It’s been one year since I moved from #wfwhitehouse and into this new place. Zach and I had a conversation recently where we both admitted to missing that big, old house. We had such dreams for that place. It’s taken this full year to really process the events of that time and some days, I still can’t believe it all.
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Back when I first bought #wfwhitehouse in all it’s outdated glory, the insanely talented Abigail Berry with Light + Free Folk reached out and offered to take some photos of the finished product for me, and I looked forward to this throughout the entire renovation. She shared my vision for that old house and could see its potential just like I could. From the very beginning, I dreamed about the fresh flowers I’d buy and scatter about for these photos. Everything would be decorated so beautifully and I’d probably do these photos right before I invited all of you in to see the big reveal.
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I announced my big move from #wfwhitehouse last month and one of the things I didn’t mention was where I was headed next. Thankfully, I had just finished remodeling another little house in West Monroe so I had somewhere to go. It was my 7th house to remodel in 2.5 years. (I’ve done 8 total.) I had just finished it and posted a “coming soon” notice on my Facebook when I got the final news that I would indeed be selling my beautiful, old white house. I pulled it from the listing que and decided to just hold on to it for a bit. My intention had been to sell this one and yet if I needed somewhere to move quickly, this would be a good spot.
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I sat there on a Saturday and I cried. It was the day after I got the unofficial news that I would indeed be moving. Everything was lining up as it should to make this unexpected deal work out for everyone involved. It wouldn’t be a “done deal” for a few more weeks, though verbal agreements were made and things were falling in to place.
I’ll be moving soon. I’ll be packing up and starting to live in this beautiful new house that I’ve worked so tirelessly on. I’m excited about it. I’m excited about my new, old house and everything it represents. I’m excited about a fresh start and about all the new memories that’ll be built in that place. And I’m also sad to leave where I am now.
A few weeks ago, Matthew and I mailed moving announcements with our new mailing address on them. The first set of announcements was sent to our family and friends. (If you didn’t get one, it’s because I don’t have an address for you. Send it over!) I mailed these announcements for a few reasons.
This card was designed by the talented Nicole Meares at The Fletching Co. (Here’s the link to the actual product listing.) After Nicole finished the design, I had the cards printed locally at Associated Business Printing, and I ordered brown kraft envelopes on Amazon.
After mailing these to friends and family, I decided that it would be nice to mail them to my new neighbors, as well. I thought this would be a nice way to introduce ourselves and at least give the neighbors an idea of who we are. We’ve had a chance to meet a few people on our street but not many.
For this set of cards, I felt like there needed to be something else in the envelope. If they read the card closely, they’d be able to tell we were the new kids on the block by the address. However, I wanted to make it a little easier for them to determine why they were getting this card. I decide to include a little cutout that said “Howdy New Neighbor!” This cutout would go in front of the card in the envelope, so anyone who hadn’t met us yet would have an indication of why they were receiving a moving announcement from a stranger.
I must say, this might have been the most exciting part of this project for me. I used the A Beautiful Mess app to design the cutout and printed it on a dark orange card stock. My assistant cut them into little squares, and we were ready to mail! Isn’t that little guy the cutest?! There weren’t as many of these as the friends and family cards, so we hand addressed them and used this stamp for the return address. (Bo was incredibly easy to work with when ordering my address stamps, by the way. Highly recommended!)
Side note about the cards: Someone mentioned once that they’re jealous because I send out different cards and things like this. They said they felt like I “had it together” and they didn’t because of this. That’s definitely not true, and I never send out cards and such with the intention of making someone feel bad. Instead, cards and stationary are my thing. It’s what I love to do. I will almost always find time to do things of the sort because it’s my favorite. However, you’ll likely never receive a gourmet cupcake from me and there will always be shoes on the floor in every room of my house. The fact that I send out fancy holiday cards or moving announcements (which most of my friends had never heard of) isn’t intended to make anyone feel inferior. When you see someone doing things that maybe you aren’t good at or don’t care about, just remember, their thing is different from your thing, and you’re likely kicking their tail in some other area of life. Last week’s post on starting a family kind of touches on this. We’re all different but wonderful, so never forget how fantastic you are in your own way. You don’t have to send out moving announcements to rock at life.
I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve love, love, love cards and projects like this. I’ve been looking at Christmas card designs for months, and I may even be sending a few Thanksgiving cards this year. Did you ever have that aunt or grandmother that sent everyone a birthday card? That’s totally me…except I’m not doing too good in the birthday department yet. But a random St. Patrick’s Day card? I’m your girl. I actually just signed up for Happy Mail, and I’m so pumped! The thought of getting new cards and stationary in the mail every month makes me so excited. Most of you probably get make up. Not me. Give me all the cards!
Have you seen any other unconventional reasons for mailing cards? I look for any excuse to mail something fun, so if you see something interesting, please send the idea my way!
Update: Check out the sweet card we got from a neighbor in response to these announcements!
