pretty writing meets CHUBBY BABY: Austin!

this kid is special:

1. first newborn baby of our congregation

2. first baby i've ever visited at a hospital

3. first newborn i've ever held, period.

seriously, we've seen this all the way from prayers to now REAL LIFE. 

wow.

i have a new appreciation for brand new babies because of him.

he's so cute.

only 6 weeks old and he's already changed so much.

i can go on and on and on.

but let me stop here,

and just show you:

so serious

---

so when his mama asked me to create a little announcement card for him..

gee? how could i resist?

especially when our buddy Johan took thee cutest snap:

Johan Wong

which we then combined with a little lettering 

and his mama's favorite chevrons...

to make this fun number:

seriously, this wasn't even work.

---

sidenote:

if you don't have a baby to announce, 

but you do have some parents to congratulate...

i've just relisted my "BABY congrats" card over on etsy!

have a peek!

TGIF.

it's the weekend!

this week involved a little more illustration and creative freedom than i've had in a while,

i'm not complaining!!

i think i need to start doing a little roundup of the week, 

just to keep tabs on what's been going on.

let's get organized, shall we?

What's the Point of Decanting Wine?

aaand now I know.

'twas VEGAN BBQ week at the Savory,

cause July 4th is next week, ya know??

Mushroom Burger

Hard Shell, Meat Free Tacos

the World Cup continues to be a big deal at the office,

so I continue to pretend to care a lot about it, especially during lunch.

we pick a winner here.

one of my favorites from the week:

Video How-to, too!

bts.

a #fbf from last week:

Why Does Asparagus Make Pee Smell Weird?

and an old gif:

yum!

cheers to the weekend.

coworkers are fun, but let's not see each other till monday.

---

ps. camp sadness/excitement. wish i was there!!

In case you're wondering..

"I do not follow a God that I understand. 

I do follow a God that understands me. 

Who understands wrenching pain and searing loss....

A God who is intimately familiar with the raw, howling, soul-wrenching bone-weary keen of grief. 

In the mist of it,
I am grateful for the God that has been in hell. 

Who triumphantly walked through it and shattered the chains off the gates and declared it FINISHED so that death would not be the end..."

via My Little Black Desk blog.

Right when you think you can contain God in a box,

and you get flustered or frustrated 

or maybe even a little bit bored..

He surprises you with very truthful words on the interweb.

awesome.

pretty writing meets HOLY MATRIMONY: Melody & Matt

the great romance photo

2014, the year of weddings.

I declared that here, here, and here.

This year started off with an email from Melody & Matt,

(no joke, timestamp: January 1!!)

re: their wedding stationary

thus began a very quick month of back and forth emails,

drafts, printer quotes, prints printed, and so on.

it was SUCH a fun, creative team effort.

---

so y'all...

this here is my very first wedding stationary "set"!

a little snippet of Melody's Pinterest board:

peach + mint + gold

very pretty and chic.

designs began with brush lettering/calligraphy

here's a little mood board with all the finished elements:

1. Brush calligraphy + a little bit of type: Neutra Text

(the 'Sawasaki' last name is so fun to write)

2. Watercolor washes: so pretty, chic, light and airy

3. Hand drawn lace as a special design addition

4. and the illustrated golden chicken for the entree selection

with all that, you get some of this digitally mocked-up goodness:

And with some gold Baker's Twine and a little tag,

thee finished product:

the great romance photo

the great romance photo

in addition to the invitations,

Melody had asked me to letter up the guest place cards and table numbers

the great romance photo

the amazing venue, ahhh:

(image via Tritia Lau)

for those table cards, gold was definitely the way to go..

that, with some opaque white. um, BUENO!

and what they looked like, day of:

(image via Tritia Lau)

the great romance photo

the great romance photo


aren't professional photos wayyyy better than my old iphone snaps? haha.
an excuse to why this post took forever.

anyway, more to come!
Lord willing.


---

Matt & Melody,

you guys were such a dream to work with (i'm not sugar coating),

love your style, organization, and love your love.

really.

On being single.

go ahead, roll your eyes.

I would too, with that title.

let me begin this post with a disclaimer:

I am not about to launch into an entire essay about

how wonderful and joyful being single is...

that'd be like saying grass is purple.

heck, just earlier this week I was emailing all my girlfriends/accountability/anybody

 about how much I was struggling with singleness.

nope.

it's hard.

just this week,
i've never been asked SO MUCH "why aren't you dating??"

----

my parents and I chatted about family last night over dinner.

(not my future prospects of a family)

hahaha

but the one I'm in right now 

with them, with the siblings, all the extended family,

and then all the circles of people that kind of overlap that:

work, our church, and so on,
and then all the "drama" and hard stuff
that we're trying to figure out at the moment.

our conversation was centered around one main theme, i think:

we are all very layered and complicated.

I'm currently in the muck of all these complicated layers,
you too, right?
of years and years of hurt and triumph,
all these things that make human relationships such a pain and such a joy
it's a dance of humility and sacrifice
and acknowledging daily God's relentless love for us.

I see this in so many things in my life:

those rare honest conversations with my brother,
carpool with my sister,

dinner the other night with my cousins,

morning meetings with my coworkers,
my community at church, from camp,

and just last night's dinner with the parents.

----

Here it is!
That entire cliche of singleness being a gift from God,
RIGHT HERE.
I can't be bothered searching for "people to love on in my life."
haha, again, that'd be like looking for some purple grass,
when the honest green stuff is right under my nose.
these people are RIGHT HERE.
riiiight in front of me.

I'm slowly but surely beginning to understand
my role and my heart in their lives,
and theirs in mine.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:
"And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else.
Where you are right now is God’s place for you.
Live 
and obey
 and love 
and believe 
right there."

Last night, God graciously opened my eyes
and affirmed my place in this whole dance,

it's an awkward and very challenging routine, actually..
especially for someone completely uncoordinated,

but He definitely knows that,
and He still thinks this is the perfect spot for me to do a little two-step..

with Him leading of course.

Crybaby

Today I cried at work.

hah.

nothing weepy or loud and obnoxious,

just two quiet streams running down my face 

and ruining my scrappy foundation job from that morning.

It was nothing that anyone did to me, really.

I was just frustrated. annoyed. angry. confused. 

with myself.

WHY can't I figure out this image?!

(I create editorial images for this site)

I have been feeling quite stuck the past few weeks.

Meeting up with me must've been really exhausting,

cause all I can do is complain about how busy I am

 and how tired I am from being busy.

but being in that embarrassing, snotty, teary mess today..

I hit a wall.

and when I hit walls, I turn off my computer and read my bible.

or read: I finally think to run to Jesus.

and that there..that's what it is.

Sure, I'll continue to struggle at work, 

the learning curve will continue to be unknown and extremely steep.

but I can't bank on myself, my skills, my knowledge, my yadayada.

heck, I can have all the talents in the world

and have nothing.

I need to be looking for God in everything, with everything.

---

THIS:

1. "In him we find the wisdom, strength, and reason for hope that we have been lacking. 

Far more than happy feelings and accurate understanding, 

Christ gives me reason to continue in something that would have long since defeated me."

from 'Relationships: A Mess Worth Making"

2. "He is before all things,

and in Him all things hold together."

Colossians 1:17

God is good.

Response

Two things this Wednesday morning:

1.

"It’s easy to think that unrealistic deadlines, unforgiving bosses, 

and out-of-control traffic are the reasons 

we’re so stressed all the time. 

You can’t control your circumstances, 

but you can control how you respond to them."

- this article

2.

"It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. 

Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse 

to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. 

Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. 

For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: 

Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. 

If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—

in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, 

and where will your precious freedom be then?"

Galatians 5:13-15