Design: 18th Birthday Card

Today is my little brother's 18th birthday, which I totally can't believe! My mom wrote him a letter that she wanted to put inside a card so she asked me to design something for Patrick, and this is what I came up with.

Happy Birthday Patrick!

Papercraft: Recipe Book

{ via Silhouette Blog }

My Silhouette SD is officially on order, after talking to my mom about using it for cutting out tags and what-not for the holidays this year she agreed to get it early. Excited? Oh heck yes I am. My fingers are twitching with design possibilities.

I was looking through the Silhouette blog yesterday and came across this sweet little number, a key ring recipe book! I certainly plan to make one for my Mommom, Aunt, Mom, myself, my boyfriend's Mom, and all of the other ladies I know that love to cook. I showed it to my Mommom yesterday and she loved the vintage style it had, saying she missed the magazines that used to have that 50s-styled girl in all of them.

The Silhouette released their new software last month, which is free to download. I already have and it is similar to Illustrator. It also has the Silhouette online store directly linked in the program. They also have the Illustrator plugin available for download on their support page.

Fashion Trends: Dresses + Tights = Love

{ via Francessca's }

This is on sale for $35 this week and I really want to buy it as my holiday dress. It's super chic and I have the perfect pair of tights and shoes to complement the outfit. It's on sale for this week only as a pick of the week and that is a total steal for a dress. And I'm a dress-a-holic. I think I may have to buy it.

Harry Potter: The Beginning of the End

{ via Entertainment Weekly }

I just got this week's EW in the mail today and when I saw this on the cover I immediately flipped to the article. I laughed and welled up with emotions. If you're not aware of it yet, the beginning of the end is near! This month Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 comes out in theaters (desperately excited over here).

I grew up adoring Harry Potter. When the first book came out I was 11 and I was in the 5th grade. For Teacher's Convention weekend (ten years ago this weekend holy cow!) my Mom took me on a trip to Paris and I spent more time with my nose in that book than I did looking at the city! My Mom would always get me the book and we would fight for who got to read it first, since she was also a fan. She would check on me every half hour until I fell asleep, and then she would have to pry the book out of my fingers.

Harry Potter holds some very dear memories for me and I can't believe it's really really really coming to an end! I'm glad that they're doing two installments since the final book has so many amazing parts to it that deserve screen time! Not to mention - there's so much that's crucial to the story line in the final book.

If you've never read the books I highly, HIGHLY recommend them. They are really quite amazing and by far are not children's book. They're magical.

Dose of Cute!

{ via Britneysabode's Photostream }

How cute is this little guy?