Customizable Party Invites

With Thanksgiving just a day away, it is officially the holiday season which = parties galore. I love this time of year when everyone puts down their normal routine for awhile and makes a special effort to spend time with their loved ones.

I made an invitation for our Friendsgiving feast last weekend and had so much fun doing it I decided to create a few more. I recently stumbled on a site called PicMonkey which is not only (mostly) free, but very user-friendly. I sprang for their 'premium' service which gives me access to some of their more advanced graphics and fonts because for the price of $5/mo - or $3/mo if you buy a whole year at a time - I figured it would be worth it.

I've had a lingering cold all week so on the doctor's Mike's orders, I took it easy yesterday and whipped up these fun invitations by drawing from inspiration around the web. I love receiving an invite via snail mail, but sometimes we aren't on top of it or don't want to spend the money in printing and postage and for that I've found an emailed invite does the trick.

Below are the four invites I created ready for your customization by following these steps:

1) Right-click on the invite you want below and select 'Save Image As' on your computer.

2) Go to picmonkey.com and select 'Edit a Photo' from the banner at the top of the screen and choose the saved invite from your computer.

3) To add text, select the text icon from left-hand menu, pick the font you want, and then press 'add text'.

4) From here you can change the size, color, and position of your text to fit the invitation. Under the invitation below I've listed the font type and html code for the color I used in my examples if you want to copy those. Using the html code is the easiest way to get a specific color and can easily be changed here (this box will pop up when you select 'add text')

5) Once you have all your information in & positioned correctly, save it to your computer and you're done!

Cheers

Font: Quicksand
Color: 544a43


Candy Cane

Font: Sue Ellen Francisco / Tall Dark and Handsome
Color: 000000 (black) / ffffff (white)


2014

Font: Geo Sans Light / Learning Curve

Color: 000000

Art Deco

Font: Quicksand
Color: d38e00

Cheers everyone! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Much Needed Vacation

That's right! Nine full days of holiday cheer and not a tax form in sight. 

Today is day three but I started my vacation with a living room and kitchen full of my favorite people for a little Friendsgiving celebration. Mike and I divvied up the leftovers knowing that more turkey is just a few days away but were definitely hoarding the apple pie and enjoying it slowly over our perfect lazy Sunday yesterday.

Today has been a whirlwind of to-do's but it feels good that it's only Monday and I have the laundry done, oil in my car changed, and the house clean. 

Mike and I are sneaking away to Davis for a feast with his family on Thursday but I hope to squeeze in as many house updates and crafty projects as I can before I have to back to work. On the list is:

+ a closet/spare bedroom before and after

+ holiday party invites for readers to download and customize

+ an IKEA art makeover

+ some kitchen drawer pizzazz

+ a wedding moodboard

+ and some DIY gifts 

Stay tuned... I'm off to watch the Niners whoop the Redskins. 

Elegance

"Do you know what elegance is? 

It is not only what you're wearing,

 it is how you wear it, 

who you are inside. 

It is the way you decorate your house, 

what you surround yourself with, 

what books you read and what your interests are."

-Carolina Herrera

Sometimes elegance is associated with snobbery but I think the way Carolina describes it is such a worthy goal and a resolution I plan to stick with this coming year. At 25, I realize I'm still very young but something happened this year where all-of-a-sudden, I feel like a grown up. 

But don't worry friends, I'm not planning on abandoning my goofiness any time soon -- I just want to be more mindful of my thoughts and how I present myself both at work and in my personal life. 

I know it's only November, but what personal attributes are you hoping to focus on this upcoming year?