Best Wishes for 2010

1. Miss Retro Clock 2007 2. Party Hat 3. Celebration 4. Confetti

Hope you have a safe and happy New Year!

Color Board: Eggplant, Lilac and Honey

My goals for 2010

These are my goals for 2010, some things I'm giving up and some things I would like to try. 

plant a garden

learn how to make almond milk

stop eating out so often

stop drinking soda

get my website up and running

ride my bike and walk my dogs more

shop handmade/local as much as possible

Everything'll be alright

Sometimes an unexpected situation can be an opportunity for personal growth. Take yesterday for example. I was pretty excited about getting off work early and going home to cook up dinner from a new cookbook I got for Christmas. As I was wiping snow off my car seat, I felt my wedding/engagement bands suddenly slip off my finger and roll onto the snow covered ground....

Please know that typically, my response in this situation would be to frantically and unsuccessfully look around for a few minutes, and then proceed to flip out, cry, cuss and throw things. 

Last night was different. I took a deep breath and told myself not to panic, and that I needed to search for my rings in a calm, collected manner. Although there were still a few tears involved, I managed to scour a good portion of the parking lot without completely losing it. After an hour and a half of searching and people staring at me wondering why I was walking around like a lost child, I decided to give up and go home. I was very proud of the way I handled myself but of course really upset that I had lost my wedding rings... 

This morning I sadly trudged to work hoping and praying that somehow, miraculously, my rings would show up.  As I got out of my car, to my shock, I found myself staring at my wedding band, stuck in the ice a few feet away from where I had parked. Never have I had a bigger smile on my face. I pried the ring from the ice and looked up to find my engagement ring laying not too far away. Honestly, this may have been one of the happiest moments in my life. I think I ran all the way from my car to my desk to tell everyone the good news. 

Every situation life throws at you is an opportunity to learn something about yourself. I can't say I'm glad it happened, but I am glad I was given the opportunity to change my bad behaviors!

Wedding Trend: Faux Bois

I was really hoping to have more time to spend searching for pretty faux bois themed wedding items, but the end of the year has proven to be extremely busy for me! I'm hoping to post again soon with some very exciting news. :)

I love faux bois and even though it's been popular for a while, I think 2010 will prove to be a big year for this pattern, not just in the wedding world but in fashion, too. 

woodgrain tie from cyberoptix

pesonalized tree stump miniature rhino

faux bois dessert buffet amy atlas

font lust

I love a good font. Myfonts.com allows you to create albums to bookmark all your favorite ones. It's such a cool feature. At one time in my life I was not a fan of having to purchase fonts for use. I usually just downloaded a free font that looked similar to the costly one. Now I've changed my tune.  It really is worth it to spend the money and go the extra mile to get a nice typeface. Somebody worked long hours to create it, just like an illustration or piece of art. Here are a few of my favorites I've been drooling over for a while. 

Etsy purchases

Here are some great things I've purchased on etsy recently, and some things I'm dying to buy 

this is the cutest yorkie in a sweater you've ever seen. from aliandal. a really cute store to check out.

i love this painting from etsy seller kipi

gold locket from katinkapinka (I'm wearing it right now!) 

ohio letterpress print from 1canoe2

this purse is so gorgeous, I love the details, from afropumpkin 

Photography Day

We got hit with our first snow last night. It creates fantastic lighting for taking photos. I've been furiously taking photos all morning hoping my lighting would last... and my desk looks like a tornado blew through.



Here are a few new invitations as well as some old ones freshened up with a new color palette. Enjoy!

vintage photo effect

So I finally learned how to create a vintage photo effect in photoshop! I've been wanting to know for a while so I did a google search to find a good tutorial. This one was really easy.

Check out the before and after:

 

not bad for my first try, huh? I guess some photos do better than others. her skin looks kind of strange.

one of those days...

when everything seems to go wrong. You ever do something and later come to find out you screwed it up?  You can't just type command + z (or control + z for PC users) into your keyboard and go back. I wish a lot of things in life had a command + z function. wouldn't it be awesome?

christmas inspiration

some flickr imagery to help you get into the holiday spirit...

ineedhumanheat 

Let it snow...let it snow...

Just living is not enough...

christmas cookies

christmas is on its way

felt shingle tree

I need your help! Giveaway

I've been trying to hone down my collection of wedding invitations. I want to put forth my best products, especially ones that appeal to a broader range of customers, and fit well with my design style and aesthetic. I'm just not quite sure what to keep and what to toss. That's where you come in. 

Please visit the wedding invitation section of my shop page. Choose the invitation that is least appealing to you, and tell me why! You won't hurt my feelings... Try not to base your decision on color or attractiveness of the photography, but on the design, layout, fonts....etc.  I need serious opinions here, people.  "This is my least favorite invitation because I don't like bees"  is not a helpful critique.

In return for your generosity, I will be giving away this set of thank you notes to one lucky winner. Just leave a comment on this blog post letting me know your your least favorite invitation and why, and provide me with a way to contact you.  I'm giving you 'til the first day of 2010. 

Thanks for participating! 

Bespoke Design Update

I guess there were some people interested in seeing the final product from the bespoke design I was working on with the palm trees. Here is the final save-the-date. We're still working on the invitation but it more or less looks just like the save-the-date, sans the taxi cab.

I did SO many variations on this. There were lots of different images flying around-- bicycles, airplanes, taxis, putting greens, flags.... but the client finally decided on something more simple for the invitation pieces.  This was a tough project, I have a lot of imagery I can use for future projects if ever I need them. 

OMG etsy front page...

this is one of the best front page treasuries I've seen...

Happy Holidays from the Cherups

This year I started a new tradition. Since I don't have any seniority on the vacation schedule where I am employed, I more or less never get a chance to take any time off around the holidays. Yes, it's awful. So this year I decided to take a few days off in early december to get my Christmas shopping done, bake cookies, and other festive things.

Today I baked cookies all.day.long. It was so much fun. Tomorrow I'm planning on doing a bit of shopping. This past weekend my husband and I went and got our Christmas tree and spent Sunday evening decorating it and our living room....



the first bulb.. of course it's ohio state colors.



the amazing stockings I bought from etsy seller ahnaholder



Turkleton quickly takes interest in his new best friend



i bought this wreath thinking I would add some faux berries to it or something. But I think it's pretty beautiful just like it is, don't you?

I've been featured!

I loved this bicycle themed wedding board from aylee bits:

Photo Credits: Bride and Groom photo by Michele M. Waite; Ring photo by The Quintessential Image; Save The Date from Etsy seller Cheerupcherup; Invitation from Weddingbee Pro; Canvas bag from Etsy seller The Bold Banana; Bicycle Decor from Elizabeth Anne Designs; Bicycle Basket from Poppy Talk; Bicycle from Etsy Seller The World in a Matchbox; Bride and Groom on Ice Cream Bike from Viva Street; Bike Cake Charm from Wedding Cake Charms; Cake Topper from Fancy Flours

Etsy Shop Local Columbus

time for another round of etsy finds from around columbus, ohio. It's been a while since I did the last one-- there were so many beautiful things to choose from... here are a few of my favs from today:

1.  long stem poppy earrings from jewelrybynatsuko

2. french style caneback dining chairs from redchairfurniture

3. blue and white bucket bag from salwaowens

4. goldenrod narf from tinymagpie

okay so maybe I have an obsession

some days I just can't stop designing. today's one of those days.