My most pinned image

Just a little bit of pretty to brighten your Friday!  I loved this image when I pinned it: the pretty tattoos, the Sarah Seven dress with which I'm OBSESSED, and the fact that it linked to a blog post about a budget wedding with a Smashing Pumpkins recessional.  All things I love.  It's since become my pin with the most re-pins and likes!  I wish I could take a little more credit for how awesome it is, but it still makes me happy when I check Pinterest and almost every day it's gotten more re-pins!

Image by Lydia Jane Photography, via Green Wedding Shoes

'Tis the season for red and white

I absolutely cannot believe that January is almost over already.  We're only a few weeks away from Valentine's Day.  February just sort of radiates red and pink to me.  I've already posted some inspiration for a wedding in that palette.  Today, I've got a sneak peek for a wedding package I'm putting together for an Etsy customer.  She's planning a red and white courthouse wedding and I can't wait to see how everything turns out!  For now though, here's a little indicator of what's to come...

I love the polka dots and vintage flowers, they look so cheery with the red.  Can't wait to get the rest of the order done and on its way to her!

Check out my boutonnières and other handmade felt items at my shop, Fuzzy Rose!

Hope you're having a great week!

-Robin

Post mortem on Christmas

In the theatre world, we sometimes do what's called a "post mortem."  After the show closes (or literally after the death of the show), the production staff gets together and talks about what worked and what didn't.  This post is my post mortem on Christmas....

As I said in my post about holiday anxiety, I get easily overwhelmed during the month of December and generally try to keep the decorations to a quality-over-quantity minimum.  Still, I usually get a big tree.  This year, however, there was just no time.  I was stressed at the idea of trying to find time together to not only go get it, but to set it up and decorate it.  I had seen some cute little tabletop trees at Publix, but I knew B really wanted a big tree.  Mid stress out (on my part) one day, B suggested we go get one of the little ones instead.  It meant the world to me and we were able to get a tree much earlier  and easier than expected.

Christmas tree 2014... so little :)

Brightening a gloomy week

I can't imagine living anywhere cold.  Sure, sometimes (a lot of times) I complain about the heat, but gosh.  It's been cold (for us) and gloomy for the past few days and I can't stand it.  Not to mention the fact that I've been sick for almost a week now.  How do people do this cold weather thing for months at a time?!?  I've been having a hard time getting going in the morning when it's almost as dark out as when I went to bed.  Florida girl struggles.

(I was just scrolling though my blog feed and I saw several posts with the first few lines complaining about the gloomy weather.  I guess it's not just me!)

Luckily, the sun broke out a few hours ago and the skies are blue again (at least for now).  Still though, I'm daydreaming of summer sun, so I thought I'd put together some sunny yellow wedding inspiration.

Visit my Pinterest board at http://www.pinterest.com/robinrosedesign/sunny-yellow-wedding-inspiration/ for sources.

Also, I can't believe it, but this is my 50th post!!!

-Robin

Florida Day Trips: Florida Southern College

I love Florida Southern College in Lakeland for sentimental reasons... it's my (awesome) alma mater! Aside from being an academic institution though, it also makes a great day trip for architecture and photography buffs.  An architectural treasure right here in central Florida, The Florida Southern campus is the largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright's work.  It was even named the nation's "Most Beautiful Campus" by the Princeton Review!

Annie Pheiffer Chapel

A Marsala Wedding

A few weeks ago, Pantone announced that its Color of the Year 2015 was Marsala, a deep red color.  I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty horrified when I saw the choice.  To me, it conjures mental images of dried blood and raw meat.  Considering Pantone's pick usually heavily influences wedding colors for the year, it left me thinking, eww... crime scene wedding theme, anyone?  As I've browsed Pinterest though, I've seen it used in some really pretty ways, which brings me to Marsala wedding inspiration!  I still wouldn't necessarily pick it for my own wedding, but it looks like it could be a pretty year after all! (And if not, I'll take one of those Red Wine Slushies with Chocolate Whipped Cream to make myself feel better.)

Check out my Marsala Wedding Inspiration Pinterest page for sources.

-Robin

New Year, New Look

I can't believe it's 2015 already!  We had a great Christmas, but I'm ready to get back into the swing of things and start working towards new goals for the new year.  As I mentioned briefly last week, it took most of December to get a new look for the blog, but while it may have taken a little longer than I originally hoped, I'm super excited that it is debuting for the new year.

My goals for the new year mostly focus around continuing to grow the blog, especially through better, more targeted use of social media.  I even had the crazy idea of (finally) going back to grad school to get an MBA in Marketing, so I can learn to do this the really, really legit way and maybe be able to help other small businesses along the way.  We'll see, haha.

It's been almost exactly a year since I officially debuted my blog on Facebook with a feature of a wedding that I'd worked on.  I've come along away since then, but there's still a ton of room to grow. I'm excited for lots of new content this year, including more Shop Local features, more Florida Day Trips (super excited for that one, the research is fun!), more How To projects, and as always, lots of wedding and home fun.  

So to start the new year out with some new content, in addition to the new look, I give you... house photos!  We've worked really hard to learn how to use our new camera and while we're still not pros, we've gotten a lot better.  I still have a lot more to take, but here are some of the living room!

I'm happy to have some photos that could actually pass as 'afters'... there are still some 'befores' and 'durings'  on my house tour page.

Happy New Year!  Anyone else have any goals (maybe instead of resolutions per se) for the new year?

-Robin