This Lady Needs a Name.

This might be one of those projects in which you ask yourself why? But the answer is simply because I just had to. I purchased the animal bust and gave it several coats of gold paint. This girl will be hanging up at work, so I made her flowers match the fabric on my cork board.

As always, custom orders are welcome! These busts start at $65.

#66 Animal Bust

I'm participating in the 92 Days of Summer challenge. Click here to see my 92 To-Do's for this Summer - and to see the brave souls tackling their own lists!

Wedding Wednesdays: Invitations

As a graphic designer I have been thinking about creating my own wedding invitations for years. My typical design style is bold & busy. For our wedding invitations I wanted something beautiful. Something just, stunning, with pretty script fonts and pale colors. I confess, I also wanted an elaborate map, a schedule of events, a policy-sized (4" x 9") invite, possibly a photo strip, baker's twine, a paper bag, printed envelopes and perhaps a custom stamp! In my first attempt, I created seven different font combinations, only to be denied by The HTB. In my second attempt I tired all new fonts, introduced some colors and still, he was not impressed. Honestly, neither was I.

So I took some time off from designing. I looked over and over at the collection of the invites I loved. I made the HTB look at hundreds of invites to get me going in the right direction. I finally realized that while I loved the beautiful scripty invitations, they just weren't us. It wasn't my design style so everything I designed just wasn't good enough. Plus, I hated the way a capital A was looking in every script font I picked! I found some serif and sans serif fonts we were both really digging and all of a sudden, the invitations were starting to come together. We kept all the designs to ourselves until they were almost complete. I think we surprised quite a few people with the designs and color choices, but we couldn't have been happier with the outcome.

I will pass along two pieces of advice, which we learned the hard way. 1) Create a numbering system for your RSVP cards (i.e. Aunt Tillie is #16 and a 16 is written on the back of her card in light pencil), because you will get some RSVP cards back without names. 2) Don't use an inkjet printer to print the addresses on the outside of your envelopes. After the Post Office processes them, they'll look like this:

We were lucky in that only one was returned to us and what was on the inside completely blew everyone away so they immediately forgot about the outside (at least this is what my Mom and sister told me after I saw these two arrive in this condition). 

#25: Make Something for a Friend (of a Friend)

You know those projects you put on Pinterest and they sit there for months just staring you in the face? I mean, that's like 93% of all the things on my Pinterest boards. Thanks to Emily, I can finally cross this one off the board. She's giving them as a baby shower gift for a friend who is due this month. I altered them slightly from the ones I saw online, mainly in the clothing and I used fabric layered on the houses.

Even though they took a little longer than I predicted (2+ hours), I now have the patterns and the steps down to make lots more in the future.

I'm participating in the 92 Days of Summer challenge. Click here to read all about it and here to a see a gallery of pictures of everyone participating.  

Better Block: Round 2

Better Block is happening again! This time on 35th Street and Newport Avenue, and it's the biggest event to date with 12 pop-up shops, seven food vendors, three parklets, food trucks, outdoor (and indoor) stages and so much more. Fairview Place isn't popping up this time, but my partner-in-crime Glass Gardens is, along with Intelligent Lushes and By TAlyse. I was super excited to have the chance to design another map for the event. Colley Avenue Printers donated the printing and they look fabulous! All the festivities begin tonight at 5 p.m., better see you there!

Autumn Brooches

Some nights I make things and I feel like I should probably never craft again. I will have to say that last night was definitely NOT one of those nights. Kitsch asked me to teach a class so we decided on Fall Brooch class (to be followed up by a Holly-Day Brooch class in December), in early November. I was kind of cramming to get them done so I could photograph, package and drop off to the shop....which never means a good outcome. Although, I'll have to say I'm pretty happy with the way these cuties came out.

These would make lovely boutineers, brooches or corsages for an Autumn wedding, a nice hostess gift, or cute stocking stuffers for all the ladies in your family. I'd be happy to take custom orders :)

I may make another batch tonight for Glass Gardens to showcase at the Portsmouth Farmer's Market, which is every Saturday at 10 a.m. Stay tuned for class details, or check Kitsch's class schedule for updates.

Baby Shower Invites

Some days I want to be pregnant just so someone will throw me a baby shower. Oysters, burgers and beer?! Although, I suppose if I was preggers, I wouldn't be participating in any of those delicious activities. So...maybe I'll just stick to designing the invites for the time being :)

This fun invite is for a mommy-to-be who's husband is in the military. There wasn't a lot of time to plan a shower after his homecoming and before baby, so their friends decided to throw them a joint party. I love the "Ahoy, It's a Boy" theme, and I think this invite is so fitting.


Throwing a party and want your own custom invites? Contact me for details!