New Stamp Available!

Stamps have been my obsession lately, I've probably got at least four myself, and I find they make a great gift for just about any occasion - from birthdays, to engagements, to weddings, to house warming and everything in-between. And by the way the stamps have been selling in the Believe Notes shop, it seems other people like them as much as I do!

So, I've added a new stamp design, now available for purchase. It's a mix of modern calligraphy and bold typography and is dubbed "City Life" since the layout is perfect for somebody with an apartment and unit number.

If you want to get your hands on the new "City Life" stamp, head on over to the Believe Notes shop and grab it for just $35 as a wood handle stamp.

Thanks A Million! Minted Submissions

As I mentioned in my last post, Minted has been having back-to-back challenges to keep us designers super busy. One of the challenges was the "Thanks A Million!" thank you card challenge. Thank you cards have always been one of my favorite things to design, and they were actually some of the very first items I had for sale in my Etsy shop.

It was a lot of fun creating these designs - I tried some new techniques and really pushed myself out of my comfort zone by using new fonts, textures, hand drawn elements and different type layouts. At the end of the day, I love the designs I submitted and am proud that it's such an obvious sign of growth for me as a designer.

handy, dignified, gratitude, curled, opaque, petite gratitude, sky high, steele

Voting is still open for the Thanks A Million challenge, so please head on over and tell Minted what to sell! 

new items for sale in the shop!

I'm super excited to have my shop back up and running, with some fresh new designs as well as some of the old favorites. The shop might look just a tad different, hopefully a little cleaner and more consistent - that's because I've decided to change how I display my items. I wanted to make sure all of the details of the designs were viewable to my potential customers, and I just wasn't getting that crispness before - but now I am, and I hope it's appreciated! 

You might also notice some pricing and quantity changes. This isn't because I'm getting greedy and wanted to increase the prices, it's because I'm using better quality papers in more options (thick 100% recycled, lovely pearl shimmer, and linen textured - all for the same price!). I've also increased the number of items in each set - for example, folded note cards went from sets of 24 to sets of 30. 

Here are some of the new business/calling cards that are now available for purchase:

Chic Floral 

Mod Colors

Summer Set

Vineyard

Now For Sale: Bookmarks

I really don't like the idea of throwing out paper. Call me a tree hugger if you must, but at the end of the day I try to be as environmentally friendly as possible. When you come to my home, don't ask for a bottle of water; I refuse to buy them.

While some of my designs get sent out to be printed, almost all of my invitations and stationery are printed in house. That means I cut the paper down myself. That also means I end up with tons and tons of scrap paper. I refuse to throw out the long, narrow scraps, so I have drawers and drawers full of them. And then I started using the scraps around the house as bookmarks. And then my husband started using them as bookmarks. And then I took a few to work to use as bookmarks. And then it dawned on me, these odd sized scrap papers can be recycled! How perfectly efficient!

So, new to the shop are bookmarks - totally recycled in every aspect, and the perfect stocking stuffer!

The best part about these? They're only $5 for the set of three! So head on over to my Etsy shop and grab some!

Small Business Saturday!

While all the mega-big businesses are preparing for Black Friday, us small businesses are psyched for "Small Business Saturday" which is taking place this Saturday, on November 26th. This is the second annual Small Business Saturday, which is sponsored by American Express in an effort to boost the economy by boosting local small businesses. Their motto is "when we all shop small, it will be HUGE!" and I happen to agree!

So, since I am a small business myself, and in honor of Small Business Saturday, I am offering 10% off all items in my Etsy shop from now until Tuesday, November 29th. Just go to my Etsy shop and use coupon code BELIEVEINSMALL at checkout. If you purchase a custom listing within that time frame you will also be able to receive the discount.

Happy shopping all!

New Holiday Cards Now For Sale!

Two new holiday cards are now for sale in the Etsy shop!

Check out the very classic "Tuxedo" design

And the very fun "Underlined" design

I hope you've started thinking about holiday cards! Only 40 days left!

Living Room Update

Does anybody remember the saga of my sofa from over the summer?

It all started with this post, where I sadly admitted that my sofa was indeed broken.  Mr. Law and I argued a bit about what new sofa to get as a replacement, and eventually we decided on the brown leather sofa. Of course, it didn't fit through our front door, as I updated you all in this post. And then, finally, after well over a month, we got our sofa delivered safe and sound, and I began my quest for completing the living room. In this previous post, I drooled over all sorts of things I wanted to my living room - front bright rugs to pillows to coffee tables.

Oh, and I also remember mentioning our "weekend" project of installing our built-in unit. Well, it took much longer than we thought, but it's about 90% finished now, and I thought I'd share some pictures. I think I might also devote an entire post to how we went about the TV unit, since it was kinda awesome.

Here are some pictures of our living room before and after the updates....

Before:

 

After:

Looking sharp, right? I LOVE all the changes and I'd say right now the living room is about 80% finished. Aside from the new sofa and TV unit, you might notice our lack of area rug. We moved the previous area rug into the dining room, where it seems to be staying, and the orange one I loved (and still love) is making me nervous - too much orange? It was on sale back when I wrote the post, which made it even more appealing to me, but now that it's full price, I seem less motivated to add that POP of color.

I did, however, purchase the amazing decorative pillows from Martha and Ash, as mentioned/showed in my previous post.  The ladies at Martha and Ash were awesome to work with, and I can't lie, I kinda have a crush on ALL of their pillows! I would most definitely purchase from them again - the pillows I have are the perfect shade of orange, they are a good high quality (I love the down inserts, even if they make my husband sneeze), and they improve my quality of nap. Overall four thumbs up!


Now I'm off to work on a few things, and hopefully I'll be back to posting a little later today!

Coming soon to Minted!

I'm giving it my darndest right now to keep up with all the design challenges going on over at Minted. I've had two designs picked from the last few challenges, which is pretty good considering I didn't enter many designs. You've already seen the "Sweet Hearts" birth announcement design, which should be for sale soon, and I just found out I also won an Editor's Pick for my "Smouldering" business card design!

"Smouldering" Business Card Editor's Pick                       

Minted also has just announced all of the Holiday Card winners, and my oh my, they are amazing! I had submitted two designs (there were a total of over 2,200 designs!) and neither were chosen, but I am actually happy about that because it means I can sell them in my Etsy shop this season. That's the beauty of Minted, even if you don't win, you still end up with lovely designs that are fit for sale. The design challenges are win-win!

The new wedding challenge is also open at Minted, and it's my mission to enter at least three designs. The talent is amazing, and while I have no plans on actually winning, I love submitting and getting feedback from such talented designers. Be on the lookout for my submissions!

Happy Friday!

While for many of you Friday means a weekend to hang out, relax and do nothing (blissfully), weekends for me mean catching up on design projects and house chores.

This poster always keeps things real for me; and this weekend I sure hope to enjoy myself!



"Inspire Your Work Poster" from Departika

So, cut yourself some slack this weekend and enjoy life! You can always vacuum later!

My Mind Hurts....

I'm sorry everybody for the lack of posts over the past few days. I took five days off from my 9-5 job with high hopes for relaxation, enjoying the summer and catching up on all of my stationery projects. Unfortunately, my body had other plans for me, as I've so far spent 4 out of the 5 days on the sofa with a migraine.

I've suffered from migraines for as long as I can remember, although they were recently diagnosed as "cluster" style migraines. Clusters are the most debilitating type of headache, as they last for days/weeks and progressively get worse as the time goes on. Imagine a migraine that wakes up with you in the morning, and goes to bed with you at night, day in, day out - until, all of a sudden, it's gone.

Ick, I just hope this thing goes away by the time I have to return to work tomorrow....

On a lighters note, I've spent a whole bunch of time this weekend on our new, leather sofa! Yes, the saga from this post, and this post, has finally come to an end. We were finally able to get the sofa inside, and I have to admit that I love it. Our living room is starting to come together, although now I need a new (I'm thinking round) coffee table, and a new sofa table (maybe a white parsons?), oh, and a few pillows would be good too!!

I've been secretly wishing for this pillow, from Martha & Ash on Etsy. I'm just smitten with the ikat pattern, and we alllll know I'm a sucker for all things orange. The only thing holding me back right now is that I can't seem to find a perfect, luxurious down alternative for the insert. If anybody has a good source for super lush pillow inserts, let me know!!!

Orange Ikat Pillow Cover from Martha & Ash

I'm also digging this pillow, from Giardino, another Etsy seller! Again, sucker for orange. Again, need a good insert.

Faux Bois Stripe Pillow Case from Giardino

Alright - I'm now off to spend my last day of vacation sipping coffee and taking Advil. If the weather holds out, and if I feel up to it, Mr. Law and I are planning on trying to get into the city to try out S'MAC, which has been on our "must dine" list forever. Unfortuantely (or fortunately, depends on how you look at it) S'MAC has recently been on every foodie show on the Food Network channel. I'm anticipating HUGE lines, but hopefully the mac and cheese is as good as they say it is!

Vendor Review - All The Details

You hear this all the time about just about everything: beauty is in the details. Details, details, details! And when it came to my own wedding, you can bet your bottom that I put a huge emphasis on the details - and while almost all of them were DIY, some were most certainly not! I wanted absolutely everything that was at the wedding to flow with everything else. There was no "color-theme" so to speak, but the aim was for a particular "feel". We wanted all of our guests to feel as if they were joining us for a big Sunday dinner - a very elegant, ethereal Sunday dinner. And while we wanted the wedding to be elegant and ethereal, we also wanted it to be comfortable and personal.

Consider it mission accomplished - and all because of the details!

In this post I'll talk about rentals, seat numbers, and all of the attire for the bridal party....

First off - rentals really are what made the day happen. The location was a totally raw space so we had to bring in everything from chairs, to tables, to a whole extra tent for the dancing area. We used Broadway Party Rentals for all of the china, flatware, linen and chairs. For the rest of the decor we brought in the tent pros from The New York Tent Company. They provided us with the draping, chandeliers/lighting, heating system, and they also constructed the entire dance tent and floor for us. The New York Tent Company was absolutely fabulous to work with, they were affordable, the staff was incredibly sweet and very knowledgeable, and they definitely helped alleviate a lot of my weather stress. The original plan was not to have a tent over the dance floor, but as the threat of rain loomed, we decided to put one up. Boy, I am so glad we did because the tent really made the dance area seem like a "club" and provided the most beautiful backdrop for all the lighting!

The Dinner Tent

The Dance Tent

In the dining tent, each and every guest was assigned a specific seat. This was no easy task, but it helped make the 178 guests feel a bit more intimate. I used little white paper tags, from Michelle Jeffrey Cards on Etsy, and hand stamped them with each seat number. The tags were attached to the chairs so that guests could find their seats.

Look closely and you'll see the tags on the back of each seat!

Now, let's talk fashion. My gown, veil and headpiece were all purchased at Lillette's Bridal, which is where my mom bought her gown 30 years ago. I tried on around 7-8 gowns with the style I thought I wanted, and then my mom pulled the last one, which turned out to be "the one". It was totally not what I had originally envisioned, but once I put it on I knew it was perfect. The staff at Lillette's are all friendly, although I did have some issues during alterations. My seamstress spoke barely any English, and refused to let me go bra-less during my fitting (despite the fact that my gown had a corset). The bra she gave me was clunky and huge, which made the entire top of my gown too tight. I begged her to let me take it off, and she simply would say "no", so I told her I wouldn't pay for the gown because I didn't like how it fit...and then in pops the manager. When I finally explained to the manager what the problem was, she told me that my seamstress is very old fashioned and didn't understand why I wouldn't wear a bra. When all was said and done, the manager spoke with the seamstress and I had to make another appointment to re-do the entire fitting (without the bra). They gave me a discount on the alterations for the hassle, and the manager was very close by for the fitting rounds two and three. My gown ended up fitting perfectly, and I advise all brides to SPEAK up during your fitting if something isn't perfect.

The gown was designed by Midgley Sottero

For the bridal party we wanted something that had the same ethereal and soft feel as my gown. The girls and I went to a few different stores in Manhattan and all fell in love with the same gown almost instantly. We chose a Bari Jay gown in orange, which I talk about why in this post, and I think they were absolutely perfect. They had a flower detail at the waist, which went so nicely with a similar detail on my gown.

The groomsmen chose a classic tux with a vest and tie from Sal's Fashions. They all looked so handsome in simple black and white.

Alright, that's it for the non-DIY details! Stay tuned for the DIY details and the rest of the vendors!

Month in Review

So today is Sunday, July 3rd...it's a rainy, muggy, steamy day here in Queens, and when I look out over the water, Manhattan seems lost in the fog. Yuck. Weather it's raining or not, I seem to have found a pattern in that I almost always blog on Sundays, which is good, because I know my weekday blogging has been slower. It's for good reason though. Remember this post? Well, I am still tired, but I have gotten a lot accomplished. During my honeymoon I really did some thinking about where I want my life to go, and I decided that someday I would love to do full time stationery design. That sort of a thing doesn't happen overnight. So over the past month I have spend every moment working on my business. I get home after the 9-5 and I begin working on my Etsy shop, networking through my Facebook page, and taking photos of new designs to prep them for sale. I've also been able to submit a few birth announcement designs to Minted, which reminds me, you need to go vote for them!!! Here are the two designs I submitted, click and vote please:

"Falling in Love" Birth Announcement

"Sweet Hearts" Birth Announcement

I am very proud of myself that I was able to pull out two designs. It's the small milestones that make me proud these days :)

My Facebook page is doing very well, we're up to 129 "likes" which I'm feeling good about. I had a giveaway when I reached 100 "likes" but it seems the person that won has gone out of business and did not claim their prize. I'm thinking I might do a "pop up" giveaway in the near future to make up for it.

I've launched my new line of business cards on Etsy, and so far they have been a hit. I sold one around five minutes after it was posted and I have a few more custom orders that I am working on as well. Designing business cards is fun for me, but I am definitely struggling with the costs involved. Since they are so tiny I have a hard time cutting them properly at home. While I would love to print them on my trusted home printer, I've realized it would be better to have them done professionally. The problem with that, of course, is that it is slightly more expensive and takes much more time.  So far it seems the "Soft Lattice" design is the winner, I've already sold several of them. She sure is pretty though, isn't she?

"Soft Lattice" Business Card on Etsy

I seem to have finally found the secret to taking pictures of my cards, which happened accidentally, but who cares! I love the way they've been coming out. My research has taught me that no matter how much research you do, and no matter how many "how to" tutorials you watch, the "correct" way to do something is always a little trial, a little error, and totally unique. What works for everybody else may not work for me, and what works for me may not work for everybody else. Hmm, sounds like something my mom has been telling me for, well, ever. *sigh*

You may also remember this fiasco with my carbon monoxide situation, and I'm very, very happy to report that my dad did indeed fix the problem. We haven't had any carbon monoxide issues since the whole thing happened, but I still panic when I hear things beeping. My coworkers cell phone was dying a few days ago and it began to beep, my first instinct was to panic, but then I realized it was a cell phone. I wonder how long it'll take before I can hear a beep without thinking I need to evacuate?

Anyway, life is moving along pretty well. I wanted to give you a little catch-up post before some other posts about specific topics. Oh, and I haven't forgotten about all of my vendor reviews for the wedding. I am waiting until I get my professional pictures are back so that I can use them in the posts. Hopefully next week :)

I hope you are all enjoying you Sunday, whether it's rainy or sunny!!

Giveaway Announced and Business Cards Launched!

It's been announced!!! The launch of my Business Card and Calling Card lines could not have been any more perfectly times with my first ever Facebook Giveaway! I'll slowly be adding all my new business card designs to my Etsy shop (I'd do it all at once, but it takes so darn long to load the pictures!!) but if you are interested in winning 50 cards like asap, then run over and like my Facebook page!!!! One lucky winner will be receiving 50 custom calling cards from my new line!

Here's a little glimpse, for those of you that want to tease yourselves:

Hope you all enjoy!!

Some Snaps Before I Nap....

It's 11pm - that is SO beyond my bedtime!! I stayed home all day today to focus on my business. After many cups, correction - pots, of coffee, countless new blogs and websites added to my favorites, and about 15 online tutorials later, I have managed to accomplish more today than I have in a few months. Might I add how much more productive I am when I don't have a wedding to plan!!!

So today I made myself a little light box so that I could take better pictures for my Etsy shop. I have a long ways to go, but the pics are definitely an improvement. Here are a few shots of new items getting ready to hit the ground running...

Stay tuned! I should be listing all of the above on Etsy within the next week or so! Oh, and if you haven't yet, pretty please show the love on my new facebook page by giving me a "like" click!!!

xoxo Jackie