shower invites.

my bjb sondra is getting married this fall and my other half and i have the pleasure of standing up next to them as they get hitched. i just got done sending out all the bridal shower invites and i loved them so much i wanted to share them!

with one bazillion women on the guest list - we wanted to keep the costs down. postage alone on that many invitations could break the bank. i went with cardstock on cardstock and trusty old 'powerpoint to design the invitation text.


i used the brown Simply Paper envelopes at Michaels that went with their color palette: burnt sienna and brown. i googled my brains out until i found a sondra-esque design image to layer in the background. then i played around with the border width and placement of all the text. the slicing doo-hickie saved me time and my fingers pulling it all together. i used double sided tape instead of glue for no reason other than sometimes glue can do funny things.

i took the leftover time and got coordination snazzy by pulling the font style, color, size and image on the address labels. how's that for the fancy-schmancy designer in me?!

my fave part of all? how well the liberty bell stamp went with the brown envelopes. a bit odd, I know. sorry it looks a little weird with all the rectangles. as much as i like you all, we just don't have room for bridal-shower-crashers.

gardenin' fool.

we're not just eating lettuce these days. my other half planted a lovely garden which he tends to day in and day out! so far we've been enjoying fresh herbs like this rosemary plant.

we didn't go too crazy like last year with our tomato plants but we're still hoping to produce some monster size fruit. i'm excited to be trying out some new plants like acorn squash and broccoli.

i love these glass flowers that i got last year at the corn hill festival. they are such a nice splash of color for the growing-like-mad SAGE plant.

happy summer everyone!

vintage letterbox.

i have been coming up w/ideas for how we can incorporate some of the things we enjoy most into our wedding decor. two of them being photos and travel.

so perhaps you can understand my delight when i found this vintage letterbox on one of the wedding blogs i love to read. snippet and ink always has fun, themed inspiration boards which can get the creative juices flowing for wedding ideas. they included the letterbox which featured on Grapevine weddings to showcase invitations. I just HEART the idea of old photographs that guest write on in lieu of a guestbook.

Now the question is - where can I get one?!?

free icebox.

you know you're a junker when.....

you get two text messages in one day from friends asking you to haul away fun FREE junk. this latest one made me squeal:

Lanie: Any desire 4 a free icebox? I think its metal.
me: omg. i love you.

junk alerts via text messaging are not quite as fun as scoring junk via a roadside pile. it must be the lack of the hunt and the swerving that can be involved. this icebox practically landed on my doorstep! (which can also happen quite a bit to us junkers).

i can't say my other half was as excited about it as I was - but he'll get there! it has such POTENTIAL! I'm already looking forward to the project!

baby johnson.

today we're congratulating our friends on their not-so-little bundle of joy that came this past Father's day weekend. clara elizabeth johnson was quite a big bundle of joy topping the scale at almost 10 lbs. we're so glad to hear mom and baby are doing well after their SPEEDY delivery. we can't wait to come visit - congrats to the whole family!

cup-a-cake.

this one goes out to all my fellow CUPCAKE lovers. i made cupcakes last night in celebration of a couple things:

1. my 300th post!! who knew I could make it this far.
2. flag day.
3. my mom's bday. (also flag day)
4. the best piece of TUPPERWARE $4 can buy.

williams-sonoma has DONE it again! we were there drooling over nearly everything when i spotted several only-use-10-times-per-year-but-gotta-have-it-anyway items. this was one of them... although we do eat cupcakes WAY more than 10 times per year. it's flippin INGENIUS!! no more LOST frosting or smooooshed cupcakes. ever!

i prefer everything in the shape of a muffin or cupcake. my brownies, my corn bread, you name it. that said, my cup-a-cake has gotten LOADS of use already as I put it to work this week hauling corn bread muffins and cupcakes. these cupcakes were nothing like my 50th post, they were patriotic and adorned little red stars and blue sprinkes. gotta love the stars and strip cake mix.

happy flag day everyone!

letchworth park.

we stuck around these parts for our memorial day weekend. we have quite a busy summer going here and there so it made sense to spend a quiet weekend at home. we putzed around the house a bunch doing projects here and there but on sunday we flew the coop for a hike at letchworth park. hard to believe both of us have been here over 10 years and never gone. letchworth is a NY state park with nearly 15,000 acres of scenery that runs all along the genessee river. i read up on it and it was voted one of the top 100 places to camp in America and it has over 66 miles of hiking trails.

this park is nearly in our backyard! we clearly need to get out more.

you can see more pics here.

thirsty wedding guests.

this post goes out to the love-everything-about-Pottery-Barn-but-the-price crowd. so i gets my pottery barn catalog and LOVE their glass dispensor, just not their price. i've been looking for one b/c i want to use it at the wedding. outdoor wedding + hot july day could = thirsty guests. so i found the one above at Sams Club for oh, i don't know, $50 LESS than what PB will charge ya! (can't find a link to it. boo.)

so my plan (*CAVEAT* current plan which could change at a moment's notice) is to have two of them (they are 2.5 gallons apiece) outside or on the porch for the wedding ceremony. one with lemonade and one with iced tea. then pair them with these mason-jar style mugs i adore. on that table I can have my BIG galvanized bucket filled with bottled waters. these plus handmade wedding-program FANS will keep our peeps cool.

hopefully.

who knows - they could get some use at a couple PARTY events this summer too. ;-)