twine and tape

Check out my guest post on Sweet Symphanie where I talk about some of my favorite twine and tape finds.

liv's 1st birthday

Liv turned 1 the day I got back from New York so we stuck a candle in a frozen Otis Spunkmeyer cookie to celebrate. She loved it, but I still wanted to do a little more for her birthday celebration at Sunday dinner. I didn't have much time and was way too lazy to even go to the grocery store (thanks Rachel for supplying more eggs Sunday morning when I ran out!). There are definitely a lot of things I'd like to do better or try in the future. Fortunately, we always celebrate with a porcupine theme for 1st birthdays (it all started with my first birthday and my parents made a chocolate cake with a cupcake head and decorated it with 6-month-old candy corns).

CAKE and CUPCAKES: Chocolate with pink marshmallow frosting. Small individual porcupine cake for Liv; cupcakes for everyone else.

PARTY FAVORS: I had resigned myself to the reality that I just didn't have time or energy to do much for this party. But when I woke up Sunday morning, I once again couldn't stop myself and decided to try making some party favors. I had to come up with something that used supplies I already had at home so I thought of no-bake chocolate cookies turned into little porcupines. In theory, I think the idea could still work - my execution this time around not so much. Next time, I'll buy chocolate kisses to use as the head - chocolate chips were too small so I tried using melting chocolate wafers. I wrapped each chocolate porcupine in a clear bag and attached a die cut pink paper porcupine printed with birthday text.

APPAREL: Pink porcupine shirt for Liv.

THE PARTY: After dinner we sang to Liv. As you can see from the photos she wasn't so sure about the whole thing. Papa pulled her hand away from the cake after she tried to grab it which resulted in lots of tears (no nap that day didn't help either!). Elle stepped in to help blow out the candle and then Liv got to eat the cake all by herself.

We love you Liv. Happy 1st Birthday!

What the L is That?

(image from Envelopments blog)

I've been back from the Stationery Show in NYC for a little over a week and a half now. I think the show went really well, and the product and L brand got a lot of attention and support. There are so many fun products and ideas I want to share with you on the blog.

At the show we were lucky enough to be right across from Envelopments. Envelopments is a great company with fantastic products and even better people (both of my sisters used their products for their wedding invitations). Mark, one of the owners at Envelopments, has been a long time supporter of QuicKutz and the products we create. I've had several opportunities to meet with him and collaborate on new ideas and concepts. He wrote a really nice post about the letterpress on his blog. Check it out and visit their website to see their product line. You'll definitely want to incorporate their products into your next invitation, announcement or event!