Pretty Papers....

My friend and one time babysitter Alli will be getting married on March 21 st this year and I have the honor of creating all of the flowers for her wedding. Our two younger daughters will be flower girls and Victoria, a junior bridesmaid. Alli loves all things pink as well as antiques and has even started her own antique and decorating business, so when we were all planning her shower I knew that store bought invitations would not do! I created the ones above, and I truly believe when she gets hers in the mail tomorrow, she will be thrilled. The invitations are so gorgeous that I decided that I have to sell them as stationary on my website, so hopefully they will be up for sale either tonight or tomorrow....it's all up to Charley ♥ I think you will just LOVE them as much as I do!

As a side note, today is my big brother Tom's birthday, so I could not help mentioning it! I admire him so much as a brother and person and as an American I appreciate the 27 years of service he has given our great nation so far! Happy Birthday Colonel Ruby! I love you!

Seeing Things Clearly

I want to start by saying Happy New Year to everyone and to wish you a year of good health and happiness with all the love you can imagine. I truly believe that those three things give us true wealth in our lives, so it is what I genuinely wish for all of you.


As I was taking down the Christmas decorations in our home over the past two days, (with my moms help, thank you very much) I started to get excited about how I would rearrange all of my pretties (others without a sickness call them "accessories"). You see, every year when I take down our Christmas decor, I like to put things back in different places. I love the change and having fresh things to look at, even though I have had some of my pieces forever, seeing them somewhere else makes them feel new again. When everything was finally gone and put away and I started to take out my "pretties", I could not help but want a sense of simplicity, at least somewhere, and that is when it hit me. I took several of my glass pieces, old and new and put them on my linen chest in the dining room, and I really love it. It has that clean Swedish decor look, and for a while I am just going to leave it that way and enjoy the simplicity of it all......

Here's to seeing things clearly in '09!
With warmest blessings,
Sanya

Seasons Greetings

I know that it may seem that I have been quite remiss in keeping up with my blogging, but I have a few good excuses! I can thankfully say that I have been busy with holiday decorating, both corporate and residential, which I love! I helped to decorate the Crown Plaza Campbell House Hotel the week of Thanksgiving and just finished up this past Saturday, and the week before that I worked on St. John & Myers Antique & Period Jewelry Salon. The hotel was like nothing I had ever done before. It was a HUGE job and an amazing experience! I will take photos as soon as I have time, maybe next week, but I am not sure, the next 4 days will be filled with holiday decor as well, but I will try. I love sharing projects like that will all of you and hearing your feedback.
In the mean time, I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving. This was the first Thanksgiving in 11 years that it was just the 5 of us, no other extended family or friends. It was quiet and sweet and we spent the day (and a couple of others) decorating for Christmas. The girls were very excited and we had a lot of fun, so I thought I would share some photos of different vignettes in our home. I did all close up shots with the exception of the front door because I really wanted you to be able to see the details up close, so come on in.

I truly love using fresh greens whenever possible, and cedar is my favorite to work with. It smells so good and it stays very fresh and does not dry out. I also added some pine cones dusted with white paint and glitter for a snowy effect.This is our dining room table...I will leave the rest to your imagination... I attached these beaded wreaths to the slipcovers on our dining room chairs with different vintage brooches. It is an unexpected and elegant touch.

The dining room buffet above

The pink buffet in the family room was my favorite to decorate this year. It turned out so pretty, it makes me smile each time I walk by it.

The mantle and coffee table....

I hope you all enjoyed this "tour" I did not do the tree becuase the light was not very good today. I am not sure when I will have time to post again because of my schedule, by try to stop an take a peek, or sign up to follow the blog!

Wishing you all peace & love,

Sanya

Romantic Wedding Flowers

I thought I would share some photos with you of the flowers I recently did for a wedding this month. The bride was looking for romance with an antique touch. For her bouquet above I used garden spray roses. They have a ruffled romantic petal and the open up into lots and lots of layers, so they are perfect to use in wedding arrangements an bouquets. I also used a rose called Costa Rica, it is a huge ivory rose with stunning soft pink tips, and I also added Queen Anne's Lace for a finishing touch of laciness and romance.

All of the brides maids in this wedding were thin and pretty tiny, so she wanted to have bouquets that reflected them and their dresses as well. She also wanted each bouquet to have a vintage brooch like hers, so that they could have a gift from her special day. The roses I used for the brides maids had a darker deeper pink on the tips to pull out the color that was inside their dresses.

The altar arrangements were really huge, so hopefully when the photos come back from the photographer you get get a better look at how lovely they truly were. There is a close up below...

These smelled absolutely heavenly and were also used at the wedding reception on the fireplace mantles.

There were two door arrangements on the inside of the church and then they were at the reception as well.

The sweetheart table....

The dining room.....

I just LOVED this idea! Instead of having one large wedding cake, the bride ordered 5 different varieties of cake from my fried Julie of Julia's Desserts. Not only was the table stunning, but the guests LOVED their dessert!!!

I thought this was a sweet touch. The grand piano was covered with a table cloth that the bride's grandmother who had passed away had given her, as well as her grandmothers favorite hat. It was such a sweet and thoughtful touch.

I hope you enjoyed the photos & I will post more as soon as I get them from the wedding photographer.

XO~

Sanya

Fall Fun

Today I was in the kitchen washing out my flower buckets getting ready for the big wedding that I have coming up this weekend and while I was looking out the kitchen window I realized that I really needed to rake the yard, if for no other reason so that the kids could have fun jumping in piles when they got home from school, so that is just what I did....They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will say no more.
Enjoy!
Sanya