Top The Dog

Mr. Law and I did our pre-cana marriage session a few weeks back, and it was much more interesting that I anticipated. Our society is showing a trend where younger people are drifting away from religion in a traditional sense (I'll admit, I'm one of those younger people) and so the church seems to have made some modifications as well.

For example, our pre-cana session spoke very little about spirituality and God, but really focused on the idea that marriages are meant to last forever. During our session, we got the history of how pre-cana came to exist, and how it has changed over the years; and in fact our counselor was not a priest, but rather a professional marriage counselor himself. He believes that all marriages tend to loose their luster after a few years - and that there are very easy ways to keep the luster there.

Our counselors motto is "Top the Dog". At first I laughed, and then I laughed even more when he proposed that Mr. Law and I bark at each other (more on that later), but overall the idea is very real.

Picture this......a couple has been married maybe 10 years. They live in a typical house and they have three kids and a dog. The wife stays home to raise the kids and take care of the house, and the husband works during the day. Every day when the Mr. comes home from work, he walks in the door and the dog comes running to greet him - it's all slobbers and kisses and tail wagging and petting and love love love. After the dog the three kids come over and the dad hugs them all and asks how their days were. Then the husband goes upstairs and takes off his work clothes, maybe he takes a shower, goes on the computer and relaxes for a little. After a while the husband finally greets his wife and asks her what's for dinner.

Do you see the problem with the above?

I didn't.

Our pre-cana counselor's theory is that in a marriage, the wife should ALWAYS come first. In the above scenario, the happiest moment for the man is when he comes home and see's his dog. After the dog he takes a moment for his kids, and then after his kids he goes and relaxes, and then after a long while he finally acknowledges the wife. What should happen is that the wife should come first.

She needs to top the dog. The husband needs to greet the wife with as much joy and love as he does when he greets the dog. In fact, (and this is where I laughed out loud) our pre-cana counselor has even heard of other couples barking at each other (yes, barking  like woof-woof) to symbolize the "top the dog" idea.

I'm not going to lie, Mr. Law and I fell into the above trap. We always walk in the door and see the dog first. Well, after our pre-cana we make an effort not to do that. What's amazing is that it works. Just by walking in the door and lovingly greeting your spouse, you're really improving your over-all relationship. Now I look forward to coming home. When I walk in the door after a long day of work I no longer cringe at the idea of walking into a messy home, or having to go straight to making dinner. Instead I look forward to seeing my future husband and giving him a hug and just saying "hi, I'm glad to be home. "

If you don't believe me, just try it.

And if you are scared to hurt your dogs feelings, well, don't worry, our dog is just as happy to get my affection five minutes after I've walked in the door as she would have been as soon as I walked in.

So, as per our pre-cana, I just want to remind everybody to take just a little time to remember why you're married, and who you are married to.

April Showers...

As in Bridal Showers. As in Mine.

Here are some fun details:

First, I created these beautiful floral invitations on a whim. The location of the shower is an awesome pressed sandwich place in a trendy Long Island area. Showers, I think, are generally these very frilly, girly, super pink events where girls get together and play with ribbons and bows and open gifts for a home. Don't get me wrong, I love all things frilly and pink and home related, however, I wanted something a little more trendy for my own shower.

The invitations have a few nods to both the trendy and the traditional. The flowers are super traditional, while the color pallete is a nod to tradition. The traditional pinks are updated with a more neutral color undertone of almost smokey pinks and purples. The fonts are a mix of modern and classic, which a few twists here and there. The whole suite is beautifully packaged with another nod to tradition: lace.

Overall I absolutely LOVE the way the shower invitations came out. And I'm even more thrilled that the post office allowed me to use some non-conventional mailing labels.

Here's a peak at the invites:

 

And what do you get when you add together tomato sauce cans + purple bed sheets + lace ribbon + roses?

DIY Centerpieces!

Hope you enjoyed this little sneak peak!!

February in a Nutshell

Fun things are happening here in the land o' weddings and stationery. I'm noticing that with less than 4 months until the wedding, each day gets just a notch busier than the last. Mr. Law and I are getting really excited, as are our friends and families.

There are been a few highlights to Feb, which I'll summarize here, and then I'll try to give you a post for each major topic.

First, we booked my bridal shower location, I made and sent out invitations, and now I'm fighting the urge everyday to check my registry (bad, I know - but it's like knowing where Santa hides the gifts!)

Second, Mr. Law and I had our Pre-Cana, which may seem boring, except that our counselor was pretty awesome. I'll share some of our enlightenment (and laughter) in another post.

Third, Valentine's day may be long gone, but I never got to share with you the best gift on the planet....

Third, I'm nearing the completion of putting together the wedding invitations. It's a little bittersweet because I'm a design junkie and once the invitations are over, well, what am I going to do?? I'll give you a little glimpse into the final product, and if you're really lucky, I'll share my wedding day inspiration board.

Here's a picture to inspire your weekend:

Saw these on Eat Drink Chic. Yum.

 

Spring is coming!!! And that means ice-cream cones. And um, how AMAZING is this stationery? I want an ice-cream party just to be able to create invitations with this adorable theme!!!

Sneak Peek.....

So I've been working on putting together my first official wedding invitation collection. Each collection would be flat printed with a matching backer/envelope liner and coordinating detail cards.

Here's a sneak peak at one that's just about finished....

Stay tuned for more sneak peaks and eventually the whole line!

Where does the time go?

Harrumph, there were so many things I wanted to blog about this weekend, but it seems I was off keeping super busy.

In the meantime, a few updates.

• I heard back from Minted, and the Beaded design was the one that got jury pick, yay!
• After almost a year, I finally finished making the curtains for my dining room. 
• Juliet has a tummy ache, and I think I'm getting a cold. 
• It was 60 degrees here in NYC on Friday, and then we got 3" of snow today. I do not lie. 

Back to work tomorrow, and I'm already counting down to next week!!

Something to remember as you go through the week!

<3

MY FIRST AWARD!!

Yippie!!!! I just saw that one of my business card designs was picked as a "Jury Pick" on Minted!!

Last night I was in a pretty crummy mood- anybody else totally sick of winter?! - and then I logged onto Minted, and there it was, my little star icon indicating an award.

I entered two designs, and one of them one, but I don't know which one yet - ahh Minted, the suspense is killing me!!!

Here are the two I entered, which do you think is the award winner?

"Beaded"

"Color Drops"

I'm so honored to have an award, and I can truly thank Minted for growing me as a designer.

To see all of the winning designs, visit the Minted website.

Mug Love

After buying our first home, I came to realize something. I'm in love with all vessels for drinking. Mugs, glasses, flutes, tea cups, you name it and I want it.

So I'm thinking that maybe some of you either haven't gotten your significant others a Valentine's Day gift yet...or maybe you haven't told your significant other what you want yet. How about a pair of mugs to share a cup of hot cocoa together?

Here are some I would certainly love to add to my collection:

Storm Trooper Mug - what guy WOULDN'T want this?!

A quote from Pride and Prejudice for Valentine's Day? Um, yes please!

It's a fantasy of mine to have every Pantone Mug EVER on display in my kitchen.

How adorable and fun are these buggers from How About Orange?

Measuring cups that look like coffee mugs? Oh Anthro, how I love you.

West Elm has these amazing modern monogram mugs.

Moody? Pick a mug to match!

Perfect for an elephant lover, or just somebody that needs better luck!

Perfect for the tea lover

Ahhh, and now I'm going off to read the paper with my cup of coffee :)

Oh Happy Cake

So today was the first Wed since Christmas that NYC didn't have a snow storm. Somebody at the office said we had the week "off", my response was that we actually had the week "on" seeing as we haven't had to work a full week since our first blizzard back in December 2010.

Maybe I'm a little grumpy, a little stressed, and slightly on edge, but hey, who doesn't have a day like that every once in a while?

I came home from work today- after working a longer day than I ever want to work- and needed a pick-me-up.....

and I found one....

Have you EVER seen ANYTHING happier than this cake???

 

This beautiful, oh so happy cake was created by One Charming Party for an art themed party. I'm pretty sure this would brighten just about any day!

Happy Wednesday! Don't be a grump!!

Crazy Obsessed

My newest obsession is Pinterest.

Pinterest is a site you where you can "pin" images to your own boards. It makes me think of a totally digital bulletin board or inspiration board. You can create different boards with different names, themes etc. and every time you are on the internet and see a picture and think "oh, I wish I could save that!" well, with pinterest, you can! I'm excited because I often see things I want to blog about, but don't have a good way of organizing it...now with pinterest, I can always keep track of the things I want to share!

Oh the hours I have spent browsing, pinning, repinning, organizing and oogling.

If you'd like to see some of my boards and pins, visit my pinterest here.

Here is one thing that made me happy:

First off, I love the design work and type treatment. Secondly, Gogol Borello is a band my fiance and I heard a few years ago when they opened for the Dave Matthews Band. They are totally out there, yet so incredibly talented. If you've never heard of them, go listen to "Start Wearing Purple" that song gets stuck in my head for weeeeeks and weeks.

YAY for pinterest!!! I can't wait to continue pinning and sharing with you!

Calling Cards

So about a month and a half ago I decided I needed some business cards. Lately people that are interested in my work have been asking for a business card, and sadly, I've always just scribbled my information on a napkin or whatever and handed to them. Procrastination at its finest, I suppose.

But then last month I was meeting with a vendor I booked for my wedding and they casually mentioned that they also sell a line of paper products, if I was interested. I declined and said I was making all of my own stationery for the wedding, and since I had a sample of my invitation with me, I pulled it out to show her. Well, she said she loved it. In fact, she asked to keep it and offered to sell some of my products in her boutique! Awesome, right?!! The embarrassing part came when she asked me to drop off some business cards. Oops.

So, that was it, I needed cards - and fast. So without much thought I whipped up a design for myself and had 50 printed.

Go figure that right after I made my own cards (which, honestly aren't my favorite, because they were so rushed) Minted came out with the next challenge, and, you guessed it, the designed were tasked with creating Calling Cards.

Seems these little informational workhorses are all the rage right now.

Here are my submissions for this challenge (hint, hint, vote for me!):

"Color Drops"

"Beaded"

 

 

I've already started thinking about my next batch of business cards....