twenty-two

We actually received our first Christmas card before Thanksgiving this year.  I think this was a first for us, and while it was kind of exciting, it also made me feel like a slacker.  I absolutely refuse to send holiday cards before December has begun.  (I feel the same way about putting up the tree, but I know we all have different opinions on that one, so I'll leave it alone for now...)

I don't think we've ever made our own Christmas cards.  We started to, one year, but then we stumbled across something else that was well-designed and affordable, and we did that, instead.  This year, our cards are a cobbled together collection of things from a variety of places, including Hello Lucky! and one of my very favorites, Egg Press.

After a year chock-full of mailing things--invitations, thank you notes, and more thank you notes--part of me feels a little stamp-and-enveloped out.  But then I remember how much I love sending--and getting--mail and I get excited all over again...

If you're planning on making your own holiday cards, but haven't started yet, here are a few ideas for inspiration:

Carve your own stamps.

Cut a pop-up card.

Use fabric and a cute cookie cutter.

Get glitter all over everything.

Are you sending out incredibly charming cards this year?  Do you have any other tips or links to share?  Just post in the comments below!

after

So we had a party last weekend and it was pretty great.  A little tame, really, but that's what you get with a house full of family.  And sometimes tame is good.  There were streamers and music.  We ate "tacos." which is what my man's family calls something that I would be more inclined to term "make your own burritos."

And we ate cake.  Specifically, Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake With Peanut Butter-Cream Cheese Frosting and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ganache.  So, a really healthy cake.  It was my man's birthday party, though, and he should have nice things--at least once a year.

The recipe took awhile but was pretty dang easy.

All the pieces fit together nicely, and the end result was killer.  Even if you're a layer cake novice, like me, you can bake this cake.  Just don't come crying to me when you then proceed to eat the entire thing in one sitting.  On Smitten Kitchen, Deb cautions that this super-rich cake should be served in extra-thin slices.  For whatever it's worth, the "normal" size pieces I served seemed to go over just fine.

Of course, I don't have a gorgeous "after" picture to share.  We went from candles to cutting pretty quickly.  After a few minutes, things looked a bit like this.

You get the idea, though, right?

I made a few paper things for the party, too.  If you squint at the corner of the cake picture above, you can see one of them, a badge I made for the birthday boy.  I started out with some directions from Jessica at How About Orange but ended up making something significantly bigger than the "mini medallion" she gives the dimensions for.

I did struggle a little bit getting the whole thing glued together.  I ended up using a combination of rubber cement, tacky glue, and packing tape.  If I had it to over again, though, I'd probably just use some good double-sided tape.  Although, I don't think even that would overcome what I found to be the only real design flaw of the thing, a funny little seam in the paper.

And, no, that's not such a big deal.  I just don't like it when seams show.  I thought the thing turned out well enough in the end.  Our six-year-old nephew agreed.  "Hey," he said to his uncle, "nice badge."

And my partner-in-crime rocked it all night, which is way longer than he would've worn the tin foil crown I really wanted to make for him...

shifting

I'll admit, there have been times when I wasn't sure we'd ever get to this point, but we made it after all.  The wedding is over, the second reception is over, and unless that belated honeymoon actually happens this winter, we're probably not going to be referred to as "the newlyweds" again.  I might be okay with that; I haven't decided yet.

Now it's really time to pack things up, ditch the piles of wedding magazines, and start organizing the photo albums.  That part I am ready for.  My craft piles--along with all of my other piles--have been much too messy for much too long.  It's time for a fresh start.  And maybe a really big garage sale.

Some things I'm not as anxious to pack up and put away.  My wedding dress, for one.  I wore it again last weekend and was reminded of just how much I love it.  And honestly, just enough people asked me whether or not it was my wedding dress that I think I might be able to pass it off as a really, really great party dress sometime soon.

And while we are packing some things up and moving other ones out, there are also some new things in the house to make room for.  And plenty of thank you notes to write.  Fortunately, my man has us covered there, with sweet little notecards that complement our invites and all the other fantastic paper goods he's cooked up over the course of the past year.

I'm excited for all of this.  The housecleaning.  The pageturning.  I'm looking forward to taking the time to sit down and thank all of the family and friends that have played a part in our Summer of Love.  And I want to thank you, too, once again, for sticking with us through all of the fun.  I don't know about you all, but with the wedding and all of its trappings officially behind us, I can't wait to see what happens next...

redux

So, down to party planning.  My approach to Wedding Reception II has two overarching themes.  

The first: Do all those things we wanted to do at the wedding but couldn't pull together at the last minute.  For instance, we will be having balloons at WR II.  Red balloons.  Round, not normal-balloon-shaped.

The second theme: Reuse the best of what we had at the wedding.  My man's pennants, for instance.  And all those lovely family photos.  And the beautiful, hand-cut paper banners that my man's parents made for our sweet rehearsal dinner.  I love birds and I love cut paper.  Before these get tucked away forever in a scrapbook or a cedar chest, I want the world to have one last chance to enjoy them.

Granted, there are still quite a few big things that we need to figure out, like--say--the food.  But I feel much better knowing that we have things nailed down in the decoration department.

With all this planning and plotting to do, we're in for a big weekend.  I'll be back on Monday to bring you all up to date...

thanks

Along with all of the hope and anxiety--and joy!--of wedding planning, I've realized that one of the other major emotions I've been encountering frequently is gratitude.  For my partner-in-crime.  For the love and support of our parents.  For the unbridled excitement and massive encouragement we've received from our friends and family.  There is so much to be thankful for, and when other things have become a little too overwhelming, I like to just let that feeling of gratitude take over.

Of course, one can't--and shouldn't--feel this way so frequently and not express it to the world, which brings me to the theme of the day--thank you notes.  I must not be the only one dwelling on them this week.  Over at Once Wed, diy projects are back--speaking of things that I'm thankful for--and the first thing new columnist Amy Moss is taking on is--you guessed it--handmade thank you notes.  Her project is specifically for thank you notes for one's bridesmaids, but take a look and I think you'll agree that there's potential to do all kinds of things with the idea...

If carving rubber stamps and printing notecards sounds like too much work, 100 Layer Cake is hosting a thank you note giveaway this week.  Maybe you could just win some gorgeous stationery.  (If you do win, please let me know so that I can be incredibly jealous.  I love Wiley Valentine...)

For my part, I'm trying to stick to notes of my own--and my man's--doing.  He's already printed our "official" thank you notes--they're amazing, of course--but there are so many things to thank so many people for right now.  I'll admit, at times, I just cheat and go with some really nice letterpress printed notecards.  Like this.  Or these.  Or those.

Sometimes, though, that simply won't cut it.  Last weekend, I found myself in need of something that packed a bit more punch.  After some cutting and gluing and taping, I ended up with a few of these:

It might not look like much, but, boy howdy, were these challenging.  I swore.  A few times.

The little "clothesline" is baker's twine--currently one of my favorite materials.

I cut the tiny pennants out of card stock, attached them to the twine with glue and tape--don't ask--and pulled the twine through the holes I punched in each side of the card.  I am making it sound much less complicated than it actually was at the time, I assure you.

They were totally worth it, though, in the end.  I couldn't help opening and closing each one a few dozen times, just to watch it all work.  I hope the recipients end up having as much fun with them as I did.  I also hope they make it through the mail all right, but that's a whole other story...