Food Diary of A Pregnant Lady - (The Last 24 Hours)

I am writing this as a reminder to myself 5 months from now, when I wonder how I could have possibly gained 40 lbs. during this pregnancy.

3:00 AM - I am awakened. I have to pee, someone is kicking me from the inside and I am starving. I walk downstairs in the dark to find a granola bar. Seems like the only sensible and convenient thing to eat in the middle of the night.

7:00 AM - Take 1 prenatal horse pill and 3 Ibuprofen (believe it or not, these are Dr. approved) for the persistent headaches.

7:15 AM - Breakfast. Egg on toast and a can of Coke. (Not so Dr. approved)

7:25 AM - Still hungry. Second breakfast. Egg on toast.

9:00 AM - Drive by the donut store. I resist the urge to pull in and get one. Remind myself that donuts were my downfall in the last pregnancy.

9:20 AM - Eat a Cadbury Egg that I picked up in the gas station on a whim a few days ago. WHAT?! I don't even like those things. I never have! Not even as a kid! But I wonder why because they are quite tasty.

12:30 PM - Lunch date with a friend. I order the burrito/taco combo plate with a side of beans and rice, another coke. I practice some restraint and only eat 85% of it.

1:30 PM - I tell myself that as a Pregnant, I am no longer allowed to eat Mexican. I feel horrible.

3:00 PM - Handful of mini chocolate chip cookies.

5:00 PM - First dinner. Half of an avacado and the remainder of Cam's grilled cheese.

5:15 PM - Two spoonfuls of Cam's superman ice cream.

5:45 PM - Remove Cam from his timeout chair and crack a mini bottle of red wine. That equals one glass, so all of you pregnancy health nuts out there, don't get all crazy on me. My Dr. doesn't mind the occasional glass.

6:00 PM - After a day of stuffing my face with grotesque Mexican food, I decide that chicken salad would be our best option for dinner. Start prepping that. Crack another mini bottle of wine. (Shhh. Not so Dr. or husband approved).

7:00 PM - Feel slightly better about myself. Perhaps due to the light meal and wine.

8:00 PM - The vanilla ice cream is calling my name. Have a bowl of that with chocolate sauce.

9:00 PM - Thoroughly disgusted with myself, call it a night and vow to eat better tomorrow.

Valentine's Day Card

My friend and wedding industry pro, Lindsey Nartker asked me to help her with her rebranding project.

Lindsey, of the formally named, Lindsey Nartker Designs, has revamped her business name and added more services to her event planning business. Now named Flourish Event Design, Lindsey and her team not only offer event planning, but floral and decor design as well.

She thought it would be fun to send a Valentine's Day card out letting everyone know about her big changes. She wrote the cute poem and I designed the card for her.

Check out her website here, and see her blog for the latest happenings at Flourish Event Design.

Katie's Camp Invitations - The Wedding

Remember these?

Well here is the wedding that the invitations were created for, as shot by the amazing, Kelty from Steep Street Photography.

Earlier this month Jen from Green Wedding Shoes featured this wedding. Here are some more images that you didn't see. Read more about the makings of the wedding from the bride herself over at Green Wedding Shoes. To see even more eye candy, check out the Steep Street blog.

Katie's Aunt made a quilt as a gift for the bride and the groom with the entire timeline I created for them stitched into it! Amazing!






I love how lush and green everything is. What a lovely setting for an outdoor wedding.

Christmas Card 2010

Every year I do a Christmas card that goes out to past clients and all the great people I get to work with throughout the wedding season. I try to do a different layout and inject some humor into it so that it is not your typical Christmas card.

This year's topic was, Things I May or May Not Like About Christmas. I went all out with envelope liners (which apparently rubbed off on the cotton paper :/. I will not do that again), vintage stamps and hand done calligraphy.

The stamps came from The Paper Nickel. Holly has a huge selection of stamps and takes all of the work out of it for you. You can tell her your colors or theme and she will hand select stamps that match your project.

The calligraphy was done by Nicole Black at The Left Handed Calligrapher.

My Momma

Isn't she pretty. One of my favorite pictures.

When I Had Skillz

To finish up my week of looking back on my college days. I thought I would share some more of my artwork. These were assignments that I had to do for Drawing 101. It was a class where you touched on all different subjects for drawing, such a collage, still life, and yes, nudes. My first experience with nude drawing was insane! Lets just say, body glitter, a piercing where it shouldn't have been and something else that I do not think it would be appropriate for me to elaborate here on this forum! Lucky for you, I will not be posting any of my sketches from that session!

I wish my hand drawing skills were what they used to be. That is something I have to practice at. I do not have the natural talent that some do, but I thought it was a good effort. :) The majority of my work is done on a computer, therefore, my hand drawing skills have really diminished. Even my handwriting is terrible. In school they really encourage you you to sketch out your ideas first and then bring them to life with your design software so that you don't get out of practice of hand drawing. I used to do this, but I admit, I have gotten very lazy and skip that step and go right to the computer. Perhaps that will be something I will work on for 2011...

For this project we had to make a collage of magazine clippings first and then draw it.

Making Lists

I have been restless this week. I am not sure why. Most likely because I have lots of ideas and thoughts running around in my head. I can't sleep when that happens. I have woke up at 2:30 am every night this week, lets hope not again tonight. Monday, I couldn't fall back asleep. I got up, went downstairs, sat at the kitchen table, and by the light of my Macbook I wrote everything down.

I am a list maker. Always have been. There is something about the physicality of writing out a list by hand, and then crossing off each item when it is complete. I have all the technology I need to just type up a list and leave it on my desktop or put it on my calendar in my iphone, but I would much rather scrawl it out on a post-it and stick it on the dashboard of my car so I won't forget. Ask my husband. It drives him nuts. Right now I have 3 new invitation ideas on a post-it stuck to the fridge. I have scraps of paper in my purse with very important things written on them. To him it looks like clutter, but it is my way of thinking out loud and not forgetting.

I like the look of a list. It gives a nice order to things. If I am freaking out because I have a million little projects to get done by a certain date, and even though it is all recorded in ical, if I make a list, it will get done. I especially like to cross off each item when it's completed. I look forward to it because it gives me that sense of accomplishment. It's like when you go to Costco and you buy a 3 pack of Soft Scrub. You put them on the shelf in your laundry room, and one-by-one, as you use a bottle up, you go down for the next. Each one feels like you are getting closer to the end, and when you use that last bottle up 6 months later, you feel that you have accomplished something, AND, of course, you probably saved $6.00 for buying in bulk rather than buying from Kroger.

So, as I was up on Monday at 2:30 writing the last blog post, it got me thinking about all of the other jobs I had in college. 10 to be exact. I began listing them in my head, but then that got to be distracting, so I wrote them out so I wouldn't have to keep track of them in my head anymore. So, if you are curious...

Jobs That I have Held in My Non-Professional Career

(In no particular order)

1. Seasonal hire at Hudson's Department Store - Jewlery Counter

Pros: Discounts on merch.

Cons: Standing on your feet for 4-6 hrs during holiday season.

2.Bagel Haul Deli (one of the best Jewish delis EVER)

Pros: Free bagels and new dills!

Cons: Starting at 6am after being out late the night before.

3. College Pro Painters (yes, I painted houses)

Pros: Got a killer tan

Cons: I think I was paid $6/hr for climbing to the top of a 30 ft., fully extended ladder.

4. Parking lot attendant

Pros: Occasionally my friends would drive through and bring me beer disguised in slurpee cups. Oh, and ample time to do the State News crossword.

Cons: Working until 12 am on a Saturday night, well aware that a sweet dance party was just getting started at my apartment without me.

5. Student Assistant for the Department of Management and Budget

Pros: Got to drive the Director's state vehicle (a Jeep Cherokee, I am sure you are all wondering) to get gassed up and washed. Oh, and 10-ish years ago, it paid $12/hr. I wonder if it still pays that well?

Cons: Had to do such mind numbing tasks such as pull the staples out of 500 copies, remove the page that someone f'ed up, put the correct page in, staple and repeat.

6. Abercrombie and Fitch (for about 2 minutes)

Pros: None.

Cons: Worked with a bunch of DBs, choked on cologne and spent all of my earnings on their clothes. I was REQUIRED to wear 3 A&F items at a time! Ridiculous.

7. Tasty Twist (the best ice cream establishment in East Lansing)

Pros: Worked with a bunch of my friends. Free ice cream

Cons: Strictly a cash biz. Had to make change in my head, and I am no math star. Hence, why I am in a creative field.

8. Waitress at a local bar/restaurant.

Pros: Lots of dolla, dolla bills on hand.

Cons: Working late, while my friends went out. Carrying those giant trays on your shoulder.

9. Babysitter for 3 year old triplets with unfit parents.

Pros: Beautiful children and if I could have, I would of adopted them all.

Cons: Where do I start. I quit and called Protective Services. Enough said.

10. Designer for the State News

Pros: I got to do what I love

Cons: I can't think of any

COLLEGE

College rockstars. I think we've still got it!

Two weeks ago, my two best girlfriends and our husbands made the trek back to our old stomping grounds for homecoming. The place where a cab ride home was only $2.00, Jager Bombs were the new thing and running the dance floor was a must. Our only worries in life were making it to our classes and what we were going to wear out that evening. Yes people, I am talking about Michigan State University, home of the current undefeated Spartan football team, and where I spent some of the best times of my life. Every year, we try and make it back, and relive the glory days, and that is why we do it only once a year! It is much too hard to recover as you get older.

As we walked down Grand River, we passed the relatively new State News building. When I was there is was located on the third floor of the Student Services Building. Now, they have a sweet space on the main drag. As a junior and senior, I had a kick ass job as a designer for the paper. I LOVED it. Out of all the college jobs I had, this was by far the most gratifying. I went there every night for four hours and made locator maps, teezers, timelines and the occasional illustration for the next day's paper. Looking back, that job really prepared me for what I do now. There, I had nightly deadlines, and as I have to come to realize, I work best if I set a deadline for myself. In the invitation biz, I make maps to this day and the occasional timeline.

When we got home, I went back and looked as some of my old work. As a designer, I think it is good to do that. It's fun to see how your work and style has evolved. Some is always cringe-worthy and others, you are still impressed by.

Here are some examples of things I used to do for the State News.

Photo Illustrations.

Back when Jenny G. was new and popular.
I made countless maps of the middle east. This is when the U.S. has just invaded Iraq.

One Amazing Quilt

So yesterday, Katie, my wonderful bride from my Style Me Pretty giveaway, From Inspiration to Invitation, sent me the coolest email:

Working with you was one of the great joys of planning the wedding--I love the invitations and, as you'll see in the attached pics, so did everyone else.

I won't have the professional pictures for awhile (Kelty from Steep Street did them, if you haven't seen her work before I suggest checking out her site and blog). I'm hesitant to send you these because I'm sure that the ones she took will be even more beautiful, but I can't contain myself and want you to see the beautiful gift your invitation inspired.
Cameron's Aunt Lory made the quilt and even though I don't have good pics, the details are amazing. Your flowers from the invitation are stitched on the entire quilt and all the elements are quilted in.

I was soooo impressed, I had to share! What an awesome way to "preserve" your invitations. Unbelievable! Every detail of the timeline card are stitched in. WOW.

Oh, and Katie is right about her photographer. I checked our her blog after I received the email and she is phenomenal! I can not wait to see the pro photos. Stay tuned, I will be sure to post.

Thank you Katie for passing this along, I couldn't have asked for a better bride to work with. I am so happy that the design was able to convey the look and feel for your wedding day.

Labor Day Weekend - Recap

I thought I would share some pictures of our weekend at the cottage this past Labor Day weekend. It was full of family, fun and good food.

Friday night, my mom cooked lobster dinner for everyone.

Friday's dessert. A homemade raspberry, blueberry pie.

It was cool, but we managed to get a boat ride in.

Cam on his "boat."

Saturday's sunset.
Sunday night I prepared a walnut and rosemary encrusted beef tenderloin.

Before.

After.

Fireworks.


Family.

Brides Michigan Feature - 2010

I was thrilled when I found out one of my invitations would be featured in the Fall/Winter issue of Brides Michigan magazine! The article showcased invitations and the inspiration behind them. My Vermont invitation was featured along with vintage travel books that they were inspired by. Check it out, it's on news stands today!

Weekend Bridal Shower

This past weekend I helped host my soon to be sister in law's bridal shower. Here are some images of the decor. Believe it or not, between my mother in law and I, we had enough crystal for 40 people, but not enough china. :(

My mother in law made all of the tissue paper flowers as well. So pretty! I wish I had gotten a close up of them. They even had yellow centers.

At these parties, I always serve my Zucchini Salad. It is a light salad that is perfect for a summer meal. People always ask for the recipe afterwards, so....

Without further ado, here are some photos and the recipe. (I tried to take pictures like Sunday Suppers. If you don't know about S.S., it is a beautiful blog with great images of food and really, really good recipes. I often check it when I am at a loss for what to make for our "fancy" Sunday dinners.

Zucchini Salad

Ingredients:
4 lbs. of yellow squash and zucchini
4 cups of baby arugula
capers (1 small jar)
2-3 garlic cloves minced
coarse salt
fresh ground pepper
1 c flat leaf parsley minced
grated parmasen cheese
1 c olive oil
1/4 c lemon juice

In a small bowl mince garlic cloves and add a pinch of coarse salt. Let stand. Slice zucchini and squash on an angle about an 1/8" thick. If you have a mandolin that works best. Add the lemon juice to the garlic and salt. Whisk together. (The liquid measurements are all approx. I just do it by taste anymore). Slowly add the olive oil and whisk all together. Set aside.

Put the squash and zucchini in a large bowl and put the arugula and chopped parsely in another large bowl. Pour about 1/3 of the dressing onto the arugula and parsley until it is lightly coated. Pour the remaining dressing on the squash mixture and toss to coat. Take a large platter and layer all ingredients. First layer, spread half of the arugula on the platter. Second layer, spread half of the squash mixture and cover the arugula. Then sprinkle half of the capers and grated parm. cheese on top. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Garnish with large shavings of parm. cheese. Serve immediately.