London Baby! Summer Olympics 2012

Like so many this past weekend, I spend a decent amount of time watching the beginning of the Olympic Games in London! I did miss most of the opening ceremony, but was able to catch Paul McCartney singing The End and Hey Jude   and that pretty much made my night. 

What I want to talk about though is this year's Olympic logo. 

This logo was a topic of discussion, along with a lot of mockery at the design conference I went to last month, and it is interesting to look at how its been executed during the games. 

Before and "Almost" After...

HELLO MY BLOGGER FRIENDS!!! 

Today I am celebrating my 1 year mark with Weight Watchers. Now I'm not here to endorse the program or try to make everyone want to join, but I do want to share a little bit of my journey with you (don't worry I'll make it short and sweet).

In May of 2011 I had just graduated college, gotten engaged, and started the job searching process. Everything was looking pretty good...except me. Now I have never fully been happy with my weight. This is something I've struggled with since I was a little girl. I always thought I would be too heavy to just run up to my mom or dad and have them lift me up like I would see my cousins do with their parents. I even remember in preschool, on Grandparents Day, telling my Grandma to let me know if I was squishing her when I sat on her lap. Although there was constantly this internal struggle with my weight, I also never looked at myself as obese. I knew I was just curvy and build a bit different than other girls. 

Once July rolled around I found myself with a full time graphic design job, an income that would pay for more than my monthly rent, and the financial means to do something I've always considered but never actually did. I joined Weight Watchers. 

The rest is pretty much history. I go to weekly meetings, absolutely LOVE my leader, and have had my eyes opened to what I was doing in the past that were the major factors of my weight. I have learned that there is a reason things are measured into portion sizes, and more often than not, that is just the amount I need. Fruits and veggies have become my best friend, and I actually look forward to my work outs! 

So after 1 year, I am down 24 lbs and am getting closer to my final goal every day. The journey has been tough, and some weeks (or months) I am so frustrated that all I want is to eat a package of Oreos and call it a night. But my support team (aka Eric) always is there for me to vent, and I know that even after I eat those cookies I'm still not going to feel better. 

I'll end this by saying THANKS! to everyone who gave me the motivation to keep going or said a kind word that makes it all worth while. Thank you so much. And to everyone out there wondering if they would be able to do the program, I say GO FOR IT!!! 

You have nothing to loose, and everything to gain (pun intended).  :) 

Wedding Invitations!

I am obsessed with paper and all things made from paper. Invitations being one of my major addictions. I have a little portfolio album filled with every wedding invitation and program I have ever been to. I just think its fascinating how each couple creates something different and it always seems to reflect their character and personality. 

When it came to designing my OWN wedding invitations though I thought to myself, "There is NO WAY I'm ever going to be able to design something and then be happy with it!" I was positive that it would never be quite done and I would always be wanted to change or improve it. So I talked to another designer to help me create and order everything I would need for my invitations. Well, being a designer and extremely anal when it comes to detail,spacing, kerning, things lining up etc... I ended up designing my own invitations anyhow.  

AND IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! 

I ended up with exactly what I wanted and thanks to the fabulous help from 571 Invitations  everything turned out beautifully. 

So since I can't keep anything I'm super excited about a secret for long, here are some pictures of my wedding invitations! I hope you like them and for those of you sharing my special day you should be getting your own real life invitation soon! 

There you go! 

I hope you love them as much as I do. Getting married and planning a wedding has been such a fun, crazy, exciting, and truly wonderful experience. And to all you other future brides out there congratulations and good luck!!!