Memorial Day Weekend

The O'Regan's spent a majority of the Memorial Day weekend in the pool! With Molly's school out for summer and daycare closed, we kicked off the summer season at my parents house where every day feels like a vacation. We had some time with our good friends, The DeLanos, who you may remember from this blog.  Susan was on our PSA Essentials design team and I spent a few minutes looking back at birthday party fun, stamping at Britney Spears, her bachelorette party madness, wedding shower, and more birthday party fun when writing this post...

On Friday, Molly and I spent some time crafting a pennant flag banner and festive cocktail straws using our PSA Essentials Peel & Stick Stamps.  We used the flag stamp from PSA Mixed Holiday Peel & Stick pack. Turned out cute!

Using some fun glittery paper found at Michael's, I used my circle punch and stamps to create festive straws for Memorial Day cocktails. 

We so enjoyed some time with my cousin Sarah, who came down from Asheville for the weekend.  Here are some more weekend photos!

What a fun weekend! Here's to a wonderful summer ahead.

National Stationery Show Recap

PSA Essentials returned to the National Stationery Show after a four year hiatus this week in New York City, and I must say that we returned with a bang! It was such a wonderful opportunity to connect with our loyal retailers and put faces with names.  We made new connections and are exploring new opportunities, and the future of PSA is looking brighter than ever.

A big thank you to Kelly of Kelly Hughes Designs, who spent a few hours in our booth on Sunday. She jumped right into "PSA mode", answering questions about our product and being a perfect ambassador.  So many retailers and attendees know Kelly from being in the industry for many years, and have such tremendous things to say about her.  Spending a few hours with her at the show only confirmed our enthusiasm for her newest line of personalized stamps by PSA Essentials.

Here are a few pictures from Sunday...right before the show started! PSA's President, Kevin, and long-time PSA Graphic Designer, Lesley, are set and ready for everyone to arrive...

The incredible ink wall turned out great. Very straight, thanks to a level and a lot of patience for the two installing it... Tearing it down was fun for me!  Below is our "Switchable Middles" wall illustrating how all PSA Essentials stamps have switchable middles.  Remove your center monogram or name for a cupcake, a Christmas tree, a wedding cake -- there's a middle for every occasion. 

This flyer outlined our "Design Your Own Line" program that we've launched.  If you are a graphic designer that's interested in designing your own line of PSA Stamps, email dyol@psaessentials.com or me at loregan@psaessentials.com! 

Tuesday we had Emily McCarthy, who recently designed a new line of stamps for us, do a meet and greet sponsored with tasty drinks from ONLI Beverages. These yummy drinks mixed with champagne were just what we needed on Day 3 of the show.  A huge thank you to ONLI for providing our guests with these drinks!  We SO appreciated them and they were VERY well received.  (Head on over to learn more: http://onlibeverages.com/) 

What an incredible four day show, thank you to everyone who made it possible.  We are looking forward to what's ahead, we know it's big!

Construction Birthday Party

Saturday, May 17th is my son, Connor's, 2nd birthday!  I can hardly believe it.  I've been spending the last few days gathering photos from the last year and it's incredible to see what a difference a year makes.  One year ago he wasn't walking.  He wasn't talking.  These days he's able to fully articulate needs and wants and practically runs wherever he goes.  Moreover, Connor's personality has really come through.  He's mischievous, daring, curious, adventurous, energetic, and yet sympathetic, sometimes gentle, and sweet. Stereotypically as a boy, he loves things that "go" like airplanes, helicopters, cars, and trains. For his 2nd birthday party on Friday, we are throwing him a "Construction" theme party, as he is quite enamored with diggers and trucks! (And my best friend from college suggested it -- I almost always listen to what she says!)

I ordered my invitations from Swanky Press, one of my go-to sources for invitations and stationery.  Everyone who received it commented how cute it was, and how much they loved the "dump everything and join us to celebrate!"

I added on invitation liners, a fun touch to make the invitation even more special. 

I scored some fabulous items on Etsy for the party such as a personalized t-shirt, door signage, and also a complete DIY party set in a construction theme.   Check these out, click on the photos to bring you to the Etsy listings!

Incredible, isn't this?  Lee Laa Loo Parties 

Love this shirt! 

I am working on a canvas with photos from the last year of his life and music CD party favors this week using my PSA Essentials personalized and Vanilla Peel & Stick stamp. I also have construction hard hats as favors (personalized with the kiddos names, of course!) and lots of other fun details to share. 

Check back next week for all the details of the party! 

Creepy and Cute Critter Birthday Party

We feel so lucky to have made so many wonderful friends at May River Montessori including the Mikkelson's. Tiffany works as a lawyer, she is a mother of four children, and truly is a dynamite party planner. I always seem to be blogging about her children's birthday parties, because they are always adorable.  Her oldest son Walker, turned 8 and they threw an epic celebration with a Critter theme.

From the petting zoo with a lama, goat, boa snake, gerbles, bunnies, and a mouse....there were plenty of animals for the children to see and pet. Tiffany went all out with the details.  I noticed the sandwiches arranged in a snake, take home stuffed snake favors, adorable cake and cupcakes in theme, invitation in coordinating color frames with coordinating flowers, plastic snakes and critters everywhere and so much more!  Here's a look at some of cute details and check out how happy Molly and Connor were at this party!

Happy Birthday Walker, thanks for inviting us to another epic Mikkelson party!