Into the deep blue sea

Posted on August 6, 2012 by

With our limited 7-week-old-baby energy we’re still in limited hosting mode, but pulled it together to have a few friends over for Saturday supper. Testing out wooden plank fish grilling* led to a beachy/ocean themed tablescape, which I was somewhat surprised to find I had in the closet all ready to go. The great coral tablecloth (love that color!) and amazing ceramic trio of balls centerpiece (sculpted by my mom, I know, pretty impressive!) gave a nice natural texture to the table. I folded the napkins to be like abstract waves, though no one but me ever would have made that association, and made starfish placecards. And that was about it. I’m really working on simplifying this stuff…but it’s hard when you go to bed dreaming about place settings and napkin colors and party themes.

*Note: when the directions say have a squirt bottle near by for flare ups, do it. Seriously. Once the flame starts eating the maple plank and your fish, trying to find something to gently mist water without soaking your meal is a little stressful.

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Grilling a good time

Posted on July 16, 2012 by

Keeping to my favorite dinner plan – making guests cook their own dinner – we tested out making your own pizzas on the grill this weekend. While our previous two DIY attempts (grilled cheese and sliders) were bigger parties, we kept this to just four of us – good thing, as it definitely took more time and and grill space than anticipated. However, it was the perfect meal + activity to be able to catch up with good friends while getting some great grub.

I tried out a modern take on an Italian tablescape, sticking mostly to red and green that I already had in the linen closet. Sur La Table had cute pizza papers à la by-the-slice joints that topped green tin chargers from years back. And one of my favorite red and white tablecloths got recycled yet again.

We set up an array of toppings from veggies to pre-sautéd shrimps. Homemade pizza dough ambitions got traded in for pre-made Trader Joe’s (1-month old baby = less time every day than I expect). After a few rounds, we discovered the key to success was lots of flour. And a pizza stone. This set from Sur La Table did the trick; it claims that the dome on top makes it more similar to a brick oven pizza. In the end, they may not have been the most attractive pizzas, but they really turned out to be pretty tasty, and pretty entertaining for a Saturday night in.

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Announcing! and thanking

Posted on July 11, 2012 by

Our little bundle of joy arrived on 6.12.12 – great birth date! Of course I couldn’t wait to send out birth announcements and thank yous for all the loving little Hadley has already gotten.

For the announcements, I used a design very similar to the one I did for my older daughter; I thought it would be nice to frame both together some day. Keeping it simple, the front has a basic pattern and “nice to meet you” text, while the back is a cute family tree pointing out all of Hadley’s key characteristics to date. I printed the envelope front to match, with a cheery “hello” from the wee one on the front and a little note on the back that doubled as a sticker to minimize envelope licking.

For thank you notes, I decided to go with a postcard instead of a traditional note card. I thought it would be a nice twist for them to come directly from her (or at least a picture of her). And, let’s be honest, there just isn’t as much room to write so it made the actual thank you part a little easier – something every new mom needs!

Posted in Everything else, Invites & announcements, Stuff for boys, Stuff for girls | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Mini patriotic celebration

Posted on July 3, 2012 by

With our 3-week old keeping us a bit overtired, a very tiny patriotic celebration was all I could muster. I love this decorative container with holes in it to prop up the flags – it could be used for so many other displays as well. Combine that with some bold red, white and blue pops and ta-da. Happy fourth!

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A wedding spectacular cirque-style

Posted on June 29, 2012 by

Thinking big time outside of the box, all the way to the big top itself, friends Collie and Justin came up with one of the most glam wedding themes: Cirque du Soleil meets Southern formality. Although I was so sad to miss out on the big day itself (new baby + cross country travel was not happening), this was one of the more fun weddings to get to help out with on the paper front.

From the get-go, Collie knew she wanted to focus on a circus meets Cirque style with a red and gold color palette. The save-the-date postcard had a vintage ticket look to it, while the invite and other wedding day goods used a sunburst similar to Cirque’s signature one and  bold, almost tribal graphic patterns that are all over Cirque’s materials.

Congrats to the newlyweds!

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My book, your book, our book

Posted on June 26, 2012 by

Now that we’ve got two(!) little girlies in the house, and the little one already has a closet full of hand-me-downs, I realize we’re in for a lifetime of trying to keep things fair between the two and making sure the younger has some new, special things that are hers. To kick it off in the right direction, I made bookplates to get our growing library organized and each girls’ books identified.

From:                                                                 To:

Since a lot of our board books are already mangled – and the girls are too young to think about who they belong to – I made a joint Carter & Hadley plate for those ones (yes, I will be annoyed with myself for this if we have more kids down the line). For their nicer, older books, each girl has her own plate. Since I’m really into woodgrain patterns these days, I stuck to a very simple design and printed them on Staples sticker paper. We’ll see how well this works out a few years from now…I’m predicting major success or utter sibling rivalry disaster.

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Beach bachelorette party invitation

Posted on June 23, 2012 by

A sweet summer bachelorette party at the beach! Who wouldn’t want to go? When a friend asked me to help with an invite for this weekend of frolicking in the sun, vintage postcards immediately came to mind, as did summer pinup girls. After scavenging the web, I found an actual New Jersey shore poster from about the 50′s and recreated most of it, while trying to keep the colors more modern and fresh. The invite itself was a postcard, wrapped in an envelope with a liner that had the couples’ names in a heart. Watch out for this crew in Avalon this weekend – fun times ahead!

Posted in Engagements & showers, Invites & announcements | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment