Jean Jack

When JP and I were on our honeymoon in Santa Fe, NM we stumbled upon the Jean Jack gallery. We were, well I was in love. JP liked it as well, but it really struck a cord with me. We tend to be fairly picky about art that we would have in our house. We go more for photography, drawings and some multi media work, but vary rarely do we get turned on by paintings. Jean Jack has lived in Santa Fe for the past 18 years, and hails from the east coast. She has been painting landscapes for the past 38 years. Her shop is meticulously put together, a fantastic mixture of found objects, art and white wash. We came away with a glorious little house with a blue roof, a found object not painting. But we know that one day one will hang in our house and we will be reminded of our journeys together since our trip to Santa Fe.

Darn the Pound

to have and to hold ribbon from Cox and Cox

A while ago I wrote about Cox and Cox, an online store from England. Today I opened my email to find out that they just added a wedding section! They have all kinds of goodies that they have pulled together for that extra touch for a wedding or party. The 'To have and to hold' ribbon, featured above, being one of my favorites. There were so many more that I loved, sadly I can't show them all...

But here are a few more!!

photos from Cox and Cox

So these are some of my other favorites. The Wedding Matches are so adorable. Let's face it matches might not have that much of a place at weddings any more due to the fact that no one is smoking any more. However, there is something great about a custom, or semi custom match box. I think that this would be such a nice addition and start to your celebration to put into the welcome baskets with a nice travel sized candle for each room. There is nothing nicer than getting rid of hotel room scent and a nice gesture on the part of the bride and groom to help make their guest feel comfortable. Oh yes, printed on the box is the Oxford Dictionary definition for wedlock, "marriage mar'ij n. wedlock, to tie the knot: the union of a man and a woman as husband and wife, the perfect match." The Paper Fiesta Bunting is just so smart, adds a touch of fun to any event. It can be placed outside in trees, on fences, or on poles. Similarly, it can be strung up inside to add a fast dressing to any space. I love these Seed Favour Sets. They consist of 10 seed sticks that are ready to plant and will germinate in about 3 to 4 weeks. Available in a multitude of choices from Alpine Strawberries, to wildflowers and herbs they can be valuable for any occasion. What a nice way to give your guest a gift that is easy to travel with, they can deal with on their own time, not like a live plant, and can remind them over and over again about your beautiful soiree! And last, but definitely not least, the Wedding Sign. Made of enamel and printed on both sides it is such a good choice for corralling your guest to where they should be!

So now that I have shared all of these wonderful finds the sad news for us in the United States, as of tonight the exchange rate is just under two dollars to the pound. What a stinker! For now I will be satisfied by looking at the web site and dreaming of the day when the dollar is worth something again...

Some Tradition

As many couples come together these days there is a combining of religions, or in some instances an omission of one all together. Some choose to be completely secular, and some choose to add in traditions that they find important while omitting what is not relevant to them as a couple. We have decided to have a judge be the officiant at our wedding, however I would like to still incorporate some Jewish traditions. One of the components of a Jewish marriage is the signing of the Ketubah, the marriage contract. Traditionally, this contract was to lay out guide lines of responsibility for the bride and groom in their marriage. It is also the contract for the bride price, an important thing to be sure. In general I do not enjoy Judaic artwork, the aesthetic is just not one for me, that was until today.

I found the most amazing artist on line. Her name is Tsilli Pines, and she is an Israeli-American graphic designer. She lives and works in the pacific northwest, of course, and creates in her spare time. She has a whole web site full of amazing creations, but what really caught my eye were the Ketubah. They are so beautiful and not done in what I would consider to be Judaic aesthetic. She does custom printing for each piece as well. She has five text that are her standards, that range from reform to orthodox, and back to secular. You can also choose to have custom text printed and she seems to be very flexible. I hope that you love them as much as I do. (The image is a bit light on the white background, so please use the link and look at her beautiful works, this one is titled Moons)

All in One Place

the mini binder by Russell and Hazel

All of the wedding books tell you that you have to have all of your wedding information with you at all times. What if there is an emergency table linen disaster and you need to make a decision that cannot wait until you get home? The world could end. And lord knows, people do not have enough to carry around with them without taffeta swatches.

I decided to take this advice with a grain of salt, but knew that I needed to step up my daily planner and information storage system. And, as my parents tell you, I love a good binder, always have. Anything that is organizational I can't get enough of. A few years ago, I came across Russell and Hazel, the ultimate affordable, fun, durable organization company for all things desk related. Their products can be hard to come by, at least a good variety in their product line, so I quickly went on their web site to see if there was a local retailer in Baltimore. Luckily, there was, Chelle Paperie, where we then had our invitations designed and printed.

mini filler paper by Russell and Hazel

I decided to go with the Mini Binder, in gold, of course, and all kinds of great inserts. I loaded up with lined paper, a calender, an address insert and folders to place those little things that seem to disappear into your purse. I cannot recommend this company enough. I am still using binders that I purchased over 5 years ago, and that is saying a lot for me! So check them out you will be glad you did.

month table by Russell and Hazel

Finishing Touches

The one thing that I still do not have nailed down for the wedding is what jewelry I should wear. I think that for the ceremony I will probably go with a mid sized dual strand pearl, perhaps tapering in size from front to back. And I guess pearls for earrings as well, not a statement, I am aware, but I do like the simplicity of it. I feel like I should be very pulled together for the ceremony, but after that I am free to go. So, while some brides choose to have different dresses, for different times during the wedding celebration, I really like the idea of spicing things up a bit by simply changing accessories. I was looking at the Anthropologie web site this evening and found some nice pieces, well a necklace that I really love, and some earrings that I thought might be nice for someone who wanted to have some fun but not too much. But it is key to remember that you should keep balance in mind and choose either to have the earrings, or the necklace be the statement, not both. (I have been known to do this, but don't recommend it!)


I also think that a wonderful piece of jewelry makes a great gift for people who you are thanking at the wedding, but not necessarily for them to wear during the wedding. Try to find a designer who they really like, or if you are at a craft/art fair and see something that just so perfectly fits your maid of honor, go ahead and get it. Who cares if they can't use their gift in the wedding, probably better because they might be game for wearing it in real every day life. And if you are a laid back bride, I like to think that I am, you can let the attendants choose their accessories, and if you chose your gift wisely she will love it so much that she will want to wear it right away. So those are my thoughts on that.

Where are We?

Telluride is such a small town I was not originally thinking that we needed to make maps. I was going to provide each room with one, just in case, but nothing really individualized for the occasion. But, this morning I came across these amazing maps from an artist, Laura Hooper, on Etsy. I am so inspired by it I think that I am definitely going to make one for the wedding, just a nice little hand touch to make it more personalized. But not to worry, I will still be providing hiking trails and town maps that are a bit more useful for everyday than the hand drawn one.

A Good Friend

Yesterday I had a wonderful day, our friend Melissa, my bridesmaid, drove down from Philadelphia for the day to do all things wedding related. I cannot express how excited I was and what I wonderful time I had, it meant so much to me to have someone else as excited as I am and want to get involved in planning and details for the weekend of the wedding. We had a wonderful and story filled lunch at Atwaters in Belvedere Square, and then headed off to Jo Ann's Fabrics and found all kinds of great things for the wedding. I know everyone just took a deep breath in that I found things for the wedding at a craft store, but don't worry, they did not come from the wedding isle, and they are really only ingredients in a larger project. I think that I am most excited about the button press that I purchased. Melissa and I were playing with it last night and it is so much fun, but more to come on that later.



Melissa also brought down the Spring 2008 Philadelphia Home magazine to show me the loft of an Anthropologie friends that was featured. While looking through I found the above flower display and loved it. Happy Spring.

Treat Your Body Well

photo :: Biggs and Fetherbelle

It is no secret that I love all things bath and body related. I am a sucker for great product design and therefore am always ready to try a new a beautiful bath product. Aside from the visual, I am also always on the lookout for hydrating lotions, soaps, chap sticks and well, anything great. Through working at Red Tree, I recently discovered Biggs and Fetherbelle, a great line that is made locally, in Baltimore, by a sister team. Their products are all natural, fragrances are from essential oils, and the colors are derived from plants, herbs and vegetable oils. It is so wonderful to be able to support locally owned small companies that have a really fabulous product, and I just love them. They also do custom gift sets as well as great little bagged up soaps that would make a super shower gift. If you are interested in trying some of their products I would suggest the Mini Bar Set, with 8 sample soaps ranging from Barlesque to Fixins bar you will not be disappointed, I promise.

e-bay delivers yet agian...

photo from martha stewart

While I really love flowers and would have them everyday everywhere in my life, they do have a very short shelf life and are not the best investment. So for the wedding I have tried to create great floral statements by insuring that the entire presentation adds to the atmosphere that we are aiming to create. While I do think that this should always be an objective, often times it gets lost. For a few years now I have been collecting old aqua Ball jars and decided that they would be beautiful in collecting running down long tables for dinner. I am planning on using a few different heights and pairing them with some candles as well. Some of the candles will be in jars, somewhat like the picture, but the ones that I am planning on using will be smaller and have a metal latch for their lids. There will also be aspen or birch wrapped candles along the table and in the floral groupings. I can't wait! We got our first batch of e-bayed jars on Friday. I have been using the jars to store collections of items that I being back from trips, shells from China, shells from the Bahamas, rocks from Telluride, and I am so excited to have so many more to store little collections in over the years, and how nice that they will be a beautiful memory from our wedding that the rest of our life will be filling up. Cheesy, but great.

Wedding Shoes

As part of my trip to Telluride I places my order for my wedding shoes. The pictures above are from the shop. In the one on the left I am having my foot traces, and then measured in four different places to make sure that we get an great fit. On the right I am sitting with, or really he is sitting with me, the owners dog, my father took quite a liking to him until his allergies started to kick in. I can't wait to get them, my parents thought that was the most excited that I have gotten about the wedding planning so far...

Little Bites

We hope that everybody survived the holidays and had a wonderful and stress free New Year. We had a good month, but are really happy that it is over. New Years was really laid back as we moved back into our house after some plumbing issues, and had Curt and Bonnie over to dinner while they were gearing up to leave for their wedding. We are so excited for all that this year has ahead and are so happy to share in this great time in so many peoples lives.

photo from cupcake bake shop

As part of my daily, weekly and monthly blog tour that I do from my PowerBook I like to look at a series of inspirational food blogs. I have a dream of doing a smaller version of my own on this site. More to get us on a more stable path to eating healthy and at home on a regular basis. I am thinking that it might be motivation for us if we know that we made a commitment to cooking all the recipes from our favorite cook books and sharing them with all of you and how they turn out. That being said, at this point it is just a dream, but an achievable one. One of the sites that I like to visit is Cupcake Bakeshop. There is a featured recipe every month, always unusual and always well styled. I love the little paper cups that they use to bake the cakes in, just the rite amount of sweat and such a nice turn from the standard. Any of you who have had my cupcakes knows that I love to try and use other non traditional papers for the cakes.

Creat Your Own Cookbook

I am so excited about this new site that I found via another one of my favorite food blogs, well really my favorite food blog. The blog is 101 cookbooks and an amazing resource. Heidi's food is amazing, and she published her first cookbook earlier this year and it is where I go to first for recipes these days.

So the new find is TasteBook.com, this site is just so great. It enables the user to create their own hard bound cookbook. You can choose from ones that have already been compiled, Heidi has one, which is great and made up of her favorite recipes from her past years of blogging. Or, you can create and publish your own family recipes and upload photos to go along with them, I think this is such a great gift. When you purchase a cookbook you receive 100 recipe credits, much like in itunes if you purchase a gift card. You can then edit already created books, so that you are only receiving recipes that you want. The site is also paired with epicurious.com and you can search through their data base of 25, 000 recipes. The book is made so that you can take out, and insert recipes as you need. So when you order a book you do not need to use all of your credits as once, you can order them as you need or find them. I cannot wait to create my own and give it as gifts...


Also, JP received a really lovely voice mail from his Dad yesterday that he shared with me and it was really uplifting, heart warming, and gave us a little wedding cheer that we needed. I just wanted to share that tid bit, because it really meant so much to us.

We hope that everyone is having a good and cheery holiday season. Ours has not been that crazy yet, but in saying that, we have plans every night from Wednesday to Sunday... and it just keeps going from there.

Inspirational Moments

I found Michelle Rago, a wedding designer out of NYC when I was out and about searching the web and I loved what she did with one wedding in particular. The other ones were a bit to much for me, but to each their own. Interestingly one of the weddings that is featured on his site is from a country club in St. Louis. But in any case, I wanted to share some images because I thought that they were great. I particularly like the bottom right image, a nice way to add a touch to the isle chairs without adding a large floral cost. Easy enough to make ahead of time and provide yourself for the wedding. Also keeping in mind location and using materials that might be found naturally, it is just another way to tie everything together and that's why I love it!