Are you ready to party? I’m sure the title of this post got your attention! I bet those of you who live in the North (including me) could use a bit of Palm Beach right now to offset the cold weather and ongoing snow shoveling. It’s probably not what you think, but I promise it doesn’t disappoint.

I came across Palm Beach Parties a few months ago when I was thinking about starting my Etsy Feature series. I was drawn to the cheery vibe, sensational use of color and modern graphics. And to tell you the truth, there always seemed to be something yummy showcased on the blog. That will get me every time!

 {Pretty Kitty Party}

Who’s Behind Palm Beach Parties?

Carla was born and raised in Ohio in a small little farm town outside of Cincinnati. We’re talking in the sticks…high school was across the street from a pig farm and next door to a corn field. She never realized how peaceful and beautiful it was at the time and now she often misses the beauty of the mountains and changing seasons. After graduating from high school, Carla moved to Florida to attend college at Florida Atlantic University, where she majored in business.

At a young age, Carla developed a passion for graphic design and party styling. In fact, she hired a coordinator to help with her wedding, but ended up designing mostly everything herself. Carla has always loved color and her home and wardrobe are proof of it. She’s a huge fan of Lilly Pulitzer and it shows in her style.

Carla lives in Palm Beach, Florida (as one would probably guess) with her husband and two wonderful little girls (Ava 6 and Ella 3). Caring for them has always been her biggest priority. After having Ava, she returned to work in the medical field part time, but found it too difficult and eventually became full-time mom. Like many women, she desired some sort of creative outlet.

In 2008, when Ella was only 7 weeks old, the entire family was involved in a rear-end vehicle collision that left Carla injured. Luckily she and her husband had taken the time to learn proper car seat safety, and her girls were protected because of it. While recovering from a cervical spinal fusion to repair the damage this summer, and needing something to take her mind off of the 6 week recovery, Carla decided to start Palm Beach Parties so that she could share her love for design. What started purely as a form of therapy, turned out to be the start of a small business that’s fulfilling her dream and really getting noticed!

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Happy December! I’m excited to introduce the next shop in our Etsy feature- Green Beansie Cards. As mentioned in my Holiday Countdown series, I’m a huge fan of customized cards. When I came across this shop I was captivated by the beautiful color combinations, unique patterns and variety of print options.

{Fair Isle Gift Tag}

Who’s Behind Green Beansie Cards?

Wendy has a flair for design that started as a kid. Although she wanted a career that allowed her to be creative, she didn’t get her start in graphic design. Instead, she entered the interior design program at college and received her bachelor’s degree. While working in commercial design and architecture, she spent countless hours using drafting and design software on a daily basis. At the time she didn’t know it, but this was honing her computer and professional correspondence skills, which would later prove to be very important.

Fast forward a few years and Wendy’s interest in interior design started to fade. She considered becoming a doctor (in fact she completed pre-med and the MCAT), a career she thought would contribute to society in a big way and be very rewarding. However, after becoming a mother, she was given more fulfillment than she ever could’ve imagined and suddenly becoming a doctor wasn’t high on her list of priorities. After relocating with her husband to Colorado, in a town with no family or friends, Wendy needed something to keep herself busy. She began playing around with Photoshop and her graphic designs started to emerge.

The Etsy Shop

Wendy has always been inspired by successful career-oriented women and thought this is the path she’d take. However, after having two children (now a 4 year old and 3 month old), she undoubtedly wanted to be home with them while they were young. She decided that an online shop would be the perfect compromise. She toiled with the idea for a while, but didn’t know exactly what to sell. One night it finally clicked and on a whim she ended up opening her shop with some card designs she had previously made for friends. Although she only had seven items at the time, she worked very hard to add one item a day for a few months, eventually adding full party packages, stationery, and professional printing services.

Wendy loves graphic design because she can try all sorts of designs and change them rather easily- something that’s much more challenging (and expensive) to do as an interior designer. She describes her personality as being somewhat subdued, calm and orderly and she has a tendency to see things as black or white. As a result, her work style follows that. Her designs are usually symmetric, orderly and done in classic color combinations. Because of this, she favors designing elegant baby showers and adult parties over playful children’s parties.

{Formal Blue and Yellow Tea Invitation}

Although Wendy’s formal training helps her design process, she finds inspiration in many forms. For instance, she’ll see an eye-catching outfit or a beautifully decorated room and love the color combination so much that she uses it in one of her designs. Or she’ll think of a place she loves and sets out to capture that feeling in a design. Sometimes she’s hired for custom work and uses her skills to decipher the client’s thoughts and ideas to create the perfect design. She finds that very rewarding.

Although Wendy loves many of her designs, her favorite is the new Christmas Fair Isle Collection. She loves the red and turquoise color scheme, as well as the props she found. The milk bottle is from her great grandfather’s dairy farm and the fondant toppers and custom cookies were ordered to perfectly coordinate with the printables.

{Fair Isle Collection}

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