So many baby announcements! This one, however, is especially special to me… because it’s my nephew!

Technically he’s my nephew-in-law (husband’s brother’s baby), but—cue soft music—the heart doesn’t know technicalities, does it? As far as my heart is concerned, this cutie pie naked little boy is mine! Oh, he has other aunties? And about a hundred people who already love him? Never mind them—those sweet cheeks (no need to clarify) are totally, completely mine.

Though I have yet to meet him. Sob.

But at least I had the honor of designing his birth announcement.

I love that his parents named him after his maternal great-grandfather and paternal great-grandfather and included their photos on the back of the postcard.

I can’t wait to get mine in the mail. Obviously a little piece of paper is nowhere near as good as squeezing the real thing, but it’ll be my first photo ever of my first nephew ever, so you better believe that little piece of paper is going to get some lovin’!

*All names have been changed.

I’m partial to this baby announcement I designed for Stephanie and Dean* because inspiration is right outside my window; I live on a hillside where there’s always at least one—if not a hundred—olive trees in sight. Olive trees have become one of the distinctive emblems of our life on the Mediterranean.

The olive pattern in the background started out as a simple branch that I painted in Photoshop.

I then repeated the olives on a roughly painted background of desert-inspired colors.

With a few Photoshop filters (including my favorite, rough pastels), the background turned into this:

*Names will always be changed.

I took one week off from blogging. Don’t you go picturing me on restful holiday, however—I was busy working. So busy! Overnight I went from having zero design projects to having ten; I just thought it was about time I start accepting projects again.

It’s crazy how that happens. One day I decide to take projects, and the next day I have ten inquiries.

Anyway, this is the first of several “my projects” posts you’ll see in the next few weeks.

I like the simplicity of this birth announcement, and the contrast between cheerful color and quiet layout. Most of all I love the cute little icon in the corner—imagine just adding a flower to the vase when this family has their second child!

*Names, information, and photo have been changed.

Mission accomplished! One airplane birthday party, one happy four year-old.

Our intimate, low-key party was a success, but my favorite part of the day was during the afternoon, when it was just me and my two little boys. I organized a really simple scavenger hunt around the neighborhood—that eventually led to a sweet welcome and a birthday present at my husband’s office. It was so much fun watching my son revel in surprise after surprise—and doing it together.

Those of you who know me will be surprised to hear me say: I can’t wait to do this again next year!

*Names have been changed.

My little boy is four years old today. Four! Crazy how fast it goes yet most days we’re too busy to realize it. Speaking of busy, I’m frantically getting ready for tonight’s tiny birthday party. Here’s a preview of what’s coming!

*As usual, names and vital information changed.

A potential client just asked for more examples of my simple-and-modern baby announcements, so I pulled out this one that I did two years ago. It’s different than most of my other announcements in that it has a cool-jazzy vibe!

When Naomi and Magnus* first approached me, they couldn’t envision exactly what they wanted but gave me some good keywords—simple, modern, brown and aqua. So I sat down with those keywords and considered how to apply them to a meaningful design.

I came up with the idea of four intersecting lines to represent each member of their growing family. I wanted the lines to be fluid, almost as if two of the lines spun out of the other two. The result is smooth and sinuous; and the lines are not just symbolic, they also do their job as a design element by moving the viewer’s eye from one point to the next.

Luckily I got it exactly right in the first round (easy clients!), so we had very little work to do. The only thing they asked for is a second option—one without a photo, in case they couldn’t get a good picture of the twins right away.

We actually ended up using both designs, so that was nice.

*Names will always be changed. That includes the baby names. What, you thought someone really named their twins Warrick and Digby?

You’re probably wondering why I haven’t posted any design projects recently. In short, I haven’t done any. Sad, right? I’d like to be designing, but I have a new daily routine that doesn’t leave much time for design work. It goes something like this:

Wake up at 5:30. Spend the morning feeding the kids, getting them dressed, getting myself dressed, leaving time for them to play together and with us.

Leave the house at 8:00 to drop off my older son at preschool.

Get home at 8:30, spend some time with my younger son before putting him down for his nap at 9:00.

Quickly check e-mail, Facebook, blog, and read a handful of design blogs.

Do a one-hour workout and then take a shower before my son wakes up. (He often wakes up during the shower.)

By this time it’s 11:00. I get both of us ready and out the door by 11:20.

At 11:30, we have lunch with my husband until about 12:15.

Pick up my son at preschool by 12:30, home by 12:45. Then my kids play for a little while and I clean up a bit.

By 1:30, the little one is ready for his second nap of the day.

While the little one naps, I spend some time with my older son and try to sneak in a little computer time when he’s having his afternoon snack.

By 3:00, my younger son is awake and we all spend a little time together before I go full-on house cleaning.

By 4:30, I’m preparing their dinners, and by 5:00 it’s mealtime.

My husband gets home around 5:30. It’s chaotic for a little while, because the kids are excited about daddy and I’m trying to keep them focused on dinner. Plus, they’re usually tired by this point in the day and going a little wild. (That’s an understatement.)

By 6:15, my husband is still playing with the kids while I get their baths ready. It takes about 30 minutes to finish their baths and get them dressed for bed, so we’re done at 6:45.

We sit with the kids for reading, talking, and praying until their light goes out at 7:00 pm.

At that point my husband and I are able to finish our own dinners and clean up, and then we’re pretty wiped out too. We’ll stream a TV show or movie, have some quality time of our own, and then we’re ready to get to bed ourselves.

So that’s it. That’s my average day. Of course there are exceptions—social engagements, evening trips to the store, naptimes gone awry, stayed out too late with girlfriends, that sort of thing—but this is what the majority of my weekdays look like. If I do design projects, it cuts into my evening quality time with my husband, so I’m taking them very rarely. You see?

Wow, writing out my schedule made me sooo tired. I think I need a nap.

I wanted to give Galina and Jon* a more cute, traditional announcement for baby Marcus. This is what we came up with (sans baby photos):

You can probably tell that there’s some kind of lined texture in the background. It was super easy to create! After making a new layer in Photoshop, I just drew messy, vertical blue lines with the paintbrush tool.

Then I filled the background layer with a slightly darker shade of blue, using the paint-bucket tool.

Once I added other design elements, it looked less like a messy mistake and more like an interesting, yet subtle, background texture.

Ridiculously easy! One of my favorite tricks in Photoshop.

*Names will always be changed.

It’s unfortunate (or fortunate, really) that my J.Crew obsession began just weeks before my one-year shopping hiatus. Well, I’m still happily flipping through their September catalog as if my next purchase was just a click away (not a chance! So no need to stage an intervention).

Anyway, I cut out four of my favorite looks from their catalog and glued them to a boring manila file folder for a bit of inspiration and pizzazz.

And then my three year-old added his own pizzazz.

Now my personal papers are being well looked-after.

To take a closer look at these catalog pages, click: page 6, page 32, page 50, page 82.

Oooh! This old dresser was smartly painted with red chalkboard paint by Janell Beals. Great for a kids’ room! Keeping it in my ideas file.