weekend activities...

Look what's happening this weekend!

Not sure how 2 years has gone by already...we just celebrated her 1st birthday, it seems...

tis the season...

I'm posting this for my brother.  God love him, he keeps me on my toes about keeping up-to-date on my blogs.  At least I know he's checking them.  :)  Thanks, bro!

I know it's been a long while since I posted anything here and to be honest I really haven't had anything TO post that would be appropriate for this particular blog.

But I did go to a wedding last weekend and got a couple of cool (read: artistic) shots, and then we threw a bridal shower at our house last night where I got another couple of neat shots.

From the Greco wedding:

And from the shower last night:

To show some of my mad decorating skills...

And a closer look at the flower arrangement (that I made).  I'm pretty proud of that one.  It was my first time working with the little "curlycue" deals and I have to say, I like'em.  Helen really liked it, too -- I let her take it home with her as part of her gift.

I made these thank you cards for the couple as part of their gift.  Thought they turned out cute, too.  :)

cora beth's birthday invitation

I apologize for the length of time between now and the last post. Haven't had much to post on this blog lately. Until now. :)

I have been working on a very special project -- it's actually been done for a couple weeks now, but I'm just now getting a chance to post it here.

My niece, Cora Beth, is turning a year old a week from today. Can you BELIEVE that?? She has been a joy to all of us since the day she made her appearance almost a year ago. I personally haven't seen her in about 2 1/2 months (I'm not even going to speak of the withdrawals I'm having...) but I know she has changed so much just in that brief time. I can't WAIT to see her next weekend at her 1st birthday party!

Daniel & Brandi asked me to design her birthday invitation and, of course, I was so very proud and honored to do that for them, for Cora Beth. Brandi decided on a ladybug theme and actually found the cute wording that I put on the invitation. I had a really great time designing it and I'm very pleased with how it turned out:

a walk down memory lane...

A year ago this week, we were having the time of our lives somewhere in the Western Caribbean on our very first cruise...let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

[video done in Sony Vegas Movie Studio]

shower project x 2

Alright, as promised, I'm posting the invitation I designed for Elizabeth's shower this coming Saturday. The top of the invitation has an image that belongs to Elizabeth -- it's a paper project that one of her fellow bloggers created for her after Elizabeth sent her some homeade papers. Elizabeth is planning to use it in the baby's nursery somehow so I thought it would be special to use it on the invitation in some way, too.

Here's how it came out:

Save the date!

It is absolutely ridiculous how long I've been meaning to post this project. Way back at the beginning of March, I decided I wanted to throw my friend, Elizabeth, a baby shower and we set the date for a week from Saturday (May 16). So yes, as you can see the shower is nearly upon us...I should've written this post long ago.

Since we set the date out that far, I wanted to send a "save-the-date" postcard to increase our chances of having a good turnout for the shower. Elizabeth will be coming from Wake Forest, a good 2 to 2.5 hour trip, for the shower and I really want it to be worth her while to come. Also, I know how MY calendar fills up as we get into spring & summer and I wanted folks to have a heads up about the shower.

Elizabeth's fave color is red (and she does wonders with it!) and so she's incorporating that into the baby's nursery as well. From what I've seen on her blog, it is going to be a fantastic space, full of energy and fun. I can't wait to see the nursery finished!

I decided to go with that for the shower as well, and try to incorporate some of the elements she's going to use in the nursery. Here's what I came up with:

I have since mailed out the invitations so I'll be posting that in the next day or two (hold me to that, would ya? :) and you'll be able to see how I coordinated that. Had such fun designing both! I've been picking up items here and there this week for the shower -- I'm getting really excited!

shower project

Well, this is pretty long overdue only because I've been wanting to post this for awhile and only just now found the time to do so. My dear friend, Amy, recently had her first baby, a precious little boy -- Kyle. And he looks like a Kyle, too. :) He also looks JUST LIKE his daddy. We took a meal to Joey & Amy last night and I got to hold the little booger...oh.my. He was just the sweetest thing, and even woke long enough for Jeff and I to see his cute little eyes. :)

So I say all this to say that we threw Amy a shower back at the end of March. We tried to do it mid-March, but little Kyle decided he would be a little difficult and cause some trouble for Momma...we had to reschedule to a later date; I'm just glad we got it in! He was born 9 days later! Anyway, I designed the invitation for her shower along with some other things for some games we played, the gift log and her thank you notes. Had a GREAT time designing & coordinating everything! Thought I'd share a few of those projects here:

You didn't think I'd end this post without a photo of "the little booger", did you? Cute as can be.

phancy photoshop...

I decided I wanted to experiment today with some of the photos I took on my trip to Lexington back in mid-February. I found some different images and incorporated some of my photos with them to produce some pretty cool-looking things (if I do say so myself!). These are some of my favorite photos of Cora Beth at 6 1/2 months old...

grad announcement, a.k.a. "recent opportunity"

Okay, so in my last post I talked about a "recent opportunity" that got me thinking about starting a side business to utilize some of the skills & talents I have in Adobe Photoshop. I decided to take the plunge and see where it goes, and I used this project as a "springboard" of sorts to launch it.

One of our pastors has a son that's graduating from high school this summer and his wife came to me toward the end of last year (coincidentally around the same time that a certain well-known company that sells senior class/graduation stuff visited the school) and asked if I thought I could design a graduation announcement for them. I told her I'd be glad to see what I could come up with. When she told me what this certain well-known company was charging, I told her I definitely could save her a little bit of money. :)

She had a couple of brochures/pamphlets from this well-known company so I took those as a guideline -- hey, it's been awhile since I graduated, okay? I was able to find a picture of the mascot of the high school online and this is what I came up with:

This, of course, doesn't look exactly like it -- it was a top-fold card, 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, with the design on the front cover, and the wording on the inside as you lifted the flap up. But you get the idea. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. So that was my first project operating under the name of Lindsay Wenzel Designs and I hope there will be many more projects to come!

new endeavor...

So I've been told I have some skills in Adobe Photoshop...and the fact is, I like to play around in it. I like to see what sorts of new things I can design & create. I get excited when I learn something new or figure out a way to get the desired result all on my own (frankly, when I try to use the "help" feature in any program, it usually frustrates me more than helps me).

I've been kicking around an idea for awhile and decided to use a recent opportunity as a springboard for it...I've decided to embark on a new endeavor -- not new as in "I've never done this before", but new as in "this is different than the last time".

I'm starting a little side business in print & digital designs.

It's called Lindsay Wenzel Designs and it will include anything from print products/projects such as shower invitations, birthday invitations, baby announcements, graduation announcements, Christmas cards, etc. to digital projects such as blog/website design.

The "recent opportunity" I mentioned before is something I did for a pastor & his wife and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. My next post will be about that project.

I'm not sure where this business will go, if it will go anywhere, but as much as I enjoy working on these kinds of projects, I think I would enjoy sharing my skills & talents to help others "celebrate life's most important moments"!

happy (early) valentime's day...

Bless my husband's sweet heart, this is what he calls Valentine's -- Valentime's. And I just think it's the cutest thing...

We are apart this year on Valentine's (which is Saturday for those who've let it "slip up" on them!) but it's really not a big deal. We don't typically make a big fuss over that day in particular except to maybe give a card. However, this year we have some movie tickets that have slowly been burning a hole in my wallet for a while now. I've asked Jeff to take me to the movies some night to "celebrate Valentine's". If he takes me out to eat, bonus points for him! But I'd be fine if we just got into the movie free (which we will because of the tickets) and he bought me "movie food"! :) Do you not LOVE movie food? I didn't ask if you loved the price...only the food, the nature of it all. Junk. Love it. :)

I think he's attached strings somehow to this "date" by saying we have to see Mall Cop with Kevin James. That's fine with me. If he'll take me, we can watch whatever (within reason :). Besides, Kevin James reminds me an awful lot of my own husband so we're good.

I thought I would share this rather romantic video I put together last summer in honor of Valentine's day. We had these photos made in celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary with Julie Mixon, photographer extraordinaire! She took them at our very own beach, Topsail Island/Surf City, and they turned out fantastically! This video showcases quite a few of them -- I used a program called Sony Vegas Movie Studio to put it together and had a lot of fun with it.

Enjoy!

special "birth"day...

My niece, Cora Beth, is 6 mos old today. I can't believe it. Time has flown by since she was born last summer. She's growing up so fast -- cutting teeth, eating sweet potatoes (which I hear she LOVES), making noises & "singing", pulling herself up on pieces of furniture. She's got so much personality now and I can only imagine how it's going to change as she grows into a precious little girl and then into a sweet young lady and then into...

I was fortunate enough to be at the hospital when she was born and it was something I'll never forget. I was so proud of Daniel & Brandi and in awe that they were beginning this journey of being parents to a sweet child.

Soon after she was born, I put together this video of photos/video taken right after she was born and in the few days following her birth. I thought this special day would be a good time to share this project with you...

[video done in Sony Vegas Movie Studio]

rotating off...

Happy new year! I've been trying to get back into the swing of things -- work, reconnecting with friends, etc. We've been pretty busy.

I wanted to share a small project I did for my husband a couple months ago. He's been a deacon at our church for the last 2 years -- this is his last year before he rotates off. Each year, he's taken the time to send a personal note to each of his families along with a magnet for them to put on their refrigerator. He asks each one to let the magnet serve as a reminder to pray for him and the church staff. This year, he asked me to design the magnet and this is what I came up with (of course, I've blurred out his personal contact information per his request, but you get the idea):

Merry Christmas to all...

I pray you all have a very blessed Christmas with your friends and families -- from our home to yours...