Florals – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Décor January 29, 2015

‘Crazy For Commons’ Wedding Shower

As I mentioned on Monday, we threw a couple’s wedding shower for two of our good friends this weekend (see their Paris engagement photos here). There were six other wonderful hostesses (all college friends), and I loved getting to meet and spend time with these ladies. Amanda and I met in high school, and we have been friends ever since. She is genuinely so sweet, and I cannot wait to celebrate her and Scott’s wedding in a couple of months.

We ordered the shower invitations from Paperless Post and used hot pink envelopes from Paper Source. We stamped these colorful invitations with my favorite vintage seed stamps, which are now retired. We decided to avoid a theme per se, but the invitations being pink, gold and white, led us to decorate the house similarly. I’ve linked most of the decorations to their sources at the bottom of this post.

Amanda looked like a real life Barbie at the shower (photographic evidence below), wearing a stunning white 5th and Mercer dress from Shopbop. You’ll recognize the dress from Erin Gates’ blog post about her visit to Houston, and you might recognize the girl standing beside Erin too!

My very talented mum made a naked Funfetti cake, which I topped with flowers from our florist (and friend) Jess Hamilton. We ordered catering from Central Market, and the hostesses brought cupcakes, sausage balls, and salads as well. We had a bartender, which was a life saver, as we all wanted to party with the guests and not be stuck pouring wine all evening!

I definitely think one of the biggest hits was the Fuji Instax camera. Although we ran out of film at the end of the night (apparently 80 photos for 67 guests was not enough!), tons of great photos were added to the bright pink guest book (which I found at Michaels). I didn’t take more than a handful of pictures with my DSLR once guests arrived, but am glad I snapped some during the day while we were setting up and that we have polaroids to remember all of the fun that took place. It was a great evening and we’re definitely #crazyforcommons.

Décor September 25, 2014

My Favorite Artists

I absolutely love art, and I was so excited when Sasha and I finally agreed upon a Teil Duncan Bull painting recently (see here), which my aunts kindly bought for us. I Sasha that he likes Renoir-style paintings, which couldn’t be further from my taste. I love modern art. Not the minimalistic white canvas style, but bright, bold colors and interesting shapes. I have been bookmarking some of my favorites for ages, and hope to slowly win Sasha over to more and more paintings by Teil, Lulie, Britt, etc. I’ve put together some of my favorites below!

I am dying to know of other artists with similar styles. Do you know of any? Aren’t these six ladies exceptionally talented?

Update: Glitter Guide posted 12 Artists You Need to Know – amazing round up!

Teil Duncan

Michelle Armas

Britt Bass Turner

Lulie Wallace

Blair Culwell

Claire Desjardins

DIY September 17, 2014

DIY: Floral Crown

I seriously, seriously love floral crowns. They are perfect for weddings, wedding showers, maternity shoots, baby showers, newborn photos or just because! I have made suggestions on outfits with which you can style a beautiful floral crown at the bottom of this post.

Ever since I started my Floral Arranging 101 class, I’ve been motivated to create my own. I have read a number of DIYs (like this, this and this), and decided to give it a try! At first, I thought about doing a little one for Isla (she’s already worn this one in her newborn photos), but decided to do an adult-sized one and I’m so glad I did! I will admit that this DIY is perhaps not the most technical (as I use a hot glue gun, which would make many florists cringe!), but it works! Read the process below:

I went to the grocery store and picked up some cremones and carnations. Then I went to my front yard and cut down some foliage for fillers – you can also find these in the floral department of your local grocery store.
I cut all of the flowers so that they had 2-3 inch stems and then laid everything out on the island and placed it in the order I wanted for the crown.
I took an 18 gauge floral wire and bent one end about half an inch from the end and thread one of the carnations through – it is important to use a thick stem flower versus a piece of foliage at the end.
I then began to add the flowers and foliage by wrapping floral tape around the base and the floral gauge – laying the pieces along the length of the wire. When I got to a carnation or a cremone, I would take the wire through the stem of the flower versus the side layering technique.
Tip: As mentioned earlier, I also used a hot glue gun to secure some of the floral tape to the wire, and in some instances, to glue the bushy leaves to the wire.
When I finished filling the floral wire with flowers, I cut two pieces of cream ribbon 7 inches in length. Put a dot of hot glue on one end of each strand of ribbon and secure it to the end of the wire. Once the glue is dried, you can put it on your head and tie a bow at the back!

You can extend the life of your crown significantly by storing it in a drawer in your refrigerator. Mine lasted four days, then some of the flowers started to wither. Make sure you start the process with the freshest florals you can find.

Arrange all flowers in the order you’d like them on the crown, then thread them through the floral wire (steps 3-5 above)

Add the ribbon to the ends and tie, then voilà… a beautiful floral crown!

How to Style the Crown

Personal September 2, 2014

Week 7 in Durango

Week 7 has come and gone very quickly, with the holiday weekend and my parents arriving in Colorado. We are going back to Houston in one week from today – I am so ready to hug (i.e. squeeze to death) my friends, but so sad to leave this gorgeous weather and valuable family time.

In the past week, we hiked up to Fort Lewis College every morning, tried a new restaurant (Chimayo – amazing and will definitely be on my updated Durango Travel Guide), went to the Saturday farmer’s market (delicious hatch peppers and tasty wheat grass drinks!), made some crepe paper peonies (DIY here), baked more vegan black bean brownies as well as these amazing and healthy cookies, ate even more Cream Bean Berry, watched Isla play with her ‘Mimi’ and ‘Papa’, dominated my parents in Taboo, and practiced playing bean bag toss (I’m awful). The only low point of the week was getting stung by a wasp twice (in my hand and leg) – totally unprovoked on my end! Not fun.

Lastly, I recently set up a Facebook page and Instagram account for Snapshots & My Thoughts. I would love if you were to follow along so I can follow you too! Thanks for reading. xoxo

Read about our time in Durango here: Week 1 | Week 2 and 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6

Baby August 27, 2014

Week 6 in Durango

Week six has come and gone, leaving Isla almost 12 weeks old and us with only a few weeks left in Colorado. We had our favorite weekend so far, given that one of my best friends, Kirby, her husband, Brett, and their adorable 7 week old, Lillian, came to visit us. They arrived on Thursday, and we filled the next four days with multiple hikes, raft rides, walks through town, a visit to Durango Mountain Resort, and plenty of laughter and relaxation at the house. After the girls went down, we played games like Taboo (obsessed) and categories (we amazed the boys with our sports knowledge). It is such a blessing to have a best friend with a daughter so close in age to Isla – now we just need them to move to Texas from Oklahoma City!

Below you’ll find some photographs from the past week – lots of Lillian and Isla, including her new sassy shorts from Sugarplum Lane. Only two more weeks left! I cannot believe it.

Reminder: Today is the last day to enter the BABYBJÖRN Baby Carrier We giveaway. You have until Friday to enter the BabyLit giveaway and until Sunday to use the promo code ‘Isla’ for 40% off all books (this is a great deal!).