Larger, Fluffier Garland...oh my!

I have been working with a bride for her custom order of garland.  Ms. Melany suggested a larger width, so when you see the garlands together it they would be visually interesting. What. A. Fantastic. Idea.  My friend Ms. Bina, also mentioned that she was picturing the garland fluffier. My original inspiration was for crepe paper streamer style garland, where you can see the twists.  I am still new at this.  I am learning as I go.  I think both together is totally fabulous!

This new guy is 3" in diameter, and I increased the ruffle so its a bit fluffier.  The larger size accentuates the fluffy.  See the pics of it compared to the smaller 2" size.  Lovely. 

I have only made samples of this guy, but will definately have it at the Taylor Street Market.  Which I am a "sneak peek" for the fair here. 

Nella Designs

I LOVE this! I NEED this! er...these?!

Custom Silhouettes by Nella Designs
Super cool, you can choose from generic silhouettes or she even makes them out of your OWN photos, two boys in cowboy boots coming right up...

I Heart Garland

Sorry ladies, I have been so crazy busy that I have neglected to share some of my faves from etsy.  Did you miss them?  I have determined that I really need to have more parties just for the heck of it, just so I can use all of these pretty little garlands!

I saw this last week, and didn't click into it until today.  I was thinking, "what an awesome idea, so pretty and so simple, so martha..." So I clicked in today to get the links and boom - it says "as seen in Martha Stewart Weddings"  OF COURSE!  Lovely! Kuddos to dsharp!

I love buttons too, check out this cool paper garland.  I wish I had it for the baby shower! Blue Graph Paper and Paper Button Garland from packagery.

I have seen this seller all over the blogosphere... I love her pictures against a blackboard.   LOVE!  How incredibly creative. Love the flower garlands, made from fabric. Juicy Fabric Flower Garland from PrettySwell.

I am really loving the vintage pennant shape on bunting lately.  The classic triangle is awesome, but this is pretty darn cute.  I have been toying with the idea of doing a bunting sign for Taylor Street Market next weekend, and I think this shape (way bigger of course) would be pretty in muslin for my sign across the front of the table.  I love the colors! Pretty Party Bunting C from paperklipdesign.

I am a sucker for hearts. Its one of those things that I grew into (as my former anti-girly teenage self growls) and I now squeal in delight.  Wierd, I know.  It happens, I guess it could be worse.  I made a red felt heart garland for Valentines Day, I wish it was this cute.  red love garland by deardesire (love the shop name!)

my new tractor seat & divine chocolate cookies

Hello darlings! I still hold my apprehensions towards Mondays, even though every day is Saturday to me...Mondays still hurt. This was by far the BEST Monday in forever.  I shall explain...

Saturday was my long awaited "day off" and I cruised the two community yard sales along the loneliest road in America, HWY 50.  Well, there were only two anywhere near me, even though I am sure other locations on the coast to coast yard sale were better.  I did not end up in California as hoped, b/c my poor little car is now 100K miles old! Happy Birthday Little Maudinator aka "the focus."  These two little sales were not as bountiful as I had hoped.  Regardless, I had a pretty cool day off flitting around the library and bookstores.  Ahhh...all without the boys. Little luxuries, if you have ever been to a book store anyone under 5 and tried to look at anything NOT in the kids section, you feel my pain. 

My disappointment in yardsales was discarded this evening when my hubby came home with this lovely vintage tractor seat from work! Thank you! Thank you!  Soon, my lovely, you will be a delightful stool, courtesy of my metal working loverboy.  Yippee!  I will post pics when she's all done.

And the SECOND reason I love Mondays, well this one, is gooeyness and yumminess. 

Last weekend, Ms. Dylan made her sis-n-law's bbq brownie madness (see here, scroll to the bottom for the brownie recipe.) Alas, the shortest of my clan is allergic to peanuts.  Phooey.  While craving them, and simultaneously cruising the baking aisle at the grocery store...I saw a box of Ghirardelli Walnut Brownie Mix. On the back of the box was a recipe for Chocolate Overload Cookies...oh dear...with white chocolate & semi-sweet chips added to the mix...the mix that has walnuts already.  YUM!  Add one jar of marshmallow cream...can you see where I am going with this?  Bake the cookies, while still warm, take two cookies and add a heaping dollup of cream between them.  Let melt and goo up.  Eat with fork.  I still dream of her PBcup/marshmallow/brownie goodness but, this was pretty darn good, and best of all, Hunter loved it.

birthday garland - fit for a "Superstar"

My friend Ms. Bina, has a very close friend, Ms. Superstar.  I have only met her a couple of times, but have you ever met someone who just makes you smile before you even talk to them?  Or have you seen some person standing in a coffee shop, and they, some stranger, just brighten your day?  In my crazy rebellious days in high school I had this book about what color your aura is.  I can't even remember what mine was, I always retook the test because I didn't agree with the answer, it was probably right, I think with my infinite middle-aged wisdom, ha ha ha. Anyways, the color of your aura.  People that puppies and babies are drawn to.  People you feel instantly comfortable with.  People that bring sunshine where ever they land.  That's what Ms. Superstar does, and it was her birthday on Saturday. Happy Birthday Ms. Superstar!  I made these garlands for her party based on her favorite color being red.  I just hope she'll like them, they really don't have as much red in them as I originally wanted but they remind me of her.  Happy, fun, sweet...like sunshine.

packaging etc...

Packaging. I think the hardest part about a business is not the product itself.  It's all the other stuff.  Business cards, packaging, shop set up, and marketing, don't even get me started on Facebook and Flickr.  I haven't been posting about all the little cute things I have found because every second I have goes to playing around with Illustrator, Photoshop and then cheating occasionally (ok alot) with PowerPoint.  I have made my first sale. Yippee!  I was super excited, and then I realized I still had to finalize my designs for my packaging. Eeek! They were all there, but I had about 3 different options.  As much as I would love to farm it out to the oodles of talented designers out there or even just kinkos for printing, its just not in the budget.  Its just me, and although its much harder (with a learning curve that looks like a circle), when I finish, it is immensely satisfying. PS, I love kraft paper almost as much as muslin, can you tell?

Ina doesn't like cilantro

There are two kinds of people in the world, those that like cilantro, those that don't, Ina doesn't. Neither do I, Ina, neither do I! Just another reason I love you, Ina. Now, off to find your banana bread recipe...