Karen Smallbone

While surfing the web recently I came across a great site www.finestationery.com that specializes in stationery. They carry the usual stationery items but what caught my eye was the cool stuff that you can get personalized.

Who wouldn’t love a set of plates with their name on it. I love the one that reminds the kids to “put the napkin on their lap”.
These plates would make a great gift for the couple who has everything.

Another one of my favorites is this giftwrap featuring a photo of your little one. How cute is that? It would make a nice keepsake in addition to whatever the gift was you wrapped it in.

If you are looking for a unique and personal gift to give for any occasion, check out these pretty paperweights. They would make a great gift for your bridesmaids. There are tons of cute designs to choose from.

Julie’s wedding shower is what I dream of. Full of pink and brown… and lots of delicious sweets!

She was kind enough to send me some photos.

As you can see, Julie stayed true to her pink and brown theme! This gorgeous cake was made by Irresistible Cakes.

The orchid centerpieces were made by Primavera Flowers.

This sweet table is to die for. As I was typing this I could almost smell it. I think I need to go and find some chocolate!

Julie said her Maid of Honour made the pretzel sticks which are dipped in caramel, then chocolate and then drizzled with more chocolate. A family friend made the pink and brown chocolates shown at the top right hand of the picture.

Yummy!

Here is a photo of Julie and her fiance. The story is so cute. I think he’s a keeper!

Congratulations Julie. Thank you for sharing your photos with us. You have tons of great ideas!

I can’t wait to see what you do for your wedding.

Cynthia was kind enough to share some of the photos from her wedding with me.

I love the fortune cookies with the personalized message. This is a great idea!

I love how the fortune cookie is repeated as a menu holder.

Congratulations Cynthia and Rob. Your wedding looks like it was beautiful! Thanks for sharing your day with us.

Learzi and Richard were kind enough to share some photos of their beautiful pink and green, zen-themed wedding. Working with Learzi, I can tell how important the little things were that made the day that much more spectacular. She has great attention to detail.

Learzi looks lovely!

I love these flower rings for the flowergirls.

Too cute! I love the pink and green bottoms on the dresses.

Beautiful cake.

Learzi and Richard gave their guests these lovely candles. The candles were coffee scented and had coffee beans at the bottom. They came with a wooden base. I designed the labels using the orchid theme with a zen feel and pink and green colours. I bet the guests were pleased to receive such a nice favour.

Congratulations to Richard and Learzi! It was a pleasure to work with you and I really enjoyed designing the labels and postcards for your wedding.

Last year I took over Ronan’s bedroom and turned it into my office. Needless to say he wasn’t too impressed to be sharing a room with his big brother but I’m sure he’ll get over it one day.

I decided to make my office really girly so I chose a few colours of pink and accented with brown. I love spending time in “my” room. Apparently boys aren’t fans of pink rooms!

I’ve finally finished organizing everything and thought I would share some photos with you.

Here is my desk area. I got the desk and chair from Ikea and the file box and shelf from Homesense. I love those stores. The shelf unit on the left we built. I love the curtains. I bought the fabric off of ebay. It has a brown background with girls in pink who are shopping, one of my favorite things to do. I finished the bottoms of the curtains with little pink pompoms.

This is my inspiration board.

Here are my new fixtures. I love the way they look in my office, almost like built-ins.

This is my most favorite thing ever!!! My very own ribbon rack. I was so excited when we finished building this. I have always wanted one.

A little detail.

This is the rug I made to go with my pink and brown office.

My “helper” Ronan.

Cheryl was kind enough to send me some photos from her wedding last summer. She used green and chocolate as her colours.

Here is Cheryl and Brad. I love how Brads tie matches the colour theme! Cheryl looks gorgeous!

Cheryl and Brad’s favours were Root Beer and Lemon Lime Jelly Bellys in our Square Clear Top Tin with a Mini monogram and Light Green/Dark Green Saddlestitch Ribbon. Very cute!

Congratulations to Cheryl and Brad. We hope your wedding was everything you dreamed it would be!

Thank you for sending in your photos.

On August 23, Richard and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary. Wow, time really flies. I remember the day we got married like it was yesterday. I thought it would be fun to share our wedding day with you.

Richard and I designed our own invitaitons and my best friend Cindy printed them for us. Our colour theme was sage green, yellow and brick red. We used daisies throughout the wedding. We made our invitation in a square shape (which was unheard of at the time) and made square envelopes that folded over and were sealed with a daisy sticker.

We had our ceremony and reception at Rich’s parent’s. They lived out in the country and had lots of land for us to use. We built what we called the “structure” which we were going to use to get married in if it rained. We had our reception in a big tent.

Building the “structure”

Finished “structure”

I wanted to have an arch built out of twigs. Rich and his bestman Rob built this the day before the wedding.

Here are some of the photos from our wedding. We hired Marc Rochette from Reportage. He did a wonderful job. We really wanted the photo journalist style and didn’t want any posed photos. After a while we didn’t even realize they were there taking our pictures. We are big fans of black and white pictures so most of our photos were taken in b&w with a grainy texture.

Here is our cake. I was all about the cake. It was made by Cakewalkers in London. They did an awesome job. I really loved it.

Our favours. White boxes tied with yellow ribbon and a daisy on top. Inside was a miniture version of our wedding cake made with fruit cake (yuck. I’m not a fan of fruitcake, but Rich loves it.) The photos of the mini cakes aren’t great, we took it and this was the only one. Apparently they tasted good. We also had a small white box with 2 truffles inside tied with yellow ribbon and a daisy on the top. And we also gave a small package of daisy seeds.

Emma took this cool picture. Our wedding was right before she left for college to study photography. Too bad we didn’t get married later, we would have loved for Emma to take all of the pictures.

Megan had a fun and original idea for her favours. Instead of filling these cute little tins ahead of time, she decided to let her guests fill them up at the table. She filled a clear round vase full of assorted Jelly Bellys and used it as a centrepiece. The colourful beans added a punch of colour to the all white table. I love this idea! The guests loved it too and I heard that at least one table ate all of the beans!

We designed 5 different coloured labels and added different coloured ribbons to coordinate with the labels. We put everything together for Megan and Levi, but you can purchase all of the elements in our store.

Thanks again to Emma of barebonephoto for these amazing photos.

Congratulations Megan and Levi! It was a pleasure working with you. All the best!

I saw this gorgeous cake plate and thought I would share it with you. It would be lovely to use for a cupcake tower for a wedding or any other special party. It is available online at Bodie and Fou and was designed by Polly George. There is also a teapot that is just beautiful.

On May 13th it was my moms 60th birthday. My sister and I planned a surprise party to celebrate. Our colour theme was green and blue and we also used daisies.

I saw these large pompoms in Martha Stewart Weddings and decided to try to make them. They actually turned out pretty well and were easy to make, unlike some of the projects that are shown there.

Here are the 2 cakes that I made.

We gave out favours in the aqua and apple take out boxes. Inside was very yummy chocolate covered peanut brittle made by Jenny who is a friend from Stratford who has a business making peanut brittle.

Aidan was kind enough to provide the musical entertainment.

Me, my mom and my sister.

Thank you to everyone who helped us make Mom’s birthday a special surprise.

Hope you had a great birthday Mom. I can only hope that I look as good as you do when I turn 60!