Holiday Greetings!

I've been debating this year about what to send as my Christmas cards.  Do I send the usual cards I pick up at the store or do I make personalized cards instead?  Some of my favorite cards to receive are the personalized ones from friends and family but they are a dilemma for me as I am not married or have children and fell that I don't really have anything to showcase in my picture.  I do have a couple of friends who have taken pictures of their animals and used those instead.  An idea...

Anyways, I've been looking through various photo card websites and some of my favorites have come from Shutterfly.  Shutterfly has so many options that you can use for your Holiday cards.  They have Christmas, New Year, and general Holiday cards available.  They have so many designs to choose from that it makes it hard to just pick one.  Here are a few of my favorites.

While looking around at the different options, I also noticed that Shutterfly has Christmas Invitations available.  A great way to incorporate a picture into your family get-together for the holidays.  Here are a couple of those that I like as well.

Another fun project that I like that Shutterfly offers are their Photo Calendars.  I did one of these a couple of years ago for my parents with various pictures of us from the previous year and they really enjoyed having it.  As you can see, this is a great way to showcase your pictures and share your memories with friends and family.  I highly recommend doing something like this for your family and friends.

Which Holiday cards do you like?  Are you sending a personalized one this year?  I hope you're Holiday season is going well so far!

Images: Shutterfly

British Week - Union Jack Bunting

For the last day of British Week, I wanted to share with you a fun project I did recently for a party I had with some of my girlfriends.  We try to get together once a month and have a dinner party where everyone brings a dish.  Sometimes we choose a theme and this month was British Nite.  We had fish and chips, a ploughman's platter and a great autumn fruit pudding for dessert.

Since I hosted the night at my place, I decided to make a bit of themed decor to hang around my apartment.  I made banners with the Union Jack flag with blue papers and red Japanese tapes.  As an added bonus for British Week, I decided to have a download for all of my readers of these banners.  Here are some shots of the banners and how I used them for British Nite, but you can use these in many different ways to add a bit of British flare to you party or home.  Thank you again for joining me for British Week and I hope you have a great weekend!

Download: Union Jack Banner

Images: vintage yankee

British Week - Etsy Favs

Today for British Week, I thought I'd share some finds on Etsy that have a British theme to them.  What I love about Etsy is that anything you think of is probably made by someone on Etsy and you can do a simple search to find it.  I even found a Union Jack Dress Form and Wedding Invitations with a British theme.  How awesome are these great items!

Items: 1. Queen Elizabeth II Cross Stitch  2. British Race Car Print 
3. Union Jack themed Wedding Invitations  4. Union Jack Dress Form

Items:1. Union Jack Gift Tags  2. God Save the Queen themed Magnets 
3. Union Jack Brass Ring  4. Union Jack Bunting Kit

Lilimandrill Custom Stamps

My etsy favorite feature today is a fun craft accessory that would be perfect for personalizing stationary or invitations.  They are personalized face stamps from lilimandrill.  Lilimandrill makes these stamps by taking a picture of your face, making a hand-drawn rendering of that picture, then she carves that drawn picture into a piece of rubber and there you have it! Your very own face in a stamp!  A perfect rubber stamp to personalize those wedding invitations, stationary or just to have for fun projects.  You can find lilimandrill at her shop or her website.

Images: lilimandrill

Pinwheels

I loved this fun spring party I saw yesterday over at Once Wed. Aren't the pinwheels over the table cute?


Image: Once Wed by Charlotte Jenks Lewis

Pink Baby Shower

Over the weekend, a group of friends and I hosted a baby shower for a friend who has adopted the most precious baby girl. Our friends, Mike and Christie hadn't planned on getting their baby girl so soon, so when they got the call to come and pick her up, they didn't have anything ready for her coming home. We decided that we needed to have a shower for them so that they could get everything they could possibly need for their new bundle of joy. We put the shower together in a week and a half and I have to say, I think we did pretty well!

We decided to have what is called a Sip 'n See, where you come and meet the baby after it is born and sip on beverages. Since the time of the shower was in the morning, we decided to have light brunch hors d'oeuvres and two punches. We made Vanilla Petit Fours, Mini Cinnamon Rolls, Sausage Balls, Cheese Wafers, Tomato Basil Quiche, Lemon Tarragon Chicken Tartlettes and Fresh Fruit. Our punches were a Pink Lemonade Punch and Coffee Punch. We had so much fun putting it together and am happy to say that Baby Mallory got a lot of very cute things!





Images: vintage yankee

Let's Go DAWGS!

Today's post is short and sweet! LET'S GO DAWGS! My alma mater, Butler University, is in the NCAA Championship tonight and needless to say, I'm excited! My mom decided to make a cute Bulldog banner to put in her teller window at work today. I just had to share it. Isn't it so cute!


Image: my mom's co-worker, Rachel

Sara and Tom's Wedding Invitation

As you may remember, About a month ago I posted about my friends Sara and Tom's Save-the-Date postcards. So last week when I received my invitation, I knew they would be just as creative and artistic. Well I was completely right! Sara and Tom blew me away again by how personal and artistic they could make their invites.

I love how the used two pigeons as the main graphic for the top of their invite and how on the reply card they used their cat Paisley again and show her waiting for all of the replies to arrive. When I asked Sara why they used pigeons she said "I love pigeons! You see a lot of doves in wedding iconography, and pigeons are 'Rock Doves'. They're urban and wild, but beautiful! They're monogamous, and homing/carrier pigeons will fly for very long periods without food to get back to their home or mate!"



Another great idea that you don't see on the reply card is that they ask you to send in a song request for the reception. What a great idea and the perfect way to get your guests more involved with the party.

Images: vintage yankee

Birthday Package

This past week I received some new Japanese tape that I had ordered and I decided to put it to good use by decorating my friend, Melanie's birthday present. Melanie loves to bake, so I got her a necklace with a Kitchenaid Mixer charm and a muffin tin charm on it. I put it into a small white paper bag that I had and embellished with my new tape and some red twine. Melanie also loves fish, so I added a couple of fish stamps too. Didn't it turn out cute? Have you embellished any presents lately?

Pictures: vintage yankee

Sara and Tom's Save-the-Dates

My friend from college, Sara, and her fiance Tom are getting married in May and I was so excited to receive their Save-the-Date in the mail a couple of months ago. Sara and Tom are both very artistic. Sara writes the online comic, Hey Pais, about her adorable cat Paisley and Tom dabbles in the comic arts as well. Sara and Tom designed the Save-the-Dates themselves and had them printed by Greenerprinter. Aren't they great? Now I can't wait for their invitations!





Pictures: vintage yankee

Valentine's Day Freebies

Here is a round-up of all of the Valentine's Day freebies and DIY projects I've seen this holiday. I used the cute Twig & Thistle goodie bags to put my heart shaped cookies in today for my co-workers. They were a simple addition to the normal plate of cookies.


Twig & Thistle's Valentine's Day goodie bags

oh, hello friend's you are loved postcards

June Craft's You're Tweet V-day card

Benign Objects' Love Coupon Matchbooks

Love. Obsess. Inspire's Gift Tags

Danielle Thompson's Because nothing says "I Love You" card

Nice Package's Conversation Candy Bar Wrappers

Ruffled's Vintage Valentine Card

heysusy*'s From Me To You mini gift cards

The City Sage's Lace Valentine's Day cards

Valentine's Day Garland

This year I decided to spruce up my living room a little bit with this easy to make Heart Garland from Martha Stewart. I took various types of pink and red paper and used the template provided to cut out different sizes of hearts and affix them together. I hung them over the two windows in my living room to add a touch of color. A simple, cute idea to brighten up the room for V-day!


Picture via Martha Stewart.

Valentines Day Embroidery Patterns

Today's V-day inspiration comes from Craftyminx and her super-cute Valentine Embroidery patterns. Taken from vintage Valentines, she has transformed them into embroidery patterns that you can download from her blog for free. How fun is this! What a great project to do and make into fun pillows for your couch or bed. I think I might be working on these in the near future!




Pictures via Crafyminx.

Inspiration Board

As part of my blogging class, we were asked to make in inspiration board about our blog. I chose to use lots of bright colors, include things I love such as tea, flowers, vintage jewelry & anything English. I also added fun details such as the yellow ric-rac, a piece of red twine and the cute little cherries at the bottom.

I loved this assignment as it got my creative juices flowing. I have decided that I need to do these more often. Maybe another one soon...

Pictures by vintage yankee.