Mandy and Todd's Wedding

I'd been holding back on featuring the June wedding I worked on so that Ali, the photographer of the wedding, could work on having it featured on one of the big wedding sites. Well, hold back no more! Mandy and Todd's wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty!

Go here to see the mention on their main page.

And then here to see the wedding in all of its yellow, papaya red and coral glory!

The sewing for this reception was by far the most fun. Yard after yard of fabric (good upholstery fabric no less) went into runners, pillows, and accents. Heaven.  It was a very modern and elegant wedding with the bride handling an impressive amount of the DIY projects.

The entrance table when you entered Greystone featured a vase covered in her signature fabric. The florist, Tulip, was wonderful to work with!

(Note UGA Hairy Dawg in the background. He showed up for dancing, pictures, 

and to remind everyone what school rules!

Mandy had some frames on hand that mimicked the yellow fabric and so we utilized those. 

Here on the gift table.

Even the outside patios got a little fabric accent with these squares.

Adjacent to the dance floor, window seats provided extra seating.

I sewed all the pillows using the yellow signature fabric and a floral one. 

Two pillows, using a coral shade of cotton, sported their B monogram.

I had this designed by Laura Gosnell (who also designed my business cards!). 

I enlarged the monogram on the copier, cut it out and then traced it onto the fabric.

Used acrylic paint mixed in a lovely ivory shade with fabric medium.

Such a great keepsake . . . pillows. 

For the runners on the small tables in front of the window seats, I created geometric ends (to mirror the geometric pattern on the fabric). There's not a picture here, but the giant runner I made for the food table is in her yellow signature fabric. The ends of that runner was the same but instead of square shapes they were circular (again, to match the pattern on the fabric).

I've never used the below birdcage for any event. 

But it was made for this one, as the clover shape in the lattice matches the yellow fabric pattern!

The florist filled the feeders on each side with flowers. So pretty.

It held all the envelope gifts.

The cookie table had a papaya runner, and the cookie jars (straight from Walmart) boasted cardstock signage on  floral fabric that I Mod Podged to the glass.

All photography courtesy of Ali Harper Photography!

Happy 4th!

It's hot as all get out here, and so we set-up our parade-watching spot accordingly. Cooler with lots of cold water, lawn chairs, a blanket, lots of sunscreen and a beach umbrella.

What's more American than the flag, watermelon and watching a television show on your phone while waiting for the parade to begin.

I love it when even the dogs get 4th of July accessories!

The bands, my favorite. The military ones always get me choked up.

Then there are the ones that make me laugh and proud to be an American, 

free to be whatever we want to be!

Jesse's Wedding

First of all, I haven't forgotten to post pictures from Mandy's June 4 wedding! Rather, Ali is going through all the photography and once the bride sees all the pix, Ali can share with me. And (I'm excited to say), Ali plans on submitting them for publication. How exciting is that!

In the meantime, I'm on to planning Jesse's wedding. Jesse used to work with me. She now lives in New York and plans on marrying in her small hometown outside of Augusta, GA. This weekend I'm heading there to meet with her mom and future mother-in-law to tour the outdoor venues for both wedding and reception. If I were to describe her in actress terms, Jesse is this wonderful mix of down-to-earth Sandra Bullock, earthy Darryl Hannah, witty and smart Tina Fey, and confident and sassy Dolly Parton. I like the girl; it's hard not to.

Her wedding/reception color palette is every bit as playful and engaging as she is. Will definitely get Dawn thinking in a new color direction (just love pushing myself into new creative pools!). For color palette books for her, her mom and her future mother-in-law, I had these giant faux-matchbook notepads. Glued the color chips inside the front flap. Perfect to carry in the purse, AND have a place to jot down wedding ideas!

Celebrating Karla's Baby Soon to Come!

It will not be that long until we have a baby in the family! Karla, my stepsister and lovely mom-to-be, is expecting.Not since Harleigh toddled around have we experienced all the joy that comes with having a child in our midst. Today I, along with four of Karla's dearest friends, hosted a baby shower. Despite the fact that said friends are all from out of town, it came together perfectly!

As I've shared in past posts, the nursery fabric is birdies in shades of brown and green. I used the fabrics on a number of items. And carried the theme of birds throughout. Burlap spoke to me for this event, perhaps because Karla is having a boy, and so choosing a fabric with a little bit of "toughness" seemed the right direction to take. I made this wreath, initially thinking I'd hang it on the front door of the hostess' house, but it found a home someplace else.It wound up on a wall over my trusty bedroom night stand (a piece of furniture that has gotten a ton of mileage for things other than bedside surface and storage) which I brought along for the hostess' foyer (newly married couple, new baby, new house = not a lot of furniture).There were store-bought flowers used for my various vintage baby planters, but at this time of year there's nothing like filling big ceramic pitchers with flowering tree branches.

For the napkins, I chose to sew squares of nursery fabric and fabric from my shower gift onto ripped muslin. Simple and pretty. And once laundered, a nice keepsake for the newly expanded family.

Plain paper cups got a dose of fabric squares; even cups have to wear the theme!
For outdoors, the directional signage leading to the site was birds taken from the nursery fabric, projected onto foamcore, then cut out, painted, and given wire legs. A bright yellow balloon was also a cue as to where to turn.
In a crepe myrtle at the entrance walkway to the house, I tucked a bird and nest. A single blue egg as a reminder that we've got a little boy on the way!!
At a church council meeting last Sunday (where every month a different council member is in charge of supplying lunch and opening the meeting with a devotional), Charles set out the plastic utensils, and as he taped a fork, spoon and knife to each cup holding the utensils, said he'd had a brain child the night before as to how to put out the utensils without putting them utility-side up (which means everyone touching the part you put in your mouth). Thank you, Charles, for this idea. Put that to good use! (Used the same fabric from the cups and napkins, paired with the burlap).
Here are some of my vintage planters. I love finding these in thrift stores!!


And for my gift to Karla, I truly wanted to do something handmade. She and her husband Lynn are two people who appreciate art and craft; their home is BEAUTIFULLY decorated with meaningful works of art. For Baby Bean (as the little one has come to be known), I made this mobile. My inspiration came from Dottie Angel, one of my all-time favorite blogs. I bought an old lampshade, tore off the shade, leaving the metal frame. Wrapped the frame in ripped fabric (the same fabric that I then used on the napkins, cups and utensil holders), covered a branch in burlap, adding buttons and fabric flowers, topping it off with a felt bird. I have a ways to go to become adept at felt work, but I know that Karla appreciates the love and care I took making it.

Green Wedding Shoes

Bustin' at the seams with happiness over Ali and Matt's wedding being featured on the wedding blog Green Wedding Shoes. And they've even done a live link to my little ol' blog. Mercy me. (Photography by Jill Thomas.)

The Big One Nine

Harleigh turned 19 today!

She drove home from school on Friday and we went out to dinner, Japanese (where we had far less new things to talk about than most mother and daughter-home-from-college, simply because we talk to each other a zillion times a day), and then with giggles and an excitement probably more at-home on a 13-year-old, headed to the movies to see Justin Bieber's Never Say Never. Loved it loved it loved it. I AM a belieber. Came back to Chateau Gahan and caught up on two old episodes of Modern Family, then hit the hay.

The next morning Harleigh had a hair salon appointment, we ran a bunch of errands and did some shopping, then off to my mom and dad's for a birthday dinner extraordinaire (dang, that woman has a way in the kitchen). This morning my girlie left early to go back to the 'boro, a looming test on Tuesday causing some angst and the need to get back and to the library for some head-in-the-books studying.

Our time together was super short, but so very sweet. I thought I loved her most when as a pregnant woman she grew inside me. And then when she was born, and I held her 6 pound 11 ounce cocooned body, nose flattened to her face, eyes swollen shut . . . love you most now, baby girl. As toddler, growing into her teens, there were moments when I easily loved her more than ever (and times I wanted to sell her to the gypsies). And now, holding this beautiful woman in my arms, kissing her cheek, her forehead, stroking her hair, I think my heart's going to burst with love, respect, and pride. Two or nineteen, every birthday is another year to realize I've fallen in love again, even more, because with every year, there is more and more to love.

When he heard "Harleigh's coming home," this is where he stayed until her car drove up in the driveway.
I made a welcome "banner" to greet her when she walked in the door.
One of her birthday gifts . . .
An ENO camping hammock. Boy, does this girl loves to camp. Didn't get that gene from me, the woman who can't go anywhere there isn't an outlet for my hair dryer and a warm bed to fall into at slumbertime.

A different kind of inspiration . . .

One of the things I strive for with the events that I create is to never be predictable. A past co-worker, Jesse, is getting married in September and I've been shooting her ideas, offering up whatever help I can to make her wedding totally unique and affordable. With each exchange of emails, my vision becomes clearer as I get to know what the bride and groom are wanting out of the day. It's a look and feel I've never dabbled in before . . . and it's a different, wonderfully engaging, kind of inspiration.

One item that has special meaning to them is a red KitchenAid mixer. I won't go into details here simply because I don't know if she wants her personal story out there for the world to see. And so I thought that this weekend I would stage how she could incorporate that into maybe a guestbook table. Dear friend Julie just happens to have a red KitchenAid mixer, and so I borrowed it from her and created a centerpiece with cheap fake flowers. Jesse wants her flowers to be picked-from-a-field pretty and so I tried to create that feel. Her colors are bold and happy, just what I love about the contrast of the red with the pinks and purples of the flowers.

Gideon as Symbolic of this Thanksgiving Day

My parents are up in Maryland this holiday with my sister and her family, which left me and Harleigh here. We debated going up as well, but circumstances arose that were complicating the trip up, and to be honest, she and I started liking the idea of what we could make of the day.

Up by 9:00 to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, then on to the National Dog Show (which is always a favorite of Gideon's), we lunched on turkey and some random thrown-together sides, Harleigh went for a run followed by a shower, then we crafted with Christmas music on (at this point a shower was not part of my plan and so I crafted with extremely dirty hair), topped off with watching White Christmas and Snowden on Ice, two of our favorite holiday movies.

And so here is Gideon showing the world what a lazy day it was at Chateau Gahan. The theme of his day was "roving nap." The last picture shows Harleigh ankle deep in the Christmas chain she's making for our tree. Ala last year, we're dressing our tree this year in decor that can be thrown away or recycled. The paper chain she's making is using vintage sheet music sent to us by my Dad a couple of years ago. So very pretty. We're brainstorming what other "dressings" we'll be making for our stately everygreen.

The Feast 2010 — The Pix

Back a few posts I uploaded a video of this year's Unboundary Feast along with some explanation of how I came up with and executed the theme. Here are some pictures (thank you very much, David Naugle!).

Here we are stringing and hanging all of the "thankfuls."





The finished venue. With thankfuls above the dining, hors d'oeuvre and dessert tables.
At the entrance to the space we have a lone thankful . . . The Feast.
I really wanted all of the focus to be on the thankfuls, so I kept the table simple. A white butcher paper runner over our dropcloth tablecloths and candles in clear and frosted glass holders.


Simple paper napkins wrapped around the bamboo utensils, then tied with the organic yarn used to hang the thankfuls. The utensils are super cool, found at Party City of all places. Very pilgrim-y and colonial. The spoon is like a miniature version of a wooden mixing spoon. And the knife cut very well. No splinter injuries reported.

A great Feast was had by all.