my little man is ONE!

Today was my little man's 1st birthday and to celebrate the occasion we threw him a vintage baseball themed birthday party. 

 There was a "concession stand" complete with Baby Ruth candy bars, popcorn, licorice, shelled peanuts, cracker jacks, and of course cupcakes! 

 Our cupcakes were from...wait for it...Walmart! Their cupcakes are pretty darn tasty and I think they did a great job decorating them to look like baseballs.

 The frame for this sign was purchased from Goodwill and I printed out the sign at home using the font "Traveling Typewriter" {I may or may not be obsessed with it, it was all over our wedding stationary}and a striped background from Microsoft Word clipart.

 I picked up a bag of used baseballs at a thrift store to add some vintage-y baseball decor.

 Peanuts.
No one touched, but they were cute!

 Cupcakes close-up!

 I printed on these paper bags with our home printer and filled with freshly popped popcorn...from the microwave =)

 I took monthly photos of Morgan throughout his first year.
For the party I strung them up with jute twine and mini clothespins.
They were a big hit.

 A homemade chalkboard sign.
I'm obsessed with chalkboard paint. Obsessed.

 I made the template for these water bottle labels in Microsoft Word and "laminated" them with packing tape!

Glass bottled root beer added a little vintage flair.

 Rockin' grandpa's cammo hat to shield his face from the sun.
It was a HOT one!

There was no hesitation, he knew what to do with that cupcake!

 Proud momma and daddy posing. Morgan couldn't be bothered with picture taking, there were cupcakes to be eaten! 



Can you believe how fast they grow up?? 
Slow down baby, slow down!



<3 Ashley



I'm linking up with Friday Flair at

our wedding...

I am still anxiously awaiting all of our wedding photos, but our photographers have been so kind as to drop us a little teaser every once in a while...ya know, to build the anticipation even more! Please check out a video montage, if you will, put together by our photographers at Capture Life Moments Photography.

<3 Ashley

new blog I'm lovin'

I love when I stumble upon a new blog that is a breath of fresh air. I love a blog that is refreshing, inspiring, beautiful and full of pretty pictures. The latter may be the more important part ;) 

That's how I felt when I stumbled upon everyday musings. Well, that and the overwhelming urge to hit the beach :) 

Enjoy the read.

.....

Pictures of the everyday beauty in my life:

my little man napping in his crib when I came home from work yesterday.

......

Speaking of work...I've picked up a couple extra days this week so I haven't had a lot of time to add stuff to the etsy shop. I plan to stock it up by this Friday. 

Morgan's 1st birthday is this Saturday and I still have yet to get everything ready for his party too. 

I may or may not be getting heart palpitations thinking about what I have to do to get ready still...

Our Invitations

Let's start from the outside and work our way in, shall we?

Envelopes:

I love, love, love Kraft paper. I think it is so very chic and can be dressed up or down. Casually elegant, so to speak ;) 

The font used for the printing of the addresses is called "Jane Austen" and I downloaded it from dafont.com. I wanted the look of handwritten calligraphy, but I don't have the handwriting for it and obviously wasn't going to pay someone to do it. Did you know people still do that? Yea. And the cost is outrageous...your first born...or something like that.

Postage:

Yea, I'm one of those nuts. I took an invitation to the post office a couple weeks before I mailed them out to pick out my postage. It was actually kind of fun, the lady at the counter got really excited about helping me pick out my wedding postage. I ended up paying $.04 more an invitation to mail them out just so that I didn't have to put a George Washington stamp on my envelopes :)We ended up with two "Wedding stamps" with white roses and "herb" postcard stamps for the response envelopes. I think the "herb" stamps look really beautiful with the Kraft paper.

Pocketfold:

I decided to go with a pocketfold style invitation because I just didn't like the look of a bunch of inserts stacked on top of each other and shoved into an envelope. No offense if that's your style or choice, but this is just how I preferred it.

I used this tutorial to make my own pocketfolds out of the Kraft cardstock. It was actually super simple and I loved that this particular tutorial only called for one sheet of cardstock per pocketfold.

I tied the yellow/white bakers twine around the pocketfold to keep it closed. I decided to have this be the only color in the invitation after a vistaprint fiasco when my first invitation design arrived at my doorstep looking brown rather than grey {our colors were grey and yelllow}. 

Inserts:

I printed the actual invitation and all of the inserts from my printer at home and designed them in powerpoint. 

The font used throughout the invitations is called "Traveling Typewriter" and is used throughout all of our wedding stationary (programs, favor tags, etc).

I made the map on the back of the direction card using this technique and Word. It was kind of tedious, and it didn't turn out perfect, but I was happy with it.

RSVP:

Our RSVP card was actually a shipping tag. Shipping tags are a big wedding trend right now and I chose to use them in several other areas of our wedding decor/stationary as well. I printed these on our home computer too. There was lots of trial and error involved in getting them to print straight. Some of the printing was actually kind of crooked, but I think it adds a little charm. 

{you can purchase similar tags which I have fancied up a bit in my etsy shop here}

That's all folks. All the details of my labor of love. I hope you enjoyed them. I realy felt they set the tone of the wedding and clued my guests into the tone beforehand as well.

Stay tuned for more posts with the details of our
rustic chic wedding!

 <3 Ashley

ridiculously cute photo shoot

How sweet is this photo shoot featured on Style Me Pretty?

...

mason jars and striped paper straws

yellow everything

billy balls

lemonade

coconut cake

terrace setting

...I mean seriously, does it get any better? 

I found so much inspiration on Style Me Pretty when I was planning our wedding.

It really is a gold mine for inspiration, you just have to be creative and figure out how to take the ideas and make them your own on a budget. Because, let me tell ya, those SMP brides go ALL OUT! 

*Source of all photos: SMP*

<3 Ashley

Need a laugh? 

Read this blog post by the hilarious Shelly over at cookies and cups. How is this related to weddings and home decor? Girl, Reese's and crescents are always relevant. Always. Enjoy the read and let me know if you try out that recipe!

1st listing!

I published my 1st listing today during nap time! 

The listing is for antiqued lace trimmed tags. 

I used these tags for our favor tags/escort cards and even in our wedding invitations, as our response cards.

You could use them as gift tags, tags for your wedding wishing tree, and even as thank you notes. 

The possibilities are endless with these!

 

**Use code 7freeship11 for free shipping in July!**

introducing...

my pride and joy,

my sunshine...

<3 Ashley

finding your creativity and owning it

Source: photographyconcentrate.com via Jayka on Pinterest

Up until this past year {and really the past couple of months}, I would never have identified myself as the creative type. I didn't think I had any natural creative talents. I can't draw. I can't paint. I can't sing. 

But, at some point in this past year, I began to realize that I don't have to be an artist, a musician, or a writer to be creative. 

I began to be inspired by the every day things that surrounded me. A photograph. The sunset. My son. 

I began to identify my tastes. What I like and what I don't. I poured over blogs. I learned that there were so many women out there like me. Everyday women. Moms. People from all walks of life that found beauty in their every day surroundings. And I began to realize that this whole being creative thing was a lot easier and a lot more natural than I ever realized. 

My creative energy for the past 6 months has been focused on our wedding. I find such great pleasure in the way that energy paid off.

Now I am focusing that creative energy towards starting my etsy business. I may fail miserably, but that's okay. I just want to know that I tried, that I didn't let fear stand in the way, that I didn't let fear of others judgement stand in my way of my creative pursuits. 

Source: anicelittle.tumblr.com via Rose on Pinterest

<3 Ashley

Hello out there! {is that an echo I hear?}

Yes, yes you...the lone reader of this blog...

 {Hi, mom!}

Thanks for stopping by!

I am starting this blog to record my journey as I dip my toe into the online world that is etsy. I am starting my own shop, burlap and twine, which features rustic chic wedding and home decor. I am a newlywed {awww} who was crazy enough {or broke enough, ha!} to hand craft our entire wedding. There was some hair pulling...and some breakdowns, but somewhere along the way, I realized that I loved what I was doing. So, why not share my crafts with other like minded and budget conscious brides with impeccable taste? <- note sarcasm.

Once again, welcome!

<3 Ashley