a mississippi wedding

I wanted to share some quick pics from my dear old friend's wedding this past weekend in Mississippi-- I'd never been to Mississippi before, and oh boy was it pretty! The wedding was in an amazing old barn (equipped with a kitchen, bathroom, and everything necessary for a good old-fashioned party), right next to a lake, and it was so unbelievably gorgeous, I was ready to move in and live on that land right then and there.

The weather was perfect, and I was a crying mess. :) And who knew that you can drive to Starkville, Mississippi from Atlanta in less than 5 hours? Amazing.

I love these two blurry photos below. Clearly I'm quite the experienced photographer- ha! I love them anyway, despite my lack of skill. I love weddings so much. It's a good thing, too, because I have another old friend getting married in 2 weeks, so I get to do it all again! Whew. It's been a busy few months for me as far as knot-tying goes. :)

danielle laporte

Hola, my friends! Happy Monday morning to you. I'm socked into my house right now-- it's been raining raining raining for days now here in Atlanta, with no signs of stopping, and now we have a flood warning in our town! Thank goodness we do not live on the floodplain, but it makes for some excitement nonetheless.

Despite the rain this weekend, I had a busy and fulfilling weekend, and I want to introduce you to Danielle Laporte if you don't already know who she is. I had the privilege of attending Danielle's group Fire Starter Session on Saturday morning (as well as a cocktail talk with Danielle on Friday evening). Danielle's website is called White Hot Truth, and she writes/speaks about living an authentic life. She works with entrepreneurs to fire up businesses and dig deep into how you want your life and work and to exist in the world.

She says: Our jam sessions are one-off think-tanking conversations for surfacing opportunities and zooming in on strategies. I am not a business or career transition coach. I’m an opinionated, highly intuitive, pragmatic maven of inspiration and information. Fire Starter sessions are sacred brainstorms packed with practicality.

So, as you can imagine, it was quite the inspiring and thought-provoking Saturday morning! And if that wasn't enough, all that was followed by a party at my friend Michelle's house, where I unexpectedly connected with someone I'd never met before and made a new friend who I'm really excited to spend some time with. More on that later, but I think our friendship will involve music. MAKING music. In a previous life (aka: college), I was a singer/songwriter. This is a part of my life that I left behind long ago, when I decided to give being a full-time artist a go, and I've longed to re-incorporate it into my life for years now. It scares me a little to pick up my poor, neglected guitar again (I'm absolutely and completely out of practice), but thrilling at the same time.

Anyway, more on that as it develops. Perhaps this blog has a musical future of some sort.

So, back to Danielle. CHECK HER OUT. Read her posts. Follow her on twitter. Book a Fire Starter Session. Read her book, Style Statement. You will love her.

OK, I hear sirens outside. I'm off to check the weather websites to see if the flood is coming!!

I'm back!

Good morning! I tricked you last week and said I'd be back to the blog on Tuesday, didn't I? Well, I had every intention of blogging yesterday, but I was experiencing complete exhaustion from the crazy weekend that was Renegade. Thus, I could only complete the bare minimum of tasks yesterday. I was tired!

And somehow, I managed to not even take one photo of my booth or the fair in general. That's how busy it was. Solid people for 2 days straight-- I tell you, that show is amazing!! So, I have nothing to show for my time in Chicago. Ha ha, sometimes I'm such a dummy. I can show you this, though:

It's a print that I bought from The Small Object, and I adore it. I'm going to put it up near my desk. Their booth was one of my favorites that I saw. (Sorry for the terrible photo. It's all I can do this morning to motivate myself.)

In other news, my truly incredible wedding photographer posted a bunch of amazing shots from Ryan's and my wedding on her blog a couple of days ago. Here is a sampling:






I love them so much!!
You can check out the rest of the photographs on her blog here and here, and if you need a photographer for any reason, you should probably hire Ashley. She is incredible.

Renegade Craft Fair THIS WEEKEND!

Good morning! As you are reading this, I'm on my way to Chicago for the Renegade Craft Fair, and I'M SO EXCITED!

My friend Christy, her hilarious husband, and I left at 5:30 this morning to drive from Atlanta to Chicago. We'll be meeting my friend Kurt (who is also my boothmate) there, and then having a rockin' weekend at the Fair.

Are you in Chicago? Close by Chicago? COME SEE ME! I'd love to meet you. Plus, I'm going to have tons of goodies for you to oogle. :)

If I don't see you in Chicago, I'll meet you back here on Tuesday, with stories to tell and pictures to share. Deal?

Have a great weekend, and cross your fingers for me that the rain doesn't drown us again like it did last year!

honeymoon pics!

whew, i think i'm finally almost caught up from being gone for 2 weeks! and i finally got a chance to go through the photos i took on our honeymoon-- we had such a great time!

the above photos are from charleston, south carolina, where we started our trip. we stayed in the most adorable little hotel right downtown, and one day we went to the audubon swamp at the magnolia plantation. do you see that spider? those were all over the place, and they were HUGE! i was not a fan. but we saw 2 alligators as well, and that was exciting!

{oh- you can click the photos to make them bigger!}

next we drove to north carolina and camped for a night on bear island. it was beautiful, and very isolated. we hardly saw any other people the whole time, and it was extra romantic because there was a full moon that night. we got lots of bug bites, too- eww! we hoped to see some nesting sea turtles as well, but alas, we did not. we did see a few cute yellow crabs, though!

next we took a 23 mile ferry ride, car and all, to the lower tip of the outer banks of north carolina, called ocracoke island. what an amazing trip! the ferry ride was a highlight for me. :) and the oter banks couldn't have been more beautiful. i want to go back there for a longer vacation! we camped on hatteras island for a night, and then went to kitty hawk the next day to visit the wright brothers' national memorial. from there we went to chincoteague, virginia, which was a long drive, and we ended up not liking chincoteague AT ALL. my aunt vicky drove down from annapolis to meet us for the day, and we had the worst dinner any of us could've possibly imagined! i won't go into it, but i will tell you that if anyone ever tells you that chincoteague is a great town, don't believe them, because it IS NOT. in my opinion at least. :) the beach on assateague island was pretty, but MAN, the town sucked big time. so then we changed our plans a little (since we were planning to stay there longer but decided to just leave!), and we drove to washington DC and annapolis, maryland for a couple days!

my sister and her fiancé live in DC, so we spent an afternoon with them and then had dinner together, and then we stayed at my aunt's house in annapolis (she was out of town, so she left us her empty house!) on the last day of our honeymoon, we did some touristy things in DC (smithsonian museums, checking out the white house, etc), and had the most wonderful dinner on the chesapeake bay in annapolis. it was so so lovely.

then we drove all the way from annapolis to atlanta, and that was that. wedding and honeymoon, officially over. and now we've been married for almost 2 weeks already. WOW.

and now it's back to reality!

another short break (this time i'm going to california!)

my dear sweet readers, i'm leaving you again! can you believe it? 

i'm hopping on a plane this morning to palos verdes, california to do some wedding-related things (including going to a bridal shower that is bring thrown for me!!) because my wedding is in 5 weeks-- WHAT??? oh my goodness!

so you can picture me all weekend running around southern california with my dear fiancé's mom, tasting cakes, buying fabric and jars for candles and flowers, renting tables/chairs/dishes, figuring out how everything will be laid out on the beach where we're getting married, possibly getting showered with embarrassing gifts..... it's going to be great.

so i'll be back here blogging with a vengeance on tuesday-- i hope your weekend is full of fun and relaxation!

{image via maralina!'s flickr photostream}

i'm back!

hi friends! i'm back from rhode island, and goodness, it was such a fun weekend! my show opening on friday night at yes gallery & studio went marvelously-- you can see some shots of my work hanging below, and the photo above is the outside of the gallery. isn't that building amazing?

this is a photo from the opening-- i am in the middle in the gray dress, and next to me (in black & white) is leigh, the gallery owner. she is too wonderful for words! the other 2 women are georgia (left) and judith (right), who work in the gallery.

i was in love with the shadow that the sign on the window made-- it would just make me happy to see it on the floor every day! such a positive reminder.

i'll post more about the gallery later today and some of the fabulous work there-- it was such an inspiration.

a teeny blog break + a show!

my dears, as you read this i'm on my way to the airport to go to providence, rhode island where my show "connect/intersect" is opening at yes gallery and studio this friday night!!

if you are in the area and would like to check out the show, i would love to meet you! the opening is friday june 19th, from 6-8:30 pm.

it'll be a little quiet around the blog until i get back on monday afternoon-- but please feel free to dig through the archives, as there are some real gems buried in there!

hope to see you friday night!! and if i don't see you, have a fantastic weekend, and i'll meet you back here next week. deal? ok, good. :)

i'm going on a mini vacation!

my dears, this will be my last post for the week, because i'm going home to boulder, CO, for my little sister's high school graduation. i'm so excited for a mini break! and i haven't seen my family since christmas time, so it'll be really nice to see them all.

i hope you all have a fantastic long holiday weekend, and i'll see you here next week!
xoxo

(the illustration above is from national geographic adventure, from an article about the top 5 green cities in the USA, of which boulder is one.)

i heart traveling

ok, i hope you'll indulge me with this post. i went back and browsed through all my photos from my last big trip to europe (which was, gulp, 4 years ago!), and i wanted to share some of my favorites. i have a serious travel itch lately, and looking through these photos is not helping one bit! above is a photo of amsterdam, my favorite place i've ever been, and one day i will own a houseboat there. just so you know. :)

above: riga, latvia

tallinn, estonia

tallinn, estonia

vilnius, lithuania
(this one is so fuzzy, because i zoomed my camera to the max- i saw this cathedral waaaaay in the distance and wished i could get there so badly, but i had no idea what or where it was. it looks close in this photo, but it was so far away i could just barely see it!)

wieliczka salt mine, near krakow, poland

zakopane, poland (on a cable car up into the tatra mountains, where we stood on the border of poland and slovakia!)

children making dandelion crowns in cesky krumlov, czech republic (this is one of my favorite photos ever)

cesky krumlov, czech republic

***
i would love to hear about your travels if you'd like to share (so i can live vicariously through you!)

printsource 2009

well well well. printsource has come and gone, and whew! what a week. i missed you all!! having my first trade show under my belt feels really really good. i was so nervous going into the show, mostly because so much was unknown to me-- i wasn't sure if my booth set-up was going to look how it was supposed to, if my work was going to fit with the other work exhibited, etc.

when i arrived in new york, my bag (*full* of all my show stuff) didn't arrive with me, for whatever reason, so, was i panicking? yes. i was thinking it was a very bad sign at the beginning of my week in new york. plus, i was really excited to get to my friend's house in brooklyn where i was staying, because we grew up together and haven't seen each other in 10 years, and then i was stuck at the airport dealing with a lost bag!! oh, air travel. luckily, my bag arrived a couple flights later (read: 2.5 hours), so i scooped it up and hopped in the car that delta got for me as a consolation for their stupidity. they also gave me a $7 voucher to the starbucks in the baggage claim area, which bought me a latte and a banana. nice.

but after that small fiasco, everything else was smooth and easy, which was a huge sigh if relief! the photos above are of my booth. i thought it turned out nicely, although next time i would like to hang some more small pieces on the walls. i loved having the big banner-like prints, though. i sold prints to some wonderful companies and have lots of follow-up work to do now-- i'll tell you more as i go!

one of the best parts of the entire show were the fabulous women that surrounded me the whole time-- samantha hahn, lisa kelley (milkshake crafts), and jan dicintio (daisy janie) (pictured from left to right, with me in the center image) were just too good to be true. it was incredible to spend time with such passionate and talented women, and i miss them already. we bounced ideas off each other, encouraged each other, compared notes and prices, cheered each other on when we made sales and got great contacts.......

another highlight of the show was when michelle from cicada studio (top right in photo, and below her is sara schmidt (salvage), another talented woman who was also in our booth area) came into the city to have dinner with us all-- i love getting to meet blog friends in person! i am always amazed how people's personalities match the tone of their blogs, and i feel like i already know them before we meet-- such was definitely the case with these wonderful ladies. :)

and one final piece of excitement from the show was getting to meet lilla rogers and her crew in person-- what a treat! their booth was colorful and inspiring and a treat to see in person.

all in all, it was a fantastic experience, and now i want to move to new york. :)

off to california!

my friends, as you read this i am on a plane to california for christmas! this is a much needed break for both ryan and me.

we're headed to california tomorrow to be with ryan's family, and then to boulder on the 27th to be with my family, and then home to georgia to once again be our little family of 2 on january 1st.

i hope you all have the most terrific and special holiday and new year ever-- i will see you in 2009!!thanks so much for helping to make my 2008 so fabulous. :)

xoxo

{image from lukeadelphia's flickr photostream. i thought it was appropriate since i'm going to california, where all the palm trees will be lit!)

back from boulder

i am back! safe and sound. it was so nice to be in boulder-- the weather was PERFECTION, and it was great to take a short time-out from all the working and making things to visit with my family! and now it's back to it-- tomorrow i'll pick the calendar giveaway winners-- which means today is the last day to buy a calendar and be entered into the giveaway! (of course you'll be able to buy calendars after tomorrow-- the chance to get a free second one will be gone, though! hurry!)

the photo above is my friend travis who got married on saturday night, alexandra (an old friend from bmoca), and myself-- we had so much fun!

the flower girls were so adorable...

and traci looked gorgeous....

and here are a couple shots from my walking around boulder-- i think i walked about 7 miles on sunday! it was lovely.

i'll be back soon with regular posting!!

back tomorrow!

hola friends! just wanted to let you know that i'm in boulder right now and am heading home today-- i'll be on a plane and unable to blog, so i'll be back tomorrow!

bet you didn't know that i've been in boulder since thursday, though, huh? i planned ahead and scheduled posts for thusday and friday, but i didn't get as far as monday. darn!

so, i'll be back tomorrow with photos of boulder and my friend's wedding that i went to on saturday night!

hope you all had a fantastic weekend!
(ps... it's NOT snowy in boulder right now-- ijust like this photo that i took a while back!)

i'm back!

hi friends! i'm back from chicago and renegade, and boy am i exhausted! it was a whirlwind of a weekend-- and full of RAIN. and more rain and more rain....... i've never seen so much rain.

this is the only post i can muster today-- but you can see some photos of our booth (above is renee getting ready! below is my half of the booth), and then further below some photos of the rain and its effects on the fair.

thank goodness this didn't happen to our booth, but i felt so badly for people that had things destroyed. so many vendors went home early (we had to pack up early, too, unfortunately), and it was really sad. but the rain was unreal and really hard to deal with. sigh.

anyway, i'll be back to regular posting tomorrow once i recover a bit. hope you all had a fabulous weekend!!

going to chicago!

well, my dears, i am off to chicago! actually, i am off to greenville, sc, then to charlotte, nc, then to chicago. seems round-about, yes? but in fact, it's going to be an action-packed trip! i'm going to greenville to meet a wonderful gallery owner that would like to have me do a show at her gallery, and then i'm going to charlotte to gather up my booth mates, renee and charlie (well, to transfer my stuff for renegade from my car to theirs), and then we're going to trek (drive) through the dark night up to chicago so we can spend the day there tomorrow before the rest of our apartment crew arrives (christy, shannon, kurt-- can't wait!)

then tomorrow, renegade begins! (renee and i don't have to set up our both until 10:30 am, so we'll be hitting the wicker park farmer's market before that. yum! fresh farm goodies!)

if you are in the chicago area, please do stop by our booth!! we're #244, on the corner of division and hermitage. we'd love to meet you. :) it's so fun to meet people from blog-land in person!

i'll be back here blogging on tuesday-- hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!

[old chicago train photos: top 2-- cklx's flickr photostream, bottom-- library of congress flickr photostream]