Since I married into a Chinese-American family, we celebrate the Lunar New Year with my in-laws every year. Lots of the Chinese traditions revolve around food and what it symbolizes. There are also some superstitions that many who celebrate follow to ensure they will have a healthy and prosperous year.
Printable Calendars on Etsy
I have had these printable wall calendars in my Etsy shop for more than a few years. I just added a handful of new ones and I wanted to share. Here’s a link to my Etsy shop.
These are a fairly simple and really useful concept:
Print the calendar page at a local print shop at 16x20 inches (Office Depot, Staples, etc. You can order online or take the file to a store on a flash drive. Some will accept files via email.)
Insert it into a 16x20 inch ready-made picture frame and the glass becomes your dry erase board.
Write in the month, days, and your family’s activities and appointments for the month.
If you have the wall space and need to have two (ore more) months up at a time, print as many as you need.
I have two 11x14 inch calendar frames hanging on the wall in my office and they’re really handy for me to see what the coming weeks have in store for us. 11x14 is all I have wall space for right now, but I am hoping to be able to go up to 16x20 in my next home office. Fingers crossed!
Pro Tip: Use Command Strips to hang these on the wall (yep, that’s an affiliate link). They make pulling these frames down to write on easier to do each month and no holes in the wall. It’s easier for me to write on these when I can put them on a table and Command Strips totally make that easier.
I also keep track using the calendar on my phone, but I’m a very visual person, so having months visible on the wall makes it easier for me. It also makes it easy for my husband and my kids to see what family or school events and appointments are coming up.
These DIY calendars are very simple with a space at the top to add in the month and information in all of the date squares. Ultra-fine tip dry erase markers work the best, but regular fine-tip pens will work as well.
I can customize the name at the top to say pretty much anything; whether it’s just your family name or something different like “The Hollises Craziness,” “The Murray Clan,” or “The Gonzalez House.” I have even made one that says “Girl’s Office” or even a company name. Other fun ones to consider, if it works for your family: brood, flock, clan, dynasty, and progeny. Since my married name is Wong, my husband and I would totally go punny and say “The Wong House.”
If you would like to skip the fun, family name at the top, you can always opt for just a few lines and space to write any notes at the top like the ones on my wall.
Clicking on any of these images will take you to its listing on Etsy.
If you’re interested in customizing a wall calendar with different fonts, adding colors, or going with a different size, shoot me an email and we can talk details.
Our Holiday Card - 2019, and more!
It’s December 20th and we’re winding down the school week and getting ready to head to northern California to spend Christmas with family. As of today, I’m no longer accepting custom orders for holiday cards for 2019. If you card is already in progress, then I’ll get your order finished before we leave. All listings in my Etsy shop are either Instant Downloads or calendars. I can still handle orders for custom family calendars since I will have my laptop with me when traveling.
In the meantime, both my Hanukkah and Christmas cootie catchers are on sale for just $1 in my Etsy shop. Show your kids how much fun these were when you were a kid. The Christmas cootie catcher will remain $1 until December 25th and the Hanukkah cootie catcher will be $1 until December 30th. A page of folding instructions is included with your instant download. You know… in case it’s been a while since you’ve folded one of these. They look best and are easiest to fold when printed on plain paper.
Click on either image to get to the listings in my Etsy shop.
For our family holiday card, we’ve been going to a local photo studio for Santa photos for the last six years called FotoFly. They have one of the parents wear the Santa suit so the kids are comfortable and your chances of getting smiling faces is much higher. It’s been a family tradition to figure out whether our boys will wear matching clothes or PJs or if we’ll do a theme or not. This year, both boys wanted to wear their taekwondo uniforms and we borrowed a black belt from our studio so Santa could wear it. Because, of course Santa would be a black belt.
I had actually created a more traditional design with a lovely script font and Christmas-y plaid background, but it was way too serious for the photo. A comic book theme just worked the best. I had these printed at Office Depot instead of my usual Overnight Prints because I ran out of time. Gotta love having them ready in an hour.
Wishing you and yours a joyful and peaceful holiday season, no matter what you celebrate.
Holiday Cards 2019
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I had holiday cards on my mind this weekend. I’ve been playing with watercolor elements lately and created these new holiday cards. They’re all listed in my Etsy shop along with a bunch of favorites from past years. Clicking on each photo will take you to its listing on Etsy.
This one below here has accents in gold glitter! I think I’m going to have to make another one or two that also have that fun glitter.
Hoping to add some more if my kids and time lets me.
Santa photos by Fotofly.
Family photos by Jessica Kay Photography and Cari Hollis.
Custom Jam Labels
At the end of every summer, I buy a big box of Utah peaches and turn them into jam. It’s one of my favorite jams ever and I look forward to making it every year. Nothing is more satisfying that hearing that POP as the jars seal after sweating over a pot of molten fruit and sugar.
Every year I create a custom label and this year my kids wanted input on the design. They loved the label I made a couple of years ago with the dancing peach and “That’s my peach jam” wording. This year they said the peach needed to be a disc jockey with headphones. After I was done laughing, I got to work figuring out how to turn a vector drawing of a peach into a DJ. Both of my boys approved how it turned out. Mom win! They are looking forward to giving a jar to their teachers.
One friend of ours got her own custom label this year. Hee hee hee She’s very possessive over her annual peach jam.
Both of these new labels have been added to my Etsy shop and can be customized with your name and whatever fruit jam or jelly you’re making.
Alex's First Day of Freedom
It’s September 2nd and summer has flown by in a flash. This year I tried my best to pack our summer with as much fun and adventure as possible while squeezing some contract work in the crevices between travel, camping, hiking, biking, swimming, and sleeping in. We spent a week with family in California. We camped and hiked with friends. We went on bike rides (which are way more fun now that I actually have a bike!). We had a real, week-long vacation in Lake Tahoe (the first in many years). We spent lazy Sundays fishing in high mountain lakes with Daddy. We had shave ice dates, frozen custard dates, gelato dates, and lots of swimming play dates.
Now school is back in session and my youngest and last baby started kindergarten! Since I make a sign for both of my kids every year, I figured that after eight years of being a WAHM (work-at-home-mom) I deserved one for myself. In case you can’t zoom in, it discusses how I would like to be on vacation when I grow up. My favorite foods are anything I don’t have to share and hard lemonade. My hobbies include quiet time, hiking, reading, cooking alone, and anything without an audience. My teachers are Netflix and Amazon and I’m 40 years young. I thought it was fitting to take the photo from my hammock overlooking a beautiful alpine lake… which is where we spent the whole Sunday before the first day of school.
Next summer I’ll add this sign to my Etsy shop so fellow parents can have a sign of their own.
All summer my youngest has had nothing but positive things to say about how awesome kindergarten would be and I’m so happy that his first full week lived up to the hype. Every day he came home tired, but ready for another day of fun.
My kindergartener is kind and smart and quick to laugh off scrapes of bumps that might slow him down, but fully admits that a BandAid will take the pain away. He loves Crocs, Lego, Paw Patrol and anything his big brother is into. He often narrates whatever he’s doing or playing with and when asked who he’s talking to, he’ll tell you he’s narrating a YouTube video for his subscribers. He loves taekwondo and his flexibility allows him to kick higher than his own head , much to his brother’s chagrin.
My oldest started fourth grade and is really excited for what this year will have to offer. He is so smart and wants to know EVERYTHING and show everyone that he knows EVERYTHING. We joke that he’ll be a Jeopardy! champion some day. He continues to train in taekwondo every week and is currently one belt below a black belt. He will be eligible to test for his black belt next year. He loves history and we watch YouTube videos about random history together and discuss the historic places we can visit. He also loves to play soccer and run cross country. He adores fishing and camping and has rather suddenly fallen in love with exotic cars. He is also becoming a foodie and loves to cook and try new foods.
Since my printer is down at the moment, I had all of our signs printed on card stock at my local Office Depot (it was less than $2 total). They did an amazing job and in photos they almost look like real chalkboards. These signs are available in my Etsy shop in the summer and ready to be customized for your kids.
Happy first day!!
Holiday Cards 2018
Holiday cards are up in my Etsy shop and will be available until December 14, 2018. If you don’t have any Etsy account or would prefer to place an order outside of Etsy, you’re welcome to send me an email and I’ll get your holiday card made.
Here are some of the designs I added this year. Click on the images below to link to the listings on Etsy.
These two designs also have the option to showcase one portrait photo instead of two landscape.
This one below can be done with either a blue, red, or green background.
I also added our holiday card from last year. You can choose between a green, red, or blue faux knitted sweater background.
I added two background variations to my popular Santa’s Most Wanted holiday card.
The design below is a variation on the Santa’s Most Wanted Card that I created for a client a couple of years ago. This one really cracked me up! Through the listing you can choose from three different chalkboard background colors: red, green, or blue.
If you’d like to customize any of these designs with different colors, fonts, or layouts, it’s totally doable through a custom order. Just shoot me a message or email with any questions you may have: alextebowdesigns@gmail.com
Happy Holidays!
First Day of School Signs - 2018
I was thrilled to get to create a bunch of First Day of School signs for so many awesome kids this year. First Day of School signs are available in my Etsy shop in the summer months through the end of September. They also can be ordered by sending me an email if you’d prefer to not go through Etsy. I customize the text using your child’s information and their favorite colors. Then you print the sign yourself.
Here’s a sampling of this year’s kids with their signs:
Here are my two boys this year. I wonder how many years they’ll let me keep doing this??
There will be three different font styles to choose from when they are available. The backgrounds look like a faux chalkboard and they’re set to print on 8.5x11 paper. If you want it to look more like an actual chalkboard, you can trim off the white edge and/or print onto thicker card stock. Or your can back it with a piece of cardboard. The colors print most vibrant on glossy paper, but then you have a potential glare when taking a photo. It looks more like a real chalkboard when printed on matte paper. The choice is yours.
If you live in a country where A4 paper is the norm, just let me know and I can send it at that size.
Happy First Day!!