Alyssa & Justin: Real Wedding

Meet Justin and Alyssa! We had the best time planning their wedding! So many surprises, and just plan awesometasticalness! For a truly awesometastic couple (and families!)!

So many incredible details, including a surprise 20 minute fireworks choreographed to music. Transportation for all of guests, and so much more! And really, check out her dress and that cake! Amazing, I think so!

Really, it's the little details, like the cake topper that capture my heart and hold it tight!

Wedding Planner: MasterPiece Weddings

Photographer: Footstone Photography

Venue: Bride's Parents Home

Cinematography: Platinum Digital Video

Food: Blue Water Bay

Cake: Dream Day Cakes

Ceremony Location: Baughman Center

Transportation: Candies Productions

Flowers and Decor: The Unforgettable Event

Entertainment: Gnys Entertainment

possibilities...

i just lOVE them!! i finished up a little project for the Birch booth using the new, very swank Commute line for Spring International Quilt Market this week and sent it off to Angela for some quilty magic!! and I can't even begin to explain how excited i am to see my finished Dandelion quilt!!

then i had a few minutes to play with a Robert Kaufman charm pack!!

i've been in lOVE with tinny little blocks for quite awhile, so these cuties were fussy cut down to 3.25" each! i want to keep going... but, damn it if this is a perfect pillow size again! LOL

OOohh... and while the Studio construction is still moving towards one serious space... i've also decided one piece of patchwork furniture must live there, right!

how can you NOT have something like this chair??? now, i just have to learn how to make it???... i see a LOT of swearing in my future!! LOL

X, Heather

Pear Tree Greetings

Before I tell you the story of Zachary's Birth Announcement, I need to thank Kristin from Footstone Photography and Footstone Ink for taking my idea that I wrote on a napkin and putting it on paper! I seriously wrote this on a napkin, a paper napkin and she make it this! I love it!!!!!!!



Zachary's Birth Announcement was supposed to be our Christmas Card, and due to some serious illnesses, well, it got bumped to New Years Valentines Day!



Pear Tree Greetings had offered me a substantial credit to print cards, as long as I told you about my experience. Soooooo, I took them up on it!



I found Pear Tree Greetings to have a great selection of Birth Announcements, Winter Birth Announcements, Holiday Cards, and everything in-between. I was hard to pick what I wanted, there was so much selection, but with the designed "Mad Lib Style Birth Announcement" I needed a card that had a customizable front, and then I was fine with a fill in the blank inside.



I choose my design (which was actually a Christmas Card, that I customized to look like a Valentines Day Card... honestly, so versatile!)



And I played with the design and the text on the inside until it was perfect.



I placed my order, put in my discount code, and BAM! It was done, or so I thought.



This is where my issues started, since I had a customizable card, and most of the site is plug and play, you simply plug in your images and type your text into the presized areas, and you are good to go, your card is professional and gorgeous.



Except, my image, the one above wasn't fitting in the pre-fit space (even though we custom sized it so that it would fit). So I had to start a chat with Customer Service, and they told me to email them the image with my order number, and they would place it into the card manually at no extra cost. Perfect!



I did that. BAM! Done!



Notsomuch.



Two days later my cards were supposed to be delivered and when a box showed up at our house that afternoon I was so excited, I tore it open, and it was filled to the brim with envelopes. Just envelopes.



Where were my cards?



I started another chat with Customer Service, and they said that I needed to approve the proof before it was mailed.



She emailed me the proof. I okay'ed it.



There were a few more hiccups in the process, and I don't want to sound unappreciative, because I am not, I am so grateful to Pear Tree Greetings for the credit, and the gorgeous cards that will be with our family for the rest of our lives!

Upcoming: WHOLE Women’s Conference

Yesterday, I was excited to learn that Dirty Girls Ministries is finally holding a conference. Started in 2009, DGM is one of two Christian organizations formed to help women suffering from pornography addition (the other being Jessica Harris’ Beggar’s Daughter). Founder Crystal Renaud wrote a devotional/self-help book, Dirty Girls Come Clean, and started an online community to provide counseling and accountability partnerships for women struggling with this sexual sin. A conference was clearly the next step to take.

The WHOLE Women’s Conference, co-hosted by the Westside Family Church, will be held in Lenexa, KS on August 24-25, 2012. The keynote speaker will be author and Women of Faith speaker Lisa Harper. Topics include abortion, porn addition, conflict and intimacy in marriage, human trafficking, homosexuality, and sexual abuse. Crystal Renaud will also be leading an optional breakfast devotional, and Nuance Boutique will be putting on a teen fashion show.

This conference sounds like a great opportunity for both believing and unbelieving women to learn about how God can turn their lives around for the better. I hope that it encourages more Christians to confront these very real but often ignored issues and work together to find new solutions and renewed life.

Awkward Family Photos

So, it's your wedding day, and you are imagining dreaming of all of your family being together in one place and your having these incredible images that capture your wedding perfectly!



But, let's talk real life for just a sec.



Humor me.



Sometimes you just don't get that dream image. Sometimes you picture life one way and BAM! Real life slaps you in the face like an overcooked pancake.



I am working on a little project about awkward family pictures, please send them to me! Email me at melissa at masterpieceweddings dot net



I wanna see them!



And just so you know I play fair.... (and the best is yet to come!)

Awkward Family Photo.... Exhibit A - I had Gabriel all dressed up for his brother's Baptism - he loved it. I cut off John's head and Zachary looks like he's a few fries short of, well you know.

Confessions of a blogger.

Here it is… I’m burning into my 3rd year blogging, ha! ( i'm such an old lady!) whatever that means… and it’s amazing. Not because I give a rat’s ass as to what I’m doing, but because of what all these other clever… much more business savvy, talented folks are earning that call me a friend. Yes, I did say, “Earning”… they work for the right of your respect, admiration and trust. Trust... that they not only can give you the promise… of “fabulous in all things they do”, but also deliver on the goods. These are my kids (peeps from the beginning), who have had a bit a dream, really, and it was so incredibly vivid… that others flocked to them without thought . what a damn statement to have made, right??!!

If you’ve read my blog at all over the minutes I’ve been around, you’d already know how much I respect and honor,  those that I believe have earned it in my book. They make clever… ridiculously smart, and just bloody brilliant designs. here's some of their eye candy... you can link on there photo's to see more of their work!

Monica.

Ashley.

Amber.

Nova.

and Elizabeth.

here's the thing... i don't give a shit that these women could rule the modern quilting world for any reason... maybe they are more clever, more imaginative, more whimsical, and even more swanky... than me. i don't care... because when we were all just tadpoles in this pond... they liked me. simple, really. they just liked me for all my manly style, trucker mouth and big o'le heart.

so... i will always honor my kids for what they are and who they have become. It takes a proud woman to claim her friends to be more clever then herself. There is never shame in giving honor to those who deserve it. period. IT WILL NEVER MAKE YOU LESS, FOR APPRECIATING OTHERS. it makes you... humble.

and while, i continue building my new sewing studio... i'm so grateful to take this time to appreciate my peers art and creativity. i'm blessed to be in their company. i feel pretty damn confidant that i wouldn't be interested in this art... if i wasn't surrounded by the positive.

embrace yourselves girls... we're all the shit, in our own way. that does NOT make us less!  hear me... this is truth!!!... it makes us unique!!!  lOVE our sister's and embrace ourselves!  we will all bring light to each other's lives.  nothing cheesy about that.  i swear.  ;)

x, Heather

Pinterest Beauty

If you are looking for great ideas for your hair make up and the magazines aren't cutting the mustard for you, check out Pinterest for hair and make up ideas.

I mean really, who doesn't love some great tips!



And don't forget to hire professionals to make this happen for you on your big day... but the idea's are free!