birth announcements

In the wake of Garrett's birth, nearly two and a half years ago, we were so busy packing up, moving to, and getting settled in Brooklyn that we never sent out a formal birth announcement. This is something I have always regretted. So I told myself that with the next baby I'd be more on top of things.

A few months before Caleb was born, my friend Ashley moved back to Brooklyn after a year-and-a-half hiatus to finish school. While she was away she honed in on her awesome design skills and opened up an Etsy shop called Nouveau Designs. What could be more perfect than having a graphic designer land right in your lap in time for the birth of a child for whom you desperately wanted to send out birth announcements? I'll tell you what: Nothing, except for maybe the announcement she put together for Caleb:


I know! Awesome, right? The design was a back-and-forth collaborative effort, and I LOVE what she ultimately came up with. I mean, if you're gonna give birth to a baby in Brooklyn, New York, you might as well capitalize on that fact when creating his announcement. And see that lit up window? That's ours. Because we're up in the middle of the night taking care of our sweet baby.

I wish I could have mailed an announcement to each of you, but after copies were sent out to family, my supply had been whittled down considerably. But I'm happy that I can share it with you via that fabulous instrument known as the internet. For those who didn't find a copy in your mailbox, this is the photograph that accompanied the announcement (he was about two weeks old when this picture was taken):


I might not be able to undo the past, but with Ashley's help I was able to retroactively put together a birth announcement for Garrett. I love how it turned out, and how, like Caleb's design fit his birthplace, so too did Garrett's. Muncie, Indiana is home to the Academy of Model Aeronautics which Blake and I liked to visit -- especially when people from all over the country would come to the airfields to fly their planes during the annual competitions.


We only ordered enough of these to keep for ourselves, but it really makes me wish that I'd thought to hire Ashley in the fall of 2007 when we were both new to Brooklyn.

If any of you are in the market for birth announcements (or cards or invitations...her darling advent calendars sell like hotcakes), I highly recommend Ashley and her work. Seriously, go check out her stuff.