birthday wishes

tomorrow is my birthday and i love presents. i have been dreaming of things that i think would make great gifts, because they're all the things i want. a girl can dream, can't she?

1. navy blue jack purcell's, size 8

2. melissa button frye boots, size 8

3. tweed blazer from emerson made. or anything from that shop. seriously.

4. hoop earrings from melissa joy manning. every girl needs an essential like hoops.

5. left handed calligraphy set.

6. ok, ANY jewelry from melissa joy manning, like this sweet and delicate bracelet.

7. 4 edge wine glasses from crate & barrel. my sweet mom surprised me with a set of 8 one christmas and only 4 have survived the years.

8. aspen dinnerware from crate & barrel. i have some nice black & white damask dinnerware right now but i'm looking to tone it down a bit.

9. *see #6.

10. dwell studio for target bedding.

11. blasippa bedding from ikea. our room needs a makeover, and quick!

this list also doubles as a christmas list. *wink*

Super Hero 4th Birthday

super hero 4th birthday party (read: spiderman party masked as super hero party.)

see this blog post. :)

this lovely handmade cake was made by the one and only Kahea from the blog Tickle Cake. she's an artist turned cake decorator and she made this cake for me as a trade for her daughter's baby announcements. i love trades. they make me happy.

some of our close friends picked up some spiderman comics that we used as decorations around the room and on the cake wall. thanks chris and melissa!

bunting, of course. made out of comic book pages and the polka dot paper that lined the envelopes for the invitations.

my favorite part: the decorate-your-own-super-hero-cape craft. it was so cute seeing all the kids running around with their very own cape.

just a little sticky back felt and glitter foam board. i precut the fabric and hot glued velcro to the straps. i kept the craft was super simple because we had over 20 kids and it was a parent-assisted craft so i wanted to make sure it was fast enough for everyone to make one.

one of many spiderman gifts big A received. all in all, it was a hit.

Aaron & Heather: MARRIED!

there are so many wonderful details about these people, their relationship, and the wedding that i would not be able to list them all here in this blog. i will show you some pictures and you can find the rest and an amazing write up about the wedding here. i was honored to create all of the paper goods for the wedding and reception. heather and i worked together quite a bit on all this stuff and i was just blessed to get the time to sit and craft with my dearest friend.

these people, i love.

fabric backed escort cards.

hand sewn wedding programs.

fabric backed table numbers.

bunting. of course. to match this mini-bunting.

hand sewn guestbook instruction cards.

hand sewn cake cards.

fabric backed favor sign.

heather & aaron: God's face is already shining apon your marriage because you radiate with His perfect love. what a great example of what our marriage will be like to Christ you have already been and will be for many happy years. we are so happy to know you in this life and after.

all photography by the amazing jackie wonders.

Super Hero Party

big A is turning 4. when big A turned 3 and all the candles were all blown out from his cake, he started planning his 4th party. NO. JOKE. he said he wanted a spiderman party.

this is where i must make a confession: i hate character parties. i really dislike when the plates, napkins, cake, table cloth, and goodie bags ALL have the same picture of some character on them sucking the imagination out of small helpless children. so when big A asked for spiderman, i tried to find every possible way to convince him to choose some way cooler theme. (insert CRINGE here.) i know, i know... it's his party. don't worry, i am letting him have a spiderman party. i'm just doing my best to make it creative. the ONLY reason, and you will just have to trust me on this, that spiderman is not on the invitation is because i don't have the ability to draw him and there are no free illustrations out there that i could download. otherwise, there would be.

there will be a spiderman cake, and pinata, and even spiderman comic books as decorations. i am working really hard to ignore my inner control freak and just let my little boy be himself. but i'm not gonna lie, it's rough.

please don't hate me. i hope you like the invitation because it is one of my favorites!

Programs & Paper Goods

i recently had the amazing honor of designing and assembling all the paper goods for my very own bestie. so many hours went into the many projects for this wedding and it was truly a labor of love. the bride and her groom came up with all the ideas and i just put it all together. here is a little sneak peek. soon to come are the professional photos, which will be nothing less than stunning.

Patricia & Oscar: MARRIED!

i have had the pleasure of working with the sweet and beautiful Patricia. she has been in my top 3 clients because she was SO easy to work with and for some reason loves my work so she gave me a lot of creative freedom. when the wedding invitation suite was completed, i met her fiancé for the first time. he was so sweet and attentive, and i was so excited for them to be getting married. what a great couple!

they chose to plan their wedding around the color teal with plum purple accents. YES! i love, love, love rich colors. this was so much fun for me to work with.

they also wanted to incorporate peacock feathers. i included one on the back of the RSVP postcard and also squeezed one in on the directions page, which was the back of the map.

all finished. this is what was pulled out of the envelope. i love that they had me include real peacock feathers!

the lovely ladies of Taylored Occasions referred Patty to me. They were featured on the blog Mint Condition and a picture of the program I made to coordinate the invitations made it onto the blog. I’m pretty excited about that. click here to read the article.

the happy couple! best wishes Patty and Oscar!

bridal shower

last month i helped throw a bridal shower for one of my besties. i feel like it was so long ago at this point so i'm trying to remember all the excitement from the day to make for an interesting post. hmm. nothing's coming to me. eh.

here are some photos of the details.

i was pretty much in charge of all the decorations. i had big visions of an amy atlas dessert table and a vintage table setting complete with china, linens and wildflowers... but my lack of budget and resources kept me grounded. i did manage to make a few "vintage inspired" crafts.

these paper hearts were inspired from a great etsy artist, bookity. she does rad things with old books.

this wreath was also inspired by bookity, but i think i went wrong by making my cones a little too tight! this thing took FOR-EV-ER... and is super heavy. but i still like it!

the favors were "cupcakes in a jar". i got this super cute idea from cakies, except i used the strawberry lemonade cupcake recipe from ISLY.

i made a few semi-homemade changes for time sake. boxed cake mix and trader joe's lemon curd. they were SWEET... but really good!