Artfully Ornamental: August 2014

Three months since my last post - where has the time gone? Well, we're in full-on wedding preparation here! My son and his lovely fiance are getting married in less than two months! We had my future daughter-in-law's bridal shower here at home last weekend. My girls, Caitlin and Gabrielle, and I had a definite look and feel we wanted for Katie's shower and Pinterest and Etsy helped us pull it off.

The bride to be. Corsage by Fleur de Lis, South Portland, ME

We wanted a small, intimate shower for her, here at our home that would take place both inside and outside. That means there were lots, and lots, and lots of home projects to be completed on top of the shower projects. Needless to say, not all of the projects were completed which is frustrating. My husband is much more laid back than I am, and he kept telling me to let it go. I finally did, about half an hour before the brunch..... The projects still need to be completed as we're having the rehearsal dinner, a pig roast as a nod to Matt's redneck ways, here at our home as well. Hopefully we'll complete them all... We also needed the weather to cooperate. Up through the night before the weather folks were calling for rain - not overcast, or sprinkles, but rain. I had a meltdown. We call our house "the shoe box". It's small, and we've packed A LOT of living into it. Could I fit 40 people inside my house for the shower? Yes, but it wouldn't be either comfortable or relaxing. We needed to be able to be outside as well. Thankfully, God and Mother Nature took our prayers to heart and we only had one brief sprinkle before the shower and one as we were cleaning up!

This greeted Katie as she walked up the front walk. It's hard to see the top hat, but it's adorable. Caitlin made these.

Matt and Katie are going with a bit of a rustic, with a little bit of glam, feel to the wedding. Purple is Katie's favorite color, green is Matt's. Sunflowers are prominent as they have special meaning for them. There was lots and lots of food, most I didn't snap pictures of because everyone tucked in as soon as it was put on the table. I'll add recipes for some of the items, perhaps in another post.

The invitation suite was purchased from Sunnyside Print and Party Shop on Etsy. They can be purchased as either PDFs or print packages. I cannot say enough good things about Amber! She is so willing to work to make your purchase exactly what you want, her turnaround time is quick. I am so, so very happy I found her. The invitations, recipe cards and thank you cards were perfect. Katie loved them. Amber has also designed the rehearsal dinner invitation and she's also going to design the labels for the wedding favors. The return address labels were purchased as a PDF from Samantha at Daisy Design Shop on Etsy. Again, a fabulous Etsy seller, so willing to make changes. The labels coordinate so well with the invitation/thank you.

Another great Etsy seller is Marie of Ichabod's Imagination. She was so great to work with. This was one of those items that I could have made myself but it was so much easier and saved so much time to purchase instead. This bunting will be used as a decoration for the rehearsal dinner, at the wedding and will be a keepsake that Matt and Katie can hang at home if they'd like. It is constructed so well. My pictures don't do it justice because there was a bit of sun shining through the back.

I staples inexpensive sheer curtain panels from Walmart to the privacy screening on our deck for a backdrop.

We made ornaments as favors for our guests and I purchased muslin bags from In The Clear on Etsy. The original bags I ordered came in the wrong size. Dana was fabulous to work with. Communication was great, she mailed out the replacements right away and sent along a return shipping label so I could mail the bags back to her. I so appreciate such great customer service, I'll definitely be back! We used a sunflower stamp and Staz-On ink to embellish the bags simply.

I also found several very sweet prints on Etsy that enhanced the theme for the day:

This print from Terra Cosmos greeted our guests as they arrived.

The You Are My Sunshine print is from Valerie McKeehan of Lily & Val. Love, love, love. I loved Valerie's prints so much I also bought one that I was going to hang in my studio, but have temporarily hung in our powder room. It fits with the beachy theme for the summer.

There were also touches that were inspired by things I saw on Etsy and on Pinterest.

Wired burlap ribbon, hot glued to colored jars - then wrapped with sheer coordinating ribbon. Small artificial sunflower head hot glued as accents. All items from AC Moore.

A search of "twine bottles" on Pinterest will bring up lots of versions of this project. This is the picture that caught my eye and we augmented.

The garland idea was from this blog (found through Pinterest)

The shadow M picture was interesting to take. I took it a couple of summers ago at our family camp. I was in front of Matt (on the right) hidden in his shadow to take the pic. No easy task, I'm not a tiny person. The picture on the left is just after Matt popped the question.

This little vignette was also from the same blog. The heart garland hanging from the canopy in the background was found on this blog.

This is my favorite project I think. I absolutely love it! Our neighbors had replaced their fence recently. I saw this project on Pinterest, but knew I didn't want to, couldn't afford to buy all of the frames. I used their layout for the pictures, but I printed 4x6 pics and mounted them on 5x7 pieces of black cardstock (Bazzill Basics) with a scrapbook tape runner. I painted thumbtacks black and used one on the top and one on the bottom of each picture to tack it to the fence. Love!