The Darlin Baby Shower Invites

When you have friends like Lindsay + Darren, you just kind of want to do nice things for them. They are just 

the most nicest people ever.

And you know, I like to show people I love them by throwing parties + making invitations.

So basically after having a happy fit when L told me she was going to have a baby my next order of business was to ask if I could throw them a baby shower. 

Naturally it got a bit out of control.

But I can't help it.

Parties are my love language.

L has told me that they're planning on making the baby's room woodlands themed + we all know Darren is a crazy cat gentleman- armed with that information and the fact that we were hosting the party outside in Trout Lake Park in the city, I thought

OMG URBAN WOODLANDS

i.e. skunks // squirrels // coyotes // racoons // beat up AF tabby cats 

you know. gross ass city dwelling creatures you hope your baby never runs into.

Cute. AF.

It was a brilliant concept + then all I had to do was figure out how someone with no ability to draw (me) was going to get her hands on some cute AF urban woodlands creatures

when I decided

fuck yeah I'm an adult! I'm going to throw money at this problem!

Learning it's possible to throw money at problems has been one of the best parts of growing up.

So I hired a young local artist to draw them for me. These wonderful, OMG, are they almost TOO cute? drawings are done by the very talented Kiko + you can find their artwork over at their Instagram page @kylihime. Turns out they don't actually take commissions, so don't try + hire this particular artist for your own invites [+ I'm very hopeful they mean it when they say they were down to help me out because we're friends + they enjoy collaborating with me + these drawings were super fun + cute to do.]

But other young artists will take commissions! This is a super fun way to support a new + upcoming talent - to get totally personalized + exactly what you want + way beyond your skill level, letting them build their resume + make some cash. Remember being young? Remember when you couldn't throw money at problems because you were a student + broke? Remember doing all those psych experiments to pay for the hole you knocked in a wall at a party? No? That last one is just me?

Anyway, I think a lot of folks can remember what it was like to make an extra $20 and how many slices of pizza that bought. So if you have an hour of work, reach out to your local young artists and hire them. Pay them for their work + be absolutely thrilled with the results.

I put together the rest of the invites, did the lettering and layout, but hot damn I loved my urban woodlands creatures.