Fairly Offensive Invitations

I just finished these invites for a friend who is throwing a Robbie Burns Supper. I guess it's a celebration of Robbie Burns, a Scottish poet, where you have a dinner on or near his birthday, and then read poetry, wear plaid, and drink scotch; the braver Robbie Burns Supper hosts serve haggis. This girl is not necessarily known for being politically correct (though she IS known for being incredibly hilarious), so we went for in invite that would get people's attention and would also clue them in to the spirit of the evening. The kids going to this are mostly in law school, so this host and I thought that an analogy would be funny (remember those from the SAT/LSAT/GRE/etc.?).
Here's the front (I don't know if you can see it, but the letters are plaid):
...and the inside:

Use me to...

Over break, we went to the graduation party for a neighbor who (finally) finished his undergrad. I thought I would make him a nice set of stationary that he could use after interviews, but also wanted to make him some cool stationary that he could use for more social purposes. I put together this set that consists of 5 designs. Each had a suggestion of ways that the enclosed cards could be used. Suggestions included:
"Use me for flattery"
"Use me for half-hearted apologies for last night's behavior"
"Use me to weasel your way onto the yacht"
"Use me for unabashed bribery"
and
"Use me to say thank you for the lovely gift basket."

2008 Family Calendar

Jordy's family has a great tradition of making a family calendar every year with pictures from the year and everyone's birthdays and anniversaries. I thought that this year, having a great collection of pictures from the wedding, I would make a calendar for my dad's side of the family. I used the photo booth photos from our wedding to make a 5.5x8 calendar held together with a binder clip. After an epic battle with my parents' printer, they finally got printed out exactly right- I also included a t-pin for hanging them. There they are at the bottom, all ready to be distributed at Christmas eve.

Form and Function

Merry Christmas! I hope that you are having a great holiday, and that Santa brought you something that suits you perfectly. We are finished opening presents, and are enjoying our coffee and A Christmas Story. Later on, I will be found printing things, and Jordy will be found packing and re-packing all of his clothes.
for me: Photoshop CS3 (!!!); rubber stamps (!!!); and a Gocco(!!!). for Jordy: very practical socks and underwear; shirts; and a packing organizing system.

Teddy Speck

All of us know one of those people who is good at everything he or she does, who can pick up pretty much any material and make that piece of clay, paper, metal, etc. into exactly what it was supposed to be all along. Meet Teddy Speck, who is my friend Speck's brother. He is already great at pottery and knitting, and has now come out with a fabulous line of earrings that he handcrafts out of wood. They are super affordable, especially for how beautiful they are. You can pick them up on etsy.

Finished!

I realized that I never posted finished pics of the quilt I was working on for Emily's daughter, Charlotte- here it is, with a little company:


I decided to bind with the polka dots- this was the first time that I had bound a quilt, so it ended up not being as neat as I wanted, but there's always next time to get it even better. I did a minimal amount of machine quilting on the outer border, but kept the area inside the ruffle just hand-tied so that it would stay really soft. I got to give this to Emily about a month ago at her shower, which was a ton of fun. There were no baby games, which was a relief to everyone involved. Charlotte was born on Wednesday- a beautiful girl with all ten fingers and ten toes- both mom and daughter are healthy and happy. Yay!

Printed

We just had a delicious dinner with Emma and Drew. She made an eggplant dish- I can't remember what it was called- with mozzerella, portabello mushrooms, ricotta, and eggplant- it was phenomenal. For dessert, we had a cookie plate and mint hot cocoa. If she's not careful, I might end up moving in with her. Anywho, they printed out the save the dates today and I got a sneak peek. She chose a smaller card than she had originally thought that she wanted to use, and it looks really, really good. Emma and Drew feel like the design "looks like them", and (toot, toot) I agree! It's funky, but still very vintage-y, with a great color scheme that Emma chose (I'll post about her bridesmaids' dresses here later). They also think that it looks a little like a Grateful Dead concert poster, which alludes to the fact that they both used to be hippies. I like them both a great deal anyway. Here they are printed out (again, excuse the crappy camera):

Puppies!

Usually, it irks me to no end when you buy something online and are then the recipient of 12 million catalogues and 14 thousand emails every day from the company from which you ordered. However, there is a little company, Organic Style, that sends me an email once in a blue moon because I ordered some flowers from them a while back. While their other stuff is, er, a little crunchy, their pet stuff is really cute. Look at this welcome-home gift for a new puppy! How great is this little set? The blanket would surely be headless within hours, but the thought! It's the thought that counts!
Getting our dog was not the most calculated decision that we ever made, so there was not a very long time for us to prepare for him to come home with us- in fact, we made our first trip to Petco with him in my lap. However, when I sent out a "birth announcement" for our new addition, our friends sent us a basket of gourmet doggie biscuits and treats. It was the most thoughtful and unexpected gift I think I have ever gotten. If someone you know is welcoming a new holiday puppy into their lives, this would be a perfect little gift to send. Here's the birth announcement we sent out- the title of the email was "It's a boy!"- I nearly gave my grandpa a heart attack...

save the date!

I love weddings. I especially love weddings when I am not the one who has to deal with putting the guest list together, which is why I am so excited about my dear friend Emma's wedding. She is marrying her charming beau Drew, and lucky me, I got to design their save the dates. Emma and Drew wanted a vintage-y seed-packet look, and I was more than happy to oblige. I perused the internet and found this gorgeous example:
This is fantastic-I love the muted colors, detailed drawings, the font, everything. However, Emma and Drew are a bit less country bumpkin, and a bit more fun and funky. So I took some inspiration from a vintage botanical exhibition poster, and came up with this:

It's a 4x6 postcard, featuring the flowers that they are going to use for the wedding (zinnias-her mom is growing all of them), along with a little picture of the church where they are getting married. They're printing them this weekend- I'll put up a photo of the finished product when I get mine in the mail! Here's a sneak peek at the back (with room for address labels and a quick note from Emma and Drew):

Up, up, and away!

These are data plotted from flight patterns from designer Aaron Koblin. Originally, they were done for an experiment at UCLA where FAA information from a day's worth of flights was plotted. There is also an absolutely gorgeous video here, and lucky for us, Mr. Koblin is coming out with prints. He also has a few wallpaper designs available for your computer. UCLA's take on the project is here, and Mr. Koblin's take is here. While you are there, check out his Sheep Market project.