Update

Well once again it has been a month since I've posted.  I apologize for not keeping up as much as I would like to but I'm currently waiting to hear back from several potential new customers and since it is so close to the holidays things have just been slow.  I did however finish one parent album.  I mainly reduced the size of my album pages and swapped out a few pictures but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  My in-laws will be receiving it on Christmas so I sure hope they like it!  Here's a preview of what they are getting.

I've also been working on the new logo for the hair salon I mentioned before.  Looks like we have a logo selected and now I'm just waiting for a few items to start moving onto the business cards.  As soon as I can I'll get some pictures posted. 

Outside of the wedding category I also would like to start doing peices that can be used for artwork.  This isn't quite what I mean but a friend asked me to make a little design to fit in a picture frame for a collage she was doing for her husband's christmas present.  Here is what I did.

A fun little design that will fit in one frame of a collage frame for his desk.  I thought she had a cute idea.  I just used the colors from their babies room to keep with the theme.  Working on this has got my wheels turning on what I could do for my own babies room for decorations.  I hope to make a few different designs to frame once we decide on what color to paint the room and pick out some bedding.  I'm really looking forward to bringing my own touch to his or her room!

Well that's all for now.  In the mean time I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas and New Year and please check back after the holidays for some new posts.  Merry Christmas!!

Kathy & Matt

Hi Everyone!  It's been entirely way too long since my last post but that's the story of my life right now.  I've been busy traveling to my little sister's highschool volleball games.  They just won the State Championship this past weekend so that was really exciting to watch!  Now that's over with so I have more time to dedicate to invitations.  I finally have some pictures to post too which I am really excited about it.  I just finished a save the date for Kathy & Matt and I also have their invitation done as well so I'm very excited to share them with you.  Up first is the save the date.  Kathy said she wanted someting fun so here's what I came up with.

Front

Back

And here is their invitation.  Kathy wanted something more elegant and formal than the save the date.

Hope you like them!  I also am really hoping to get some pictures up of the last two programs that I did so hopefully those will be up soon.  Have a great week!

Where Does the Time Go

Well once again it's been a week since I've lasted posted.  There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day.  I am excited to say though that the programs for Janelle & Michael and Kelly & Eric are finally done.  I will post pictures as soon as I can.  Now I am moving back to Kathy & Matt's invitation, just need to make a few improvements and start on a save the date for them.  I am also moving forward with the new logo I mentioned way back when for a local hair salon.  So I will be busy these next couple of weeks putting that together as well.  Might I throw out there too that there are only 52 days until Christmas!!  That's insanity!  I can't believe how quickly that snuck up.  I haven't even begun to think of a list for myself or others.  I love putting up the Christmas tree though so I hope Thanksgiving flies by so I can get to that!  Well I will post pictures of the programs hopefully this week yet.  Have a great week! 

Business Card

Happy Monday Everyone...yep that doesn't even sound right because who likes Mondays??  Well anyway I hope you had a great weekend.  Mine was good and the weather was beautiful which always helps.  Today I am posting the redesign of my sister's business card, the chiropractor I talked about in a previous post.  She also recently got married and since her name is changing she decided it was also time for a new business card.  So she called me!  I am posting a before and after so you can see the changes. 

Previous Card

New Card

Well that's all I have for now.  Have a good week!

Worst to Best Day

Good Morning Everyone!  Well it's my least favorite day of the week again, Monday...why do they always seem to come so fast.  But I am hoping this week goes better than last.  This past Thursday I plugged my external hard drive into my computer to make some changes to a program and while the power came on and it was running like normal, it would not connect to my computer.  After a phone call to my brother-in-law who informed me that since it wouldn't work on multiple computers it was probably shot the panic and devastation began to set in.  This hard drive holds ALL my files from previous invites, programs, etc. and current.  This would also include my wedding album that I had just finished and was supposed to order on Friday.  My husband tried to keep me calm until we could find out if there was a way to atleast get the files back but let's face it, that would have been a huge loss so there was no being calm for me.  Luckily god was on my side though and it turns out just the enclosure wiring wasn't working, the hard drive inside was perfectly fine.  So thanks to my IT department at work I have my files back and just need a new enclosure.  Whew!!  That was the best news!  Now I know what you're thinking, didn't you have them saved on your computer also...No, I didn't.  The files can be rather large and therefore take up too much memory and slow down my computer.  So I will be buying another external hard drive to back up everything!  I don't ever want to feel as helpless as I did that night.  Lesson learned.  Well I hope everyone has a good week!

Almost Friday

Hello Everyone!  Sorry it's been awhile, but I have been distracted.  Last weekend we got our patio poured and it looks awesome!  We found a great deal on patio furniture so we've already broken it in by having dinner out there the first night it was dry.  It's so nice to actually be able to enjoy our backyard now.  On the design front things have been pretty stagnant.  It's been a waiting game for Janelle & Michael, and Kelly & Eric's programs.  The designs are set just waiting for their weddings to get closer to finalize everything.  I'm very excited about both designs so I can't wait to be able to post them.  I am also currently redesigning my sister's business card.  Her name is changing so she thought it was time for an update as well.  I hope to have this completed in the next couple of days because I know she's anxious.  While I'm on the subject of my sister I mine as well give her a shout out.  Amber, aka Dr. P for Pritchard, is a Chiropractor in Fairview Heights.  And an amazing one at that!  Sure I may be a little biased, but I say it because I believe in her and what she does.  Most of you probably think you have no need for her because your back and neck are fine, but Dr. P is helpful for a lot more reasons.  At Faulkner Wellness Center, they focus on wellness and helping you to keep your body feeling and working at it's best.  I can attest to this because I'm a patient and I feel better than I have in years!  Allergies, loss of energy, tired no matter how many hours you slept...Stop avoiding the symptoms and taking yet another antibiotic the Dr. has prescribed.  See Dr. P and find out how to feel better naturally without putting all those toxins in your body!


Ok moving on...Fall is coming and I'm so excited.  Our yard is already full of leaves so I'm not so excited about raking those up but it's still soooo pretty!  We have yet another wedding this weekend and then I'm happy to say only one more towards the end of November.  I never thought I would say that I'm tired of going to weddings, but lately they have taken over my life.  While they are fun I'm looking forward to having my weekends back and  more time to design!  My next goal is to start making artwork to decorate our house.  My husband thinks I have too many wedding pics up so I thought I would appease him by trying to get some of those switched out.  We will see how that goes. :)   


Has anyone checked out A Side of Peaches lately or purchased anything??  Today's deal is this Red Tweed Boxer Hat.  Sooo cute!  If I looked good in hats I would totally get it.  It's going for a fabulous price of $9.99!

Alright well back to work it is.  I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! 

Need Your Help

Hello Everyone!  I am so excited to say that I'm finally finished with my wedding album! :-)  I need your help though.  There are two pages I just couldn't decide on so now I have two of each so if anyone has a suggestion I would greatly appreciate your input.  So of the two below which do you like better?




A

B

and then which two of these?

C



D












here are the other two pages you haven't seen yet.

Please let me know your input.  Thanks!

Coolie Cups

Good Morning Everyone!  This is the start to what's going to be a good week, I can feel it already.  I had a pretty good weekend so I hope you all did as well.   I have quiet a few things to share with you today.  Saturday was Beth & Nick's wedding and it was a blast!  Beth looked gorgeous and it was great to see her and Nick so happy.  So glad I got to share their day.  I have pictures of their program and their coolie cup that I did.  I've been meaning to get pictures up of some coolie cup designs that I've done so I figure now is a perfect time.  First up is the program.

 Next up is their coolie.  Nick works in construction so you'll see the reference.

The next two coolie cup designs were used on mine and Russ's coolie and my sisters.

Well that's all I have for now.  I might have the rest of my wedding album pages up later today so check back for those.  Oh and a patio update.  We are pouring this coming Saturday!  I am so excited to see the finished product.  It's perfect weather for sitting around the fire pit. :-)  Well have a great day!

Two Hour Traffic Jam

Wow what a morning it has been!  I purposely got up 15 minutes early today because my drive in to work has been slowing down each morning and I didn't want to be late, again.  Well so much for that.  The overnight construction crew did not finish on time and therefore had lanes closed that should have been open for the morning rush.  Two hours later after leaving my house I finally made it to work.  That was the worst drive in there has been in a while.  I hope everyone else had a better morning than I did.  So I needed a little distraction time and here I am.  Has anyone checked out the great sale on A Side of Peaches today?  The deal is this amazingly cute Black Tweed Puffy Scarf for only $9.99.  How cute is that?! Grab it while you can!

Oh I am also very happy to report that our patio is finally getting started!  We have been waiting since May for my dad to come over and pour it, but I guess that's what we get for being family, at the bottom of the list.  Oh well, better late than never!  Now we just need to find patio furniture.  Anyone know where we can get a great deal, if there's still any out there?  If all goes well the patio should be done tomorrow.  I'm crossing my fingers!  Well time to get back to work.  Hopefully I'll finish the album pages by this weekend so check back for that post.  Have a fantastic weekend!!

Finally Back

Wow it's been almost a week since my last post, so sorry it took me so long to get back.  I have a few album pages to show and other than that I can fill you in on what I've been up to the last week.  I didn't get much work done this past weekend because our friends were staying with us for a wedding as I said in the last post.  It was really great to see them and to catch up so I didn't start back at it until this week.  I've started working on Janelle & Michael's programs and pretty much have the layout done for those, now I'm just waiting for all the fill in.  Next I will be working on Kelly & Eric's program.  These couples are both getting married in early November so they are my priority right now.  I have also been busy making an invitation and program for my little sister's high school volleyball team.  They have senior night coming up so I was asked to create something.  So far so good everyone seems to like it! This coming weekend is Beth & Nick's wedding so Monday I'll have pictures to post of their program.  I'm super excited to see them get married so it should be another good weekend.  And the weather will be perfect!  So glad it's finally starting to cool off.  I love fall because that means sweatshirt weather...my favorite! :-)  My next task will be to decorate my house for Halloween, hopefully I'll find time this weekend for that as well.  Well here's the lastest album pages.  Only three more to go! I'm so excited to be done.  Enjoy!

   

An Uneventful Week

Happy Thursday Everyone!  You know what that means...the weekend is almost here! :-)  It's been a few days since my last post but I've been so busy I haven't had much time or any really to work on my album, so I have no new pages to post.  There also was a little distraction from all the season premieres that have been on.  I realized how I watch too much tv when there aren't enough hours in the night to watch all the shows I follow.  My husband will be happy to hear me say that.  He constantly nags me about it.  Oh well you need a break some time. :-)  We have a busy weekend ahead as well so I don't think I'll be finding time to work on any pages then either.  Some good friends of ours are getting married Saturday and a friend from college is coming out with her fiance to stay with us for the weekend.  That will give me a nice break to where I can start fresh again next week.  I will be busy then working on programs for Janelle and Michael and Kelly and Eric so check back soon for updates on those designs. 

Have you checked out A Side of Peaches lately??  They had a totally fun clutch posted yesterday and today the deal is this matching necklace and earring set for only $7.99.  Totally cute!

Well, it's time to get back to work.  Hope you have a great day!

A Not so Quiet Weekend

Monday is almost over, yeah!  So glad one day is almost down this week and it's been a busy one so this is the first chance I got to post my latest album pages.  I am getting really excited to be half way through.  I thought I would have accomplished a lot more this weekend but our no plans turned into plans.  That's ok though I still managed to get a few samples of invitations done for my latest customer and a few album pages so it was still productive.  My husband would tell you I worked too much this weekend but I would have loved to gotten more done. :-)  I would love to post the samples I did for Kathy over the weekend but her wedding isn't until May '11 so I don't want to give away her invite before it's out.  They will definitely make the blog at a later date.  But for now here are a few more album pages.  Have a great week!

Links I Love

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!  Finally the weekend is here.  I made some progress on my wedding album this week and I'm so excited to get it finished because I have several others waiting for me.  I am doing parent albums for my parents and in-laws and then I know my sister will soon be getting her wedding pics back and she's going to want the same.  The good news is I have a quiet weekend ahead so I'm sure I'll knock out a few more pages.  On another exciting note, I attained a new customer this week who is interested in save the dates and invitations.  I love doing save the dates so I'm extremely excited!  Her colors are navy blue and silver which I think will look so elegant together.  I'm very excited to get started. 

New to the blog is my Links I Love section over in the right column.  These are blogs I like to visit which keep me rather distracted when I should probably be doing other things but let's face it, we all could use a  little distraction throughout our day.  The first link is to A Side of Peaches.  This is a deal-a-day site that offers a fantastic selection of goodies! You really don’t know what you’re gonna get when you check in each day. (And I love that!)  The items are discounted up to 80 percent, but the thing is, you have to grab them while you can – they are only sold till the end of the day or till they sell out each day. Sometimes an item will come back another time, sometimes not.

A Side of Peaches offers some totally cute and fun accessories, like this purse.  How cute is that! 
And this ruffled scarf...it's only $6.99!!


So if you get a chance check out this blog from time to time.  I'm sure you can find some really great gifts for Christmas which is right around the corner.  It's amazing how time flies once summer is over. 

Thrifty Decor Chick is a blog that shows you how to turn an expensive home renovation into a cheap but fantastic DIY project plus other simple crafts to spice up your home.  Whether it's painting your kitchen cabinets or making a wreath for your front door this site offers helpful and fun ideas for you to transform your home into a place you love without spending a ton of money on it.

Better After is another blog that shows you before and after pictures of room transformations.  This can give you great ideas for your own home or just simply keep you entertained for a while.  Check it out if you get a chance.

Lastly before I go, here are a couple more pages from the album. 

Well back to it!  Have another fantastic weekend!

Wedding Album

As promised here are a few pages from my wedding album.  I'm finally on a roll after a very long process of narrowing down.  Enjoy!

Another Monday

Oh Monday morning you are my least favorite day of the week and I'm sure that goes for a lot of you.  The good news is I finished up the program for my friends Beth and Nick over the weekend.  I can't wait to see them printed.  I will post pictures as soon as they are done.  This week I am facing the challenge of designing my wedding album.  It is much harder doing my own than one for someone else.  There's so many pictures to choose from that I'm having a really hard time narrowing it down.  My goal for this week is to get a couple pages done though so I'll post as soon as I can.  Have a good week! 

A New Adventure

It's been a short week thanks to Labor day, but wow did this week take a long time.   While I'm sure most of you will be heading home to unwind or maybe to a party I will be working on another program.  My husband tells me I don't know how to relax because my laptop is always glued to my lap even after spending my work day in front of a computer.  My response to that is, this is relaxing!  I love making new things so I'm looking forward to getting home and finishing up the latest program.  To top it off I got a really great phone call on Wednesday. I will be designing a new company logo for a hair salon! I'm extremely excited to get started on it and can't wait to meet with them to discuss ideas.  This will be a really fun project!  I'll post pictures as soon as I can.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

August Craze

August kept me busy working a lot of late nights.  Here are the newest additions of invitations and programs.

One of my favorites :)  They didn't chose this one so I really
hope someone else loves it.  It's too unique to go to waste!

This program was for Laura and Stuart, good friends of mine

who just got married.  It goes with their invitation I did

shown in a previous post.  She had some really great ideas

that came out looking amazing. I absolutely loved this

program and how well it all came together. 

Another favorite of mine that really came

together.  This was my sister's program so

it had to be one of my bests!  I loved how well

her colors went together.  We did half with the

gray background and half with pink. 

They looked spectacular!

This program was for Courtney & Keith.  She

was such an easy bride to work with because

she gave me full reins with the designs.  She

loved the invitation and then told me to do

whatever I had in mind for her program.  Needless

to say she loved the program too!  It was

Courtney's idea to put their picture on the cover

and I think that really brought it all together. 

A simple layout but a really great design.  Their

matching invitation is also shown in a previous

post.