Calla Lily & Peacock Feather Wedding

Several years ago, my mother and I opened an event styling business in MS which for some time went very well. My husband and I decided that Florida needed to be our home so, well, no more business in MS. Since we moved back to Florida I have styled about a dozen weddings for family and friends. The most recent wedding I did was for our nephew Brad and his beautiful fiancé Janae. I was responsible for the bouquets, boutonnieres, arbor decor, flower girl basket, ring bearer pillow, and the reception decor. 

Janae and Brad's Wedding

I created yarn balls to hang from the ceiling.

These are some of the yarn balls as they dry.

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 This is a close up of the yarn balls as they were still being hung at the venue.

copyright Trish Bambace

copyrigh Trish Bambace

copyright Trish Bambace

Check out how awesome the smaller yarn balls came out. There is one on each of the tables as well. 

I made the flower girl basket using the same concept as the yarn balls. 

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And this is the finished flower girl basket! I love it! 

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To coordinate with their one of a kind wedding, I created a this ring box...

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The design of this wedding is based on the peacock feathers, Calla Lilies, and shades of green.  The bride was able to use table cloths that have been loaned to her which are white cloths with moss green overlays. So I have decided to incorporate the moss as part of a theme.

I created these monogrammed T's covered in Spanish Moss to sit on each guest table.

copyright Trish Bambace

Copyright Trish Bambace

copyright Trish Bambace

So I decided to make a six foot version of my table top moss covered T and this was the finished product! A shout out to my hubby for building it for me. There are approximately 4 bags of moss glued onto this thing. The groom really loved it.

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copyright Trish Bambace

copyright Trish Bambace

Even though the bouquets were made using mostly silk florals, I think they turned out awesome and the bouquet photographs really well!

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There was the maid of honor and 3 brides maids who carried the bouquet in the following photo. I wrapped the stems with ribbon to match the background fabric. 

copyright Trish Bambace

This is two of the bride's maid's bouquets and one of the mother's corsages finished.

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 Mother's corsage.

copyright Trish Bambace

Boutonniere.

The final cost for my part in this wedding was $680.00 -bridal bouquet, Maid of Honor bouquet, 3 bride's maids bouquets, one tosser, 3 mother's corsages, 5 boutonnieres, 16 centerpieces, 10 floral vases with flowers for the aisle, arbor decor, hanging yarn balls for the ceiling, candles and...I did not put a price on the set up and break down as I did that as well (with the most appreciated help from my Mister, our boys, and their beautiful girlfriends-Thank you all so very much!) 

This wedding took place at Paradise Cove in Orlando.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful! Even though we were setting up and we broke down, my family and I still had the most amazing time in the hours between!

Remember those yarn balls I was making, well there are three of them hanging in the center of the arbor. 

copyright Trish Bambace

copyright Trish Bambace

Wild flowers for my soul!

Wild Phlox and wild florida forest orchids. The Phlox have been growing in every willing field and most roadside shoulders. They are thick and stunning in their showy togetherness. They come up in clusters, especially now while our soil is dry. I have this old enamel ice bucket with a plastic liner in it. The flowers are a little wilted looking because they spent about 20 minutes between ground and water, while I sorted and cut them. 

 Even though the flowers were pretty as they were, I decided to sit the bucket down inside my yellow painted basket. Before I cut the grass in my front yard, I picked some of the Spuranthes tuberosa (or as we call them, wild Florida Forest Orchids.) They look elegantly understated here. And the Phlox are perking up very beautifully too!

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I call the little ceramic duck, Flufferduck. (He might be a goose, but that's okay) You never know where you'll find him! He's a wanderer!

Bottle Tree

A few years back, I created borders around my plants using beer bottles. I had everyone saving their brown. green, and blue bottles for me. I had leftover bottles I had forgotten about until Lisa and I were pilfering around the back 40 for some goodies to salvage for our Margarita Bar. It was an instant no-brainer for both of us: a bottle tree it was!

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These were some dirty bottles!

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But they cleaned up nicely!

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The bottle tree looks great next to our Out door Margarita Bar!

It looks cool at night too!

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The blue bottle border...

...I love how it looks around my butterfly bush!

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We are still working on the property and the Margarita Bar, so we hope you'll stop in for updates!

No more naked Goose

My mom has this goose on her front walkway, and she had asked me to make her goose some clothes. When I went to visit her last year, I noticed several yards in mom's little town in Missouri with these dressed geese. I don't know if it's a 'mom' thing, a 'Missouri' thing, or what. Anyhow, I couldn't let mom's goose sit naked, so I when I got home, I created this cute little patriotic outfit for Mom's goose. Shh, Mom doesn't know it, but I'm making some fall attire for goose.

Mom loved the outfit! No more naked goose!

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~May your blessings be many, and your troubles be few!~

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From a fish camp kitchen to a margarita bar!

I told you a while back that my friend Lisa and were starting a new blogsite - The Smiling LiMe. Both our families had a few glitches that changed our momentum. That happens, but I'm back at Studio 33, and we are back on track as best as we can be. And yippee yay, The Smiling LiMe is up and running! Mixed in with all the hard work, has been tons of fun and laughter! That's what it's all about folks: having as much fun as we can while we go through this journey of life.

Remember those before pictures of my husband's once "fish camp" style outdoor kitchen that had been neglected by our renters? 

Here are a few reminder 'before' pictures of the neglected and torn apart space.

YUCK!

YUCK!

And, YUCK!

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**You can go to The Smiling LiMe  blog and check out the revamped space! **

- May your blessings be many, and your troubles be few!

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Pinecones and Pine Needles

Our family had a little glitch in our... momentum.  I have been at the house on the coast with my Mister and our two youngest sons. All my crafting supplies are at Studio 33 in the forest, but I really needed to stay busy and productive. (Because cleaning up after three grown men just doesn't keep me busy enough. Lol)

I really need to be working on my next book but I have had a serious case of writer's block lately, so I was perusing Pinterest one evening about 4 weeks ago, and came across some beautiful pine needle baskets. After many clicks of my mouse, I inadvertently ended up on a site selling basket supplies. I was overcome with joy when I seen that pine needles are a sellable commodity. I am surrounded by some of the most amazing Longleaf Pines, so long story short, I went to collecting pine needles. I collected, photographed, and listed my pine needles on EBay and voila! The pine needles sold!

It didn't stop with the pine needles: I began to see Mother Nature in a completely new light. Her beauty is simply mesmerizing! My creative juices just went into overdrive! I have been harvesting, cleaning, decorating, and painting: pine needles, pinecones, twigs, sticks, seed pods, vines; the possibilities are limitless!

Some of the raw and natural elements I've rounded up so far. I made the wreaths myself and they are drying nicely. I haven't decided yet if I will paint them or leave them natural, but I like the way they turned out. I washed the vines in hot water with a few drops of Dawn Dish Soap, and I made the wreaths while the vines were still green and wet. 

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I painted some of the pinecones metallic gold. I like these and will be trying a mirrored silver next!

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These are my bleached pinecones, Mister really loves the way these turned out! So do I! And I love the way the poly-urethane treatment brings out the grains, and the brown places where the bleach didn't yet penetrate. Beautiful!

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I will be bleaching more! I will be trying them with pure bleach for different periods of time, and then with diluted bleach for different periods of time. I can't wait to see the outcome, but if they turn out anything like these - I will be one happy gal!

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I also treated some natural colored pinecones with polyurethane. Just when I think I can't love these things any more, voila! Another stunning outcome!

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Preserving Pine Needles for Basketry!

Until next time!
May your blessings be many and your troubles be few!

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