Happy New Year friends!
It’s always fun getting used to a new date, and new numbers, and re-writing a few checks because I put 2016 on there (if any of you even write checks anymore??)
But yay! It’s 2017. I hope you had a great December.
I spent most of the month NOT blogging—as you may have noticed—and just enjoyed spending time with the family. We went on a road trip to Branson, MO, driving through Oklahoma and Arkansas. And stopping at this stunning church was probably the highlight for me. Wow. What a gem.
I hope your family had some fun adventures as well. And if you stayed inside with cookies and puzzles, that sounds perfect too.
As usual, I’m sharing our Christmas card in January. But hey, at least it says Happy New Year on there right?
Or rather…a JUICY new year.
The theme this year was Merry Picnic—because summer is my favorite season.
And because, everyone dressed up in gingham???
Is a YES. 
I made the Everyday Neckties for the boys, an Anywhere skirt for me, this dress (which is similar to this dress) for Clara, and the rest we had in our closets. I’ll have to do a follow-up post on the skirt because you know…..checkers! And clothes!
I really wanted to use this pic for the card…
Or this.
Real life stories.
But you know it’s a tricky design balance, picking the right pic for the front, that coordinates with the back, and one of the pics should probably be a real “normal” pic.
So we went with this:
Here’s how we’ve done our cards the past few years:
• My brother took our family pictures (free!)
• I designed the cards in Illustrator (sort of free)
• We printed using this template at Costco (great price).
And there you go! It can get pricey sending cards out each year, which is why I love doing it this way. And really, I just love doing the Holiday Cards thing, and designing it, and addressing them (some years Lucy helps me, but this year she was busy with school projects).
You can see our cards from other years here:
2013 (tangerines), 2014 (merry red), 2015 (mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again…or rather, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas)
Of course I love receiving pictures and updates from our friends and family! The wall of cards in the house is always a highlight for the holidays.
This year I tried some fancy lettering on some of the envelopes. I didn’t do it on every card….but I wish I had time to because it’s GREAT handlettering practice! I highly recommend it.
And just like that, it’s back to work and 2017.
This year I’ve got some patterns in the works, more fabric collections, and my new Fiesta Fun Fabrics are IN STORES now! Check out the full line up here.
(Guess I need to do an updated post on that too).
I know my blogging life has morphed over the years and I’m not on here as much as I used to be. But I still read and enjoy all your comments and try to respond back. If there’s something you’d really like to see this year, let me know!
Happy New Year from our family to yours.
