Color of the Month August 2017

August! I’d like to remind people who complain that summer is pretty much over that there is plenty of time to be outside and enjoy the amazing weather and garden time! Enjoy it folks, soak it in! We sure have been enjoying cottage time, gardening, patio time, and watching: the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, butterflies, etc, it’s so awesome! august vignette 2017 Fave vintage: the yellow and gold ceramic peacock, gorgeous canister set, cream n sugar set, piggy planter, salt n p’s, flower glass, coffee mugs, yellow ware bowl, anchored on a Navy hankie that says friend. Lots of great pieces this month. Head to the vintage shop to buy most of it! august table setting color month How bout that this sunshine yellow melmac! Bright and fun just like summer! Flowers from the garden too! Fave vintage: the melmac, of course, plaid napkins, flower glasses, and bold tablecloth!
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WEDDING FLOWERS!

Turns out I was super optimistic about all the things I could get done while recovering from a major surgery, like blogging, or thank you cards. Stephan and I just happily celebrated 1 month of married life while I’ve been on the mend! I’ve decided the best way to talk wedding details is in segments. SO, let’s talk one of my faves, wedding flowers! What does a lady do when she’s the one who usually designs the flowers?!? There’s no time to do them all, well maybe I could have squeezed that in magically but there were plenty of other things to do and enjoy like rehearsals, hair and makeup, and time with out of town family and friends, and then the relaxing. I picked the flowers out, ordered them up, and wrote recipes for the bouquets. Then, my trusty and super amazing friend Michele stepped up and did an outstanding job!  We went and picked them up together, spent a little time prepping, and she took the reigns. I knew I was in great hands so it was easy to relax! Besides being an awesome friend, Michele is a talented artist and curator, check some of her work out here and while yer at it, check out the shows she curates at Kendall College of Art and Design if you’re in GR! Thanks to Michele and Cat for capturing a lot of these pics too!
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Here’s what I did for some simple, colorful, and affordable decor. These tissue paper flowers, I LOVE them! They come in a bunch of different sizes and colors. I had a great time putting them together with part of my wedding party! I also selected orange tissue paper scalloped bunting, I do have a thing for scallops. It was a great way to pack a lot of color and punch to the walls, entrances, and our door backdrop!

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Detail of our door backdrop. The doors are rentable from Gypsy Soul Antiques. I love the addition of the orange scalloped bunting and the 2 colors of flowers, so pretty! And I love that you can see through the doors to the the park and pathway, a lovely setting. And there’s our little love tree for our unity ceremony. I slip covered the bottom in some vintage fabric, we used vintage glassware to hold the dirt, and it sat atop a little vintage folding tray.

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Let’s talk centerpieces! I gathered up about 45 vintage milk glass vases from thrift stores abound. Each table got 3 vases, a few other arrangements were strategically placed, and the head table had larger milk glass vases waiting for the bridesmaids bouquets. Now, I often advise not growing your own flowers because well they can be temperamental as far as growing season, you need to pick the freshest of the fresh, etc. BUT we grew 95 feet of gorgeous zinnias from seed at a friend of ours place! They were stunning all lined up and blooming. They actually started blooming several weeks early, but we were in great shape for picking, AND we had a back up plan with a local farm so we knew we were all good. We picked up seed packets in all the appropriate colors and they were just the pop of color I had imagined! Plus we had fun planting and pre wedding harvesting together! After the rehearsal brunch a couple of my bridesmaids assisted me with the centerpieces and BAM they were done! A big thanks Mary and Toby for being the best flower growers in the land! xo

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The bouquets! Orange, yellow, and green was the theme to repeat the wall decor and pop with the ladies navy dresses. I couldn’t actually get the green eyed yellow roses I really wanted from my wholesaler, but I replaced with yellow roses saving a little loot in the end. SO, yellow roses, orange roses, orange spray roses, kermit pomps, trick dianthus, ferns leaves, fennel from our yard (another win and money saver) PLUS yellow freesia, kangaroo paw, and hosta leaves for my bouquet and the special boutonnieres and corsages. I loved the punch of color the flowers gave and it was a great early fall color combo.

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Michele’s busy feet taking a rest as we look down on the ladies bouquets. So pretty!

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And here’s what it looks like when you put 15 gigantic ferns and 20 mums in a mini van. My best pal Cat and I had some fun in greenhouse land.

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Here’s where the mums went. I used them to perfectly mark the aisle! I loved the little daisy style in white with just a subtle yellow center. A sweet and perfect path for our early fall wedding. We had a short ceremony so we chose to forgo chair rental and anchored the front with 2 vintage benches for family and special guests.

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FERNS! I could NOT wait to see this vision in real life! A dozen giant ferns were hung from the beams of the venue. We also used fern leaves as table runners. What a lovely lodge building with giant wrap around porch, beautiful natural park setting, wildflowers, and all the things you need at a crazy good price might I add! Johnson Park is really a great spot! I just love these ferns and what they did to the room, some orange lanterns hung in between, some lights, and voila, magical! AND super thanks to amazing and awesome friends for doing a slam dunk job at setting up our wedding. It was hard to not be a part of the setup as I’m just so used to dreaming up the vision and then physically making or setting it up. I did do plan-o-grams to make it as easy and clear as possible and they really knocked it out of the park! Thank you friends!

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Another view looking up, so pretty! I just can’t live without color, plants, and green, these FERNS! More on the blog soon- we’ve got more decor, food, details, and the dress to cover still!

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July 2016 Color of the Month!

July, bam, here it is. Let’s celebrate sunshine and warmth with yellow! I find this time of year super dreamy with all the plants and flowers and gardening that’s abound. The cottage garden is looking great and producing delicious pea pods, onions, radishes, lettuce, and herbs. Here at home we’ve been doing a major overhaul on the yard. It hasn’t looked like this since I put the gardens in about 10 years ago! Turns out my fiance is an amazing yard machine digging up the bamboo grass that wandered all over the zen side. Let me just say I could barely even get the shovel in the ground and he was digging trenches. The man is utterly amazing in all ways. Friends who have so far seen the yard in progress are speechless. I’ll post some pics when it gets all mulched up. So back to cheery color of the month! Three cheers for being able to enjoy the outdoors, nature, cottage time, picking fresh food and flowers from the garden, and being with people you love.
july 2016 vignette blog

July 2016 Color of the Month VIgnette! all available in the vintage shop! Fave items: awesome glass striped salt and p’s, plastic toy car, spice shaker set, recipe box, and glass mugs, anchored by a napkin.

july 2016 table setting blog

July 2016 Color of the Month Table setting! Fave vintage items: tablecloth, plaid napkins, melmac plates n bowls, love the striped glasses, little doily, and fresh flowers from the garden.

 
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NEW artgoodies BEE products!

beeprintcollegeNearly 20 years ago I made a bee print. It was significant in my early work, perhaps largely due to process. It wasn’t an etching, or engraving, or linocut. I made a wire sculpture and rolled it through the press in metalsmithing, hammered my copper plate flat and voila my bee print was born. I made several prints this way including “sad man” and “funny lady”. I guess I’ve always looked for ways to keep with traditional process but combine it with something else and go outside the lines trying to merge both 2 and 3 dimensional work. This time the bee, a linocut, makes an appearance again in a significant way. I’m still enjoying very process rich work and the poor bee is in a state of demise due to our over processed world. The natural world has and always will be a theme in my work, life, and live close to my heart. This new work reflects with a little more blatant seriousness my feelings on the subject matter. IMG_20160111_141436 (1)blog honeymix400wzp-bee - Copy bee towels    
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Color of the Month January 2016!

Hello New Year! I was working on another project which slightly delayed my color of the month post but here it is in its sunshiney glory. I think warm sunny yellow seems like a bright way to start off the New Year! As usual I have an optimistic list of ideas, dreams, and things to do in 2016.
JAN 2016 VIGNETTE - BLOG

Keeping it simple in the vignette this month. Fave vintage: 2 little planters, cute little horse one huh? melmac cups, straw raffia mugs, plastic pig bank, and flower linen. As a little reminder you can purchase most of the items in my color of the month posts in my vintage shop right here!

JAN 2016 TABLE SETTING - BLOG

Fave vintage: melmac as usual 3 different styles this time, Pyrex carafe, tray, McCoy bowl, straw weave tumblers, gorgeous metal tray with gold edge, cute plaid napkins, all grounded by a new to me vintage tablecloth I just thrifted. Yay for yellow!

JAN 2016 ROOM - BLOG

Sometimes when you take down your holiday decor, especially when it’s an entire wall display, your house feels bare. The poinsettias really help fill the void and I get to enjoy them a little longer. I just love how they blend in and complete the look in vintage bamboo style ceramic planters I already have. I adore how this room came together.  

   
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