occasions event design

Last weekend, I went to Tennessee to visit my grandmother with my family. She asked my dad and I to paint her patios. The rugs she used to cover the ugly concrete only lasted for two years so she wanted something more permanent. She has a beautiful Japanese garden in her back yard and Oriental antiques and accents all throughout her house so we continued that theme with a bamboo pattern. We used water based concrete stain and then sealed them once they were dry. Pictures below!

This is the small patio before we painted it. Isn't Jasper a cutie?

Here is a shot of the small patio after we finished. I drew the design on freehand with chalk and then we stained around it. We left the leaves and part of the border the natural concrete color which will deepen over time.

We used black and white concrete paint to accent the design.

Before shot of the large patio.

We mixed two colors of concrete stain together to create this color which mimics the rocks.

Another shot of the big patio.

Anyone can make their patio look much better using concrete stain, brushes, and a little creativity.

On Saturday we had a wonderful Alice in Wonderland birthday party. Check out the photos below! Many thanks to Beaufort Catering for the delicious tea party food and precious teapot cake. Prop World/ Meeting Dynamics provided many of the props we used. Their crew was professional and did a great job! Ben Wilson took all of these photos.

I made this sign for the birthday girls. The images are all from graphicsfairy.blogspot.com. What a cool site!

Prop World provided the giant playing cards. We collected teapots and teacups to use for the flower arrangements.

Here is a close up of the teapot cake and the cupcakes. The cupcake toppers are from LCcakes on Etsy.

I made the favor bags using orange and green bags from Michaels. I then folded a decorative piece of scrapbook paper around the top, punched the edge with a craft punch, and sealed it with a birthday cake sticker.

We used an eclectic assortment of teacups to serve water and lemonade. It was much too hot for tea!

We served yummy tea party food. Ham biscuits, pigs in a blanket, open faced tomato sandwiches, little sandwiches and cheese and crackers. We used the saucers from the teacups for the plates.

Here is another shot of the food.

Prop World hung all these lanterns and umbrellas on the deck for a very wonderland feel.

We had face painting for the kids under a tent.

Mushrooms from Prop World

The girls had lots of fun opening their presents in the throne!

I am loving this robot cake topper by Jtnee. What fun! Find it here.

I’ve always been partial to gold wedding bands. Isn’t this one stunning? I think it could work for bride or groom. Plus beyondtherockz made it with recycled gold. You don’t have to give up one ounce of style to be green

Pretty pretty pretty! Get yours from Nyjole J Walters here.

Use vintage hankies to wrap your bouquet and accent it with a pretty brooch. You can find them in all colors to match your theme. You could also pass them out before the ceremony. Make sure the Maid of Honor has one for the bride if you are worried about ruining your makeup!   VintageDOMICILE has some nice ones.

These notecards by 38Stitches would be perfect for thank you notes or you could use them as invites to a shower.

I love this picture of my sister and I on the 4th. Many thanks to by boyfriend, Ben, for taking it (and for putting up with my impromptu photo shoots!)