Some stunningly gorgeous images from the Toast Autumn catalogue. The colors of each photo are so beautifully paired, you’d think a painter worked as the photo stylist. Not only am I daydreaming of wearing all of these clothes, but I will be forever lusting over a pair of dark green Hunter wellies… (sigh) someday.
{images shown belong to toast}
I’m currently lusting over everything in Nice Package. They have lots of simple and cute ways to wrap up holiday gifts, besides having little lovely things that I’d love to have in my studio or home.
(Psst! They’ve got an Etsy shop too!)
{images shown belong to Nice Package}
Have I been living under a rock? One of my favorite invitationers, Mr. Boddington’s Studio, has a blog… and I didn’t know about it. You’d think after all the times I’ve visited their website I would have noticed! I do believe this will be going on my daily reads list. Check out some of the lovely things I’ve already found:
{images shown belong to Mr. Boddington’s Studio}
Had an amazing walk through the woods this afternoon and brought my camera along with me to capture the moment. Foliage season is definitely over, but there’s plenty to still see. Thank goodness I managed to enjoy the warm weather (it was 70°F!) while it lasts… temperatures should be going back to their normal chilliness by Thursday around here.
Anna from Rifle Design created this gorgeous wedding certificate for her best friend’s ceremony, and she announced on her blog this week that soon it will be available as a template for others to purchase from her store. This is a lovely 3 ink screenprint that I will definitely be keeping my eyes on for when it becomes available!
{images shown belong to rifle design}
I’m currently checking to see which movie theaters near me are showing Bright Star, after seeing some gorgeous and atmospheric images of the movie via all the mountains. IMDB synopsis says it’s “a drama based on the three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats’ untimely death at age 25.”
If you know anything about me by now, it’s that this is exactly the type of movie I am beside myself to watch. Period drama, gorgeous costumes and locations, the UK, romance, and heartbreak. Le sigh.
{images shown via all the mountains; Bright Star released by Apparition}
Have to agree with Oh Joy! that the styling of these photographs of Anthropologie accessories are really unique. I love the forms of the ice crystals and how they interact with the product…
{images shown belong to anthropologie}
I had posted about Suann’s very cute invitations for her son Ike’s third birthday party, and today there are lots of images of the party on her blog as well as on Real Simple. Every detail is perfect, from the photo stand, to the signage, to the boxed lunches and cake. Suann has done it again! She has such a great eye for detail. I’d like her to design all of my parties!
{images shown belong to simplesong design and Suann Song}
Halloween was very special this year as we attended a friend’s wedding, held at the Worcester Art Museum. The request made by the brides was that we come either in black or period costume (from any period we wished), so we of course could not pass up an opportunity to dress up. After many hours of searching for costume rentals, looking at vintage pieces online, getting ideas from period movies and vintage illustrations, and a whirlwind day visiting 7 thrift stores at once, our costumes began to take shape. I decided to choose a late 19th century or Victorian look, while my husband went for a Colonial approach (although I think the final result looks very Regency).
For my outfit, I ended up purchasing two dresses on Etsy, one black 100% lace dress and another black dress with a fitted top and layered lace skirt. I almost simply purchased a slip for underneath, but instead decided to purchase another dress since it would hopefully fill out the skirt to get the fullness I had hoped for. I have to tell you a funny story about this… thank god in dear heaven I wore that dress underneath because it saved my hide! The lace dress was fairly tattered to begin with (I figured it would go with the Halloween look and was still very lovely), but after the ceremony and getting it repeatedly caught in my heel, I managed to rip it to the point of no return. At the reception my feet were stepping through the lace in front and the dress was dragging far behind me. When I went to the ladies room to see what first aid I could do (with 3 safety pins – ha!), I saw in the mirror that the waist section was ripped apart from the chest area and was literally hanging on by mere threads. In only a matter of time the bottom half of my lace dress would fall to the floor while the top half would stay on. I knew enough was enough and simply gave up, thanking my lucky stars to have the second dress underneath. Can you imagine if I had only wore a slip! And the second dress was just as pretty and I felt very much like “Madame X” in it.
Back to the costume story – to complete my look I purchased white opera gloves, a gorgeous teal feathered fascinator, and a black bird cage veil. I bought the veil material itself so I it would be less expensive and so that I could make it detachable, since I only planned on wearing it for the ceremony. I also was able to wear the same earrings I wore for my own wedding, which was very special since I haven’t been able to wear them in the three years since. It was a nice feeling to bring something with my own happy wedding day memories to the Halloween ceremony of our friends.
For my husband’s outfit, he started with inspiration from Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow. We weren’t 100% true to it, but it was a great launching pad and really helped us look carefully for the key pieces of the costume. This definitely helped during our marathon thrift store day (when we decided the online route wasn’t going to work for him as it had for me). We ended up purchasing old tuxedo pants, a women’s vest, a women’s jacket, some cotton fabric for a cravat, and some soccer socks (which honestly were to hardest the find as apparently thigh-high white socks are difficult to get in stores). He luckily got to wear shoes and a white shirt he already owned (funny enough that they’re the same shoes he wears to every wedding we go to!). I did do a fair amount of work to his outfit: pinning back the fronts of the jacket as well as the collar and then taking in the back, shortening and blind hemming the pants and adding decorative buttons, and taking the collar off the vest as well as covering all the metal buttons with fabric. However, all the work was well worth the effort and my husband was honestly more excited than I was to finally wear his outfit. He had been growing a beard and thought of keeping it, but at the last moment we googled images of men in BBC period dramas and realized he had to shave and keep the mutton chops. He also styled his hair in the same 18th Century manner, and we both agreed this really completed the look for him.
We absolutely loved the planning, research, and most of all wearing of our costumes for this Halloween wedding. I have a feeling my husband will definitely be wearing this outfit more often, and my feathered clip and my 2nd dress are definitely wearable again. But what we enjoyed most of all was to be able to attend such a beautiful, loving wedding of friends and we were honored to be asked to attend.