more than you ever care to know about the last few weeks...

Before I post the Halloween pictures we took yesterday, I thought I'd go ahead and show you a few more things we've been up to these past few weeks.  With Becca around and her desire to do more creative things, I've been able to commit to doing a TEENSY bit more stationery printings in life. 

And, I've increased the cost on these "Will You Be My Bridesmaid?" cards.  Why?  Because when you are modifying all the girls to look like ones in the bridal party, making custom text, changing colors, trimming down to size, making cigar wraps---it all takes a loooooong time.  And, in order to make it worth the time and effort, I upped the prices.  Becca was the one who changed the colors and got the text all ready to go on this last job, and I think it looks DARLING in the green. 

Also, I just got the latest version of Adobe Illustrator---CS5 and let me tell you what... my life has been changed!  They made so many smart modifications and I am SUCH a big fan.  And, it's amazing how well my pen tablet works with the program.  Really, it's like a whole new world!!  So, that has helped me get back into making a few more stationery delights too. 

Here's a few things we've been doing:

 Also, a lot of people want us to add a "Will You Be My Maid of Honor?"  So, we added that too.

Next up, my sister wanted us to make some cards for a friend in Boston.  Apparently, she makes darling baby blankets for everyone having a baby, so we made up these cards for her to attach to her gifts.  I thought it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  I love the little baby's feet and head poking out.  

Also, while I was at it, I decided to change (permanently/not permanently) the name of my design business.... if Becca is going to do so much with helping on the production end, I thought maybe I'd change it to Melimba & Co.  And, yes, I was thinking of Tiffany & Co.  I'm classy like that.  And, also I thought of this: "The Shane Company, at the corner of State Street and 7200 South.  Open Mondays and Fridays till 8, Saturdays till 5, Closed Sunday." 
Do any of you other Utah natives know that radio commercial?  So clever and repetitive.  Good advertising, my friends. 
Anyway, here's what I have on the back of my stationery at this moment in time.  Be warned, it will probably change in a few days/weeks/months.

Also, Em wanted some new cards made with her contact info. on them, so I did a screen shot where I omitted her personal information.  I love that Becca did those little plus signs in the back.  So great.  Here 'tis:

 

More?  Sure.  One of my sweet friends had a little baby girl!  This was so much fun to do.  I always loving doing orders for Bekah.  She is just so easy going and let's me show her random random ideas.  Anyway, for the baby announcement, she had found an idea online and we made it our own---or, ehh, HER own.  :)  I think it turned out happy and fun, just like Bekah.

One day I'll figure out how to do the photography better---where the lighting is nice and pretty, but until then, here are these pictures I snapped.

Ready for more?  You know it.  A girl at Aaron's office was having a house warming party, so I made her these cards and gave her some fun Roasted Garlic Olive Oil.  The row of houses idea has been swimming in my head for years and I finally made it digital and even created a few patterns out of it.  One day, I'll show them.  For now, here's the stationery.  I liked it more on the kraft paper, Becca and Aaron liked it better on the ivory.  So, I did both.

::: Okay, enough about the design work.  Let's talk about a crazy thing I found while cleaning out our medicine.  I saw that we had some eye drops and I knew they had to be pretty old.  I couldn't find an expiration date, so I thought I'd open up the box to look at the actual bottle investigate. 

Uhhh, if you look closely, you'll see that in fact, there was no bottle of perscription eye drops.  No, in fact, it is Lee's Extra Strength Nail GLUE!!  Can you imagine if I had something bothering my eye, and reached up for my eye drops---ONLY TO GLUE MY EYES SHUT!?! 

It kind of gave me a heart attack.  I screamed, called for Aaron and Becca, and we laughed while my eyes watered just thinking about how horrible it would all be. 

Then, you KNOW I snapped a few photos for the blog. 
That's how I roll.

::: Next up, I hired convinced Aaron to hang up some frames in our front room.  Tillie and Calvin were GREAT assistants entertainers.
One day I'll post some pictures of the interior of this house.  For now, here's what we have above the couch.  I bet it will look better with real pictures inside, right?

After we hung the frames, we had a lasagna making party.  LOOK AT ALL THOSE NOODLES!  Good times.  My mother-in-law's recipe is the best on the planet.  True story.  If you need it, holler, I'll email it to you.  It will change your life.

:::  Becca offered to watch the kids while we went on a hot date to downtown Dallas.  We even booked a hotel for the occasion.  It was lovely.  Having Becca around is so great for SO many reasons! 

We forgot our camera, but that's okay.  We went out to eat at an delicious Italian place and went to a concert, left the concert after intermission b/c we aren't cultured enough. 

Oh, I just remembered!  Do you want to read Aaron's review of the concert?  Okay, I'll share.  I just copied it off of the TicketMaster website.  So funny.  Aaron kills me.  I love that his "reviewer name is "awesomefella"---of course it is!  And he uses the words 'cuz and kind of sorta---how's that for cultured?
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2 / 5

Too young to enjoy? Way too cheesy for me.

Verizon Theatre At Grand Prairie

by awesomefella

I've been married for 7 years. My wife and I thought it would be fun to go to a concert 'cuz we don't go out much. I kind of sorta recognized this guy, from PBS I suppose, and he was performing the night we were going out for our staycation.

The event was not nearly sold out and we'd bought the cheapest tickets on the upper level, after checking in, some nice lady pulled us aside and was giving away a bunch of lower level tickets. We thought that was pretty cool to be close.

Anyway, most the people there were older than us. Some were dressed to the nines. I wore jeans and a button down shirt and fit in fine.

The thing is... he probably does the same jokes every night all around the world. SOOOO cheesy. It was a little uncomfortable for me. Many others were really enjoying it though. The "snow" fall was pretty fun.

My dad is into opera and he told me this would be "schmoltzy" and I said what does that mean? And he said "fancy corny". That is correct.

The dancing/singing ladies in the back... weird. The weightlifting / body building trumpeters and stuff... uncomfortable.

We left the concert 3 songs after intermission because everything was just sounding the same. (I know... horrible concert etiquette... but it was that bad).

On a closing note, I just kept thinking... I bet my grandma would love this!

(ps - my musical taste is more along the line of jack johnson, ben folds, damien rice, iron & wine...)

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Great review.  Fun(ny) night.

The next morning we went to an awesome breakfast at Bread Winners Cafe & Bakery where I ordered a little delight called the French Ham Benedict: croissant, 2 over easy eggs, ham, fresh asparagus, hollandaise.  Hello.  It was proababy the best breakfast of my life.  Don't you worry, we then finished off our food fest at a super secret cupcake place called Trailercakes (you know, to get cupcakes for the kids, of course... errr...) and then to Costco to play Santa Claus.

Once we got home, we took pictures of the lovely cupcakes.  Look at how delicious they were!  Our favorite proabably was the strawberry pop tart one.  Or the pumpkin one (Which we consumed too quickly and didn't get a photograph).  Or maybe the oreo one was the best?  Not sure.  All delcious.  We're glad for the recommendation by our high school friends, the Walker's.  Dan's YELP food reviews are great. 

::: While I had the camera out, I decided to take a picture of our painted Halloween pumpkins.  Then, when I looked around on my hard drive for the other pictures of us at the Pumpkin Patch and painting them, I couldn't find them?!  BOOO!  HISSS!  I have no idea where they are.  Oh well.  We DID go to a Pumpkin Patch. We DID take cute pictures.  We DID paint them a few days later (which Tillie loved).  Good times.  Here's the result:

::: The kids are just getting over a really bad cold.  It's not been fun.  But, luckily the worst of it is over.  Tillie's Half Birthday was just days ago, so we Becca took a few photos of the sickly girl.  She's looks pretty darling, even if she is coughing in the first one and has a little bit of a snotty nose in the others. 

poser alert!!  with snotty nose, no less!

 Pretty cute, in my opinion.  We love this little 3.5 year old.  Here are a few links to her past 1/2 birthday photos.

:::  Big news.  A new Costco opened up just minutes from our house.  We were thrilled.  Went to the Grand Opening.  Twice.  Once in the a.m., and then the second time in the afternoon with Aaron when he came home from work.  We remembered the camera the second time.  Not that anyone else would care, but WE love Costco.  With all of our hearts.  On this Grand Opening Celebration there were more TASTIES then we've ever seen.  It was joy.  Pure joy.

Don't let your kids try this at home.  Oops.  Glad she didn't knock over the cart.

Becca loves to push all the buttons and then watch.  She's such a kid at heart.

On our way home, we saw a SNYDER DRIVE.  Having TWO Snyders in the car + the camera = Photo Time. 
Here we are working hard for the money.
Too bad the first one has the street sign cut off.  hA!!

GOOD times.  Let's the Halloween Festivities begin!