Saturday, December 27, 2014

Recent Custom Pieces {Floral Crowns, Bridal Veils and Newborn CUTENESS}

Hello friends.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a beautiful holiday. I certainly did with my family! We were exhausted by the end of the day but I am so thankful for the love of our family around us! That's what truly matters most.

Now that the holidays are drawing to an end, I have quite a bit of catching up to do with sharing what's going on with the shop. I haven't shared any custom pieces recently so I figured I would start there. I get quite a bit of custom requests and I don't get around to sharing them very often so I compiled a few recent pieces for this post. 

enjoy

This custom floral crown was created for a bride getting married in April 2015 in beautiful Riviera Maya, Mexico. The bride wanted a piece similar to the Everly Crown but with more ivory/white hues and just a touch of peach/pink and sage green in her piece. She was so amazing to work with and I'm loving the way this crown turned out! So excited for her!


I know I shared this piece via social media a while back but I realized I never shared it on the blog! I created this custom crown and english net veil combo for a bride getting married this coming June. This is definitely one of my favorite custom pieces I've created yet! For the crown, I hand beaded and wired the front of it with rose gold wire with an assortment of shades of gold, bronze and pearl beads and rhinestones. For the back of it, I used ivory hues with pops of blush pink blossoms.

The soft english net veil was created at fingertip length with two beaded combs sewn to the top to match the crown. The veil can be worn with the crown during the ceremony and taken off afterwards for the reception.

Seriously in love with this combo! Thinking about adding it to the shop this coming year.


Back in October, the sweetest bride got married to her prince charming. I was contacted by one of my best friends to create this piece for her dear friend, Jess. I was so happy to create this custom piece for her fall wedding. Jess seriously made one gorgeous bride!! 
I wish you and Eric the very best and may the Lord bless your marriage immensely! 


This crown was recently made for a bride getting married in New Zealand this coming February. I used shades of white, peach and sage green with a bit of babys breath for this design. Can't wait to see photos of this piece on the bride!

I created this patriotic crown a while back for a birthday of a sweet customer and I realized I never shared this one! She wanted a piece similar to the Amelia Crown design but in shades of red, white and blue. Loved the way it turned out!

I also recently created a couple newborn crowns. I never thought I'd see such tiny flowers halos!! SO CUTE!!

This newborn crown was created for a sweet little girl, Kennadie. I created a matching one for her big sister a couple weeks prior for her 4th birthday so of course, her little sister needed a matching one!

This newborn floral crown was created for a precious little love to match her momma's crown that I made for her maternity photo shoot (the Harlow Crown). They now have mommy and me crowns!
 I also made this pretty lace bow headband for her little lady, just because. Gah! She is so adorable!

If you'd like a custom piece, please send your requests to lovesparklepretty@aol.com or visit the shop and send a convo. I'd love to work with you!

See a few other custom pieces posts here.

Shop posts coming soon:
New business cards, FINALLY and maternity leave

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

{Personal} Levi's Robin Hood 3rd Birthday Party

On December 2nd 2011 at 11:01am, our little Levi was born and changed our lives forever. He just turned 3 recently and I'm wondering where the heck the time went!! It seems like yesterday he was just learning to crawl like a little caterpillar in a big world, hitting peas out of our hand as we tried to feed him, exploring his tiny fingers and toes as he gnawed on them and filling diapers like it was his favorite past time.

Now, our little man is so grown up with an innocent curiosity of world, testing boundaries, limits and heights as he leaps from the highest of them. He is so brave, so smart and so intuitive. I am so thankful for this tiny, yet bursting soul of his.

To celebrate Levi's birthday, we threw a Robin Hood themed party for him. (Well, two parties actually because last year, there were SO many people in our home that it was a little difficult to even walk through. We decided to split it up this year). It was all pretty last minute due to many things going on these past few weeks and since we really didn't have the funds to get super fancy, we made do with what we had. I whipped everything up just a couple days prior to the party. The only thing I bought were red streamers from the dollar store which gave me a grand total of $1 spent on decor ($1.08 if you include tax)! Below are tips and tricks I used to come up with decor pieces.

Here are just some highlights of the themed party decor. All of the photos captured during the party where on phones but the majority was on the video camera. There is A LOT of footage so I have yet to finish the video to share but will once it's complete.

{enjoy}

...and the morning of his birthday.
I actually debated cropping this one but realized that this is Levi. He doesn't care if his bed head is totally crazy, his pants are missing (which is weird because he went to bed with pants on) or if he's only wearing one sock. He's happy and that's all that matters this morning!
Happy Birthday my little love!! You are the light of our lives. <3


Decor Tips
Arrows: I used sticks I collected from outside and felt I had on hand. Cut the shapes and glued them to the ends of the sticks. The kids loved them and they are gentle to touch if they are thrown!
Feather garland: Just some twine and a bit of glue added to the ends of extra feathers I had. Anything can be turned into garland right?
Triangle garland: Got a bunch of paint chips from home depot, cut them into triangles and glued them to twine. Love the paint chip idea because you can choose from SO many different colors so you are bound to find what you are looking for. We are going to use this garland in his room too.
Wood target and "let them be little" sign: We have a bunch of extra wood that we use for the fire pit in the backyard. My husband cut a few pieces for me, I used what paint I had on hand, grabbed my brush and painted away. I actually created the "little" sign for the kid's bedroom a while back so I was able to use that in the decor as well.
Feather/arrow cupcake toppers: I cut the ends of some feathers off so the feather sorta made a "V", glued them to some tooth picks and wrapped them with a bit of twine. They are supposed to look like little arrows going into the cupcake.
Robin Hood Prints: Googled images and also made my own from the movie.
Cupcakes: Target! Ok, I LOVE the vanilla cupcakes from Target but I love them even more when they are half off-$3.49 for a dozen! Go into Target the day or night before a party and look in the bakery (I found mine in the bakery markdowns). The markdown dates are still good until the following day or 2 so everything still tastes great (the cupcakes still tasted amazing even days after that-especially if you keep them in the fridge)!

What do you do to keep events within a small budget? Favorite decor tips? Food tips? etc.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

{Personal} Slow Down.

This season has been a busy one as I'm sure it's been for everyone else. Several penciled in days full of events, errands and things to do have taken over the norm. 
As much as I love seeing our family, friends and marking things off a list, it just feels amazing when you can take a step back and enjoy life in the moment.  
Relish in the last couple weeks of this season.
Linger in stillness a little while longer.
Breathe.

I've learned that when there is constantly something to do, miracles get missed and the smallest things in life get taken for granted.

This season is a hard season for many of us-especially in our family with the remembrance of many deeply loved ones. Slowing down to appreciate and be grateful for what we have, who we have and who has left meaningful impacts in our life truly is what matters most...not checking menial tasks off a list, making sure your holiday decor is just right, or spending our savings (or lack there of) and running up credit cards on things because that's what Christmas is all about

Find the raw beauty in life and let those that you love, know. Even in a messed up world, there is so much to be thankful for. 
Slow down.
24 weeks & 5 days.

"Be still and know that I am God..."
Psalm 26:10

Friday, December 12, 2014

{RECAP} Vintage Delight Shopping Social

I have so much catching up to do on the blog and figured I would start with the recap of Vintage Delight Shopping Social that I helped host last month!

It was so much fun being able to set up one of my first "booths" for Love Sparkle Pretty and mingle with some inspiring women. A big thank you to the others that also hosted this event, Kristen, from Chariot Marie had lots of gorgeous vintage clothing available, Vivian of Etablir Shop not only opened up her space for the event but also had tons of stunning vintage rentals and pieces available (that pink vanity I used in my booth was hers)! There was also some delicious handmade ice cream available from Miniscoops (seriously good! I bought some Basil and Walnut ice cream as well as Coffee, Cookies & Cream) and beautiful vintage jewelry was showcased by Mel Scouts.

I loved how all of our aesthetics pulled together to create an inspiring space and a fun little getaway for ladies to do a little shopping. Each hour we also randomly chose names for several fun giveaways including a $100 gift card to Etablir Shop, a pair of vintage earrings from Mel Scouts, a floral dream catcher from Love Sparkle Pretty, a $100 towards vintage clothing from Chariot Marie and several other giveaways! We even had a glam photo booth which was definitely well used for photos with friends, props and silly faces.

Here are a mix of photos I snapped as well as several taken by Kristen Booth to capture the day. Thank you to all who stopped by to make this event a success!

If you are interested in coming to the next event, leave your email in the comments below.

 A huge thank you to Fleuretica for providing such beautiful floral arrangements for the event!!


 A reminder, if you are interested in coming to the next event, leave your email in the comments below.