Lucy's invitations are printed, and I am LOVING them. Pictures do not do them justice - they are printed on the prettiest pearlized card stock.  I took the file to Staples and they printed 15 4x6s for me (five sheets of paper) for just under $7.


I already had some 4x6 envelopes on hand, but they were just white and well, that's boring. It felt wrong to put something so pretty into something so plain, so I decided to jazz them up a bit.  Ready for the easiest DIY project ever?



I simply went on Google and searched for "vintage lace background," found the one I liked, opened it up in Publisher to the size I wanted it (just slightly more narrow than the envelopes) and printed them off.  Then, using a paper cutter, I cut them down to size.



My next step was to glue my paper and then just slip it in the envelope, pressing it down to make it stick.



The only problem?  Slapping pretty paper on the inside doesn't help the envelope look pretty upon arrival.  So I took my same lace image, opened it up in Publisher, cropped it down to the sizes I needed for return labels and address labels, then typed up the addresses in both.  I printed them off, cut them  out and glued them on with a glue stick.

Seriously - easiest upgrade ever.  Best part?  It was free.  Between designing these invites myself and fixing up some envelopes I already had, I managed to spend less than $7 on a great first party impression.  Hope our friends and family enjoy opening these up!

alright, i'm officially ready.  it's a good thing, too, considering it's now after midnight, which means 30 for 30 has officially started.  i have 29 picks right now, with the intent of buying one more thing.  i know, i know...that's against the rules.  but today was a bit crazy and i didn't get to forever21 like i wanted.  i figure it's allowed because i already know what i want (a long-sleeved mustard tee).

ready to see my picks?

five pairs of pants:

Gap, Maurices, LOFT (x3)

 two skirts:

thrifted, & forever21

Ralph Lauren, H&M, Eddie Bauer, H&M, thrifted, J.Crew, LOFT

 three cardigans:

Forever21, Target, Old Navy

 four sweaters:

Wet Seal, Gap, Kohl's, Banana Republic

 two blazers:

Eddie Bauer & thrifted

 three pairs of boots:

Alloy, JC Penney (x2)

 three pairs of shoes:

Bandolino, thrifted, Target

i've also decided to go a step further with this challenge by throwing in a "10 under 10"...ten items out of my thirty are each under $10.

they consist of the following:

1. gray skinny pants (shown in the middle above)
2. pink skirt (only $1)
3. olive H&M shirt (second in picture)
4. white H&M tunic (fourth in picture)
5. striped navy shirt (fifth in picture - only $1)
6. striped J.Crew shirt (sixth in picture)
7. Old Navy blue cardigan
8. cinnamon-colored turtleneck
9. black blazer
10. mary janes

today i'm linking up to Everybody, Everywear to show off muh stripes along with a lot of other fabulous ladies.

last week, John and Sherry over at Young House Love hosted a giveaway from Nella Designs that left me absolutely pining.  as one of only 3,630 entries, i totally thought the odds were working in my favor.  so you can imagine my surprise and disappointment when i wasn't the winner.

can i have one for every room, please?

i would love to purchase a custom silhouette from Nella Designs, but my pockets are a bit shallow right now, at least when it comes to purchasing things for my closet and our home.  so i decided to have a crack at it myself.  surely it can't be hard.  hmmm...now what is it that all of these tools in Photoshop do?

clearly i had no idea what i was doing.  luckily for me, the internet is a beautiful thing.  all i had to do was search for "silhouette in Photoshop" and i was led here.  and when i had no idea how to use the pen tool?  oh, looky here.

after just a couple hours of playing around, here's what i ended up with: