Be inspired!

Have no fear, keep learning, and practice, practice, practice!

What inspires you to create?

Share the Love,

Chelsea

 

 

Whatever Weekend – Whimsical Weddings

Okay, so that’s a lot of alliteration in the title.

Really, though, a friend of mine is planning a wedding, and it has me all nostalgic!

Tom and I have been married nearly 5 and a half years now.

Photo by Tom Thompson

Our wedding was outdoors, with simple fall decorations (lots of plum and green,) and a laid back, picnic-style atmosphere, with a pie bar instead of wedding cake.

Photo by Tom Thompson

Mmmm pie.

It also makes me nostalgic for our friend Tiinia’s wedding. She and her husband, Kevin, were married on the haunt grounds where the work on Friday the 13th. Costumes were encouraged, and the style was a delightful combo of horror and glamorous vintage.

My friend, Tessa, is planning a simple, elegant ceremony, and an Alice in Wonderland themed reception. I’m so excited to help her with decorations for the reception! I’ve loved Alice since I was a little girl, and the possibilities are practically endless.

So, I’ve been working on some inspiration boards on Polyvore.com, a site where you can create your own boards for fashion, beauty, or just for fun.

Here’s some inspiration for her bridal and ceremony style:

Then there’s the reception:

We’ll be thrifting for tea cups, saucers, and pots, clocks, rabbits, and mushrooms, next week.

If you’re planning a wedding, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Keep a check list, and focus on marking one thing off at a time. Here’s a great list that helps you finish each to-do in time: The Knot Wedding Checklist.

2. Create a budget. Once you’ve decided what kind of venue you want (indoor or outdoor, formal or relaxed, etc.,) the kind of food you want to serve, and your wedding style, start working on your budget. If you don’t have all the money you need right now, open a savings account that you can add to each pay period to pay for upcoming costs. Use The Knot Wedding Budget along with your checklist.

3. Ask for help. Ask reliable friends and family to help with tasks you know they can manage. If you have a crafty friend, ask them to help with decorations. If you have an aunt who loves to bake, have her make edible favors, or even the wedding cake if she’s that awesome. Delegate responsibilities to your groomsmen and bridesmaids, like tailoring and dry cleaning, and the bachelor/bachelorette parties. You might feel the need to have your hand in everything to make sure it’s perfect, but it will be worth your sanity (and your beauty sleep!) to accept others’ help.

4. Enjoy your engagement. Make it a point to date during your engagement. Take time away from planning (turn off your electronics if you need to,) and just spend time with your significant other. The engagement flies by, so treasure every second!

Married? What was your wedding like? Any inspiration photos? Any advice you’d like to give brides to be?

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Pinteresting People – 5 Pinners to Follow

It’s easy to sign onto Pinterest and quickly fall down the rabbit hole of beautiful images, yummy recipes, DIY projects, wedding planning, kid activities, crafts, fashion, funny quotes, and cute animals! Needless to say, there are plenty of interesting (or “Pinteresting”) people to follow, but if you’re looking for some new content, here’s a list of some of our favorite Pinners.

Etsy Fort Worth – Ok, so we may be a teensy bit biased here, but, really, our team pins some awesome stuff. There’s everything from member items for sale to DIY and craft projects to fun themed boards like “Sweet Nostalgia.” Who doesn’t love pictures of The Muppets and Bob Barker? While you’re there, you can follow individual members from our team by looking to see who’s pinned some of the content.

Offbeat Home & Life – Ever heard of Offbeat Bride, the awesomely wacky site for all things nuptially related? If you haven’t checked out their sister site’s pins, do not passgo! Even if you don’t think you’re “offbeat enough,” trust me – you are. You will love Ariel and her team of weirdos, and they will love you back.

Alison Erion – I have no idea who Alison is, but if you love vintage and antique fashion (among other things, like sewing, quilting, and homesteading) she is one lady to follow!

Tiinia Auler – Tiinia has become a good friend of ours, and she happens to be a fabulous makeup artist in the DFW area! She pins some of the most gorgeous makeup and fashion inspiration, and some of the most bizarre and beautiful images. I see something excited and new from her every day.

Stephanie Robot Pop – Stephanie pins some of the most colorful and geekerific things I’ve seen, and I love it! Follow her and add some sunshine and rainbows to your day.

Of course, you can also follow us, if you haven’t already! Our business account, LoveAndEyeballs, is full of Etsy fun and what inspires us, or you can follow me personally here.

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Change Is A Crafty Thing

My husband and I are settled into our new apartment, comfy and cozy, with only a few lingering items to be unpacked. It’s exciting to experience this new chapter of our lives, and we’re sharing similar excitement with my mom! We’ve been actively house hunting with her, and she’s found one out of the handful we’ve viewed together that she really loves. Rather than put a bed in the large master bedroom, the plan is to convert it into our studio for work. It’s so fun to think of ripping out the carpet, staining the concrete, and arranging the space to store all of our supplies, and create big work spaces. Here are a few photos that have inspired us so far:

 

 

Of course, these craft studios are pristine and untouched, which will not be the case with ours. (Is anyone’s creative space that tidy?) The goal is to use the space to create and design for both of our shops, Buy Me Love & JuJu Eyeball, store our vintage backstock, hold crafting lessons and parties, and to invite local customers who have custom orders, and our makeup artist and model friends, to meet with us so that they can get a better idea of what we do and what materials we have available. We’ll each need our own work spaces, which could also serve as work surfaces for classes, space to store our supplies, a place for our vintage clothing and accessories (as well as an area for models to try them on,) a space to take product photos, and an “office” area for the computer and paperwork that needs to be done on occasion. We can’t wait to create our studio so we can share it with you!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Weird Wednesday – Morticia & More

This Halloween may be the first one in years that I won’t have an excuse to dress in costume. Will that stop me? The answer is a resounding NO, my friends.

I will, at the very least, work on my costume for next year – Morticia Addams:

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I tend to go old school with the Addamses, as in the original comic strip or TV show, and I fully intend to craft Morticia’s man-eating plant, Cleopatra (pictured,) to wear around my neck like a boa. The basic costume is simple, though – v-neck black dress (I found a velvet one at a thrift store,) which you may or may not want to add “tentacles” to, or extra fabric to the sleeves, a black wig (or your actual hair, if you’re lucky!) and a few minimal accessories. Add some winged black eyeliner and a dark red lip, and you’re Tish! You just need to find a pinstriped suit and a mustache for your Gomez.

This year, Tom is running a race on the day of our church’s Trunk or Treat, so we’ll miss our chance to deck out ourselves and our trunk. Then Halloween day will be full of a family-friendly-but-creepy movie marathon at the Tri C, complete with popcorn and candy, and scary movies and dinner with my best friend and her boyfriend that night. I can’t wait to decorate her house this Saturday! We’re going with a zombie crime scene theme which will include us outlining each other in chalk and splattering fake blood, and real crime scene tape from the police station where she works.

If you’re getting in the Halloween spirit, take a look at my Every Day Is Halloween pinterest board! It’s filled with lots of unique costume ideas, props and decorations, freaky food, and other bits of spooky inspiration I’ve found. Don’t forget our weird shop, JuJu Eyeball, for fun accessories and decor. Hurry – it’s not too late to put in a custom order for your costume accessories!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Make It Monday – (Fairy) Makeup Magic

Okay, so, in case you didn’t know this about me, it’s Halloween in my head pretty much year round. 🙂 I love costume design and makeup (warning – I’m not an expert!) so I love the freedom of expression Halloween promotes. This week, Tom and I decided we’re going to Scarborough Faire, the renaissance festival in Waxahachie, again this year. We’ve been several times, but don’t get to go every year because of time and money constraints. We also decided to do something we haven’t done yet, and that’s dress the part! This is a pretty last-minute decision, so we’re working with what we have. I’m going to be a faerie, and Tom’s going to go either Celtic or pirate, we haven’t decided yet.

Now, I understand if you’re not into dressing up for renaissance festivals, or even Halloween, but it’s a great hobby to have if you’re looking for an something artsy to do in your free time, or if you’re looking for a project to keep your kids busy. I’ve found some amazing tutorials on making wings, doing makeup, and costuming, so I just thought I’d share my faerie costume with you guys!

This is the dress I’m going to use for the base of the costume:

I stole it from Tinkerbell's closet. She'll never notice - she's got a million of 'em!

I lucked out and found this at a thrift store. Of course, it was instantly in plans for a costume. I’ll probably add some fabric pieces cut from scarves around the waist and hem to create more dimension and give it a flowy, ethereal feel that’s indicative of the Renaissance period.

Then, I’m going to find some large leaves (hopefully at the dollar store!) to create a waist cincher. I’ll also need smaller leaves and/or flowers for my hair, which I’ll wear in a messy updo – it’s going to be warm – and maybe some little forest friends, like bugs or butterflies.

Obviously, I’ll need some wings! This is one of the better tutorials I’ve found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YAUxeopgNw

I think I’ll make mine smaller so that they don’t get in the way of all the fun to be had at the faire.

There are TONS of fairy makeup tutorials to choose from, but I think this one by kandeejohnson is great because you can modify it to match your outfit:

http://www.youtube.com/user/kandeejohnson#p/search/4/pjqLqJbgars

I have plenty of gold and green makeup that I could use, but I haven’t decided how sparkly I want to be. Earthy or sparkly? Decisions, decisions.

Anyway, that’s my inspiration for the costume! I’ll post pics of the finished product and do a real tutorial.

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Make It Monday – Inspiration Boards

 

One of my many polyvore inspiration boards ...

*My anniversary was yesterday – yay! I forgot to post this when we got home last night, so happy belated Make It Monday!*

Sometimes it’s hard to gather your thoughts. Well, sometimes it’s hard for me to gather my thoughts, so I assume it must be that way for you, too. Since one of my favorite projects in school was making collages (hello, ModPodge), it’s only fitting that I turn to inspiration boards to collect images and words to help me create a vision. An inspiration board is a collection of images that allow you to make a visual outline of a project. (I used them alot when planning our wedding.) It doesn’t matter what it is you’re creating – from pottery to a piece of clothing – a little inspiration can go a long way.

When you’re making an inspiration board, you need a starting place. It could be a color, a feeling, a word, a texture, or just an image that serves as the starting place for the rest of the board. Start with that one idea, then build on it.

There are lots of ways to create an inspiration board. You can use paper or posterboard, computer software, or a corkboard for your ongoing, ever-changing version. One of my favorite tools to use is polyvore.com. Search through tons of images of nature, fashion, and fantasy to create a quick and easy (or not so quick and elaborate) board. The etsy treasuries are another great tool. Of course, there’s something very therapeutic about cutting or ripping out images from magazines and gluing them onto a surface.

If you find that you’ve just got too much going on with your board, or that you’ve drifted away from your subject, don’t be afraid to make multiples. You may end up liking one more than the other, or separating boards by color, style, and feeling.

In the end, make sure you’re using the images as inspiration, and not copying (not that you would!) If the inspiration board just isn’t your thing, do a little old fashioned brain storming instead. Doodling and word association are other fun alternatives to get the creative juices flowing.