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.

My about-to-be-married, creative/foodie sister and her fiancé threw an engagement party last week. They made it an Iron Chef party, and asked every guest to bring a dish containing the special ingredient: bacon. Fun, right!?

I wanted the invitation to complement the wedding designs, but only subtly. Below you’ll see the same colors, type treatment, and clean-whimsy style as the save-the-date and wedding invitation—without replicating them exactly:

It’s hard to believe that my sister’s wedding is now only a month away! We arrived on U.S. soil last Sunday as part of our five-week holiday leading up to the wedding. Exciting! Right now I’m at my in-laws’ place watching my husband play with our three year-old, and waiting for our eleven month-old to wake up from his nap. It’s like a normal day, but only better because we’re all together. This is going to be a great five weeks.

Naturally, once my sister’s save-the-date card was completed, we got started on her invitations. I wanted to use the same cute floral pattern and strong text, but because it’s the wedding invitation—part of, yet more important than, the save-the-date—I wanted to switch things up slightly for an element of surprise.

So instead of using the pattern as a border, I used it as a strip along the top, and to add something new and unexpected, I enlarged an ampersand and a curly bracket:

Now that we’ve added this new, enlarged-punctuation element to the design, it’d make sense to continue it elsewhere in the wedding; so now I’m completely fixated on where. Any ideas?

*These fake names are a stretch. Yes, I know.

If you assumed I’d be designing my sister’s save-the-date cards, wedding invitations, and programs, you were right! I’m knee-deep in her wedding design, and I love it.

Our starting point was some of my wedding inspiration boards. The two boards I really liked for her were Youthful Pink and White and Crisp Coral and White. We had a couple of back-and-forths about how to apply one of these color palettes, when it occurred to me that we could combine the two.

My sister really liked the idea of a softer color with something brighter and punchier, so I sat down to brainstorm how it would all come together. I wanted to give her a visual before going much further, so I created a collection of spring dresses from Banana Republic:

And a collection from J.Crew:

And voilà, we were done with the hardest part! With the green-light* on a coral and pink palette, it was time to come up with an overall motif for her big day. I wanted so badly to go with stripes—like you saw in the inspiration boards—but it just wasn’t connecting. My sister isn’t “stripes” as much as she is “cute flowers.” I had to trust my instinct by switching gears completely and going floral.

Initially expecting to design just a few cute flowers, I was pleasantly surprised as an allover pattern began to emerge! I haven’t done pattern design in years (such a shame, considering my love for it), so it was very exciting. Once again, green-light (yay)—so I refined the pattern to make it seamless.

While applying the pattern to our first project, the save-the-date card, it became clear that the girlish sweetness of the colors and style needed to be balanced by something more tough and masculine. So that’s how I approached the information.

Here’s the final card (with names changed, obviously):

*I’d just like to note that the green-light came from both the bride and groom. In case any of you were thinking there’s no way the groom would approve! Nuh-uh, this is a couple that works in total unity.

As is often the case, my husband and the kids are sleeping soundly in their beds while I’m tapping away at the keyboard. And, as usual, I’m insanely sleepy but pushing through it to get things done.

Although tonight I’d like to make it to bed before midnight. We’ll see.

Hopefully this is the last button I’ll press before going to bed. Publish!

In three short months, I’ll be sending my three year-old to preschool. On one hand I can’t wait, since being home with him all day has been challenging as of late. On the other hand I’d keep him home with me forever if I could, because I know there will come a day when I’ll miss out on most things in his life—so right now, I want to be there for everything.

Oh… was that off-topic?

Only three blog posts in April? Yikes, shame on me!

I wish I could say I was on extended spring break, but I was just super busy with the kids. Now that my baby boy is getting bigger (eight months old), it has, surprisingly, been more work—preparing his meals, keeping him engaged and keeping him safe from his overzealous big brother.

We were also super busy with my sister, who was here for the entire month. Sadly, it was her extended spring break, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t feel like it. She was basically on-duty all month, helping nonstop with the kids and the cooking. I loved having her here but am glad that she’s back to sanity.

I can’t say the same for us. Our household is more insane and chaotic than ever! Thus, most of my projects have been either on hold or else I’ve just had to say no. But today’s a new day, a new month—and I’m hoping to get cracking… starting now!

Nadia turned six yesterday, and she rang in the celebration with a “lost in space” themed birthday party. Adorable, right?

When her mom asked me to design the invitations, she said she wanted something fun and girly. So “Nadia’s outer space” is made up of pink stars and pretty swirls, cute spacecraft, and pink and teal accents (her favorite colors).

Getting the concept right was actually quite funny. The first draft had Nadia sitting in the spaceship, but that basically made her the alien. So the second draft had Nadia sitting next to an alien, but the imagery still seemed peculiar. I finally got it right with the third try: the alien in the spaceship and Nadia as the space explorer. This pulls everything together—now the spaceship “spotlight” makes sense, the rocket has purpose, the swirls echo the astronaut’s “rope,” and the poem is relevant.

Oh, and this morning I received a little surprise: a photo of the birthday cake, inspired by the invitation! I love it.

You may have noticed that, the past few days, I’ve been too tired to write entries. I think I’m on the verge of catching another cold, because I’m just dragging. I don’t even have the energy to play with my kids, poor things.

So instead of writing about this project and my design process, I’ll just let my sailboats and polka-dots party invitation speak for itself, and hopefully I’ll be back in action tomorrow. Enjoy!

Last year I hosted a clothing sale in my apartment. It was a pretty simple affair that turned out to be super successful, with twenty-five women from my neighborhood selling their clothes and at least another fifty who walked through.

This year, one of my neighbors wanted to host another one and asked if I’d design her invite. I knew it didn’t have to correlate with last year’s design, but I wanted it to, at least loosely. Since the event lent itself to continuity as well as community, I thought, why not?