Birthday Party Recap

My birthday was a week ago and we celebrated with a party on Saturday night.  Some friends were kind enough to host it and it was a wonderful night.  We started with both cheese and chocolate fondue.  And yes, we had way too much food.

To top it off, my sweetie of a husband made me a TARDIS birthday cake.  He always makes me fun shaped cakes and this year he was inspired by my Doctor Who obsession.  It's a little droopy on the edge, but that's just one of the hazards of time travel.

Here is a picture of Eugene and I together.  You can see my new bangs and awesome bird shirt.

One of my friends gave me this beautiful vase as a gift.  I love it!  I added some fake grass from Michaels and put it in the front entry way.

I like the way it contrasts with my scarf tablecloth.  Now the only question is how long I can keep it there before the cat starts chewing on the grass and I have to move it.

How was your weekend?  Did you do anything fun?

Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

I hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday and hopefully a nice day off today, whether you are fighting the crowds at the mall or snuggling at home and munching on leftovers.  We had a great day yesterday.  I ate way more than I should of and we played a game of Settlers of Catan that took almost as long to explain as to play.  Here's a few photos from the day.

Here are the table settings.  I didn't buy any special fall settings but used my favorite thrifted place mats and honeybee napkin rings.

However, we did have a nice festive mantle.  My fall embroidery piece is still propped up there along with a nice mix of real and fake pumpkins.  Plus the family photos of those far away today.

I didn't actually cook in this, but I did put on my new apron to show off for company.  I found this earlier this week at an antique store and just love it.  It's really more of a "decorative" apron :)

Although both of our turkeys took longer than we expected, I think they both turned out pretty well.

Eugene even carved our cake pop turkey.  I had a chocolate wing and a slice of vanilla.  Yum yum!

On top of our turkey cake, we had plenty of desserts.  Our friends made AMAZING food.

That's it!  I hope you had a great day yesterday.  Don't forget, I will be selling my work in Bellevue, WA today if you want to stop by the show!

Skirt Project

Do you remember that I had my friend Mallori in town last week?  Well, she is so cool that she brought me some beautiful fabric all the way from New Zealand.  It is pretty green (my favorite color) with turtles on it (one of my favorite animals). 

She also brought some for herself and we set to work making skirts for ourselves using this tutorial.  We didn't get a chance to make the skirts until the very last night she was here so it was an intense evening of sewing.

Here's the final product.  I'm pretty proud; my sewing skills have not always been the best (aka-I lack the precision required for most projects- "oh yeah, that's about 2").  Luckily this tutorial was really easy to follow and worked well for a first skirt project. 

Sadly, Mallori had to leave the next morning super early so we didn't get a chance to wear our skirts out together.  Hopefully she will send me a picture of herself wearing it so I can post both of us together (hint hint Mallori).

I'm Back Again

My travels are over for the time being.  I'm back in WA and am very excited to have my friend Mallori visiting for the week.  Here are a few cute things in her honor.

Mal is visiting from New Zealand where she is in vet school.  Kiwi necklace on etsy.

Her favorite color is pink.  Rustic bench on etsy

She loves dogs.  Jack Russel key chain on etsy.

and elephants.  Elephant sewing pattern on etsy.

Wedding Season

After my wedding jewelry project this week, I started to think that there might be lots of couples out there gathering wedding inspiration.  I was doing that very thing last year about this time; my wedding was August of last year so all summer I was busy searching out inspiration.  If only I had pinterest at that time.  sigh...

Anyway, I thought I would share some of the pictures from our wedding to help give inspiration to all of you planning out there.  Our colors were orange and blue and we were not too formal about it all.  Enjoy!

First, the flowers.  I wanted something bright because that's just the kind of girl I am.  Lilies are my favorite flower and the first flowers Eugene ever gave me were orange lilies, so that was the starting point.  Other than that, we told the florist to just make a mix, almost like a fresh picked bouquet.  Our decor was a mix of vintage bottles filled with flowers.

Next is the cake.  I don't have a lot to say about this, but I was really pleased with the results.

Here are some pics of our style.  I chose simple dresses for the bridesmaids.  I won't lie and say they could wear them again (I've been a bridesmaid 7 times-you don't wear them again).  I made the necklaces for my bridesmaids and bought them each a different pair of earrings.  The necklaces had orange and blue glass beads with navy blue ribbon on either end to tie them closed.  Sadly, you can't see the jewelry all that well in this picture and I forgot to take close-ups.

For my hair piece, I got a beautiful feather piece off of etsy.  Loved it!  I debated between flowers and feathers, but feathers won out.  You can mainly see the white feathers in this photo, but there was one little peacock feather stuck in there as well.  I tried to link it to the shop but it looks like the shop is closed :( 

For wedding favors, we went with bubble gum.  I spit gum in Eugene's face on the night he asked me out so it seemed appropriate.  We used orange gum and printed up little story cards telling the tale.

Okay.  That's all for now.  I'm feeling lazy so I didn't look up all of the vendors info, but if you are in Seattle and loved something you saw, just ask and I will hook you up.  We were VERY happy with everyone we chose.


All photos by Red Box Pictures.  Amazing.  Hire these guys.  Totally worth the money.

Pukeko Necklace Inspiration

Today we are going to look at the creative process of making a bird inspired necklace.  My awesome friend Mallori has requested a necklace based on the pukeko, a bird found in New Zealand.

Pukeko

As I look at this bird, I am struck by the gorgeous royal blue and navy blue, as well as the red-orange accents.  My next step is to look at my supplies and see what I have in these colors.

Several ribbons in the correct colors.  The deep blues capture the feathers but the skinny orange ribbon highlights the accents of the beak.

This fabric mostly contains the orange with a little bit of blue, but will contrast nicely with the ribbon.

 I then begin to piece the components together to form a representative collage on a wooden circle.  Here is a picture of the work in progress.

By layering the fabric, ribbon, and sealer, I was able to achieve a more dimensional look.

Here's a picture of the finished necklace.  The wooden disk still needed a little something, so I attached a few beads to the top.

Listing on Etsy

Do you like it?  I get my inspiration from birds.  Where do you get your inspiration from?

Fiesta!

Pinata Picture Source

Last night we had a fiesta-themed birthday party for me.  Complete with tacos and pinata (poor little pinata).  Friends, food, fun.

With no where to hang him, we used a paint roller extension pole, held by my husband.

My sweetie pie husband continued the trend of animal birthday cakes and made me a sea otter cake.

The sea otter is holding a shell and swimming through a rocky cove.

 My friend Kim gave me a fantastic bird business card holder.  It will be perfect for my upcoming show!!

And finally, in keeping with this theme, here is an etsy treasury inspired by the event.  And special bonus, every item on here was posted by the EtsyBloggers Team.  Enjoy!

Design Around Us

Normally I showcase crafty things, but today we have a piece of graphic design.  My awesome friend Leah is a designer for Home Depot and I wanted to show off a sign she did because I'm just so proud of her!