TULALOO - logo design

While Tulaloo primarily designs and creates invitations and stationery for special events, I occasionally design logos for other small businesses. This is always exciting because I love to support entrepreneurs as they launch their new businesses! Today I am sharing a small sampling of some of the logos we've designed for these awesome small businesses:

Dazzle Boutique - a really wonderful prom and pageant dress boutique, located right here in Connecticut.

Honeybabe - handpoured, 100% beeswax candles from upstate New York and shipping across the USA. You have to check out the Star Wars candles - they are awesome.

Onsite Dental - a mobile dentist's office, founded by Dr, Jason M. Grinter DDS, MPH, that provides dental care to over 80 schools, community centers and nursing home in Illinois.

Capelli Hair Studio - a brand new hair salon, opening right here in Oakville, Connecticut! Capelli is slated to open November 1st!

Shot on Site Photography - portrait photography, Teresa Bushek, based in Amarillo, Texas

Please take a moment to check out these small businesses!

TULALOO: birth announcements

I am excited to debut several new birth announcement designs!!! We have cute and whimsical and bold and modern and feminine and masculine and even some especially for winter babies! Everything can be customized to your favorite colors and every design is available as a printable for DIYers or as a professionally printed announcement with envelopes. Come see the entire collection!

CT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER: the langlois family fund

Talented wedding photographer Eric Langlois went missing one week ago, while trying to retrieve his mountain bike from the water at Lover's Leap State Park in New Milford, Connecticut. Despite thorough searches by police, dive teams and a large group of volunteers from the wedding industry here in CT, Eric has yet to be found.

I'm saddened by the sudden loss of such a talented photographer. I have been a fan and a follower of their work since I came into the wedding industry; it is beautiful and edgy and completely unique. And my heart aches for Eric's wife, Amber, and their two young children. Eric and Amber are partners in their photography business, Raw Photo Design. With wedding season just beginning and being suddenly unable to work, finances are one more burden on someone who is already dealing with the unimaginable. A fund has been set up to help ease this burden. If you would like to help, please consider donating to the Langlois Family Fund. Any amount will help.

TULALOO GALA INVITATIONS: dream come true

Recently, Tulaloo has had the pleasure of working with Dream Come True of Western CT - an amazing non-profit organization that grants dreams to seriously, chronically, and terminally ill children from Fairfield, Litchfield, and New Haven counties. They are a volunteer based organization that relies on donations to make these children's dreams a reality. Each year they host the Dream Come True Gala, an night of great food, dancing and a fabulous auction, that brings in funds to support their efforts. Tulaloo was honored to design the invitations for this very special event.

We actually created two separate sets of invitations for the Gala, which was themed "Dream Under The Sea". The first wave of invitations was hand delivered to businesses that were interested in sponsoring the event. We created a navy blue boxed invitation, branded with a Dream Come True seal. Inside the box, recipients discovered an invitation and sponsorship packet wrapped in a translucent vintage sailing map and tied with cotton string. The nautical map was an introduction to the dreamy ocean design we created for the main invitations. Stay tuned for the Dream Under The Sea invitations, gala programs, bar menu and more...later this week!

GIFTABLE: mother's day special

We have a limited edition Mother's Day Collection of monogrammed and personalized stationery sets, available as mother's day gifts for 2013! We are offering both folded cards and flat notes in a variety of designs, and every design can be customized with a mongram or name. We have very limited availability on these items so grab them now before they're all gone!!

TULALOO CT WEDDING INVITATIONS: confetti!!

When you want your wedding to be a PARTY, nothing says it better than confetti!

What I love about our Rio design, is that it can be loud and boisterous or quiet and sophisticated, just by changing up the colors and fonts. The above invitation was designed for a bride and groom who wanted all their guests to expect a big celebration at their wedding. We went with a color palette of fuschia, purple, orange and black and a loopy calligraphy style font. The invitaton is wrapped in a pochette with petals that "explode" outward when guests unwrap it.

 

For the above invitation we chose a pretty color scheme of pink and gold, and a feminine script font. We kept it simple in our "Naked" invitation style to create an elegant and airy look, perfect for a spring or summer wedding.

TULALOO CT WEDDING INVITATIONS: chevrons!

A new year means new additions to the Tulaloo collections! We've quietly snuck a few of them in over the past few months and now we are ready to shout about the new looks! First up is "Ithaca" - a fun and modern chevron design.

 

 I love this design because it works well with really bright colors or with a more subdued palette. Like all our invitations, we can create this in any Style in our guide and in any color scheme you like.

 

 

Recently we were honored to have our Ithaca design included in a feature about platinum weddings in Occasions magazine! You can see us here, (along with Mr. Jimmy Choo!!).

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN: final breathe love update

We have completed our Breath Love fundraiser for Sandy Hook Elementary School. Thank you everyone for your support and generosity. We were able to raise over $2700!

As I mentioned previously, we have a family friend who is a teacher at Sandy Hook, and she was able to tell us what teachers most need and want at this time. She requested funds to replace the leveled grade 1 books and some bean bag chairs for the reading nooks in the classrooms. With your help we were able to pay off the balance on the books, and we just purchased two truck loads of Yogibo bean bag chairs, rugs, pillows and storage cubes. These items will be distributed to all the classrooms this week. In the wake of what happened, what we have done is a very small thing. But I hope that the books and cozy reading spaces provide a bit of comfort to the students in the coming months. Thank you for helping us to do this.

This fundraising effort was the idea of my amazing sister-in-law, Christine. We chose to run the fundraiser via Tulaloo because logistically it made the most sense, but Christine and her company, uPPstream, managed most of the behind the scenes work. None of this would have been possible without her.

Although we are done with our fundraiser, we encourage you to keep Sandy Hook in your thoughts and also to support your local schools and first responders. These men and women have incredibly important and very difficult jobs. Please let them know how much you appreciate what they do.

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN: support for sandy hook UPDATE!

We are nearing the end of our fundraising campaign for Sandy Hook Elementary School! A quick update on how much we've raised and how we will be helping our neighbors in Newtown:

Between donations and sales from our Breathe Love collection, we have raised nearly $2000! Two thousand dollars!!

A family friend is a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary, and we are currently speaking with her about the best way to provide the funds to their school. Although we had initially planned to purchase gift cards to office & school supply stores, our friend has let us know that one of their greatest needs at the moment is replacement books for the first grade clasrooms and items to create comfortable reading areas for the students. We will be covering the cost of the leveled first grade books and also providing rugs, pillows and bean bag chairs for their reading nooks.

Thank you so very much for your support in this endeavor. Your donations and purchases are making a difference!

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN: support for sandy hook

There aren't words to describe the fear, anxiety, anger and sadness we all felt Friday morning, as news of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School reached us all. As a parent here in Connecticut, the reports of a possible 2nd shooter on the loose, along with reverse 911 calls letting us know that our schools were going into lock down as well, were terrifying. Knowing how long and scary the day was for us here, I can't even begin to wrap my brain around the terror felt by the parents, teachers and students of Newtown. It is an unimaginable horror.

And it is a horror that isn't going away anytime soon. Students across our state returned to an altered school environment today. One with armed police officers at their doors and a sense of anxiety in the air. Parents put on brave faces as they watched their children climb on the school bus, then broke down in tears as they watched it carry their babies to what we hope is a safe day at school. This morning some area schools were again placed in lockdown as police investigate reports of an armed man in the area. And of course none of this begins to compare with how those in Newtown are feeling. The grief, anger and fear there is monumental, and it is intensified by the overwhelming media presence, ongoing threats to their town and promises from the Westboro Baptist Church to demonstrate their disgusting hate at Sandy Hook vigils and funerals. Here in Connecticut, and across the country, those tragic few minutes on the morning of December 14th will continue to weigh heavily on us and on our children.

So what do we do? How do we move forward?  I don't think any of us have a perfect answer to that. But I am reminded of an article I read on Brains On Fire several months ago. It contained the simple words: "Breath it all in. Love it all out." And really, what else can we do right now? We can't undo Friday. We can't bring back those 26 lives. We can not change what happened. But I can take all these awful feelings and fears I have and recycle them into love. We can all do that. Start simply by hugging your family a little tighter and a little more often. Tell them you love them. Bring that love with you to work, to the store and to the bus stop. Smile, give compliments, help your neighbors. Small gestures go along way, so do something kind for someone else. This morning I sent thank you notes to my children's teachers, letting them know how grateful I was that they are there and caring for my children today. The kids and I brought cookies to the crossing guard at the end of our street. Tomorrow we will bring a Box of Joe to our police department.  Does this sound trivial and silly in the face of what happened Friday? Yeah, probably. But love begets love, and these small kindnesses will hopefully multiply and leave many people in our community feeling loved and cared for. We are all in this together and now, more than ever, is a time to take care of one another.

Breathe it all in. Love it all out.

In addition to these small acts of kindness, please consider making a donation to support the Sandy Hook Elementary School community. A few suggestions:

Tulaloo has designed a new collection - titled "Breathe Love" - and 100% of your purchase price will be donated directly to the school. All donations will be used to provide gift cards to allow school administrators and teachers to purchase supplies and materials to spruce up the temporary school they are moving into and make it feel warm and welcoming as the students return. You can purchase 8x8 posters and note card sets here.

If you would like to donate to the purchase of gift card but do not want to purchase a poster or note cards, please use this link:

And finally, if you would prefer to support the families of the victims, rather than the school, please consider donating to My Sandy Hook Family Fund.

Thank you!

TULALOO: help wanted!

Tulaloo is seeking a Part Time Studio Assistant to help assemble stationery orders here in our Watertown, CT studio!! All local scrapbookers and paper crafters are invited to apply to join the Tulaloo team! This is a part time position with the potential to grow alongside the company.

 

The ideal candidate is:
Friendly and Reliable
Familiar with paper crafting and/or scrapbooking
Willing to learn and grow with a small but rapidly growing company
Able to work independently and efficiently
Available to work in our Watertown studio 1 - 2 mornings or afternoons each week

This position offers:
$10/hour
5-10 hours/week with additional hours available in the Spring and Summer
Flexible Schedule
A casual, family friendly work environment
Potential for job growth as the company continues to expand

 

Download an application here.

Applications may be emailed to Tulaloo: info@tulaloo.com

TULALOO: bridal shower invitations

It's been awhile since I shared any of the party invitations leaving the studio! We finished these bright and fun bridal shower invitations for Tulaloo bride Crystal recently. I love the bright orange and navy blue color combination! Bridal shower invitations are available with or without reply cards and in any color you like!

TULALOO:elevated envelope 2

 Now that I've shared what Tulaloo mailed out for the Elevated Envelope exchange, I get to show you all the nice goodies I've been receiving int he mail! This beauty is from Danielle S in Nebraska. The front of the hand made envelope has a clear window in it, giving you a sneak peak of the contents!

 Denise made a really creative envelope that folds up in a way that reminds me of a kimono, which was a perfect choice for this Asian inspired letter. There was lots of collaged paper which added great texture.

When you unfolded the envelope, there was a pack of Chai tea, gorgeous postcards featuring Japanese prints and a really wonderful letter from Danielle. As someone who really struggled with what to write in my envelopes, I loved receiving Danielle's letter, which told about her other pen pal exchanges and inrpiration and process for creating her envelope. Thanks for sending something so pretty my way Danielle!!

TULALOO: elevated envelope 1

By now all of Tulaloo's Elevated Envelopes have been received so I get to share them with all of you! If you like Tulaloo on facebook, you may have seen an earlier post where I gave a sneak peak of my initial Elevated Envelope plans, which included pastel drawings of tiny bouquets. It was a nice idea, but after the first two I just wasn't feeling it anymore. I wanted something a little more fun and off beat. So I dropped the pastels and opened a few bottles of nailpolish instead!

 Nailpolish is fun to paint with because the colors are really saturated and it dries to a bright glossy finish. You can get some interesting effects when you mix the colors and allow them to bleed into each other. And there is very little clean up involved since the brushes don't need to be washed and are stored in their bottles! I painted an abstract design on the front of folded black cards, and incorporated the word "hello" into each. On the inside I wrote a brief note the the recipient in white gel pen, and attached a tiny envelope I made from shimmery vellum. Tucked inside the little envelope were tiny heart shapes stickers I made with nailpoish!

The folded cards were placed inside translucent vellum envelopes so that you could see the design through the paper. I addressed each in colors that coordinated with the enclosed card. This was a really fun project, and it is easy so I definitely recommend it to anyone. BUT, if you are going to try this out make sure you are in a room with plenty of ventilation. The nail polish fumes can be overwhelming!!

PERSONALLY: studio dog

It is about time I introduced you to this guy! His name is Barley, and he is the resident dog in the Tulaloo Studio. You may remember this earlier post where I made the surprising discovery that I am, in fact, a dog person. Well, after mourning the loss of our big red dog Clifford, we eventually began looking for another pup to welcome into our family. And by that I mean I obsessively searched Petfinder and all the local animal shelters for months until a cute photo of an adoptable dog came across my facebook news feed. We took a ride over to the animal shelter and met a sweet, gentle and handsome pit/lab/hound/mutt mix. After a few more shelter visit we were convinced and Barley came home to live with us.
You will most often find Barley curled up on his bed in the corner of the studio. He likes to keep my company while I assemble your wedding invitations. It really is nice to have a dog around again.