Inspiration Boards

There's nothing better than a big messy inspiration board.  I use the word "board" loosely because in the case of two out of the three shown below the clippings are simply taped or tacked directly onto the wall, the best way to do it in my opinion :)

Beth Lee's

Molly Kuhn's

India Hicks

Sea Plastic

If you love sea glass but are getting tired of your color scheme being limited to green and blue you'll love the new trend in beach combing...sea plastic!  Don't ask me where it comes from just trust me when I say it can be found in the sand on most beaches. A little less shabby chic and a little more modern for those that like to funk it up.  If I say where this ball jar was spotted you might start to think this blog is all about my mom...

Christmas Inspiration to Save for Next Year

Every year my mom transforms her house into a homemade Christmas winter wonderland.  I love the scandinavian touches and the vintage dolls she mixes in with her santa's and elves and how just about everything she puts out has some kind of familiarity or family meaning.  This year I tried to capture a bunch  on my iphone to remember for decorating my apartment next year.  I hope you enjoy as well...

Handmade felt hearts ornamenting a fresh garland

Vintage Christmas decor on display on the shelf lining her downstairs hallway.  I love how she decided to mix her vintage dolls in with more classically Christmas items.

                                                       
 Some festive DIY wrapping

                             

 Stocking made from our old little girl oilily and garnet hill socks and tights

  

I love the single garland hanging above the bed and the red and pink bedding she uses only in the wintertime

                                                          Close up of a quilt to lust after...

Last but not least, simple gingerbread table settings which screamed Christmas that night but would obviously be great for Valentines day as well

Not quite a white Christmas

We've been in CA since Christmas Eve and are just flying back today.  The weather was beyond perfect as you can see...

Behind the Scenes, designing our wedding

Since I've shown you all the professional pictures of August 28th (and if you haven't looked you should really check out the post A Santa Barbara DIY Wedding first) I thought I'd show you a little of how it all came together.  As someone who is obsessed with design and pretty much anything asthetically driven, I was excited to create my dream party.   However, I hadn't exactly planned any large scale events before so I had a lot to figure out.  My mom and I didn't always choose the simplest route but in the end we got a beautiful one of a kind event without paying an event designer to do the work for us.  

One of the first steps in planning a wedding is what kind of save the dates you are going to do.  It's a pretty big decision because you want it to introduce the style of your wedding.  I've loved the romance of Ralph Lauren's western collections since I was little girl and I grew up a few steps from the beach so these were two key themes.  For the colors I choose turquoise (my birthstone) and red with hints of pink which I snuck in sans Ryan's approval...opps!

Obviously the pink started coming out pretty quick as it makes a pretty large appearance in the Save the Date's I designed.  In all fairness I tried to do red and turquoise but it was looking a little commercial.   Ryan did the simple drawing of the entrance to our venue which I adored.  We ended up printing half of them on shiny white paper and half on grainy sand colored paper because we couldn't decide which was better.  The white is so crisp and bright but the sand brought it the rustic feeling I was going for.

                                                            Invitations and RSVP cards

              Mom's embroidered monograms for the thank you cards attached to our party favors.  These were one of my favorite elements in our wedding but unfortunately we didn't get very good pictures of them.  The finished boxes were also topped with heart shaped gingerbread cookies.

 Firelitos to surround the fountain at the center of our reception area.  All you need is brown paper bags   and a pair of scissors, pretty simple but time consuming.

Stencil I made by blowing up the "R" from the JCrew label in Indesign.  Our dog found that piece of wood on the beach with the blue and red paint already on it so all I had to do was paint the letters on top with acrylic paint and tie on some twine.

This vintage french fabric from Bountiful on Abbot Kinney in Venice Beach was my dream for our table runners but it was way out of our budget.

Dyeing red and white striped fabric from Ikea gave me a similar look and we bought a bunch of rugs like the one shown below to use as runners for the cocktail tables.

I got a little freaked out the the precariousness of all these cake stands piled up like this but didn't hesitate to pluck mine right off the top.  Since it was also from Bountiful it was kinda a splurge but well worth it considering my mom made the cake.

                                              Picking out my flowers at the LA flower mart

Ginger, a beautiful surprise addition to the bouquet's.  Never would have discovered it if I had hired a professional florist!

Mock table flower arrangements, we ended up cutting out the eucalyptus for the wedding to get a cleaner look.

Heidi Merrick

I've been google stalking Heidi Merrick lately and not without reason.  The ultimate cool girl, she's the daughter of the one and only Al Merrick and as if that wasn't enough to get the jealousy juices flowing she has plenty of her own accomplishments to claim.  She designs a beautiful line of womenswear out of her Silverlake studio, but really started getting my attention when she added a home collection to her repertoire about a year ago.

I love me some John Robshaw and Madeline Weinrib beachy chic pillows but it kinda ruins it when you start seeing them in every magazine and on every design blog.  These babies aren't mass produced, in fact they're made right down the street from her studio and they still scream STYLE.

Can't leave out these looks from Spring 2012, especially that pink, white, and orange striped dress...Need!

I'll leave you with a little gem from her original hang tags which I find to be perfectly self-deprecating, "You have a Heidi Merrick Dress. It is not perfect. Chances are it was made right in our studio. Much like a couture house. Only we are not a couture house. We are just a house."  -Heidi Merrick

Frida was a bouganvilla dreamer

A Santa Barbara DIY Wedding

I thought I'd share some of my favorite moments and details from my wedding in August.  I have to say it was probably one of the crowning moments of my moms crafting career.  I adored the cake she made which was thrown together in between putting together floral arrangements for the tables and attending the rehersal dinner.  

My bridal party flowers were the work of our family friend Lenie Trent who went with me to the flower mart a few days before the wedding where we discovered pink ginger (which I think totally makes the bouquet's) and then arranged them the day before.  Since of course I had to have bouganvilla boutonniere's, she picked the flowers off a bush on the side of the road while driving to the wedding. 

And those piñata's?  Made by my aunt and cousins and designed to match Ryan and I.

The red shoes which were a central element in the look of the wedding were a little hard for everyone to find, especially for me and the flower girls.  We ended up buying white salt water sandals for the girls and dying them red and had my shoes dyed as well, (which were actually my something borrowed as they were originally worn by my mom at her wedding in 1985!)