Wooden Wine Crates DIY!

It's the best day ever - the Friday before a long weekend! Three glorious days are ahead of us! My goals? I plan to do a few DIY projects around the casa (some painting is in my future), write a few articles and catch up on a long overdue stack of magazines. I've also got a date with my bed to catch up on my zzz's. Doesn't this all sound lovely? After a lot of traveling, I'm thrilled to chill. 

Now that you have my weekend schedule down pat, let's talk about today's fabulous topic! I had a floral meeting with one of my fall brides Alley yesterday. Alley is incredibly organized, detail oriented and creative. She's a perfect day-of-coordination client because she has thought of everything, which makes my job WAY easier and ensures that I'll be able to make her big day go smoothly. Plus she's absolutely awesome, super energetic and hilarious and we've become good friends-a wonderful perk to my job. One of Alley's creative ideas is using wooden wine crates at her dessert table to add different heights and an overall rustic look. After checking out these wine crates, I wanted to see what else you can do with these neat looking crates. So if you're wondering what to do with all your empty wine crates after you've imbibed it's contents, look no further! 

Bathroom Shelving - Who knew your towels and toilet paper could look so purdy? They do in these wooden crate shelves which can be hung on the wall or stacked on the floor!

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I'm kind of obsessed with this creative wine crate coffee table complete with storage shelves on the side! Who thinks of these things?! 

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 If your living room, bathroom, kitchen table, bedside table, etc...is overrun with magazines (Ahem, I'm talking to myself), why not store your glossies in a stylish wine crate? I may attempt this project over the long weekend if I can fit it into my packed schedule.

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Of course I wanted to see how you can use these crates for events, because events are my jam. I love flowers in unusual vessels, and there are plenty of gorgeous images that use crates as an alternative to a regular vase.

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This centerpiece with the candles is stunning. It would be perfect for a vineyard wedding.

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This beautiful beach backdrop almost doesn't need any extra decoration, but a Bellini bar accented with wine crates certainly doesn't hurt!

How beautiful is this?!

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It just makes sense to use crates for a drink station. I love the look off this!

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How about a rustic donut display? This is gorgeous!

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The wine crates showcases cake pops really well too, which is always a challenge!

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This rustic cake station using the wine crate as a cake stand is just beautiful! It would be great for a rustic cheese display at a wine/cheese party too! With chalkboards? I'll be experimenting soon!

 

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This is a beautiful collage that has tons of examples of wine crates used as centerpieces. So gorge, right? I especially love the painted blue create. The possibilities are sky high!

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This makes me want to run to  my local wine shop and steal as many crates as they'll let me! Good thing my wine shop is in walking distance from my house and knows me by name, face and preference in wine... I basically have a VIP Frequent Visitor Card. Don't be jealous.

If you're having an event, or just feel like being creative, see what you can do with these rustic wooden crates! I hope you have an awesome long weekend!

Late Summer Noshes

In case you didn't know, the summer has absolutely flown by. Overall I've had a good, busy summer filled with travel, work and good times. As usual, I think we should celebrate the end of long summer days with food! Late summer seasonal produce, to be exact. 

First up - this beautiful Summer Succotash. How yummy does this look, and who knew that one day I'd be a lima bean fan. Even if you're not a lima bean fan, substitute your favorite bean...it will give you an excuse to say Succotash.

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This cool summer salad is absolutely delicious looking. The pears, cantaloupe and tangy cheese are a great combo.

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Use up all that garden zucchini by making these zucchini fritters. It's the perfect light summer entree or side dish. Crispy and delish!

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Figs have a short lived season during the late summer. Take advantage of this flavorful fruit by making a simple dessert using figs, marscapone and honey. Drool. Serve this to your friends and they will think you are so fancy.

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Corn is big in the late summer months, and there are a gazillion mouthwatering corn recipes to satisfy your craving!

 Here are some of my faves:

Sweet Corn and Tomato Salad. Chilled. Enough Said.

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Combine the quintessential summer fruit (Watermelon, of course) with corn for a summer salad that will blow your mind. For realz. I'd take it up a notch and throw in some avocado, as we all know avocado makes everything better.

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For more corn-tastic recipes, check out this full slideshow of recipes from one of my favorite foodie sites, Delish.com 

If you're hosting a late summer gathering this Labor Day weekend, serve up some of these seasonal recipes. Set the table with sunflowers to signal the end of summer and the beginning of fall, like this gorgeous setup:

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Close out your summer in style and put some good grub in your belly :) Enjoy!

Glitter, Sparkles and Hearts - Oh My!

I love learning about new fantastic websites, although frankly, my list of visited sites has gotten slightly out of control. You might say I'm a website/blog hoarder, which isn't as bad as being a psychical hoarder. Although if I'm being REALLY, TRULY honest, I tend to hoard magazines and cookbooks too. But that's besides the point. Let's talk about this new website one of my brides introduced me to, BAN.DO. 

Ban.Do is filled with fun, glittery accessories that just scream girly celebrations. Let's take a peek into this fabulous sparkly world.

These glitter heart shoe clips are perfect for glitzy weddings that celebrate all things from the heart!

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Forgo the traditional floral corsage for your honored guests and use this ostrich feather brooch that comes in several colors. Can you say Great Gatsby themed Roaring Twenties wedding?!

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I love bows like you wouldn't believe. I'm in love with this bow headpiece for a fun, creative bride that's not wearing a traditional veil. 

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Oooh...or this flower child headpiece is a fantastic statement for the uber fashionable bride.

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Use these heart pins for party favors, honored guest brooches or just good ole sparkly decoration!

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Stay up with all the sparkly goodness at Ban.Do's blog! 

 I hope this glimpse of glitter has brightened up your day added to your internet hoarding stash!

Here's to 60 years

Hi all! I hope you are all having a great week. I just wanted to do a quick update from my summer travels. I'm in NJ visiting family and about to head DTS (down the shore). It's been a jam packed visit so far. I spent some time with my grandfather who has been recuperating from a very serious surgery for the last few months. While it is so hard to see him in pain, seeing my grandmother take care of him inspired me to write this (unusually serious) post. As my grandma called the nurse, helped him shave and spends long days at the hospital, I am reminded of my wedding vows. 

"For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health." 

I love planning weddings, I love beautiful bouquets, wedding dresses, fancy food and cakes. But those vows are really what it's all about, and I think people forget about that. The wedding day will unfortunately come to an end, and time will pass, and if you're lucky, you'll be married 60 years like my grandparents. And you'd be lucky to have someone by your bedside taking care of you, wanting to take care of you.  

So don't sweat the small stuff. The seating charts, the budget, the family drama; it really doesn't matter at the end. You'll just want someone by your side taking care of you when you need it the most, and laughing about your memories and your long years together. 

Here's to 60 years of sticking together the whole way through. I love you Grandma and Grandpa!!

Beach Wedding Decor and Much More!

 I spent the last four days with my mama at the beach and it was quite relaxing.We didn't do that much, besides enjoy almost perfect beach weather and a few other things you'll see at the end of this post. But while I was chillin' to the max at the beach, it got me to thinking about beach weddings 

and how cool they can be. 

I've been to a few beach weddings myself, and they are seriously beautiful and amazing. I couldn't personally handle it because I would be too freaked out about the potential of rain, wind, tornadoes, blizzards, freak ice storms, tsunamis, etc. You get the picture. My wedding took place in an indoor, controlled environment. 

Yes, I'm a freak! 

Besides the impending weather disasters that almost never happen, my other thought about beach weddings is similar to my thoughts on beach houses. There's simply no need to point out the fact that we are at the beach as we are hopefully all aware of this fact. We've all been to those rented beach homes with shell lamps, shell clocks, shell soaps, etc, and I think we can all agree there is no need for any overload on shell memorabilia as decor. We get it. We're at the beach. It's the same thing with beach weddings. Keep the beach theme subtle and not in your face. Basically have good "Shell" awareness. 

I hope we're on the same page here.

Speaking of shells, I think this is the perfect example of having just the right amount of shells.  I think these cookies are beautiful! No other shell accessorizing necessary, just the shell cookies as wedding favors or on the dessert table.

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These cupcakes are great too, they have a beachy vibe and are beautiful with their swirls and pearls!

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This captures the casual, fun vibe of the beach wedding...no need for shoes on the sand, flip flops for everyone! 

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I like having a seat on the beach...the sand gets everywhere. I'm sure you're familiar. 

These pillows are awesome.

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Well this centerpiece is just perfectly gorge. It looks like anyone's living room, just hanging on the beach.

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Even though these white lanterns are used all the time, I think they look amazing on the beach and never get old in this setting.

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This is straight up formal. Try not to get sand on that couch, i dare you...but still, it's pretty cool looking!

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I love this sand in these glass containers. Just a little touch of the beach, not overkill.

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These flowers are pretty and the oceanic detail in the bottom of the glass is perfect!

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In addition to daydreaming about the perfect beachy wedding details, I also managed to do a heck of a lot of reading, one of my fave beach activities. I read this entire book in 2 days on the beach. So good, you won't be able to put it down! Definitely a twisted story, but fun to follow...

I also started reading the following book, Two Statues by one of my great high school friends Brian Kennelly. Yup, I know a famous author. This book is the perfect beach read and I can't wait to finish it!

Finally, in a completely random (and awesome) turn of events, I ran into this lady, you might know her:

 

Yea, that's right. Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas! She's married to the extra handsome Josh Duhamel, and he, among other Hollywood actors, are filming a movie in the North Carolina beach town where I was staying. Fergie was super nice, really pretty and also my height. I felt like a total goob asking her for a picture, but this teenage girl on the beach was encouraging me, and I figured, sure, I'm almost 30, why not listen to a teenager. Dorky or not, I'm pretty sure I got my picture taken with Fergie, and that's pretty sweeeeet.

This week my travels continue as I head up north to visit some fam in NJ and also go DTS. (Stands for Down the Shore. As in the Jersey Shore.) I'm pumped to the gills for all the fun times ahead, but I've gots to get through a few days of work first and spend some quality time with Mr. Fo! 

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Lots of Exciting Things...

Hello long lost readers! Have you given up on me yet? It's only been about a week since I last posted, I hope you're still with me. :) I have good excuses, okay? It's been a really fun and exciting week at the Fo house. In fact, there's been so much excitement going on that I need to list it out. I think best in "list" form...it helps control my inane, tangential train of thought.  Here goes...

1) My husband got a badass new job. Which is SO exciting for lots of reasons. So proud of my Mr. Fo :)

2) To celebrate this fantastic news, we took a trip to one of our favorite places, which happens to be only 2 hours away, Asheville, North Carolina. For those of you loyal followers, you know that we go to Asheville once a year at least. You can read the 2011 recap HERE and the 2010 version HERE. If you're not familiar with this funky mountain town, read my past posts to get the feel of it...it's worth a visit - for your gestational pleasure alone!

Mr. Fo and I celebrated his new gig at a wonderful restaurant The Marketplace, which was new to us but has been around for 30 years! Cheers!

In addition to delicious, locally sourced food, Asheville excels in another important area: Beer. They're basically independent brewery masters. Don't you dare ask for a Bud Light in an Asheville establishment. You've been warned. For our self guided brewery walking tour, Mr. Fo wore his Beer-Deer shirt. Get it? He got this shirt in Colorado, and it was a big hit in Asheville. He was stopped on the street several times ... "Dude...I love your shirt. It's like a bear - with deer antlers. I get it." That's a direct quote.

We drank some beers by the river....note the tree stump seats. Classic Asheville.

...and gave a thumbs-up to all the local-ness...Side note, another thing I'm excited about - my fedora collection. I have 2 now, so I think it's time to call it a collection. Bad hair day, no problem! Throw on your fedora for instant coolness.

Man I love Asheville...let's continue my summer travels, shall we?

3) Number 3 reason I'm excited is because I head to the beach tomorrow afternoon with my Mommy. Yea, I'm almost 30 and I said Mommy. What are you going to do about it. She's the sweetest. And she loves the beach probably more than me. There will be lots of book reading, blog surfing and napping. I'm beyond excited as a mother/daughter trip these days is rare plus I'm in desperate need for beach time. This will basically be me for the next few days:

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4) Another thing I'm excited about are the events and weddings I have coming up this fall. I'm pumped about being a part of Charlotte Fashion Week's Bridal Night but I'm also so excited for one of my uber creative brides who is letting me use these sparkly beauties:

 

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5) Maybe my most excited thing is that Mr. Fo finally told me about my suprise 30th birthday trip. Let's back up here with a mini list within a list: 1) I am terrible with surprises. And secrets. No one should put me in charge of those, although I'll admit I've gotten better with age. 2) I'm sort of freaked out about turning 30. 3) Mr. Fo is really good with surprises and big-deal events such as monumental birthdays, our engagement, and anniversaries. So I knew it'd be good and pretty much beat him down about it on a daily basis.

After me obnoxiously begging him to tell me and claiming I needed time to pack (btw, my birthday is in November, so how long do I need to pack), he finally caved. I didn't think the surprise would be this good. Drumroll please! Over Thanksgiving week for my big 3-0, we are headed to.....

 

That would be a magical photo of Punta Cana, Dominican Rebublic. Say whaaaaaaaaaaat?! And guess who's going to be there with us? Oh just 13 of my favorite people, including my mom, cousin and friends. Giddy does not even describe how excited I am. I can just picture the sun, sand and debauchery. It's the perfect way to ring in my 30th, and once again, Mr. Fo proves he is a champion of planning awesome things.  Way to go Mr. Fo!

So do you forgive me for my lack of posing? I hope you do. You should. One of the very few things I plan to do when I'm at the beach is do some blogging, so unless I spend too much time sleeping, I'll be back here later this week. I hope you all have some exciting things going on in your life this week too!