Fashionably Late to the Party for the Gallery999 Hatbox Ghost Tribute Show

"Fashionably Late to the Party"; 8"x10" Gouache; 2016

Greetings Ghosties and Ghoulies!  Another Bats Day in the Fun Park Weekend is upon us, and that means it's time to unveil my Gallery999 painting for the event.  This year's show was called "Home Is Where You Haunt Your Hatbox" and is devoted to everyone's favorite returning star, the Hatbox Ghost.  The unspoken theme of the show is 'where has he been all these years'.  My concept was that he's been trying to figure out what hat to wear!

If interested in prints or the original, they will both be available exclusively thru the Bats Day website until mid June, at which point it will return and be listed in my Etsy Shop, The Crypt of DOOM!!

Show Flier below.

Spook Show 3 Wrap-Up and Vending Event Announcement

My husband took this picture of a crazy guy running around in a full Barlow  (Salem's Lot) costume in 90+ degree weather.  That guy had to literally be undead to survive the day in that outfit.

Hey All!  It appears that 2015 will be the year of bi-monthly blog posts as I'm obviously off to a bumpy start posting stuff this year.  So, let's get this show on the road!!

Spook Show 3 happened back on the 7th of this month (March 2015, if you read this in the future) and just like all things, it had it's ups and downs.  Overall it was a fabulous experience, again, and I look forward to next year!

Here's the play by play of events:

As good as the booth could get.  The new pop up canopy has removable walls, so it looks fancier than normal.

My normal booth 'babe' Natasha couldn't make it to this year's event so my husband had to help.  He did a really great job, and I say that because at all my past events he usually just runs around the whole day having fun and buying cool stuff from the other vendors.  But this time he had to actually work.  He was super nervous but realized it was no big deal after a couple of hours.  I decided to invest in my own pop-up vendor canopy and decided to be rebel and get a purple one.  It was pretty sweet and made me feel so much more professional having not to borrow from friends.

I unfortunately woke up late so I couldn't get breakfast or a caffeinated beverage, so the first couple hours were the most stressful of the day because 1) I'm sooo not a morning person, 2) as I get older the angrier I get if I don't eat regular meals, and 3) if I don't get a Pepsi first thing in the morning to help me wake up, all hell breaks loose.  BUT, even though I didn't eat until noon, I was still able to get us to La Mirada in time for set up by 8:30am and we were rearing to go at 12 when the first attendee's arrived!

My husband took photos of one of the Hearses at the Hearse Show all lit up after dark with Purple lights.

I sold out of nearly all the cosmetic bags and coin purses and would have sold out of the three pillows I made, but I didn't find out until the end of the day that the one pillow I had placed on reserve for a client could be released to the public and they would buy one at a later date.  (GREAT NEWS:  There is one Candy Corn Pillow for sale in the Crypt of DOOM!! if anyone would like to snag it for themselves before I do a restock.)  I'll be receiving a restock of the cosmetic and coin purses very soon as I'm starting to prep for the events I'll be mentioning at the end of this blog post.

Candy Corn throw pillows!!  6 more on their way soon.

Also in the great news category, the pillows had a very positive response from people online and at the event, so I've decided I'll be making a couple more pillows for future events!  Check out my Instagram and Facebook for working progress images or announcements as to when new product will be dropping.

Janice, the crazy happy owner of the Sushi Gremlins painting.

As for the Sushi Gremlins, we orchestrated a 'Extreme Makeover' type surprise for the recipient of the Sushi Gremlin original painting.  As I may have said in previous posts, I don't do commissions.  I'm just too busy and stretched too thin to add all the worry that is involved with custom work to my plate, but the Sushi Gremlins piece was an exception to the rule.  A very dear family friend asked me to 'do my thing' and paint his wife and two daughters as monsters eating sushi, the result was the Sushi Gremlins.  He told me their favorite colors, told me a little bit about their personality types, and most importantly he related to me stories of when they go out to eat together and what happens at the table.  Oh, and since they love Hawaii he asked if I could somehow make it look like they were eating sushi in Hawaii.

Anyway, our dear friend decided that he was going to bring his wife over that day, knowing that the painting was finished and that I had chosen to put it on display at the event.  She literally gravitated strait to it like it had a tractor beam engaged.  She just kept staring at it and smiling and commenting on all the little details.  My husband was as excited as I was to have it delivered and being admired by the person who it was secretly painted for, that he was like "Oh, so you like that painting huh?  How much do you like that painting?"  When she said she loved it we told her it was her's and that her husband had secretly commissioned it for her nearly two years ago.  She was overcome with surprise and joy.  It was the perfect ending and I couldn't have asked for things to go any better.  I just hope that their daughters like it as much as they do.

Got to see my old Neopets pal Irene!  Thanks for coming by Irene!  Oh yeah, that's me and my husband.

That pretty much wraps up Spook Show 3.  I got a chance to visit with followers, which always brings me great joy, visit with good friends like Irene, Alan, Tom and Nicole, and meet other vendors whom I only see at these kinds of events but are equally sweet and fun to be around.

Now, onto announcements!!!

Bats Day in the Fun Park WEEKEND!!!  May 29th thru the 31st, 2015

Yes, I'll be back at the Bats Day Black Market this year!  2015's Black Market will take place on May 30th at the really fancy Sheraton in Anaheim.  It's always fun and I'm planning on making two new pillows for this event!  I'll be turning the Haunted Mansion/Star Wars mash up painting that I call "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" into a throw pillow as well as the "Kissing Bats" that you can see in my shop on cosmetic bags and a button.  I'm also planning on expanding the Disneyland Tourist Monster Sticker line up by adding two new stickers.  2015 will be bringing Sheldon (Frankenstein's Monster) and ONE of the following: either Prudence, Gillian (Creature), or Booger (as in Boogervampire).  I still haven't decided, but stay tuned in and you'll find out!

My 3rd year doing this event!  Past paintings were "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" and "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners"

Speaking of Bats Day, I'll also be participating in this year's Gallery999 Haunted Mansion Tribute Art Show again this year.  This will probably be my last year doing it, and I'm in a bit of a funk with the piece (if you've been following a while, you know I signed a contract that prevents me from showing any of it until it has debuted at the show on May 30th) but I'm hoping to get over that this coming weekend.

One of my two favorite Conventions!  This and Monsterpalooza are the only two I actually BRAVE crowds to go to on purpose.  It's that good!!  If an introvert with a fear of crowds won't miss it, you shouldn't either!

Lastly, I'll also be vending again this year at ScareLA!!  We sincerely had SUCH A GOOD TIME last year, that we couldn't WAIT to go back this year.  What's more exciting is that they've moved it from Downtown LA to the Pasadena Convention Center!!  It's a much larger place, and the lazy little turd that I am can't deny having it closer to home is AWESOME!!  You can get tickets now to the Event by visiting the official ScareLA website.

That's it for this month!  Hopefully I'll have stuff I can post soon that's new or in progress, but until then, head over to the Crypt of DOOM!! before I get to busy at work and have to close it again.  Going to try leaving it open for another week.  Fingers crossed things at work stay calm enough that I can handle both with out pulling all my hair out!  LATER ALL!

Museum of the Weird Tribute Show at Creature Features

The newest flier for the Museum of the Weird show at Creature Features in Burbank, CA.

Well, it's nearly here!  The Museum of the Weird Tribute Show, with special guest Rolly Crump (one of the original Imagineers behind the project) will be this coming Saturday, September 13th, 2014 from 6-10pm at Creature Features in Burbank, CA.  If you've been following over on my Facebook or Instagram you've probably had your fill of sneak peeks and work in progress posts and if you actually follow my Deviant Art account you've seen just a little bit more. . . but if you've seen NONE of that, then here's a sneak peek for you!

Lousy Cell phone pic of the upper Left corner of my new painting, "Can I Help You?"

The title of my piece is called "Can I Help You?" which I'm sure you can see is derived from the expression on her face.  As I said in the last post, she came from the first round of the tumblr "Monster Girl Challenge" last year and had been created as the solution to the "true monster" challenge.  Basically, it's Cthulhu's daughter or something like that.  Not officially of course, but since people saw it I've been getting 'Is that Cthulhu?" a lot.  So yeah, she turned out pretty much just the way I wanted her to.  I'll post the full, finished piece here next Sunday.

Use Coupon Code WhyNot20 for 20% off until 09/13/14!

Also, in honor of the opening, which I inexplicably seem to become more excited about every day (it's honestly a bit out of character) I'm having a one week only sale over in the Crypt of DOOM!!  Just enter the code WhyNot20 during check out and you'll receive 20% off on orders over $4.  The code automatically will expire on Saturday (I believe at 9pm PST) so enjoy it while it lasts!  I recently got a small restock of cosmetic bags and coin purses that sold out at ScareLA last month, so if you've been waiting on any of those, now's your chance!

ScareLA Weekend Recap

Greetings Boils and Ghouls!

The last few weeks leading up to the ScareLA (or Scare Los Angeles) convention have been full of wild craziness.  Most anticipated (making new product and restocking stuff) and some was unexpected (my car breaking down while out purchasing last minute supplies for the convention).  But after all was said and done, ScareLA was just as wonderful, fun, stressful and tiring as I had been told it would be.

My always wacky and supportive husband posing at the table  on the morning of Day 2.

Let's get strait to business in this post first (that way if you get bored and decided to stop reading you'll at least get the important news first)!

If you had been patiently waiting for the "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" (a.k.a. R2D2) coin purse and cosmetic bag restock, I do have bad news.  I sold out of the coin purses over the weekend and need to order new ones, again (it'll be about a month).  I do have ONE cosmetics bag left after the weekend and it's live, in the shop, right now.  I've reordered some of those as well and should expect them at the same time the new coin purses come in.  I also sold out of the "Kissing Bats" coin purses, the BRAND NEW "Wee Emily Dover" coin purses (still ONE cosmetics bag of that left, btw), the "Truly Outrageous" cosmetics bags, and quite a few necklaces.  I'll be gradually listing the new product that was made for ScareLA thru out the week, so check the Crypt of DOOM! frequently to see what's popped up!

One of the many new necklaces I made for ScareLA.

My newest cosmetic bag and coin purse design went over so well I have to reorder!  At the time of writing this, there is one Cosmetics bag left available over in the Crypt of DOOM!

This little guy found a new home this weekend!  Goodbye my little Batty friend!

Decided to offer a new, larger size option for the "Master Gracey" prints.  They were popular.

One of 3 sketch cards made for the event.  The left overs will be listed in the Crypt of DOOM by the end of the week.

Business done, now is time to wax poetic about the weekend!  I had a wonderful time.  It was my first two day event and it was overwhelming, at times, how many people would be at the booth at once.  I ran out of one of my more popular business card designs and almost ran out of a second (I now have 6 design options for people to choose from at events).  If I can judge by the amount of Prudence post cards I have left over, since I was giving them out to people who bought something, I made a lot of sales because there is barely any left of the 100 I had made.  I discovered that I'm not the only one that loves Prudence, the Boogervampire's sassy older sister because she had a LOT of new merchandise with her on it sell this weekend.  I tried making sketch cards for the first time on this outing, and although none sold, people's reaction to them was positive.  I got to meet a BUNCH of my Instagram and Facebook followers, and fellow artist Lupe Flores came out to say hello and brought me a beautiful print of her work!  (Thank you, Lupe!!)  I got super socially awkward when artist Gris Grimly stopped and looked at my "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners" painting, and at one point Director John Landis was walking the floor and leaned in to look at my table and smiled.  It was so exciting.  As usual though, I only ever left the table to use the Ladies Room so I didn't see too much.  Thankfully that's where my husband comes in.  He runs all over these events taking photos and showing them to me later.  I hope that one day, after I've gotten used to going to these kinds of things, I'll feel confident enough to leave the booth and go take a look at my surroundings more.

The print that the talented Lupe Flores brought to me on the 2nd day of ScareLA.  Thank you again Lupe!

This show will be up and on display until August 23rd, 2014

Saturday night, in addition to the all day convention, I headed over to Creature Features in Burbank, CA to check out the Creature from the Black Lagoon 60th Anniversary Tribute Show.  I had submitted my painting "He's So Dreamy!" into the show when I realized I didn't have time to create anything new.  I was overjoyed (and a bit sad at first) to discover that my "baby" had sold.  I only hope that whomever purchased her finds joy every time they look at it and love it as much as I do/did.

Green dots are bittersweet things!  Goodbye my friend, you'll be missed.

A pic from just after He's So Dreamy was completed from November of 2012.

There were many amazing, fun and nostalgic pieces in the Creature show, in addition to mine.   My inner geek loved the Uncle Gilbert costume from the Munsters TV show!  If you're in the Southern California region you might want to head over to the shop and check the show out before it ends on August 23rd (2014)!

Come on out and see my latest creation September 6th, 2014!

Up next?  Well, against my better judgment I couldn't pass up an opportunity to take part in the Museum of the Weird Tribute show for Imagineer and Animator Rolly Crump that will be taking place at Creature Features next month.  I hopped on board a little late so I only have until September 6th to conceptualize and create the piece.  Wish me luck!

That's it for now.  I'm going to go crawl into bed for about a week.  Until the next update, LATER GATORS!

Pink Parlour Wrap-Up and the Next Big Event!

Visit ScareLA's website for more information and Ticket Info.

Greetings again, boils and ghouls!

The Pink Parlour Festival is a wrap, so what's up next?  Well, I am attempting my first two day event!    I'll be vending this August 9th and 10th at LA's premier Halloween enthusiast convention, ScareLA!!  I'm really excited about this one.  It's the convention's second year and they've been dropping teasers left and right as to the panels for this years event and it sounds great!  I would especially love to sit in on the 45th Anniversary panel for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, but I'm pretty sure I'll be super busy at my table and will have to send my minions in to take photos for me.  (And by minions I just mean my husband.)  I've reordered a lot of my products for the ScareLA event and I even added a new cosmetic and coin purse design to my inventory.  I'll also be coming up with a new sticker or two for the event (possibly a new Disneyland Tourist Monster and a Halloween themed sticker) and making up some new necklaces.  So follow my Instagram to see work in progress images as I prepare for ScareLA and I hope to see some of you there!

The ad used for Instagram.  Facebook had a similar one.

Now, back to the Pink Parlour Festival re-cap!  It was wonderful to get out and visit with all my followers and make new ones.  Got to meet a few people whom I speak with on Instagram, got to meet with Dahlia Deranged and apologize that I can't take part in the Hollows Market that they're organizing for the end of next month (which you should check out if you live in the Los Angeles area and love gothy-spooky goodness), as well as touching bases with the FABULOUS AbbyBelle and Eva Rose from Evil Rose Designs

My table was table 78 and I was fortunate (and unfortunate) enough to be right near the stage.  We had all sorts of fun live entertainment to listen to while we worked at this event.  Quite a few bands, a fashion show and a pin up contest were just some of the events on the main stage.  Only down side is that as I get older my hearing gets worse so I had a HORRIBLE time trying to hear anyone that came by the booth, but I managed.  ;)

Prudence Stickers turned out awesome and are now available in the Crypt of DOOM.

The new Prudence stickers made their debut and were received well. . . not as well as the Disneyland Tourist Frannie stickers, but well.  The left over stickers have been posted over in the Crypt of DOOM and are $4 each if you'd like to pick one up.  We were excited to see a large number of items sell out for once.  All the Disneyland Tourist Frannie Stickers are gone, and have been reordered.  The "Help Us Master Gracey" coin purses as well as the "IceScream Social" coin purses all sold out and have been reordered as well as the "IceScream Social" cosmetic bags.

Getting in the Spirit

Greetings Boils and Ghouls!

Not much to report this week, but at least I've done two posts this month (so far)!  I've got two gouache paintings I need to finish pretty quickly and since the last painting was acrylic I did this little Boogerbat to ease into the medium again.  It's kinda tough finding a background color that looks good with my dear friend the Boogerbat.  I kinda got married to the idea of him being a darker shade of periwinkle about 10 years ago and as much as I try, it just doesn't seem like him if he's not that color.

This is available in limited quantities for the Holidays over in the Crypt of DOOM!

Enjoy!

Godzilla's Paper Cranes: Part 3 and Wrap-up

"Little 'Zilla's Wish"; 6x6 inch Gouache on watercolor paper; 2013

 So, as a way of practicing for future show's where I may be contractually obligated to wait to post images of my paintings until the opening, I thought I'd practice on "Little 'Zilla's Wish".  He was soooo fun to work on, as I'm sure you gathered from the other two posts.  What started as a smart ass, sarcastic  conversation to a friend turned into something truly endearing and fun.

Details!!  if you look super close at the shoreline you'll see some white squiggles.
Yeah, they're actually seagulls.  I got a little lost in the pretty.

I actually saw someone comment on tumblr (yes, I have one of those too) that if they thought my piece had anything to do with the non-fiction kid's book "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" they were going to start balling.  I can honestly say, I wish my imagination was capable of something so moving.  The idea of everyone in the world, including Godzilla, trying to help that little girl finish her quest to make 1000 paper cranes after her death is indeed touching and would make me cry too.  Sadly, as I stated in the last post, it's just because he doesn't like humans and wants them to go away so he doesn't have to resort to violence.  Considering how many Godzilla movies there have been, I think we all know he didn't finish his 1000 cranes.

The other pile of cranes.  He's a long way from hitting that 1000 mark.

So, yeah.  The last few pictures of this and then we'll move on to other, boring, projects.  Namely finally getting the thank you card made for my wedding which was nearly a year ago.  According to the etiquette guides I still have time. :P  Unfortunately, according to my conscience I'm about 4 months over due.  Don't worry, I won't post that one up til it's finished.  No one really wants to see more Halloween themed wedding crap, do they?  Exactly.

Not the best pic, but here's all the pieces on the wall.  Wonderful show!!

My dear friend Natasha Kline's piece "Bean's Beach Bungalow" turned out beautifully!

Oscar Rosales' Bleenkies pieces always bring a smile to my face.  The little book below is now part of our collection.  Carlos couldn't resist a little piece of kid's art called "Mr. Poo Poo's trip to Vegas. 

Even more of the artwork.  The random hand is pointing to Jason Leung's Moby Dick inspired piece.

Look!  There's the painting!  Monkeyhouse Shows are always so diverse.

So lastly,  I'm taking an extended break from my Etsy Shop the Crypt of DOOM!  I've basically taken too much on for one person to manage and something's gotta go.  Right now it's the Etsy Shop.  I'm hoping, if things go well, to have the shop open again in time for the holidays (probably around November 1st, 2013).  The plus side of closing is that #1) my husband won't feel so neglected anymore, #2) I can focus 100% of my daytime attention to my day job, which I'm very lucky to have and #3) I'll be able to focus more on my painting when I'm not focusing on numbers 1 and 2.  I have a million ideas in my head right now and I need to get some of them out cause they're eating at me.

Til the next update. . . later ghoulies!!

New Years Blog Dump

Love me some Grumpy Cat.

Well, I've apparently taken a New Years Oath to not update my blog. . . ever.  That being said, Happy New Years everybody!  Oh and Merry Christmas and every other holiday I missed between the last post and this one.

Limited Edition Frankenbread Men wrapping paper from Spoonflower.  Hopefully it comes back next year.

Speaking of outdated Christmas stuff.  Spoonflower had this AWESOME promotion thru the Holidays.  They were selling wrapping paper!  So you could have a custom printed roll of wrapping paper.  I, of course, jumped on it and ordered 3 rolls of Frankenbread Men paper plus a roll of the "Key L-eye-me Cupcake" and "Clownie Cupcake"designs.  The package in the photo was an Etsy purchase going over to the UK.  The recipient's husband asked if I could gift wrap his order.  Alison, the recipient told me she was very excited about both the gift and the wrapping paper.  Glad to make someone's holiday a little brighter. . . especially since his gift didn't get there until after Christmas.

Let's continue shall we?

I've been toiling away on a couple of commissions, working, and trying desperately to finish some unfinished projects.  All of which I've been documenting on my Facebook Fan Page.  So for the Facebook Followers that stumble upon this update, sorry for rehashing stuff you've already seen, but I gotta update the blog.

First up. . . I have a horribly unhealthy addiction to the Grumpy Cat (which you can see above).  She reminds me of my cat Fluffy (RIP Fuzzball).  That cat was the crankiest cat I've ever seen, but super tolerant.  Every time I picked her up, or tie a bow around her neck, she'd just growl.  I probably drove my mom nuts making that cat growl all day.  Anyway, in my head, Fluffy would make the same face as Grumpy Cat.

"Candy Corn 2012" 4"x4" Acrylic on Canvas; 2012

Back at the beginning of November I was contacted by an Etsy member and she requested two custom paintings.  One was a recreation of my original Candy Corn painting that sold a couple years ago.  The second, we agreed, would be a new Cupcake.  I wanted to do a Halloween themed one (big surprise) and I also love those "Worms And Dirt" cupcakes I've been seeing online.  If you're not sure, what a "worm and dirt" cupcake is, it's just crushed Oreo cookies for the "dirt" and some gummy worms.  I kept the title simple, and just named the new guy "Worms-n-Dirt".  Unfortunately it appears that these two, plus the old gumdrop painting, has gotten lost somewhere between LA and Canada.  Hopefully it arrives sometime this week.  The idea of that cupcake being lost in the cold makes me ill. . . almost as much as the idea of someone's purchase being lost.

"Worms-N-Dirt" 5"x7" Acrylic on Canvas; 2013

At the same time I was doing those paintings I was helping a family member make a design for her ranch.  I'm still working on it.  Family members can either be the most laid back clients, or the most demanding, so I still have a bit more to tweek.  (I won't be posting this commission online.)

I'm going to pause here and say that commissions for the first half of 2013 are CLOSED right now as I get ready for a couple of gallery shows.

Lastly, and most important on a personal level, is that after three years of work I can proudly say that I finished my valentines IN TIME FOR VALENTINE'S DAY!!  If interested, you can see previous posts about them, here and here.  Any-who, the valentines were sent to the printer, envelopes were purchased along with some RAD-ASS Avery Small Business Solutions Display Cards w/ Baggies (and a few pieces of card stock and Epson Premium Presentation Paper) and they were all assembled into this set.

"Boogervampire's Devious Dessert Valentines" Set of 28 cards and envelopes.

The Set is available only until Valentine's Day  (with hopes of making it a yearly, seasonal item) and can be purchased for $15 (plus shipping) in the Crypt of DOOM!

Here's what's happening so far in 2013:

BAT'S DAY is coming:

I was contacted and asked if I'd like to participate in the Bat's Day Gallery 999:2 Tribute to the Haunted Mansion (Meets Star Wars) group show.  It'll be taking place during Bat's Day Weekend May 4th at the Doubletree Guest Suites Anaheim Resort/Convention Center | 2085 S. Harbor Boulevard | Anaheim, CA 92802.  For more information "Like" Bat's Day and Gallery 999 on their Facebook Pages.

Just Buried: A Boogervampire Wedding

Our Halloween/Voodoo themed Save the Date card.

I had a much longer, rambley post composed but I decided to save you all the pain of my long windedness and just get to the good stuff.

Front and Back of our Voodoo/Halloween Themed Invites. Painted by me of course.

Front and Back of our Voodoo/Halloween Themed RSVP Cards, also painted by me.

I got married to my long-time boyfriend on Halloween this year.  That was the extremely vague thing I was hinting at over the last few months.  It became an all consuming beast of a thing as I was doing most of the planning by myself.  I do want to say thank you to my friends Lori, Natasha and Valerie for their input and help, just having you three made my life so much easier.

Photo collage by our friend Kristin.  I put the original paintings for the invites on display with the guest book.

My ADORABLE flower girl Sabine.

I don't want to say my wedding was completely handmade, because it wasn't, but a very good part of it was and a lot of wonderful sellers over on Etsy helped make my special day have a unique flair that I couldn't have accomplished entirely on my own.

Closer shot of the bunting.  Letters cut by The Sticker Chick, my friend Nicole.

The totally awesome tree we got married in front of with the homemade bunting.

First up my bunting.  Don't have the best pics yet, but I couldn't have pulled it off with out the help of my dear friend Nicole over at the Sticker Chick.  Although Nicole primarily does vinyl decals, I coaxed her into cutting me 22 letters an blank glitter pages so I could glue them to colored piece of balsa wood so I could make a custom bunting that spelled out "I put a spell on you".

I make color comps of everything now.  This was the third color comp of the bunting.

Next up was my gorgeous bouquet and Carlos' boutonniere.  Both were made by Candace at Flowers from the Garden.  I have horrendous allergies so I thought that if I got a paper bouquet not only could I avoid and allergy attack on my big day, but I could also keep my bouquet for a very long time.

Tissue Paper flowers from Flowers From The Garden.

Also acquired thru an awesome Etsy Seller was my mini top hat veil.  Stephanie over at La Coco Rouge made the most gorgeous mini top hat.  Although I was apprehensive to go the mini top hat route (mainly because they are so popular and I wanted to avoid jumping on a band wagon) I'm so glad that I did.  It was PERFECT.

Top hat courtesy of  LaCocoRouge and photo by Ambitious Misfit.

And finally, my amazingly wonderful photographer Collette over at Ambitious Misfit Photography knocked the ball out of the park. . . well at least from what we can see from the one picture she's posted online as a teaser.

The ultimate thank you goes out to my Mom.  I'd like to think I satisfied a dream of her's by letting her make my wedding dress.  If I didn't then at least she satisfied one of mine by letting me design my own wedding dress.  Thanks Mom.  All three trips to Joann's, in two days, after traveling 1100 miles to make sure it turned out right were, totally worth it.