Blessed Christmas Card - Cherish Every Moment

This is a Christmas card I designed when my boys were younger. I had just had my 3rd and last son and was feeling so overwhelmingly blessed by my family and the life that God had given me. It was a simple life but so full of love and laughter. Obviously with a newborn and life in general, things weren’t always easy, but I wanted to really focus on the blessings I had in my life. I was constantly thinking about cherishing every moment with my boys, for one, because this little baby was my last, but also because all my boys were growing and changing so quickly and the days and weeks and years were just flying by! And here I am now - I blinked, and that little baby is 7 and it’s the last year I’ll have with no teenagers!

As I work on my current Christmas card, I still feel so full of gratitude. Our life isn’t perfect, and we have had all sorts of ups and downs, but I still find myself overwhelmed with all that I’m blessed with. I’m so thankful for my husband and how well he takes care of his family and how much he loves each one of us. I’m excited about new creative ventures and future possibilities. I’m thankful for friendships and memories made this year! I’m thankful we now have my family AND my husband’s parents living close to us. I’m thankful for things I’ve learned this year and the way God opens and closes doors to guide us through life. I’m thankful for a cozy house and food on the table. We have hopes, dreams and goals for the future, but we are in want of nothing, really.

I focus our Christmas card on our boys (rather than the whole family) because I look forward to taking the photo of them each year and honestly, family photos don’t always happen each year. I zoom in on those faces each year, and I’m reminded of all that my husband and I are blessed with. My boy are learning and growing, and they are healthy and happy. They have made new friends and have been good friends. They’re surrounded by a great grandparent, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who love them and support them. They love God and have a beautiful church family and many friends who add so much to their lives. They love each other and they love life. They’re crazy and full of energy, drive each other nuts on some days, but they have kind hearts and they love each other fiercely. Each day holds it’s challenges, but they’re learning skills to carry them through life with strength and positivity. I hope they always see how blessed they are, because even through the hard times, there is always something to be thankful for!

Now that I’m getting all emotional, back to business - you can find this Christmas card design in my etsy shop here. I’m working on getting different Christmas card designs up in my shop. I’d love the chance to design your Christmas card now or in the future! I typically come up with a couple of unique designs each year and add them to the collection of designs I’ve done over the years. And I’m always open to new ideas if you would like something unique designed!

I hope you all have a holiday season full of blessings and thankfulness and you are able to cherish each moment amidst the hustle and bustle of the holiday. This year I am trying to simplify and enjoy what really matters - spending quality time with my family and making simple memories. Kids grow fast and people pass away, so make the most of each moment (without stressing yourself out about it!) and have a beautiful holiday season!

Peachy Keen

I entered the current Spoonflower design challenge: Western Americana. The prompt was “to celebrate the rich heritage and rugged landscapes in this adventurous frontier to create a crowd-pleasing design that looks like it would belong on home decor and apparel use cases you’d see in a saloon, on a ranch or at a rodeo.”

I decided to submit a more feminine design. Maybe one you’d see in a girl’s bedroom or maybe on her horse blanket or a dress she may wear.

I added this pattern to my spoonflower shop and named it Peachy Keen, an old western phrase. I have other color variations I’m playing around with as well that I will add to my shop at some point, but this color scheme best fit the challenge.

Melody

This is one of the patterns I have been working on. I named it Melody since it was the first pattern I worked on in the collection, and it set the stage for the other designs. It is one of the hero patterns as it can stand alone but can also be easily paired with some of my simpler designs.

I started out by sketching musical symbols and some designs made up of piano parts. You can clearly see the piano hammer incorporated into this design, as well as the “rest” symbol, for those of you who are musicians. After I sketched, I scanned the drawings into my design program, cleaned them up and turn them into vector art so I had more freedom to change sizes and move pieces around. Vector art can be scaled to any size without losing any detail, unlike pixels. I think there may be a time to work in pixels for certain kinds of detailed artwork, but because I didn’t know the end use of this pattern, I wanted to be able to scale it to any size. Once I finished the motifs, I then started putting patterns together and working with color.

This pattern is now available in my Spoonflower shop. It can be ordered as fabric, wallpaper or on a variety of household decor items. I will be adding patterns to this collection one-by-one to my shop, so check back for more.

My First Copyright Registration for My First Pattern Collection

It took all summer to finally get my copyright registration in the mail, but I am SO excited to start sharing my first pattern collection!

I had an amazing summer with my family and was able to make all sorts of memories. My boys are back in school, so with this new chunk of time in my schedule and the registration in my hand, I’m ready to share my inspiration for this collection and to start designing my next collections!