furry friend cards

Yes, it has been a month since my last post. This summer has been amazing and hectic all in one. Highlights have included a week at the cottage, an inspiring design conference, two fabulous concerts (U2 and Keith Urban), far too many ice cream cones with my nearly three-year-old, and great times with friends and family. Needless to say, I'd take this kind of busy any day. I feel very, very blessed.

Still, it's time to post something to my neglected blog, so I'm pulling this little project out of the archives. It's a stationery set I designed for my cousin, who happens to be the sweetest animal lover I know. For as long as I can remember, Erin's had a furry (or winged) creature to love. Bunnies in particular have a special place in her heart. She's taken this passion to a whole new level, and volunteers for Rabbit Rescue (click here for their website), finding loving homes for neglected animals and regularly taking them in herself until a home is found. Erin also manages their online store here, where you can find all sorts of cute products for animal lovers.

I decided to send Erin this little stack of custom cards for her birthday. They were a lot of fun to work on.

Enjoy!

crafty people: go jump in the lake.

Crafty people can be the worst dressers. Being somewhat crafty myself, I'll be the first to admit it.  This weekend, I witnessed it first-hand at Plymouth, Michigan's Art in the Park. Every year, artistans, merchants, and hippies alike converge in one place to sell their creations and show off their tie dye outfits and appliqué t-shirts.You know the ones I'm talking about. 

So when I come across something truly different, I can't help but share it. A few years back, I came across these great signs by Go Jump In The Lake a few years ago. They make these incredible rustic-looking silkscreened signs. Last year, I got one for my in-law's cottage on Higgins Lake. This year, their booth had doubled in size, as had their offering of fabulous signs in delicious colors. I couldn't help but pick the following sign up for our son's room (shown with a rustic chair I picked up at a nearby antique sale for my mom, and some cement bunnies for my favorite rabbit-lover):

It's hard to tell in the photos, but it's the most gorgeous papaya-orange color behind one of his favorite songs (second only to "God's love is like a circle").

A few of my other favorites...

They also have some options for customization, so be sure to visit their Etsy store here.
Credits and kudos to Laurie and Lee Dayvault of Go Jump in the Lake. You've made a certain mom of a two-year-old very happy... and have renewed my faith in local art fairs.

Now if only I could find my tie dye jumper for next weekend...

Potty time.

So we're potty training in our house. In a burst of creativity and optimism, I decided to paint a potty chart. Our little trainee helped me pick the paper and accessories out, and I got to work.

The final product doesn't look much like a chart, and a month later a certain someone's still in diapers, but you can't say that I haven't tried.

Words to read by

Several months back, I worked on these little bookmarks. I'm not about wasting paper, so when a client ordered square postcards and the printer had some extra space on the rectangular sheet, I designed these little bookmarks with some good little reminders to keep on hand or between the pages of your favorite book.

Now if only I had time to read...

I got the above Lovebird placecard holders at Beau-Coup. Each bird has little slot in its beak that can hold a piece of paper. They're made of solid metal, giving them a nice weight, and come in a set of eight. If you've never shopped at Beau-Coup, they offer exceptional customer service, and have some really cute products on their site.

Wham, Bam, Thank-you Jam.

Last week, we went berry picking for the first time. One would think that it had all of the right ingredients for a happy afternoon to share with a two-year-old. You have an open field, berries to eat, and friends nearby. Not so. It was a gripe fest through and through. Still, I got this cute picture of the little man with our boxes (which had only two dozen strawberries after an hour of picking).

To my surprise, we eventually left with three heaping trays of juicy Michigan strawberries for jam. I owe it all to a friend with a minivan with a DVD player. So much for quality time with the little man. Sidenote: he's since been pointing to the overhead light of our 1997 Jeep Cherokee and saying, "Is THAT a TV? I wanna watch a movie. I wanna new car." But back to the jam.

This wasn't your everyday jam. You're talking personally picked, strongly smushed, sweetly sugared, prayerfully pectin(ated), joyfully jarred Jam. Which I now like to call my very own "Wham, Bam, Thank-you Jam." The perfect thing to have on hand when a simple thank-you won't do. What can I say? I'm all about branding. And eating jam, as of late.

And thanks to this jam, breakfast is so much sweeter these days. As is my two-year-old.

Say it with flowers. Or design. Or both.

When a friend or loved one is going through a trial or experiencing a loss, it's hard to find just the right words to say, or the right thing to do. Some people head to the kitchen and bake up a meal or a batch of cookies. My creativity however seems to end the moment I step in the kitchen, so I like to show my love in other ways.

These flowers were for a remarkable young lady and granddaughter of some dear friends of ours. Hunter was diagnosed with bone cancer this past March, and over the past four months has undergone an aggressive treatment plan to conquer her cancer. Despite the tremendous obstacles that this family has faced, they have demonstrated courage, faith, and determination.

On the morning of a pretty significant surgery for Hunter, I had her on my heart and wanted to do something special. My son and I picked flowers from our garden, and we put together this little vase to leave on her doorstep.

I can only hope to one day have the courage and beauty that this special young lady has.

facing the giants (or in this case, dinosaur)

No, this entry doesn't have anything to do about paper. Good. We've gotten that out of the way.

Our son is 2 1/2, and suffice it to say that we've already gotten some good mileage out of our Detroit Zoo membership. Every time we go, we discover something new. So we were excited to round the corner during a recent outing and see this "preview" of the upcoming dinosaur exhibit, Dinosauria. What you can't see from this photo is that the T-Rex roars. And moves. I'm talking tail, neck, jaws... Now imagine that you are two, and that all of the animals you've seen so far that day are real. Logic would lead you to assume that this, too, was very real. And very close. With nothing but a rope between you.

Caleb stood frozen in his footsteps, and clenched his "bat" (a carrot-shaped bat from Easter). Every time the T-Rex would roar, he would swing the bat menacingly. Which pretty much sums him up. This photo was taken shortly before I explained to him that the dinosaur was "pretend." A conversation which went over almost as well as my feeble attempts at explaining why Rice Krispies eventually stop snapping and crackling. I'm still not sure if he understood me this time around, but I guess we'll find out if he asks to bring a bat (or some other toy that can be repurposed as a weapon) the next time we go to the Detroit Zoo.

May the giants (or dinosaurs) you face today turn out to be far less menacing than you originally thought. Or not. In which case, don't forget your carrot bat.