Side Project Fun (or New Bionic Buttercup Gems)

Remember how I told you guys about my second Etsy shop, The Bionic Buttercup?

Well, I thought I'd hopefully brighten your Tuesday and post some of my favorite, quirkiest items from my shop!

Like this mirror haunted by a little girl...




this animal cell necklace...




or this altered landscape painting...




Have a unique Tuesday!

Extra Funky Flowers For Extra Funky Brides (or A Sneak Peek At My New Line!)

These are two of the 3-bloom bridesmaid bouquets...














More to come, my darlings!

Charity Chicks Houston - BRAtober (or Boobs!)

I recently completed a rather fun paper flower project for charity:



Bra art!

Charity Chicks Houston is a local organization of gals (and a few dudes) that come together to raise money and do other charitable work for needy non-profits! It's highly altruistic - no one gets paid and no one is affiliated with any specific organization. It's just a group that helps others for the fun of it!


Last year, the Chicks helped the Save The Tatas Foundation by asking creative folks to create a piece of art out of a bra. The BRAtober event raised over $11,000 for the foundation!

This year, BRAtober proceeds are going to help Bright Pink, a group that enlightens and empowers women about their breast AND ovarian health!




The title of my piece is "Paper Petals, Steel Will".
Obviously, I was inspired by my first official Offbeat Bride Pam's wedding flowers. I also wanted to incorporate pink for obvious reasons. I wanted to use my paper flowers to show the juxtaposition of ornamental beauty vs the beauty of the determination to live.

I hope mine gets chosen to be one of the 50 that goes on display and goes up for auction at the main event on October 1st! It would be quite the honor, especially given the stiff competition that showed up at the BRAtober event last year...

*fingers crossed*

My First Offbeat Bride! (or Pam's Chic Paper Flowers)

I'm very pleased to announce that I have completed my first wedding order for an official Offbeat Bride!

A number of people have contacted me since the Robot In Bloom ad came out on Offbeat Bride, but Pam's is the first complete order! Whee!





The bridesmaids will be wearing grey and the whole feel is classic minimalism, so Pam asked for 80 individual Oriental Poppies in black and white. I usually use tissue for the poppies, but I opted for parchment to make them a tad more substantial - and I liked how natural light passes through them in person.

Great Day Houston: The Prequel (or ZOMG! My 15 Minutes!)

My my... This is going to be an incredibly exciting week for me and my robot troops!

First of all, my new online friend, Tina Jett of Scatterbox fame, has recently interviewed me for her (totally rad and funny and interesting) blog. The post is hitting the blogosphere (Could there be a more icky term?) on Wednesday! Please please read it when it comes out, and keep reading Tina's stuff. She's really groovy. And I'll soon be returning her interview favor with a bloggerview (Ha! I just made a worse word than "blogosphere") on this blog right here!

Then, on Friday, I've got my super-exciting advertorial dropping on Offbeat Bride on Friday! OBB's avertorials are a stroke of genius... Instead of just buying a boring, static ad, the unique and talented tour de force, Ariel Meadow Stallings and her team review your business for OBB's funky readers. Instead of a simple banner ad, Ariel creates an informational blog post for her offbeat readers (of which there are 200,000 unique readers each month!!)

Then..... The really surprising news!
Okay, so on Friday, I submitted my press kit to be considered for a local talk show. KHOU's Great Day Houston was looking for crafty businesswomen to appear on a show about "designing women". Well, my badass divas over at Etsy Houston let the group know about the announcement, and I applied! The producer called me back but my phone is crummy, so I didn't get to talk to him. After pacing around all weekend, I got the call and they confirmed!

I'm gonna be on tha tee vee!!! Wooooo!

My mind is swimming..... What do I wear? It's LIVE and I just know I'm gonna swear! Can I do my hair and makeup well enough? What if my business doesn't take off from this? What if it does??

Out of the pantheon of problems, I'd say this is a good one to have. :)


Oh, you probably want a picture, don't you?
Well, here's a new piece that will be for sale at The Dallas Flea:

Inspiration From Perfect Palette (or Fuchsia and Navy + Yellow and Grey = Love)

It's no secret to anyone within 50 ft me that I loooooove color!

My apartment is awash in lots of bright shades, my wardrobe isn't scared of mixing bold hues, and even my wedding refused to settle on one or two colors...

One of the main places I get my color kicks is from The Perfect Palette. They help people visualize wedding color palettes with trendy swatches and beautiful inspiration boards. And - bonus! - they're one of my fellow honorees in the Everything Wedding Blog Carnival #6!

One of their recent palettes - Fuchsia, Light Pink, and Navy - reminded me of some blooms I did a few months ago for Lauren Castine of Frecklebug Boutique.







Lauren was definitely ahead of the style curve with that gorgeous palette! (These aren't the actual arragements I made for Lauren's fancy Mother's Day party, but they're close.)








Another recent combo The Perfect Palette put together is one I've been a huge fan of since I was little: Orange, Yellow, and Gray!

Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that orange has been a very recent addition into that enchanting hue group lodged in my heart. And, in the interest of kicking things old school, I made a simple new arrangement in Grey, Silver, and Yellow.








I was thisclose to choosing Yellow and Grey for my wedding palette, but I used it later in my business logo!







What's your favorite color combo??

Paper Wedding Bouquets (or Here Comes The Unique Bride!)

I just posted two posh paper bouquets on my Etsy page today.






I'm a little sad, though... I really love both of these bouquets and I'm gonna be sad to see them go.

I know, though, they'll go to a good home. They'll go home with someone who loves them just as much - or more - than I do. They'll likely be going home with a like-minded individual, someone who is interested in straddling the line between offbeat and classic. Someone who's a little nostalgia-driven and wants their wedding memories to last more than just one day. Someone with a penchant toward creation and artistry...

But hopefully not too like-minded - I'd hate to know that anyone else on this planet has accidentally put their deodorant in the fridge as often as I have.



Oh, hey! Don't forget about RIB's Mother's Day special!

Hmmmmmm....? (or Wedding, Schmedding)

Okay, so I'm well aware that I've been featuring my almost two-year old wedding in my blog waaaaaaay too often.

However-

Have you seen the new Alfred Angelo TV ads?
Click here to see the whole spot on Facebook.

Look a tad familiar??



I assume either someone at Alfred Angelo saw my write-up on Offbeat Bride and deemed it a groovy jumping-off point...

Or I'm not a unique a beautiful snowflake and maybe I should hook up with that Alfred Angelo marketing person so we can conquer the world with our similar tastes.

Either way, I love it!


(Oh, and I'm also jealous because no one had that gorgeous shade of purple two years ago! I might just go out and buy myself a bridesmaid dress now, just to have it!)

Great Minds Think Alike (or JimandPamandJimandPamandJimandPam!!)

Pam made paper flowers for her wedding, just like me!










Flower photos by Kasey Marsh of Monkey Tree Photography

Design Genesis (or First Contact)

Well, here I am. Sitting at home on the first Thursday of my new life. Happy as a clam.

I recently quit my job and have decided to Fosbury Flop my way into the world of sole proprietorship. I've always had a passion for design (which is the classy way to say that I like how stuff looks) and now that I'm barreling my way toward 30, I decided it was time to stop fuming at my desk all day, get all Oprah-y on myself, and try to live the one life I have in the awesomest way possible. I'm now a freelance wedding photo album designer, and I'm incredibly glad about that...

I started my wedding-related career as most folks in the wedding world start out - by holding a wedding of my very own. Josh and I were married in March of 2008. I know it's cliche to say, "OMG muh wedding wuz teh best thing evar!!1!" but it really was. I won't go into details about how awesome our marriage is and how Josh is the best husband (and person) in the world, because as much as I want to say them, you might lose your lunch... So I'll just focus on the more digestable superficial aspects:



Photo by Kasey Marsh of Monkey Tree Photography


I love color. And I love balancing wacky fun with timeless class. I'm also incredibly indecisive and can see beauty in all styles of design... Hence, our wedding style.
As a result of our (relatively) non-cookie-cutter approach to tradtion, we were featured on Offbeat Bride. (You can read our write-up here.)

Anyway, that's all I'll say for now because I really do have a ton of work to do. Being the boss and the employee is a new concept for me. Plus, it involves a lot of reading in the beginning as I've found out this summer. That's okay, though. I'm looking forward to my upcoming visit to Amazon to obtain more literature on how to propel myself into the entreprenurial stratosphere. Also, I'll probably pick up the 'Mama Mia' soundtrack new Wilco album.




Photo by Kasey Marsh of Monkey Tree Photography