kraft paper, twine, and red ink...

the twine ensuresall the pieces stay put!

boone and I have been truly honored by our friends sally ad kristi, who asked us to officiate their wedding this spring. they are so in love, truly kind people, and dear friends of ours, so we and other folks also wanted to honor THEM with a fun engagement party before the wedding. it'll be a laid back BBQ in the Delta springtime, and guests are being asked to bring mason jars with a wish for the couple inside (then S &K will be able to use the mason jars for their centerpieces at the wedding).

the back and the front

anyway, my mom and i worked on designing and printing these together over my vacation last week and so i wanted to share our handiwork. what do you think?

the card for the wish!

Happy New Year!

 boone and i are spending the new year in austin, tx with some of our dearest. when i think of nye, i think of sparkly clothes, champagne, and streamers, so we've not only packed our dancing shoes but also i'm thinking of packing my very own vintage champagne saucers because they feel SO old world and glamorous.

i hope YOUR new year's eve (and more importantly, your new year) is magical, glamorous, and filled with the ones you love.

mardi gras! (a little early)

 my WHOLE life (well..my whole adolescent life) i had mardi gras themed birthday parties. last year, i went all out and made a king-cake from scratch, and so this year i thought i'd bring back the old b-day tradition JUST SO i could make a kind cake. ridiculous? yes. fun for me? yes. with this in mind, THIS WEEKEND we're throwing a big b-day mardi gras soiree at our house, complete with king cake, beads, gumbo, red beans and rice, and hurricanes (plus wii karaoke and a bonfire) jealous? well, don't be! you're invited! as long as you dress like this:

 

we're starting to cook tommorrow...and i decorated monday night. when was the last time you had a themed party? what kind of party would you have?

images from imgspark.

golden birthday.

well y'all....i turned 28 today. :)as an official, for-real, no-way-around-it adult, i have to say that i still REALLY love birthday cake (just like i did when i was 2) and apparently never outgrew the ridiculously high ponytail phase (wearing my hair this way, as i type). anyway, boone has made the day really special and been extra sweet to me and my coworkers made funfettie cupcakes...my favorite, and we're heading down south to see my folks right now so I can celebrate with the ones who made me.

what all this tells me that if the rest of my 28th year is like today, it's going to be a pretty good one. hope you have a birthday that makes you feel as special as i do right now. :)

see you on monday when i post the winner of the mix giveaway! it's not too late to enter!

i love oxford american...

not only does oxford american publish a rad southern music issue every year with my fave artists, but it used to be located in our new (temporary) little town, and next weekend they are hosting a pretty fun party in the Delta next weekend. On top of all of this, they've published one of my friend's short stories!

Matthew Neill Null (Matt to me) was a college friend who tested the waters of TFA in the Delta my second year here, then decided the passion in his heart of hearts wasn't teaching, but writing. Now, after three years at the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop (where Flannery O'Connor studied and Marilynne Robinson teaches) a story of his about life in Appalachia has been published in an actual magazine with actual subscribers!!! I picked up a copy of OA at off-square books yesterday and am crazily impressed and proud of him. Order a copy here.

champagne, blush, and hydrangeas all around...

so, i've never made a wedding inspiration board before, (not even for my own wedding) but since my three dearest friends are tying the knot, i thought i'd try my hand at predicting their styles and visions. i don't have a lot to go on, but i finished my thesis (HOOORAAY!!!) so i've got a little extra time to play around.

here's the first one for abc: champagne, blush, and hydrangeas all around. plus a ukelele (part of their courtship) and some chemistry beakers (her honey is a scientist!)

what do you think? if you hate it...don't worry, i'm definitely keeping my day job. ;)

from left to right: bill kingston, frolic, swmag, ourlaboroflove, snippet&ink, ourlaboroflove, 100layercake, aloasmusic, velvet&linen, jennabush's wedding, msw

style envy...

last weekend was the museum gala in my hometown (read more about last year's here). we didn't go this year, but if we had i'd would have wanted to look this fab...


photos from mrsO

one year since...

boone reminded me that it has been one year (today) since he asked me to marry him! :) what a perfect day. last night we celebrated with a dinner for two at home...
here's what it felt like:





love you, boone. ;)

bloomacious, simplybloom, designsponge

letting go...

no internshp today... which means i get to be at home doing thesis stuff and playing on the interweb (and should probably do a little exercise, too). while i was reviewing my backlog of reader posts i took a gander of some photos of perfectly planned parties...

this got me thinking about my own propensity to over-orchestrate things that should be fun. now, obviously this comes from my desire to be completely thoughtful of my guests needs PLUS the fact that there's been an inordinately high bar my hostess-par-excellence mom.


thing is, we went to this fab surprise birthday party on friday night for 'lu that was so fun and celebratory but not totally flawless.

in fact, the host was so late getting home that we all pitched in cleaning and arranging to get everything ready for the birthday girl. i loved feeling like i was making a contribution and adding my love to the party.... and it made me want to be less finicky about my own get-togethers. hmm.

i'm not saying that overnight I'll be able to get rid of my perfectionist tendencies and replace them with the easy spirit of barn raisings and potluck dinners... but it's a personal goal, ok?

take away: if you come over for dinner and i give you a job, don't be offended. it's just my new way of welcoming you.

photo from becca.

oh!

oh...oh... what a lucky little girl!


from betsy dunlap.

final product: favors

instead of blogging, THIS is what i've been doing with my time:

well, this and a ZILLION other things. (public service announement: friends, don't wait until the last minute to make your programs. seriously. don't do it. even if you have as wonderful a friend i as do who designed them and lets you call her all hours of the night for several days while she formats everything to your exact specifications, things will still go awry. the copy machine will DEFINITELY break down and you won't be able to find heavy weight legal size paper anywhere in the tri-state area and you'll end up wanting to tear your hair out.) But this post isn't about programs.

it's about the favors.... teeny weeny homemade pralines.

we stamped the bags and made the itty bitty parchment paper inserts in plenty of time, but when the day we'd set aside to make the pralines was too humid, a friend and neighbor (and culinary expert) jumped in and made them for us. she is a saint and i am forever in her debt.

anyway, i'm beyond pleased with the way they came out and am amazed and touched by people's generosity and kindness this week. i am incredibly blessed with wonderful family and friends.

going shopping today!

i'm going shopping with one of my girlfriends today...
i really don't do this much, but apparently i don't have anything to wear to the brunch the saturday before the wedding that my godmother is hosting for all of the out of town guests. found these three things online at nordstrom's, which are fab, but they're out of my price range, besides, i've got it in my mind that I want to wear something long and flowy. i'll let you know what i find out there...

crawfish boil = super fun engagement party!

so one of my aunts had an engagement party for us over our spring break (see the invitations?)
it was perfect for us because it was really laid back and fun rather than stuffy and formal because they mostly invited high school friends of mine and my aunt's group of friends plus a few other folks. see, my aunt lives on a farm with a lake waaaaay out in the country, so they had the party in her red barn and under a tent. it was a good thing they had the tent because it definitely stormed that night and everyone got stuck in the mud.

after we got everyone unstuck we ate and ate and ate crawfish and drank beer (a crawfish boil was our original plan for either the reception or the rehearsal dinner, but both got passed over by the fam. besides, a white dress and crawfish juice? ick.)

anyway, it mostly came to pass since boone's family was coming to the 'sip and people wanted to entertain them in some way. they were so sweet to do it for us and everyone had a fab time... i haven't seen any pics from out party, but kathryn at snippet and ink posted this party awhile ago, and i think you get the idea of what it was like. enjoy!

back to the real world...

happy monday everybody!

i'm back from a busy, busy, weekend. the shower was beyond fun... you never realize how fulfilling it is to have most of the people you deeply love in one place until it happens. probably the most fun part is we have friends in atl from every life-stage, and they were all at the party mixing and mingling. it was a really beautiful sight at a lovely, laid back party. my sweet friends really captured our spirit


people were really generous and thoughtful with their gifts! we got an ice cream maker, some beautiful dessert and vegetarian cookbooks, great movies, more games than we can ever play, and two homemade yard games. we love playing ladder golf and washers, and thanks to our sweet and crafty friends, now we can play whenever we want!
(fourth of july at OUR house this year, everybody!)

now it's back to the real world... paper writing, wedding planning, easter celebrating, and packing up to move into OUR apartment!

photos from here and here.

entertainment shower...

tonight my sweet college roomies are throwing us an entertainment shower. fyi, this means that the gifts are games, and movies, and food-serving things that you use to "entertain" or "be entertained" isn't this the best idea? my friends have gone to a ton of trouble for us and they're the sweetest gals this side of the mississippi river.


it means so much to have people who make this time even more fun and more special than it already is. :) thanks gals!


they asked me if I wanted to play "party games"... not sure what this means, but i think it involves being blindfolded and feeling men's legs. mmmm. i'll let you know what happens!

the first lady is FAB, y'all.

don't they look gooooooood?






photos from my new fav site, Mrs-O

inspiration from... my mom!

this is my mom. isn't she beautiful?


if i haven't already mentioned this... she's an artist, and craftsperson, and creative genius. in fact, she could probably one-up martha. no joke.

anyway, last weekend Boone and I went home for a blacktie museum fundraiser that my parents chaired. ick. swanky and stuffy, right?

wrong.

for years the theme has been a pretty typical black-tie affair but MY MOM designed the coolest Pop Art themed gala my hometown has ever seen (and they raised WAY more money than they thought for the museum..even in this horrible economy. hooray!)

anyway, here're just a couple of shots of the table arrangements and other decorations. (sorry the quality is bad... i may or may not have had a gin&tonic or two at this point)

here's the dessert table...


please keep in mind that she and two other women painted/made ALL of this stuff by hand.
by HAND people!

Just so you get an idea of all the work involved, the pop-art chairs were hand-painted, the flowers on the orange/red and black wallhanging were made out of painted paper plates, and there were larger than life Campbell's soup cans and Brillo boxes everywhere!



sure it took weeks and weeks but it was PERFECT!
also, these incredible warhol-inspired pieces hung above every table with images of the people who worked on the gala...


and two who didn't... how kind (and a little bit embarrassing) to have our faces right above the head table.



anyway, not only did i want to share my mom's talent with all of you, but i wanted to give you art- buff brides out there some inspiration for table decorations or even save-the-dates. aren't I a lucky girl to have her as my mom?