li'l punkin autumn baby shower

last fall, a few girlfriends and i hosted a baby shower for our dear friend. since it was going to be in the fall, i thought li'l punkin would be an adorable theme, and ran with it. anytime i host a party, i feel the need to make the invitation as time intensive as possible. it's my thing. plus, i get to show off all the fun things you can do with invites. no invite's complete without a matching envelope!

i knew i wanted punkins on the invite, and then thought a tree with sparse leaves on it would be super cute. i dug thru my ridiculous stacks of scrapbook paper and found some adorable prints that just screamed 'it's fall, y'all'. then, set to work with my cricut to cut out leaves and punkins for 30+ invites! (thanks for being my assistant, mamacita!)

guests were welcomed with punkins (what else?!).

inside, we adorned the tables with punkins and gourds and apples. i got the wild hair to put some fabric that'd been taking up space in the basement to use and make fall buntings. (the night before the party!) a diaper cake adds some whimsy to the gift table (cleverly deemed the punkin patch)

since the party was a sit down brunch, we served a build your own mimosa bar, along with coffee and cream. hosting parties gives me the chance to break out all my nana's silver and china.

there's no way to have an autumn brunch without something punkin. this coffee cake was ah-may-zing! seriously, so delish! i put my gluten-free tendencies to the side when things like this are served! we also had monkey bread, an egg casserole and fruit salad.

we sent all the guests home with their own li'l punkins. we wrapped candy corns and candy punkins up in orange tissue paper, and tied them with floral tape so they looked like punkins. then finished them with a gift tag.

it was a great party, and so fun to see all the loot! baby noah is a cutie pie, and it's hard to believe he's already 10 months old!

hosting a baby shower? how 'bout an autumn theme? the sky's the ding dang limit with all the colors and gourd-y options! let's chat!

art of the barter

sometimes i want things that just don't fit in my budget. ok, a lot more than sometimes. but, sometimes i'm fortunate enough to be able to work out something in the form of a trade. it's like a real life version of settlers of catan, but with art and things like yoga, instead of wheat and sheep.

this piece was born out of the art of the barter. my addiction to yoga, with this particular teacher, must be fed. so, art for her cutie cute baby girl's room equals my yoga addiction fed.

the piece started here (pardon the horrid basement lighting):

and morphed into this (that's a butterfly pun right there!). her room is lovely tones of pastel blues and pinks and sage greens, and she loves butterflies.

big butterfly gets a blue eye to match baby girl's, and a bob dylan lyric rounds out the art, since he's her namesake.

wanna chat about a possible trade? have a service i might be interested in? say hair cutting, massage, cutie cute jewelry? call me.

grab your sombrero rehearsal dinner invites

we're rounding out the designs for baby sister's wedding. debuting the rehearsal dinner invites before the big invite reveal (of which i still need to photograph).

we tied in all the colors and fonts of the other designs, and added in the next element - kraft paper.

i always say, a fiesta is a perfect time to break out the sewing machine. ok, i don't always say that, but it is. especially when you want the invites to look like they have fun mexican flavored banners along the top.

how 'bout we get a little close-up of my perfect sewing lines? perfectly imperfect. just like me!

no design is complete without a matching envelope. you knew that already, right?

hosting a party soon? rehearsal dinner? wedding? let's have a little chat. i've got just the thing!

september sing along

and, just like that...it's september! the return of football, pumpkin everything, crisp days, falling leaves, the change of seasons. here in the good ol' pac nw, september is really part of our summer. we don't usually experience the amazement that has been this summer - with june all wonderful and nice. so, i'm not ready just yet for knee high boots and fluffy coats. i'm still good with my sandals and tube tops.

on to the music. still using other people's blogs and tv shows as my main source of music knowledge. sometimes baby sister sends me a pic of her shazam. as always, what are you listenin' to? anything noteworthy. i was gonna put katy perry's roar on here, if i hadn't heard it 4 times on the car radio in less than an hour yesterday!