New Year, New Ventures

Posted on January 1, 2013 by SarahS

Are you planning to start, expand, change, or grow your business this year? I am looking for people who need help with business cards, websites, brochures, facebook pages, etsy store fronts, branding, logos, any design project you can think of. What I am hoping for is to have at least one project per month that would be a mutually beneficial partnership. You need graphic design or business advice and I am willing to trade you for your goods :) If you make cards, jewelry, quilts, turkey burgers, whatever it is, we can work something out. No cash will change hands and we both end up with something useful :) In addition, anyone that does partner with me will be featured on my website as my latest project and also receive blog postings and link backs to your site, pushing your site up on the search engines. I know it sounds crazy but while I am helping you, you are allowing me to grow my portfolio and gain exposure for both of us so it is a win-win!

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Happy New Year

Posted on January 1, 2013 by SarahS

Happy 2013! May this year bring you everything you wish for and may you accomplish the goals you have in mind!

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Birthday Weekend

Posted on October 11, 2012 by SarahS

For my birthday we decided to head up to Portland, Maine because I have never been and there is a LOT of breweries up there. I figured it would give us a good mix of brew tours, food, and fun little shops to poke around in :)

We ended up hitting up a few breweries (Shipyard and Allagash) and actually made a stop at a Mead place called Maine Mead Works. I personally love brewery tours because it is so neat how many different flavors you can make and the tasting is an added benefit.

birthday_beer

Me at Allagash Brewery

I preferred Allagash for a few reasons:

  1. I liked their beers better
  2. We picked up a great tasting beer that was brewed on our wedding date and plan to drink it on our first anniversary
  3. …and I didn’t know this until later but I picked the best, most comfy t-shirt EVER! Even though it is a men’s small, it actually fits comfortably and is not hugely baggy

I did like Shipyard because their brew tour was short and sweet and their beer tasting was LONG! I think we had 5-7 samples but their beers are more hoppy which I do not like. They did have a room we watched a video in and we got to see all of the beers they brew for other companies, they brew A LOT of beer! I did LOVE their Pumpkin Smash beer, if you can find it and like flavored beer I highly suggest. Even hubby liked it and we typically do not like the same beers.

As far as the mead, it was my first taste of mead and this place actually takes the mead from being sweet into being more of wine. I think it was okay but I was hoping for more of an actual honey mead taste. If you are around Maine, I would suggest a tasting and possibly a tour just so you can try it out.

Either way, we had fun and ate some really great food. A nice birthday weekend all around.

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Honeymoon in Jamaica

Posted on September 1, 2012 by SarahS

We are back from our wonderful honeymoon in Jamaica. It was sunny and sometimes stormy but overall wonderful. We stayed at Braco Village Hotel in Runaway Bay and I would say the hotel itself was okay. The shower had a lot of jets which was really nice on the days we weren’t burnt :) and I met a cute little kitty on the resort.

We stayed for four nights and on our last night, went down to the beach with a bottle of wine and just enjoyed the sound of the ocean. We were lucky enough to catch a storm off in the distance which was really neat. I wish my camera could have caught it but we basically watched a lightning storm off in the distance over the ocean. It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen.

fixed_seat

Happy to be home but I sure do miss the ocean right off our patio :)

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Our Wedding Day :)

Posted on August 26, 2012 by SarahS

So I know we had a quick engagement and got our wedding together rather swiftly but I still can’t believe it came up so quickly!

wedding_rings

The day we selected was my Auntie Jerry’s birthday as well as my Grandparents anniversary and I must say, the day was gorgeous. It was not only meaningful but beautiful. The sun was shinning and our loved ones surrounded us.

wedding

It is off to Jamaica tomorrow!

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Wedding Place Cards, Cake Flavors, and Table Numbers. Oh My!

Posted on June 21, 2012 by SarahS

My friend that I made the invites for wanted to carry the same theme over to her actual wedding day and asked me to make her some place cards for her guests, cake flavor cards, and table numbers. I was more than happy to and glad to help.

Here are her invites as a refresher.invite_long

Here are the other items:
placecards
You can see the ivy and font stayed the same and I used the same shimmery paper to keep the entire look cohesive. It was a treat to walk into the wedding and see all the different things on display and hear the nice comments from her friends and family.

If you ever need help with wedding invites, programs, or any kind of craft project, please let me know. I am happy to help or give you any pointers I have picked up along the way.

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We’re Getting Married!

Posted on June 12, 2012 by SarahS

We are getting married! In just two and a half short months we will be saying our “I do”s and vowing to be together for life. Details to come as soon as we figure them out :)

we_are_engaged

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Fabric Paint- my new Love

Posted on June 7, 2012 by SarahS

I have recently started to use fabric paint on a few projects and I must say, I love it!

peacock_bag

Here is a tutorial about how I made a cute little Peacock bag for a friend.

Materials:
Magenta fabric ink
Silhouette 10SS Clear Rhinestones
Canvas Tote Bags
Silhouette SD machine or Silhouette Cameo Starter Kit Bundle Cutter (newer machine)
6″ x 12″Adhesive-Backed Vinyl
Silhouette SD Cutting Mats
iron
Transfer Paper
Sponge

I started with one of these Canvas Tote Bags and decided I wanted to jazz it up a little.

I found this cute peacock design (peacock_C01203_23067) by Hero Arts in the Silhouette online library and fell in love. I knew it would look perfect in this Magenta fabric ink. I cut the design using the Silhouette Machine and vinyl. After the design was cut, I placed the outside vinyl and inside accent pieces on Transfer Paper and applied it to the bag. Careful to place the edges down tightly so the fabric paint would not seep through. I used a Sponge to dab the magenta paint in the shape and allowed to dry. I filled in any spaces that looked like they needed a little more paint after and hour and let dry overnight.

The next day I took the rhinestones and placed them around the design, in the eye and around the plumes (unfortunately I can’t find an after the rhinestone photo). The rhinestones are iron-on so I ironed them on and the bag was finished! It wasn’t a difficult process but did take some time to complete. I personally think it was well worth it :)

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Patriotic Cupcakes

Posted on May 27, 2012 by SarahS

I made these cute little cupcakes for Memorial Day :) We were having a BBQ to welcome home BJ and to celebrate Memorial day and I thought this was a perfect time to try out a neat frosting idea from pinterest.

cupcake_finished

I used a white cake boxed mix and separated the batter into two bowls, one for red and one for blue to stay with the patriotic theme.
cupcake_colors

As you can see, I did half “red” which was really more like pink, and half “blue” because I planned on piping white frosting in the middle. The bottom purple cupcakes were the final three where I was running low on batter and just combined the two to stretch those last three out.
cupcake_filled

I did end up filling the cupcakes with frosting. You can do this by simply using a frosting gun (or a frosting bag) and inserting the top into the cupcake and squirting frosting in until the cupcake gets fat. It is actually pretty neat to watch it expand and see the frosting come out the top and it is always a surprise for your guests.
cupcake_frosting

I then took my cupcake bag and put the three colors of frosting in on bag. I used a store bought vanilla frosting and separated the frosting into three bowls, one for red, one for blue, and left the white in the original container. The effect turned out well. I liked how the red seemed to be on one side of the cupcake and the blue on the other while the white was in the middle. To finish them off I put the red and blue sprinkles on top and viola! An instant crowd pleaser!

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Loves a Flutter Onesie

Posted on May 20, 2012 by SarahS

While I was cutting out the different shapes for my thought onesies, there was a bit of material left over that I wanted to use up so I cut out a bunch of different size hearts using the Silhouette. I had known what I wanted to do with them and finally had a chance to create the onesie I had envisioned. I think this is completely adorable and I think I might try with a few different shapes.

hearts_onesie

I arranged them going up in a swirl so the onesie would look cute with or without bottoms on. Ironed them on them and I love how it came out!

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