Fold it, wrap it, glue it

Less than a week to go until the DIY Workshop at The Wedding Cafe! This "speed crafting" night is always fun and definitely keeps me on my toes as I attempt to teach a project in ten minutes flat to four rotating groups of brides over the course of the evening. The key, I think, is keeping the project simple enough to demo without a lot of detailed instructions, yet universal enough that brides personalize it in their own way should they want to do something similar for their wedding.

The "ingredients" for my project this time around are shown above: 2" x 2" x 2" die-cut favor boxes, strips of washi paper and oh-so-sparkly rhinestone buckles. The only pieces not shown are the satin ribbons that go with the buckles.

Hope the project goes over well!

Design challenge!

A cake artist, a cookie designer and a stationery designer walk into a bar...well, not exactly.

About a month ago, Sasha Reichart of cakelava contacted me with an opportunity to contribute a stationery design for a guest blogging gig she had coming up for Half Baked - The Cake Blog.

Sasha's husband, Rick (of recent Food Network Challenge fame!), had designed a stylish cake inspired by a fabric swatch provided by their clients. This same fabric swatch was the source of inspiration for the adorable cookies designed by Decadent Cookie Favours, and the invitation and place card designed by me. Click here to see what transpired. It's interesting to see how well everyone's designs meshed despite the fact that we worked independently of one another!

Thanks, Sasha, for inviting me to be a part of this fun design challenge!

Photo editing on the fly

Downloaded the free version of the TiltShift Generator for my iPhone recently and finally had a chance to try it out while waiting for my latte order to be filled. On a side note, is it bad that I can no longer JUST STAND or JUST SIT for more than a minute without whipping out my phone to occupy me?

Anyway, here's the original photo that I took:


Then I performed a bit of TiltShift magic:


In all of thirty seconds, I had applied a radial blur with the edible book acting as my focal point, added a vignette effect, and increased the saturation. Fun stuff!

Benny and the Jets

Got caught up in some work this morning and almost missed the Blue Angels performance this afternoon. Luckily, we were able to speed over to my old intermediate school and stake out a prime viewing spot on the grassy area, behind the buildings, overlooking Kaneohe Bay. We weren't the only ones with this brilliant idea, though. Lots of people were already there with beach blankets and folding chairs and...dogs. Lots and lots of dogs. So many dogs, in fact, that it resembled a dog park. This is where I met "Benny", a spunky Bichon mix that was more excited to mingle with his four-legged friends than take in all the action overhead. (By the way, I've changed Benny's name to protect his identity...Benny likes his privacy),

Here's Benny...

And, here's "The Jets"...
 
Wish I brought along my bigger camera, but at least I had my phone to snap a few shots. Loved the precision flying, loved reading the letters on the bottom of the jets as the flew over our heads, loved how my ears had to wait a few seconds to catch up to my eyes. (I know that there's a scientifically correct way to address the whole speed of sound thing, but I like thinking of my ears and eyes in a race, with my eyes actually winning one for a change.)

Great way to spend a "quiet" Sunday afternoon!

Color + Inspiration

I don't ever seem to have enough downtime to check out the latest and greatest in wedding trends, but when I can steal a moment away from design/production, my "go to" resource is the mile-long list of blogs that I have in my Google Reader queue. It doesn't stop there, though. I start reading one blog, then click on a link to another blog, then another, and then before I know it, I've fully embarked on a fun version of leapfrog - er, leapblog?

Last week, I came across this fun blog and instantly knew the potential value to brides trying to figure out a possible color scheme for their weddings. It's The Perfect Palette, and the feature that I found most helpful was being able to click on a specific color (located in the left sidebar) and seeing multiple inspiration boards pop up that include that particular color. I clicked on "Plum" and zeroed in on this plum and pink color scheme complete with bridesmaid dresses, florals, and even a whimsical hairpiece. Lots of brides build their own inspiration boards based on magazine tear sheets or web site photos, but this might be good place to start for that extra inspiration!


Image from www.theperfectpalette.blogspot.com

And...scene!

This was the final printed piece for my clients that were married earlier this month. I really enjoyed working on all of their custom stationery, but their thank you card design accented with Swarovski crystals, was definitely the cherry on top! I added a couple of flowers to the back of the folded card, too, for all those people who unfailingly flip cards over lookng for the Hallmark ID.

Island hopping...a quick respite

I'm trying hard not to get bogged down by the tiniest of details that creep into every day. Consultations, proposals, design, research, etc. Also attempting to take on the role of "efficiency expert" in my own business...challenging, but necessary. Too bad that every time I want to point a finger at someone, that someone is me!

Already wishing that I was back here (my weekend getaway with the family back in July):

Loved seeing the larger than life sculptures on display at the Grand Wailea. The piece shown above is by Satoru Abe, the one below is by Esther Shimazu.


Had a really lovely stay at the hotel. My favorite memories were the morning walks through the grounds, lounging by the pool with Eat, Pray, Love in one hand and a blended mojito in the other, and sitting out on the lanai of our suite while desperately wishing I could freeze time.

We decided to limit our activities so we could fully enjoy the hotel amenities, but we did manage to squeeze in a few low-key things.

En route to Ali'i Kula Lavender Farm, I spotted this picturesque structure and had to snap a quick photo:

Of course, my camera was just getting warmed up for all the beauty at the farm. Both the protea and hydrangea blossoms were h-u-g-e!

And there was this little guy that was hanging around without a care in the world:


We hit up the Surfing Goat Dairy, too, and munched on a goat cheese sampler plate.

Ahh, counting down til my next vacay...

Tears of joy

I've been looking into redesigning my online gallery and while I decide on the final format, I've been digging up some of my favorite past jobs.

This program, designed for a chic black and white affair, was a memorable one. The bride was looking for a classic style, nothing over-the-top, nothing too glitzy. I used a heavy matte white card stock and paired that with a double face satin ribbon. The interior pages were printed on a crisp white linen paper.



At the bride's request, I added an interior pocket to the back cover with the printed message, "Tears of Joy." Naturally, this was the perfect spot to slip in a single tissue for her guests. Adorable.

Workshop tomorrow!

Gearing up for another invitations + favors workshop tomorrow night. Come on down to The Wedding Cafe at 6:30pm for an up close and personal session with me and my other designer friends. I'm bringing a small supply of those super cool invisible ink pens with me and will be selling them for $10.00ea. At the last workshop, the pens sold out in about two minutes flat!

I really enjoy this smaller, intimate workshop since I'm able to bring samples of some of the custom pieces that I've designed. It's hard to do a similar set-up at the larger wedding expos because I don't really like leaving too many one-of-a-kind pieces out on the table. Should be lots of fun tomorrow!

She liked it, she really liked it!

As a follow up to this post earlier in the week, the display at The Wedding Cafe caught the eye of a lovely bride who happens to be getting married this weekend. We met for a consultation, referred to the table display a few times as a source of inspiration, and voila! Her suite of wedding stationery was born. It just so happened that the colors I used for my display pieces were the same colors of her wedding, and with just a few tweaks we came up with her invitation, table tents, escort cards and thank you cards.

The tentfold cards list the guests seated on each table:



We came up with "generic" escort cards on which the table numbers can be handwritten when the guests check in. Oftentimes, clients order personalized escort cards which includes the printed guest names, but these generic cards are a great option, too. They can be ordered ahead of time, even before you've collected the last of your RSVPs, and including a blank line for the table number means that any last-minute seating changes are a snap!



Happy wedding day, Marcy and Michael!

bridges, boardwalks, and brown butter cookies

It's been quite awhile since I took a vacation during the summer. Normally, I'm a spring/fall/winter travel gal but couldn't resist the opportunity for a quick getaway with my husband this past June. Because of work commitments, we only had about 7 days to explore, relax and rejuvenate and ultimately decided on a mini road trip on the California coast.

We kicked off our trip by visiting with good friends (and the adorable addition to their family) in L.A. Being in the company of a little one meant lots of time spent at their apartment, ordering take-out, and taking short walks for ice cream and mango lassis. What a treat! Sadly, this kind of relaxing quality time with friends is a luxury these days and I loved every minute of this rare indulgence.

Two days into our trip, we had a lovely homecooked breakfast with our friends (by the way, Trader Joe's blueberry juice really is heaven in a glass), filled our gas tank, and hit the road. With our GPS mounted securely to the windshield, we headed north with no real plan. Lunch in Santa Barbara? Wine tasting? Nope, decided to switch it up and check out Solvang, the quaint Danish town that made an appearance in the movie, Sideways. I tried to see only the cute flower boxes and gaslamps without the throngs of tourists walking along the cobblestone sidewalks. I tried to get excited about eating ebelskivers in the shadow of a big windmill without feeling as if I had just entered Epcot Center. Eh, I couldn't really do it. Maybe next time I'll just pay a visit to the ostrich farm on the edge of town and call it a day.

While Solvang left much to be desired, I knew that our next stop would not disappoint. Back in December, a friend gave us a lovely gift of cookies from Brown Butter Cookie Company. The cookies were good. Really good. So good, that I made a mental note to order some cookies online...I've made a lot of online purchases before, but never cookies. That's how good they were. So, as luck would have it, Brown Butter Cookie Company is located in Cayucos, just a stone's throw from the main highway. It was one of the "must stop here" locations that I programmed into the GPS, and stop we did! Loaded up on cookies, enjoyed the smell of ocean air, and continued on our way to a B&B in Cambria.



Cambria, ahh lovely Cambria. Love the stretch of coastline that fronts the row of inns and B&Bs here. Love the long walks we took on this boardwalk. Love the tidepools and seals that we discovered when we veered off the boardwalk and made our way down to the beach. Is it odd that I can travel a couple thousand miles from my island home and still be enamored by the same beautiful ocean?

Our time in Cambria was too short, but I squeezed every drop of serenity I could from the time we spent there. And I knew the road ahead held lovely promises of its own.

This is NOT the much photographed Bixby Bridge that's included in every photo montage of Big Sur. It's Big Creek Bridge, just south of Bixby Bridge. It's smaller, doesn't have the same dramatic coastline backdrop for picture-taking, but I think it's just as beautiful. And I didn't have to jostle my way to edge of the mountain to get a good shot. Because I did that at Bixby Bridge and ended up with only one photo without someone's elbow in it...and all of them had cars in it. I think this bridge is perfect.



After leaving the rugged beauty of the Big Sur coastline, we stopped for a quick lunch of cinnamon rolls and calamari in Monterey, and made it to the Peninsula before the worst of the rush hour traffic. Spent some time visiting my old haunts in Mountain View and Palo Alto the next day, and went on an impromptu 15-mile bike ride along the bay.

Have always loved this long boardwalk at the Palo Alto Baylands Preserve and always make it a point to check it out.

We winded up our California adventure with a couple days in San Francisco where we ate our way through North Beach, Cow Hollow, and Sunset districts. Found some new loves in Hayes Valley this time around including Nancy Boy (am officially addicted to their signature scent to freshen up our home) and Miette (I think I could sustain myself on their Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramels alone).

Love vacations.

And these guys...never get tired of seeing elephant seals and thought they deserved a mention: