Rustic Chic Wedding....Finally Have Pictures!!!

Oh my words....GIDDY as I write this!

You know the wedding I told you about, that I did the flowers and decor for a couple of weeks ago?  The one I told you I was so busy working on that I didn't get to take a single picture of any of the arrangements or staging that I'd done?  The one I'd have been sick to my stomach over not documenting myself had my good friend Kim Deloach not been the photographer?  Yeah...that wedding?

I'm sure you get sick of me droning on and on about Kim's talent....but seriously ya'll....she's talented.  Like....UH-Mazing.  And while I felt pretty good about all that I personally accomplished to help our friends Tonia and Rick to make their wedding day extra special....well, Kim made that all look even better.

Check out these few pictures...and then don't stop here.  I'm posting a link to Kim's blog so you can all check out the full amazingness of this Rustic-Chic wedding at an old church and reception at a farmhouse that's chocked with old town charm and fun!  Seriously...I'm just giving you a taste here...head over to Kim's blog to really feast your eyes on some serious visual candy!  (And pay extra special attention to things like the flowers and staging....those were the things I did!)

I present you my friends....Rick and Tonia Hawkinson!

Before I move on here....I have to tell you how much I LOVED making her bouquet!  After I finished and stepped back to look at it, I honestly cried.  It was really special to be able to make something for them that I knew she'd love...and she did.  Her words to me before they left their reception at the end of the evening were "You saw my vision and made it even more amazing than I'd imagined."

That my friends, is the best compliment I could have ever received! Ok ok....more eye candy!

Cool church huh?  And that little fella just to the right of the bride and groom...the tallest of the little ones, he's mine!  He did such a great job carrying a sign that read "Here comes the bride" right before Tonia processed into the church.  You can see them all below a bit more.  That precious little girl in the top right is Tonia's daughter McKenna.  She is absolutely adorable!

Our friends who own the farmhouse just happened to have this truck and crate of old bottles lying around. (They actually have a real old timey town recreated on the property.  Seriously...there's a general store, a barber shop, an old post office, and more.  And it's all chocked full of authentic period stuff....it's so much fun!)

There was a real deal pig pickin' (as in, you can get it right off the pit, you can see it below) and bluegrass music too.  It was nothing short of perfect.

Recognize that bench in the top right corner of this photo collage above?  Yep, that's the one I made.  Remember it from awhile back?  And, Tonia found those red and white striped paper straws that we put in all the drinks online...aren't they awesome?  I might just have to make sure to always have some of those around from now on...they add instant old fashioned cool factor!

And thanks to another friend who happens to be in the fireworks biz....Rick and Tonia ended the evening with a bang!

Ok...now, head over to Kim's blog to really see the good stuff!  You'll get a lot more pictures of the awesome little town on the property too....it's so so neat!  You. Will. LOVE!

Wedding Weekend Success!

Well, the weekend wedding is over and I'm still trying to recover!  I didn't write for a few days because literally I haven't even had time to breathe normally.  The wedding was gorgeous, the couple amazing, and of course I thought the flowers and decor were stunning....other people did too.  Yeah...that's a pat on my back...blatant.

I am slightly mortified with myself though because I didn't take a SINGLE picture of anything.  It wasn't that I didn't want to, but I honestly didn't have time to even grab my camera and snap a few shots.  This is not an exaggeration.  Every spare second was used up, and since I knew that my amazing photographer friend, Kim Deloach, was shooting the wedding, I didn't stress over it.  My flowers and decorating efforts will be chronicled much more fabulously than I could ever even attempt to do.  Once she has had a chance to edit the pics, I'll beg her for a few to show you.  She will make my floral efforts look like a real professional! :-)

I love a good wedding....and this one was great.  Our friend has been waiting for his "one" for longer than most of us, and when he finally found her, he slipped a ring on that finger and set a date fast!  She is amazing and it has been such fun getting to know her the past few months as well!  We look forward to years of fun all together!

But I have to be honest and say that I'm sure glad the wedding part is done now!  It was a blast doing the flowers and decor, but I'm glad that it's off my plate too!  I have to tell you though, every second of hard work was completely worth it when the bride told me "You saw my vision and made it even better than I'd imagined."  Yeah....about the best compliment I could have received!  I have to give a massive shout out here too to our friend KC who busted her tail coordinating the wedding and helping me set up.  There is NO WAY I'd have finished styling it all had I been by myself!  Didn't hurt either that the venue was our friends' amazing old farmhouse which is a stunner in itself.  I'll have to round up some pictures and post them soon to share with you...because while I'm sure I could come up with 1000 more words to describe it all....1 picture is worth all of that!  I'll see what I can find!

Oh...and the secret for this great illusionist this weekend was dirty hair!  I arranged wildflowers all afternoon on Friday and had to bust it to get to the rehearsal dinner in time.  My biggest fear the whole night was having some critter crawl out of my hair!  There were SO MANY BUGS on those flowers when I was arranging them....I thought I was going to show up with itchy, bumpy, red arms from all the bites...and since I was so rushed I didn't have time to wash my hair!  I was SO sure something had made it all the way north and was hibernating til just the right moment.  I hate bugs!

Then Saturday, I was rushing around all day and again...dirty hair at the end of it....no time for anything greater than an updo!  They say dirty hair is easier to style great anyhow...so while it was a filthy head weekend for me...it was a great hair styling one!

Flower Power

I'm doing the flowers for a wedding this weekend.  And by "doing,"  I mean arranging...all of them.  From all the bridal bouquets to the centerpieces for the 250 person reception...I'm their flower gal.

And you know I'm excited about it!  A little overwhelmed, but not by the flowers, it's by the other parts...like that my husband and son are in the wedding, which means that I'll be arranging and staging between things like the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner...and having to get myself and my family ready in time for the actual wedding.  That, and driving the flowers out to the church and reception, and placing them all to make sure that everything looks unbelievable for our friends.  It's going to be awesome...a lot of work, but awesome.

I'm excited too because the flowers are going to all be cut from a master gardener's garden...mixtures of fabulously wilder looking things.  Envision with me for a minute...hand tied bouquets...mason jar drinks...old fashioned red/white striped paper straws...burlap and jute....old chippy paint doors and frames....you know, the kind of stuff that's right up my alley.

And just to give you a taste of what I think some of this weekend's flowers might feel like, I thought I'd post a few pictures of the flowers that I did for the bride's lingerie shower a couple of weeks ago.

I love flowers.

 Don't you?

Went to my neighbor's garden today...I'm feeling culinarily inspired.  Hope that feeling holds through the weekend since I won't have much time for cooking the next few days.  Guess what I picked though today?  Figs....oh sweet heaven on a tree!  Yummy goodness coming up for you soon!

A 24 Hour Bathroom Re-Do!

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when I said that I had an itch to re-do my kids' bathroom?  Well, last night the Hubs had a meeting, so I got to work with a can of paint and a brush and went to town on that bathroom.  And now, less than 24 hours later, the bathroom mini renovation is done!  Well done enough that the itch is over and I can mess with it more as I like.

Remember what it looked like before?  Curious George swinging in, and while cute, he never really stole my heart.

And remember the inspiration I found while in Montana?

These....

and this...

sign from the Polebridge Mercantile

Yesterday, we went and had some paint mixed and I am LOVING the result.  I'm still in debate about painting the base cabinets though.  I bought some blue/grayish paint but am thinking I might leave the cabinets as they are and see how I feel once I live with it a little while.  Never a bad idea before committing further to something.

As I was painting last night, I noticed that the paint looked grayer than I'd thought, but figured it may have been the nighttime lighting.   Just this very second as I pulled out the deck to find out the name of the colors for you did I realize the guy mixed the wrong color.  It's not way off, but the one I'd liked better had a bit more khaki in the gray.  I'd been looking at them both and I guess he mixed the wrong one.  Oh well...I'm still happy in the end.

So what I'd wanted was this...                                                   but what I got was this.....

Benjamin Moore Thunder AF-685

Benjamin Moore Metropolitan AF-690

I'm particular about these things, but now that it's done and it's close enough, I"m fine with it.  You can tell the difference though right?

I was also pretty excited when I found a pre-fab window valance at Lowes for $13 that I thought would be super cute.  I can sew something, but honestly, for $13 when this is the look I was going for anyways....it's a no brainer.  And, it's my kids' bathroom.  Let's be realistic about things here...this does not need to be the freaking Taj Mahal.

I've been looking all over for a shower curtain too and have no interest in spending more than about $30 on it...again, remember....Kids' bathroom.  So today when I was buying frames at Walmart for the pictures, I found something I thought would work for $18.  And I'm pleased with it.  I switched the hooks from my bathroom which were more oil rubbed bronze and I think it'll do just fine.  I even was able to keep the aqua bath mats that I already had to add in another pop of fun color from the artwork.

So here's what we have now...

My $13 valance and $18 shower curtain...pretty good huh?!

We'd bought a package of some vintage post cards which I just popped into a $12 frame.  I think on 4 frames I spent maybe $50 max.

I had 2 prints like this one of the mountain goat which were an odd size...maybe like 10x16 or something.  I didn't want to have to have custom mats cut because that gets more expensive, so I bought 2 of these glass floating frames for $10 a piece.  I like the result with the wall showing through too...doesn't look as bulky as if they had full mats either.

And just because I want you to see the true humanity of a 20 hour room makeover with just one person doing the work, I thought I'd let you in on a little tip I used this time.

I like to call it "the half-ass."

And here's what I mean....

 See.  I had to move the towel rings lower.  They were always too high and I'd never messed with them before.  There were MASSIVE holes in the wall which will take a few days to repair for the putty and everything to dry properly, so what do you think I did?  Yep...covered them up.

Out of sight, out of mind!

I'll get to it eventually... but for now, I'm pleased with the *mostly* finished result!

Ps. I've got another sailor in the works to send a letter from sea, but I have to be honest and tell you that our first sailor has yet to receive any love from anyone other than his family!  Support our servicemen and women?  The address for this month's sailor is below!

Potty Talk...Bathroom Inspiration

I don't know about you all, but sometimes there are certain rooms in my house that completely elude me when it comes to how to decorate them.  Bathrooms are generally harder for me than other rooms..mostly because there are the same certain elements that you have to deal with and unless you're overhauling and re-doing tile and cabinetry, you're kinda working with what you've got.

I love wallpaper in a bathroom but it's more money than I generally want to spend.  Painting designs is a great idea too, but typically I don't want to spend that much time.  Thank heavens for fabric you can put on a window treatment and shower curtain, but still, you have to be careful that you don't divide the room even more with a heavy looking shower curtain.  All to say...I think they get tricky.

My boys' bathroom has been on my list of "make it so I like it" things for awhile now.  It's painted a nice yellow (which, though yellow is a pretty color it is not my favorite) and has a super cute Curious George swinging on a vine that I painted on the wall.  I started painting a bird on a sign near the toilet about a year ago and never have finished it.  

I just can't get into the whole cartoon character themed room thing.  I've never done it...I'm just not a fan.  Tid Bit said he wanted that... and ONLY because Curious George is old and super cute did I agree.  No offense intended if your kid's room is all tricked out with Dora or Diego or Backyardigans or something...it's just not my thing.  Even George was a serious stretch for me....which is pretty much why the room has never been finished.

As of late, I've been really thinking about what I could do to make the room feel more "us."  I've thought about some stylized camo, military looking something or another, but haven't settled there because if we ever have a girl that's just not the direction that I'd want to go.  Finally the idea hit me when I saw a really cool print at a gift shop when we were in Glacier National Park in Montana.

Vintage-style National Park Signage

Above here is the first print and some super cool stickers that I found.  See where I'm going with this?  Then I found a copy of the road sign for the Going-to-the-Sun Road, that sadly we couldn't go all the way over during the trip since they were still clearing feet upon feet of snow from it through the higher elevations.

Throughout the rest of the trip I found a few other great prints and some vintage looking postcards as well, and now I'm super excited.  There are these awesome red car-style buses that tour visitors around and we saw them all over.  They are sort of iconic...called the Red Jammers, and I just adore them.  I think that'll be a fun way to get some bursts of color into the room.  I'm thinking the walls may go sort of taupe and I'm considering painting the base cabinets a nice bluish gray color. I'll load the walls with all of my great finds as well as some family photographs from this trip. 

So, here is sort of a grouping of everything that I've picked up so far.  I think the ultimate goal would be to begin collecting this style of art from other family trips and see the bathroom evolve over time into a nod to fun family adventures.

I don't know exactly if and how I'll use each thing in the room til I get a chance to mess around with it all, but for now, I'm super inspired and very excited to get going on it! Stay tuned for this project to come!  You know how I get excited about a new idea and can't wait to get started.  At least this time I have "Before" pictures!

- Logan



I've Been Commissioned....

Remember recently I told you about a new kind of paint that I'd ordered called Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint? If not, read about it HERE. Well, the paint arrived few weeks ago and I've had a blast messing around with it lately.

I painted that china cabinet there on the left (I'm not showing you the finished product yet because I still need to get a piece of glass to put in the front,) but I promise, it is gorgeous!  It's a combination of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey and Old White.

Just yesterday, I guess I got a “bee in my bonnet” (as my mom likes to say) and started a painting another dresser, as well as an end table... that I was commissioned to do!

Can I just tell you how fun it feels to say that “I was commissioned” to paint something for someone?! Oh my words...does my ego a world of good! No worries...not overpuffed, just feels nice to have someone else like what I've done enough to want me to do it for them!

Check out this table though. I am so pleased with how it turned out in the end... and the owner, well she was so excited about it that I got even more excited!

Excitement is contagious you know?!

I'm not one of those people who can "play it cool" when I'm excited either.

I really do promise you though that one day I'll forgo my overwhelming urge to start a project prior to taking a “before” picture.

At least this time I got a picture before the stripping agent had completely done it's job. Even with the stripping stuff making it cloudy on top, you can tell that this table had a seriously orangey finish on it...which is what the owner hated. She was going to get rid of it, and I suggested to paint it because it is a super cute little table.  She was thrilled with the idea and I took it with me at the end of our appointment on Friday.  When I got ready to paint it, I realized that I couldn't bear to completely cover the really beautiful inlay. I figured that worst case scenario, I'd strip the top and it'd still be ugly...and then I'd just paint it anyways. But if things went in real life the way that they were in my mind...then this was definitely the way to go. Strip the top and paint the legs.

You all know most certainly by now that some things in my life do not always go the way that they do in my mind. Remember my awesome craft project the other day?...yeah, case in point.

Once in awhile though...I get it right. This time was thankfully one of those times...especially since it wasn't just my own piece I was messing with here.

There really wasn't anything wrong with this table before...it just was a color of wood that the owner didn't love.  I'm more of a dark walnut kind of gal myself, so that's what I went for here. A couple good coats of Citristrip stripping gel (actually smells nice), some scraping off of nasty gooey finish, a good cleaning and then about 3 coats of Minwax dark walnut stain.

The base was painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Chateau Grey, distressed with a sanding sponge to my liking, then finished off with a combination of Annie Sloan's soft waxes in clear and dark brown. I waxed the top with a couple of coats of the dark brown and then one last clear coat to protect it.

I told my client that if she ever wants to get rid of this table, I can find a nice home for it...

in my house.

Don't you just love a semi-BEFORE and AFTER?!

Glory hallelujah...It's Extreme Makeover: Table Edition!

 

If you're thinking that you might want to try the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I HIGHLY recommend it.  You don't have to sand or prime before applying it which saves LOADS of time.  Also, it has the most creamy texture and goes on so smoothly, and I should mention that a little goes a pretty long way.  Sanding it off with just a sanding sponge is a piece of cake (if only my feet were as easy to get smooth!)  It's more expensive than just a can of Oops paint at Lowes, but if you're an instant gratification sort of person like I am, you'll appreciate seeing faster, and more beautiful results with 1/3 of the prep work.  If you like sanding and priming though, have at it...glad you enjoy the tedious part. 

I've made my chalk paint orders from a super nice and extremely efficient gal named Tammy Brinkley, who is a stockist of Annie Sloan products.  Check her out and order some paint from her, she's great! (Do me a favor too and tell her I sent you?!)

 The Periwinkle Pass Studio
Banner Elk, North Carolina
Phone: 828-963-5187
periwinklepass@yahoo.com
www.periwinklepass.com

 

I'll have more of my adventures into chalk paint fun coming up to share soon, so stay tuned!