Bring on the Kitch!

Part of my wanting our wedding decor to be as earth-conscious as possible will include the use of various knick-knacks and keepsakes from both Richard's family and my own.  Not only will our centerpieces and displays be fun and unique, we will have not go buying anything that will be thrown away afterward.  

Richard and I have been collecting various little treasures and things for years and it will feel so much more personal on our big day to have objects that we have grown up around incorporated into the atmosphere.  

While I was taking a few things to storage today, I couldn't help but pull a few of our treasures out to photograph and start getting ideas about. 

 Unfortunately, it's been a few weeks since I've been to the storage unit and my loving, always meaning-well fiance managed to bury not only most of my wedding stuff with camping gear and ice chests, but also my winter clothes.  Hopefully this autumn heat wave will wait to break long enough for me to do some digging.  

The dog belonged to Richard's grandparents.  While looking through photos from the 1970's during Richard's childhood, it's easy to spot him in the corner.  In the family photos from Richard's dad's childhood in the 1950's , sure enough, he's there too.  It makes me so happy to know that he will be be spotted in the background of my daughter's childhood photos as well as a wedding photo or two. 

Luckily, Richard's dad is just as nostalgic as he is and has managed to hang on to a lot of Nanny and Poppy's old things.  The Aunt Jemima belonged to Nanny and she used to have Richard paint it for her every year as a little boy.  

The phone was in my little vintage clothing store, Hungry Heart Recycler, during the short, fun, overwhelming time that I had a physical shop as well as an online one.  We thought it would be so fun to have a vintage phone in a vintage shop...but man it sucked to dial out!

The great thing is, every little thing at the wedding will be filled with memories like these.  

Nothing will be mass-produced and everything will have a story.  

What's even more amazing is that nothing will have a price-tag and nothing will be going into a landfill afterward.

How cool is this sign?  The electrical doesn't work anymore but I'm pretty sure one of the little lamp kits at Michael's will do the trick.  It's low on my to-do list simply because like my dad, I seem to get shocked every time I attempt any sort of electrical handy-work.

And how awesome is his old cigar box?  Richard's last name is Hawley and it's fairly uncommon.  We found it for a cool $4.  Can't beat that with a stick!

Project to Be

This was the top of our used CD rack at our old record store.  I have at least four of them and could not bring myself to just throw them away.  They were made by a local finishing carpenter and are super smooth to the touch.  I stained them with some black wood stain to match the decor of the shop but since they are no longer in use, painting them wouldn't be an issue.  I could even decoupage them!  I want to figure out a use for them.  I thought maybe putting them on a table and filling them with rice or uncooked beans or something and using it to hold place cards.  What are some other ideas?  

On a side note...

According to Good Morning America this morning (haha!),  (faux) fur is in this fall.  If you want the real deal without the guilt (the fox would have been dead by now, I promise) check out these awesome vintage pieces, to be added to my etsy shop first thing Monday.  If you can't wait until then, I listed a to-die-for detachable beaded collar  just this afternoon.   

360 days to DIY

Let the crafting begin!                                The time has finally come to go through the craft room and storage unit to start consolidating what I'll need for the wedding favors and decor.  I want everything to be as green as possible and I refuse to go out and buy a bunch of supplies that I probably already own or could pick up second-hand anyway.  I spent this afternoon digging through jars of vintage buttons and costume jewelry.  I will most definitely be doing broach/button bouquets.  Probably a combination of the two.  It's a trend that I am just loving...what an awesome way to incorporate family heirlooms and bits of uniqueness and personality.  

I have also fallen in love with the DIY button letters I have been seeing on Pinterest lately.  I'm thinking they would be a nice possibility for table numbers.  I could thrift around for cool old frames and paint them.  I have more than enough buttons to keep them in my color pallet.  Hmmmm.... the possibilities are endless!

A DATE! A DATE! WE HAVE A DATE!

According to Milton H. Erikson, "A goal without a date is just a dream."  If this is true, I am beyond THRILLED to finally make my dream a reality!  Rich asked me to marry him on Christmas day, 2008.  And here we are almost three years later finally setting a date a reserving the location.  I can't complain too much about what seems like the longest engagement ever since it was prolonged by the best surprise either of us could have imagined, our sweet little girl.  That being said, the little girl inside of me has been jumping up and down in renewed excitement.  


10.5.12 is officially booked on my calendar.  


While booking the date and location yesterday, my mama and I were excited to see that Highland Springs Resort will be hosting their first Olive and Wine Faire on the 23rd of this month.  We've always had such an amazing time at the lavender festival, sipping on wine and enjoying lavender ice cream and lavender beef brisket while our daughter runs amuck... I'm sure the Olive and Wine festival will be just as relaxing.  Also happens to be when my brother will be visiting.  Looks like we're in for some wine-drinking-wedding-brainstorming madness in a couple of weekends!

Lavender Fest 2011

So I've been growing increasingly frustrated with Highland Spring Resort's utter lack of communication in terms of returning our phone calls or helping us with locking in a date.  I must say though, after spending the weekend there for their 7th Annual Lavender festival, RichardandI have decided that it will be well worth the wait, as there is nowhere we'd rather be married.


We got there at the end of the festival on Saturday, just in time to check into our room, handle a mini-fiasco over a mini-fridge and enjoy a cup of homemade lavender-honey ice cream.  The room was super charming and comfortable.  We loved the lack of television and the feeling of being truly "away" without having to go far.  Lily-Mae loved exploring the grounds when we first got there, checking out the amazing old pool, the camp fire area and old dance court--all the while smelling the various types of flowers and herbs growing around the little rooms and cottages.

We finished up Saturday evening with a wonderful dinner at the Grand Oak Steakhouse and sharing a sunset walk among the lavender fields with our favorite little girl in the world.  Every single course was absolutely to die for, all ingredients locally grown, harvested and butchered.  Not only was the bread baked on-site, the freshly whipped herb butter is produced from local cows and mixed with a tasty array of locally grown organic herbs.  The highlights of our evening walk included Richard and Lily breaking the rules by climbing into the eleven-hundred year-old oak tree, a pair of adorable sheep dog puppies, fields and fields of fragrant lavender, a olive orchard and a cuddly assortment of livestock and fowl.

The next morning we woke up, strapped on the ergo, laced up our hiking shoes and set out for a decent cup of coffee.  In the amazing old bar, we were pleasantly surprised to find not only a fabulous pot of complementary freshly brewed coffee (along with fresh half and half and OJ) but also some of the best pastries either of us has ever had.  We worked them off with a long hike along one of the resort's many historic trails.  They were the same trails that Wyatt Earp had frequented during his days running the stage coach lines as well as the ones Albert Einstein took to stargaze while vacationing at the resort with his family. We managed to stroll the festival, make some new friends and enjoy another cup of ice cream before hitting the road.

 

   

 

Wedding Fever

After doing a super fun wedding shoot for my etsy shop, hungryheartrecycler, I've been feeling super inspired.  My dear friend Ashley was kind enough to spend the day playing dress-up with me in a trio of super fun vintage wedding gowns.  I made her headpieces out of greek oregano, roses and jasmine (all from my own yard) and her wild flower bouquet came from a box of wild flowers in my garden.  I was inspired by the big oversized flowers on my mom's head piece in her 1976 wedding.  We shot the photos in Winchester, CA near Winchester Farms.  The weather was great and we managed to stumble across some of the last wild flowers of spring in the area.

(On an awesome side note, my parents celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary next Saturday!)

After many weeks cooped up in our little shop packing and unpacking, I can finally say our move is complete.  Even though we were just moving the shop next door, we found that moving out of a space that we had occupied for a decade and a half was a huge job... then add in the fact that our floor space was going down by quite a bit and both Richard and I found ourselves completely overwhelmed.  It was stressful and tough, but now that it's over we couldn't be more excited.  Square footage will not seem so great a sacrifice knowing that our overhead will be cut down by so much.  It's a truly thrilling feeling to know we have taken so great a step toward the next phase of our lives.  

Richard and I celebrated our hard work by going taking our daughter to Simpson Park, one of our favorite local parks.  It is closed every year at the end of May for the entire summer due to southern California fire season.  We were so grateful to have had the opportunity to take Lily-Mae there for her first time and to get to appreciate it's beauty one last time before it was closed for the year.  It was overcast, misty and windy but warm enough to be comfortable and the clouds moved away long enough for us to enjoy the breathtaking view.  Here are my favorite shots of the day...

 Despite being crazy busy with the move, I have been pouring over Green Wedding Shoes and have (as usual!) found a ton of inspiration.  I found the food truck wedding shoot to be super stylish.  While using a food truck isn't really us (Richard once had a pretty epic fit in Humboldt while we were visiting his brother over having to eat mexican food from a truck, although he will deny it), I absolutely LOVED  the bridesmaid apparel!  The fun, bohemian styles looked so chic and would look perfect with the style of my mom's 1976 gown, which I plan to wear.

                                                            

The outfits featured really fit right into my color scheme! 

 I also found some really awesome ideas on etsy for UNDER $100.  Pictures to come!

Golden rose, the color of the dream I had

Thanks to my visionary cousin Kendra, we now have a color scheme!  It's fun and a little different than typical fall colors.  I'm super excited to play with the flower possibilies... For now I'll have to keep myself busy making an etsy treasury full of inspiration in fig, blush, mustard, navy and espresso.  I couldn't help but add some aqua to the treasury, simply because it's my favorite color.