February began with Aubrey’s birthday party at the Hanlin household – kicking off a month of festivities! I always look forward to my birthday and Valentine’s Day (which fall in the same week) and this year our team at work did a market research day for Valentine’s Day, Dale and I celebrated my birthday with dinner at Lidia’s, we had a wonderful family dinner at my parents and we capped it off with a weekend at The Elms. This was a combo birthday/Valentine’s Day/mini-babymoon (just like we did before Grant was born). Grant enjoyed Val this year as well and picked out monster truck Valentines for his class at daycare. This month we also visited the zoo aquarium with Grammy and Pop (their Christmas present), I traveled to Charlottesville to celebrate Holly’s Bachelorette party, and Dale, Grant and I had lots of fun everyday moments playing at home and enjoying family dinners. Sadly, we also had to say goodbye to Granny this month and had a wonderful celebration of her life at our house with the Smith family. I’m going to miss her (and the sweet voicemails she often left after I mailed her a card) so much. For the shortest month of the year, we sure experienced a lot!
January & February Home Progress
Janary’s biggest home project was getting the dining room plaster repaired! After painstakingly removing the old wallpaper, the walls were literally crumbling and it felt great to get this big job checked off the list. Next up, paint touch ups and wallpaper! I also spent a lot of time working on Grant’s big boy room in both January and February. I finally found the perfect wood sample for his dresser/bedside table to match our existing bed and we sampled lots of blue paint options. We also started setting up the rest of his room and decor. Dale and I also finally decided on blinds and curtains for the nursery! I can’t wait to get baby’s room all refreshed and setup, too!
Ampersand for Hallmark
Last up for this season of love, an ampersand I created for Hallmark Gifts. This ceramic platter and frame both use the same style (with different levels of detail in the ampersand). As a lettering artist, anytime we can explore a unique ampersand is a fun request!
© Hallmark Licensing, LLC
Valentine’s Monoweight Script
I absolutely love creating monoweight script lettering and this was was especially satisfying — the large swashes in the entry and exit strokes perfectly balanced with the heart exit and it looks great as the star of this Hallmark Valentine’s Day card.
© Hallmark Licensing, LLC
Butterfly Illustration for Hallmark
Today I’m sharing my butterfly illustaration which was used on this pretty Hallmark Val card for daughter. The dimension and foil process turned out so nice!
© Hallmark Licensing, LLC
January Memories
This month. I was just about halfway through my pregnancy and it was a month full of busy and relaxed moments and lots of family time! Grant loves his new bounce house he got for Christmas that we have setup in the upstairs playroom, we took advantage of some warm weather to walk to school, we enjoyed a KU game at Austin and Ali’s house, Neil and Bruce were in town which led to lots of cousin time and a trip to the Nelson-Atkins, Grant and I made muffins when Dada was on call, and we ended the month with a trip to The Rabbit Hole. He’s at the perfect age to recognize all the books and loved reading them at the museum. We came home with the Frog & Toad series! Grant also loves mixing and his duplo legos right now. To top it all off we had some major family milestones in January as well – we had a wonderful 90th Birthday celebration for Pop at Jack Stack Barbecue and Sophie and Alex shared the news that Baby Wilson #2 is on the way!
