Life

Life Lately.

My cellphone has been alerting me that I’m just about at the max for storage space, which is a little bit how my brain has been feeling the past few weeks. I hate the glorification of ‘busy’ — so no complaints here about having a lot of stuff going on. It’s more that I have been on the go so much the past few weeks that I’ve slipped a little behind on things like cleaning my apartment and writing blog posts.  I spent this weekend (the first one home in a while!), unpacking bags, catching up on projects, and finally uploading a few of those phone photos here for a little update…

I got to experience my very first NY Fashion Week this year — including pampering and mimosas at DryBar, and then partying it up with my sister at the Reward Style blogger party. I have to admit, I was embarrassingly excited about getting the invite to the event. I’ve been blogging for over 5 years, and like I’m sure many others do, I never feel like I’m really ‘legit’ — the comparison game is inevitable, as hard as I try to avoid it! I always tend to worry that I’m not big enough, or have enough followers, or wonder if I’ll ever feel like a ‘real’ blogger — silly, right? But going to that event and rubbing elbows with people who I know are ‘legit’ gave me a little boost of confidence, and we could all use a little of that! My sister and I walked over to Lincoln Center after the party and snapped some selfies — a little pinch-me moment as we realized some childhood daydreams as grown-ups.

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Another big event that took me away from home for a few days up to Vermont was my best friend’s wedding! I joined the bride-to-be a few days prior to the wedding up in her hometown to help a fellow bridesmaid-slash-florist with flower prep for the big day.  It is such a nice feeling to be surrounded by your best girlfriends, rolling up your sleeves and getting to use your hands to make something beautiful — I learned so much about flowers over the course of the weekend and so much fun doing it. The wedding was gorgeous and filled with so many perfect little details that only someone as talented as my friend Taz could come up with. Oh and I got to give my first ever wedding speech — great news, I didn’t trip, fall, or drop the microphone — success! IMG_4078.JPGIMG_4130.JPG

Somewhere in between all of that traveling and celebrating, I’ve also been working on some content collaborations that I’ll be able to share here soon, as well as prepping for my upcoming DIY Recipe Box class at Farm & Fable in the South End (there are still a few seats left if you’d like to join! More information here: http://farmandfable.com/collections/classes)IMG_4340.JPG

Life

The Flower Potluck.

Last week I went to a super fun event — The Flower Potluck – -thrown by the fun gals of Lauren Wells Events, Boston Pollen, and Cambria Grace.  These ladies thought of everything, from the craft paper place cards, to garlands of carnations, to little cookies with edible flowers on them — it was beyond picturesque. Everyone that was invited brought a few bunches of flowers, and the ladies at the event spent the time making flower crowns while sipping on de-licious drinks by Flask & Funnel (I had the orchard fizz, which I’m still dreaming about, yum!). The gentlemen at the event, like my great sport of a husband, crafted up boutonnieres. And I’m so darn my proud — my guy won best boutonniere (and now refers to himself as an award winning florist, ha!). It was such a fun evening spent with lots of creative and kind people, I want to do one every week!

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Life

Bridal Shower.

I shared a few sneak peeks last week, but absolutely could not wait to post all of the amazing pictures my bridesmaid and bestie Taz took of my bridal shower. Am I not the luckiest girl in the world? I have the most talented friends — from the candy bar to the flowers, to the handmade tassel garland, I walked around the room with my jaw-dropped at how much effort they had into throwing me the prettiest bridal shower I’ve ever seen.

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All photos by Bring to Light Photography

Life

Scenes from the weekend.

What a good weekend! I have been on an endless hunt for a dress for bridal shower (I decided on this neon Shoshanna dress!), picked up some peachy-pink straws to add to a gift (I really want to keep that bottle stopper for myself), and spent Sunday helping my two  girlfriends with a little floral inspiration photo shoot. Looking back at the pictures on my phone from the last week, I appear to be going through a pink phase, don’t you think?

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Life

Cake, flowers, and monograms.

A few random musings are what I have for you today… first off: my birthday is on Thursday and I have one thing on my mind. Funfetti Cake. Somehow my grocery store was sold out of the mix (didn’t they know it was my birthday?) so I’ve been looking up a few homemade recipes (here and here).

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This weekend we also tackled some wedding planning tasks — I got to work pulling together inspiration images for our florist (who happens to be one of my fabulous bridesmaids!). I’m so excited to see all of these ideas come together, I’m thinking beautiful giant peonies, some pretty little billy buttons, and pops of bright pink blooms.

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And it will come as surprise to no one, that as we worked on our wedding registry this weekend there were plenty of monogrammed goods added to the list. I’m certain I would have registered for a monogrammed vacuum, had that been an option.

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Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Life

Sneak peek.

I have a few sneak peeks of a photoshoot I helped out on this weekend — I can’t wait for the pictures to be published because I have some very talented girlfriends at Bring to Light Photography and Little Flower Cottage. It also didn’t hurt that I got to drink a few of the props when we wrapped!

Entertaining

Americana BBQ (and a giveaway!)

Last weekend my sister and I put together an Americana-inspired tablescape for a family BBQ. We incorporated lots of patriotic essentials like red and white striped straws for our lemonade and tiny American flags tucked into all white floral arrangements. It was a ton of fun and got me very excited for the holiday this coming week!

Now, ready for the best part? One lucky reader will win a party kit so you can host a patriotic BBQ too! Just leave a comment below letting me know how you’re celebrating the 4th of July, and I’ll pick one winner on Saturday to receive a package with striped straws, cupcake liners, American flags, and a few other surprises!

Want an extra entry? Follow me on Twitter @domestikateblog and tweet about the giveaway. Leave an extra comment below letting me know you’ve done so. Best of luck!

Update: Contest closed, congrats to the winner, Jess of Curating Style! 

Entertaining

Guest Post: The Little Flower Cottage

I’m excited to have one of my closest friends guest posting on the blog today about floral arranging, please welcome Navya from The Little Flower Cottage!

I’m super excited to be posting over here on my dear friend Kate’s fabulous blog today.  When Kate mentioned to me that she was interested in  having me share some tidbits about seasonal flowers I jumped at the chance to share with you a little of what I’ve been working on lately.

Spring is such an amazing season for flowers, there are so many gorgeous blooms to choose from. I know that peonies are a personal favorite of Kate’s, so that’s what we’re going to focus on!  Their season is extremely short but perfectly timed for those lovely Spring Weddings — and of course Mother’s Day!  I made these arrangements & bouquets with both in mind.

These arrangements and bouquets were made with peonies in various colors, greenery from my garden, lilacs and viburnum .  I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be helping Kate create her flowers for her own Wedding next May and you can bet Peonies will be making an appearance!

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Flower arranging.

I’ve been thinking about DIYing our wedding flowers, and one of my lovely bridesmaids found  a class on floral arranging nearby that we attended this weekend. It was so much fun learning a few techniques for creating bouquets! I can’t wait to practice what I learned with some other types of flowers.

Life

Black and white ribbon.

I’m having so much fun starting to pull together inspiration for our wedding. Sure, we don’t have a date or a venue yet, but that doesn’t mean I’m not already brainstorming details like flowers and decorations. There are so many gorgeous pictures to pull from online that it can be hard to hone your vision, so I’ve started making mini-inspiration boards for different aspects of the wedding. One detail that I have my heart set on is black and white striped ribbon incorporated into the flowers; I absolutely love how the big bows look wrapped around the stems.