Artsy Fartsy Watercolor Wedding

Why hello there! Today's wedding theme inspiration comes right to you from my iphone case!

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I love this dreamy watercolor scene and think that it is the perfect jumping off point to design an artsy fartsy wedding! This time around, I'm going to walk you step by step through planning your watercolor wedding in pictures!

What's the first thing your guest receives to set the tone of your wedding? That's right, invitations!

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In this case, the watercolor theme is quite literal. Any of these beauties will let your guests know right away what a treat they're in for! My personal fav is #2 because it shares a color palette with my phone case!

Once all of your guests have been invited and are counting down the days, you and your groom will need something extra special to wear!

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I am absolutely in love with that beautiful, dreamy gown. It feels very artsy and ethereal. As for your man, if he's bold enough to don a pink suit, go for it! It adds a touch of whimsy to your affair. If not, I think light grey works as well. And if you're the bold one?

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These are mighty fine! Particularly the flowy number on the left! Green not your color? This is a good wedding to rock a blush dress!

Of course, don't forget about your bridesmaids!

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The ombre effect plays nicely with the watercolor theme. And don't forget to get them something lovely to dry away their happy tears! In fact, you could get a bunch of these lovelies and place them at the entrance to your ceremony for your guests!

To accent you and your ladies' beauty, you'll need a bunch of flowers to hold onto.



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Try a look with many different blooms in various shades of the same color.

Get a Monet inspired manicure! And decorate a fun space to have your "first look" pictures taken.

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Ok, you're ready to walk down the aisle!

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This art gallery is the perfect venue for your artsy soiree! The different colored chairs really add a punch of color and fun!

Congratulations! You're finally Mr. and Mrs.! How will your friends and family find their seats?

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These watercolored escort cards are an easy DIY.

As your guests enter the reception area, they will gasp in amazement if it looks like this:

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Fancy a nice head table backdrop? This one is made from rolled up colored paper!

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This cool lounge area hearkens back to invitation #2.

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It's time to cut the cake!!



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I love the fun cut outs of the left cake! But the right cake screams watercolor. Both are so wonderful you can't go wrong!

Time to dance the night away bathed in romantic candle light. 

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Good work! You just pulled off the perfect Artsy Fartsy Watercolor wedding! Hope you had fun!

<3

Fashion Trends- Peter Pan Collar

Hi All,

Here's another edition of what's hot in fashion. These days, you can't throw a stone at the mall without hitting a peter pan collar. Seriously, try it. I dare you!

You may be thinking... "Peter Pan? A fashion trend named after the boy in tights? This Peter Pan?"

It's true!

Technically, the look is modeled off of this version of Peter Pan from 1905.

Peter Pan collars are flat and rounded. I love the look. It's very adorable and is traditionally associated with little girls' dresses. However, lately it has hit it big in women's fashion as well. Here are some of my favorite fashion bloggers showing off the style.

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The collars come in all shapes, sizes, and finishes! I love the versatility of wearing it as an actual collar on a shirt, or wearing a collar shaped necklace!

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I think this look works best on ladies with more of a flat chest but I've been trying to rock it anyways! Here's how I've been working this trend!

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Michigan Crafts

On my day off that I took last week I was perusing my favorites saved on Etsy for some art to fill up the gallery wall I'm planning. I decided I wanted to include some home state love so I went searching for some mitten art. My favorite that I came upon is the following:

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It is super cool and would look great among my gallery! The etsy shop that makes these charges $110 for one of these beauties! Since I'm trying to accumulate many pieces of art for my wall, I can't really afford one to be so much money! So, I put on my crafty hat and decided to make my own! Lucky for me, J decided to help out! And now, I'm sharing my How-To with you! It looks like a lot of steps but we completed it in one day and it only took a couple hours of hands on time. 

Here are the supplies you'll need:

1. MDF Hardboard. We picked this up at Home Depot. You could get fancier with a nicer wood but I don't really think it's necessary since it gets painted anyways! (Although you could do it on a really nice stained piece of wood for a completely different look!)

2. Some helpers! Oh, and a roller or paint brush. A hammer, and drill (optional) are also needed but are not pictured.

3. Some craft paint (I chose a deep blue to go with my peacock blue couch), string (I chose ivory but any color can be used), and weatherstrip nails (I like copper for the rose gold look but they also come in silver and yellow gold). The nails are from Home Depot and the paint and string are from Michaels.

Alright, now we're ready to get started! 

Step 1: Cut down your wood to size. Lucky for me, I had J on hand to do the dirty work for me! But you can get your wood cut down at Home Depot if you don't own a saw.

Step 2: Paint your board. I used a roller but in hindsight I would have used a paint brush because the roller soaked up a lot of the paint. The acrylic paint dries quickly so I worked on the edges while the face dried and then applied a second coat. 

Step 3: If you have pets, never ever leave your board unattended while it is drying! I learned this the hard way.

Step 4: After you clean off your cat's paws... print out a picture or map of your state. We had to print the lower and upper peninsulas on separate sheets of paper to make the image large enough. Place your map on your canvas and line it up where you want it placed. 

Step 5: Use a hammer to create pilot holes along the outline of the map. Since we will be removing the nails to take the paper off, the nails only need to be nailed in part way to create the template. Don't forget to nail in a heart around your home town!

Note: A better way to complete this is to use a drill bit to drill the pilot holes. Tape your template down onto the canvas and drill along the outline of the map. 

Step 6: If you used a hammer and nails, remove the nails and remove the paper.

Step 7: Use the pilot holes to hammer your nails in. At this point, J drilled my holes for me so I didn't spend hours trying to hammer all of the nails in to the same height. I really encourage you to use a drill to create your holes rather than trying to hand hammer the nails in. The nails go in much straighter that way. Paint your heart before you insert the nails!

Step 8: Insert your nails into the pilot holes. This should be a piece of cake, they should just slide right in! 

Step 9: It's time to string! The entire lower peninsula should be strung with a continuous thread so make sure you start at a good spot! The majority of the lower peninsula should connect to the heart (the upper portion of the lower peninsula won't reach our heart so I just did as much as possible). 

Continue threading the string back and forth around the nails until you've completed the lower half. Cut your string and tie it off, then start on the upper peninsula. 

There you have it! It was so fun to make and I'm really proud of the outcome! Here's the final product.

It will look great in our room and it was made for less than $20! 

If anyone wants one for a present, just let me know ;-) 

<3

Flowers that Float my Boat

Though my wedding to do list is dwindling (both a happy and sad thing!), I have a few more items left to tackle. Over the past couple of weeks I've been working on one of the most fun items. Flowers! I've met with 3 florists (only two that turned out to be legitimate) and all were surprised to find that I knew exactly. what. I. want. What can I say? I know what I like and I want what I want!

The hard thing about choosing a floral design is that there are SO many beautiful, fabulous, wonderful flowers out there! But, not all go together and not all have the look I want for my wedding. For example, I love hydrangea bushes. J planted two of them for me in our backyard for our anniversary last summer! The big balls of blooms make me so happy to see while I'm walking through our neighborhood. However, hydrangeas are on my "do not include" list for my florists. Even though they're such a happy flower, the tiny flowers do not fit my idea of "eclectic romance." For our wedding, I'm going with either very petally (yes that's a word now), and full flowers, or very delicate flowers.

Here are some of my absolute favorite flowers that we're going to include in our wedding.

Petally:

1. Peonies-

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These fall easily into the "full of petals" category. If you've ever seen peonies growing in someone's yard you know that they are so heavy and full of petals that they often fall over with their heads resting on the ground! I think they're stunning and ooze romance!

2. Ranunculus-

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Smaller than the peony but just as frilly! We'll be using one of these babies as J's bout. 

3. Dahlia- (ok we can't actually use these because our wedding is before their season, but if I could I would so I'm including them here!)

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Also, check out this blog I adore. It's written by a flower farmer! Honestly, this looks like the best job ever! She takes the most amazing pictures of her flowers.  The first and third picture above are hers. Yes, that is her truck filled to the brim with dahlias! Fantastic! Here she is, arms full of beauties!

http://floretflowers.blogspot.com/

Delicate:

1. Asilbe-

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So delicate, sweet, and light. I have been having a love affair with this flower. I initially wanted these to be my bridesmaid bouquets. Unfortunately, florist #1 quoted them out at $200 per bouquet so it's a no go. I've been secretly trying to brainstorm a way to make it work but I know it's not meant to be. Luckily I can still include it in the centerpieces and a few stems in my bouquet. The problem is that to make such a full looking bouquet you need about 40 stems of these babies! They've 100% captured my heart and I can't wait to see them in person!

2. Anemones-

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Anemones are so playful! I love the graphic pop of black in the center. They come in a wide variety of colors and add such a statement in an arrangement. 

Those are the flowers that float my boat! 

<3

Craft-tastic Pumpkins

This year I decided to put my pinteresting skills to some use and do something a little crafty for Halloween! Lately, some of my favorite blogs have been featuring creative and pretty pumpkins that are very out of the box! Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the traditional carving of the pumpkin (and the pulling out of the goop!) but this sparked my interest because #1 it has so many more options and involves glitter (I love glitter!) and #2 they looked like crafts that I (with my limited crafting skills) could accomplish!

Here are my inspiration pumpkins (found here and here).

 And here are my recreations of these lovelies! (Please excuse the poor lighting in these photos...)

I had a great time seeing inspiration turn into wonderful fall decor! What's great about these pumpkins is that they transition nicely from Halloween decor to fall decor without reading too Halloweeny. I think the neon pumpkins are so fun. They're such a different look for Halloween. And since neon is currently trendy, but not something that I think will last too long, it's a great way to embrace the trend but do it on something temporary!

Here are the supplies you'll need:

1. A bunch of pumpkins! I mixed it up between real pumpkins and fake ones from Michaels. The fake ones helped me skip a step since I bought ones that were already colored white and black. 

2. Paint and of course glitter! Acrylic paint works the best and comes off clothing and surfaces relatively easily.

3. Pick glitter with a fall color palette. I like buying a set so that have many hues to choose from!

4. Glue and paint brushes. J has a whole container of Elmer's glue lying around so that's what I used. It worked like a charm so that's what I would suggest. Any paint brushes should do but you'll want a variety of sizes. 

The herringbone pumpkin was super easy to create and is one of my favorites! Bonus that the pattern looks like spider webs! I used acrylic paint that has a tip on it and just free handed the herringbone pattern. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Let's just say that I have always been better at the musical "arts" than the painting arts! I did the same thing for the jack-o-not-lantern. Painting on a face is so much easier than carving! It took me only 5 minutes! 

The chevron pumpkin is my absolute favorite and the one I'm most proud of since it took some skill. Here's my step by step for you!

Step 1: Tape out your chevron pattern. I first attempted a chevron pumpkin by free handing with glue. That went terribly, which is why my black pumpkin is pretty much just covered in glitter. Had to salvage it somehow! The tape process is long and meticulous. It's important to try to make the chevron peaks and valleys even. Once you've taped the top of the chevron, it's time to tape the bottom! Make sure the bottom mirrors the top to make the chevron look right. 

Step 2 : Press the tape all the way against the pumpkin to create a tight seal. Use your paint brush and brush glue over the chevron. I did this in sections so the glue didn't dry before I got a chance to add the glitter. Move on to step 3 and then repeat 2 and 3 until the whole stripe is covered.

Step 3. Hold your pumpkin over a large bowl. Sprinkle glitter thickly over the glue section. Make sure all of the glue is covered. Then shake the pumpkin over the bowl to remove the excess glitter. 

And voila! 

I'm so happy with how these turned out! 

The neon pumpkins were fairly easy to recreate. Nothing a little grey and neon yellow paint can't help! Something to note- I would suggest choosing a different neon color (perhaps pink like the inspiration pictures!). Yellow is very hard to cover with and took many coats to get an opaque look. For the solid neon pumpkin, all I did was spray paint the stem gold and coated the pumpkin in neon yellow paint. For an ombre effect on pumpkin #2 I lightly used my brush to make a faded uneven line, making the paint more concentrated the further away from the middle I got. The grey chalky pumpkin just got a coat of grey paint, done lightly so that a bit of the pumpkin still shows through. Now, the triangle pumpkin took a bit more work. Like the chevron pumpkin, tape was required to pull this look off. 

This was quite a challenge! Once the pattern is taped out, paint over the shapes. A few coats will probably be needed. 

Happy Halloween!! 

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