2010 Exclamation Point!

This was a sweet little exclamation point for the end of 2010...I just saw the 2011 Christmas Collection from Universal Designs featuring my "tis the season to be freezin" designs:

http://www.universaldesignsinc.com/Christmas-2011/

Here's a sample from the collection they created with my images:

(image licensed to Universal Designs, Inc.)

I hadn't seen the collection until this morning...I was very happy with how it all turned out! What a nice little treat to end 2010! I'm looking forward to where the Lord takes me and my artwork in 2011!

Happy New Year to all my sweet blog and FB friends and family - you mean the world to me! I have loved sharing my little corner of the world with you and I have loved being graciously invited into yours. I'm looking forward to more of the same and to new adventures too in the bright shiny new year of promise that lies ahead! God Bless you all!!

Oh Holy Night

On this Holy Night let us all gather at the manger in awe and wonder and celebration, that God Himself came to us, as one of us, so that we could forever be reconciled to Him...

May your Christmas celebration have Jesus at the heart of it, and may you be surrounded with His Peace...He is after all, the Prince of Peace...

Here's my favorite Christmas Hymn sung by one of my all time favorite artists, David Phelps. Turn up the volume and let this angelic voice join the chorus of the Heavenly Host that surrounds us, Proclaiming the Good News...

"For unto you is born this day...a savior which is Christ the Lord."

Luke 2:11

Merry Christmas to you, my dear friends!

Hugs and Blessings!

Wedding Details at Last!

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After a couple of days of rest after the wedding, I'm finally ready to show you some of the details of this wonderful day. For those of you new to my blog, I styled/coordinated a DIY at-home wedding this past weekend for a dear friend's daughter, and everything came together so beautifully! Glorious weather...cool, dry, slight breeze, crystal blue sky...perfect! Plus, it was just so very relaxed and laid back...and everyone had a wonderful time!

The following photos are focused on the decor...I was too busy running around doing this and that to get very many photos of the bride and groom or the wedding party. The fabulous Houston-based photographer Melanie Johnson took care of that and then some...I'll share an early sample of the bridal portrait she shot a bit later in the post...

First off is the cake (or cupcake rather) table. Connie, the mother of the bride, did a great job rehabbing this dresser. It was perfect for the look we were going for, which was a relaxed, vintage cottage-style look - love the glass knobs (the "Once Upon a Time" sign belongs to the bride...perfect)...

I found this cute vintage Wilton bride and groom at a garage sale and tweaked it a bit by adding touches of purple, beads, lace snippet, and tiny silk roses...plus I painted the groom's hair dark brown...it was blond before...

I set the bride and groom on a glass tiered platter I made...

...and added a few of the yummy cupcakes...these were ordered from a local grocery store. We simply added the sugar sprinkles and cute flower cupcake wrappers...

I showed you photos of this arrangement in a previous post...here's how it looked in the vignette...

Here's the bride's bouquet I made...it was simple and understated...just white roses and purple status...

 

The entire wedding ceremony and reception took place in the front yard, driveway and huge front porch at the mother of the bride's lovely home. We endeavored to create cozy, sweet vignettes for each activity using mostly things we already had or that we bought at thrift and discount stores. The ceremony itself was right off the porch in the yard. We used an a-frame from their old swing set and tied on white sheers from Ikea...

The light was absolutely gorgeous on Saturday, but it made for somewhat harsh photos from this angle. Here are photos I took of the floral swag and LOVE banner at my house so you can see the details a bit better...

I had the pom-pom fringe and the funky green tulle/lace/organza trim in a bag of trims I bought at a garage sale, and I made the flowers and leaves from wire-edged ribbon...

I flanked the a-frame with two large arrangements I made, and set them on little metal garden tables from Marshall's...once again, the light makes it hard to see...had to use the flash to show the flower details...

Another vignette we created was a seating arrangement for the bride and groom. We hung a clothesline between two trees in the side yard by the driveway and hung up six white on white curtain panels I got for $10 total at a garage sale and ribbon from Hobby Lobby. We topped the curtains with a vine of silk morning glories I made by taping 18 separate morning glory sprigs together in a long line...

We used a wicker settee for their seating, a kitchen table, and the bride's French secretary to create the vignette. This ended up being a spot where many of the family photos were taken...

I was SO blessed to have a ton of help from so many people to put all the vignettes and details together..for example, the bride's aunt is a former florist, and she did all the table arrangements like this one. All the fresh flowers were from Kroger!

I embellished these chipboard 'B' and 'G' letters...

...for the 'Bride' and 'Groom'...but they work also for the names of the bride and groom - Bekah and Gonzalo...  :o)

Here are a few more random vignettes from the day...

"Photo booth" for the guests (the gorgeous quilt was a gift to me from the bride's Mom for my help with the wedding!)

Directional signs...

FYI, these green boards I used for the signs were salvaged from my potting shed that got destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008...

Here they are all together...

Menu chalkboard made from a vintage tray (my brother catered the BBQ for the wedding and he outdid himself again - yummy!!)

Vintage typewriter...

Coffee bar inside the house...

I got to incorporate this sign I made for the flea market in November, but didn't sell...

Porch swing with Ikea lace panels, quilt, and another arrangement...

Various tables...we used tables and chairs collected from people we knew and thrift stores too. The wonderful helpers at the wedding dressed them using a variety of table covers from my stash as well as some vinyl lace ones from Tuesday Morning. We also used my vases and cupcake plates as centerpieces (but due to a timing error on my part, we never got the cupcakes actually into the domed platters...) oh well, they tasted just as good served from a table on the porch :o)

Here's a photo of the mother of the bride - my dear friend Connie...we go WAY back to High School days...

And as I mentioned earlier in the post, here is a bridal portrait from Melanie Johnson, our awesome photographer. Bekah is just so beautiful...what a sweet pose. She's wearing the miracle $10 dress from Goodwill...as soon as Melanie posts more photos, I'll see if there is a full length one showing more of the dress...

While I was writing this post, Melanie posted another sample from the wedding, this time of the bride and groom - what a stunning photo - what a beautiful couple! I can't WAIT to see all the rest of the photos from Melanie!!

I was so blessed to be a part of this lovely wedding. We had a blast pulling it all together - and seeing the guests genuinely enjoy themselves and relax and seeing the bride and groom so happy made all the work SO worth it!

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I'll be doing a quick Merry Christmas post on Thursday, then I'm headed to the beach with my Hubby, my Mom & Dad and my brothers and their families for 4 glorious days of rest, relaxation and reflection in a wonderful beach house we've rented. (we do this in lieu of exchanging gifts). I look forward to seeing all of you when I return and sharing photos of our vacation...  Hugs to all of you!!

Of Weddings and Watercolors

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I am so happy to finally be able to share a few photos of the ongoing wedding preparations. We are just over a week away from the wedding and we are in high gear...and loving every minute of it!! The pictures today are of the ADORABLE crocheted brooches that my friend Connie and her daughters have made for the bride's attendants, mothers and grandmothers of the bride and groom, and helpers...

I gotta learn how to crochet...these are just so fun. My part was to supply many of the centers from my vintage earring stash...

...and I made the leaves out of wire-edged ribbon...but the cute crochet flowers and the know-how for connecting them all together and backing them is all from the genius of my friend and her girls...

(here's a link to the tutorial Connie used to make the flowers: http://simmy.typepad.com/echoesofadream/2006/03/crochet_flower_.html)

They made 20 or so of these...wow!

Here's a bit of one of the sister-of-the-bride's dress...each attendant is getting a purple dress of their choosing...it will be great to see all the shades of purple together...

...and here's a closeup of one of the flower brooches...

While I was making ribbon leaves for the flowers, I made a dozen small ones to use as simple boutonnieres for the guys...we just added a little coordinating embellishment and wrapped the stems with satin ribbon - easy-peasy... (I'll be making a fresh flower boutonniere for the groom though)

I love the DIY nature of this wedding. Not only have we pulled the wedding details together really quickly (less than 3 months), but we have been very frugal in doing so. (I can't wait to show you the $10 wedding dress from Goodwill!!!) The table coverings are mostly all thrifted vintage tablecloths as are the vases for the flowers. We've borrowed and/or thrifted all the tables and chairs, and we are using vintage furniture pieces here and there (like a vintage dresser for the cake "table"). The the overall look will be relaxed, cottage elegance with plenty of touches of charm and sweetness. We are really looking forward to seeing it all come together!! I hope you'll stick around to see how it all turns out...

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Over the last week, I also finished some spot watercolor illustrations for a dear friend of mine in Colorado for whom I've done work in the past. She is a calligrapher and is a lovely seasoned citizen with a beautiful, generous spirit. She did the calligraphy quote (I'm sorry I don't know the author of the quote...she is adding it now) and sent it to me to embellish as I saw fit. It's been a WHILE since I've used my watercolors...it was fun to paint non-digitally for a change. Here's how it turned out...

Yep, I had to use one of these to paint the tiny details...

...you can't zoom in 200x and 300x on a piece of paper on your desk like you can on your monitor. :o) This was such fun to do...

OK, better wrap up this post...heading out to the studio to paint signs for the wedding and glue some cupcake platters...photos to follow, I promise... 

Hope you have a beautiful day!