was amazing...truly a miracle. A two and a half month old that chose to talk only to make this one request...what an advanced child! :)