Spring flowers

Spring flowers make me happy, happy, happy! The sun finally came out this week and spring has arrived! I've been gathering up a few flowers this week and got to work outside planting today! 

I took the day "off", although it went something like finish tax preperation (so I can go to accountant next week), plant flowers and clean up in yard, go to town for more flowers, feed and check cows, plant new flowers from town, mow the front yard, cook a fancy supper (ha, it was just macaroni and cheese!) and now I'm blogging. 

I'm obsessing over broken planters this week. Not sure what that's suppose to mean, but I'm giving new life to the broken and chipped pots and lots of rusty buckets. I'm still on a mission to not buy any new flower containers from a store, instead recycling and reusing things  in unusual ways. 

I still need another bag of potting soil, mulch, chair cushions and I'm on the hunt for a few springeri / asparagus ferns and then I'll have more pictures to share from the junk yard. 

One of my favorite spring quoutes - "In the spring, at the end of the day, one should smell like dirt." Yes, indeed I did! 

Hope you are all having a fabulous start to spring! 

Boots, Bouts, Bootineer, Boutonier, Boutonnières

Boot, bouts, bootineer, boutineer, boutonniers, boutiniers, boutoniers, boutennieres, boutonnières...

It's a very hard word to spell! Trust me when I say, spell check has to help me out spelling boutonnières all the time. At the flower shop, when writing on paper, I always abbreviated the word to bout. If we ever did spell it out, the dictionary had to be consulted! That little mark over the e, is definitely auto correct helping out. 

According to one dictionary, a boutonnière is a noun and "a spray of flowers worn in a buttonhole" or another online dictionary states " a flower or small bouquet worn, usually by a man, in the buttonhole of a lapel." 

That gets me wondering why we don't just call them buttonholes? It's so much easier to spell! 

I thought I would share several pictures and color combinations of boutonnières. The first picture is blue denim bouts with burlap leaves and stem. 

So who should wear a boutonnière? 

Groom

Best man, groomsmen, junior groomsmen

Preacher / officiant

Ring bearer

Ushers

Candle lighters

Father of bride and groom

Step-dads 

Grandfathers

Depending on your personal preferences, not everyone has to have a boutonnière, but this list is a guideline to go by. 

I often have customers reordering because they forgot someone or added a groomsman, etc. 

I'll admit, I forgot the groomsman when we got married! I was getting ready to walk down the aisle and plucked a rose bud out of my bouquet and made an extra boutonnière in the bathroom! Doing your own flowers and being the one getting married was stressful. I might have had a panic moment or two that day! 

Mini sunflower buttonholes, with the stem wrapped in twine. 

This was a groom's boutonnière that was fancied up a bit with a few pieces of brown, dried babies breath. 

Sometimes, the groom's boutonnière will be different colors or just a little more special to make him stand out, as was the case with the white rose for the groom and red roses for the remaining wedding party. 

Sometimes, it's just the groom who gets a bout and that's okay too. 

I can make mini boutonnières for the ring bearers or junior groomsmen, that are more appropriately sized for younger children. 

In this case, the groom was wearing a turquoise shirt, so he got a brown burlap boutonnière, with the groomsmen getting the light turquoise "jade" bouts. 

The bride envisioned 2 mini roses for each boutonnière and I brought her ideas to life with the mini turquoise and yellow roses. 

Purple and lavender bouts. 

Shotgun shell boutonnière with a camo rose for the hunting and outdoor themed wedding. 

Sage burlap rose. 

Pink and brown wedding party. 

Need boutonnières for your wedding? Please visit my shop or send me a etsy convo and I'd be happy to help you.

New Burlap and Lace Corsages / Boot Cuff / Sashes and Photo Albums

I've had these brainstorms on my mind for a while, yet it seems as if I couldn't find time to make them happen. I didn't work on any custom orders on Sunday and late that evening, I locked myself up in my workroom, aka "The Burlap Factory" as my husband calls it, to create some new goodies. I wound up not going to sleep till 4 am Monday! 

Yesterday, I photographed the new burlap and lace photo albums, and these flower pins. 

I was originally thinking about Mother's Day corsages or brooch pins for Mothers of the Bride and Groom to wear, but then realized these items are so versatile and can be used as bridal sashes, boot cuffs or bracelets, for wedding or baby showers, or just used to dress up your favorite outfit. 

 This piece has the softest blush pink lace mixed with white burlap. I found this lace at the garage sale last week and I am in LOVE with it! Seriously, vintage romance. Dress up your favorite denim jacket or boots with this piece.

 This lace has a pale blue flower on it and forms a bow among the flowers and pearls on this corsage.Most of these items have a ribbon loop on the back and come with a corsage pin for attaching or have an optional satin ribbon sash that can be ran through the loop and tied for a sash or boot cuff.

I had created similar hair combs and recently had a bride ask to make a corsage like the hair piece. I love it when customers can see things in different ways and I was in turn inspired to create a new style of products for you.

 Mom would wear this corsage  multiple times - not just for Mother's Day or on her daughter or son's wedding day. Ivory and white lace, burlap, pearls and rhinestone are included with this piece.

 This next piece is one of my favorites and I didn't know when to stop! I kept adding more lace and more pearls and then a little more burlap, finally topped off with rhinestones and the softest blush ribbon roses. Of course, then I had fun with my photo shoot. I'm so glad I bought the dress form and now I'm wondering what took me so long to finally get her. First option is the bridal sash...

 Or the corsage / brooch / flower pin option...

 Or how about a fun boot cuff / bracelet?

 Need Something Blue for your wedding day? This piece has just what you need for your rustic wedding!

I also had a recent customer ask about photo albums and thus started a brainstorm of new ideas and led me to create the following two photo books. These are perfect for wedding shower gifts to display the couples photo story in at their wedding or really, just for any rustic photo loving self!

 Both the inside and out are covered in burlap and accented with lace, doilies, twine and an old skeleton style key.

 This album has more a neutral color scheme with the natural burlap and twine along with ivory lace and doily. So print all those pictures that are wanting to escape your phone and computer and preserve the memories in a pretty album that you will want to share with all your friends and family.

 Stop by my shop to grab these pretty pieces. Custom orders are ALWAYS welcome and I would love to create pieces in your colors or help bring your vision to life.

What to say?

This week, Jolie from the Junk Gypsies wrote a blog post, Hello World,  discussing her almost 9 month blog absence and where does one pick back up and start again.  You should go read it. What to say? When and where to pick up writing. As bloggers and in real life, I think a lot of us can relate. Some days, I'm scared to hear my own voice, the silent type, that sits back and observes, yet so much going on upstairs.  

There's days I write a whole blog post in my mind, I'm usually driving or my hands are busy creating something, and it never makes its way to my computer screen. Then there are days that just seem ordinary and who really cares?

On the way home from feeding cows, Jeff and I discussed the topic. I said "but who wants to read about mud?" I try hard to not complain about rain, but I'm on the verge of going crazy in the mud. Every single day for three weeks, we've battled getting trucks stuck in the pasture and now there's ruts in my driveway.  Its just a mess. My mud boots got a hole in them last week and it was several days before I could get to a store to buy new ones. One day I duct taped them up and it kinda helped, but not really. The next, I wore plastic grocery sacks inside my boots and my feet stayed dry. Here I am breaking in the new mud boots. I'm not really the leopard type, but oh well, my feet are dry.

Or how about my serious case of winter blues and spring fever? We thought spring was coming early, but then winter has made a mean return. I'm ready to work in the yard and plant a garden. I miss it looking pretty. The daffodils have been beat down my the winter rain and snow. 

Then there is data - arggggghhhhh! My phone ran out 3 days before my plan renews, the home internet has a daily limit, I busted that out early today and now I'm using my iPad data. Why can't there just be an endless supply of data??? Really, why not? At a reasonable price, I might add. 

Don't even get me started on iTunes. I was trying to put all my music on my iPod to free up room on my phone. I wanted to easily create a playlist, with something like 400 songs without having to individually drag and drop each song. That wasted more time than it should have and it's still not exactly how I want it. I think I should just turn on the radio - it won't use any data that way!

I did hit up a great garage sale this week! I can't wait to show you some of the exciting things I found. I just need time and the weather to cooperate, so I can take pictures. 

Jeff said, "but people can relate to that stuff, that's life." These are the things that have been running through my mind lately and finally escaped to the big world today. I also told him I needed an assistant. I need someone to dictate what goes on in my mind and help me with my computer work (editing pictures, listing, posting, etc.) He said "I don't think your business is that big yet." Maybe one day... Speaking of, I need to get busy on and finish a few bouquets tonight. 

If you've made it this far, I'll leave you with a cute baby picture! This little girl was born in the snowy mud a few weeks ago. We found her and immediately moved her to a warmer and dryer location. She stayed as snug as a bug in a rug in her hay bed and her momma loved the extra attention they got! Isn't she a cutie?  

I needed this...

Over the past two weeks, it's rained, sleeted, rained some more, snowed, iced, rained again and again, we briefly saw the sun, might I add briefly, it came a monsoon, ok, just rained a lot more, iced, and snowed again. I've been deprived of sun and sunsets, which are crucial to my well being :) 

Now, I try really hard not to complain about rain, because all life depends upon water, we pray for rain all summer, it's a necessary element of life... But I missed the sun and gosh, it's been cold. 

Today was fabulous! Beautiful sunshine and mid 60's. This afternoon, clouds started to roll in (more rain forecasted for the next two days) and I was hoping it was going to set up a beautiful painting in the sky. I was on the way home from the farm and wasn't disappointed! 

This is not a lake, it's a creek bottom flooded by all the rain. The sunset and reflections in the flood water made all the rain worth it! 

It's a less travelled back road and I was able to stop and take several pictures with my phone and enjoy the moment. 

I got my sun fix, so I think I'll be able to deal with the next rainy spell with a better attitude.  And hey 50 degrees and rain is way better than in the 30's and rain, sleet, and snowing...

The daffodils remind us apring times coming y'all! 

In the Rear View Mirror

Wow! Looking in the rear view mirror, February was a very busy month! Now this picture was actually taken in December when we did not have ice and my truck was acting crazy, but February did have snow and ice. February started out with my 4 year shop anniversary and ended with lots of burlap and lace wedding bouquets shipped out to brides across the world! 

There was rustic red, white, and navy blue bouquets,

pin on corsages, 

and boutonnieres.

A sunflower, burlap rose, and pheasant feather bouquet. 

I loved these bridesmaid bouquets - A single sunflower, surrounded by burlap roses. 

A white silk flower bouquet with  roses, callas, and babies breath. 

A small turquoise and red burlap bouquet and turquoise boutonnieres headed to College Station. 

Chris had a sage green, tan, and brown order.

The flower girls are going to carry these kissing balls, covered in miniature roses. 

Wristlets for the moms (Look at those goose bumps - it was cold modeling them!)

and boutonnieres for the men in the wedding party.

I've made three of these burlap wreaths this month and delivered them all locally. Two of them were placed on an easel and delivered to the funeral home, with the families having a wreath to take home after the service.

I also delivered this set of Mason Jar Lights to a bride to be, to use as decorations for her wedding next week. 

A rustic red and shades of brown comprised these bouquets. This wedding is going to have a Crawfish Boil theme! 

A bridal bouquet with tan, brown, and ivory roses and lace complimented by

these bridesmaid bouquets. The bridesmaids are wearing teal and the bride wanted to make sure her bouquets didn't clash with the dresses and would stand out. 

This color scheme was also used on the mother's wrist corsages. many times, the mother of the bride and groom don't pick out there dress till a week or so before the wedding, so the neutral colors are less likely to clash with her dress.

The navy bouquet is en route to Italy now.

Jade and Coral is always a pretty, springy combo! 

And then I got my dress form! To say that I love it, is an understatement. I'm so excited about the photo opportunities with the form and the vintage lace wedding dress. Delaney ordered more pieces to match her previous order, including a bridesmaid bouquet, 3 boutonnieres and a corsage in turquoise and yellow.

Lavender and purple has became popular this month and March will include several bouquets in the color scheme. These purple bouquets are on an International flight for Petra's Canadian wedding later this year.

Lavender burlap rose bouts for the guys. 

Last, but not least, the ever popular turquoise bouquet. Isn't my girl pretty sitting there in the glamper? :)

I've probably missed a few pictures...

 I'm so thankful for everyone who has ordered from me and keeping me busy! I appreciate each and everyone's order, large or small. I send my best wishes out to everyone as they are preparing for the wedding day or to the one's who are mourning the loss of a loved one, I send my sympathies. 

I look forward to helping future bride's prepare for one of the most special days of their lives. If there is any way I can help you, please let me know, You can contact me through email or on etsy and we can discuss your ideas and needs.