When I married the love of my life Brian, I wore the most lovely dress, I still think it’s beautiful, but there is a strange practice of women keeping their wedding dresses in sad giant boxes for preservation and I had done just that.

Instead of continuing to keep my dress perfectly pristine in a box I decided I wanted to have a quilt made from my dress for my son Henry. My wedding dress was a symbol of my husband and my love so I took that symbol of love and made it into an heirloom quilt for Henry.

The main satin was used for most of the quilt and the bottom accent was used to create the alternating decorative squares. My friend Jess’ cousin Kim made it for me and I couldn’t be more happy with the design! She’s amazingly talented! I had Henry’s name and birthday embroidered on the center square using the same fonts as his painted canvas in his room and his birth announcement. Gotta love beautiful typography!

Our sweet baby boy is now a year old! Oh how time flies. It seems only yesterday he was born. And how far he’s come. Born 10 weeks premature I am in awe of all he has accomplished already! Throughout Henry’s first year I took his picture monthly with a handmade banner my dear friend Perri made for him.

I incorporated it into his first birthday theme. From the handmade invitations with little banners sewed on, to the the cupcakes decorated with the #1 from Queen of Cakes.

We hired the amazing Melissa Oholendt to photograph his first birthday cake smash and bubble bath! She is amazing to work with and the photos she captured are perfect, but when I received the package in the mail I was delighted by her presentation. Check out the detail she put into her packaging! The designer in me swoons. I can’t stop raving about Melissa! Love her!

For some reason, I can not explain, I woke up one day and had to make shoes. I saw the pattern for a baby shoe here, darn you Pintrest for leading me astray! And I wanted to see if I could make them. And then I went overboard. After 3 FAILED attempts, I finished five little pairs. So cute! I have to say it was far harder than I thought it would be. Working with such tiny pieces was very complicated, but very gratifying when I was done.

My next stop will be to adapt the pattern into a boys shoe and make tiny shoes for my Henry. As though I needed another hobby? Perhaps no, but it is so fun to DIY!

Sometimes my dad is right, I am a bit “artsy-fartsy” and this is a good example of it. I wanted to paint Henry’s name in a beautiful type. I selected Fenway Park from Veer’s beautiful fonts. I chose five different canvas’ and screwed them together to create one larger abstract canvas. I coated the entire surface and sides of the canvas’ with the same Behr paint that is on the walls in the room to create a subtle dimensional piece of art. Then I painted swirly clouds as a background texture. Finally I hand drew the typography onto the canvas’ and painted them. I’m quite happy with the design and beautiful lettering. A fun DIY for a baby boy’s nursery.

As a mom and a bit of an organic lover, I am always in search for organic, natural, no bad chemical products and as a designer, I want them to be pretty. Because all things in life could use a little pretty design. I stumbled across The Honest Company and was delighted by what they have to offer. No harsh chemicals in diapers, laundry soaps, diaper cream, shampoo, dish soap, hand sanitizer and good design! What’s not to love about your baby in skull diapers! All while knowing that your baby is safe and chemical free! And it’s for everyone, counter/surface cleaner, hand soap, even sunscreen. It’s safe for you, the environment and they donate to fabulous causes with every purchase. It’s affordable and made in America. What is not to love about these guys. Bundle and Save folks, bundle and save!

With the arrival of our sweet little boy came the borderline obsessive design process for creating his birth announcements. As I started designing these I knew I wanted to letterpress them and use a die cut to create the window for the photo. With all my designs I like to think about the paper as a whole and limit waste. So I took the piece that was being removed for the photo window and created an ornament. I believe it’s important to design holistically and really consider the size and use of all materials.

I letterpressed and die cut these on my Chandler and Price letterpress during Henry’s naps. And I couldn’t be more pleased with how they turned out. I even letterpressed his very own return address on the envelope. Love.

The amazing Gina Zeidler came to our home and captured the sweet moments with our baby boy when he finally got to come home. She was amazing to work with and we adore her so much! Her attention to detail is out of this world. And lets face it Henry’s adorable.

In my very long absence from my delightful little blog, my husband and I are excited to announce the birth of our sweet little boy. Arriving 10 weeks early in January, with a 47 day stay at Children’s Hospital, he is the brightest part of every day. We can truly never thank or repay the wonderful doctors, nurses and staff of Children’s! They are amazing. If you are looking for somewhere to donate a little money, I’d recommend them! They are life savers and family creators. They have a Baby Steps 3K on Saturday, June 2, 2012 to celebrate, educate and fund raise for their Neonatal Program.

It can be very surreal that this tiny person is ours, and that he makes me a ‘mom’. When you spend your whole life looking up to your mom as your role model. It’s hard to believe that you could ever be one too.

I’m excited to get back to my blog and get new work on display on the site. So hello 2012! I may be a bit behind, but the catch-up will be fun! Here’s to all the moms, you’re amazing.