Sunday, August 8, 2010

A Birthday Painting

This past Saturday was my dad's birthday. We were up till 2am the night before ringing in his 60th--not bad for an old man! The next day, a little less than top notch, we decided to tackle another "father daughter" painting. You can read more about the history of these paintings in a previous post here.

I bought the biggest canvas I could fit in my car. It was about 4x3 feet. The day was so beautiful and pleasantly cool for August in North Carolina, so we decided to paint outside. We wanted to paint a friendly landscape of a summer day.



I laid in the clouds and then the blue sky while dad put down the green fields.
We both worked on the trees. In this photo you can see where I've just begun to layer in the grasses down on the bottom of the canvas.



While I continued to build up the field and add in red little poppies dad painted in the dirt path winding off into the horizon. He did the wooden fence with a palette knife to give it some rough, splintery character. We both love painting with palette knives. I first learned how to use the palette knife in high school while copying some of Van Gogh's work as he use the tool a lot in his paintings.



We didn't have time to finished the canvas before folks started to arrive for the birthday party but we got about 3 or 4 hours in. The painting isn't finished so we'll just have to wait until the next beautiful Saturday to finish. We're planning on adding sheep in the field as well as continuing to build up the grasses, flowers and the background trees still need quite a bit of work. And the path and the fence will get some highlights and shadows to create a more defined look. But I think it's a great start. And we certainly had fun painting it. Happy Birthday Dad!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Somehwere Over the Rainbow

Well folks, it was a fabulous wedding. That's the great thing about weddings, every one is different and it's just a matter of making it work for you. Ours was complete with a 45 minute rain delay with a loud clap of thunder during the outdoor ceremony. In my opinion, this was the icing on a perfect day. While dad and I sat excitedly in a car waiting for the clouds to clear, our guests sipped prosecco under a big white tent and listened to Mozart across a manicured lawn.


The day started out at a blistering 97 degrees of North Carolina humidity. I planned a morning of "wedding yoga" to help de-stress any wedding jitters I might have had. A bunch of other folks joined in on the fun. But as we began our yoga class in the loft of the house, the air conditioning went out and our relaxing yoga morning turned into a sweaty Bikram class. This ended up being amazing because we all sweated out any hangovers we may have had from the rehearsal dinner the night before. The intense heat threatened to turn our wedding day into a sweaty mess.

About 20 mins before the 5pm ceremony the storm clouds rushed in with a flurry of cooling wind and shade. You can see pictured a large patio umbrella that went for a swim in the lake. The showers came and cooled everything down with delicate drizzles and it couldn't have been more perfect.
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At 5:45 with wedding guests a little looser thanks to the prosecco we started the ceremony. Nicholas and I were actually married in the lightest of rains and it was perfect. A family friend, Mary Gayle Green, who just happens to be a professional Opera Singer sang out over the balcony as dad and I walked down the aisle. After the ceremony we were showered with rose petals from above. We walked back down the aisle to "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by the late Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole. A fitting song for our Maui honeymoon where we saw rainbows daily.

Before we get to the party, I'd like to mention a few of the details about my handmade wedding. The dress was actually just a simple BCBG white dress that my mom doctored with some vintage lace. I wore red ruby shoes because I'm the bride and I can do whatever I want; and there's really no place like home.



All the flowers were done by my talented best friend Emily. My bouquet was so stunning that even the fabulous photos can't capture it. She put some pears in it that were growing on a tree out back of the house. The house by the way is a beautiful Italian Style Villa my parents have flipped on and it's for sale.
The programs were made by my friend Elizabeth Turnbull and the adorable birdcage veil by talented Etsy artist Marisol Aparicio



Our dear family friend Wally Turnbull performed the ceremony. We are so honored that our wedding was his first! There is a beautiful image is of Wally outside just before the ceremony praying away the storm.


You can see images about my wedding ring here in a previous blog posting.

I told my hair stylist that I wanted her to do whatever made her happy with my hair. I wanted her to have creative license and she really came through with something stunning. The little silk flower clips were also made by Emily on the day off the wedding. The pearls I'm wearing were a lavish gift from my late Aunt Becky. She knew she was dying of cancer and wrapped these pearls up as a gift for the day I was married. She even included some pearl studs for my future husband which Nicholas wore on our wedding day.
The gorgeous photos were taken by local photographer Annemie Tonken of Megapixie Photography. Her work is, as you can see, stunning. I asked her to capture moments rather than staged pictures and she really came through with fabulous work.





The party afterward was a joyous blur of sparklers and dancing late into the night with the talented band Boomerang. There was an improptu late night limbo contest. It wasn't until I was one of 3 left that I realized everyone had been cheating for me. And the whole time I was excited to be doing so well as I'm terrible at limbo.



As I mentioned before, it was a wonderful wedding. Two days later we were off on our honeymoon. A 5 day stay in Alaska and then 8 days in Maui. A special thanks to Nicholas who took the traditional bride's role and essentially planned the whole event. I just got to enjoy it all.