Our Holiday Cards

Holidays are made for you at Zazzle. Find cards you'll covet at http://www.zazzle.com/holiday+cards.

Years ago, I used to really go all-out with our holiday cards. I'd spend hours and hours on the things, hand-crafting every part. But that was before my life became virtually one giant creative outlet, and in recent years, when I have actually managed to get cards out, they've been pretty generic. I had made it a goal to do something manageable AND special this year.

So when Zazzle invited me to use their site to make my holiday cards, I was happy for the chance to get them done early and done right.

For the front of our 5x7 card, I wanted a family photo that had a little something to do with Arizona and that told the story of our recent move. I made a tiny tissue paper pom-pom garland and strung it on a cactus patch sort of near our house to make things look a little more festive. While we were taking photos, a huge flock of about twenty peacocks came wandering by! It was awesome (and a little terrifying, to be honest). The girls have been talking about it non-stop since!

On the inside of the card, I wanted to do a photo booth strip insert. I drew some words on black foam board using this google search as a reference and I painted in the lettering with white acrylic paint. Looking back, it would have looked a million times better to use a white paint pen, but you know, whatever. Thank goodness for grainy photo booth photos.

We found a photo booth at a shopping center and took one strip of photos each while holding one of the signs. This photo booth made things super easy on me and automatically uploaded all the images online, which I was able to access later with a code. I picked one photo from each of our photo strips and photoshopped them into one new strip. I had the strips printed out three to a page to save money and I cut them to size for the inside of the cards.

I used a little washi tape to attach the strip to the inside of the card. I think I'll go back to the store to find some different colors of tape for when I finish assembling the cards over the next month.

I kept the printed message pretty short on the inside of the card to leave room for a place to write a personalized message.  I love getting (and sending) hand-written notes, especially during the holidays when we're all so busy. The extra care and thought feels really special to me.

Another one of my favorite things to do is to buy vintage stamps for the envelopes. You can get full sheets on eBay for just a few dollars and then just mix and match.

Zazzle also offers a custom stamp option that I was so tempted by! I had thought about printing out a photo of Linus with a big Christmas bow around his neck! :) They also sell some really cute vintage-looking stamps if you're not wanting to deal with the eBay route.

I'm so happy with the quality of the Zazzle cards and my large order came so quickly. I can't tell you what a relief it is to have these done this early! I'm feeling majorly on top of my game here. :) And now I'm wondering what are my chances for getting all my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving? Can you imagine?!

Goodbye, New York

Greetings from a cave of moving boxes! We are slowly but surely packing up the brownstone. The truck arrives bright and early tomorrow morning and our flight leaves in the evening. The count down has begun. I'm feeling good.

A couple weeks ago though I was having major, major second thoughts about our move. I thought about all the growing I have done over the past almost decade while we've lived away from all our family. These years have been so good, hard and important to me. Michael, who has always been my rock, reminded me that there are lots of good, hard and important times ahead too. The next day he sent me this quote by Richard Wright. It's one of those good pieces of writing that can be about something very different, but can also speak straight to my heart and feel so very personal. I felt like this when we left Arizona, and I feel like this again as we prepare to return home:

I was leaving the South
To fling myself into the unknown...
I was taking a part of the South
To transplant in alien soil,
To see if it could grow differently,
If it could drink of new and cool rains,
Bend in strange winds,
Respond to the warmth of other suns
And, perhaps, to bloom.

Here's to another season for Jenny Komenda. Thanks, as always, for coming along for the ride. xo

Inspiration at Colonial Williamsburg

This post was brought to you by Colonial Williamsburg. Book your stay at colonialwilliamsburg.com.

I've been really into classical architecture books lately (this one is completely fascinating). We're going to be knocking out and rebuilding a few interior walls of the new house that will need some special moulding. I've been doing as much research as I can before we have to make final decisions there. So when I was invited to come down to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia with my sister Heather and sister-in-law Kenzi, I jumped at the chance to have a girls weekends and to tour the beautiful, historically restored town and soak up all the classical and colonial architecture (and I'll be honest - the spa and the amazing food were a draw, too) :)

The past couple of weeks have been SO intense with work and the upcoming move, it was really amazing to hop in the car, get out of the city and have some kid-free time with these ladies I love so much.

Also, I was excited to go straight to the source to see the new collection of historically accurate paint colors Colonial Williamsburg recently launched with Benjamin Moore.

The colors are more vibrant than you might have guessed, which makes complete sense after touring some of the homes in Colonial Williamsburg. Those early Americans were not afraid of color!

I fell in love with one of the greens especially. Wouldn't this dark jade make the perfect front door color for the new house, with gray for the body of the house, white for the trim and charcoal on some of the accents? I'm feeling good about this combo:

The weekend really was magical. The Williamsburg Inn was amazing, the grounds were stunning, the museums and historical sites were fascinating and inspiring. I practically never put down my camera - there was so much beauty everywhere.

It was so nice to be staying in the hotel right in the middle of the town. We could pop home in the middle of the day if we wanted a little mid-day nap :)

And then we could head right back out to the fun!

Here are about 500 more photos of what caught my eye on the streets of CW. :) I was so inspired by woodwork! The fences, birdhouses, porch railings, radiator covers - everything had such a lovely attention to detail! Check it out...

We had dinner on Saturday night at the Regency Dining Hall. Delicious food in a beautiful room! The Rockefellers helped to restore Colonial Williamsburg nearly 100 years ago, and this dining room felt so classic and inspired by that period. It is really lovely with chinoiserie panels, crystal chandeliers and frilly curtains. The jazz band was my favorite though. The singer's voice was a spot-on Ella Fitzgerald. Such a treat.

A few more favorite things we did at Colonial Williamsburg this weekend:

1) Renting cruiser bikes to ride all around town was such a treat! The extra breeze from the speed of the bikes was so refreshing.

2) The Cheese Shop was a hit with us! I recommend picking up the Prosciutto and Provolone sandwich, a jar of their House dressing, and a selection from their great gluten-free wall and other assorted condiments.

3) The wallpaper at the Wythe House. Every room is a different color and pattern!

4) The grounds and special decorative touches at the Governer's Palace are so beautiful. The inlay on the stairs is especially can't-miss.

3) Williamsburg at Home is full of really gorgeous, unique home goods, fabrics and paints that are designed to give homes a punch of colonial style, but that are surprisingly clean-lined and modern at the same time. The shop was really pretty - and I'm still dreaming of the inlay dresser below!

4) Don't miss stopping in to all the great tradespeople shops around town. I really enjoyed the weaver's shop, the apothecaries, the cobbler and the general store.

Wow! That might be my record for most photos in a post! And I edited out SO many! ha! I guess I didn't realize just how inspired I would be by Colonial Williamsburg, but I came home last night rested, full, happy and bursting with new design ideas. Kenzi got a welcome break from studying for her nursing board exams and Heather's added the Williamsburg Inn to her someday-wedding-reception potential site list. :) So I'd say it was a successful girls weekend!

Have you ever visited Williamsburg? What was your favorite thing to do or see?