30 Days, Day 28

Day 28: A moment you remember being completely happy in and a description of why you believe you were. What is your definition of happiness?

My wedding day :-)

Wedding Card

I had the best idea this morning. Really. Here's how it happened:

A month ago I helped a friend pick out fabric for her wedding favors (covers for blueberry jam!). She cut too many, so she gifted me a big stack of beautiful squares :D

This morning I was using the fabric for a Craft Academy project...

[sneak peek!]

when I thought - OH! I can make a gift tag with these!!!!! Anyway, I found it exciting ;D I also got to use small leftovers of interfacing and cotton fabric. So now their wedding gift will have a gift tag that matches their colors and wedding favors! I think she'll appreciate it ;)

PS: I can't believe Craft Academy starts in just over a week!!! Have you signed up yet? It's going to be awesoooome :D

New Orleans

Friday night in New Orleans, my sister's bachelorette party (she's asked me not to post any photos, so here's a street sign, and my lovely husband):

Sight-seeing, including the French Quarter (where we stayed), Jackson Square, and beignets from Cafe du Monde (yum):

But of course the main event was the wedding :)

The above pictures are: My beautiful sister; Alex's cuff-links (a gift from our best friends); the jazz band playing for the bride and groom (amazing); my brother (he does exist!); the happy couple about to cut the cake; and a photo I managed to snag of the hubby and me!

It was a whirlwind mini-vacation! I was very glad to spend time with my family this weekend and to see such a rich city :)

VW Thank Yous

I am super excited. I just printed out the first of the thank you cards I designed, and I absolutely adore them. The drawing is based off Alex's 1979 Volkswagen Westfalia, which is our wedding color (and his color). Of course, purple is my color and our secondary wedding color, so I had to add that one in too :) I really like these!!! After all the wedding stuff is over (our Austin reception is Oct 3) I think I might print out more and add them to my etsy shop. I'm so glad that I can print them out myself! I'll probably look into getting them printed somehwere, but at the moment doing it myself is most cost-effective.

Thanks for looking!

Update of Craziness

Hello! I have been creating like crazy lately, but haven't had any time to blog! My wedding is only two weeks away (can you believe it??), so all my energy is going into that. Last weekend I made gifts for my bridesmaids. I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I'll have to wait to upload pics! They're really lovely though, I think. They all match, but they're all different.

Here's a picture of our invitations all sewn up and addressed! I actually had a lot of fun doing the calligraphy (even though it took all day >_<). Reply cards are still trickling in - it's like getting a gift every day! I do so love getting mail, don't you?

In other news, I am teaching preschool this fall :) School starts Tuesday!! I think it will be a good year. I know a lot of the kids already (I taught them swim lessons all summer), so that will make it easier. I keep thinking of all the projects I want to do with them! Here's our first project: self portraits! I didn't like any of the sheets I found in teacher books, so I drew my own! I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Well, I'll be signing off now. I might not be updating much until after the honeymoon, so bear with me! I have so many crafty ideas that are waiting to get out...Can't wait until I have free time again! ;)

Replies and Pomanders?

A quick update!

So far we've gotten back about a dozen reply cards. About half of them are decorated (not bad, considering we invited old people ;)). I just can't wait to get home every day to see if we've gotten any new ones! So far we've gotten some spectacular doodles and a couple masterpieces. My brother, an artist living in San Diego, drew a crouched and ready-for-action Wolverine, shouting "Am I pretty?" [Because the instructions were to "Draw us something pretty."] Hilarious. We also received a beautiful watercolor of butterflies from some family friends. I really can't wait to see what else people create for us!!

I went to a class last night at Austin Handmade, hosted by Wondercraft. Beth was a wonderful teacher, and she and I brainstormed different ways to make the pomanders for my wedding decorations. It was great! I'll definitely upload pics once I finish. Also, Austin Handmade is such a cool little shop. So glad I finally made it in there to snoop. Maybe one day I'll sell my work there, too ;)

For now, I'll sign off. It's been a really busy month so far, and it's not looking like it'll let up! But I thrive on tight schedules, so you know I'm not too worried. Thanks for stopping by!

Wedding Invitations!

Do you love our invitations? I went through many iterations trying to find a style that I truly loved. We wanted clean, simple, and modern, with accents of our wedding colors. They needed to have big enough print for our elderly guests to easily read and a bold look. I think they turned out quite well! Our envelopes are bright green with a heart cutout and stitching along the bottom as our handmade touch (and to create envelopes the right size for the invitations!).


Our Invitation (to the reception in Austin) and our program (for those at the wedding in Hawaii)



Our reply card (people can decorate it!)


And our lovely envelopes (before being sewn) :D

I'm so excited....I can't wait to receive the reply cards!! Hopefully people will actually decorate them....

Paper Cutting and Handmade Fair

It has been a busy week! Lots of social calls and all my spare time has gone to wedding planning. I picked up my invitations yesterday!! They look wonderful. Don't worry, I'll share pics with you soon ;) Several projects are done and waiting to be shown off. For now you can see the paper cutting I did!

After an hour or so cutting on my midnight inspiration, I realized I could design it much better. The curlicues were extremely hard to cut out, and since I'm no expert, they didn't look as good. In the meantime, I spent a while in illustrator designing a piece of Alex and me together. He looks a little girly, but it was my first shot. Next time will be better! Though I do still love this one.

In other news, last night I went to the All Austin All Handmade Bash at the Beauty Bar. It was really fun! TheWonderCraft was there with tutorials (see photos!). I met the president of the Etsy Austin street team, who was very friendly. There were many cool vendors. Some complimented my bag, which made me feel really good. It's really great to be able to go out and actually meet other crafty Austinites!


(I made the flowers and the yellow cuff; Alex made the strappy cuff and a necklace, not pictured)

I think that possibly...

maybe I've fallen for you...

Alex and I think that will be our first dance song. It's stuck in my head right now, and I love it. Perhaps it will lull me to sleep...

This isn't the best photo of the drawing I made tonight, so perhaps I will take a new one later. But it still gives an idea of my drawing! I was inspired by the Design*Sponge post about paper artists, particularly Julene Harrison (gorgeous!). I'm hoping that I'll have time tomorrow to redraw this nicer (since this was all done really quickly and without erasing!) and make my first paper cutting! Oh, I dream it will be as beautiful as I imagine it...(though I'm sure it'll take a lot of practice before I can make one perfect!). You've got to love midnight inspiration.


...Yes, there's a chance that I've fallen quite hard over you...

Sewing day

Hello there!

Yesterday I went over to Becky's for a sewing day with a few girls. It was splendid! Despite having to lug my monster of a sewing machine (I keep meaning to upload a photo), it was a day well spent. Using my Sew What! Bags book I've mentioned before, I sewed a cute little zippered wristlet that I adore. [Once I finish this post, I'll upload it to my etsy shop!] Everyone seemed to get a lot of work done, which is always joyful. I also started on another bag that I plan to finish this afternoon. I'm using this great graffiti fabric, as I call it, that I found in the $1/yard rack at Wal-Mart. You'll see photos once I'm done ;)

Lately I've also been working on wedding planning...*sigh* It's such a task. But I won't be discouraged! I started designing our invitations yesterday, and need to get those finished this week (since they have to go out VERY soon!). Then there are the baby shower invites I'm making for my best friend (whose sister-in-law is pregnant). Those should also be finished up this week. Lots of projects right now! I have a busy week ahead....

In the meantime, please enjoy my zippered wristlet photos! (Comments are always welcome ;))

Birthday

What a great birthday!! Between my fiance and his parents, I received a whole bucket of yarn and several sets of knitting needles! I'm going to be busy for months :D I can't wait to start on some new projects! I've been rather busy, but I should be finishing up the grass creatures soon.

From some friends I also received a paint tin full of bottle caps! Over the holidays I made tons of bottle cap magnets. Looks like it's time for a new batch! Maybe I could use the monogram I designed for our wedding and create wedding favors.........*new project gleam in her eyes*

My sister gave me the Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture (travel edition). It is amazing. Phaidon is one of my favorite publishers. If you've never seen their books, I suggest you start looking. They create beautiful books on art, architecture, and design. I also own The House Book, but would definitely take any given to me. I would also gladly work for them; I love book design.

Have fun perusing their book collection, and I'll get some photos up soon!