Westwind Days

To get me into the swing of posting regularly, I think I'm going to start doing my "Friday Favorites" each week.  I have done one favorites entry previously, but I'd like to make it a regular occurrence around here.

In the spirit of the holiday season, this week's favorites are all going to be stocking stuffers!  Today, these are all going to be from Etsy, but in the future I will switch things up a bit!

I cannot believe that in about a month, my nephew is going to be turning a year old.  I know I keep saying it, but time is flying by!  My sister has been planning his party since about August and we've gone back and forth so many times since then with different ideas for the design of his invitations.  She finally picked the One-Derful Boy 1st Birthday and I got to work on an invitation that would compliment her purchased paper goods, etc.

My sister was, by far, the most annoying customer I've had since starting this business.  But, my nephew is my little boyfriend and my most favorite little guy.  I love him so much that it was all worth it in the end. 

We decided to do a two-sided card design that measures about 4x8.  I'm loving this design so much that I think I'm going to start offering it in the shop.  In the meantime, if you're interested in this design - or any others - shoot me an email to info@westwinddays.com!

Back in September, we did a set of wrap around address labels for Aubrie.  She and her fiance are getting married this month and wanted these labels to jazz up their envelopes a little bit.  Aubrie recently sent me photos of the finished product, and I think they look great!

Best wishes, Aubrie and Christopher!

Our website is up and running!  Right now it is just a mere shell of a site, but I'm working very hard to perfect it and get an operational shopping cart up.  At the moment, the site is more of a "click through" that will take you to the Etsy shop for purchasing.  But, it's a start. 

Check it out...http://www.westwinddays.com/!

There are two items in my shop that are, without a doubt, the most popular items.  The first is the Tinkerbell Birthday Party Invitation and the other is the Camouflage Birthday Invitation.  We've sold more of these invitations than anything else in the shop.  These are both super cute invitations and perfect for your little one's Birthday bash!

Here are a couple of examples.

Emily contacted us and was interested in our Halloween Invitation with damask background and candelabra graphic.  She had an awesome piece of artwork that was painted for her and she wanted to replace our candelabra design with her original artwork and use the invitation for a Halloween wedding.  Since we're always happy to do custom work, this wasn't a problem at all.  We shrunk down Emily's painting and inserted into the top of the invitation.  I have to say, I was very pleased with the outcome...and so was Emily and her husband to be.  Best wishes to the two of you!

One of the new items we're offering in our Etsy shop is Square Favor Tags in a damask pattern.  We recently did some of these tags for Dachan & Roschia, who are getting married this coming November 14.  (Which happens to be my first wedding anniversary, so it's a date near and dear to my heart.)  Roschia and Dachan went with a timeless and elegant black & white color scheme.  Congratulations to you both!

As you may recall from this post, my #1 repeat customer is getting married next month.  She just sent me a photo of her favor box labels in action and I must say, they look so good!  Here, take a look for yourself...

I like to shop.  A lot.  I also like to window shop.  If I was allowed to buy anything and everything that I want, these are a few of the things that I would buy.  Found browsing Etsy, of course.  (This particular grouping has no common "theme", it's just a bunch of random stuff I'm digging right now.  Very random.  Just like me.)

Melissa has been my most loyal customer! She contacted me back in July for wrap around address labels for her wedding invitations. Since then we have also worked on escort cards, favor tags, menu cards, table number and a shower invitation. She has been an absolute joy and one of the sweetest people I've worked with. She and her fiance, Miguel, even won a contest recently for a day of coordination by Tina Molina Events because they had so many votes. I truly wish the best for the two of them on their wedding day.

Here are just some of the items that we've been hard at work on. Melissa has done all of the printing herself and also mounted her table numbers to cardstock that coordinates with their wedding colors.



Escort cards that will be hung from manzanita tree branches. There will also be coordinating "traditional" escort cards mixed in and placed on trays.



These favor tags will be put on the take out boxes for the candy buffet.


The wrap around address label that started it all!



Table numbers mounted to cardstock.

It looks like our Floral Design Invitation is turning out to be pretty popular! Not only did Gina want it for her high school reunion, but Kelly recently contacted us to have the design incorporated into business cards for her new shop, Rubi Rogue. Next time you're in Australia, be sure to look her up and check out Rubi Rogue for classy ladies' fashions and accessories.







You can also find Kelly on Etsy. Her shop, Daughter of Pearl, is full of all sorts of gorgeous items such as pendants, clutch purses and embellished corsets. Be sure to stop by and see all of her lovely items.

If you've never checked out the blog Give Away Today, you should do so now.  I entered their give away yesterday for a $30.00 gift certificate from Southern Living at Home.  No, I didn't win that.  But, I did win a set of hand painted salt & pepper shakers from consultant Kristy Chuhaloff's blog.  Yay me!

Kristi saw our Owl & Deer Baby Shower Invitation and thought it would be perfect as a birthday party invitation for her daughter Phoebe. It just so happens that Lacey had the same idea for her son Jonah's 1st birthday! We are always more than happy to make changes or do custom work, so we couldn't wait to work on these invitations. Both Kristi & Lacey couldn't have been any sweeter to work with! Here is what we came up with for both of them. (Jonah's adorable little photo was added to his invitation, but I've blurred his face out for his privacy and the privacy of his mom.)

Carrianne contacted us after seeing our Damask Wedding Monograms and wanted to modify one of the designs to be the logo on her photography blog. Being a photographer, Carrianne is familiar with Photoshop, so we supplied her with the "bare bones" and then she worked her own magic. Below is the blank slate we provided to Carrianne and then her finished product. Be sure to check out her photography blog - http://carriannephotography.blogspot.com/ and if you're in the Cary, IL area, you should definitely book her to shoot some photos for you!

Lynda contacted us because she saw our Mocha & Sage Damask Wedding Invitation and thought it would be perfect for her upcoming wedding. Instead of doing the design in mocha and sage, however, we just did it in mocha and she found a beautiful sage paper that she was going to print on. Lynda needed an invitation & response card, place cards and a menu so we got right to work for her.

We were contacted by Andrielle, who like our Damask Wedding Invitations and was interested in using the same design as a menu card for her upcoming wedding. Andrielle's colors are lemon yellow and dark grey, so we made those changes to the pattern. Their menu is not fully ready yet, so we left the "guts" of the card blank so as to be filled in at a later date. This is what we were able to come up with.

We were contacted by Ameisha to do return address labels for the invitations to a bridal shower she was throwing. The wedding colors are light pink and black & white damask, so she asked us to incorporate those into the label. Here is the finised product of what we came up with for her, the actual label measured 2 inches round.

Last night we listed our "Mocha and Sage Damask Custom Wedding Invitation Suite". Boy is that a mouthful. I think this is one of our favorite designs. I truly enjoyed making this one and I said to the husband, "Husband, next time we get married, our colors are going to be brown and green and we are totally having this invite". Husband just groaned, as he does every time I tell him "next time we get married". Which I tell him frequently.

Here she is.

Dana saw our Last Name Monograms and was interested in purchasing one for her upcoming wedding. Her colors are chocolate brown, ivory and coral. She was a pleasure to work with and this is her resulting monogram.

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there. Especially to my own Daddy and my husband. My daughters made adorable cards for their awesome (step)father and are now sitting on the floor making cards for their Pop Pop. We don't have a whole heck of a lot planned for today, we're just going to enjoy some quality family time.

Enjoy your weekend!

My mom wanted me to design a set of small notecards for our dear Aunt Jane. I wanted something clean and cute and know that her favorite color is red. I sent several examples to my mom to choose from and this one was her favorite.

After making these and seeing how cute the finished product worked up, this design evolved into our listing for Personalized Notecards available in several different designs.

(Note: My mom reports that she printed these using Avery 5315 blank cards and they turned out great.)

So I made another little quickie card and this time it's all about the love. Just a sweet little "I love you" is all you need to get the point across sometimes.




While I was at and still feeling the love, I also whipped up a damask wedding invitation. I can tell by my views and such that damask is still a pretty hot market, so I'm rolling with it. I made samples of this guy in 5 different color combos, but as always, this one is fully customizable. I like it. My hunky husband says it's "just lovely".