Sending Out Packages: Typography Fun!

It was my nephew's birthday, and we sent him a package in the mail! Don't you just miss getting real mail? I figured I'd have some fun with typography, and make it a package that an 11 year-old would be excited to receive!

Cherries and Christmas Drinks!

I know it's August, and still a little too early to be thinking about Christmas but sometimes you just have to plan ahead! It's toward the end of cherry season, so I stocked up on a couple of pounds and made my Grandma Shirley's "Christmas Drink."

I removed the stems and rinsed the cherries (they have one of the highest percentages of pesticides and chemicals on them). I had about 7 pounds. 2 large (about a gallon each) containers held 3ish pounds each, then one half gallon to hold the rest.

Once divided up into their respective containers, I covered the cherries with 2 cups of white granulated sugar (1 cup for the smaller jug). I could eat them all just like this....

Then.....fill up with a liquor of your choice! I chose brandy because the sweetness of it will lend well to the drink. Stir to dissolve sugar and seal it up!

And now......we wait.......about 3 months or so. I continually stir the mixture to make sure the sugar is dissolved. My Grandma called it her "Christmas Drink" because that's when it was ready to be enjoyed!!

Love is in the air

'Tis the season for weddings! And we got to enjoy ourselves at a friend's last weekend in Lake Geneva. Beautiful weather (minus a few scattered raindrops) and great dancing with friends. Perhaps a little too fun? Ha ha

Clearly, a lot of fun....helped along with alcohol...

Wedding Dress Success! Simplicity 1775 & Simplicity 1876 Part One

So, as I've said in a previous post, I made my wedding dress. The fact was that I couldn't find what I wanted in my price range (under $500). I know I had a very small budget for the dress, but I figured it was a Vegas wedding- I didn't need to go balls to the wall!

 I started with finding my inspiration. I scoured Etsy and eBay for vintage dresses. Too bad I don't have a size 2 rib cage...... But I did fall in love with Leann Marshall's design.

I did some more research and realized she has a line of patterns with Simplicity, and I could probably finagle something out of those!

    I used the bodice from 1876 and then made 3 different skirt bottoms, because, well,  I couldn't make up my mind. I did 2 skirts from 4070 and the one skirt from 1755 (which I've made before and loved)

What a goonie face...

The first one has no pleats, just cut on the bias. It's a very flattering cut, but just wasn't enough of a statement for a wedding dress. Dress 2 has some pleats.  I liked the volume it added, but still not enough. Dress 3 has millions (ok, not millions) of knife pleats, giving the skirt tons of volume.

Step one: Done!

Out in the garden

 There is something so satisfying about having a garden. Hard work is involved; hoeing, tilling, weeding, digging, planing, mulching, watering. Repeat. But the results are bountiful. The obvious vegetables and flowers, yes. But something so much more rewarding when a day's work is done, to sit back with ice water and admire your work. To be outside and feel the sun on your skin, the dirt in your nails, the sweat even! I sleep so much sounder after the days in the garden.

I love the fresh air, being outside and doing something. I feel like it's my form of meditation. My moment to feel and observe. I find myself lost in watching birds play in the water, squirrels chase each other, and hearing the children play outside at the daycare near by. I could spend all day outside.

 Small, but wonderful

Wedding Invitations

As noted before, the Man and I are into the retro scene and with that comes tattoos! Right away, I knew our wedding invitations to reflect our style, and I knew I was going to design them. So here's a little sneak-peek of the process of our tattoo styled wedding invitations.

 

 I, then, painted in the image with a mixture of watercolor and gouache and then cleaned up the outlines again with the India ink. 

 

I uploaded the finished painting into Photoshop and cleaned up with image and added little details to make it look reminiscent of a playing card. Overall, I'm quite happy with how they turned out. And-it was economical! We had 250 invitations printed and it cost us around $200.