CINCO DE MAYO PARTY DECOR - BANNERS

May 5th marks the Mexican Army's victory over the French invaders at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Why is that important, you might ask?  Well that victory brought us a wonderful excuse to celebrate the day with a margarita or 2.  To help with your Cindo de Mayo celebrations, I've put together a few party printables for your enjoyment.  Stay tuned all week for everything you'll need for a great party.

First off, banners.  I've put together big ones to decorate your wall and small ones that can be used as drink flags, mini cake bunting or even table confetti.  The options are endless. Download below.

If you decided to use these printable banners, I'd love to see pictures of your party!  Enjoy!

MUSIC MONDAY vol 48

I'm thrilled to share that I received my first international order to the shop this weekend. In honor of my Australian client, I thought it would be fun to feature my favorite song from the first band I had ever heard that was from Australia.

I give you Men at Work with Overkill.  Enjoy!

LESSON LEARNED: I'M NOT A WEB DESIGNER

PHOTO CREDIT - SPACE NINJA

I learned a very frustrating lesson yesterday, web designing is not my friend.  To sum up, my squareviewstudios.com site's registration was about to expire so I decided that it was time to take the bull by the horns and purchase a platform that offered me more customization.  

Long story short, after 9+ hours of banging my head against my laptop, I'm left with a .com site that went from plain jane but serviceable, to one that  looks terrible!  I walked away from that mess bleary eyed in the wee hours because I simply couldn't look at it anymore. 

Lesson learned - don't jump in and change something without some sort of back-up plan.  

The worst of it is I couldn't even figure out how to get back to where I started.  My second lesson learned through all this is get back on the horse and try again.  That is my game plan for today.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to at least the plain jane but serviceable look.

I think it my be time to hire a professional. Anyone have any suggestions?

THE PURPOSE-BASED BUSINESS MANIFESTO by Jess Lively

I've mentioned Jess Lively in a few posts already, but I feel compelled to talk about her again.  If you're not familiar, Jess "helps people refine (or define) their purpose and determine the next steps to make their vision a reality." 

Jess made several updates to her site recently and those updates included a new Purposed-Based Business Manifesto.  Five short sentences is all it took to get me hooked.

Click here to read the full Manifesto.  If you're building a online business, you'll be happy that you did.

MUSIC MONDAY vol 47

This week's Music Monday suggestion came directly from Mr. Squareview.  We were watching the History Channel's Vikings last night and we were discussing this moody little number (it is from the title credits).  He exclaimed "Hey! Perfect Music Monday contender."

I, ahem, I mean, Mr. Squareview gives you Fever Ray with If I Had a Heart.  Enjoy!

CLIENT PROJECT: MOVING ANNOUNCEMENTS

A dear friend of mine just bought her first home. A beautiful (and huge!) condo just a handful of blocks northeast of mine in Chicago. She wanted to share this wonderful news with all her friends & family so she asked me to design an announcement for her.

We came up with the idea to highlight the front of her new building in the design.  You can't really tell from these photos, but we used a gorgeous watercolor effect to add just the right amount of whimsy to the photo of her condo building. That coupled with the simple note of "home sweet new home" and her announcement was complete.

The entire suite looked beautiful when assembled. And, I'm not at all ashamed to say that I talked her into the envelope liner - it made such a difference.  I hope all the recipients of her announcement take care as they open their mail as not to destroy the full effect - I truly believe letter openers are the devil!

MINTIE FRESH: CHILDREN'S PARTY INVITATIONS

Voting is now open at Minted for the latest Come Join the Fun! Kid's Party Invitations challenge.

This challenge was so much fun for me and I wish I had had more time to enter a few additional submissions.   The ideas were brewing, the clock and my schedule just were not cooperating!

Check out my four submissions below (most with matching party decor!). As always, if you like what you see, please vote for me!

INVITATION:

party invitations - Wagon Wheels

MATCHING PARTY DECOR:

party decor - Wagon Wheels

INVITATION:

party invitations - it's a pirate's life for me

MATCHING PARTY DECOR:

party decor - it's a pirate's life for me

INVITATION:

party invitations - Uncle Sam wants you

MATCHING PARTY DECOR:

party decor - Uncle Sam wants you

And last but not least, one for the girls.  

party invitations - Toe Shoes

Happy Tuesday!

MUSIC MONDAY vol 46

After an unintentional week long hiatus from posting, I'm back & I have a fun week in store for you all!

Let's start if off with Fitz & The Tantrums new one Out of My League.  Enjoy!

MUSIC MONDAY vol 45

Feeling bad for Sylvia, but a gorgeous video and great song so worth a share. I give you Passion Pit with Cry Like a Ghost.

HELP SAVE HAMILTON

Happy Friday all!  Today I wanted to share this video.  Check out how you can help contribute.  Enjoy!

IN THE STUDIO: A PROGRESSION OF A PROJECT 2

In the second post of my series In The Studio, I wanted to share my progress.  If you'll recall, I was asked to design a nursery art piece for a client's daughter.  Below is my first pass:

Like I mentioned, I liked the modern flowers, but felt the the overall design was getting too busy.

I decided to remove the name and instead focus on her initial.  This change allowed me to still use the flowers I liked, but in a more focused, less busy way through the wreath.  Here is the result:

Stay tuned for next months post to see how it all comes together!

MUSIC MONDAY vol 44

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! To continue with the bunny theme (OK, it's a bit of a reach J) I give you Frightened Rabbit with a new single from their upcoming album. Enjoy!