Going Elegant

Even here in Texas, we get home delivery of the New York Times every day. Of course the Times has a great website, I use the NYT app on my iPhone all the time, and it is not green at all to get the paper. But, I treasure my ritual of a latte made on my Nespresso D150 and a few minutes with my real paper, black newspaper elbows and all. I tend to block everything else out for a little while, including screaming children. Though I read the front page and skim the first section every day, there are some weekly sections to which I truly look forward. These include Wednesday's Dining Section, Sunday's Travel Section, and Thursday and Sunday's Style sections. I have found so many of my favorite things on these pages. A few weeks ago, I read this article and filed it away.



I love invitations, but I am not a saver and do tend to take people's invitations, send in the reply cards, put the date in iCal and then recycle the beautiful, carefully chosen and pricey invite. I have used Evite many, many times and it is convenient, but I have always found it a little bit disconcerting to send an invitation that has ads attached to it. Also, they are cute, but so informal. So, in planning for Little Ladybug's very "grown up" first birthday party, I knew I would have to check out Paperless Post. It was so much fun to design my own beautiful invitation. They remind me of the modern, elegant engraved invites that our parents spent way too much money on for our wedding. You do have to pay for stamps, but they run about 5 cents each. A bargain for something so gorgeous, elegant, fun and easy.

Speaking of Ladybug's party, we have decided on a theme of Cocktails and Cupcakes and are making it a grown up party to celebrate our little girl growing up. We thought that a house full of kids would overwhelm the birthday girl and that she should really be a star at her party. Plus, she can be there at the beginning, charm everyone with her toothy grin, look adorable in the dress I will find for her, make everyone smile when she makes a mess with her cake, and then go off to pleasant dreams while the grown ups can continue to enjoy grown up treats. We will have wines and drinks, charcuterie and cheese platters, hors d'oeuvres and cupcakes! Plus, I get to wear my new Elizabeth and James cocktail dress and my Louboutins. Fun!