Wedding Invites

Reaching back into the depths of some of the first photos taken for this blog that never got posted, I figured I would finally share with you the wedding invites in honor of our 2nd anniversary today.  But first, some flashbacks.

I may be slightly bias, but I think it may have been the most amazing wedding ever.  Just sayin'.

So back to those invites.  I had a few things I was pretty passionate about for the wedding and the wedding invitations were one of them.  I really love the look of impression letterpress, but didn't really love the thought of how much they would cost to get them done professionally.  My friend, Kristen, and I had been wanting to take a class for some time and it provided us a good excuse to learn from the hipsters in Portland.  The class was awesome and they provide you with all the tools after completion, you just provide the paper.  Find more info here.  Also amazing is the selection of beautiful paper in Portland.  I got giant bulk sheets of Crane's Lettra from Kelly Paper right around the corner from the IPRC and cut them on the huge paper cutter they provided there as well.  Very convenient.  ALSO around the corner was a shop that specialized in the photopolymer plates that I needed to create to imprint the images on the paper.  It looks like that place is no longer in business, but the other place I was considering still is...you can find more info here.  I simply created my layouts in Photoshop and emailed them over as image files.  They were ready for me in a few days to pick up.  So cool.

The only thing that wasn't working in my favor was the actual act of getting the letterpress to work for me with my invites.  I even got the assistance of some of the teachers, but no luck.  I wasn't able to get an imprint or the ink would get too smudged.  Frustrated because I was moving in only a few weeks and knew I was running out of time, I found this option online.  It was a lifesaver!  I was able to take it to Utah and work there on my own time.  I also now own everything for future projects such as thank you's and Christmas cards.  

So after much trail and tribulation, I finally got in the groove and churned out hundreds of these babies.  And not just one color, but two colors on some, which required realigning the paper perfectly after the first ink color dried and pressing again.  Double chance of failure.  Many, many, many hours later, I was satisfied and the invitations were promptly sent out in hand calligraphed envelopes (another class was also taken for this purpose).  I also created bridge stamps and ordered them from Zazzle.  Then sent all the completed invitations in a box to the Bridal Veil, Oregon postmaster who then promptly hand stamped them with their adorable Bridal Veil stamp and mailed them out officially.  Yes.  I am that crazy.  But it was worth it.  If only I'd taken pictures of the envelopes for you and hadn't packed away the one I have in a moving box...sigh.

All right fine!  Enough yapping!  Here they are...

The seating assignment cards were each pressed with a different Portland bridge and the names were written in calligraphy (well my wannabe calligraphy anyway). 

My amazing husband built that suspension bridge (yes, really, those black ribbon suspension cables aren't just for looks) while I was home for one of my bridal showers.  What an insane treat I came home to...love that guy.

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane as much as I did!

Go Ducks!!!

In honor of football season officially underway, I will now share the quilt I made for my wonderful mother-in-law, Mary.  I figured an Oregon quilt would be a good introduction to creating my own patterns and a perfect gift for a landmark birthday.  This baby did take a lot of man hours and a fair bit of seam ripping and redoing, but was totally worth it.  Special shout out to my SILs, Kelly & Lynn for sending me the Oregon fleece backing...obviously nowhere to be found in Utah!

I had a few designs made up, so you can be sure to see a few more versions of Oregon quilts here pretty soon.  Better put in your orders early before I get sick of making them! ;)

Tomorrow Chris and I will be cheering on the Ducks from our friend Pam's housewarming party up in Syracuse, UT.  Hoping to convert a few people while we're there.

GO DUCKS!

Quilty Kitty

Just thought I'd do a quick share of another quilt project I completed earlier this year.  These were a thank you to the neighbors across the street who were always so amazing and watched our kitties whenever Chris and I left town.  They never accepted money so I would always leave treats, but thought a big gift was in order after two years of this.

The neighbors have two little girls and last year they got two grey kittens named Cupcake and Westside.  I was thinking something fun and trendy that incorporated the kitties would be fun...here are the finished products!

So fun to make!  Unfortunately we lost our kitty sitters in June as they moved to Arizona...good thing we are heading back to Portland!

The Fire Fountain

I've been so excited to share this one with you because it's so awesome.  My husband, the mad genius engineer, created this little beauty in our backyard last fall and he finally perfected it this summer.  Slight trial and error when you don't want to spend a fortune on a giant bowl for the water feature, but I think it turned out amazing.  Since the yard needs some sprucing currently I'm only showing you the new feature.  I've been so preoccupied indoors the last couple weeks the weeds have decided to have their fun EVERYWHERE.

Soon, I promise.

I'll probably post some more photos of it again later as they include another project that I'll be sharing soon.

In the meantime...here is a pic and a movie to wet (hehe) your appetite.

It is such a fun backyard bonus when we have people over to hang out.  Cornhole out, yard lights on, good friends...doesn't get much better!

We're Moving!

That's right!  It's official!  As of October we are free to head back to good ol' P-town.  To sweeten the situation, Chris' company is actually allowing him to stay on with them and work independently from Portland.  Isn't that amazing?!  We feel so fortunate that he works with such an awesome group of people and I feel fortunate that my husband is so amazing that the company doesn't dare let him go!  WIN!

So now all the fun logistics of moving get to begin.  Blah.  This week I started on the long process of clearing out the house and packing non essential for the next few month items.  It's so crazy how much we accumulate in so little time.  Starting early has been great as I found a yard sale site on Facebook for the town of Springville that has over 9,000 members on it.  I've been able to sell a lot of stuff we no longer need to make some cash to put into staging the house for when we put it on the market, and hopefully, some leftover for decorating the new home!

Another great thing about this yard sale site is the treasures I find!  Check out this beauty in need of a little TLC.  $35!  Cray cray.

That'll be a later project since the garage is now full of boxes and we'll be listing the house at the end of the month!  I can't wait to show that one off in the next house.

Speaking of next houses...everyone in Portland/Beaverton/Tigard keep your eyes peeling for a diamond in the rough for us.  We're hoping to find one with a big backyard and plenty of renovation work to keep us busy for years.  Everyone's dream, right? ;)

And as for this house.  She's been great and I'll make sure to show you some of the backyard updates we did before we take off.  In the meantime we can reflect on her front yard beauty as we begin our goodbyes...

(Ignore that uncut grass...that's tomorrow's project!)

Quilting Up a Storm

Yes. That's right. I'm back.

At least for today, anyway.  J/k!  I hope...

So I'm aware that this was a very long absence and I blame it on Christmas time crafting.  And then perhaps an extreme case of the lazies.  My bad.  But the important thing is that here I am writing again.  Yahoo!  I have so many projects to share that I was about to burst.  I needed this outlet.  So bear with me as I meander back in time in no particular order to catch you up on things over the last (almost) year.

As you could probably guess from the title of this post, I'm sharing with you a quilt that I made.  Since Christmas I haven't been able to stop quilting.  I caught my grandma's bug.  It's too fun.  Nothing better than a glass of wine, a Pretty Little Liars marathon on Netflix, and designer fabrics underneath my fingertips on a peaceful Utah evening.  Since you heard from me last, I've made nine quilts!

Here is the latest that I finished a few nights ago.  The top piece is made up of Michael Miller fabrics from the Birds of a Feather collection by Mark Hordyszynski.

My grandma took me shopping at Fabric Depot when I was back in P-town a few trips back and wanted to treat me.  Who am I to say no to Grammy?

It's actually the second quilt using this fabric and was originally going to be posted up on Etsy (I kept the first one for myself!) until I read the copyright on the pattern which doesn't allow me to sell it.  BOOOOO!  Looks like it'll be gifted to someone who really needs it!