The last of my end of week/weekend to-do list was crossed off just as June ended. At first glance (and second, and third) my list was daunting. After spending all of my mental energy early last week on getting the last of the day-of paper needs out the door for my last two spring weddings (okay, June is summertime, but I still considered them spring weddings) I needed to turn most of my end of week/weekend focus towards getting invitations wrapped up for two September weddings. Thanks to Mike and my friend Nichole, we were able to get some of the heavy lifting (cutting ribbon, tying 120 bows and putting the invitations together) out of the way on Thursday night. Nichole came back for round 2 Friday evening (she must be a glutton for punishment) and we cut out 100 metallic purple envelope liners for another wedding. Mike had gigs with his band Get Well Cards on both Friday and Saturday night so he missed out on the envelope liner cutting action.
Saturday morning I had 20 stamps to package so I decided to make the same breakfast that I made Mike on our first Saturday Hot Breakfast: bacon/egg cups. I figured that they were easy to make the first time and that since they have to bake for 30 minutes, that would give me more time with the packaging of stamps before Mike woke up. I decided to add cut up sun-dried tomato sausage to the cups as well. While the packaging got done – but I couldn’t say the same for breakfast when it came out of the oven. Mike was awake by this time and saw me trying with little success to get the bacon/egg/sausage cups out of the muffin tin (I swear they practically fell out the first time I made them!). Once released from their chambers we took one look at the lower part of the bacon and noticed that it was not cooked. Being pregnant (and a human being) uncooked bacon was not an option. Eventually the bacon cooked enough and we were able to eat breakfast – but it certainly wasn’t as pretty as the first time I made that particular recipe…
You can see the comparison between the first time that I made this recipe (left) and how Saturday’s version turned out (right)
After a, er, hearty breakfast we needed to get ready for our day of errands. This included taking passport photos (yay for having a good camera, a white fridge and photoshop to take out the handle/label from the photo). Mike looks the same as he always does in ID photos – no joke, his face never changes. I decided not to smile (I’m convinced that my face has rounded out since becoming pregnant which is highlighted when I smile in photos and cannot turn my head just slightly) since I’m going to have to live with this photo for the next 10 years.
Since Mike was getting a passport for the first time, he needed to bring his birth certificate with him to the Post Office, which meant that we needed to swing by his parents house to obtain that. We got to the post office just in time before a long line formed (I love it when that happens) and were out relatively quickly, Mike just had to take a quick oath and I needed to drop of the 20 packages from earlier (thanks to prepaid shipping labels that took about 20 seconds verses the 30 minutes it would have taken otherwise).
Next stop was Home Depot. The impending rain (that never actually happened over by our house) kept Mike from painting the garage on Saturday – but that wasn’t the end of the world since we still needed to buy the paint… and the hose for the air compressor… and the painting attachment. Over $200 later (I swear you cannot leave Home Depot without spending at least $175) we were back on the road for a quick stop to Jewel and then onto my parent’s house to pick up a package that I’d had shipped there. We got home with enough time to eat lunch while watching an episode of the West Wing (we’re in Season 6) before heading out to Mike’s uncle and aunt’s house for a birthday party for his grandmother. After a day on the go, I finally got to plant myself in one spot and spend an enjoyable evening mingling with Mike’s extended family – but Mike was only able to stay for a couple hours before he was off again to the second Get Well Cards gig.
While Mike played basketball on Sunday morning, I went to hang out with my mom while she scrapbooked and I took those 100 envelope liners from Friday, stamped them by hand with two different stamps and then adhered them to the envelopes that they’d be living in. That took up the entire morning. By the time I got back home it was time to photograph some stationery for both Studio255 and Peas & Thank You Paperie.
Wedding invitation suite, mailed in tins instead of envelopes, tied with a loose-weave Italian ribbon, featuring a double Z-fold invitation and 4 additional cards
Close-up of wedding invitation. Prop is a pocket watch – I assume that it was Mike’s grandfather’s.
RSVP post card front and back. Prop is that same pocket watch, but turned over.
All interior cards found inside the tin along with the ribbon that ties them all together.
Baby shower invitation with a stamped, lined envelope
Minimal birth announcement with a matching lined kraft paper envelope. Prop is loos-weave Italian ribbon.
Gender neutral birth announcement with lined white envelope. Color on announcement can be switched out.
Meanwhile, while I was photographing stationery, Mike was outside starting to paint the garage. He’s gathered some key learnings, the biggest of which is that the wind is not your friend when you’re using an air compressor to paint outside. Although we had a gorgeous sunny, mildly warm Sunday – there was just enough wind to keep Mike from being able to use the spray gun’s full capability. This meant that he had to spray very close to the garage with a thin paint stream so that the paint wouldn’t blow away. So currently our the parts of our garage that got painted look more graffitied than finished. Looks like we’ll need another coat or two. I’d post photos, but I think Mike would prefer that you view the final product rather than the current state that the garage is in. In the meantime, here are some images of the air compressor that I got him for his birthday and the spray guns at Home Depot.
The weekend ended with Mike at work doing a set strike and myself attempting to make it look less like a tornado tore through our house (it tends to get that way when I’m assembling stationery and photographing it).
Sydney & Mike 