New blog

Hi!  I'm now blogging over at Doubly Happy.  Please visit me there!

Read more...

Love Illustrated

I've often thought I'd make a good cartoon: I have a cartoonish face (big eyes, smushy nose, buck teeth) and a cartoonish life (I swear an anvil* nearly dropped on my head the other day), and I've got all types of silly schemes I am looking forward to implementing against an evil nemesis.

* Ok, it was a hammer, but close enough.

But since Tom already has Jerry, and Jem the Misfits, I have to satisfy my desire for an illustrated life elsewhere.  Our friend's sister, Dina Kantor, made me this sweet illustration based on our favorite wedding photo after I fell in love with the whimsical illustration and photography work on her blog and website.

Illustration by Dina Kantor (Sam and Gertie Photography)

Since our second(!) anniversary is coming up, I was thinking of maybe having the illustration printed on canvas or simply framed as part of an anniversary gift -- sort of like this framed version of an illustration Dina created for my sister- and brother-in-law to commemorate the arrival of our niece:

Image source: Dina Kantor (Sam and Gertie Photography)

It's pretty awesome, right?  (I particularly like how the illustration picked up on all the details important to my BIL and SIL: the framed photo of our parents dancing and the Dylan and Springsteen prints.)

Image Source: Dina Kantor (Sam and Gertie Photography)

For her own wedding, Dina created a display of illustrations she made of family wedding photos.  It's such a charming and modern take on a traditional concept.

Image Source: Dina Kantor (Sam and Gertie Photography)

The most genius touch, though, is that she made a framed illustration of each of her wedding guests, which doubled as favors and escort cards.  I so wish we could have had something personal and fun like these instead of the semi-useless tchotchkes we imposed on our guests.

Sigh.  Maybe for the next wedding.  ;-P  I kid, I kid.

What are your favorite personalized gifts?  Any additional ideas for second anniversary gifts?

Read more...

Our Wedding Album!

We got married eons ago, but look at the gorgeous surprise that arrived at our door this week: our wedding album!

Our wonderful photographer, Leigh Miller, created so many beautiful images of our wedding weekend that it took Mr. ADD and Ms. Procrastinator forever to choose the photos for the album.  I must say, though, that it's actually kind of fun to have the album come so many months after the wedding.  Not only were we wedding'd out for a while, we were also so saturated with media from the weekend that I don't think we would have appreciated the album quite as much.  Now that some time has passed, it's lovely to have a chance to reminisce about the wedding itself (and to curse the pounds we've put on since).

Leigh uses Cypress for her albums.  The company's bookbinding and matting work is meticulous, and their album designs are timeless and beautiful.

We ordered the "Cypress Album," which is a ribbon- or library-bound album in a presentation box.

Cypress has an array of sumptuous fabric and ribbon colors.  We chose to go with a monochromatic palette that reflects our wedding colors.  The album cover is in "light plum," the silk ribbon is "plum," and the box is covered in "plum brocade."  My photos don't do the fabrics justice: the album cover has the shine and texture of silk shantung.

Leigh designed the layout, and Cypress individually mounted each photo onto matted pages.  Of course, for a paperphile like me, the deckled edges and thick, luxurious feel of the album pages are totally swoon-worthy.

Over all, we're really excited about how the album turned out; it's a special heirloom that we hope we and our kids and grandkids will enjoy long after 3D holograms replace digital photography.

The only downside to using Cypress is that their albums don't come cheap.  I'm not sure we would have splurged on such an extravagant keepsake, but we were lucky to have been given the album as a wedding present by a group of very generous wedding guests.

Did you end up getting a wedding album?  And where do you keep it in your house?  I feel like we need to build some museum-quality showcase for something this pretty!  Our place is so not worthy of housing such a lovely item.

Read more...