I hope you all had a wonderful and restful Christmas break… It always comes and goes far too quickly doesn’t it!?

Reflecting on the year, it’s been a pretty incredible rollercoaster journey for us here at In the Treehouse - It has been our first full year in business, and one of astounding growth, countless blessings, proud moments & useful challenges.

When 2012 set in one year ago, I (Jenny) was running the business from my utility room single handedly – working to the smaller-than-small hours growing a little treehouse-shaped seed, and living in a general state of complete exhaustion… Looking back on how far things have moved on since then, I still have to pinch myself – although the joys have been countless, i have none the less attempted to quantify them in this round up of highlights:

In February 2012, Matt joined me full time as the Treehouse Keeper, and 3 months later, another lovely Matt joined the team as a full time Design Assistant. In June we moved into a spacious, beautiful and creatively inspiring new studio in my home town of Tavistock, Devon. We’ve had the absolute pleasure in working with over 300 couples this year (click here to see some of their lovely wedding photos), providing a whopping 50,104 pieces of stationery! (which is a little mind boggling, even if we do say so ourselves). We’ve also been honoured to be nominated for 2 national awards for Best Wedding Stationery (watch this space!)

It’s been a year of personal joys too, especially for proud new parents Matt (the Treehouse Keeper) and Leanne with birth of beautiful baby Pearl in November. In the same month, a moment I had long dreamt of and hoped for finally arrived when my fiancé proposed on a bridge over the River Thames. (In case you hadn’t guessed, I said YES!)

So, on to 2013 – I have designed this little poster which will hopefully get you inspired to see in the new year with gusto -

In 2013 we’re hoping for another busy and prosperous year In the Treehouse – and we can’t wait to share it with you. Please let us take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support and enthusiasm for what we do, it means the world. Thanks to all the clients who have put their faith in us over this last year, we hope we did you proud.

From all of us here, we wish you a wonderful year!

As a design company, I love how our clients pretty much completely direct the ebb and flow of our work in new directions, often following emerging trends within the wedding industry. I was excited when I had an email from a regular client, Victoria – who is the owner of beautiful children’s gift boutique Dolly & Jack - I have designed stationery and web images for this lovely brand, and was thrilled when Victoria contacted me in a new capacity, as a newly engaged Bride to be! Victoria and her fiancé Sebastiano asked me to design something using the concept of national flora and fauna which represents their heritage (white rose and olive branch for Sebastiano who is half English, half Italian. Eucalyptus and fern for  part Australian, part New Zealander Victoria). I love that our stationery means peoples heritage and backgrounds can be reflected in design, and it’s something I have tried to stay true to when planning my own wedding in March to my Nigerian fiancé (eek, only 10 weeks to go!)

So, I digress! Without further ado, here’s what I created for Victoria & Sebastiano.

It’s perhaps simpler, more stripped back and more elegant than some of our previous work – that’s always a challenge for me as a designer, knowing when to reign it in and not keep adding colour, pattern, more fonts etc!

I really love the concept and the soft colour palette, which inspired me to create a mood board to match:

Florals (top left) /  Decorated Napkins / Bouquet /  Bridesmaids / Jars / Succulents on Napkins / Shoes

I hope you like it!

Just a quick note to let you know about a new addition to our ranges – Personalised Wall Planners and Wedding Countdown Planners, designed in the theme of our best selling Vintage Trinkets wedding stationery range.

Above: Personalised Wall Planner – perfect for keeping you and your family in check throughout 2013!

Above: Personalised Wedding Countdown Planner – taking you right up to the big day, it’s an exciting reminder on your wall and an essential practical tool for noting down all the wedding related tasks you need to get done. Available now for weddings in 2013.

Both the wall planner and wedding countdown planner are £45, printed on high quality A1 paper and rolled in a tube for posting. For more details and to purchase, head over to our Etsy shop.

We have been so lucky throughout this year to be the recipients of lots of great coverage within the wedding industry and particularly the top bridal magazines – As you can imagine, I was pretty delighted to be asked to write and design feature for Perfect Wedding Magazine on my predictions for the top trends in stationery design for 2013…

Click here to have a read… I think it’s going to be a great year for design!

Some lovely Christmassy FREE PRINTABLE bunting for you today…

In the timeless words of Judy Garland and Sinatra; have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light… We hope you have a wonderful festive season with friends and family.

We love wrapping with traditional brown parcel paper – there are so many ways to embellish it at Christmas – here are a few of our favourite ideas from the web…

Click on the links for more info on each:

(Red & White Washi Tape Wrapping) (Yellow & Grey Decorations) (Book Pages) (Doilies) (Paper Bows)

We hope you’re all feeling in the Christmas spirit… Here’s a selection of lovely DIY advent calendar tutorials to hopefully get you inspired and excited by the coming season…

I’ve started to think about making wedding favours for my own wedding and found this inspiration on the web…. Hope you like it!

Image credits:

1. Bow Ties on a Stick / 2. Circus Tent Favour Boxes / 3. Hot Sauce Bottles / 4. Succulents / 5. Soundtrack CDs / 6. Jam / 7. our own Fridge Magnet Bunting

I would love to hear what you decided on / are considering for favours, whether you made them and if so, do you have any tips? Let us know by leaving a comment here on our Facebook page…

We recently threw a surprise baby shower for Leanne in our studio – it was a really special occasion for us all to celebrate her own journey into motherhood and of course, the little tiny she was busy growing! (Incidentally, the beautiful Pearl was born last week – hooray!) At the time, we had no idea if baby would be a boy or girl, so I opted for a bright, gender-neutral theme for the shower, centred around rubber ducks… Have a peek at these photos, hopefully full of cute celebration inspiration, easy peasy DIY decoration ideas and best of all, FREE PRINTABLES…

(above left) Baby Shower Invitations (£1.75) – I also made cute little fabric pouches for them in this lovely rubber duck print – unfortunately these are only limited edition and not for sale in large quantities.

(above right), Leanne, beautiful mum-to-be!

(above left): like ‘pin the tail on the donkey’, only think babies and boobies!

(above right): DIY embroidery ring decorations which can be used in baby’s nursery after the shower…

Above – Mini doughnuts with super quick DIY washi tape flags.

Also above: Handmade pom pom cake stands – I collected glass vases from the charity shop (approx 50p each), covered foil cake display plates in pretty paper and stuck pom poms around the outside….

(Above): ‘Dear Baby’ cards are a great way to get a little keepsake for mum and baby… People complete the cards with their predictions, promises and words of wisdom… These are good for baby showers but also for mum-to-be’s friends, family and colleagues to complete…

Because we want to share the love, we’ve added these cards to our Free Printables Library – if you’d like to join, (you must be a Facebook ‘Liker’) please email us at info@inthetreehouse.co.uk with the subject Free Printables Library

Above Left: ‘Adopt a duck’ rubber duck lip balm favours (bought at Claire’s Accessories). THIS POSTER HAS BEEN ADDED TO OUR FREE PRINTABLES LIBRARY…

Above Right: a little sweetie buffet

Hope you enjoyed these images and feel inspired to celebrate a friends or your own special new arrival sometime soon…

Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend… We have a double whammy of joyous news from the Treehouse:

Matt, the Treehouse Keeper & Leanne’s beautiful baby girl has arrived (finally!)- Pearl Rose Fogarty born on the 8th November 2012 at 10pm weighing alb 13oz! We’re all so happy mum & baby are doing so well….

I (Jenny) am also very happy to let you know that the love of my life proposed beautifully on a bridge over the Thames at the weekend, and I said YES!

An engagement & a baby in the same week – we’re feeling very blessed!

Matt will be on paternity leave for two weeks but it’s business as usual, if you get in touch you’ll just most likely hear from me instead.

Morning all! We have lots of orders to get out the door today, so I’m going to keep it brief and show you this beautiful photo Bride Georgy sent in of her and her new husband using our Mr & Mrs signs on their big day… We love nothing more than seeing your photos, so thanks to everyone who shares them with us.

If you’d like to become a member of our Free Printables Library, you must be a ‘liker’ of our Facebook page, or a stationery client. Please email us at info@inthetreehouse.co.uk with the subject Free Printables Library and we’ll invite you to join…

Hope everyone’s had a wonderful weekend… Mine (Jenny’s) has been super busy, my 3 year old girl’s first ice skating trip with her dad (accompanied by my spectator’s nervous breakdown), trips to the park, a film at the cinema this morning and a lovely afternoon with friends. All the while, I am checking my phone regularly for Matt (the Treehouse Keeper’s) eventual text to say that Leanne might be in labour – she’s due on Friday next week so we’re all very excited as you can imagine…

Anyway, I digress! Today, a little jam jar shaped inspiration for you… If you’re a Bride on a budget, jam jars may well be your new best friend!

Image Credits:

1 / 2 / 3/ 4 - Source unknown, sorry! But from what we can tell, they’ve simply been spray painted in lovely colours…

/ 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Are you planning anything for Halloween this year? If so, we’ve designed some cute (in a spooky way) free printable bunting which may be useful…

All you need to make our cute Halloween Trick or Treat and spooky illustration bunting… The free printable sheets, (2), a pair of scissors, and some Paper Tape (aka. washi tape). If you don’t have the latter, some normal sellotape and string will do, if you stick it to the reverse..

You can either use the bunting to spell out ‘Trick or Treat’ or use the little pictures…

If you’d like to join our Free Printables Library, which has loads of great wedding and party resources, (you must a ‘liker’ of our Facebook page) – please email us at info@inthetreehouse.co.uk (or using the contact form to the right) with the subject Free Printables Library and we’ll invite you to join..

Happy Halloween!