Karen Smallbone

Shirley. Shirley,Shirley bo burley, banana fana fo furley, fee fi mo mirley, Shirley. No just kidding. My kids love that song, but just don’t try to rhyme the name Chuck. You just don’t want to go down that road.

I saw this fun thing called the Name game on the Weddingchannel.com. You put in your first and last name and your grooms names and it blends them together to make new and exciting names. If you didn’t want to take your groom’s last name, this helpful tool will combine your names to make a new last name for you.

I wish this was around when I was getting married. Perhaps I would have become.. Karen Daveyallbone ,Dasmallbone, Smallbonavey, or Davellbone. These are just a few of the options you get when you mix my madien name, Davey, with Smallbone. I’m thinking perhaps Smallbone wasn’t so bad after all.

Try it out here.

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.

I’ve finally given up the dream of having a daughter to pass my wedding dress down to. I thought that it would be nice to pass it on to someone who would love it as much as I did. If you are looking for a simple dress in a creamy white and a very long veil, just let me know. I would love for it to have a new home, not in my closet or hanging from my rafters in my room. It needs to be cleaned and steamed but other than that it is in excellent shape. There are some buttons missing from the back but they were decorative so you could take the ones that are left off. I had it made for me so I’m not sure of the exact size. I think I wore a 16 at the time so it would be around there. I am 5ft. 2in so you would need to be about that height.

Please send me an email if you are interested or have any questions. The dress and veil are free, you just pay for shipping.

Here is a close up of the top.

The skirt part has an organza overlay and the bottom has a satin band around it.

There are small fabric flowers that go around the waist of the dress.

Super long veil that clips into your hair.

UPDATE: The veil has found a new home. I still have the dress if anyone is interested!

I just recieved an email from the Wedding Chicks saying they had featured me on their blog. Thanks Wedding Chicks. I love your blog!

You have to check it out. It’s full of insipiring ideas and great design. I love the little birds, so cute.

We are very excited to have been featured in the Spring 2008 issue of InStyle Weddings!

Look for us on page 230.

If you are interested in a customized Candy tube favour for your event, please contact me karen@karensmallbone.com

Hello. Remember me? I know it’s been too long. I’ve been pretty busy lately and sick on top of that. But I’m back now and ready to add lots of great ideas.

The boys and I had a great time on our March Break trip to Disney. They didn’t know we were going so they were pretty surprised when we got up and went to the airport. It took them until we were actually in Orlando and on our way to our hotel to realize that we were going to Disney. It was fun to keep it a surprise for them.

Here are the boys in front of Cinderella’s Castle.

The boys at the Mad Hatters tea party. One of the few pictures where they are both looking in the same direction.

At the beach. This is the first time the boys have ever been to the ocean. They loved the salt water.

We had a really fun time.

I’m back from my relaxing vacation to Cuba. It turns out we picked the right week to go. The weather at home was horrible.

I thought I would share a photo of me with Benny and Luna. My friend Cindy, is in love with dolphins, so we lived out her dream and went swimming with them. It was great fun although the plane ride there was a bit terrifying. I’m not a big fan of planes that only seat 16 and have propellers. Being able to see everything the pilots were doing didn’t help either.

I’m back in the office now and working to get caught up. I will be away again from March 6-17. It’s March break and I’ll be off doing fun stuff with the boys.
If you will need something during that time, please be sure to order ahead. We won’t be answering emails or shipping orders during that week.

I will be away from the office starting Feb. 1 and returning on Monday Feb. 11.

I am off to Cuba again. This time I am going with the girls to Cayo Coco. I’m sure we will have a great time. Who doesn’t love warm weather and unlimited drinks?

I’m leaving Richard in charge of things while I’m gone. He will do his best to answer emails and any questions you might have. He won’t be shipping any orders or sending proofs while I’m gone.

See you in a week!

This picture was taken in Varadero, Cuba when we were there in November.

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.