Snow Globe Torture!

My sister sent me this link from Well Worn, who featured these Anthropologie snow globes used for featuring jewelry.  Of course I felt immediate regret that I was too late to use this idea for a last minute Christmas gift. Oh Anthropologie. Why must you torment me so? However, I began to imagine how snow globes might make an AMAZING centerpiece for a shower or wedding (or even a favor at a shower?). And I think they’d totally work for a winter wedding. So much potential for customization! What do you think?

DIY instructions for making your own snow globe from Well Worn:

You will need:

All can be found at a craft or haberdashery store.

*A jar of your choice (with a lid)

*Figurines or jewelery

*Anti-rust sealant for metal pieces

*Clear-drying epoxy

*Distilled water

*Dash of glycerin

*Large silver or white glitter (smaller versions will float at the top)

Steps:

1. Use clear-drying epoxy to adhere your piece to the inside of the lid. Let dry per instructions.

2. After the epoxy dries completely, fill your jar with distilled or boiled water (at room temperature, of course).

3. Add just a dash of glycerin so the “snow” falls slowly.

4. Add as much glitter as you like. If you don’t like the look of glitter, you can usually find faux snow at craft and haberdashery stores.

5. Screw your lid on tightly and enjoy your snow globe!

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Merry Christmas!

Trever Hoehne, my brother-in-law and subsequently fave photographer ever, took a few pictures of our family while we were up at the cabin. They are so festive and snowy, I thought I’d share. Hope your holiday was fabulous!

Winter Loveliness

Well, this week has been FULL of crafting and shopping as well as prepping for a photo shoot this weekend. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed all the gift wrap inspiration as well as some of the GORGEOUS winter inspiration ideas I’ve seen around the blogosphere this week. I thought I’d share one of my favorites with you from Green Wedding Shoes! I hope you have a wonderful holiday week. I’ll be going out of town on Monday to a place that we’re hoping gets SNOW. I’ll be back up and running the following Monday.

Happy Holidays!

DIY Wine Wrap

I recently put together a shoot for gift wrap inspiration with Jenny Liu Photography, MaeMae Paperie and Calligraphos Ink. Everything turned out so lovely and I’m so excited that it’s featured on Style Me Pretty today, so be sure to check it out. The first post is already up here!

I thought I’d share with your our DIY Wine Bottle Gift Wrap project that is so easy, and so impressive, you just can’t not give it a shot! This year, I’m really into reusing old sweaters that are either lying in my closet collecting dust, or ready for the take at my local thrift store. Here’s a GREAT way to use those sweaters to wrap a bottle of wine, that turns one gift into two.

Wine Bottle Gift Wrap:

Materials:
1 old sweater (I scour the thrift stores!)

2″-3″ of Fabric

Sewing Machine, or needle and thread!

Fabric scissors

Ribbon, yarn, gift tags etc… for embellishment
1. Once sweater is washed, start by inserting the wine bottle into the sleeve of the sweater. The sleeve should start just below the top of your wine bottle. Mark the sweater with length of your bottle, pull out the wine and cut the sweater sleeve off.

2. Place your bottle on the small square of fabric and trace a faint circle around the bottle. Give yourself an extra 1/4″-1/2″ outside of the bottle. Cut out this circle.

3. Turn the sleeve inside out and pin your fabric to the cut end of the sleeve. Sew together. Turn right side out and voila!

4. To complete, thread yarn through the sweater, or affix ribbon.

Bachelorette in Joshua Tree

If you didn’t already see the photos of the Joshua Tree “Wild Things Bachelorette”, you must IMMEDIATELY go to Utterly Engaged and Erin Hearts Court for tons of AMAZING photos of the most inspirational bachelorette ideas. There aren’t enough superlatives to convey how much I adore the styling by Paige of Bash Eco Events and Kelly of Yes Please Design as well as the creative direction of Utterly Engaged’s Lucia Dinh. And Erin Hearts Court Photography? Does it get any better? Pretty sure not. Here are a few pics by Erin Hearts Court…but you MUST go check out more here and here! Great job to all involved!!!

Engaged: Kentucky by way of Boston

Josh from Bella Grace Studio sent over this engagement session, and I had to share some of these photos. The couple is from Boston, but decided to do their engagement session in Kentucky, when they were home for Thanksgiving. I love how classy-southern-autumn it is. Totally adoring the boots and scarves and pea coats. What’s best is, this couple chose to shoot photos in their hometown, conveying their roots and personality. So…if you are looking for ways to make that engagement session a little more personal, consider choosing a significant location that means something to you.

B I N G O !

For the new issue of Utterly Engaged, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go antique shopping with Editor Eva Chou and photographer Serena Grace. With no more than a little money in our pocket, we took on the challenge of finding vintage items to create a tablescape and event concept…in just a few hours. The task seemed at first a little daunting, but proved incredibly rewarding. First off check out the article, with all the fun photos of our shopping trip and results. Here are a few peeks:

Can we talk about how awkward it is to set your hiney down on a setee in the middle of a store and start posing for pictures? Dear heavens. I was bright red when I left the store.

Next up, here are a few extra photos I put together of our little bingo themed party…which, by the way, I’m putting on my calendar immediately! Love the rootbeer floats and vintage tea tins (which i would have filled with something fun like succulents…were I to have more than an hour to create our “event”!)

Be sure to check out Utterly Engaged for the rest of the article and TONS of other great features in this month’s issue.

Real Wedding: Lake Tahoe

Caroline and Dan from Tinywater Photography sent over this absolutely TO DIE FOR destination wedding in Lake Tahoe and I’ve gone nuts. I really have. I think this is the longest post I’ve ever done. Because I just couldn’t choose between these photos. So you’re gonna have to deal with a TON of pretty stuff today. Ugh, right? Hope you enjoy!

Real Wedding: Meg and Devin

Oh my goodness!!! First off, I must tell you how excited I am to feature this wedding, particularly because I got to feature Meg and Devin’s engagement session here. It means so much to have such sweet and gorgeous readers that send me their beautiful moments to share with you all! And of course I’m so loving Meg and Devin’s down home wedding! All of the details are so incredible…from the barbecue rub and grandma’s brittle to the handkerchiefs and chalkboard table numbers…I die! Here’s what Meg had to say about her wedding:

Devin and I got married at The Plant at Kyle a renovated cement plant in the Texas Hill Country in Kyle, Texas outside of Austin.  We had about 100 people and got married in the late afternoon.  The inspiration was part vintage and part cowboy- we really also tried to compliment the space because it was amazing on its own.  We really love Marfa, Texas (even thought about getting married there) and tried to mirror some of that aesthetic.  Many of the favors and decorations were handmade by us and our families.  Our colors were sage green, peachy orange and slate gray which really reflected the natural landscape.  It was such a fabulous day.

Wedding planner: Lorena Molina, Something to Celebrate; Photographers: Sharon Steinmann, Dahlia Photo, Michelle Loconto, Michelle Loconto Photography; Caterer: Pink Avocado Catering; Flowers: Melanie Tipton, Last Petal; Cake: Sara Brook, The Dessert Gallery; Dress: Melissa Sweet Reverie

Catching Up

Since the Jessica Claire Photography Workshop back in September, things have been busy around here…and sadly, you’ve probably noticed a lack of consistent daily posts! Just wanted you to see some of the stuff I’ve been up to that’s kept me away. I also wanted to reassure that I’m working on making sure that quality and quantity of posts are such that you’ll continue to visit regularly. I’ve got some plans for continuing to create FRESH content, so stay tuned. We’re working away!

First up, my most recent project! With Christmas coming up, I thought a gift wrap photo shoot would be very inspirational! We shot two DIY projects and some great ideas for gift wrap. There are more photos of this coming soon, but here’s a little sneak peek…

{Jenny Liu}

I’ve got more treats in store for you as we savor the holiday season, so be sure to check back. Also, Grey Likes is on the countdown to a FABULOUS makeover. I absolutely can’t wait for you to see what we’re doing to the site, which we’ll be releasing after the new year.

Next up, Thanksgiving (I’m working my way back in time!) I couldn’t resist putting together some decor for our family table. My mom’s tree in the front yard was full of fall colors, so she obligingly let us chop off some precious foliage and I put together a beautiful “tree” for our table. I also had Victoria Hoke Lane from Calligraphos Ink help me with these lovely placecards. If could, I’m pretty sure these would be the centerpieces at my wedding…I’m obsessed with trees.

{T & H Photography}

{Calligraphos Ink}

The past few months have also been a flurry of activity with the gals from Utterly Engaged. They’ve become dear friends and I’ve loved getting to style some really fun shoots for them. Below are a few pics from our shoot we did which focused on personalizing food…from a salsa bar to popcorn bar to shave ice. Be sure to keep an eye out for their new issue as well…we did a really fun vintage shopping feature which I know you’ll love.

{Bonnie Tsang}

And lastly, I’m finally sharing a few photos from the photography workshop I styled. We were so lucky to be featured on Green Wedding Shoes, Utterly Engaged, Southern Weddings (here, here, here and here) and Style Me Pretty (here, here and here). Each of these great sites featured a different component of the workshop, so be sure to check out all the posts if you haven’t seem them.  Here are a few of my favorites!

{Alissa Ferullo}

Workshop Vendors included: Floral Design: Lauryl Lane;  Hair & Makeup: Vivian Tran of All Made Up; Wedding Stationary, Favors, and Paper Suite: MaeMae Paperie; Printing of paper products: Czar Press; Fabric Rosettes, shoe clips, and “just married” banner over cake: B. Poetic;  Calligraphy by Calligraphos Ink; Cake: Cheryl Stewart of Cake My Day; Dress: The White Dress