Paper Matters.

I love paper. I love great design. I love matching envelopes. I swoon when in the stationary section of a store. I seriously considered working at a card company for a career (when I was in China in 2004, I met a guy that knew a big-wig at a card company and he was going to get me an interview). Top that with my perfectionism tendencies, my desire to please people, my somewhat extreme thriftiness and.... well, sending out cards or announcements can be a darn big deal. I want everything to.be.perfect. Naturally, I wanted Eli's announcements to be awesome. Ah, but I would need a good bit of time for that. Greg and I spent hours and hours on Maelee's card last year because we could. And it was indeed awesome. I wanted the same for Eli, really I did. But we didn't get the newborn photos from our photographer until Eli was a month old already... and I was in a rush to get them out. So hours and hours of Greg and I designing wasn't an option. Then production time. And cost. So I settled. And you know what? I have a living baby! It doesn't really matter that we didn't get to design something unique to Eli. It doesn't matter I had to go with baby blue (gasp!) and only had three short lines to work with and limited fonts for text. It doesn't matter that I wanted high-grade paper instead of regular photo paper. It doesn't matter that I forgot to order the matching return address labels so I ended up using all the random labels I had around the house. What matters is Eli is here. We GET to announce his arrival to the world. And that, my friends, is what matters. And as I'm typing this, it seems fitting to me, to think that we got it right with Maelee's card. Her parents spent time and designed a fitting, sweet card. A card that was sadly, a birth and death announcement, the only one we'll get for our daughter who we only got to hold one night 14 months ago. With Eli it's okay that it didn't happen in my ideal fashion. We were busy taking care of him! The announcement is still quite cute. And may it be (oh yes Lord may it be!) that we have many opportunities for cards and announcements of Eli's life in the future. And then, yes then, I'll remember to order matching return address labels. -Heather PS - if you'd like an announcement and don't get one this week, please let me know your address so I can mail one to you!