Pinboard to Follow: Mint

Sometimes you need a little color in your life. And what's nicer than soft minty mint? Pinner Margherita Antinori has a pinboard dedicated to all things minty, and it's lovely. It's pretty amazing how pleasing a field of a single color can be, especially when the color is oh-so-pretty.

Sources, left to right: field photo, ice cream, a certain darkness, araucana eggs

Moody Moodboard

My first date with my fiancé was after Denver's annual Zombie Crawl. Our first kiss was with fake blood on our faces (gross, I know, but it was fake. And mint flavored!). We got engaged on Halloween after he posed as a trick-or-treater and rang the doorbell. So it only makes sense that our wedding should have the same sort of...overtones.

I'm not talking about a Halloween-themed goth wedding here. But I knew from the beginning that our day should have a certain moodiness to it that just seems right. Below is a preliminary-ish look and feel that I'm working with. We're getting married in a Victorian mansion by City Park and a mysterious, darkish feeling just seems right.

Sources: Neutral bunting; chalk pencil; painting by Ashley Goldberg; moody photo, black hellebore; bell jar; mint cake with gold leaf; eggs and feathers; desaturated portrait.

The People in My Life

I'm going to start out by saying that I am very lucky in my friends as I'm planning this wedding. I never realized (okay, I realized but have never been more grateful) how many creative, wonderful people are around me! I have a lovely maid-of-honor who is the queen of crafting. A friend who makes the amazing cakes. Two more who will be brewing us a signature beer for the reception to our tastes. A beautiful bridesmaid who is finishing up her master's degree in photography and creates breathtaking work (though she'll be doing more bridesmaiding than picture-taking at the wedding). Two hilarious, eloquent brothers who will officiate our ceremony. And a highly musical fiancé who's deejayed so many weddings putting together the music will be personal and perfect. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for these people, and I can't wait to get them all in the same room and on the dance floor next September.

Friendy friends. Photo by Lindsey Jo.

Sparrow Nest Script

Whew! It's been a long time since my last post. Sorry Mom.

Now that it's the new year and the initial wedding planning frenzy, along with getting out work before the year's end has calmed down a little bit, I'm hoping to update this blog more often! No promises, but I'll try :)

One thing I swore not to do once I started planning this whole shebang was to focus on small details too early. Big stuff first, then come the sundries. But I also planned to tell my friends before updating my Facebook status to "engaged," and yeah, that didn't happen either. (WHERE'S THE COMPUTER, I NEEEEED TO GET ON FACEBOOK IMMEDIATELY! That's more how it went down.)

I knew from the beginning that I wanted a script logotype for all our wedding collateral (I'm not sure what non-designers call it, so I'm calling it collateral) and I also knew that I CANNOT do calligraphy. I've had Emily from Sparrow Nest Script's Etsy store bookmarked for a long time, and I thought, what the hey, I'll see if she does custom work. To my delight, she does! I knew I wanted a simple "liz + paul" in a loose, thin script I could use going forward and I think what she created is perfect.

I highly recommend checking out her shop, because I'm pretty sure she rules.

Pinboard to Follow: lumières et couleurs

More than anything, my feelings about a place or event are most impacted by light. Sometimes I think about different times when I can't remember who I was with or what else happened that day, but I'll remember clearly how the light was in a particular moment. For example, I have a vivid memory of swimming out further and further in a lake while thunderheads gathered during a particularly vivid pink sunset on a warm summer evening. I'll never forget the strange feeling that it was dark, but warm.

When I found Marie d'Escodeca de Boisse's pinboard lumières et couleurs, I could tell that she probably feels the same way about the light. Each photo and painting looks as though it's a snippet of a beautiful memory.

Left to right: Morning tent; Winter (can't find source, ugh); The Charles Bridge, Czech Republic, Photo by tonerbaloner on Flickr; Photo from "Moonmilk" by Ryan McGinley

*Please note: links to all the sources are non-existent from this board; the links are the most accurate I could find using Google image search. If you know a source that's better than what I have listed above, let me know!

Cleanin' with Oil

Hi! Sorry for the long delay in posts. My head has been kind of spinning with impeding details and I'm easily distracted.

Rapid subject change. I want to talk about skin care. Have you heard about this oil cleansing method? I've decided to try it after reading about it on The Healthy Diaries and, not to get my hopes up too high, but it seems to be working after only 3 days! Rubbing oil on your face to improve it is pretty counter intuitive, but when you read Maria's rationale it actually makes a lot of sense! I'm just hoping it keeps improving.

Here are the products I'm going with:

1) Now Solutions cold-pressed castor oil; 2) Thayer's Rose Petal Witch Hazel with Aloe Vera; 3) Burt's Bees Citrus Facial Scrub (for once a week); 4) And, just for good measure to make sure your lips are smooth to match the rest of your face, Smith's Rosebud Salve

Hope you have a great Monday!

Halloween Engagement

Most surreal thing to be typing ever: Paul proposed to me last night! We were at my parents' giving out candy to trick-or-treaters when the doorbell rang at the end of the night. I opened it, and it was a lone trick-or-treater dressed as the Scream killer (my favorite scary movie). I started to say "I LOVE your costume!" when he got down on one knee, pulled up his mask and I realized it was Paul. The stroke of genius was my great-grandmother's ring on the end of the fake knife. Weird? Probably. Perfect? Definitely.

Happy(est) Halloween.