Quirky illustrated invites

Unfussy and adorable:

(Megan + Daniel at Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Oh! It turns out these are designed by Kathleen, whose own wedding invites had the lovely vellum paper/typewrite/kraft paper combo I posted about previously. Note the ampersand modified to include a heart, clever. I think I would've preferred a softer font/layout for the main info card (the one that says Megan Daniel), it might suit the watercolor illustrations better.

Watercolor illustrations (and pen drawings, a la Danny Gregory) are something I've always wanted to develop as a skill. I'm not an Artist or really a sketcher or drawer but I do enjoy slipping into that right brain drawing mode when I've taken art classes. This is really, really dorky but after I made a Personal Development Plan (PDP) for work (yeah, I know, but really it's helped with prioritizing which things I want to work on!), I made a rough one for personal hobbies and pursuits, which has the following items on it:

1. Create a beautiful, cozy, organized home (we're moving again in a few weeks! so posting may die down a bit again, or just continue on the mostly fluffy here's cool stuff I found on other blogs vein I've had going thus far while we get into and settle in the new place. I haven't been entirely pleased with the job that I'd done with our current apartment but I'll chalk it up to not really loving the space all that much)
2. Develop a regular exercise routine with dance classes (possibly at this studio in Hoboken, which would be convenient since it's right near the PATH train) and long walks with Dan. Maybe also the yoga classes Meghan and Abby have been taking, and maybe restarting that Couch-to-5K plan that I've tried a few different times so far and got most of the way through once. A good friend of mine just completed her first 5K this past weekend and I was so happy for her! I often wish that liking running would come to me more easily. I recently gave up my gym membership, since we're moving, and that's been a relief. Definitely not going to become a gym person when I didn't go often to a gym that was just around the corner from our current apartment.
3. Fix up wardrobe with own sewing work and learning to sew tops and dresses, working towards the wedding dress (aka 'fun easygoing red dress that I will put in the effort to make muslin mockups and such and that I will be able to wear again afterwards without causing a scene). Once most of the work in outfitting the new apartment is done, I'd like to take some of the classes offered by Sew Fast Sew Easy, starting with their Intermediate skirt class and progressing to the advanced classes on dressmaking.
4. (and finally winding up the earlier topic, here in 4th place is) Illustrated watercolor journaling. This instructional DVD on 'Beginning Watercolor Journaling' seems like it'd be a good substitute for an in-person class, though I've also found some drawing and painting the city classes that might be fun as well. There's a slight chance I might be able to take the 'Illustrated watercolor journaling' class in California at the end of June when I'm out there for a work trip, but I'd have to work out a way to get to Santa Cruz Mountains from the Palo Alto area.

I'm really no artsy-crafty paragon or anything like that, though. Abby graciously bequeathed some of her magazines to me so I can create an inspiration board of colors and textures for the wedding and I'll post a picture of what I've got so far when I get a chance. My Costume Design* teacher always said I needed to do more editing on my mood boards, a concept I understand a little better now, but I still just enjoy a wide range of different things that that's hard for me to do. 

*Again don't get me wrong, I was a Biology/Psychology double major in school. Costume Design was one of those classes that I took when I had my mid-college 'rebellion' against my parents wanting me to finish the bio major and I was just like, FINE, I will TAKE 7 classes when most people take 5 so that I can fit in both majors, a fun class, and study abroad in Melbourne the next semester. I'll show you! Ha! Anyway Costume Design ended up being one of the best classes I took in college**, it was just so fun to have 'make a collage' and 'collect fabric swatches' as homework assignments. I'd take breaks from my harder classes by doing homework for this fun class instead.

**Other great classes include Australian Wildlife Biology (here's a species of ___ only found in Australia, we're not sure if it's still around or not, the last time we sighted it was 15 years ago when it was discovered in the stomachs of some roadkill in the dessert...), Intro Physics (loved the professor that much), and of course the Western Cultural Tradition classes we had to take as part of the honors program, where I learned critical thinking and how to actually propose and defend a thesis in a paper (I did not come out of high school with very much of this particular skill).

***There isn't actually a 3 asterisk next to something, I just wanted to point out that I have somewhat intentionally tried to throw in more random about me personal stuff so that my posts aren't all just 'pretty things I found' kind of posts. Evidently I'm quite the rambler when I write (one of many reasons why I have never considered myself a Writer either) so perhaps I should start making liberal use of footnotes, like Lyn at Another Damn Wedding or Robin at HitchDied who ups it a notch with the numbered superscript footnotes (one example).