What in the Slap Chop Rap?

Last night I was minding my own business working on a wedding invitation when this little ditty came blaring from the TV speakers. At first I thought it was a hoax or that I was experiencing lack-of-sleep induced hallucination. Then I realized it was all too real, my friends, which qualifies the ‘slap chopper’ as the best infomercial-intro I have ever seen. The clip I originally saw had dancers that were not quite as cool as these ones but you will get the idea. You have to watch the whole 3:16 minutes; it’s SO worth your time and it just get's better and better.

Today I Love Mary

I’ve been watching clips of Mary Travers from Peter, Paul and Mary. I think this, If I had a Hammer, clip is my favorite. I love watching her emotions become increasingly intense as the song nears its end and how this is displayed physically as she lets her hair flip though the air…so inspiring!



This makes me SO happy! Song is such a beautiful thing to touch people’s lives with. Rest in Peace Mary.

Lovely Package Exchange

Is it me or is getting some sort of personalized correspondence in your mailbox one of the best things in the world? The other day one of my sisters sent me a homemade card with words I actually read on paper. It was so sweet and pen pal-ish. I have also gotten two wedding invitations in the mail recently—which I was probably way too giddy over. Then my mom sent me a package of goodies from Ikea, with the cutest platter ever I might add and just when I thought I couldn’t love the post person any more, I received a parcel from a new blogging buddy I was introduced and assigned to as part of a “lovely package exchange” I participated via the Oh, Hello Friend blog.

My partner and I not only had the opportunity to send objects we thought the other would enjoy, we were also able to take part in something we both love; creating lovely packaging—which was sort of the idea of the exchange.

So today when I pulled the lid off the box that the lovely Catherine Hart from Austin Texas sent me, I was overwhelmed by the charm and vintage goodness that was cushioned inside. Although we only met a few short weeks ago in the blogsphere, I felt as though each little object said something about my character in some way and yet, at the same time, each item told me something about Catherine’s character as well. It was actually quite inspiring to connect with an almost stranger that way.

There were so many things to love like vintage "twist sticks" (aka mini pipecleaners), bingo sheets and yo-yo...

an awesome game of "endless landscape"...

tiny gift bag art...

and so much more. But one item I will particularly treasure is the best piece of handmade jewelery (made by Catherine of course).

Thank you so much Catherine. I love.

As stated above, this was a package swap so below is a sampling of some of the goodies I sent off to Catherine.

All wrapped and ready to go. The gift bow doubled as a hair accessory...

Inside the main package were smaller packages. Postcards packed in a homemade alligator envelope, little tug balls that revealed some prizes when the string was pulled and a few other delights…

When I found this mini kissing couple at a train collector shop, I knew it had to be used to accessorize the gift box full of miniatures.To see it from Catherins perspective you can check out here blog HERE.

Gifting is the greatest invention ever!

A Very Merry UN-Birthday to You!

Summer has been good to me this year and to say thank you to the sunny season I thought an official goodbye was in order. What better way to say so-long than to throw a party?

Lucky for me my friend Melanie is a born party planner and is always up for sharing her merrymaking skills when it comes to festivity coordinating. So we teamed up to have an end of summer UN-Birthday Party Bash.

Due to limited space I knew we would have to have a limited guest list which is the hardest part, who do we invite—or worse—who do we not invite? Jon had a great solution to this problem which was to perform a “pass-it-on” invitation-giving system. Melanie and I each choose a couple at random to invite. Both of those couples were given two invites to pass along to a friend of theirs and that friend was to pass the last invite to a friend of theirs. Make sense? I was super stoked about this plan but I have to admit, as the party date drew near I was feeling a little apprehensive as the adolescence in me began to take over, ‘What if the guests hate the theme? What if they don’t like me?’ were among the juvenile thoughts that entered my mind. Perhaps I am not as social as I’d like to think I am? Thankfully we ended up having an awesome guest list and they didn’t even seem to mind when the pouring rain threw us out of our own outdoor party forcing us to finish the celebrating in a somewhat squishy, not perfectly clean, basement.

Fortunately we had gotten in a good game of musical chairs and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey in a more spacious outdoor space. Once inside we had a couple more games, a white elephant gift exchange being one of them, (you can’t have an Un-Birthday party without gifts)! And of course we had UN-birthday cake made from rice kipsie treats.

As usual, one of my favorite parts of the party was designing and prepping the invitations beforehand. When it comes to birthdays, I couldn’t think of something more iconic than the pin-the-tail game so I rolled with that.

Each invite was hand assembled into a gift card tin which contained 3 pieces; the invitation, a felt donkey tail and a blindfold. (thanks for your help Melanie!)

The donkey tail had a magnetic back which enabled it to stick the tailless donkey image on the front of lid tin.

The blindfold was also made from felt with an elastic attached for wearing.

Once all the parts were in place we tied it off with a simple ribbon bow to make it look like a present (UN-birthday party, remember?)

The same donkey image was used to create party gift bags which the guest filled with candy on their way out at the end of the party.

All-in-all I was quite pleased with the way things turned out. Even though the before and after shots of what the rain did to the outdoor photo op secction was pretty sad looking, the spontaneity kept things silly and carefree.

Well, I guess it’s on to fall season party preparations…my favorite!

Happy Birthday Pearly

(photo above by Charissa Spendlove)

Last week a friend of ours—a much younger friend of ours—turned one year old! This made me realize that for a whole year I have had the intention of posting a little project that I had created for her parents to announce her arrival. I think I was waiting to take some better photos before posting but again, it’s been a year so I think I’ll go ahead and stick with the original shots for a much over-due show-and-tell.

Pearls parents and I brainstormed the possibility of incorporating the alphabet and/or Pearls name as a subtle theme for the announcement so I came up with the “P is for Pearl” concept, integrating strands of “alphabet peals” in the background.

The announcment opened vertically to reveal Pearl's birth stats and the photo you see above which was taken by another friend of mine; Charissa Spendlove. The folding was designed so this card could either be sent in a small invitation size envelope or sent as a postcard if sealed at the opening (mimicked after the Avi Jude announcement).

So there you go, only one year late. Happy birthday pearly and congrats on your first year of life!

Georgie Porgie

I have been spending a lot of time with George Washington lately and that is because a dollar store just opened up within walking distance of my house! I screamed a little when I walked inside for the first time—yep I’ve been twice this week. As usual when stepping foot into an unexplored all-a-dollar store such as this, I knew I would be going down each isle twice; the first go-round was a power browse. This is where I do a sort of speed walk as I allow my eyes to swiftly dart across the shelving while maintaining a calm and collected demeanor because if I go too crazy, I know I will forget to look up and down and only stay at eye level—what a disaster that would be. This is the stage where my internal shopping list is being etched into my brain and I don’t want to miss something I probably need.

Once I have made my acquaintance with each and every isle I feel confident enough to reintroduce myself to the sectors of the store which I believe will produce the most boast worthy results. In this second phase, I begin to add the goods to my cart as I silently congratulate myself for getting such a great deal on this “thing” that would be really hard to live without. I could quit here but I usually treat myself to one more modest gander around the locale.

In this third run through I actually don’t run at all but instead wander somewhat leisurely, I know I am approaching the reflection period. Much of the high has worn off at this point and I am able to think with a clear head, resulting in a much more selective and budget-conscious decision about what is currently positioned in my cart. There are always a few give-backs or a short swapping performance, particularly of those things that may in fact be less than a dollar in a non everything’s-a-dollar store (obviously selected in an interlude of over-enthused delusion). Then it’s off to the register—and thanks to step three—I have stayed well within my $10 budget.

Top three favorite items purchased are as follows: lenticular zoo animal stickers (the ones that change images when you slant them up or down—in other words, 2-in-1 stickers), fill-in-the-blank game spinners (I have attempted to home-make these to no avail…can’t beat 4 for $1) and wrapping paper; brown with white lace print overlay and as a bonus, a fatty smile on my face.

Nesting Baby Shower Invite

I haven't posted any work in quite some time. I am not the best when it comes to documentation of a finished job. Besides that, I'm not sure any one would find the glamour in every brochure or direct mailer that come off the press. Today however, I'd like to share a little piece I came up with for a baby shower invitation (the fun stuff) given for a friend of mine.

The hosts of the shower decided to use "nesting" as an underlying theme for the party but rather than your standard baby-chick-decor they decided to go with the beautiful paper crane as somewhat of an icon. I thought this was a fun way to also symbolize marital bliss, happiness, good fortune and peace for a mom-to-be. The colors for the party were pink, orange and yellow.

All of the above inspired me to come up with the following 3 part invite.

The first page in the set is the actual invitation to the party. The second page is a how-to diagram on folding paper cranes. Since this job was gifted (for non-profit) I decided to use a beautiful instruction sheet created by My Trinh Ha I found on papercrane.org then I just added my own elements to form a cohesive look. This second page was printed on vellum paper for a variation in texture as well as opacity.

Through the vellum you could see the third page which was a piece of decorative rice paper in which the prospective party goer would be able to fold their own crane using the provided instructions. A strand of colored crafting floss accompanied the invite for displaying the crane after folding.

Everything was clipped together, stuffed into a square and labeled envelope, then sent off to the post.

The end.

Michael

(image via lucky pony)

As a preschooler, I really did have a thing for Michael. I even had a poster of him on the back of my bedroom door. I laid on my bed facing the closed door making him the last person I would see before going to bed each night and the first person I would see when waking up each morning. Thriller was of course my favorite music video. Although this may have been partly due to the fact that I knew I was getting away with watching something I probably shouldn't—at least not at that age. I was super brave for the entire (lengthy) video until the very end when his eyes turned yellow again; I had to cover my face for that part.

I also remember red leather jackets and a glove on one of two hands being very fashionable among people I was actually related to, not to mention Beat It karaoke sessions during family get-togethers. My mom would try to teach me how to moonwalk, she can still do it and I still can't. I've also seen old videos of my mom and her sisters dancing to Rock with You but that was witnessed later in life.

It seems a little incredible that a fairly good portion of my memories as a three and four year old are accompanied by memories of the late "king of pop." I know its dramatic, but loosing Michael feels like some of those childhood memories don't really exist anymore and I guess that's a little sad for me. Thankfully there is the music to authenticate the past.