Chalk Art Festival 2014

Geoff and I went to the Gateway Mall this past weekend to see all the amazing art created at the Chalk Art Festival. It's amazing how much time was spent on these art pieces, and how talented the artists who participated are!

Where's Geoff?

Bridal Shower Gift Design

One of my favorite college roommates of all time had her bridal shower a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to personally design her a gift in her wedding colors that I knew she would love. I designed this simple "And they lived happily ever after" sign. It turned out perfect, and she absolutely loved it! It's currently for sale in my Etsy shop, I personalize the colors, names and wedding date!

In Memory of Catherine Rose Lewis

On May 20, my step-mom Cathy passed away after battling cancer for five years. She went through seven different chemo treatments and two radiations. It's been pretty hard on everyone that was close to Cathy, but for me it's comforting to know that she is in a better place and doesn't have to suffer anymore. She was only expected to live a few months after she was diagnosed, and it's definitely been a blessing on my dad and everyone else in her life to have her around much longer than that.

I flew into Seattle on Wednesday, May 28th, to spend some time with my dad and go to Cathy's funeral on Friday, May 30th. It was great seeing Cathy's family and friends that I haven't seen in years, and by years I mean like 10 years or more! There was around 200 people at her funeral and many more that weren't able to come but wished they could have, which just goes to show how much she was loved. Cathy was a labor and delivery nurse at Evergreen Hospital for 34 years, so lots of her former nurse co-workers came to her funeral. A few of them said how much of an impact she had on them when they worked together. She loved delivering babies and always put the expectant moms first above anything else.

Cathy has one daughter named Kristin, who happened to lose her dad to cancer less than a year ago. I can't even imagine losing both parents, in less than a year nonetheless, to cancer. I admire her strength that has helped her get through those rough times. Her husband Dave is so amazing and has been the best support for her, I'm grateful she has him in her life.

Cathy ended up passing away much sooner than expected. The doctors were expecting her to live at least a couple more months so told my dad to setup hospice in their home, which is what he did and they started coming on Mother's Day. But she ended up passing away only 9 days after. I'm grateful that she was in the comfort of her own home, surrounded by her closest friends and family members, when she passed.

Going through losing my step-mom has made me realize even more than I already do that life is too precious to not make the most of it. Tell those you love that you love them as often as you can. Be the type of person you would want to be remember as once you are gone. Smile and be happy as much as possible, since being mad is a waste of time!

Cathy and I in Cabo, March 2010

The Lewis' after Cathy's funeral. My dad and his siblings
have not all been together since my grandma passed away,
which was 16 years ago!

Surprise 50th Birthday Invitations

This has just been a design month for me! But I've been enjoying designing, so I hope you are enjoying my blog posts about my designs :)

My cousin Nicole asked me to design some invitations for her step-mom's surprise 50th birthday party. Although she found an invite design on Pinterest she really liked, I was having trouble finding any cute scrapbook paper-looking letters that would work for what she showed me! So, I started playing around and after finding the most adorable little pink birthday cake, this is the design I came up with! It's pretty simple but I am so in love with it. 

Our Wedding Invitations and Thank You's

I decided to design mine and Geoff's wedding invitations and wedding thank you's myself. And I'm glad I did because I love how both turned out! We sent out our invites at the beginning of March and our thank you's in the middle of May. If you haven't seen them for yourself in your mailbox, here's how they turned out!

Invitations (5x7, 16pt. dull cover with matte finish):

Thank You Postcards (4x6, 14pt. gloss coated cover with UV)

Baby Shower Invitations

I designed these invites for my cousin Sydney's baby shower around three months back and have yet to post them on my blog... until now! I thought they turned out pretty cute. Her shower colors were coral and mint, so those are the colors used on the invites. The back is a coral chevron that matches and lines up with the front chevron design. You can click on the invite images to see them more clearly!

These were the first baby show invites I have designed and hope to be able to design more later on!

 

One Month Down, Eternity to Go!

Yesterday marked one full month of Geoff and I being a married couple, and what a great month it has been! We went to Hawaii, have been getting settled into our first little place together, making yummy food and treats and just enjoying one another's company. We both agree that it's much better saying "Goodnight" than "Goodbye" when the evening time rolls around. The last month of being engaged was hard. We hated leaving one another. So luckily we only have to say goodbye when we leave for work, which isn't too bad knowing we will be with each other again later that day :)

On Saturday, since Geoff had the day off which never happens, we decided to spend the afternoon in Antelope Island. I've been wanting to go so we could play with our new camera and see Salt Lake from a different, less-busy angle. Aside from the gnats being annoying and constantly in our face, it was quite enjoyable! We saw lots of bison and a few antelope. We drove to the Fielding Garr Ranch which was pretty neat and filled with history. Here's a little bit about the history from Wikipedia. I think it's way cool to learn about!

Geoff loves his Canada Dry, even if it's over
100 years old in a dark cellar!

Oldest house in Utah!

Sheep barn where they would shear the sheep.

A view of Salt Lake City from Antelope Island.