Best Wedding Gift Ever!

My dear friend and fellow artist Jeanne Ludeke gave us this amazing, original painting as a wedding gift. She is so talented! I literally screamed when I opened this up. Wow!

I have been in the studio much of the day today cranking out a new piece. I hope to have something to show you soon.

Ta-Ta!

Our Wedding Proofs are Here!

Good Monday morning to you friends!

Our wedding proofs have arrived from California. So exciting! I will be sharing more with you when I have a chance to go through them all.

I particularly love this shot of us walking through the vines.

Ta-Ta for now.

Wedded Bliss

Ciao Ciao Friends! We're back from our wedding and honeymoon road trip. What an amazing few weeks. The whole wedding, including pre-party and post events went off without a hitch!

I'm sharing just a few pictures that were taken by friends and family at the wedding and reception at Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula, California. (I don't have the pro shots quite yet.)The weather was gorgeous and the winery provided a beautiful and elegant backdrop.

 

One of our good friends officiated the wedding. She did a fabulous job! It was so nice to have someone so close to us actually perform the ceremony. 

Matt's son Jack did a reading. Doesn't he look adorable in his tux? From the minute he knew Matt and I were getting married he told us he would be wearing a James Bond style tux. Love that kid! 

Matt's sister Carrie and my brother Kyle provided the music. They sang Iron & Wine's "Such Great Heights" as a duet, which was just beautiful!

 

Our reception was in the winery barrel room.  So cool! With very minimal decoration, this room was breathtaking.  We had one of these centerpieces on each table. Green spider mums were floated in the vase and were topped off by a floating candle. 

I was thrilled with all of the flowers at the wedding. All green, just what I wanted. The florist asked to take a picture to keep in her files as it was so unique. 

The whole day was just amazing and I wouldn't have changed a thing!  I'll be sure to share some of the professional wedding shots when they come. Our photographer was great too! 

Until next time! Ta-Ta.

9 Days and Counting!

I can't believe that in just 9 days, I will be a Mrs! I head out to California for the wedding on Monday, so my week has been filled with last minute details, phone calls and packing. I can't wait!

Since our California wedding is small, we are having a large reception back home in July. I just finished up the reception invites so that they can be mailed out while we are in California. Now that school is out and my days are my own, I actually had time to take some good pictures of these invites to share with you here!

Considering I would be making 140 invitations for the reception, I decided to keep them more simple than the wedding invite, which had an envelope liner, and several pieces enclosed within a tiny pocket folder. This invitation contains just  5"x7" card, an outer envelope and an envelope for the response card.

I used a handy little perforating wheel, that I picked up for a dollar at the craft store, to make the response card that can be detached and sent in.  Cool huh? Now,  I can't take credit for this perforated design; I actually came across this idea in the Etsy shop of the talented Michelle Brusegaard.  Be sure to check out her beautiful collection of paper goods.

I went with a totally new color scheme for this invite. I was inspired by one of the typewriters I picked up to use as decoration at the reception. Feels quite summery doesn't it?

Though I do love the look of hand addressed envelopes, time was not going to allow for that.  Just as I did for the wedding invite, I created a wrap-around address label, that features our return address on the back. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out and feel proud that I was able to design, print, and cut all the pieces myself.

All of the paper and envelopes I used for both the wedding and reception invites came from the Paper Source. Love that place! The quality of the paper is outstanding, is easy to print on, and shipping is out of this world fast!

OK, I'm off! I'll be sure to post some wedding pics when we get home in early July.

Ta-Ta.

On the Hunt

Can you believe it??? 2 blog posts in 2 days!

Matt came up with the brilliant idea of utilizing his typewriter collection as decoration for our wedding reception in July. We  hope to be able to put a manual typewriter on each table, and ask our guests to type us a note. That way, the typewriters really do double duty as both table decor and guest book. Love it!

Matt has a few typewriters, but not nearly enough to deck out each table, so we are on the hunt. I've reached out to friends and family and have been scouring local thrift and antique stores in search of these adorable relics of the past.  I have managed to find 9 so far and this Underwood is by far my favorite.  I got it for a steal in a crazy little antique store in Clinton, Wisconsin. Score!

So here's where you come in blog friends. Do you live in the greater Rockford and have a manual typewriter sitting around that we might borrow on July 30th?  We'd be happy to pick them up and return them to you. Please let me know. I promise we'll be nice to them!

Ta-Ta!

Spring Break (Work)

Well hello friends! Long time no see.

It's finally Spring Break at school and I've had some time to catch up on things I've been meaning to do for months now (like write on this blog!)

With just 51 days to go, wedding planning has been taking up a great deal of my time. It's exciting, but geez, I'm tired! This week I decided to knock off the few remaining details I need to wrap up for the Temecula Wedding, one of them being wedding favors. As an artist, I knew I wanted to incorporate my art into the wedding favor. I decided to make card sets, a gift I'd hope that my guests would appreciate and actually take home with them. I realize that the handwritten note is dying, but I hope these cards encourage my guests to write!

The artwork that I decided to feature on the cards may look familiar to some of you. This piece started its life as the backdrop for my wedding "Save the Date" card (seen above).  I came across the original watercolor and collage backdrop today, and decided to finish up the composition to use as the imagery on the cards. 

I filled in the negative space with more of my abstract flower forms and added a little more embellishment with my trusty white gel pen. I decided to add a little pop of orange in the right corner just to shake things up a bit. I'm happy with the results, and I hope that my guests will like them too!

My next artistic endeavor is to create reception invitations. We are having a small wedding at a winery in Temecula, California and then having a large reception here in our hometown when we return. Though I love the color scheme I have chosen for the Temecula affair (chartreuse green, black and white) I decided to shake it up a bit for the reception. Stay tuned for more details soon!

My Etsy Wedding Registry

Mid-Century Modern Inspired ... FlotsamFurnitu... $450.00	Silverware Stripes - set of ... kathymellor $64.00
Bowl Geometric Decorative Bl... sewZinski $38.00	Magnetic Spice Rack Tins Con... saltcityspice $32.00
Urban Throw Pillow - Style n... NestaHome $35.00	8x8 barrie quote clock. mbartstudios $45.00
Crochet Cotton Dishcloths - ... Sweetbriers $10.50	Custom round monogram, scree... vital $96.00
Mid Century Vintage Footed S... jenscloset $18.50	Vintage Enameled Gas Station... BarkingSandsVi... $90.00
letter J GlamDecay $2.00	Moka Express cotton tea towe... mengseldesign $13.00
iRetrofone Classic - Deluxe ... freelandstudio... $250.00	Nostalgia - set of 9 photo b... SusannahTucker $140.00
Vintage Mid Century Eames DC... rhan $225.00	Recycled Chenille Sea Urchin... Hepstyles $70.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

As lovers of vintage and handmade, Matt and I would love to register for our upcoming wedding on Etsy. There are so many incredible things here that you just can't buy in a store!  

Though I created this collection all by my lonesome, I know that Matt would agree with my choices. He is a huge fan of the "Mad Men" style.... He's drawn to Midcentury Modern, all things Scandinavian, clean lines and simple silhouettes. As you can see, his tastes have rubbed off on me! 

I was able to import this Etsy Treasury, links and all, with a hack I came across on Whale Shark Websites by way of Twitter.  What an easy way to import a ton of links in a hurry! 


I hope to have some new artwork to show you in the near future, but don't hold your breath. There just doesn't seem to be time for that at the moment. 


Ta-Ta!

Wedding Invites in the Works

 

Ciao, Ciao!

I've been blog delinquent for quite a while now. February seems to kick me in the butt every year. So much to do during this dreary month.

The wedding is now 3 months away! Matt and I finished up our wedding registries today with a trip to Crate & Barrel. We are both big fans of their overall modernist design sensibility. We had a great time touring around the store with the gun in hand.

We also went into Oak Park to visit the Paper Source.  We picked up all the necessary envelopes and paper so I can get the wedding invites printed and put together. I made a prototype a little while back, which is seen here.  I'm now working on enclosures and a little pocket fold doo-dad to send everything off in.  I'll be sure to post a photo when they are all finished and in final form.

In other news, my show at Kortman's is up until March 19th. Stop by anytime the store is open (10-6 M thru Sat) to check it out.

Arrivederci friends!

New Year Resolutions

The end of August marks the beginning of the school year.  As a teacher, this is more of a "New Years" than January is. I've decided to make a few resolutions as I start the 2010-11 school year. I hope that posting them out for all to see on the blog will help me stick to them!

1. I've got a wedding dress to fit into. (Yep, already bought one!) I will try to workout at least 3 times a week. I am so good about going to the gym in the summer. I hope to keep it up during the hectic school year for once! 
2. I vow to continue buying all produce from local producers until the growing season is over.  Rockford's farmer's markets have become very strong. I love that every type of produce I'd want at this time of year is available from a local grower. 
3. I vow to continue cooking 3-4 nights a week. After a week away from any cooking, I forget how much I really like it and how good I feel doing it.  Tonight I took all of the leftovers from the fridge and invented a new dish. I parboiled some pasta, layered it with leftover grilled eggplant, onions,  garlic, and summer squash, added some diced tomato, basil and oregano from my garden, threw in some egg and cheese to bind it, and baked it in the oven. Yum!
4. Last, but not least, I vow to write one blog post a week. I have plenty to write about...No lethargy allowed!

I leave you with a newish piece I've created entitled " Try, Look, Show, Tell." 

Ta. Ta.