Farewell to two dear old friends...

I am so sad to report that our beloved Mr. Noahnie and his brother Meema have both passed away. Those who knew Noah and us will understand how a keystone of our family has been pulled out from under us. Noah was a great cat, a great friend, so loyal and sweet, the inspiration for a T.V. craft show and many songs and jingles, Meema was the undercat, the unlikely champion, with a voice, the clearest blue eyes and a sweet essence. Their spirits lives on in all of us...after almost 15 years together, our hearts are sad, but both of their health conditions had seriously declined and it was time.

Explaining death to a 2. 5 year old has been a heartbreaking part of the process-but I think we are going to make it. Time does numb the sadness a bit...

Creative Women Collaboration

(All photos in this post by the lovely and talented, Brea McDonald) Dear friends of mine, and fellow wedding professionals, Brea McDonald, Dawn Kelly and Meg Simone recently participated in an exciting project for women filmakers recently in the Bahamas.

I am so proud of them, I wanted to share the story and to encourage women everywhere to fulfill our creative selves.

Professional event filmmakers and photographers from across the globe gathered recently on a cruise to the Bahamas for POSH 2010, an educational workshop and retreat for women. Inspired by their shared experiences in their visual industry, the group spontaneously decided to use their creative gifts to craft a short film illustrating the positive power and passion of women in the film industry.

Shot on location at POSH 2010, “Women Create” was directed by Maura Coleman-Murray and Kara Jensen, filmed by Maribeth Ratajczyk and Luiza Perkowska, and edited by Meg Simone. All 42 POSH 2010 attendees collaborated on the piece.

Welcome Baby Everett!

A dear friend of mine, Sara of Griffin-vites just had her baby boy, Everett York O'Brien and I couldn't be happier for her! She is a going to be a super incredibly wonderous mommy-she is divine and so stylish, even in the throes of late pregnancy! Here is little beautiful Everett in his bed with his quilt!

(Geneve Hoffman Photo)

Earlier this summer I attended a baby shower for Sara my gift was an "Everett a quilt" in his colors of Scandinavian blue, cream, white and oatmeal. It was my first time making my own quilt binding and I can say I think I will never go back to store bought!

(Geneve Hoffman Photo)

Being a stationery designer, I thought Sara would appreciate some seat binding and vintage yo-yos to adorn the outside of the gift!

Welcome aboard Everett! I can't wait to meet you!

New Hamspshire Lakeside Wedding

Clients of mine, Laurie and Spencer were married on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire recently and Style Me Pretty published their wedding story and images, you can read the post here. So exciting! Maine Seasons Events provided planning, coordination and also event design in collaboration with Laurie the bride and Susan of Lakes Region Floral Studio.

Here is the list of people who helped me to make this wedding a success:

Flowers, centerpieces, ceremony decor, tent decoration: Susan-Lakes Region Floral Studio

Photography- Mat & Ash

Venue: The Margate Resort

Tent & Rentals: Eric-Lakes Region Tent

Music: The Ariel Band

Catering: Curt's Caterers

Custom Linens: Divine Inspirations

Congratulations Laurie & Spencer! It was a treat to plan your wedding with you!

Summer Garden Design on Style Me Pretty!

My dear friend Corbin Gurkin recently photographed a table top design I created, along with another dear friend, Judy of Flora Fauna, who created the incredible floral arrangements and bouquets, and low and behold! It was featured on Style Me Pretty's main page on Monday, what fun!

You can see all of the pictures and read the story behind the design here. Thank you Corbin and Judy, always a pleasure to work with you both!

How lucky I feel to get to work with such incredible talent and such incredible women every day.

Sometimes all a girl needs is a few people to say, "Let's do it!" or " Why not?".

I love seeing an idea come to life in reality and watching it take shape, as I set it up and incorporate the work of other creative souls. The communication process to get from an idea in my head, sprinkling in some ideas of other people's heads, to a real design is such a positive challenge. Here is a challenge for all of you: do something creative. Today! Just try it and let me know what you come up with!

Love & Lobster Coastal New England Weddings

(Photo: Brea McDonald Photography)

My old friend and guru photographer, Emilie Sommer has started a new blog called Love & Lobster, Coastal New England Weddings. Aside from the cute graphics, font and colors, it is filled with good details, and as always, in true Emilie fashion, filled with useful and great information.

There are links to great finds, pictures and articles with fun wedding ideas, trends and vendor features which give an inside and informative look into the workings of Maine wedding professionals.

You can read another of my dear friends' features here, Judy of Flora Fauna reveals things in her interview that I didn't even know about her!

(photo by Flora Fauna)

Another talented colleague, Joanne of Joya Beauty was also featured, one of the reasons I love living and owning a business in Maine-the great network of professionals who support each other, celebrate and encourage each other.

(Photos, L: Audra Photography, R: Flora Fauna)

And Love & Lobster recently featured Maine Seasons Events and yours truly in a vendor interview, so if there is anything you want to learn about me, my process or inspiration as it relates to wedding design and planning, hop on over to Love and Lobster and read my interview. Love & Lobster may be a new blog, but is already making waves!

(Photo: Brea McDonald)

Missing in Action

It is hard for me to believe that it has been since May 23rd that I posted....tisk, tisk! I have been so intentionally busy and anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I am a habitual life stuffer. I tend to pack as much living, activity and creativity into every possible second as humanly or inhumanly possible...so I am back, to fill you in on a bit of what has been going on around here.

Summer has been filled with weddings, and I am wishing I could share some delish pictures, but those are slated for bigger blogs than my own, so we will have to wait on those a bit. I will post then when I am free to do so, I can't wait to show and tell the details!

We have managed to get the camper out on the road a few times, you know, in between weddings and meetings and photo shoots, and sometimes last minute. (Don't forget to bring a can opener when you go camping, even if you decide to go camping the night before you leave!)

There has been some hiking, swimming, adventure and sweet childhood summer memories in the making...we are watching our baby grow into an almost 3 year old, with a wit, tenacity and determination to rival even my own.

There have been tide pool explorations, many, many flower identifying lessons, swimming/floating exercises, ice cream shop visits, sandcastles and countless hours of e-mail, wedding designing, planning and execution.

There have been some major garden installations, changes, and additions, and we are also preparing ourselves to lose one of our beloved 15 year old cats to kidney cancer...

I will be back as often as I can in the coming weeks, this is my busiest month of the summer with a wedding every weekend, so stay tuned, I didn't fall off the face of the Earth!

Wedding Season Approaches!

There has been a whole lot of wedding preparation going on around here!

Pulling and organizing props for upcoming weddings, sorting milk glass for floral arrangements,

Scavenging the last few needed items at yard sales and antique shops, polishing vintage silver for centerpieces,

Ordering ribbon for dessert bar curtains, sewing custom pillows for cocktail hour lounge areas,

Painting shutters for place card displays, faux painting votive candle holders with mercury glass spray paint,

Ordering candles, plotting, scheming, designing, dreaming...Now if I could only get caught up with the laundry, the dishes and buildup of "piles"...You know, the piles that have no home, that you dread sorting, the buildup of things coming out of the car, needing to be taken to the garage, put in storage, toys no longer age appropriate, the mail....the encroachment of piles is certainly a never ending battle here. I would just rather be doing more creative things than putting "piles" away. So if you happen to stop by, please disregard my piles and let me show you all the fun things I have been doing!

Blue Jay Nests in Blooming Wisteria

I can say I have never seen a blue jay nest, not near my house anyway. I can also say that in the 11 years I have owned my Wisteria plant, it has only bloomed a few times. Not enough blooms to even anticipate more the following spring, And some years? No blooms at all...

Yesterday, while serving breakfast to my two and half year old daughter, she asks, "Mama? Why is there a blue jay dancing on the wisssereea?"

Hmm. Dancing? And so I glance out of the kitchen window, and there before my weary eyes was not only three (!) giant Wisteria blossoms, but also, yes a blue jay. Not dancing, but MAKING A NEST in the Wisteria!!

I think I was told, "pull yourself together mama" about 3 times before I calmed down enough to talk about the extraordinary occurrence we were about to witness in the following weeks.

"Do you know how special this is?!?" I hissed. "Out of all the places these 2 birds (a mommy and a daddy) could have chosen to make a nest to have their babies, they chose our Wisteria! Our BLOOMING Wisteria!"

I went on to explain that very soon we would see 4-6 green and brown spotted (maybe) eggs and in 14-21 days after that, there would be baby blue jays eating breakfast with us every morning. That garnered some excitement.

I tried to take a picture of the blue jays in the nest, but I didn't want to scare them. The nest is only about 6 feet off the ground, under the eave of our garage, and right by our kitchen door. I hope we can be calm and quiet enough in the coming weeks for them to stay.

Can you see the nest to the right of the Wisteria blossom, a little cup shaped pile of sticks just over the green leaves in the middle of the picture?

It has been so fun to watch them come and go all day with sticks and grass in their beaks. They even chose a piece of ribbon that Ava and I left out on the patio from a project, to weave in!

Stay tuned, if I can get any pictures without disturbing this new little family, I will certainly share!

Brimfiled Antiques Show Pilgrimage

For years now I have been lucky enough to attend the Brimfield Antiques Show in Brimfield, Massachusetts. Usually I go with my husband and once we became parents, we even took out 6 month old daughter. But this isn't really a trip for a toddler, not for us and not for them! This is the mother ship of flea markets in my corner of the world. This year I went for 2 (10 hour days!!) days and a night. For those of you who know-it is like Disney World for grown ups. Like a Himalayan excursion, like climbing to Machu Picchu, like Heaven on Earth.

This year my friend and fellow wedding professional, Judy Bourgeois of Flora Fauna Weddings and Events came for her maiden voyage to the show. We left Maine at 5 am on Friday and didn't return until 10:30 Saturday night, a whirlwind!

There are treasures and trinkets aplenty, gadgets and widgets galore, ahh....Vintage french linen...

Judy was a seasoned pro, keeping up the pace, stocking our backpacks with snacks and water, scouting out the good items and filling her arms and our scavenged rolling cart with treasures for our homes, our clients, our businesses and our children. What a weekend! Oh how I needed a ladies only trip away!

Judy almost perished of fits in some of the vintage trim and ribbon booths, she uses these hard to find and gorgeous trims on bouquets and boutonnieres for weddings-I have to admit, my heart rate was elevated too!

(The pretty pictures in this post were taken by Judy, the others were taken by me on my iPhone)

I was tempted by all of the milk glass, chenille vintage bedspreads and jewelry...I was on a mission though, I had a list. I went in search of tea cups for one of my clients' weddings and several interesting and unexpected containers for another client's wedding raw bar display.

Having my list kept me focused and left some of the cash in my pocket...cash is king at the show, and bring lots of small bills, most booths have negotiable prices. I am always shy about asking for a dealer's "best price" but Judy showed me that it works-she haggled for $75 off the antique Swedish/Hungarian (I can't recall the origin, I was in a panic to load it in the cart!!) baby bathtub with metal stand for one of our clients-we just had to have it!

Oh and the cart!! Not only is this little baby so cute and vintage, but it was only $10 and it essentially made the Suburban full of purchases possible this past weekend. Many a trip to the car with that full cart to unload were made-thank goodness for running sneakers. This show is no place for pretty shoes.

Yes, that is a human skeleton in the background!

Oddities are all part of the experience...this place is not for the faint of heart.

The show is miles long and fields deep on each side of the road, a gypsy like encampment of tents, makeshift booths and shelters, filled to the brim with every imaginable item in the world. What fun, what treasures, what laughing and sweating and many hand wipes used to wash hands...Next show is in September!