Home Grown Spring Projects

Hello gorgeous weather and hello, to all of you! I know it's been awhile since I've posted, but I am still here.... Just busy tryin to stay busy...Wedding planning, family time, and design clients + spring projects.

Well, I have fallen head over boots for terrariums. This is our own personal home collection, but I will tell you that Mr. Will confiscated a lot of my vases and apothecaries that I use for events from my storage...and he has filled them with dirt, seeds, moss, water, and sunlight. Syl has been spraying them with water when she pleases. She has also been giving drinks to all the furniture in our house.

The cool thing about the terrarium vignette shown, is that the containers are all sitting on a low harvest table that was recently found along the curbside {Free!!}. It's primitive, but I really like that it has a pretty dove coat color stain. We covered it with large atlas pages from a yard sale for the cost of just a few quarters and then 'tablescaped' it with different things...cedar discs, garden books and river rocks. Just this last weekend, I used these apothecaries and fresh green sprout containers for a bridal shower. They were a hit. Janet Pearson {The Orchid Lady} added some beautiful pussy willow branches to them... a detail that no one else would ever think of. Seriously!! {I'll post better pics when I receive them.}

Papa and baby Syl have been prepping our back yard garden and pouring over the Baker's Creek Heirloom seed catalog. It's good to see them working together now. Two years old is a good age to start the chores.

I'd love to hear from you, my lovely readers. What are your plans for spring?

xo

Sharon

A Winter Wonderland Baby Shower by Sharon Taylor Designs

These are me and my sisters. Here's the baby shower we threw for our sis, Lizzie. The bash took place at the home of our sister, Julie Blackmon. Baby Albert came into the world day before yesterday weighing 6 1/2 lbs, healthy and pretty darn precious.

Details:

My sister, Millie created the coolest little hand-knit stork sling and tied it to the flea market stork that she up-cycled! Is it not precious? The mantle decor was something so unexpected but totally chic. The big white star was a fold-out that I found for one buck @ Deals. And the vintage toy tiger was found for a few dollars at a flea market.

Props: Vintage toy animals, miniature deer, taxidermy, dollar lollypops, old milk jugs filled w/laundry detergent, milk glass vases from a thrift store, feathers, electric green urn, large paper stars, crepe paper balls, an up-cycled fisher price castle {I sprayed it w/white spray paint and covered the larger parts w/white cardstock}, cupcake toppers were hand-cut paper deer. I made some paper cut-out antler headbands too. That's my daughter, Eleanor, antlered in the picture below.

Julie's home is filled w/lots of cool portrait paintings. I love all of the lady portraits hanging on the walls...so symbolic of the number of girls born into our family. We are mighty in number and love celebrating our the birth of our babies!!

It was a sweet day, to say the least.

The heavenly white floral spheres were made of carnations, spider mums, pale blue hydrangea snippets, ranunculus, dendrobium orchids, and baby's breath. I nearly cried when I saw them.

Amy's Cupcakes, Champagne, Punch, Powdered Covered Donuts, Nuts and Mints were served. Simple, simple.

The team that made this so fun: Janae Hardy Photography, Janet Pearson, The Orchid Lady, Amy Cakes, and my genius sisters. Thanks guys!

Taylor-Made Holiday Party

Here's a new Holiday Table Top just in...

I had to also share this great {ice cycle} fountain that is in the front yard of this particular client's. She recently got it up and running after it had been void of running agua for over thirty years with the previous owners of the home.

My client has great aesthetic and design sense, so she knew she wanted a really clean-lined holiday table top for a private dinner party. This is one of three different table tops that I created there, along w/Janet, the Orchid Lady.

I HAVE to give a few details because this particular one is for sure my favorite holiday table top to date:

Flowers by Janet Pearson, The Orchid Lady. Red Carnation Sphere + added Austromerhia {for added texture}. Napkin rings were simple knots of long red ribbon, King of Leon peppermint stick and one dendrobium orchid tucked in for the night! So simple, clean, and chic. What do you think?

Dinnerware is a contemporary black onx.

The quartz top table was designed by the owner and mother of three! The chairs were her childhood dining chairs and were recently up-cycled and recovered in a really classy chinoiserie fabric. It's probably the coolest set I've seen in a long time. And the table itself is a masterpiece!

This is Janet and me... Anything Janet touches is always heavenly! I reeeeaaaallly love her and her work so much!

{Janae Hardy Photography}

Cheers!

Sharon

Rustic Exploration

I'm
dreaming of living in Mildred's Lane school. For those of you who aren't familiar with this artists' colony...it's a must for you to check out! J. Morgan Puett is the genius mastermind behind this wonderfully-refreshing collaboration. It's a beautiful ongoing experiment in art, design, and aestheticized living. She's made her private property into an eclectically-rich and VERY rustic retreat/think tank for artists to explore their interests...in an unconventional setting. She's created this retreat deep in the hills of Pennsylvania along the Delaware river. She, along with her partner have built these amazingly-cool rustic cabins, barns, tents, and gardens and filled them with antiques, collected art, hundreds of books, taxidermy, skulls, and other worn odds and ends that give us just a few hints at her wild and elusive genius-ness.

Here's my latest attempt at rustic/organic exploration:

I photographed the centerpiece up above in front of our compost crate...the centerpiece was for a client and the compost crate is a "free" thing we got a while back at Lowes. Lowe's throws away their rustic (and cute) wooden crates. I'm thinking I might get a few more for repurposing them into tables for an outdoor party this fall.

Last weekend I had very little time for prepping for a baby shower. I was told that the baby's mother would like some picture frames and that the hostess would like centerpieces that were "different". So, I knew right away that I would purchase a deep, 8x12x3 inch black shadowbox to use as the centerpiece compote (much like a tray) I then called up Janet Pearson (The Orchid Lady) to see what mosses were available...she then said that she had the most gorgeous and lush "baby tears" she had ever seen. She was SO right! I DO love Janet and her flair!! Can't wait to show you all of her genius-ness!

I then added a large hosta leaf and a pumpkin bloom from my back yard. To top it off, I added a personalized smooth river stone with the baby's name on it. The hostess was thrilled with the organic flair, and the mother was pretty elated to be taking home some "Happy" baby tears in a box (that could later be used for displaying her baby's sweet sentimentals).

P.S...the boy and girl with the bike pic is a sneak peak from an engagement party shoot I've been working on. Janae Hardy photography. There are soo many great pictures from this shoot that I can't wait to post!

x's and o'sies,

sharon