Ayva's Gymnastics Birthday Party

I love it when clients share their party pics with me. Little Ayva recently celebrated her 4th birthday. And, this was the 3rd time that her mom used Stacey M Design invitations as part of the celebration! Thanks, Tywanda!

This year the theme was gymnastics. I love how she had the image from the invite put on to the cake. Most importantly, little Ayva liked the invitations and identified with the image on the invitation: “Ayva really thought that this was her on the cake and her invitations.” And what does mom think? "I love that she can identify with the pictures on your invites. She thinks the picture on her placemat is her too."

Opening Day! Save 20%...

Today is Opening Day for baseball. I thought I would celebrate by introducing a new baseball theme invitation, note card, return address label and stationery set. I can customize these products using our JLMC feature.

Historically, baseball has been very accessible to everyone. Until recently in most major league parks tickets were very affordable, in some cases as low as $7. Many of us played some sort of baseball as kids: baseball, softball or even stick ball. As tots our kids now play T-ball.

Even if we did not love the game, many of us go to baseball games for social or professional reasons. We entertain clients at games. As summer interns, companies take us to baseball games. Hanging out at a baseball game with a group of friends is a great summer activity. For some of us it does not really matter if we even pay attention to the game; being there is just fun!

So, as we usher in another opening day, I would love to hear your baseball stories from your childhood, or your baseball experiences with your kids. We took Isaiah to his first major league game in 2004 when he was 4 years old. Isaiah enjoyed the surroundings. He was fascinated by all of the people. However, he demanded that he be allowed to go on the field and play, and just could not understand when we would not let him. (BTW, it was horrible game for Cubs fans and included Mark Prior giving up a grand slam.) Now we pretty much just go to minor league games. Single A Kane County Cougars’ home field is about 15 minutes from our home. The games are inexpensive and very kid-friendly. Each game includes at least 2 renditions of the SpongeBob theme song and permitting kids to run the bases at the end of the game.

I would love to hear about your experiences taking your child to a baseball game, watching your child play in a baseball game, or about you attending a baseball game or playing in a baseball game as a kid. The story can be about baseball, softball, stick ball or T-Ball.

To submit just click on the "comments" button at the bottom of this entry. Entries should be no more than about 150 words. We reserve the right to reject any entry, including those that include inappropriate language. We are just looking for fun, cute or touching family experiences.

Each person who submits a baseball related entry my blog that I post will receive a coupon for 20% off of Stacey M Design products. (Coupon is not valid for wholesale orders and or for custom design fees.) This offer is for the month of April 2009 only. One lucky person will also receive a FREE set of baseball note cards! I will chose this person at random from all posts that I publish during the month of April 2009. To receive the coupon, you must email to let me know you have left a comment and you cannot post anonymously. Thanks!

Customize your cards!

I have been working on providing an expanded selection of custom options for many of my products. I have always given clients the option of adding their own wording and selecting fonts. From time to time, clients have requested additional customization such as changes in the skin tone or hairstyle. I usually will make such adjustments as I love making my clients happy!!! These projects have been lots of fun, but have also been quite time-consuming. So I decided to develop a large selection of options including options for skin tone, hair style, clothing and accessories. Different designs will have different options. A few products and designs will not have expanded customization options, but the vast majority will. Check out our new custom options. I will be adding additional options over the next several weeks.

Bowling Party

Many of my design ideas are based on my son, Isaiah’s, parties. Two years ago for his 6th birthday party, he wanted a bowling party. A few months prior to his birthday, Isaiah, Harold and I went bowling. Prior to that I had bowled about 2-3 times in the past 20 years. However, when I was in elementary school I was on the bowling team and was pretty gold. I even won a trophy! My assumption was that if I was able to bowl pretty well when I was 8, against other kids who were 8, then 30 years later I should still be able to bowl pretty well—especially against my 6 year old.

The first indication that my logic was faulty was when I tried to pick up a bowling ball. It was sooo heavy. After bowling a couple of frames my wrist ached. I was able to barely win the first game. However, both Isaiah and Harold handily beat me the second the game.

On the way home Isaiah could not stop talking about how much fun he had. They just happened to be a bowling match on TV. Isaiah sat and watched it…. mesmerized. It naturally followed that we would have a bowling birthday party. Soon after he made it clear to me that he wanted to have a bowling birthday party.

We had the party at Brunswick Lanes in Naperville, IL. Of course I had to come up with a cute birthday party invitation. Although my son’s party was the inspiration for the invitation, I wanted the invitation to be unisex. The invitation features both a boy and girl bowling. I also designed matching fill-in thank you note cards and favor labels. We used white paper bags that we purchased at an office supply store. We filled them with candy, small toys and a book. We folded the top of the bag over and sealed them with the bowling-themed label that read, “Thank you for coming to Isaiah’s 6th Birthday Party.” One additional special touch was that I designed a coordinating, bowling-themed t-shirt for Isaiah to wear to the party. He looked so CUTE!!!

Besides my designing the invitations, we had to do very little to prepare for the party. Brunswick provided the food and beverages. We brought in ice cream and toppings from Harold’s favorite ice cream store and a bought a cute little bowling themed cake from my favorite bakery. In addition to about 10 of Isaiah’s friends, the usual family and family friends came to the party: my mother, my sister and Karen (Isaiah’s speech therapist).