Cousins

January 10, 2012 By 2 Comments

Before Christmas, we made a visit to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens in nearby Belmont. Jim and I went many years ago, before we were even married, to see their beautiful Christmas lights display and we’ve started going every year. Now, we enjoy taking the rest of the fam along, too. I think the last time we all went, Molly and Addison were three months old and it was raining. {I was looking for a picture because I know we have some, but I can’t put my finger on them right now!}

Anyway, this year it was so fun because Addi and Molly really enjoyed the lights, Benjamin *always* loves Christmas lights, and Jackson still thinks we’re {kind of} cool enough to hang out with – although we know that time is quickly fading! After two major falls, Molly managed to remain upright and she and Addison ran ALL over the gardens. It was quite the sight, I’m sure: Two toddlers shrieking, running quickly and then a gaggle of adults laughing and huffing & puffing after them.

We finally got all of them to sit in one place towards the end of the evening and were able to capture this sweet moment:

They’re an alright bunch, those kiddos.

 

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Ready or not…

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

here it comes!

Christmas is only a few days away. Are you ready? I’m *still* gathering gifts and need to go back to the grocery to pick up a few key items. I didn’t even finish decorating my house!

BUT I did get my cards in the mail yesterday and hosted a cookie party for Molly’s playgroup buddies. My pictures didn’t turn out but some of our friends have been sweet to share their pictures, so once I compile all those, I’ll post them!

I also want to show you pictures of mine and Beverly’s houses, all decorated for Christmas, as well as our cards! For now, though, we are enjoying some down time with our families and are working on a limited schedule through the holiday.

Here’s just one shot of what my dining room has looked like the past few weeks – lots and lots of card orders to be delivered. Such a huge sense of accomplishment to fulfill so many card orders and a big sigh of relief that they’ve all been delivered or dropped off!

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DIY project – Christmas card display

December 15, 2011 By 3 Comments

FYI – The pictures in this post aren’t so great; I switched the lens on the camera and had gotten used to the other one! I’m working on my skills, though, so hopefully the pics will be less blurry/crappy next time!

I LOVE getting Christmas cards. I literally open them on my porch so I can see them all right away. During the Christmas season, I’m seriously disappointed if there’s not at least one card in the mailbox each day! I like to look at the cards all month, and I also love to go to other people’s houses and look at their cards. Is that weird?!

For years {like since college!}, I’ve displayed my Christmas cards in this gold star basket that I picked up Pier 1.

And I was perfectly ok with that basket until I started seeing all kinds of fun ways to display cards on the internet. Earlier this week, I saw on Pinterest {imagine that!} that someone, somewhere had covered pieces of foam board with fabric and then pinned their cards to the boards.

Genius. Customizable. Affordable.

Lo and behold, I was on the phone with Beverly on Monday while I was on the way to her house {what? you don’t talk to the person whose house you’re going to?!} and told her about the idea I stole/found. She had a piece of foam board I could have, so I stopped at Hobby Lobby to get some fabric and voila! Today, I hung my new Christmas card holder.

I think it would be *really* cool if you had the wall space to hang several of these together so you could see all of the cards. I’d have a hard time taking them down after the holiday!

The total cost? Foam board, glue sticks, ribbon and hot glue gun burn on my index finger = $0. Fabric = $6. I don’t know how much fabric I used because I had the lady at HL roll out some of the fabric and I tried to remember how big the foam board {even though it was IN my car!} and said, “yeah, about that much please.” And it only took me 10 minutes to put it all together.

Tell us – How do you display your cards? 

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On Thanksgiving, Toddlers and {Christmas} Trees

November 30, 2011 By 2 Comments

Beverly and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with our families. We celebrated at Beverly’s house with our parents and my dad’s parents, and we Skyped with Whitney and her hubby Mike before they had friends over for their Thanksgiving dinner in Santa Barbara; we also celebrated our dad’s 60th birthday!

Here’s Grandma and Grandaddy with all four of their great-grandchildren. We bribed Molly and Addison with cookies to sit for the picture – on Beverly’s white couch! Luckily they didn’t drop a morsel.

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We have shipped off so many cute Christmas card orders already! It’s fun to see which cards are popular with our clients and how individual families want to customize the designs to suit their needs.

Beverly and I both have boxes of decorations sitting around our houses; I am slowly getting the house decorated – one box at a time! We did make a trip to the mountains on Saturday to get our tree. It was a fun experience with Molly, but I saw on the news last night that it had snowed in the mountains. That would have been even more fun, right?

Molly was a big help {?} decorating the tree, and our pup Allie even leant a paw. Molly had one favorite branch that she kept hanging all of her ornaments on, but we only had one casualty {the Christmas pickle!}, so I consider that a successful tree-trimming event. Molly loves to sit on the couch and just look at the tree, identifying all the ornaments. I saw in a magazine that one family has a sleepover in the family room the night they decorate the tree – isn’t that a cool idea? I think it would be fun to sleep under the twinkling lights. There’s just something so cozy about the light from a Christmas tree, whether you’re two or 32.

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We’ve got the *cutest* cookie party invitation in the shop. We have created some fun winter birthday party invitations and were totally inspired by one of our clients to create this invitation. I love the invitation so much that I decided to have my own cookie decorating party. {Yes, I am crazy to take on one more thing, but it will be SO fun! If you put toddlers with icing and sprinkles in the FUN category, you know.}

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I just shipped some water bottle labels and food labels for a tacky-Christmas-sweater party coming up this weekend. I really hope we see pictures from that party. I think the tacky sweater parties always seem so fun!

Is anyone else having a holiday party? Are you decorated for Christmas yet? {I’ll share more pictures when I finish, and when Beverly gets her decorations up, I’ll have to go take some pictures to share with you. She always goes all out and it’s all gorgeous!} Is it snowing where you are? {Ok, don’t tell me – I’ll be very jealous. I don’t even need a coat in NC.}

I’m planning to share a new local company with you sometime this week…I’m trying to get a picture of a certain toddler with a certain item, and well…that’s not really working out for me. Stay tuned, though! I might have to share without the picture for now.

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{Holiday} Fun and Funky Christmas Printable Collection

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We just couldn’t help ourselves…we thought it would be fun to create a Christmas printable collection. We used my favorite holiday color combination {well, my favorite of the day, anyway!} – red, pink and green.

There’s an adorable ‘Ho Ho Ho’ banner that would certainly make a sideboard or mantel very festive; food labels for your parties or holiday dinner; party circles which can be used for cupcake toppers, gift tags, tied onto wrapped silverware or to adorn those bottles of wine you give as hostess gifts; and finally, large circles that make fun signs to go in potted plants, vases on tables or anywhere you want a little extra holiday cheer.

Look for these printables in our Etsy shop. We are offering the files for you to download and print as you wish, or we can print and assemble the items for you!

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{Holidays} It’s a SALE!

November 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Now through Sunday, November 28, we’re offering a 15% discount on all holiday cards and party invitations!  The discount applies to card designs already in the shop, custom designs, and printing services.

Also, don’t forget that our notecards are on special through the end of the month:  25 notecards for only $25!  Just like our invitations and photo cards, our customized notecards are press printed on linen cardstock and they make the perfect gift for your favorite friend, a loved one, or even yourself!

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{Decorating} A few of my favorite things….

November 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Designing all these Christmas cards has got me in the mood to start decorating, so much in fact that I just told Heidi the other day I am  ready to put up my Christmas trees!  The worst part?  I cannot stop with just one tree!   In hopes to hold off on decorating, I thought I would post a few of my favorite things I have seen in the catalogs lately.

Cheers! pillow from Ballard Designs

I loved this so much that we designed a new card inspired by the pillow!

 

Pottery Barn lanterns

 

Suzanne Kasler for Ballard burlap stocking

Burlap ribbom from Pottery Barn

Wreaths from Ballard Designs

When it comes to decorating for Christmas, or the Holiday your family celbrates, what are your favorite things during the holiday season?  We would love to know! 

And for our wonderful Facebook fans….we are offering a sale to you through Monday!  15% off your purchase….this includes Christmas and holiday cards in the Etsy shop!  Hope you have a great weekend!

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{Holiday Cards} Red and Brown Photo Card

November 12, 2010 By 1 Comment

There are so many options for holiday decorating, aren’t there?  There’s the oh-so- elegant gold and silver theme.  And you can’t go wrong with traditional red and green.  You can create a winter wonderland with blues and silvers and greens and whites.  Or how about fun and modern with lime green, purple and hot pink?  I feel like I need multiple trees and fireplaces just so I can create a different theme for each room!

However, I just think there’s something so classic about the red and brown color combination at Christmas.  It makes me think of the outdoors, snow on the ground, hot chocolate, reindeers…everything quintessentially holiday-ish!  This photo card was created with this classic color palette but gets a dose of freshness from the white polka dots.  So fun!

You can find this card, and all of our holiday card designs, in our Etsy shop!

Don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook!  We’re going to give our fans a special offer once we reach 100 “likes.”

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{Holidays} Yes, it’s that time of the year already!

September 13, 2010 By 1 Comment

As I was shopping one day last week, I noticed hints of red and green all over the mall.  I checked my watch and confirmed that yes, it’s only September (but already mid-September!) which means fall – and the holiday season – is quickly approaching.  Although we’re still enjoying beautiful shorts weather in North Carolina, it’s not too early to start thinking about holiday cards.

 

Sweet Birdie’s Nest would love to create your holiday card this year!  We’ll post some of our designs here on the blog and in the shop, but would love to work with you to create a custom design, too.

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