Wake Up!

Forever ago I made this green and blue banner and knew I wanted to put words on it but I couldn't commit to what it would say. Finally last night I caught the crazy crafting bug and made myself pick something. Our bedroom has always been the eyesore of our place. We once had plans to frame a bunch of art and hang it above our bed but that's been over a year and I'm not sure if it's ever going to happen so I decided to hang the banner there. And what better for the bedroom then something encouraging you to Wake Up? My boyfriend said I should have hung it on the wall in front of our bed so we would see it in the morning but I think I will instead make another one for that wall that says Good Morning. Or, I'll wait another year and maybe we'll finally have framed art.

Want a banner for your place? Write me at abeautifulparty at hotmail dot com.

Home

I'm sort of house-hunting. And by that I mean I'm spending way too much time looking at real estate sites and driving around aimlessly searching for For Sale signs. I finally found the house of my dreams. I hope hope hope hope hope it can be mine someday. I thought maybe if I put it on my blog and did some sort of love spell I would be living in it and writing my blog in by this time next year. If you know any good spells will you say them for me?

I would love to see the house of your dreams. Share it with me?

xoxo

Twin Peaks

I only recently watched Twin Peaks for the first time and even though the show is twenty years old it still holds up. People are still so inspired and intrigued by the show. I've been thinking a lot about it lately, probably because of the changing weather. When I was in the middle of watching the series what excited me most was feeling like it truly was a passion project for David Lynch. I have to admit I don't normally care for his movies, they sometimes feel a little too pretentious. I think that's why it took me so long to finally watch Twin Peaks but I'm glad I finally gave it a go. The show felt so honest and genuine. It felt like Lynch was able to create this place with these people that encompasses everything he loves. The music, the fashions, the way Bobby talked. There were certainly times when the show got a little out there but it always had a foot placed in some sort of reality.

All that is to say this: I feel inspired by Lynch's passion in this show. It encourages me in my own work, especially when I'm in a rut. Maybe I'm projecting an experience onto Lynch but watching the show makes me feel like he was just this guy creating something for himself and it happened to be a hit. I hope I bring that same sincerity into my own work. It's so easy to get caught up in wondering what others think.



Sometimes you just need to eat a bunch of doughnuts.
xo

Love love love

This weekend I made a new pom pom to add to my growing collection. It's the biggest one I've made so far and I love the color. I need to be making these for my upcoming wedding and storing them flat but I can't help but open them every time! They are so pretty and magical.

Speaking of magical... Have you heard of the Pom Pom Factory? I discovered the site via Pocketful of Dreams which is dreamy and magical as well. Pom Pom Factory is Hong Kong born designer Karen Hsu who now lives in London and creates all pom pom inspired work. You can buy her pom poms here.

I am so tempted to get rid of my furniture and make my living room look like this.
Do you think my bridesmaids would be down with wearing pom pom dresses? They aren't very figure flattering but they are super cute.

I'm in love love love and would work on that factory assembly line any day.

A Collection of Pictures

I have some odds and ends photos to share. Like this bunny for instance. I love her but I wish so badly I knew what she was thinking. I sometimes feel like she's just sitting back and judging me. But sometimes she makes sweet little noises that I think is a good thing. I think.

Other times I think she looks like she's thinking this:
One day I was sitting in my apartment and I happened to look out the window and I saw this balloon. I ran outside to take a picture. I was so excited. Two women walked by and asked if they were disturbing my picture-taking but they never bothered to turn and look at what I was taking a picture of. I wanted to yell at them to look but I also wanted to keep this image all to myself. But now I'm sharing it so it's not such a secret anymore.
I love riding my bike down alleys because I love the backs of house. This is one of my favorite houses to look at. The front is beautiful, too, but the back is magical.
I finished these little plaques. My boyfriend wasn't impressed. He said I just glued the images on and that wasn't really art. But I assured him it was art because I painted the plaques, too.
When I was at home my dad had these rocks sitting on the porch. I nonchalantly picked one up and started hitting it on a bigger rock. To my surprise, it broke in half but I was sad to see it wasn't filled with crystals like I hoped. I was even sadder that my dad threw a fit because I broke the rock. I really underestimated my strength.

I decorated my curtains again.

I often decorate with deflated balloons. They hang upside down like some might hang flowers to dry. My house always looks like the day after a birthday party.

Suddenly my instagram photos have become very grainy. Sorry for the shoddy picture quality.

I hope you are having a wonderful week.

xo

Look at this prettiness...

As a follow-up to my post on my new job I didn't even mention how great my co-workers are. I'm looking forward to working with such talented and creative people. My manager Bryanne suggested I check out this music video. It's so pretty it makes my heart swirl. And! Spoiler ending, a man is holding a bunch of balloons. If you saw the video from Sunday where my friend Claudia made a puppet show you may have noticed the star shaped balloon that was used to represent a jellyfish. It looked like she attached tulle or something similar to represent tentacles. To be honest I have not been able to quit thinking about that. I wanted to fill up a room with star shaped jellyfish. Perhaps it could be my wedding theme?

Check out this beautiful video....

Also! I am embarrassed to say it but this craftiness has been sitting on my kitchen table for almost a month. Maybe a whole month. Remember when I talked about the My Little Pony horse award I was crafting? I can't get myself to finish it. I stare at this every day. Why am I so afraid? It's nonsense! Please tell me at least on of you are the same way?

Maybe I'll make an attempt at it tonight. Or maybe I'll go to bed early. Either way, good night, y'all!

My New Job!

I mentioned last week that I have a new job. I feel like I have won the job lottery. I was hired to work at a beautiful boutique called Cracker Jax. If you're from the area I'm sure you've heard of it. Cracker Jax is a mixture of new and old and all things magical. From the moment you walk in every sense is put to use. Candles and incense are burning and creating a wonderful scent that spills out into the streets. There is enough jewelry to make my heart skip a beat. Every corner you look there is something wonderful. It's fun for me because each day I discover new things. It's the kind of store you could come to every day and still not see it all. I'm feeling very lucky and inspired. The aesthetics there are really going to wake me up in my studio practices. This is the change I needed. It's going to be interesting to see what direction my work starts going in. Click here to check out Cracker Jax on facebook and click here to like the shop. Enjoy all the photos!

Inspiring Best Friends Forever

If you know me personally you know how much I adore my girlfriends. They are all so talented and amazing, I am lucky to be surrounded by such a wonderful and inspiring group of women. My best friend Claudia recently performed a show at TedxSpartanburg. The top video is something Claudia and a couple of friends made for the art's sake. The bottom video is the performance on a much larger and more ambitious scale. Both videos are breathtakingly stunning. Maybe it's the future mom in me but I cried and cried when I watched both of these. I am so proud of my friend and the creativity she can produce plus the story is so sweet and endearing. Please take a few minutes and watch at least one but hopefully both. They are so lovely! Cheers to my best friend!

FALL In Love (how many times do you hear this in Fall?)

Fall never ceases to amaze me with it's beauty. Every year it's like I'm seeing it for the first time when I drive down tree-lined streets that are dripping in colors. It makes me feel young as I think about how Fall meant the beginning of a school year and so many wonderful possibilities. It's funny how when you are in school Fall means the beginning of something. Even post school I still think of Fall that way. For me it is the beginning of something. I just got a new job that is going to make me happy as a peach. I'm assuming peaches are very happy. I'll talk more about that later.

For now, here are my own collection of Fall images. They are not too unlike others' collections but that's a great thing about Fall, too. We all see this beauty happening around us and we all try so hard to capture it on film. This is my interpretation.

I went for a walk the other day and it looked like this:

And I saw one of my favorite houses.

I also saw this silliness in a tree. I normally hate seeing hanging figures but this one was too silly to hate.

While I was at my parents' house we had a family reunion and all the kids decorated pumpkins. My nieces and cousin got Best of Show in my mind.

This one has triangle eyes but lots of eyelashes. You can't ever forget the eyelashes!

More eyelashes.

We do a picture every year where we pose with our heads next to our pumpkin heads. My Dad has his own take on the pic. This may forever be my favorite photo.

So that's my version of Fall. What is yours?