Sweet Paul ~

If you are not already familiar with Sweet Paul magazine, you really must go over and take a peek at his online version.  I may be one of the few that prefers to hold a magazine or book in my hands, rather than reading online, so I take the printed version of this gorgeous magazine and flip through the dreamy pages at my leisure. The magazine is based on Paul Lowe's hugely successful blog by the same name.

His motto is "chasing the sweet things in life".  Sweet Paul is filled with amazing photography, fabulous recipes, lifestyle goodness, creative ideas and all things that make everyday things beautiful.

Each page bursts with the colors, tastes and fragrance of summer.

I particularly love this article, styled and photographed by the amazing Dietlind Wolf, an incredibly talented propstylist, photographer and illustrator.

I adore this inspiring magazine and this issue did not disappoint.

photos by the ginger parasol

Spooky Couture

The dark, whimsical charisma of Tim Burton is captured by photograher, Tim Walker in this quirky photo shoot for last year's October issue of Harper's Bazaar ~ Magical Fashion. "In anticipation of his retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art, filmmaker Tim Burton reimagines the season's dark delight." Harper's Bazaar

Tim Walker is my all time favorite fashion photographer. He creates magic, combining the conventional with the adsurd.  His photography is among the most imaginative that I have ever seen.  He has inspired many of my shop's store front windows ~ only dreaming I could create his lavish sense of style.

I thought it would be fun to show the collaboration of the these two brilliant and creative minds again this weekend ~ as every day is probably like Halloween for these artists.

 

~~Have a magical, fashionable Halloween~~

~Basking in the Spotlight~

I am basking in the spotlight today ~ and blushing a little, too.  Dearest Sweet Janet, over at French Blue wrote an entire post all about me!!!  Janet really does make everything so much more exquisite, as does her amazing daughter Noel.

If you don't already know them, you really must drop by to meet this dynamic mother/daughter duo!!

Janet and Noel are two sweet drops in my puddle of inspiration.

Please skip on over French Blue to see this dear post! :)

Thank you, Janet!!!

~xoxo~

image 1 ~ Tim Walker

image 2 ~ French Blue

Winter Wonderland

I love creating inspiration and story boards, both on the computer and on paper or boards ~ of real weddings I have worked on and from magazines. I keep a box of clippings next to my magazine basket that gets filled while browsing my favorite periodicals. These boards were created by Snippet and Ink and Ritzy Bee. I have almost all these clippings in my own collection, having every issue of Martha Stewart Weddings since its first publication in 1987. I love how these were so beautifully arranged, so I thought I would repost them as they bring me much inspiration as I work on wintery wedding orders today. Winter weddings are actually my favorite ~ so intimate, elegant, magical and enchanting.

Perfectly Inscribed

My fabulous hand bound journal arrived today. It is perfectly inscribed and ready to fill with calligraphy, sketches, watercolor, quotes and things that bring me inspiration. I ordered a smaller version a few months ago from Melissa Meaders McArdle (Simply Mel) over at Reverie (a must follow blog!) The book is filled with gorgeous handmade paper that takes ink and watercolor beautifully. The books are hand bound by a bookbinding artist in Scotland. When I saw that she had a larger version, which could be personalized, I had to have one. The cover’s inscription reflects the name of my little dog Ginger and other things that bring joy into my life.

The arrival of the book is bittersweet as little Gigi was hospitalized again today for diabetes. Last week, when we took her to the oncologist in South Carolina, we had hoped to get a great report that the chemotherapy was shrinking her brain tumor. What we found out was that she had developed diabetes and was in serious condition and a CT scan could not be performed. They referred her back here to our animal hospital, where she was hospitalized and started on insulin. The oncologist believes the diabetes is a result of prednisone being used for the tumor, therefore it cannot be discontinued. We have not been able to stabilize her glucose levels with the injections at home, as the dosage has to be increased gradually, so she is back in the hospital today. We have taken her off the chemo until we get the diabetes under control. Our veterinarian still has high hopes that she will rally, so we are still hanging on.

I look forward to brighter days when I can relax and enjoy creating something artful in my spectacular new journal.