Schedule > Set Date and Time

Schedule > Set Date and Time. That's what did it.

Did you know you could post date blog posts? Well, you can; and when I learned that, PROCRASTINATION reared it's ugly head and eight months later....

Okay, let's not focus on the negative. Instead, let's talk about spring and sunshine and sweet little girls, all good reasons to start blogging again.

Old Truck for an Old Truck

 See that black GMC truck? That was our first purchase as an engaged couple. We loved that truck. It's the vehicle that everyone decorated when we left for our honeymoon. It was what I drove back and forth to work the years before we had children, and when Marin was born I could fit her car seat right next to me and sing songs. We've outgrown the truck and it was time to either invest money into it or...

trade the truck in for a new older truck. We made the swap and are excited about the memories that we'll make with this red beauty. I see Christmas parades, pumpkin parties, senior pictures and weekend trips to Brenham in our future.

Welcome to the World Baby Shower {The Event}

 I worked with a lovely group of girls to host a baby shower for my sister-n-law. The event was not only beautiful but so much fun! The theme was Welcome to the World and the colors were earth green and blue with pops of orange (my sister-n-laws favorite color).

The invitation design might give you an even better feel for the event. 

A close friend of mine has a collection of globes, which were perfect for depicting the theme. 

We had globe cake pops made at a bakery in Houston. Guests took them home as party favors. The orange chevron paper straws were from Hobby Lobby. We added little tags to each one. The flags said "Welcome to the World and had the GPS coordinate for the baby's home.

I made round stickers with the free globe graphic from The Graphic Fairy and we stuck them to clear plastic cups. The napkins are George Stanley cocktail napkins.

I'm in love with the true round 3 foot balloons. Seems I can't host a party without them. 

I found orange luggage tags on sale at World Market and used them to label items on the welcome table. The tag above encouraged guests to share advice on a sticky note that was then placed on a globe.

We wanted to incorporate carrots into the party because Sarah loves to sit around an snack on carrots, plus they are orange. I think this arrangement of green and blue hydrangeas wrapped in carrots turned out BEAUTIFUL and so unique.

I designed thank you post cards that matched the invitations and guests wrote their mailing address on one as they arrived. This was to save the mommy to be time when sending her thank you postcards.

Instead of a guests book I created this orange world map. I found the frame at Garden Ridge and moved the glass behind the paper. Guests wrote a message to the baby and when the shower was over we put the glass back on the front, creating a beautiful memento from the shower.

And, no party post is complete without my sketches.

Welcome to the World Baby Shower {The Invitation}

My brother and his wife are expecting their first baby and I was thrilled to help a wonderful group of girls host a baby shower in their honor. Because Joshua and Sarah love to travel, we thought a welcome to the world theme was appropriate for their baby. Sarah's favorite color is orange so that was a nice neutral color since the gender of the baby is unknown. These invitations were mailed in orange envelopes with these free vintage parcel post labels from World Label in blue. The map inside the heart was also a free download from The Graphics Fairy. She had so many beautiful maps to choose from!

Maternity Pictures

 My brother is going to be a father. Seems like just yesterday I was taking their engagement pictures. Four years later I'm so excited to be capturing this new, exciting stage of their life together.

Family Room {Beadboard Ceiling}

Half the ceiling is hung! This might not look like much work, but...it is.

Each sheet of beadboard has to be primed and painted before we hang it. Steven built this super big easels for us to prop the boards onto. We put the girls to bed and paint most every evening.

Fun times...

Pumpkin Carving Party 2013 {The Invitation}

We are celebrating 10 years of pumpkin carving this year. Above is the invitation design. The painting was done by my brother-in-law Kevin. I love the painting because it reminds me of the very first year when we had a pumpkin pinata. The colors in the sky are so inviting with the contrasting, spooky black silhouette in the foreground.

In honor of celebrating 10 years we wanted to do something different, so we asked guests to help us GIVE to friends of ours who are adopting a baby. This year instead of asking guests to bring their pumpkins we bought 50 pumpkins (at wholesale) and asked guests to buy them from us for $10 each. We called it Pumpkins with Purpose and it was a big hit. By doing this we were able to give more and were able to bless our friends with a generous financial blessing. That made celebrating 10 years so much sweeter.

Pumpkins With Purpose

Psalm 68:5–6

“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—this is God,

whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families;

he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.”