Fit for a Princess!

Thought I would share some pics of the latest glittery delight a certain glitzy pixie whipped up for a little girl's birthday party!

The little darling turned ...
and was having a butterfly themed party...

She was gleefully delighted with her butterfly crown.... as any princess would be.

Oh... there may be an extra one of these lying around if your interested!

Chapeaus!

You may have been wondering what I (Gerri) have been up to while Hope has been working for her worthy cause. The answer is knitting! I have recently added two hats to our etsy store.

This super, soft pink, slouch beret~

Here's a little close up so you can see the embroidered details. Oh, and that is a vintage button my dears.
This one is my favorite~ A charcoal gray tweed with crocheted flowers, and vintage millinery leaves!

Of course, a little bling added in the form of rhinestones!

Don't you think my model looks like Lorelie Gilmore, from the sitcom Gilmore Girls?

Actually, she is my daughter Joy. Check out her blog, Whimsy Wedding Bliss, you can see what else I've been up to lately.

Hugs, Gerri

Pink

Hope and the chick-fil-a chicks successfully completed the 60 mile 3 day walk for the Susan G. Komen foundation. Their team raised close to ten thousand dollars! So, thanks ladies, for all those who donated to the cause!

~ HIP HIP HURRAY FOR THE CHICK~FIL~A CHICKS

Walking for the cure!

The chick fil a chicks have been busy training for the Susan G Komen 3 day walk for life! It's a little more than a week away, eeek!

Even more grueling, is the fund raising... Hope is soooo close to her goal!

If you would consider, dear blog friends, helping her reach her fund raising goal, and in reality being part of the truly noble goal of finding a cure for breast cancer, I along with the chick fil a chicks, would be eternally grateful!

Oh... the donation link is super easy to use... so easy I could even use it!

Thanks and bless you, for being apart of Hope's journey!

p.s From left to right in the pic: Hope Adams ( my daughter), Laura Lee Nix (owner operator of the Thorton Rd. Chick Fil A, and Connie Woods(good friend and chick fil a employee)

The First Step

Hello All,
This is Hope here the silent partner of Hopelessly Romantic Art studio. You are probably wondering what has taken over our blog and why my running shoes are on the banner of our blog. Well my shoes and I are about to take of one the biggest adventures of my life! I have taken an incredible challenge. On October 22 -24, 2010, me and my shoes will be walking 60 miles over the course of three days, camping out at night with thousands of other women and men who are taking this journey with me. It's for an event called the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. All of the net proceeds are invested in community based breast health programs and breast cancer research. Susan G. Komen for the Cure works hard to build a future without breast cancer, and I plan on raising $2,300 to help bring us closer to that goal.
This is quite an undertaking for me. I will be walking in a team with my boss and co-workers. Our team name is the Chick-fil-A Chicks! We are so excited to be doing this, and one of our team members is a breast cancer survivor. We are honored to have her with us. When Laura Lee (my boss) first approached me about walking I was pretty hesitant. I mean 60 miles in three days is an amazing feat!!!! I wasn't sure if I was up to it. I was like, I haven't ever really been affected by breast cancer, why would I be walking? Then I started to talking to people around me, women I have known for years and began to find out how many of them have been affected by this disease. Wonderful women who I would have never had the privilege to know or still have in my life, if they had not beat breast cancer. I even found out from my mother that one of my Great Aunts passed away from breast caner. I realized that this disease while not directly altering my life has touched so many around me. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. When I sit down and think about how many women I know and are related to, it really hits home how close this disease is to touching my life and the lives of women around me. So that is when I made my decision, I was going to walk. It didn't matter that it was 60 miles, what is that compared to fighting for my life. I am proud to say that I going to make a difference and help bring us closer to the future where breast cancer is curable. Who knows maybe it will be my sister, or daughter, or niece, or granddaughter that will one day benefit from the work Susan G. Komen 3-day for the Cure is doing.
Please consider giving a donation to become a part of this journey with me. I am going to be updating everyone from time to time on how I am doing on training, during the walk and more. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. I am so excited on taking my first adventure, and I hope you will join me!

Hope

Texture...

One example of the different textures used in the Boho Eclectic wedding decorating scheme is the happy Couple's Collage Centerpiece I made for the guest book table. I used a wonderful vintage frame I found at Refind Maison Jardin (link on blog roll). I love the yummy chippy white carvings of this frame.

The backround, a map of France by Cavalini Papers and old green velvet material, is layered with a blown up poster of one of the couple's engagement photos. This pic is one of the ones used for their wedding invitation Hope designed using Vista Print. Ohh... Hope also took the engagement photos and the wedding pics. She really captured the romance of the whole affair!

Also in this pic are old vintage millenry flowers and some new paper petals, with vintage hand dyed seem binding.

A strip of burlap( I also used burlap for the table runners at the reception) with glittered numbers and more engagement photos. Check out the hearts in the red doors (center).

The newlyweds got to go home with the collage....but I kept the frame lol.

Naming a style.

In a previous post I described Jennifer's (daughter#3) wedding decorating syle as Bohemian Eclectic. Bohemian is the sense as unconventional and non conforming to traditional patterns of decoration. Eclectic as in selecting materials from various sources of style.

The elements of Boho Eclectic are: color (lots of it!), texture, layers, various patterns, along with whimsical, vintage, and cultural accents. An excellent example- the guest book.
Made from an antique French book.


Corner detail- Hand dyed seam binding from the Ribbon Emporium, at Lakewood.

Oh... Boho Eclectic also includes oodles of flowers!

Decorative paper from the Paper Source; a store in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood of Atlanta. I just love it!

Machine stitched vintage printed paper on the old pages of the antique book.

I used the crop a dile to punch the holes into the book's front and back. Then had to reinforce the holes in the book pages. Love all the texture?

Not the usual guest book.... but we like it!

Bunch of Butonniers

Daughter #3 naively consented to let me handle the decorating and a few other things for her wedding; keeping her preferences in mind, of course. hehehe. The wedding is less than two weeks away eeeeeekkkkk! If there is a particular style for this event it would have to be called Bohemian Eclectic.

One of the "other things" is making the boutonnieres. Here goes!
Materials: Wool, old shirt, burlap, and felt

Process:

All cut out!

Middle of leaves:

Felt backing:

Sewing the rosettes:
(I had to change the color of the burlap because the darker could not be dyed to the right color.)

Voila!

Knitting Fever...

I had mentioned in an earlier post that this malady has come upon me early this year. I can trace the beginnings of this contagion back to the first time I spied Jenny Doh's cabbage rose knitted cuff on her blog. To my absoulute delight she offers a kit on her website CRESCENDOh.com. I quickly ordered it.

If Jenny only knew how "me" this cuff is! Waiting for it to come in the mail was excruciating. Actually, it came very quickly (kudos to CRESCENDOh). Those of you who have followed this blog for awhile know how much I appreciate great packaging. Well, I was not dissapointed when it came time to open the joli paquet. It came enclosed in a cellophane bag~ the better to get a peek~ A gift of post cards with Jenny Doh's mantra Art Saves in the form of art work by Danita (left) and Michelle Ward (top). A stamped muslin draw string bag held the makings of the cuff.

These are going on my heart board!

Inside the bag!

I'm in love with these knitting needles wrapped in script and tied with twine.

The hemp and ribbon on vintage spools~Totally Cool~

I adore the buttons in the cellophane bag stapeled closed with the vintage dictionary script "Devote"
I could sense the devotion to detail that went into packaging this sweet kit.


I couldn't wait to get started. I loved working with the hemp and silk ribbon. The directions were easy peasy to follow.
~ Voila~ The front.

The back view


On me



Thanks, Jenny, for a great project and your devotion to art that inspires creativity!
For those of you who aren't afraid of catching a creative fever, click on Jenny's link found on our blog roll!

Beauty for Ashes...

Earlier this year a horrible thing happened my photogropher, daughter Hope. Her camera was stolen. This inspired me to go ahead and invest in a better camera for our business and blogging purposes. Here is a pic she took with our new Nikon CoolPix L110



Though we may weep through the night... joy comes in the morning!

Etoiles de la Mer!

One of these things is not like the others ~ I took some tiny star fish gathered from my travels to Tarpon Springs, FL tourist trap called the sponge docks. They sell all sorts of shells, sharks teeth, and sponges there. I pained the dainty etoiles with white paint, then applied white german glass glitter, and finally glued a ribbon tie. These little babies can be hung from various creative places. Quite a handful I must say.

I love this vintage brooch.

Makes me want to go to the beach!

Baby Shower Gifts

Hope and I went to a baby shower Sunday. Unlike a normal person, who goes to the store picks out something nice, from the registry of course, I just have to "make" something.
Check out this onesies and wash cloth bouquet. The idea came from Kelley Bell the quintessential party planning diva. She does these for all the baby showers she plans.

They are a lot harder to do than they look

Knitting fever has hit early this year in the form of ~Sweet Mary Janes~

Just love the buttons

Not hard to guess the gender of the new bundle of joy!

Par Hasard....

Which is French for random. I wanted to share some random experimental pictures I took with my new camera, A Nikon Cool Pix L110, I am sooooo excited I just have to speak in exclamation points!!!!!!!!

Here is my first shot with the zoom lens, this little vingette sits on our kitchen table...

This is a little vintage shoe I picked up on a treasure hunt, embellished with vintage millenry flowers ... this shoe will be the inspiration for something dreamy.... you know how much I love shoes! I think this shot is a little out of focus though.

Close up of the vintage earing.... love it!!!!!!

I might be a little unsual on the nerdy side to get so excited about such a thing as a new camera... but I can't help myself. Do you have a camera story to share? :)