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!