Quickly, before I decorate for Christmas. And a Feature!

Hello, hello!

 

I did a few fall decorations inside our house this year, and I wanted to share them before we took them down (which I am doing TODAY!) because it's almost Christmas time (!) and...they are starting to rot. :)

 

It's nothing flashy, just some pumpkins and gourds in a couple of places around the casa. I've never been big on the faux leaves/red/orange stuff, and I've actually never decorated for fall inside our house, so this is a big deal for me. ;)

 

 

 

Parker got a baby pumpkin and a warty pumpkin.

 



 

This is all the pumpkin love that our dining table got.

 

 

And then some gourds around the fireplace. I know, I know, we are a little boring---but I like it.

 

Did I mention we painted the house? I LOVE it. I need to take some more pictures! Will work on that one....

 

 

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ALSO. I had the absolute pleasure of making a sweet bridal shower invitation and menu for my favorite Michaela from Michaela Noelle Designs. Seriously, I love this girl. She is the best!

 

She styled a shoot for the wonderful Ashley Slater Photography, which has been featured on Something Pretty. 

 

 

 

Head on over and check it out! Thanks again, Michaela, for including me!!

 

 

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Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

 

 

 

Back to Work!

You may have noticed that things are looking pretty different here on Twenty Three Oh One! I have been working day and night on a few things for my stationery business--mainly designing a fluid brand and look for my blog, Etsy Shop, Facebook page, business cards, and---get this--a website! I guess it's a complete makeover....I tend to go all or nothing. :) Here's a little sneak peek:

 

Woo hoo!! I am so excited, you have no idea! Big things, big things. I am nervous and excited about this new step all at the same time. Growing this business has been on my heart for months--it is something that I truly love to do (I'm sure you all know what I mean!). I am also happy about this because I have decided to stay at home with my sweet Parker (who is growing fast!) so this will be the perfect opportunity to do something I enjoy while being a full-time momma--which I also enjoy :).

So, I apologize for the lack of posts (baby and vacations are my excuses!) and for the broken links (working on that part), but things will hopefully be back to normal soon.

OH. Oh my gosh--I had no clue this happened until it had already happened, but our home was featured on the amazing blog 6th Street Design School last week! Kirsten is an extremely talented designer so I was shocked when she contacted me. Thank you so much, Kirsten! Check out her blog, friends!

Shop Updates

Hello, hello!! I hope you all don't mind a bit of shameless promotion today :). I wanted to share a few items that are new this month over in the shop!

First up, we have baby shower invitations galore. I obviously have babies on the brain :).

And a bridal shower invitation (I'm hoping to get more of these up in March)....

And a lingerie shower invitation (these too)...

And something that I'm really excited about! If you have ever wanted buttons for your blog (like what's on my sidebar), I am now selling them! Up to 12 buttons for $6.00 in any color that your heart desires :).

Don't forget to "like" my Facebook page if you haven't already!!

OH--I meant to say this on Monday but forgot (of course)--THANK YOU for all of the compliments and comments on my weekly bump posts. Seriously--they mean so much to me and really make my day! I always feel a lot better about all of the crazy hormonal rages/body changes that I'm going through after I read them, so I wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate it! Just wanted to throw that out there.... :).

Have a great day!

The Date Jar

Bryan and I love to go on dates, the problem is, we are absolutely horrible at making the time for them! We are also extremely boring with our date choices....basically it always ends up being dinner and a movie (which is still one of my favorites even though it's overdone).

To remedy this problem, I decided to make a "Date Jar" with pre-made dates already thought out and planned for us to go on. This month, we have blocked off every Saturday night for a date, so each Saturday, we just draw one of the little cards out of the jar and head off for a fun evening together. I'm hoping that scheduling and planning these things ahead of time will help us continue to make Date Night a priority for the rest of our marriage.

I designed these cute little cards to write our dates on. After printing and cutting them out, Bryan and I sat down and wrote out creative date ideas to fold and place in our Date Jar. 

I made the cards in two colors so that we could differentiate between "spending dates" and "free dates", since we only budget so much money to spend going out each month. Although this was our method, you could use the two colors to designate dates that he planned or she planned, dates that are at home or out on the town, or dates that are during the day or at night. 

(Our Date Jar isn't see-through, so I put a few of our folded date cards in a bowl for blog pictures....just so you know!)

We got many of our date ideas from these great sites:

Love Actually

30 Ideas for Date Nights at Home

The Dating Divas

And in honor of Valentine's Day being this week, I am posting these fun printables for my sweet blog readers to download HERE (You can also click on the image below). This is my first printable to ever post, so if it doesn't work, please let me know!

Now go off and enjoy a date with your hubby or boyfriend! Happy early Valentine's Day friends! See you all tomorrow :).



Twenty Three Oh One: The Etsy Shop

Hello, friends! First, I want to say thank you so much for your sweet comments these past few days and thank you to all of my new followers for deciding that I'm cool enough to keep up with :). I am very happy that you are here!

Today, I am SO SO SO pumped to finally introduce my new Etsy Shop, (creatively named) Twenty Three Oh One. I have thought a lot about really getting into this business in the last year, and have spent the past 3 weeks coming up with new designs and getting everything ready to go. This type of work energizes me and is truly something that I enjoy so I hope you all like it too!

And now on to some shameless promotion: My shop specializes in digital stationery designs that are fun, fresh, clean, and modern. I design birth announcements, save the dates, greeting cards, and various party invitations. I don't have that many items listed yet, but I try and add a few new designs every couple of days so check back often!

Here are just a few of the items that you will see if you head over to the shop:

AND, since I love ya'll so much, I am offering a special discount to my blog readers!

Enter the code 2301BLOG upon purchasing a listing to receive 25% off your order!

Coupon is good until February 14th. :)

And just in case you forget my where my shop is located, I have added a little button to my sidebar...check it out!

Oh! I almost forgot! I also created a Facebook page, so if ya'll could go and like it, that would be awesome :). I will post new items on it every week and am hoping to include blog updates as well!

I'm feeling really self conscious  and awkward about posting this right now...is that weird?

Okay, I'm done. Have a great Thursday!

New Stuff

Sorry I'm not very original with my post titles. So...I woke up today feeling very inspired, and the next thing I know, I had come up with tons of cute designs for personal stationery cards for my Etsy shop! Basically ever since I opened my shop, I've been trying to decide what audience and style to focus in on (hello, marketing classes). I love to play with a ton of styles (modern, classic, simple, girly...) but I need to stick with just one of two if I want to be successful. I also decided to narrow down the type of stationery I want to sell. After today's design extravaganza, I think I have it all figured out.

From now on, I will only be selling personal stationery. I really love wedding related stationery, but I tend to get stuck and frustrated....so I'm hoping this new direction works well!

Here are just a few of the card designs I came up with today....

I became obsessed with ticking stripe a few weeks ago, hence the next two cards...

AND I just orded cardstock to print these on--linen textured. They will look amazing.

P.S. Yardwork sucks. And also you should go download the new Eli Young Band song "Crazy Girl" and "7 & 7" by Turnpike Troubadours. SO so good. Ok...I am leaving this computer! I haven't showered yet and all I've eaten today is a cupcake. I know, TMI.

I Heart Invitations

So last week I was finally able to see one of my designs in print! Usually when I make something, I send it off and never see it again. I about jumped up and down when I got Megan and Westin's Save the Date in the mail!

Excuse the brick house in the background... I was running out of daylight and didn't want to take the picture without it...natural light is SO great for photography.

Anyway, she had them printed on linen textured cardstock...I love them! She also printed and sent out this one as well:

I also wanted to give ya'll an update on my brand new Etsy Shop. I haven't sold anything yet, but since it's only been open for a week I'm not worried at all and I'm still hopeful that things will pick up in the next few months as I add more items (and maybe start advertising). Here are a few more invitations I added this week:

Yes, I did use my sisters and sister-in-law for these, and YES they are marrying celebrities haha!

Love them all! I might get this printed just so I can post pictures of how much cooler they would look in person!

New Etsy Shop

I finally got around to starting my own Etsy shop! It's called KatyLady Designs!

I've been talking about doing this for months, so last night while I was STILL recovering from my cold/fever/deadly illness, I went ahead and made a shop. In the last year, I've probably made some sort of invitation for someone every couple of weeks, so I decided that I want to start selling them.

I only have 2 items for sale right now, but I intend on adding more in the next month. I will be selling pre-made digital templates for people to print their own invitations/cards for weddings and parties. Eventually, I want to do custom orders and maybe even print them myself, but for now, I'm going to stick with this. We'll see how it goes! I may sell nothing at all, and if so, I'll change my methods...only time will tell. If I ever get too busy or just don't like doing this anymore, I'll close the shop, but as of right now, I'm having fun doing this in my free time and am very excited!

You can visit the shop by clicking HERE!