An August Wedding

I am really tardy when it comes to this particular post. Sorry. This August wedding is one of the reasons I haven't completed the nursery set I am currently working on. I did the flowers for this family wedding, even though I have never arranged flowers before. I had a really fun time and am pleased with how it turned out. The bride had little fish on each table, which was a really cute idea.












I didn't make the cake, but I thought I would post a picture of it anyway. There is a goldfish in the middle of the cake. It was elegant and cute at the same time. Isn't that ingenius?!!?

Happy Halloween!

I have never really cared for Halloween, especially not the spooky part of it. I don't mind cutesy things, and I love pumpkins for their rich, inviting color and deliciousness when made into pies ... or cupcakes with a cream-cheese-caramel swirl and butterscotch frosting ... yeah, I know! So my Halloween decor is never more than a few leafy garlands and some pumpkins. Oh, and this adorable table runner that my Mother-in-law made me. But I decided to break out from my cutesy-only-Halloween-decorations mold and I made a Bat Chandelier this year. I would have liked it to be larger, but there was only one dead branch on the tree in my front yard, and it was a very small branch. But, it was still gnarled and 'spooky' in its own little way. I then hung bats cut out of black felt by black thread all over from the branch to make it look like a little flurry of bats suspended over my kitchen table.




Leftover bats were taped to the wall in various parts of the house. My husband, who is a much more talented artist than I am drew the bat template.


Happy Halloween!

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak at what I have been working on:



Unfinished, of course, but that is because embroidering by hand takes a very long time. And I have taken a few breaks to make some seasonal crafts.

Not at all nursery-related

My baby is asleep. And, while reverting to teenagerhood (or in other words, procrastinating cleaning my bedroom), I have come across this blog that made me want to plan someone's wedding. It also has some darling ideas for a baby shower. Now I just need to throw someone a baby shower. And scrounge up unlimited funds to do so. So, for those of you who are either planning a wedding or throwing a baby shower, I thought I would post some pictures of a few of the things that I loved!

Using that one giraffe i love...

I could make something like this, maybe

More Giraffes

Ugh, I am having designer's block. These giraffes are killing me. I have yet to create the perfect picture in my head. Hopefully that "aha!" moment will come soon - its absence is keeping me up at night.

So, I guess "not too baby" means "don't use pastel colors." And, those stuffed giraffes represented a 'shabby chic' element that she wants. So, I have been working on a few others. I still haven't found the perfect design yet, but I'll keep plugging away at it. I have been focusing on a design for a baby girl, since that represents the bigger challenge (in my opinion). So far, this is what I have come up with:

I don't really care for this one, but I guess the basic layout could have potential. I still prefer this layout better:






I do like this patchwork one though:

Don't worry, these are not the colors I would use. I just used the best I could short of actually buying fabric and making it - free digital scrapbook papers from Shabby Princess (my favorite digital scrapbook place!).


So, here are some other inspirational finds I collected while brainstorming:

I am really loving the colors on this page of stickers right now - Dark pink, baby blue, butter yellow, dark plum, and silver. This could potentially make some cute giraffes. Not quite compatible with a shabby chic nursery though.
This stuffed giraffe in the Pottery Barn Catalog is my favorite giraffe ever! So cute and quirky - totally different from any other giraffe design I have ever seen. I love love love it.
I like the way this giraffe has a square nose, but I don't like it nearly as much as the one above it.
Also made by Pottery Barn, these animals are almost patchwork, which is kind of cute.

I like the way this giraffe has different colored legs.

Custom Nursery Design - Owls

I have been working on an Owl nursery for some time now (mostly just doing what I call "sketching" - namely, compiling different pictures and ideas that I find on the internet into a photoshop image). The initial colors were going to be Mint Green, Tangerine Orange, Bubblegum Pink, and Cerulean Blue, with maybe the occasional Ruby Red accent. The one problem with this is that it could only be for a girl. So I am working on a boy version, but I haven't quite nailed down the colors. Or I might come up with a gender-neutral version. I haven't decided yet. Any suggestions?(No, the sketch does not have the actual colors ... I was feeling lazy, I guess :) )

Custom Nursery Design - Giraffes

This is a custom nursery design I am working on, and it is still only in the early "sketching" stage. My client requested a Giraffe theme, and said she did not want it to be too "Baby". So, I sketched these two:







But, then she sent me these as a representation of what she is looking for:






Which both look pretty "Baby" to me.

These are her colors (for if she has a girl or a boy, respectively):








So, I downloaded a couple of other giraffe images, both more "Baby". I especially like the postage stamp one - it is unique and really cute.



What do you think? Any suggestions?