[ simplesong ]

2010 holiday card

Every year I love working on our holilday cards but things have been soo busy recently that I didn't get to put as much thought into them like I usually do.  That being said, I'm happy with how this last minute idea turned out ... but my favorite part is definitely the picture : ) ...

I took the library card idea from my shop + personalized it with milestones from throughout the year.  We clipped Ike's school picture to it and then ran off some simple mailing labels.  And done!  Can't believe Christmas is next week!

ps. I picked up that Merry Christmas piece at Red Barn Mercantile this week ... isn't it great?

happy halloween!

Hope you have a happy and safe halloween -- full of lots and lots of treats.  Here's our Ike in his Ghost Buster costume!
He has oddly become obessesed with the Ghost Busters and has been dreaming about specifically being Egon Spengler for Halloween.  He was sooo proud to wear this to school on Friday :).

ike :: 4

Happy birthday to my sweet boy who turns 4 today (I can hardly believe time has gone by so fast)!  

Here he is on Saturday, at his birthday party, waiting for his guests to arrive.  He was SO excited.  Will share some birthday party details on Hip Hip Hooray in a few weeks.  

last week of summer

This next week is the last week of summer before school starts [I can hardly believe it!].  Things have been so busy that I'm determined to do [and enjoy!] the following things next week with our little guy, Ike ...

1.  Make these [or any version, for that matter] smores

2.  Buy a few new, cute things for school

3.  Back-to-school supply shopping

4.  And just plain summer fun with friends

Have a great weekend, friends!

pre-school graduation

Our little Ike graduated from pre-school a couple of weeks ago + we were very lucky to have our good friend Kate capture a few moments from the special evening ...

It was so much fun (and sad -- I can't believe how fast he's growing up!) ... and how great is the last photo?

snowed in

We've been pretty much snowed in since Friday, with more snow coming down today.  For the most part, this is what our days consist of ...

Baking, reading, playing, eating ... repeat over + over (and over :).  It was fun at first but we're ready to get back into our normal routine!  I am beyond ready for spring.

ike's valentines

Friends Kate + Kelly were over helping to put together Valentines for Ike's classmates ...

I thought I'd share this in advance in case anyone needs a quick Valentine for their child.  I printed Ike's school photo on photo paper and used a traceable font for his name so he could 'sign' them.  Stuffed each bag with some goodies ... and done!  Kelly wrote out the names (she has the best handwriting) and Kate snapped these photos with my camera (how is it her photos with my camera are waaay better then mine?  I guess that's why she's the professional). 

i like ike :: favors

Wow, a very big thanks for all the comments, tweets, posts + emails about Ike's party.  I'm overwhelmed by the really kind feedback -- we loved putting it together + so glad you like it too!

I've gotten a bunch of emails about Ike's party so I thought I'd do a few follow-up posts about the details.  I was all about making simple, practical and fun things for the kids to enjoy.  One of my favorite things were the favors ...

Custom wood handled rubber stamps!  When giving favors I always like to give something you can eat :) or actually use.  For these, I got one made for each child, stamped their name on a cotton bag and paired it with a little ink pad.  Super easy. 

I use Ike's all the time and it seems the other parents appreciated it too. The font I used for the name is Jessica Hische's Buttermilk.  Love this font and pretty much used it on everything.

EDIT:  Forgot to mention where I got the stamps! I got these made here - fairly quick service, great quality and reasonable prices.  Ask for Bob if you have questions.

[bottom two photos by Kate Headley]

i like ike

Since its election day I thought it would be fun to share pictures of our little one's third birthday party!  I'm also excited as its also posted over at Real Simple today ...

As you may remember, we played off his name, Ike, and did a vintage election themed party and made invitation "ballots".  I have to do a big thanks to my good friends Maria of Ritzy Bee who helped bring all the details together, Kelly of Design Cuisine for the food + fab cake + of course, Kate Headley for capturing the day. 

Click over to Real Simple for more photos + details.

Happy Election Day!

kid room inspiration

I'm [slowly but surely] working on our little one's room + the other day I was looking at the images I've bookmarked for inspiration ...

I'm thinking cute wallpaper or I love the idea of the framed plane illustrations [but trains for us] or I love the mismatched illustrations in John Derian's kids' room.  So sweet.

[row 1: 1,  2; row 2: 1 via Merry Mishap, 2; row 3: 1 via Two Ellie]