PUMPKINS GALORE

I love finding new and creative ways to decorate for the holidays - especially decor items that involve gold! Pumpkins are an obvious favorite for ringing in the cooler weather and the warm tones of orange, yellow, and red, so when I saw these takes on the classic pumpkin I had to share. 

 Check out this awesome gold splatter painted pumpkin ... such an easy DIY craft!

I don't have the time or patience to illustrate these detailed ones, but I could handle the puffy paint dotted one! What do you think?

 Mums are another "must have" for fall so combining the classic pumpkin + frilly flower is perfect, and makes for a great alternative vase.

Instead of a vase, hollow out the pumpkin to serve bottled drinks. LOVE this idea!

 More spray painted gold and copper pumpkins! [please notice the chevron pumpkin too!]

all sources on my holiday pinterest board

I am really loving all the uses of the white pumpkins this year! Check back in tomorrow for Melrose's fall decor of pumpkin galore! It isn't as fancy as these images, but never-the-less it gets us in the mood for fall.

PINTEREST SECRET

This was the most fascinating discovery to me, so I thought I would share it in hopes that it makes your day too - before you "pin" something, use your cursor to highlight a description of the item on that site, then click the pin icon in your tool bar, and wa-lah! Automatically that highlighted description will appear in the pop up box!

Try it out - it is very neat and convenient! Do you know any other pinterest secrets? [besides that it is fabulous!]

DESIGN*SPONGE TOUR: birmingham

Did ya'll see this? Get excited because ... 

Grace Bonney and the Design*Sponge team are coming to the 'ham in 3 weeks! They will be doing a craft demo of -

 how to make a great cupcake/cake display stand and how to customize it in several ways (new techniques we didn’t show in the book or online) for the holidays.

I am super excited and a group of girls are going if you are interested too! Will you be attending? For full details and how to register click here. 

BLURB BOOKS

Since we received our final disc of pictures from Heidi back in March, I have been slowly working on designing our wedding albums. I have been really excited about designing this book for several reasons ...
• I get to choose which pictures are in it
• It is a great way to have all your pictures in one place rather than individually printing them all
• Blurb now has an amazing InDesign plug-in that allows designers to customize their book any way imaginable


The books arrived a month ago and they are gorgeous. No, not because it is millions of pictures of Brandon and I, but because of the quality. I chose image wrapping for the hard cover, their new pro-line uncoated paper for the interior, and the largest square size available - 12"x12". The large size was quite surprising, but amazing. I love how vibrant and bold the pictures are. 


I would definitely recommend Blurb to everyone - it is not just for weddings. There are so many choices and templates (for the non-designer) to choose from that it makes the process really fun, and straight forward. Here are a few pictures of my blurb book:

you can see the rest of the book here

For the parents I chose a smaller size, 7"x7", and it turned out just as cute, and much easier to handle! I think they have really enjoyed having all the pictures in one place for easy browsing. You can tell the proportion differences in both sets of pictures.

PHI MU ALUMNI: fall phi-esta

I wanted to share these fun gift items I designed for my college sorority's fall membership drive. It was themed "PHI-ESTA" and held at a local mexican restaurant. I designed these pink (of course!) koozies and labels for cupcake boxes as a 'thank you' for each girl. I think they turned out cute, and delicious!

Please let me know if you, or your organization, is interested in any design work! Please feel free to contact me anytime.