Cupcakes, Champagne, and Feathers!

Let me start by saying I LOVE weddings! I love the every aspect of it, but most especially the planning. I think because I so LOVE to see it all come together in one grand display in the end. But I also love parties, and what better excuse for a bunch of parties than a wedding.

When Lindsay first asked me to help her with accessories for her wedding I was ecstatic! When she started talking about her vision for the theme all these picture started whirling in my head. One thing I knew was I has to have some kind of party for her, but I needed a bit of an excuse. I'm not close enough to help with a shower, or part of a larger group for an engagement party. Then she said she wanted to invite the Bridesmaids to show them some of what we were working on, and I thought, THIS IS IT!

It was so great to have Abby and Kayla come and work on the designs they were going to wear. First they are so much fun to chat with, and you can really see why all these girls are such good friends. It was lovely to be a part of that.

I got to see the dresses. The got to see all the ideas. We made a Lindsay try on here headpiece, and the girls saw theirs. Everyone went home with cupcakes and champagne. it was a GREAT day!

Lindsay's Peacock Wedding

Okay I'm going to show some unfinished product, I just can wait to share. Remember how I said that the wedding accessories I was working on included bouquets made of feathers? Well without further a-do:

There is some finishing work to do, this was mostly a test to see if the bride liked the look. I am going to include some rhinestone accents that will match the bridesmaids hair accessories.

Those areas where there seem to be more blue, in the center I'll be including rhinestone accents like the ones you see on this lovely comb:
These are the Maid and Matron of Honors hairpieces. I had a chance to meet them and we worked together to design them. It was so much fun! A perfect excuse to eat cupcakes, talk wedding talk, and of course have some champagne! Check back for a glimpse of what it was like.

Bento: Simple Can Still be Cute

When I was young and my Mom packed my lunches there was a simple formula, sandwich + chips + fruit + dessert = well made lunch. Of course there were variations substituting the sandwich for soup, the chips for crackers, etc. Back then it's how most of the lunchboxes opened to look. You know what, it's still a fine choice. It's simple, easy, you can find lots of healthy variations on even chips these days. So I'll show you how even that can be just a little bit dressed up to be cute. Kind of like this:

Okay I'm sure everything here is recognizable, those are sandwich thin rounds cut in half, made into simple turkey sandwiches and stacked. A cup of blueberries with a strawberry garnish, frozen grapes, and baked Cheetos (yes my kids at Cheetos...). But it looks cute right? The colors are appealing. It doesn't look like your trying to pull one over and add any tricky "new" foods, kids like that. All I did to up the cute factor was use one "Bento Supply" this:

This cute little "cutter" has so many uses, cut lunch meats and cheese. Use it as a stencil to add details with condiments. You can even cut thinly sliced fruits(I've done it with apples that I dip in lemon juice, but that's for another time). The best part, this little guy can be had for under $5. Try Amazon, if your willing to wait for shipping from Japan there's JBox.com, and even Ebay has them.

Craftacular

I'm so excited to be taking part in this show this weekend. The lovely Naomi Richardson of Glitter Workshop works very hard to put on a great show. The venue is amazing with lake views, and great food, even a tiki bar. This year there will be about 80 fabulous artists, and I'm flattered to be one of them. If your in the area I hope you'll come out and say "hi"!
Sunday July 24th from 10 am to 5 pm
East Side Club
3735 Monona Drive

Bento by Request

In lieu of a lengthy post I'm going to show you some of our recent lunches.

Arent these Ladybug Babybells the cutest?! I found them on Pinterest. Ah Pinterest you are my new drug of choice.

This was a "Teddybear Picnic". The sandwiches are supposed to be bear faces, I just could not think of how to add mouths so they look a little off. This is why I'm practicing, next time they'll be better.

A big part of my staring to Bento was getting my little one to be more adventurous with food. She had tries so many new things now, snap peas are a new favorite! This was basically salad, and I was so happy to watch my girls eat all those veggies!

This Bento inspired a lot of questions on Facebook about where I got my Bento supplies. I'll be answering those questions in a post very soon!

Don't Play with your Food

My youngest will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. I love the back to school season, and I've already been searching out all the cutest supplies I could find for her. I am so excited for her, and at the same time know how much I'll miss all my time with her during the day. We've been talking about what school is like with my oldest who will be going into 7th grade. We've all decided both of them will bring lunches to school this year. My oldest wanted to buy lunch at school last year, you know "like all the cool kids do". She quickly learned, she's not that into what they serve at school. I started to see a pattern in her lunch buying, bagel and apple and a cookie, almost everyday for lunch. Not exactly my ideal, so I decided to Bento.
My youngest is picky, and she eats in snack-y proportions throughout the day, so for her it's perfect. My oldest is not picky, but right now she's obsessed with all things Japan, so it fit for her too. We've been "practicing" this summer to see what kind of lunches go over well. Here are some we've done.

I've purchased some supplies and a few different types of "lunch boxes", including some more bento style boxes. But Bento is becoming so popular, as well as good old fashioned taking your lunch. So even Ziplock makes containers that work.

I've been pretty amazed at how much my little one will eat when it's cute food. I even get to use the ends of the bread now! I mean really who knew.

Pretty as a Peacock

I thought I'd share a project that is currently in the works. A dear friend of ours is getting married this fall, and I've been lucky enough to work with her on some things for her wedding. She chose a beautiful Peacock theme, and has the most lovely ideas. The work centers around feathers, and though I'm excited to show you everything, Ive had to restrain myself from getting to far ahead. I want the feather to look lovely and fresh for the wedding you see. But I'll give you a sneak peek.

It is SO beautiful, inspired by a design she found, I used a Peacock pad and some ostrich feathers and hackle. The lovely vintage inspired broach just pulls it all together don't you think?


See that lovely blue in the peacock feather eye? That is the color of her bridesmaid dressses. Look at these pretty Daisy Petal Designs Earrings she chose for them.

I can't wait to show you more. Her bouquets are feathers too! Stay tuned!

Are you still there?

Well HELLO there! Hello? Hello? Oh good you're still there!

Oh I know, you thought I might have just given up, right? Well okay so you might have been right. All this social media is hard to keep up with you know? What?! What do you mean everyone else manages?! Oh okay, I know I can too. Yes I promise I'll try to be better at it.

So quick catch up; I updated my profile here if you care to click on over and check it out. The shop is still up and running, and I hope you found your way through the name change and all. If you need a refresher you can see artsy-crafty hair accessories and jewelry at Daisy Petal Designs on Etsy. I have a shop for the little girls in your life too at Littlest Blooms. Oh you say you like Vintage, yeah me too, check it out here Daisy Petal Destash and Vintage.

Okay I have a lot of cleaning up to do around here, but I promise I'll be back later to update you on my newest creative adventure! Please come back!