Animal Daze

8

26.3.13

We just wrapped up a ten-day vacation with the boys in California! I think I could happily live there – I can’t imagine tiring of all that sunshine and blue skies! After another visit to Legoland, we visited the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and the San Diego Zoo’s enormous Safari Park on our trip. I can honestly say that I reached my limit for animal gazing. That said, all of the photos from our trip are going to be great reference as I work on more Ampersand Animals!

There is one more week left of Spring Break for the boys! Thankfully the sunshine has followed us home, so there will be bike riding and trampoline jumping going on over here… in addition to Volcano Building, and Milk Art, and maybe even some Eye Bombing. It looks like I’ll be catching up on work in the evenings this week. And post vacation laundry is commencing as we speak. Wish me luck.

Hope you’re having a good week so far! Are you heading anywhere warm this year?

Ampersand Animals: Snake

14

12.3.13

Who knew that Giddy Up would be such a great font for an ampersand / snake combination! I overcame my fear of snakes to make this limbless little guy. A huge thank you to everyone who sent such positive comments my way on the flamingo ampersand yesterday! You made my day!

Ampersand Animals

14

11.3.13

Fonts are running wild over here lately! Ampersand Animals is an idea that worked its way into my head a long time ago, and did not want to leave without some attention. So, after a year of neglect I have started to feed the animals. And it has been so much fun! I thought I’d share a sneak peak of a few of them with you throughout the week… before the poster hits the shop!

Happy Monday!

Making Juju Hats

9

04.3.13

Working away on custom juju hat orders lately for some Etsy customers. Hot pink, chartreuse, and turquoise are in demand right now with Spring around the corner. And for those of you confused by the name, no, they aren’t hats, they’re wall art.

Welcome back from the weekend! I’m so happy that we had a sunny Sunday here. I needed a break from all the rain!

PS – If you’re new here, and are interested in making one for yourself, you can check out the Faux Juju Hat Tutorial I posted way back when. I’ve refined the process a lot over the years, so they are a lot less “crafty” looking now, but you’ll get the general idea.

I Choose You

18

15.2.13

I CHOOSE YOU. I have had these three simple words on my mind for months now. Uppercase Magazine inspired me to pick up a pen and play around with hand lettering the words, which was so much fun. Those professional hand letterers make it look so easy, but I think I’d have to practice for years to achieve their effortless look. Then I played around in Illustrator, with fonts and colours and shapes, and printed one to hang on my office cork board. I’m a visual person, so that’s what I do when words won’t leave my mind. What do you do?

This one is my favourite. Two separate fonts overlapping to create something more dynamic than either font on its own, yet still retaining their own unique character. Kind of like relationships, don’t you think? And do you see how the two o’s merge to create the infinity circle? That’s my favorite part.

Speaking of my favourite things… this is my eighteenth Valentine’s Day with Jason! It’s hard to believe that I’ve known Jason for 21 years! We met at a friend’s church youth group when I was only 14. He was twenty, sarcastic, fun loving, and one of the youth leaders. (I know! The scandal of it all!) I told my junior high girlfriends that this was the man I was going to marry, but that he just didn’t know it yet. And he didn’t. But I knew, and I knew he’d figure it out eventually. He finally asked me out when I was 17. And the rest, as they say, is history. We’ve been married for nearly 15 years now, and I would choose him again in a heartbeat.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

BC Home + Garden Show

6

09.2.13

I’m excited to check out the BC Home + Garden Show in Vancouver this year! I thought I would share my excitement, and start the weekend off on the right foot, by offering up two pairs of tickets to the show! If you would like some free tickets, just leave a comment on this blog post or on the Flutter Flutter Facebook page and I’ll draw two names next week! A big thanks to Reformation PR for providing the tickets!

I’ll be attending the Opening Night Party, and look forward to listening to the guest speakers throughout the show. (On a side note, I had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer (with glasses, above), of A Good Chick to Know, at Blend in September! She has such amazing style!) The show opens on February 20th, and runs to the 24th, so maybe I’ll see you there!

Walk in the Park: Minnekhada Regional Park

21

04.2.13

I am smitten with trees. And beaver dams. And the sound created when you throw rocks onto frozen marshes.

Super Spy Party Time

20

29.1.13

We celebrated a very special little boy this weekend! Our baby turned 6! If you follow along then you’ve already seen all the prep and the invitation. This post is about all the fun and games that ensued once the kids showed up! Which, of course, is what it’s all about! It’s definitely not about my mad cake decorating skills! Ha! Any cake professionals out there, please avert your eyes. As you can see I opted to take the same approach as I did on the last cake I made, cutting shapes out of wax paper and shaking some icing sugar over top to make a design that matches the party theme. Dirt simple. No shame. At the end of the day the cake tasted just as good.

When the children arrived they received their super spy attire, consisting of a peel-and-stick mustache and a black hat. To make sure no imposters had made it through the door they were all asked to head straight to the table for fingerprinting… which they all thought was pretty cool. Then they played a game of “don’t let the bomb touch the floor or it will explode” (aka, work together to keep the black balloon in the air). It really doesn’t take much to get a group of six year old boys excited. The party favourite was an idea that is making its rounds on Pinterest, the “laser beam” obstacle course (aka, red neon twine). The boys were so excited to try and make it up the staircase without touching the laser beams.

I think that covers the highlights! Older brother has announced that he liked this party so much that he wants a complete redo for his birthday in the Fall. Sounds good to me!

Have a good week!

Super Spy Party Preparations

17

21.1.13

Gift Bag

How was your weekend? I was busy getting organized for the big birthday party that’s coming up this week! We are now well stocked with spy hats and mustaches for the mini-spies arrival. And when it’s time to leave they will all be taking home an “evidence bag” which will include Top Secret Spy Notebooks sporting labels that I designed to coordinate with the invitations. Also, tubes of M&M’s wrapped in red tissue paper (aka “dynamite”), and some laser finger lights. Now I just need to think about food and games and we’ll be good to go! Oh how I love a good party theme!

I’ve got a busy week ahead, but I’m looking forward to it! How about you?

Super Spy Party Invitations

17

17.1.13

I thought I’d give you a sneak peak of an extra special design project I’ve been working on lately… birthday party invitations for my little guy! He’ll be six at the end of the month! (Yikes!) The theme for the event, as dictated, will be a Super Spy Birthday Party. Do you see the magnifying glass formed by the shape of the type? Well, you will now! Super Spy take home kits (aka Evidence Bags) are being assembled, games planned and costumes tried on. Bring on the Super Spies!

Search

Blog Archives