Candyland Boxed Invitations

We were contacted to create Caroline's 5th birthday party invitations by Gabby of Flowers by Gabrielle in Grosse Pointe. She is doing all of the candy displays and a candy bar for the party. We then knew we had to incorporate candy into the invitation.

We decided to do a boxed invitation so that we could easily mail the candy and it wouldn't get damaged. We incorporated the candy cane border on the mailing label and chose a fun type face for the address. 

We thought it would be fun to recreate the gameboard with start being Caroline's address and ending at her Candy Castle. We purchased the game so that we would be accurate. Let me say, the Candyland of today, is not like the Candyland that I played when I was a little girl! Much more graphics and I think that there are some new characters. Princess Frostine being one of them. That is Caroline's favorite character and her mom made a special request that we include her in the invitation.

The best part of these invitations is the rainbow lollipop. When Caroline's friends open their invitation, there will be a little surprise for them inside!

Lobster Dinner & Signature Michigan Drink

So Saturday night we had some good friends of ours over for dinner. I love the excuse to entertain because I get to bust out the fancy glassware, serving dishes and linens that don't normally get used on a regular basis. It's my chance to act like Martha for a day.

I always try to do some sort of flower arrangement. I added fruits with warm, fall colors, purples and golds and put it all in a silver serving dish.

I chose to do whole lobsters for dinner. I have never done this before! I have done tails, but never the whole thing. I was a little nervous about the whole presentation of it all and how I was going to get the meat out of the tail, but it was actually quite easy...just messy. I served it with crusty bread and a nice mixed green salad with pine nuts and honey gold apple slices. We finished up the evening with home made chocolate mousse, topped with a strawberry.

I made a signature drink that I have never had before either. Now that I think about it, it was actually a lot of firsts for me, which they never say to do if you are having people for dinner! As I was making it, I was thinking what a perfect signature drink this would be for a Michigan themed wedding. It has cherries and Vernors in it! For those of you who don't know, Traverse City, MI is considered the Cherry Capitol and Vernors was originally created and bottled in Detroit. I must say, it is delicious and refreshing. You mix the ingredients in a serving dish and freeze it so that it creates a slush and then top with Vernors and a cherry. Give me a shout if you want the recipe!

Ork Posters

I LOVE typography. I LOVE the challenge of typography when you are trying to make it fit creatively within a space. You have to really think about the font itself, placement of letters, the size, width and spacing of each letter. It takes real thought and time people! So, when I saw these posters from Ork Posters, via Clover and Bee, I had to have one. Especially the Great Lakes version me being a Michigander and all!  Then I thought, "Damn! Why didn't I think of that?!" 

Definitely check out the Ork Poster's website, they have tons of links to other great sites of talented designers and state and city themed designs. Perfect place to find unique ideas for welcome baskets or wedding party gifts.

Jeannine and Fal's Hindu/Christian Wedding Invitation

Jeannine contacted us about a little over a month ago. She is having both a Hindu and Christian wedding ceremony and had seen a previous Hindu/Christian wedding invitation we had done for a past bride that she loved. Jeannine had put off ordering invitations, because she was debating on wether to order them direct from India, after all they are much cheaper there, but she was nervous about working with a company overseas, especially when she was in such a time crunch. She decided to work with us and I am so glad she did! In the bride's words, she said "I really like the bling" and bling we did!


She chose a burgundy shimmer pocket fold with ivory shimmer insert cards. For embellishments she picked gold and ruby rhinestones that accent throughout the design. We also did custom stamps for the envelope and response postcard. The fun part of this very formal invitation was the timeline. Because the entire day is filled with events, it was very important that her guests know what was happening