12 Days of Christmas Giveaway at Southern Weddings Magazine!

I was fortunate to be asked to be part of the Southern Weddings Magazine blog's 12 days of Christmas Giveaway! Marissa asked if I would be willing to give away one of my gardenia hair flowers that was featured in their V2 issue. Of course, I said, "YES!"
So, on Cyber Monday the lovely ladies of SW have launched their 12 days of Christmas giveaway.

Click on the link or the images to hop on over to the SW blog and see what you have to do to win one of my gardenia hair flowers and a personalized monogrammed hankie from Marley Lilly! Good luck!

Thanksgiving Break and New Items on Etsy...

{Parmesan No Knead Bread}

I took some much needed time off after completing two big print orders just before Thanksgiving. I have been really enjoying the art of baking the last several days. I was also fortunate enough to get my KitchenAid stand mixer back from Hawaii, which I had received as a wedding gift and never opened! Here are just a few of the things I made for friends and family the last few days. I guess I have found that my therapy and relaxation from making flowers and invitations is baking and cooking! It's been fun trying new recipes and sharing it with loved ones near and far.

{Pear and Macadamia Nut Bread}

{Rum Cake}

{Homemade Twix Bars}

{Cranberry, oatmeal cookies with white chocolate}

{Macadamia nut shortbread}Alas, after Thanksgiving it was back to working on my flower orders again. I have another big order to finish for my Australian retailer, but I had a chance to create some more pieces for my Etsy site. One is a floral arrangement using the left over flowers I had from that other Spring inspired arrangement and I paired it with an orange poppy and some orange spotted orchids.
The other listing is of some new wooden spoons with the word "cupcake" in a cute font. A client had asked if I could make it and I loved it so much I decided to add it to the shop.I am very thankful for another wonderful year of so many amazing opportunities, wonderful clients, new and old friendships, and most of all for my loving and supportive family. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner this year with our neighbors who have become like family to us, we ate SO MUCH food that I felt like my 4 months of daily exercise was lost on one night of deliciousness!

Custom Teapot Arrangements

A past bride and client of mine contacted me recently to see if I could make some special gifts for her to give to her loved ones. It is so nice to hear from my clients well after their wedding and to be asked to create more keepsake items.

Joyce asked if I could make her 4 teapots to give as gifts - 2 small and 2 large ones. The two large ones are for her mother and mother-in-law. The one for her mother consists of stargazer lilies, peonies and phaleanopsis orchids.

The one for her mother-in-law is orange ranunculus, pink roses and green cymbidium orchids.

She also ordered 2 mini teapots. She asked me to recreate one of my Etsy arrangements, but in miniature form. Love how it came out.The 2nd one is pinks and purples with deep pink ranunculus, light pink peonies and purple orchids.
Joyce also asked for a peony hair flower that she could wear out for special occasions.

Pinks, Yellows and Shabby Chic!

I know it's officially Fall and we are nearing Thanskgiving, but my two favorite seasons are Spring and Summer. Plus today is a dreary and cloudy day, so I needed something bright to cheer me up. I had several flowers left from the photo shoot I worked on last month and I haven't had the time to decide what to do with them, until today.

I found some great buys at a local craft store as they were closing out these wonderful shabby chic style wooden vases that were blush pink/brown with the word "Spring" and a cute bird painted on them. I finally decided to use one of the two boxes I found. I just love how it turned out.

This lovely piece is 12x12x10" overall and it's so bright and cheery. Pinks and yellows, full of peonies, garden roses, English roses, ranunculus and tulips. It just makes me smile when I see this piece.

So click here if you're interested in purchasing this piece!

Custom arrangements to remember loved ones

Recently a client contacted me to see if I could create some custom arrangements. Initially it was to be put in a vase, but after meeting with her and her sister, we discussed what it was for. They had plans to place the ashes of their father and brother in a niche at the cemetery later this month and wanted 2 arrangements to be used to go on top the beautiful dark wood box style urns.

Although it's always hard for me to make flowers for such a somber thing as death, I thought it was very sweet that they wanted to hire me to make something that would be everlasting and beautiful to remember the lives of their father and brother at the cemetery.One arrangement is full of purples and blues with peonies, roses, some purple blossoms and hydrangeas. The second arrangement was oranges, yellows and purples with peonies, poppies, ranunculus, lilacs and small blossoms.

It's going to be a busy holiday week next week for me as I have a large holiday card and wedding invitation order to complete. Plus I have a custom order of 4 teapots to finish by the weekend. So much for slowing down a bit for the holidays.

Orange and Pink Tropical Wedding Invitations

It's been a while since I've worked on wedding invitations as the majority of my orders have been for the clay flowers. It was nice to get back into wedding stationery again.

My client asked initially for favors and then came back to order invitations. Her colors are orange and pink and she liked a previous design I had done. So we worked on it together and this is what we came up with.Because the orange and pink are so vibrant and deep in color I thought that adding a lighter, citrus orange pattern stock would compliment the piece nicely. We modified the label from what is show in the pictures but the bride and groom are quite happy with the end result.

My Thanksgiving holiday will be spent working on this and a corporate Christmas card order to fill.

Featured on Munaluchi Bride Magazine Blog!

Yesterday I received an inquiry from a potential client via Etsy on a coral rose and cherry blossom bouquet after she saw this inspiration board. Much to my surprise, I clicked on the link and my work was featured in this Coral and Teal inspired inspiration board. The Creative Director at Munaluchi Bride does a weekly series on "Etsy Addiction". I'm so honored to be part of this lovely coral and teal inspired board via this very elegant new bridal magazine targeted towards brides of color. Thank you Munaluchi for the feature!