Costa Rica

Carter and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Costa Rica with some friends. The couple we went with had a friend that lived there, and doing things from a local's perspective was so fun and different than anyway that I have traveled before. I have to say, we wouldn't have done half of what we did if we had gone alone. I just loaded my photos into my computer and I thought these three photos were a great highlights of our trip. Sunsets...

and fishing...

Don't you love the difference in our fish? Oh, he was a happy guy. But I caught the most fish (3), even if that one only gets points for looking weird... and being THE smallest fish in the entire ocean. I think it was smaller than the bait we were catching.

NYC

I am completely taking advantage of my new flexible schedule and currently have 6 trips (some big some small) on the calendar in the next 6 months. I'm very excited about all of them. My first was last weekend in New York City with my mom, dad and little sister. We saw some shows, ate AMAZING food, and of course shopped till we dropped.

I love the feel of the city... and it was so beautiful with a little snow and a lot of people. Considering I've barely worn a jacket this winter, the cold was a little bit of a shocker, and I'm glad that today is a frigid 70 degrees here in Texas.

Hand lettering

Hand lettering is really popular right now and I have never tried it because, frankly, I didn't think I could. I can NOT draw, but I have neat handwriting and always like to doodle on my to-do lists. I was on the phone today and started doodling and thought I'd scan it in and give it a try. Hours later (it is time consuming!), I am pretty hooked. While it is a tedious process, it was so fun to create something completely unique.

* and yes, I'm always one holiday ahead - I'm already designing for Easter!

A Little Office DIY Project

With the start of printing my invitation samples, my inventory is about to increase significantly, and frankly, I didn't know where I was going to put it all.... so we went off to search a few Salvation Army stores to see if we couldn't stumble upon a treasure or two. At our second store, I spotted a great dresser that seemed perfect for what I needed and it was $60. Great drawer space, but not too large and not too tall - it will be a great work surface - and if it never needs to be relocated, it will fit nicely in a bedroom. We bought it.

We removed the drawer pulls, filled in the holes, sanded, primed and painted it a really great olive color. I was pretty nervous about trying something other than grey (if you know me, you know grey is my go-to color), but it was a great choice. It looks a little light in the photos, but it's really pretty dark. I love how it looks against my pale blue walls. We finished it off with some adorable drawer knobs from Anthropologie. Granted, the knobs ended up being as much as the dresser, but what are you going to do - I loved them.  With it all said and done, it was probably around $150 and that is quite a deal on a solid wood dresser.

Here are some photos I snapped on my iphone of the process.

We feel very accomplished.

Our Christmas Cards

Before Christmas is too distant of a memory, I thought I'd share my own holiday cards. I chose my 'Paw Print' design from Minted, because I love that it's fun but still elegant at the same time. It was one of my favorites and everyone loved it. It was so nice to have an updated photo of our little family, so thanks to Kristie Clark for snapping some photos of us.

Receiving Christmas cards was especially fun this year because a fellow Minted designer organized a holiday card chain for a small group of us. It's safe to say that we received some of the most beautiful cards ever. Everyday my mailbox was full of awesome envelopes and cards. Trips to get the mail are decidedly less exciting now. Oh well, taking down the Christmas tree sucked too!

Do you wonder what some of the best stationery designers sent out themselves? My letterpress buddy Kimberly did a great recap of everyone's card, so you can see them all here!