Bella Pink Cafe

I do...

     Here are some shots I took from the wedding (I know you are probably sick of me talking about it!...this will be it, promise!) I'm still processing alot of the photos, but here are a few! Ceremony was perfect, seeing old friends gave good laughs... surrounded by family warms the heart...happiness is all I saw that night.  An extra sparkle in my brother's already sky blue eyes....watching my daughter come down the aisle (and almost forgetting to spill the rose petals!) ...hearing whispers of "awww how sweet" when my sister and I escorted our handsome older brother down the aisle...and two words my dear sister in-law waited very patiently to hear... "I do"

giggles...

   

Foot fun in the limo!

A touching moment in the ride to the ceremony, my mother holding hands with the bride

Another touching moment, alone in the reception room before anyone arrived, quietly and peacefully, a candle was lit by the bride and her father in memory of her mother.  I was honored to be the only one in the room with them during this emotional moment.

My girl dancing with her Pop-Pop! (She changed like everyone else, from heels to flip flops!)

First dance 

Friday Fab Favorites~Wedding Day!

     How perfect to put together this Friday's fab favorite's to honor my brother's wedding day!  Yep! It's today!  Have a wonderful weekend, gotta get ready for the big event, xo

Fresh Props...

     Here is superman's handywork for the wedding ceremony.  He created these two urns (in size XXL) with fresh flowers to be placed near the mock altar during the candlelight ceremony.  I think we may need to hire a crane and forklift to get them there, so darn heavy!

   

The Cafe...

     My lovely new sign for the studio came last week from Ms. Claudia.  So beautiful.  If only I could snap my fingers and the rest of the space would be finished.  Gotta get it done...it's been taking soooo long.  After the wedding I will focus, I promise myself!  The spindles Claudia painted for the boutique sold fast (and to those that bought them, thank you for your patience! I am packing and shipping them today) ps: We have cute new items being added in our "Whimsy" department in the boutique, lots of cool stuff I think you will love! 

I'm A Little Tea Shirt...

     My friend Heather Bullard sent me this oh so fabulous "Tea" Shirt.   Is this the cutest thing you've ever seen?  Perfect for us ladies in the "vintage" world.  I'm so happy to be one of the first to get it before she launches her new store The Present Past  Heather and I "met" and quickly became friends while working on a project together (one of those soon to be told surprises I have coming!) and we felt like we knew each other forever.  She is such an inspiration and talented lady.  Love her eye for design and beautiful photography.  I think we will get the chance to meet in person on another project in the works.  Note to Heather:  you were so right about the size my dear!  Fits perfectly :) Ok, for you vintage lovers, go check out her inspiring blog and keep checking for the launch of her gorgeous boutique   Here is a little modeling session with my new tea shirt!

Packaged perfectly to a "tea" in Heather style!

 

 

Friday Fab Favorites!

     Ok, this was fun.  I have always wanted to do this after seeing them on my dear friend Heather's blog.(ps: Have you seen her blog? She rocks! I will tell you how we met in a later post!)  So here goes... my little inspiration for this week (and should carry me into the weekend).  I will try to do this every Friday to start the weekend off right! Hope you enjoy, all courtesy of Flickr (photo credits can found on this link).  xo

mental note:  work on fixing the right side so it's not cut off! UGH! 

All Tuckered Out

    Just coming off a busy weekend and headed for even busier weeks ahead.  This Friday we have another performance from our little girl and her Summer dance troop and our son is in the junior golf tournament over at our golf club the same day, that should be fun juggling the two events!  Also, my brother's wedding is coming up fast too!  7-27 to be exact, it will be loads of fun for sure and I have so many things to do yet!  When that is over, we can rest a bit with a much needed vacation to the beach...and possibly squeeze in a quick trip to New York City after that.

     The boys came back (in one piece) with lots of tales from their camping trip.  My son jumped in the shower and took a snooze as soon as his head hit the pillow.  I'm still washing the dirty clothes, praying my washer survives!

     Us girls had a fabulous weekend of shopping, dinners, staying up late watching movies, and celebrating my niece getting her official drivers license (she only had her permit before) and the test was on Friday the 13th no less!  Here she is all proud showing it off.  Notice the Wriskey™ keychain? lol  Now she has freedom in her little convertible, driving around town picking up her friends.  Wait till she has to fill up her gas tank...that will change REAL quick!

It also was our job to take care of "daddy's plants & garden" while he was camping...I think we did a good job!

Here is a shot of  a small portion of the back patio with a glimpse of the carriage house to the left (or glorified extra garage!)  The 2nd floor is finished into office space, 1st floor is the workshop.

 

  Checking on her brother's  "froggies" in the waterfall !

 

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

     This afternoon was the first start of our "girls" weekend (just me and my little girl)  Since the boys are away, the girls will play!  We stopped at the pool at our country club for a dip, then off to shop for some beach wear for our upcoming vacation.  Had to get this hat for the beach, the GAP is a sure thing for some great sales!  Little girl got herself a pair of funky glasses and a Vera Bradley case for them.  She was wearing the glasses while we were out tonight in the dark.  I think she may sleep in them!  Can you believe my little rock star took the pictures of me with my new beach hat below?  I think we may have a photographer in training here!

Boys will be Boys

     This weekend our boys (hubby and son) leave for their annual camping trip in the mountains of Pennsylvania.  They meet up with my husband 's cousin (and business partner) he has 3 boys himself and they  pitch tents and set up camp with some other friends and their sons and ride their quads and fish on 750 acres (yes- 750!)  A friend of ours own's the property and he meets them with his boys....do you get the picture - BOYS ONLY?  Not that I would go, I couldn't rough it in a tent...I like my down comforter and fluffy pillows!  This is their 4th annual trip, lots of excitement in the air...packing, bags everywhere and questions from hubby like "do you know wear my riding pants and gloves are?"  How the heck would I know that!?  Here are some shots from last year and yes they wear all the safety gear, helmets (shout out to uswood1 in NY- I see you!) chest protectors, etc...they are all experienced riders.

Group shots on the "rides"  See the little hunk in the front with no shirt on? 

Hubby is 3rd from the left in this picture (or the only one with hair!)- My washer was clogged for days after this trip!

At least here in this picture I know they remembered to feed the kids!  Pic on the right is of their camp site

     My daughter and I have a fun weekend planned with lots of girly things!  Pedicures, shopping for her shoes and a headpiece for the big wedding.  I'll be able to catch up with some old friends, one who we call the Dunkin Donuts heiress!  Her and her husband own a chain of 10 Dunkin Donuts stores....we laugh because you think she would be as big as a house from eating free donuts, but she is thin and beautiful and says that the only free donuts she gets are ones that had a donut "malfunction" that nobody would eat! 

     Oh and I also plan on listing some great flea market finds that I never got around to and also those beautiful Spindles handpainted by our lovely guest artist Claudia.  I also will get the chance to get caught up a million things this weekend with the house quiet, like shipping out orders, and concentrate on some new projects.  Planning our vacation to the beach and packing (I'll post more on that later)  It's no where tropical, just a week to the beach.  The tropical trip is planned for this Winter. 

Fabulous Fifi

     Had to make a quick post (although it shouldn't be so quick since the subject matter is great!) BUT I have a gazillion things on my never ending "to-do" list today.  So here goes...my friend and author, Francoise O'Neill (fifi), whom I mentioned here has started a blog.  Can I just say that the new blog "Chez Fifi" is as fabulous as fifi herself?!  With the help of a VERY talented gal named Shawn, she created the perfect blog for fifi.  I have to thank Shabby Miss Jenn for connecting us with Shawn, she was a godsend!  If you need an awesome banner or any digi scrap *dazzle* (Shawn; that word suits you perfectly!) go see Shawn at her blog Auntie Pea.  I had a lot of emails asking for the blog link when it was ready, so be sure to stop by and see Fifi's blog and say hello, I know she would love to hear from you all, tell her Tara sent you! lol! xo  Visit Chez Fifi Blog

Lucky 7's

     Could things be more ironic?  The lucky number generated for the Give-Away was 77 !  With today being 7/7/07 I thought it was kind of crazy (and cool) !  Anyhoo...the winner is Jennie W. from Mt. Clemens, MI   Congrats to you! I'll get your goodies right out.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

WOW!

     Let me first say that I am overwhelmed and honored by your responses and inspiring comments!  Your feedback and notes have made this little give-away so much fun and has humbled my heart!  I will be picking our winner today using a computerized random number generator... it's cool, just enter the number between 1 and whatever the highest number is (in this case #152--WOW!) ....then with a click of the mouse .....out pops a number!  Thank you to all for entering and be sure to look for more give-away's in the future, because this was a blast!  The winner's name will be posted here on Saturday July 7th.

     On a side note: the Summer issue of Romantic Country Magazine that's part of the give-away, features my friend Francoise O'Neill (better known as "Fifi") She styled the beautiful cover and also her office is featured on pages 82 through 84, not to mention her lovely home was featured in the last issue too! Many of you have emailed me or commented about this beautiful magazine. Fifi has also styled cover shots for other great magazines such as Mary E's Home Companion, Coastal Living, Creative Home, Country Victorian and has written over 70 articles last year alone!  Busy lady.  She is in the process of starting a blog (with the help of some blog fairies) I'll give you the link to it on another post once it's up and running, I know you will enjoy it!  But for now...here is a sneak peak of a little section of her dreamy home!

   

Fifi in her Florida "Chic Shack", photo by Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn