Creative, Personalized Cake Topper Options

I am so, so excited for this post. I've got some fun things in the works and I can't wait to share them with you all.

Up until recently, cake toppers weren't something that I'd thought about a whole lot. But after painting an adorable pair of peg people cake toppers for my own someday wedding, I thought, "hey, this is really fun, I'd like to make more of these." So the wheels in my head started turning on how to start making this a potential product for my shop. Around the same time, Patience Brewster contacted me about collaborating to show you all some awesome options for cake toppers. So now my head is full of all things cake topper-related (haha) and I can't wait to show my readers some creative options!

Not so long ago, it was really hard to find any kind of cake topper that reflected who you are as a couple, especially if you're a person/people of color, a same-sex couple, or even just wanting something a little different. Thankfully, that's changing and there are so many more options these days. Instead of a traditional one piece cake topper, I love "cake toppers" that are separate pieces, allowing couples to chose different figures representing their personalities, physical features, and gender.

Hand-painted Peg People Cake Toppers

I'm so excited to debut this new item for my shop! These adorable peg people are completely customizable: hair color, skin tone, eye color, clothing, veils, and gender.

You can also go with tall and short, like I've done here or both tall/both short. Or if you've got children you want to include, the parents can be tall and the kids short. All kinds of families and couples should be able to have cake toppers that reflect themselves!

These are the cake toppers that I made for my wedding, using blank peg people from Dandelionland. She makes some of the most adorable personalized wooden cake toppers.

I'll give them clothes when we get a closer to an actual wedding date and know what we're wearing!

Ornaments as Cake Toppers

I don't know that I would have thought of this right off the bat on my own, but after talking with the folks at Patience Brewster, it got me thinking about what awesome cake toppers ornaments can make. It's the same general idea, choose two separate pieces that represent you individually as a couple and bring them together as one awesome cake topper!

Patience Brewster makes whimsical ornaments based on her drawings. So cute and playful!

Here are some of my favorite combinations of ornaments for cake toppers...

Boy/Girl of the same kind of animal (or Girl/Girl, Boy/Boy)

Two different kinds of animals that represent you each individually.

How about some cute little elves?!

Alternative Wedding Bouquets

As I've mentioned before, I'm pretty new to Instagram and I love it. Besides being fun because of all the pretty pictures, it's a great way to meet new people and find new things. I've long been obsessed with paper flowers and I'm planning on using them for my wedding. Through Instagram, I've found several paper florists (is that what they're called? is that a thing?) that I was previously unaware of. I also found another cool alternative to fresh flowers that even though I probably won't do, I'm super in awe of them. And well, I make alternative bouquets too, so I'll talk about myself a little (haha).

Like I said, I've been loving on paper flowers for awhile now, but I just recently found a few really good makers of them on IG. Probably my favorite is Margie Keates from The Lovely Ave. I've been Instagram stalking her for the last few weeks and she does some great work. I'd love to have some of her flowers at my wedding (if I haven't been too creepy of a stalker and she'll talk to me, that is).

From The Lovely Ave @thelovelyave on Instagram.

From @thelovelyave on Instagram.

Super pretty, huh? And check out her beautiful new website!

The other super talented maker of alternative bouquets that I've been in awe of lately, is Meghan LaCroix. She makes the most gorgeous, fresh-looking bouquets that I would never believe are actually dried and preserved.

From @MeghanLaCroix on Instagram

The Nature of Handmade Consumerism

I was reading a post on a mommy blog the other day (because someone on FB had posted it, no kids here) about a woman who was trying to lavish her children with time and values instead of material possessions.  She listed off the "it" items that she would not be buying her children and one of them was "Etsy dress."  While her intentions are fantastic, it made me a little sad.  Despite the fact that Etsy has become saturated with mass produced crap lately, it's still a platform where lots of small businesses are hustling everyday, selling their handmade goods that they put their heart and soul into, and generally trying to make their dreams come true.  

HOW TO: Make a Potted Felt Fern

I love having potted plants in my home and for the most part, I'm pretty good at keeping them alive.  The sad exception was a poor little aloe plant that I had in my bedroom.  There's not much natural light in there and the plant didn't fare too well.  I love the look of houseplants though and I was determined to have one in the bedroom... preferably without killing anything else.  Then I got to thinking... I make things with felt, why not make a felt plant?

Lovely Summer by Celest on Etsy: Orange and Yellow Summer Wedding Treasury

I love featuring fun product treasuries from Etsy that I've been included in.  Today's featured treasury, Lovely Summer, comes from Celest on Etsy and features items perfect for a summer wedding in shades of orange and yellow.  Orange and yellow can seem dated, but it seems these colors are making comeback, according to Pantone, at least.

Check out the preview of this fun treasury below and visit the treasury page here for a bigger view and product links!

SAY YES TO THE DRESS!!!

I've been wanting to write this post for awhile... I have the time now and I can't wait to share it.  So, as I've mentioned before, I'm a little obsessed with watching Say Yes to the Dress.  It's even worse now that we've got Netflix and I can watch it on a pretty constant loop.  So not too long ago, we were watching SYYTD and I noticed that the boutonnière on the groom looked crazy familiar. We backed it up (the wonders of Netflix) and looked again... yep, looked like mine.  I went and checked my records and sure enough, that was one of my orders. Craziest surprise ever!

Screen shot from TLC's Say Yes to the Dress

And more of a close up...

Screen shot from TLC's Say Yes to the Dress

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN... KATE + BRAD'S WEDDING

I've recently made some major life changes which will allow me more time to focus on my shop and my blog.  So to kick off this new beginning of sorts, I'm going back to were it all began: Kate and Brad's wedding!  When I first started my shop, I made mostly pincushions and other little things.  Then my college friend Kate approached me about making boutonnières for her wedding..... and now I've made bouts, bouquets, and other wedding-related items for dozens of weddings!

DOES THE WEDDING INDUSTRY HAVE TO BE AWFUL?

So, some deeper thoughts today than I've put on my blog in the past...

I'm not a bride yet but when I was maid of honor for my friend Jessica a few years ago, she introduced me to the blog Offbeat Bride.  OBB was a beacon of common sense for us in the crazy world of weddings and long after her wedding was over, I've continued to read it, inspired by their straight talk and open-minded views on weddings and life in general.

Offbeat Bride and another blog, A Practical Wedding, both write fairly extensively on the issue of the "WIC."  WIC stands for Wedding Industrial Complex and essentially, it refers to the wedding industry as a whole, which is generally characterized by its tendency to pressure people, primarily women, to spend tons of money on ridiculous stuff that they don't need.  This market tends to be full of weight loss supplements, over-priced dresses, and "personal details" that every bride just has to have.  It's perpetrated by slick wedding websites, pushy sales people in overpriced salons, and (my guilty pleasure) wedding TV shows.  

Mason jars and chalkboard. A (beautiful) wedding that was inspired by a bride's desire to incorporate as many of her Pinterest wedding pins as possible into her wedding.  Via weddingchicks.com

The thing is, as OBB bride's editor Ariel wrote, any wedding business, no matter how indie or alternative, becomes by default a part of the wedding industry.  I was reading this article from APW on Friday and I got to thinking, if all of us who are trying to keep it real, but have wedding-related business, are technically part of the WIC... how can the whole thing really be all that bad?

OUTDOOR WEDDING by KRISTY BULSON on ETSY

To me, the idea of an outdoor wedding, especially here in Florida's crazy climate, is pretty daunting.  Rain/hurricanes, bugs, sweltering heat, uneven ground... I could go on and on.  I do love the idea though of bringing the aesthetics of an outdoor wedding to an indoor wedding (or at least one more shielded from the elements).  I was recently featured in this "Outdoor Wedding" treasury on Etsy featuring some awesome items for an outdoor (or wanna-be outdoor) wedding....

Take a peak at the treasury on Etsy for prices and shop sources!

Hope you've had a good week!  It's been crazy for me, but we've gotten a lot done, thankfully!

Robin

NEW BOUQUET IN THE SHOP TODAY!

I've been working hard on this bouquet for the last two weeks or so and I'm super excited to have it finished and posted in the shop.  Getting this bouquet done and some photos taken of it were the last things I wanted to accomplish before I start getting together applications for some new advertising.  Here's hoping I can get accepted to a few good blogs!

Here are some pictures from our little mini-photo shoot this week...

New things are coming soon!

I've disappeared from the blog a bit the last two weeks, work and personal issues are big time suckers for me, like they are for most people, but I've also been hard at work on new things for my shop and the blog.  I've been working on this black rose for a customer, as well as putting together a new bouquet that will be debuting with another photo shoot next week!  

Also, I've been doing lots of research on the new trends for 2014 and I can't wait to get started on some new items in these colors, picked by Pantone for Spring 2014.  I already have items in something like hemlock and, of course, radiant orchid, but I love some of the others too, like the pretty Cayenne below!  I love these bright colors for spring... winter is almost over!

via The Perfect Palette

Thanks for looking... check back soon!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Hope you had a great day, whether it was a day with that special someone or Singles' Awareness Day!

Here are some fun items from my shop in the spirit of Valentine's Day :)

PHOTO SHOOT for Fuzzy Rose!

While the rest of the country has been frozen in a polar vortex (and Snow-mageddon happened in poor Atlanta), central Florida has escaped mostly unscathed.  Still though, the chilly rain is getting old and depressing.  Tuesday though, we had a break from the gloom and it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day.  It was the perfect day to run outside and get some photos before the sun hid again.  We're definitely still new at this and need to get a better camera, but I'm super happy with how the pictures came out, especially for our first try. 

MINT GREEN WITH GOLD by ELENA on ETSY

My last post was about a beautiful treasury that I'd been included in which featured items in plum and glitter gold.  This time it's another pretty gold combo that I love even more... mint green and gold!  Mint green and the variations all around it, particularly the aptly named Robin's Egg Blue, are really "my color(s)," so I'm loving that so many things these days are being made in that color.

On a somewhat related aside, I'm sure I will mention this again at some point, but love what you love, whether it's trendy or not.  A lot of people who aren't completely mainstream or "normal," (err... like me, I can often be found marching to the beat of my own drum... completely off rhythm, but I digress) often feel like they can't love something because it's trendy or super popular.  I know I've struggled with that a lot in the past, but you know what?  That just means that things you like are more readily available.... and it can be fun to accidentally be in fashion occasionally.  Being yourself means liking what you like, regardless of popularity.  So... I love me some mint green, even if it's ridiculously trendy right now.

Anyway, trendy mint green and gold are awesome....

GLITTER + PLUM by KARO on ETSY

I'm really digging this treasury on Etsy that I was featured in recently.  It combines the gold glitter that I've been loving on everything lately and the purple that's becoming more popular with the declaration of Radiant Orchid as the Color of the Year.  Really pretty.  This could be a really great color scheme for a wedding.  Shades of purple with some gold glitter thrown in for good measure, I like it!

UPDATE: radiant orchid in my shop

So, a week or so ago, I posted about all of the hype over Radiant Orchid, this year's Pantone Color of the Year.  While I had a few purple things in my shop that could be called that color, it was time for me to fully jump on the Radiant Orchid bandwagon and list some new products for 2014 that were most assuredly Radiant Orchid.

So here are some of my newest items for 2014!

Radiant Orchid boutonnière with peach button and flowers

Shades of Purple with Radiant Orchid boutonnière 

Radiant Orchid corsage with lace, flowers, and gold dots

Check it out in my shop!

BECKY AND STEVE'S RED + AQUA HANDMADE "DYXIELAND" WEDDING

When super creative Becky AKA Dyxie married Steve in Bossier City, Lousiana, it was clearly going to be colorful, fun, and handmade.  Add to that her signature color combo of red + aqua and you've got a sweet wedding that's both retro and modern.  I was super excited for one of my boutonnières to be her first wedding purchase.  Enough talk, her awesome pictures by Seattle photographer Jenny GG speak for themselves!