and the wonder of it all

comes flooding back

even though it never really left

engagement story | engagement album | wedding album | one | two

impossible film, px600 uv+ silvershade | a once forever

photograph by michael finster of blue kite photo

photograph by natalie eberly

In exactly one month from today, I will be getting married.

And Jason and I will be Mr. and Mrs. Taylor-Pestell.

And though there is much to be done
between now and that wonderful day,

I am so abundantly happy.

Photography by Michael Finster of www.BlueKitePhoto.com

Wedding and Newlyweds Brunch invitations are out!

Wedding website is up!

Honeymoon registry is up!

Hearth & Home registry is up!

Bridal Shower invitations are ordered!

And now we let the RSVPs roll in and move on to new projects.  :)


artwork © kimberly k taylor, all rights reserved

12 w e e k s

2  d a y s

12 h o u r s

until I marry Jason Pestell

Photography by Michael Finster of www.BlueKitePhoto.com

Well friends, the Save-the-Dates are out!  I say it is a milestone, of sorts, in this wedding process experience.  I was pleased with how my designs turned out.  Everything is handwritten or painted except for the scan of our photo booth engagement.  I wanted it to be as handmade as possible!  Quite light in style and plentiful with open space made it no less time consuming by the end, but, I am pleased (and relieved that they are sent!).

Two versions for two celebrations for two separate guest lists:

 &

Someday, I would love to design Save-the-Dates or wedding invitations as part of the paperworks art business I am dreaming up.  That's for later, but for now- I am enjoying designing my own!

Now, onto the wedding invitation!  I have the basic frame drawn, implementing more fleur designs and now I am experimenting with watercolor patterns to give it some light.  After that, there is text to write and a map to paint. 

Slowly, but surely...

© kimberly k taylor, all rights reserved

© michael finster of Blue Kite Photo

These last few days, I have been undoubtably stir crazy.  It is all I can do to get anything done besides looking up homes for rent online.  I love living with Val and little Scarlet, I do.  I just want a space of my own where I can arrange my furniture, organize my treasures, and set up an art studio.  I want to have a space for hanging things all around -- garlands, photography, art prints, twinkle lights, clippings for inspiration.  I want a space where I can welcome people and we can laugh and watch movies or sprawl on the living room full because it's there.  And I want a space where I can drive up at the end of the day, unlock my back door (I always thought it would be lovely to habitually enter in the backdoor like they do in films or the way my childhood friends did), feel carpet between my toes that says, "you're home".

Practically, I am ahead of schedule.  I spotted a Monrovian home just across the street from where I currently live.  A lovely 3-bedroom with a front and backyard, 1.5 bathrooms, a huge living, and sizeable kitchen. And even though Jason and I called last night and found out there are several people applying or it and the space is available now instead of a few months from now, it did not prevent me from leaving the townhouse early this morning to stop by and take a look inside, snap some pictures, and still get to work on time.  And I am not exaggerating when I say that there is a huge room (supposed to be the master bedroom) with an entrance to the backyard porch, and one to the kitchen for quick snack-getting, and has the incredibly immense potential for a dream art studio for me / study for Jason.  I would readily take a smaller bedroom to have an art space that overlooks a backyard of grass and twinklights.  Gladly.

I also found a small 2-bedroom house for rent in Pasadena online and it says it will be available in June, which is pretty much when we were looking to move Jason out of Glendora and into our new place, and I got all excited.  I have no idea if the place is even close to a good fit, but it gets the blood rushing in my veins and gives me an appetite to grab my coat and purse, and up and run out my cubicle towards the nearest "For Rent" sign.

I suppose it's just about that time.  The ever-growing itch that started back in high school has become all I can think about.  And I want to play house for real.

polaroid 600 with impossible film:  saturdate | taken by brittany m. taylor


Yesterday, was a whirlwind!  2:49am text messages from Michael of Blue Kite Photo letting us know his flight had been canceled (oh no!) and then texts with a replacement flight (sweet relief!).  A morning LAX pick-up and a drive to Glendora to familiarize Michael with the location we had in mind for our engagement photography session.  Jason and I learned that March is quite possibly the most beautiful time of year up in the mountain hills of Big Dalton Wilderness Park.  Everything was abounding in luscious greens and vibrant arrays of plant life.  Moreso than any other time we have been there! 

To say that Michael loved it would be an understatement.  He kept exclaiming about how much more amazing this landscape was than anything he had back home in Charlotte, NC.  According to Michael, the California sun is so different here- it has a brighter glow, and he could not get over the endless possibilities all around us.

From there, we went to lunch at Panera Bread, got to know each other (he is pretty fabulous and so easy to talk to), and dropped him off at his hotel around 1:30pm for him to have some down time.  At that point, the poor guy had been up since 4:00am his time (1:00am our time), which meant 12 hours and the day was only half over with a 2-hour photo shoot ahead of him.

Jason and I headed back to my place to get ready and for my part, get nervous.  I am much more at home behind the lens than in front of it and all the build up of finding the perfect photographer, Michael being available, and flying him out here just for these two days, was unintentionally building up a large amount of pressure in my mind.

At 3:30pm, we picked up Michael and headed back to Big Dalton.  Michael was great and so encouraging.  The two-hour shoot went by quickly and even with that amount of time, we didn't go to all the places we had in mind, but according to Michael, we got so much material.  He shot in digital as well as film with his Contax 645 medium format camera, which he is going to develop for us!  I am so excited as my love of real film is a forever kind of love.

At the end of the day, I received the following iPhone screen capture of one of the images Michael was really excited about and I can't wait to see the rest!

Today, we are shooting a small supplemental shoot, potentially in Sierra Madre, but we may just go back to Big Dalton and finish up some more possibilities there.  I am looking forward to it and feel more relaxed today now that the first shoot is done and seems to have went well.

Happy!

screen capture of an image by © michael finster of Blue Kite Photo

29/29 | Twenty-Nine Days Challenge

Recent lunch breaks are for errands and wedding business.  I sent off the potential bridesmaid dresses that we are not using and certify-mailed my U.S. passport renewal all the way to Philadelphia.  We have a good eight months before we take to the air for our overseas honeymoon, so we should be okay. 

Other happy news, we have secured our Just Married Celebration location for our southern California party for the beloved extended relatives and friends who we will not be able to invite to the small, family-centric wedding in northern California.  Our long-time family friends, the Terry's, have welcomed us to use their beautiful backyard for the celebration and it is simply perfect!  Sweet relief!  Now we can finally get both versions of the Save-the-Dates out!

For the last few evenings, I have tried combining much-needed introvert solitude with table center decor projects.  Between trudging home from work and taking care of Scarlet's 9:00pm tube feeding, I have tried my hand at making paper flowers.  With each passing hour, I have managed to cut down the turnaround time it takes me to form each blossom, but it still takes time (somewhere between 5-7 minutes per blossom).  Cutting the circles, forming the cones, gluing them together one-by-one is actually rather relaxing and hour by hour, new flowers are added to the pool.



In preparation of the upcoming March Crafternoon, I have been experimenting with papers of varying thicknesses and found that I like the look of tissue paper best.  As Brittany accurately articulated, the tissue paper blossoms look more full.  Softer, too.  I also prefer it when each blossom is only one color (I tried duo combinations and patterned paper, but they seem to lose their lovely shape when it becomes too complicated).  I have settled on a deep aqua-blue, grey silver, white, and blush.  Uhu glue dried to my fingernails make me look like leftover nail polish that has been picked at, but the end result is rather lovely, don't you think?

And here is a sample of how they will be used.  My design for the table centers incorporates these little blossoms with a wood-paper doily and a mason jar to be filled with something lovely...

So, steadily, steadily plugging away.



{click here to see another wedding project}

canon 30d:  paper roses  |  © kimberly k taylor, all rights reserved

17/29 | Twenty-Nine Days Challenge

Keeping you all abreast of wedding projects helps me feel more positive and less overwhelmed.  :)  It allows me to better see the lovely little progress I am making and feel that we truly are moving forward towards a most happy day with love everywhere.

So, without further ado, I present to you the samples I made for the wedding guest favor bags project!

Materials:  Glassine bags, paper doilies, Japanese washi tape, plenty of glue, and a sepia ink pen

Last weekend, a little band of artistics {my Maid of Honor, two bridesmaids, one bridesman, and two more friends} huddled around a table beneath overcast skies in my childhood backyard.  We decorated over 100 wedding favor bags!  These delightful little bags will later be filled with the guest favors {not telling, it's a surprise!} and each wedding guest will find one at their place setting to take home with them.  Yay!

 

Creative Project #3: Guest Favor Bags

Status: Complete

{canon 30d & canon powershot}

© kimberly k taylor, all rights reserved

so it's saturday for a change

04/29  | Twenty-Nine Days Challenge

Sweet sigh of relief.  Today, was the first Saturday since before Christmas that I have had nowhere to be.  True, I had a haircut in the mornin', but that was lovely.  Getting shampooed and chatting with my hairdresser, Ray Morales, is relaxing and light.  I have been going to Ray since my first real haircut at age 13, when he changed the course of my [tresses'] life.  He used to let me barter haircuts for babysitting his three lovely children before they moved to Frazier Park.  Now he only works Thursday-Saturday down the mountain and I am so thankful because if he didn't, I would find myself driving up to Frazier Park 2-3 times per year because he is just that good. He is a true artist and the only person I allow near my hair with a pair of scissors.  We usually talk books and theology and family... and today, we added "wedding" to the list of conversation topics!  I realized I never heard how he met his lovely wife and listened to the story of how he proposed a mere 3 months after meeting her on a ski trip.

Following my haircut, I traipsed down to B.la, a small stationary-and-more boutique in Sierra Madre.  I always stop by whenever I am in town.  I happened upon Deb Doumitt, the lovely shop owner, in 2008 and I have been stopping by ever since.  She wanted to know all about the wedding plans and we chatted as I perused, which was lovely.  And I left with part 2 of my birthday present for Megan, a journal for myself (I can't seem to say no to new journals), a Valentine for Bryan, and plenty of simply delightful cards.

Since arriving back at home, I have been diligently working away on finishing my Save-the-Date design for the wedding and the Just Married Celebration we're going to have in southern California.  Here is a little preview of some of the elements, without giving too much away:

Creative Project 2: Save-the-Dates
Status: Nearly finished!

Creative Project 3: Wedding Website
Status: Halfway there, but still a looooong way to go

{various art pieces}

© kimberly k taylor, all rights reserved

wedding business

03/29  | Twenty-Nine Days Challenge

Ideas, decision, purchase. Ideas, decision, purchase.  This seems to be the pattern for all the creative aspects of wedding planning.

My first project was deciding how I would ask my incredible wedding party if they would do us the honor of participating.  I had been dreaming up creative ideas of just the perfect way to ask, but went back and forth and back and forth.  They are such honored friends and I wanted them to feel just as special as they are.

I finally settled on an idea and started with drawing the wedding party in my signature silly stick figure form, with which my friends are quite familiar, as these types of little characters show up on almost every letter, card, or gift that comes from me.  I added in Jason's brothers, Best Man Kevin and Groomsman Shaun, to have the complete picture of our party.

Once the print was ready, I tried to figure out just how I would "frame" it. So! I purchased some cardboard children's books from Target and went to work cutting out the center pages, leaving only the thick covers. From there, I covered them with vintage fabric that I had purchased from an Etsy shop several years ago and had been saving for something special.

Using photo corners, I was able to attach the print to the inside cover and personalize each one with a paper arrow that pointed to each individual's stick figure caricature with the question, "Will you be my Maid of Honor/Bridesmaid/Bridesman?"

And here is the end result: a little self-standing print book!

 

Creative Project 1:  Wedding Party Books

Status:  Complete

And now along the same lines and in the hopes of saving money, I am planning to do much on my own:  Save-the-Dates, wedding invitations, décor, and the like.  I am also gathering a little band of artistics for some Crafternoons, in which we will take my many gathered materials and make the following:

Favors

Hand-decorated glassine paper bags

filled with flower seeds and planting instructions

Décor

Doily and penant garlands

Table centers

Cake topper

Laced archway

Photo Booth backdrop

Creative Project 2: Save-the-Dates
Status: Underway (preview coming soon)

With so much ahead, it is necessary that I continue to keep plugging away everyeveryday.  It feels like there is a 50-page list of things to take care of and it feels like a part-time job that I go to after my 8-hour work days and that always requires working on weekends.  Nearly everytime something gets checked off and I have that satisfying, "Yeah, baby!" go off in my head, about three new items are added to the list.  Boo. 

But, keeping on keeping on and trying to enjoy myself in the process... I find myself smiling a lot, too.

{canon 30d}

© kimberly k taylor, all rights reserved