Special Gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week

It's Teacher Appreciation Week at my son's school. Monday they were to give the teacher flowers, so I sent Aidan with some heirloom roses out of clay to give his teacher. Tuesday they were supposed to write a letter. Today it was a sweet treat so last night I made Guinness brownies with espresso powder. I've made Guinness cupcakes before but I hadn't tried brownies. The teacher loves homemade brownies so I thought I'd try the recipe. It definitely was a rich almost fudge like brownie, but oh so good!  

 I decided to use these wonderful boxes from Eco-Friendly Market. They are a hard board constructed fine weave pandan box. I did some custom watercolor artwork for them for another project but thought it would make a great little label for the box describing what was inside. Which reminds me it's my turn to write a thank you to the teacher for how much we appreciate all she does for our kids. It's amazing how much they have grown in a year!

Another Mother's Day Gift...

A client had contacted me after seeing my blog post on my mini teapot arrangements. She asked if I could work on a mini teapot for her mother for Mother's Day. She told me what flowers she wanted and I agreed to accept her order. She had mentioned times have been rough for them and she wanted to express to her mother how much she appreciated all her support through it all.

I never get tired of making these little mini teapots. I have more to share later this week on another special set of gifts which I will post about this weekend. Sorry for the lack of posts and now for the back blogging. I've been feverishly working on all my orders to complete before my vacation.

Rustic Beach Themed Wedding...

A bride contacted me to see if I could do her wedding invitations and favors for a very small destination Maui wedding she was planning in October. Her colors were corals, oranges, yellows, sepia and a light aqua blue. It was hard coming up with a design to match her rustic beach theme vision, but this was what the final design entailed.

She opted for the coral orange/pink hibiscus with ivory and coral cardstock. We decided to use a "seashell" colored cardstock for the pocketfold to give a bit more color and bring in the sand/sepia element. We accented with the light aqua blue in the label and the ribbon band. I am pleased with the end design. Her favors will be slightly different but we have some time to work on those and figure out what she will like best.

Classy Black, White and Silver with a touch of Southern Charm

A dear friend of mine, who believe it or not I met through Spirit Jump when my mother-in-law was going through cancer, is getting remarried. Her family has been through a lot and I don't necessarily want to share all about that, but with everything she has gone through since I've known her, I only wish I had as much faith and courage to deal with everything she has had to deal with. Needless to say, in the last several weeks I've seen a change in her, she's completely and utterly HAPPY! She's getting remarried to someone she has known since high school and who has helped her through some rough times. They are so smitten with each other and so cute. 

 Amy asked me if I would create her wedding invitations and bridal bouquet. She didn't have an official wedding her first time around so this is something very special to her. I'm so honored to be asked to help her create the vision she wanted. I still have to work on her bouquet, but I wanted to share her lovely, yet classy wedding invitations. Amy wanted black, white and silver but she said they would be having a small very Southern wedding in Georgia. So it just so happened that her wedding will be at a place called Magnolia Terrace. I decided to use a magnolia flower as the artwork for her invitations. I am very pleased with how they turned out.

Bird of Paradise Inspired Invitations

A client contacted me a few weeks ago and had expressed interest for my wedding invitations and favor boxes. Her wedding is in August. I initially told her no because with my current order flow and planned vacation, I wouldn't have time to fit in her order. She begged and pleaded and was even willing to settle on a very late delivery of her invitations. She really had her heart set on my designs. So, I thought about it and agreed. Thankfully with the help of my aunt who helps me with assembly of invitations, we were able to finish her wedding invitations today. 

I'm excited about this client's orders because she wants bird of paradise as her flower on her favor box. Good thing I figured out the bird of paradise flower months ago. Jenn's colors are orange, green and a steel purple. She was so happy with the design and the colors.

Vow Renewal Bouquets

I was recently contacted by my client who is having a vow renewal and going on a Disney cruise. She wanted to know if I could create a bridal bouquet for their vow renewal as well as two petite bouquets for her daughters to also carry down the aisle.

She asked me for white cymbidium orchids. Her original wedding bouquet contained these orchids as well as white dendrobium orchids, but she was having purple orchid leis so she wanted me to incorporate purple orchids to match. 

 I have heard from past clients who get married on cruises that it's very limiting as to what they can get in terms of fresh flowers and they are not allowed to take the flowers off the ship and preserve them when they disembark. It seems unfortunate that this isn't allowed, but it's a great market for clay flowers. This way the bride can keep her bouquet forever!

 I'm almost finished with a big wholesale order and I've got a bunch of invitation orders I'm working on. I also worked on some watercolor background designs for one of the companies I work with, which was a departure from what I normally do, but I have to admit I enjoyed it.

Single Stem Peonies for Bridesmaid Bouquets

It's been a very hectic couple of weeks working on several orders and projects. Last week I finished an order for 5 six inch single bloom ivory peonies for a client back East. She wanted each of her bridesmaids to carry one on her wedding day. The dresses the bridesmaids will be wearing are French blue but we went with Navy blue since I couldn't get her an exact match on the ribbon.

There's something so lovely about one single bloom that has so much character! I also played around with the assembly of the petals which I think I like better than previous peonies I've made. It's always a learning process. One thing I've learned is that I can't be afraid to experiment!