Generally, I like to post things like this on my Instagram account but couldn’t help it. How pretty are those colors!!! I’m working on a fun new wedding invitation and the colors I’m using are just dreamy….. Love my desk at the moment and all of this mess ;)
This week has been really busy but so fun. I’m working on new wedding invitations design and I’m so excited about this new direction. Layers, textures, watercolor – can’t get any better than this. Here are few little snippets from the process.
One thing that is quickly becoming my obsession is watercolor lettering and calligraphy. I work mostly on branding and design project nowadays and working with brushes and paint gives me a nice break from the computer and pushes me in a different, more artsy direction. I quite like it. It’s been a while since I’ve created something with my hands. I share most of my daily work and life on Instagram, but will try to share a bit here.
Happy 2014, everyone! What has happened to 2013? How did it go by so quickly? It was a total blur, yet it was a great year. For me, it was the year of change. I’ve quit my job and enjoyed spending more time with my precious little family. I am still working out my resolutions for this year but I know for sure the top priority is to focus on my family. I also want to get my life organized, get rid of clutter, exercise and eat better, spend less time in front of computer, and just start fresh. I am ready to take on the new year. And this year I will follow my dreams.
Cheers to 2014!
Time to send out our holiday cards! Our holiday cards arrived from the print shop today and I couldn’t be more excited! I have already addressed all the envelopes and all I have to do now is write few wishes on the back side, seal the envelopes and make a trip to the post office. For the record, this has never happened before. I am usually so late that our cards arrive between Christmas and New Year.
This year, I kept the design simple with few favorite pictures our family (pup included) and my watercolor calligraphy. I also hand addressed all envelopes, practicing my calligraphy. The biggest challenge was the sparkly paper which makes the ink bleed with too much pressure. But they turned out pretty enough to send.
I’m a bit behind on this update but wanted you to know that the newest line of my holiday cards is available at HelloPrints.com.pl. If you/or anyone you know needs a card in polish please head over to the website. 
Hooray! As of today, Calligraphy Love – my holiday gift wrapping paper is available for sale! You can customize it with names, family photos, unique messages and more! It’s printed on luxe matte paper and available in sets of 5 sheets; each is 20″ x 28″ and costs $15.00. I’m dying to have this in my hands and cannot wait to use it for our Christmas gifts this year! This is going to make wrapping gifts this year SUPER fun! Kids will go bananas!
You can purchase it here.
You can also add the perfect finishing touch to all of your holiday gifts with these chic and customizable gift tags.
Or those adorable little stickers. Available here
.
Calligraphy love personalized wrapping paper comes in 3 different color ways. Below in raspberry and mint.
I have more good news this week! Please meet Calligraphy Love – my holiday gift wrap that will be available exclusively at Minted.com. It was an Editor’s pick in Minted’s Outside the Box Holiday Gift Wrap challenge. I feel lucky to have itpicked out of 464 submissions! Minted launched it’s inaugural collection of unique, personalizable gift wraps for the upcoming 2013 holiday shopping season and I’m excited to be included! I took some time off from working on my website redesign and submitted 2 designs for this challenge. I practiced my calligraphy, experimented with custom ink and obviously it paid off ;) Now, I can’t wait to buy my own wrapping paper! I’ll let you know as soon as it’s available for purchase.
UPDATE: You can purchase it here. 
This past weekend we took a day trip to the Hood Canal to spent the last sunny weekend outdoors. Hood Canal
is only 20 miles west of Seattle, however getting there from the Seattle area takes a couple of hours as you have to take a ferry. Of course, our day got thrown off as we missed it (we just assumed it wouldn’t be busy on
a off-season weekend) and missed the low tide. Instead of enjoying fresh oysters on the beach our children and
us spent the morning gathering shells and looking for crabs. We visited one of Luke’s clients who lives in the area and had fun running around and enjoying the fruit in his garden. Don was very generous to send some with us and we came home with bags full of the sweetest plums, pears, raspberries and strawberries. It’s probably no secret now that I really enjoy home canning. I rolled up the sleeves and got to work on making the most delightful plum jam or powidła (in polish.) This jam, so deliciously European, is my my favorite – naturally sweet and so aromathic! I knew, before I even made the jam, that I wanted to dressed them up with custom labels.
I calligraphed these labels with black ink on a heavy cotton paper and glued to the jar with a double stick tape.
I couldn’t help but add cute little branches with plums illustrations and some swirly doodles. I love how easy they’re done with a good calligraphy pen and nib. I’m so pleased with the results, in both aesthetics and taste! Yeah, I could eat this plum jam by the spoonful…
