Happy Happy Birthday!!

Here's to an impromptu post!

I just got home from an event I put together today.  I was - and still am - so proud of the way it turned out, I had to share it with you right away!  The event was for a lady who turned 90!  She's still very much involved with the university she is a professor at!  Not only that, but this fabulous person loves Hot Air Balloons & Motorcycles!

Knowing that, we had to come up with some pretty ingenious centerpieces in her honor!

And as I have said before, leave it to my designer to come up with something nothing short of amazing!

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as the guests enjoyed being able to take the arrangements home with them!  And lucky me - I was able to snatch one up to bring home too!   :o)

This was a two part event.

The first part of the event was a reception for about 250 people.  For this part, we went with the Hot Air Balloon aspect!  So, needless to say, we used a lot of color and gave everything an "airy" feel.

For cocktail tables, we created topiary style arrangements using small metal buckets and "football" mums.

For the buffet pieces, we used ginger, protea, and baby's breath.  To give the bubble bowl on the top of the arrangement more color, alstroemeria leaves were glued directly on the glass.  These pieces were great because they brought the theme of Hot Air Balloons to the room without having to use actual hot air balloon replicas.  They were great.  Kudos to my designer for her ingenuity and creativity!

The second part of the event was a seated dinner for about 60 of the birthday girl's closest family, friends, and colleagues.  Since the first event had a lot going on with the colors, we brought things down a little bit.  While we chose to go with a simpler centerpiece that were easy on the eyes, they were still WOW!!

My legs may be very tired and as soon as my head hits the pillow I will be out, but it's all worth it!  Everything turned out fantastically - and I sure hope you agree.  When I saw the smile on the birthday girl's face I knew we nailed this one!  Woo-Hoo!

Again, I hope you enjoyed today's spontaneous post and I look forward to having more in the near future!  I have quite a busy month of events ahead of me and I can't wait to share them with you!

Enjoy and you will be hearing from me soon!

Night,

-Vicki

What’s a wedding without Flowers?

What I love about flowers is that they can be fun and flashy or elegant and classy! I also love that they allow people to express who they are and what they love, especially wedding flowers!

Again, my designer never ceases to amaze me with what she puts together! From roses to lilies, alstroemeria to orchids, and so many more; the flower combos are endless!

There’s no point in rambling on about flowers. Pictures say it so much better…

While reception centerpieces brings a wedding home, you can’t have a wedding without the personal flowers! Bouquets, corsages, and boutonnières are a few other ways for brides and grooms to show who they are! Enjoy this small sample of personal flowers!

I sure hope you love these wedding centerpieces and personal flowers as much as I do!

Ciao, Vicki

P.S. Please enjoy these other wedding related pieces!

Flowers, Flowers, and More Flowers!

Time to switch gears again.  The next few posts I have decided to write about what I find to be one of the best parts of an event – centerpieces, flowers, and table scapes!

For this one… Floral Centerpieces!

I love flowers!  But, I am such a novice when it comes to keeping them all straight.

Fortunately, the designer I work with is amazing!  I like to call her “The Human Flower Encyclopedia.”  She really knows her stuff.  I can give her any theme or color scheme to work with and she always comes up with something nothing short of spectacular!

I could sit here and go on for hours about how awesome what she comes up with is, but pictures are way better!  ENJOY!

These are just a small preview!  Keep an eye out for wedding flowers/centerpieces and themed centerpieces, and more!

Cheers, Vicki

A Three Hour Tour!

When it comes to vacation, a lot of families like to visit the beach or go see Mickey & Minnie in Disney World.  My family and I, we like to spice things up a little bit and take our boat away for the week and visit different spots along the Chesapeake Bay.

But, it’s not just us.  For this year’s trip there were a total of 5 boats that took part in the adventure – My family and me on boat #1, my aunt & uncle on boat #2, my dad’s friend and family on boat #3, another one of dad’s friends and family on boat #4, and a family friend on boat #5.

The itinerary for this year’s trip was as follows:

• Saturday – Monday: Harrington Harbor North
  
• Tuesday – Thursday: Solomon’s Island
  
• Friday – Sunday: Fishing Creek
  

Other places we have stopped on previous trips include:

• Mears (Red Eyes Dock Bar)
  
• Great Oaks (Jellyfish Joel’s)
  
• Rock Hall
  
• Tilghman
  
• St. Michael’s
  
• Cambridge
  
• And many more…
  

When picking a place to visit we have a few standards that the place must meet:

• Pool
  
• Bath Houses
  
• Laundry Facilities
  
• Pet (dog) Friendly
  

While each place must have these, most places also have tons of other things to get into:

• Bike Rentals
  
• Canoe Rentals
  
• Trolley Service
  
• Water Parks
  
• Shopping
  

There are always a ton of things to keep ourselves occupied with on this trip.  It really is a good time.  But, it's a lot of work.  On travel days, it's waking up early to get things packed up and get the boat and everyone ready for the ride to the next spot!  AND it's not always a smooth ride!

I could write a book on all my crazy boating experiences.  The most common is the rain storms we get caught up in or the 4 foot swells we are battling.  However, nothing will be beat the boat breaking down half way through the ride and having to be towed somewhere to have it fixed.  When it comes to boating, every captain and first mate know to be prepared for anything!!

My pictures from our adventure I just had printed and received the other day.  So, I will be starting to work on my Vacation Scrapbook very soon.  Keep an eye out to see the updates!

Vicki

A Double Feature!

So, somewhere in my super crazy schedule today, I managed to find time to finish a book I started a few weeks ago.

I really enjoy a good book and this one is no exception.

I only wish I hadn't been so busy lately to actually have finished it in a timely fashion.

It is one of those books that you hate to put down because it's so good.

If you enjoy a good mystery novel, this is a good one!

Sandra Brown - Smoke Screen

A quick synopsis:

A reporter hits the jackpot when a close friend offers her the story of her career.  Too bad when she wakes up in the morning to find her friend - who is also a police officer - dead in the bed next to her and no recollection of how she got there.  In the midst of being the number one suspect of her friends death, she is kidnapped by a man she once did a story on.  Turns out her kidnapper had also experienced a similar incident 5 years ago.  Together, they do everything in their power to get the truth out about what happened to the two of them and why!

I don't want to go into any more detail then that.  I want you to go get the book and read it for yourself!  It's a good one.

If you get the chance to read it, let me know what you think of it!

Cheers, Vicki

P.S.  Other good mystery authors are:

• Harlen Coben
• Sue Grafton
  
• Dean Koontz

Happy Birthday to Me!

Okay… Okay… So, maybe my birthday was really over 2 months ago!  But, that doesn’t mean my Birthday Scrapbook has been done for over two months!  :o)

Things have been super hectic and I haven’t had much time to work on it as much as I would like to.

But, anyways, here’s the low down on this book.

In my first post, I mentioned that I spent 4 years living in Pittsburgh because I went to college there.  Since my birthday is over the summer, it was always tough for me to get back to the "Burgh" during summer vacation because of working full-time.

But, this year I was finally able to get back and celebrate my birthday with all my best college buddies!  My birthday turned into a weeklong celebration and I had a blast during every minute of it!

Here’s how the week went down:

• Thursday – Monday: Pittsburgh
  
• Wednesday (My Actual Birthday) – Saw Transformers with, my now, boyfriend
  
• BTW, did I mention Transformers came out on my birthday – AWESOME!
  
• Friday – A big birthday celebration with the best friends Baltimore has to offer
  

When it was all said and done, what better way to preserve all the fantastic memories then with a scrapbook dedicated to the festivities?

Like I said before, it’s still a work in progress.  So, I hope you enjoy what I have done so far and keep a look out for the finished product!

Cheers, Vicki