Trouvaille Workshop Photo Recap 3

Well, here it is!  The final round of photo recaps from Rhi's beatific Trouvaille Workshop!  All credit goes to the warm-hearted duo of Sam and Brad of Bradley James Photography.  

Alicia Rico of Bows and Arrows Flowers getting very serious about some serious and solemn flower basics.  :)

I'm pretty serious about protea, stock, and ferns.  

And I am tremendously appreciative of the pretty head shots that were taken of us.  I've never really had such photos taken of me, unless you count senior pictures from high school.  But these are much better, in my opinion.  

They might be better because they include flowers.

The above photo might be my favorite head shot.  What do you all think?

And for good measure, a silly picture of attendees and several other pros!

Love and light,

Alyssa

P.S. Photo recaps can be found here: 1 and 2

Red Charm Peony Love

Before I go into the details of one of my most recent creations, I need to just tell you all that gardening and working outside is good for the soul.  Yesterday was my first day volunteering at a local flower farm, and while I did get to harvest (bunches upon bunches) of forget-me-not, I also helped to prep two huge planting beds.  That is hard work, guys!  My body is feeling it today.  But, I did get paid in flowers for volunteering!  I honestly did not expect any type of compensation, because that's basically the idea behind being a volunteer.  But snapdragons, Queen Anne's lace, and feverfew will be fine any time with me.  

Onto some floral gorgeousness!  I suppose we can call this the Bouquet of the Month for June.  I know I said that the monthly bouquet series was kind of over.  I just happened to make this in June.  So either way, here it is!  

We have Italian ruscus, red charm peonies, spray roses, and scabiosa pods.

Initially, I had made the bouquet with maidenhair fern also.  The maidenhair fern is so beautiful - delicate and feminine, and it falls in such a pretty way.  However, it is a pain to keep alive in any type of heat or sunlight!  The image below was one of the first ones I took of the bouquet, but then decided to take the fern out.  I think I like it without the maidenhair more, but it's pretty both ways.  What do you think?

This is one of my favorite bouquets to date.  Those red charm peonies are too lovely.  I just want a huge armful of them so I can hug them and smell them.  That's not weird at all - we're talking about peonies here!

Have a great Thursday, everyone!  What type of peony do you like better: the sought-after coral charm, or the red charm?  Maybe neither: light pink, dark pink, or white?  

I think I'll just take 'em all.

Love and light,

Alyssa

Style Concept Part 2: Elements

This is Part 2 of a seven part series from Into-Mind, where we explore how to craft a style concept.

Elements are specific ideas, pieces, themes, combinations, fits, and anything else that can be included or used to describe a style.  A list of 20 or so elements is a good idea, because though it may be hard to get started, and then after getting an abundance of elements written down, you can dig deeper and really flesh out what you want to include.  My elements are listed below.

refined

classic elements

full skirts

burgundy

scarves

well-constructed shoes

bold glasses

dark brown hair

florals

minimal makeup

leopard details

straight leg pants

dark denim

wool

silk

menswear inspired pieces

statement watch

cotton tee shirts

black

stud earrings

manicured nails

Coming up with this list involved a brain dump of elements onto a Moleskine notebook page, and then a selection process of crossing things out, circling others, and revising my words.  The beauty of a style concept is that it can change by season (weather-wise and life-wise).

Link in the comments to your list!  I'd love to see what everyone is coming up with.

Love and light,

Alyssa

Floral Immersion: Basic I and II, Part 2

I mentioned in my first post about my class at Longwood Gardens, that my first instructor was Jane Godshalk.  My second instructor was Nancy Gingrich Shenk, who is also an amazingly driven world-class florist, with a seriously amazing history of floral design for high-end, high profile events.

Here they are!  Please excuse the iPhone quality images.  (iPhone 4, I might add.)

Jane Godshalk and me, with my market bouquet arrangement.

She gave me a great contact for a wholesaler in the area.

Nancy Gingrich Shenk - she pulls no punches in her teaching and advice.

She had an impressive legacy in the wedding industry.

In the class, we focused heavily on learning about the elements and principals of floral design, within the model of education that Longwood has created.  

The elements of design are physical characteristics in a design.  They can be observed with the eye.  Elements of design include texture, line, pattern, and color, among many more.  

On the other side, we studied the principals of design.  This is how the elements work together in the organization of the design itself.  Harmony, unity, scale, proportion, and contrast are examples of principals.  Want to learn more?  Enroll in a class!  The instruction is world-class and the information is invaluable.  They treat their students well.  You will want for nothing while spending time at Longwood in their courses.

Since I don't want to spill all of the secrets of the class, I'll just share some photos of my work from the class instead.  

Large arrangement in a silver bowl.  Perfect for a dining room table!

Possibly my favorite design of the four days.  

The wreath had tons of greens, asters, and variegated red roses.

Delphinium, freesia, scabiosa, geranium leaves, lilies, parthenium, and much more.

Sand based arrangement on a silver tray.  

Pompom mums, spider mums, thistle, roses, statice, and green apples!

Wire based corsage.  This was also really fun to work on. 

 I wore mine to lunch that day and strolled around the greenhouse, too.

Drop bouquet with willow branches, hydrangea, carnations, and roses.

Making this was a challenge, but I love how it turned out.

Hand tied rose bouquet with fern and lemon leaf.  

I wish I had known a bride to give it to that weekend.

I am eagerly awaiting the time that I can take another class at Longwood and continue my progress in their floral design certificate program.  I hope that this is an opportunity that happens sooner rather than later!

Love and light,

Alyssa

Style Concept Part 1: Mood Board

This is Part 1 of a seven part series from Into-Mind, where we explore how to craft a style concept.

After following Caroline for months on her style journey with capsule wardrobes, I looked through her list of recommended reading regarding fashion and wardrobe.  Within her list of recommendations was the blog Into-Mind, written by Anushka Rees.  Immediately, I was hooked on her blog, with its concise and relatable writing and simple instructions for crafting a more authentic wardrobe.  

As a mini blog series, I'll be working through her seven part style concept.  What is a style concept?  Regarding the importance of a style concept, Anushka states

A good style concept represents your individual personal style and your aesthetic preferences. It is a summary of all of the different elements you want to base your style on, woven into one coherent story line. Creating a style concept is the best way to really become aware of your exact likes and turn a mish mash of individual ideas into a refined personal style that expresses your aesthetic ideals 100%.

There you have it.  And I love it.

Part 1: Mini Mood Board

"Mini" as in "not the entire Pinterest board that you've pinned images to for the past two years of cute clothes."  We're talking about the only three pictures type of mini.  Refining and being deliberate about what you are choosing forces you to think harder about how you wish to be represented.  And the beauty is that it can change!  For now, my mini mood board is represented by the three images below.  If you'd like to see the entire pool of images I chose from, you can find my personal style board here.

Image credit here.

Image credit here.

Image credit here.

Link in the comments to your own journey in this series!  I'd love to see what you all are thinking and doing.  

Love and light,

Alyssa

Trouvaille Workshop Photo Recap 2

I think I can just let most of these images by Bradley James Photography speak for themselves.  Again, major props to Rhi of Hey Gorgeous Events for such a spectacular experience.

Eating a delicious breakfast with one of my roomies, Xiomara of A Styled Fête...

...and the lovely Alicia Rico of Bows and Arrows!  

Her floral expertise was invaluable to hear about.

Michelle Loretta of Sage Wedding Pros was also a fantastic speaker.  She spent a lot of time with the attendees at dinners and during downtime, and I really respect her approachable and down-to-earth personality.

And how cute are Brad and Sam?!  They were seriously the kindest and loveliest couple to talk to - about the wedding industry, about photography, and other things, too.  I felt so at ease talking to them, and the way that they interact with others just shows how big their hearts truly are.

And the last recap will be coming up soon!  Check back here for the first photo recap of the Trouvaille experience!

Love and light,

Alyssa

Encapsulate

As I proceeded to work on my capsule wardrobe (more details here and here), I did some math.  The basic gist of the capsule wardrobe is a certain number of items, all working together in the same vein of style, to be easily mixed for a season of time of year.  There are various sources on the internet that do not align with the count of items - I've seen anywhere from 33 to 38 items per capsule.  Let's say that I want to be conservative and go with 33 items in each capsule.  And let's say that I had four different capsule wardrobes; one for each season.

4 seasons x 33 items per capsule = 132 total items

And this is just the conservative estimate of items that would be my closet!  I looked at that number and immediately thought "There's no way I can have that much clothing."  I don't have a ton of clothing already, and I wasn't interested in accumulating more of it for no real reason other than to fulfill an arbitrary quota.

The other issue I had with creating my capsule wardrobe was that, at least in Pennsylvania, it does not seem like we have four seasons of equal length.  I do realize that having four seasons, three months each, is not possible in other parts of the world either.  It just seems like we only get about a month or two of autumn (if there's not a hurricane) and a month or less of spring (especially when there is a Polar Vortex).  Needless to say, the seasonal breakdown was just not practical for me.  I'm always cold anyway, so my always-colder-than-everyone-else body temperature had to be taken into account, too.

Yet another issue I had was that I often wear layers.  Those layers can be pared down for the summer, and put on more heavily in the winter.  So I also had pieces that couldn't simply be put in a capsule for winter, and stashed away while I could still wear them during the spring or fall.

What I did was this: clothing that could be worn year round is in a separate category.  Then, I divided the rest of the clothing into an October - March capsule, and an April - September capsule.  This way, very heavy winter clothing (a wool skirt) would not be combined in a capsule with things such as sleeveless tops.

My final count of clothing items?

Year-Round: 22 pieces

April to September: 14 pieces

October to March: 12 pieces

Remember - this is not including things like accessories or loungewear, like pajamas, sweatshirts, or loungewear like tee-shirts and the like.

Total: 48 pieces

My advice with creating a capsule wardrobe?  Do what works for you!  Modify as needed, but stay true to the thesis of what a capsule wardrobe really is.  I'll be posting more about what each piece in my capsule wardrobe is soon, and starting a new wardrobe series as well.  If you're starting or already have a capsule wardrobe, I'd love to hear about what you're doing!  Did you need to modify it?  Change anything to better suit you?  Let's hear all about it in the comments.

Love and light,

Alyssa

Wade Through the Water

It is morning, and my name is confusion.

In the past week, working at my full-time job as a middle school teacher, I have been closing out for the year.  The last day with students is Tuesday, and so far, I've taken all of my classroom materials home, cleared off my work computer's desktop, and lots of other clerical tasks to be set for the end of the year.  The transitionary period at the end of the school year has always set me up to be reflective.  Change is coming, or at least it already was.  Change is, really, already here.

As I've attended several wonderful classes and workshops this year, I've been constantly pushed to think about my place in the event and design world.  Determining where I lie in that realm is a struggle.  I am a great planner and coordinator, due to my Type A nature with a lot of flexibility thrown into the mix.

I'm also a diligent student, learning how to become the best flower-wrangler I can be.  I love floral design.  I get so pumped up to see unprocessed blooms in buckets.  I love the tools, I love the smell of greens, and I feel rewarded by creating something beautiful and appealing.

How many hats can one girl wear?

Thinking about where to draw the lines, and where to settle myself in the wedding world is a real challenge, but I think I'm reluctant to make a decision that might limit me.  Putting yourself into a box as someone who strictly does calligraphy, or planning, or florals, or whatever seems scary to me mostly because I see many people out there doing it all.  At least, that's what their information says on their website, and that's what social media would have me believe.  How can anyone compete with someone who is doing it all?  Viewing such things through a lens of caution is important, and something I must remind myself to do daily.  I read somewhere out there, to not compare my life to someone's highlight reel.  There's a lot of truth in that.

I need to place myself where my passion is, and where my happiness is.  I want to settle comfortably in that place, growing and refining and absorbing as much from others as possible.  I am under construction but in this time of change, the construction crew can work faster, with one less distraction.

Where am I the happiest?

Photo credit to Bradley James Photography.

Love and light,

Alyssa

Piling it Up

I used to think that talking about fashion, clothing, and beauty was such a trivial thing.  That I would be viewed as someone who was vain, or otherwise incapable of an intelligent thought.  How times have changed.  First of all, who cares what anyone else thinks.  Seriously.

Second of all, it really is important for me to think of myself as someone who is attractive and worthy.  Worthy of what?  Well, I think I'm worthy of a positive self-image, and if that means reconsidering the items I wear and the style I have, then so be it.

Image found here.

Back to getting un-fancy.  I spoke briefly in this post about my discovery of capsule wardrobes, and my journey into simplification.  In beginning to think about my capsule wardrobe, I found that I pretty much already fell into a pitfall surrounding the "rules" of a capsule wardrobe before I really even started.  The issue was that many of my articles of clothing are multi-season items.  J.Crew tee shirts are a prime example of that.  As are my blue jeans, and several dresses and skirts.  Blouses can be layered underneath heavier items, so I was really in a bind when it came to being able to effectively separate my clothing into capsules for different seasons.

Another issue of living in Pennsylvania, especially in the past six months, is that seasonal temperatures can be wildly unpredictable, AND some seasons last for six months.  Especially for us gals who are always cold.

What was I to do?

I changed the rules!  They weren't working for me.  I can't have four different capsules, to change out every three months.  If each capsule had a maximum number of 33 items, that means that without any overlap at all, there would be about 132 items I'd have to think about.  That is way too many!  Personally, I didn't think that I could really handle that.  Too much to worry about.

So I cleaned out.  Anything that I hadn't worn in 4 months, anything I didn't love, and anything that was no longer my style, was donated or given away to a friend.

I'll be talking about what stayed in my wardrobe, and also how I've separated things into "capsules" that make more sense for my life.  Until then, check out this post for more inspiration.

Love and light,

Alyssa

Trouvaille Workshop Photo Recap 1

In my first recap of the Trouvaille Workshop, I shared a little bit about the loveliness that sweet Rhi of Hey Gorgeous Events prepared for the attendees.  There's really no true way to share how warm, thought-provoking, and just plain fun those days were - you have to actually attend to experience the greatness!  I tried my best to share a little bit, and also told you about some homework that Rhi gave all of us to think on.  I'm still thinking on it.

The Trouvaille Workshop guest speakers were not only wonderful, but also incredibly photogenic!  The hard work on that end was done by the kind and congenial Sam and Brad of Bradley James Photography.  During Trouvaille, Sam and Brad had an informative session regarding the collaborative relationships you can work to build with other vendors, especially photographers, to make events and weddings run as smoothly as possible.  They truly work as a team together, and are passionate about productive teamwork with others.

Take a look through their lens into some of the prettiness from Trouvaille!  ALL photo credit goes to Brad and Sam.  Wonderful job, you guys!

I am very serious about taking notes in the welcome session.

Pretty white chiavari chairs at the Amway Grand.

Swag for attendees at our place settings.  

And yes please to some sweets!  I had three of these and they were delicious.

Our beautifully styled welcome dinner at San Chez.

Ranunculus, stock, thistle and rose.

The signature sangria of San Chez.  Dangerously good!

I look pretty fancy here, but we all looked lovely in our black and white, 

with our pretty flower corsages made by Pixel and Hank.

And this is just the opening few hours!  Check back again for some more loveliness from Bradley James Photography very soon!

Love and light,

Alyssa

Goal Setting: May/June

Before I share any goal setting, I want to share a stunning image from Sam and Brad of Bradley James Photography, taken way back in April (!) at the Trouvaille Workshop.

They made my arrangement look super pretty.  Thanks, Sam and Brad!

I just realized that it is the seventh of June, and I hadn't posted any goals yet.  I hadn't even thought of any yet.  The end of the school year is a pretty hectic time for any teacher, but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel: 8 more days, only 7 with students.  Sighing of relief right now.

Let's recap.

May Goals:

• Apply for an EIN in order to obtain access to wholesale florist
• Bridesmaid jewelry questing (Still prowling, getting closer though.)
• Bouquet of the month for May (I think this series is over.  Expensive, but also doing a lot of work in design classes.)
• Remember to relax as the academic year winds down.  Don't get crazy stressed out.
• Enjoy and learn from my upcoming floral design workshop at Longwood Gardens (This was an AMAZING workshop.  Look for the recap soon!)
• Mail invitations to wedding guests (Doing this in a few hours once the post office opens.)
• Decide on gifts for our parents for the wedding
• Work with our sweet friend who is officiating to craft our ceremony
• Begin drafting wedding vows with Chris!

Judging from what is not crossed off here, vows are going to be at the top of the list.  Our officiant is away camping this weekend, but we can work with her soon to make something sweet.

June Goals:

• Bridesmaid jewelry and groomsmen tie selection
• Parent gifts for wedding
• Vow writing and ceremony drafting
• Organize our hall closet and get rid of anything that is just taking up space
• Organize teacher things once they're all brought home from work
• Donate large bag of clothing that has been sorted out of closet
• Final wedding dress fitting!
• Decide on a hairstyle for the wedding
• (Plus a million other small wedding details.)

Those million other small wedding details can be knocked out pretty quickly.  Many of them are simply things like ordering table numbers, finding photos of relatives for our ancestor table, writing out place cards, and other tiny things.  I am fortunate to have several weeks off of work before the wedding, and will be trying to be efficient with my time.  There's no reason that I can't make sure it all gets taken care of, with that kind of time off of work.  But if something slips through the cracks, it's also not the end of the world.

Love and light,

Alyssa

Floral Immersion: Basic I and II, Part 1

Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania is a world-renowned horticultural oasis.  After being gifted a membership to the gardens by my sweet fiancé for my birthday, we’ve spent lots of time getting to know the gardens. 

One perk of membership is that there are often members-only events at the gardens, and extensions during certain hours for visiting.  Another wonderful perk is a discount on classes at their continuing education center.  I had known about a floral design line of coursework for some time before becoming a member, but was unfortunately unable to enroll.  Classes are kept small, and they fill up quickly due to the presence world-class instructors. 

As soon as registration opened up for the Spring 2014 season, I immediately logged in to their student portal and enrolled in their floral intensive beginner’s course.  The class was a great choice for two initial reasons: the Beginning Floral Design I and II were packaged together, so it was a four day long intensive, and I could apply the credit for the course towards a certification program.  I am a firm believer in education for adults just as much as for children.

When I arrived at the building in which the class was taking place, I was immediately greeted by volunteers, fellow attendees, and my first instructor: Jane Godshalk.  Each place at the table was set with a large bag with the Longwood Gardens logo on it, and floral tools were laid near buckets of greens for each student. 

Throughout the duration of the course, I made 17 different floral designs.  Get ready to see some pretty soon!

Here's one corsage I made on the last day of the class.  

Definitely one of my favorite creations!  

Love and light,

Alyssa