E+ T || Los Altos Hills Wedding

I had the privilege of spending the day with my sweet girlfriend, Tara, from Tara Marie Photography at a local wedding. She was kind enough to let me tag along, teach me the ropes, and let me shoot along side during most of the wedding event. I'd be lying if I said I didn't fall in love and can't wait to do it again. 

This backyard boutique wedding had such a great vintage and personal vibe. The bride's grandma's house served as the venue, and her dress as the bride's wedding gown. It was such an intimate gathering-- to be witnesses of their love and celebrate long-standing family traditions. 

Congratulations to a beautiful couple and another huge thank you, Tara, for generous and making it look easy. ;) I've got a lot of work cut out for me ahead.

Party of F I V E

Here are a few of my favorites from our family session with our friend, Rachel Howden.

It's amazing what a little candy can do to get two little boys to cooperate with a 45 minute photo shoot. It's a whole new level of hard to get five people looking good at the same time...heck, it's just hard to get five people to stop moving to get a picture! I'm so grateful that Rachel was able to capture our new family of five and that we got so many great images to add to our home!

Whatever Craft Weekend Sponsors

LAST Craft weekend post, pinkie-promise. {part one and two: here and here} I wanted to share some of the amazing products and sellers that graced us with goodies over the weekend. I'm pretty sure my bag was split between SWAG and antiques I found while shopping. Even some of the crafts we did were sponsored.

We made felt pillows using Benzie's felt. Amazing! I'm a sucker for the stuff and am SO SO happy to finally have a quality source to buy felt from! Tute for the flower pillow inspired by here.

{I went a little stripe-y...rebel..}

Lisa Leonard showed us how to hand-stamp which was SO fun and NOT as hard as I imagined. Although I don't think I could sell my product! She provided all the supplies for us to make one with the option to make more. So sweet of her!

We used Benjamin Moore new line of chalk board paint on some trays for an instant chalk/magnet board.

And our final sponsored craft was from SayHello. They provided these adorable pennants to turn into a chalk board style banner. How awesome is that?! SO many ways to use this!

  Now, I'm eyeing their ampersand to paint for our master. I love it!

 We had some major goodies all ready and packed up for us to take home. 

BrowardPatch- the cutest camera strap cover! And I've been wanting to get one forever so it was just perfect! I put it on my camera first thing.

House8821- a tablecloth!! um, already IN use!

Pleated Poppy- her fabulous ruffle pin + a store discount. yes! i'm digging her zippered pouches.

Dear Lizzy- ribbons, trim and lovely tags

Amy Tangerine- adorable stickers and a mini scrapbook

Jenze- sweet Thank You cards + store discount. her paper products are super cute and so affordable!

Thirty-one- craft organizer bag

Crystal B- sweet ring

Knitty Bitties- awesome mug rug with cute fabric. and her hoop art is to die for!

made by jewls- cute little fabric covered earrings. all of her shops' funds go to completing their adoption. head over there!!

Studio Calico- truck load of amazing scrapbook goodies. the paper is so happy, i must figure out a craft to use them ASAP!

And the ever-adorable "YAY" banner from the fabulous Heather over at CMhandmade was waiting on each of our beds! Seriously, love getting custom banners from this girl!

Wowza! So much goodness! Just knowing that most of these are women who were inspired to start a homemade business just blew me away. I love that! And I love getting to use/wear my new products and remember what an amazing time I had.

photo credit: meg duerksen

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Other Craft Weekender's Recaps...

Nicole: here; who also just started The Orange Bird with an amazing mission and cute products to boot! I snagged an adorable wrap bracelet that I wear everyday!

Lisa: here and here

Meg: here

Brown Paper Packages

...all tied up with string. These are a few of my favorite things!

Cooked up something fun for this Valentine's with the help of this. W gets to open a small treat every hour at 14 past the hour during his full day at work. And yes, his goodies are in way girly wrapping. One of them even has a polka-dot ribbon. ;) I put all his little gifts in a giant basket and even included a red felt puffy conversation heart that said "Love U". Total cheese!

We usually don't do anything too out of the ordinary for love day. Don't really exchange gifts. Last year, it was a delicious dinner made by W. This year, he's working a 10 hour day. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to do a little something extra for him. Just small gifts: candy, small random items that he'll like, a new shirt, a new toy for him and E to play with, and a few gift cards with small amounts to some of his favorite places.

Doing anything special with the one you love?