{Thanksgiving 2013} forever thankful

Every year since we got married, I've dedicated my Thanksgiving post to my husband.  & this year shall be no different!  My husband is my family, my world, my love & my best friend.  I am so thankful for everything he is, everything he does & everything he will be.

It's always such a treat to look through our wedding photos to pick one for this post.  The fun task reminds me of where everything started, how far we've come & what lies ahead of us.  Maybe it hasn't always been the easiest journey but it's our story & it's a story of love & hope.  Because I don't think I could possibly say it any better & the words still ring true two years later, here is a rerun of my thankful 2011 post:    

Thankful.  Very, very thankful.

My husband RZ is at the tippy top of my gratitude list this Thanksgiving.  I dedicate this post to him.  

I am thankful to call you my husband.  I am thankful for the beautiful moment we clasped hands, looked into each other's eyes & pledged our vows in front of our nearest & dearest during our marriage ceremony.  I am thankful for the fun, rockstar party that followed.  I am thankful for our sunny, dreamy Hawaiian honeymoon.  I am thankful for the incredible, lovely newlywed times that came after our wedding & honeymoon.  & for the times that were not so happy or easy, I am thankful we weathered the storms together.  I am thankful for our sweet home we share with our sweet pup.  I am thankful that I look forward to the moment you walk through the door every night.  I am thankful for every big & small moment that we make special.  I am thankful for this amazing life that is ours. 

More than words. 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

From Koru Wedding to you & yours: Happy Thanksgiving!

Photography: Timothy Glenn Photographers

{Holidays 2012} Crafting for Our Heroes

To kick off the festive holiday season, I was really honored to spend the day crafting for a good cause with Jen, Emily & Louisa.  Jen kindly hosted us at her place where we gathered with mimosas, treats, & craft supplies galore to make holiday cards for Holiday Mail for Heroes, a great Red Cross program that distributes cards to veterans, military families & active duty service members around the world.  Crafting is always fun but crafting for a worthy cause is just plain wonderful. 

Not only did these ladies bring their amazing talent, they brought enough awesome craft supplies to make a well-stocked craft store blush.  You name the holiday-themed supply & we had it: stamps, punches, stickers, ribbons, embossers, etc, etc:

I have a real soft spot for snowflakes so all my cards featured snowflakes:

When the fun day of crafting came to a close, we made over 40+ beautiful cards for Holiday Mail for Heroes!  Here is a small sampling of the handmade holiday cheer that will be spread to our heroes:

A big thanks to Jen & the always adorable Humphrey & the too pretty Mila for hosting us in their beautifully holiday-decorated home.  As you can see, Humphrey & Mila are as cute as can be:

Last year, I sent one card to Holiday Mail for Heroes & I was so excited to send 40+ cards this year.  Big thanks to Jen, Emily & Louisa for making it happen!  If you would like to show your support & send holiday cheer to our military, it's so easy.  By Friday, December 7, simply send a signed card to:

Holiday Mail For Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capital Heights, MD 20791-5456

For more information & complete instructions (no glitter!), please visit Holiday Mail for Heroes.

Here's to hoping everyone's holiday season is merry & bright!

{Holidays 2012} still thankful

2012 has been a difficult year as my husband & I have struggled to expand our baby family.  Now that Thanksgiving is near & I'm taking stock of the blessings in my life, I look back on the tough times with gratitude & hope.  I am so very grateful for family, old friends, new friends, blog friends & even complete strangers who reached out to give me support & prayers.  It means the world to me!

Most of all, I am thankful for my husband.  RZ is as heartbroken as me, yet he somehow manages to walk beside me, keep me strong & make me believe our dreams will come true.  Because I don't think I could possibly say it any better & the words ring true one year later, here is a rerun of my thankful 2011 post:  

Thankful.  Very, very thankful.

My husband RZ is at the tippy top of my gratitude list this Thanksgiving.  I dedicate this post to him.  

I am thankful to call you my husband.  I am thankful for the beautiful moment we clasped hands, looked into each other's eyes & pledged our vows in front of our nearest & dearest during our marriage ceremony.  I am thankful for the fun, rockstar party that followed.  I am thankful for our sunny, dreamy Hawaiian honeymoon.  I am thankful for the incredible, lovely newlywed times that came after our wedding & honeymoon.  & for the times that were not so happy or easy, I am thankful we weathered the storms together.  I am thankful for our sweet home we share with our sweet pup.  I am thankful that I look forward to the moment you walk through the door every night.  I am thankful for every big & small moment that we make special.  I am thankful for this amazing life that is ours. 

More than words. 

* * * * * * * * * *

Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours!

Photography: Timothy Glenn Photographers

 

Dear Hero, Merry Christmas

I began crafting holiday cards this weekend but before I started the cards for our friends & family, I made one special card.  I don't know the recipient personally.  I will never meet this person.  Yet this person is my hero.


I crafted this card with care, appreciation & love for our U.S. military servicemen & women.  Penned to "Dear Service Member," my card included heartfelt thanks & holiday wishes.


I sent my handmade card to Holiday Mail for Heroes, a wonderful organization that collects & distributes the holiday mail to U.S. military service members, veterans & their families throughout the United States & the world.  Imagine how much an extra dose of holiday cheer & gratitude may mean to brave soldiers protecting our freedom, many of whom are far from their home for the holiday season.  Thanks to the Red Cross & its partner Pitney Bowes, now we have the golden opportunity to shower our heroic, deserving military men & women with some extra love & attention during 
the holiday season.   


Sounds good, yes?  It's easy to show your support & send holiday cheer to our military.  By Friday, December 9, simply send a signed card or letter to:

Holiday Mail For Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

For more information, please visit Holiday Mail for Heroes.

I was inspired by Chandra of Oh Lovely Day to participate this year; I hope this post inspires you to send a card!

Card & Image (apologies for low light!) by Koru Kate

Koru Kate Finds: Gratitude

Give Thanks Always

Banner available at Etsy in thedancingwren's store

Today's Koru Kate Finds isn't a pretty something you can buy in a store.  Nor is it a beautiful something you can ask a florist to create for you.  Nope, this find isn't for sale.


With Thanksgiving on the horizon, I wanted to bring you my greatest Koru Kate Finds of all: Gratitude.  Gratitude is found in our hearts & souls.  Every day, usually during my evening walk with Bailey, I pause & give thanks for my beautiful, imperfect life.  It's all mine, my one & only.  I love my life!  I thank my lucky stars for my husband RZ, my pup Bailey, my family, my friends, my health & my happiness.  Depending on the circumstances, I add extra gratitude for things like a wedding booked or a new baby born.  I'm never at a loss for gratitude no matter how hard & trying or wonderful & easy my day has been.  Trust me, I have my fair share of problems & heartache but my blessings far outweigh them.  


Gratitude is a daily part of my life.  I hope you'll find the space for gratitude in your daily life!  

All You Need

Don't you wish you could whip up something Fall fabulous like this pumpkin centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table?

RZ & I don't have a Thanksgiving table per se as we travel to my in-law's home for the holiday.  There is no room for plates on their table, let alone decor.  Their table is a true bounty of a Thanksgiving feast, filled with delicious, abundant American & Filipino food.  We serve ourselves from the dining room table, then scatter about the rest of the house to eat & enjoy the family day.

My childhood Thanksgivings consisted of an adults' table & a kids' table.  The adults' table was a formal affair with pretty china & flickering candles while the kids' table was a folding table with festive paper plates.  Later, they trusted us with a real china but it was tough to graduate to the adults' table.  I'm still at the kids' table, sigh.  There's only so much room at a dining room table!

I suppose you could have a blanket picnic on your living room floor & it wouldn't matter.  All you need is family, love & gratitude for Thanksgiving.

Is your Thanksgiving table a formal, candlelit, place card type?  Or is it a more casual, mix & match china, food-filled type?        

Image by Heather Armstrong Photography via Inspired by This

Thank You Notes + Fun

Signed, Sealed & Delivered
Thank You Notes- Check!

Did I write Thank You Notes & Fun in the same title? Have I gone crazy?! You may not want to ask that question after I finished writing 67 wedding thank you notes (who's counting?). Now that I've reached the other side of wedding thank you note task, I have some advice to share. Fun may have been a stretch. Let's say I have some wisdom on surviving the thank you note task with your sanity intact. Here we go:

1. Design a beautiful thank you note. This may seem silly but I swear it's a key to success. Match your wedding invitations, show off your married monogram or pick your favorite wedding photo. Whatever card will make you smile after looking at it over & over again, design it. I chose our very favorite wedding photo & it never failed to make my heart skip a beat.

2. Organization is key. As with any big project, organization saves you from unwelcome hassles. Gather your thank you notes, guest list, pens, stamps, address labels, etc before you write one single word. Keep them in one handy spot throughout the thank you note process.

3. Pick good pens. I happen to love gel pens so I stocked up on those puppies. You want a pen that you're comfortable writing with for long periods of time & you want plenty of them.

4. Set a goal & stick to it. I decided to write 10 thank you notes per night to get the notes mailed before my next vacation. I gave myself plenty of time & I took short breaks while still writing 10 notes per night.

5. Share this fun task with your husband. I didn't do this- I wrote every single thank you note. My hubs has horrible handwriting! Often, I need him to translate notes & cards he writes for me. In the interest of our wedding guests knowing what the card says, I took on the thank you note task solo. Still, I highly recommend sharing the joys & thrills with your partner.

6. Music, music, music! The Tori Amos station on Pandora saved my soul. No lie. Whether it's your favorite CD, your best iPod mix or singing to yourself, let some good tunes carry you through the process.

7. Grin & bear it. This too shall pass. Honestly, it's not so bad. I felt so much love & gratitude recounting all the generosity our family & friends heaped upon us in celebration of our marriage.

The wedding planning process is chock full of thank you notes: engagement party, bridal shower & wedding. Take the tips above & survive the process with grace!

Do you have any additional tips to share with me?

Time to Write the Thank Yous

Thank You Cards & Thank You Box
Lots of Vintage Taxi Love!

Our Thank You Cards

Each night that I sit down to write my goal of 10 thank you notes, I think of the classic Dunkin Donuts commercial "Time to Make the Donuts." Only I hear "Time to Write the Thank Yous!"

Cue thank you card writing! First things first, I pick some fun music & blast it. Then I settle at our dining room table & unpack my pretty Thank You box (our recycled gift card box!). It contains our guest list with gifts noted, thank you cards, pens & stamps. I grab a thank you note & I write. & I write some more. & I write even more.

When 10 thank you cards are signed & sealed, I'm done. Writer's block. Cramped hand. Sore shoulders. All the reasons I dreaded this task.

But mostly I feel an overflow of love & gratitude. I wish I could hand-deliver each thank you note & give the recipient a big hug & kiss. Not only was I blessed to marry the love of my life, our amazing family & friends supported us, celebrated with us & gave us generous gifts. It's almost too much. I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

ThankFULL

Thanks Is For Giving
Print available at Etsy in rawartletterpress' shop

I adore Thanksgiving. This wonderful holiday gives me the perfect reason to pause for a moment, look at my life & give thanks for my countless blessings. Just to name a few . . .

1. My fiance, RZ. He is my everything & my life wouldn't be the same without him.
2. My family. They may drive me crazy but they support me & love me always.
3. My friends. My friends are my family & they are the BEST!
4. Bailey, Gucci & Kaydee. Bailey is a constant source of joy & love & we needed him after saying good-bye to Gucci & Kaydee. I'm grateful for the 18 years I enjoyed with them & can only hope for 18 years with Bailey.
5. My health. On good days & bad days, I never forget the importance of good health.
6. My happiness. Something in my life can always make me smile even through tears.
7. My safety. Thank you to those who have fought & who continue to fight for my safety.
8. My freedom. Thank you to those who have fought & who continue to fight for my freedom.
9. Koru Wedding Shoppe & its amazing customers. I'm lucky to love what I do!
10. My upcoming marriage to RZ :-)

I am FULL of thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours!

With Thanks

Faded Glory
Available on Etsy at goodoboy's shop

Happy Veteran's Day!

Thank you, thank you to our Veterans who fought for our freedom
& to our Troops who continue to fight for our freedom!!!

Fast Track Thank You

November is the month to be thankful so we're going to kick off with a thank you note feature.

You may remember the Fast Track Bride who needed (& got!) her wedding invitations in a hurry. It's hard to believe but her wedding is mere days away. Luckily, her thank you notes arrived in the nick of time. They're ready & waiting for the happy couple to get married, enjoy their honeymoon & return to thank their wedding guests.

The thank you notes are simple, sweet & match the wedding invitations flawlessly. The Bride chose to have their first names in the same script font & same Lime font color on the front of the thank you card. The Pear outer envelope picks up the Lime font color & adds a burst of color to the thank you notes. Instead of choosing the Snow shimmer paper or the White matte paper from her wedding invitations, the Bride selected the Frost card stock. Frost has a subtle texture to make things interesting. The result? The perfect thank you note.

Cheers to love, laughter & happily ever after for the Bride & Groom~

Riviera Engagement, Part Two

Glam Thank You Note
Note by Exclusive Collection II
Available at Koru Wedding Shoppe

Shortly after our engagement party, I realized we had a lot of thank you notes to write. My Riviera Bride experienced this exact same revelation. I had a frantic email requesting matching thank you notes the Monday after her wonderful engagement party. Easy! I ordered her the Riviera thank you notes in Grape & Champagne with "Thank You" in the coordinating script font. We handled the entire order over email & about two weeks later, these beautiful thank you notes arrived.

Now the Riviera Bride is busy writing thank you notes!

Crafty Thanks

Creation One

Creation Two

Creation Three

Creation Four
My favorite- the last one!

How I wish I had enough time & creativity to make all the Thank You cards for our engagement party! Maybe, just maybe, I'll go that route for my bridal shower (time will tell!). Most of our engagement party thank you notes were written on my personal stationery. I could never let a prime opportunity to craft pass me by so I did handcraft a few, special thank you notes.

For the most part, I had the craft supplies on hand & I simply emptied my craft armoire of its contents. I had the paper stock from my bridesmaid cards, the ribbon from my Valentine cards, the swirl paper punches from Koru Wedding Shoppe (Koru's logo is a swirl) & the silver pen from various projects. I felt like I needed a bit more so I bought glitter paper & flower/heart decorations from the scrapbook aisle of Target. Once all of fun supplies were scattered on the dining room table, I settled in to make my four creations.

I had only two ideas in mind: I wanted to use the swirls on every card & I wanted every card to be unique. I punched three large swirls & one small swirl from the glitter paper for each card. One creation at a time, I arranged the large swirls in fun ways & I added different embellishments. Every card had a small swirl tucked into the bottom right corner of the inside- just a cute, extra touch! I was happiest with my last creation & I ended up wishing I'd used that design for all of the cards.

Who are the lucky recipients' of my handmade thank you notes? The fabulous hosts of our engagement party, my Mom & my sister who put a lot of time & effort into making the party a HUGE success. My brother-in-law was included on my sister's thank you note because he put a lot of hard work into the party as well. RZ's parents were also instrumental in making the party so wonderful because they made delicious food for all of our guests to enjoy. And finally, my Grandma who flew from California to join us in the celebration of our engagement party.

Thank you, thank you- we love you!

Gracias

Lots & lots of lovely gifts

We're all smiles as we open our engagement gifts

My personal stationery from Dreamland Designs

Blank notes waiting to be filled!

Written, addressed, stamped & ready to go!

What comes in the aftermath of an engagement party? Heartwarming memories. Cool gifts. Thank you notes. Seriously, we had some work cut out for us with the thank you notes we needed to write to our engagement party guests.

With our upcoming wedding & my impending name change on the horizon, I have my adorable "Kate Sullivan" stationery that I need to use before it no longer applies to me. I bought my personal stationery years ago from the talented Gina of Dreamland Designs & I love it. Gina hand-lettered my name & hand-colored a shamrock for the sweetest look. I don't want it to go to waste. I added "& RZ" to each card & viola- the stationery is perfect for our engagement party!

Here comes the fun part: I had to write every thank you. Why didn't RZ write some? Well, he conveniently has awful handwriting. Often, I have to ask him to translate the cards he writes to me. Our guests were kind enough to come to our engagement party & bestow us with gifts & they deserved legible thank you notes. I spent many, many nights writing thank you notes until my hand cramped. Of course, it was well worth it. A little thank you note doesn't seem like enough to properly thank our generous family & friends!!

I dismissed the traditional "Love" stamps & I bought the "Adopt A Shelter Pet" stamp for our thank you notes. This is something that is near & dear to our hearts, especially since our adoption of a rescue dog, Bailey. The stamps are meant to bring public awareness about shelter pets & encourage adopting from a shelter. If we can say thanks & help an animal, then job well done :-)