Morning in Pismo Beach!

I feel so blessed to live on the Central Coast of California in San Luis Obispo. I am guilty of taking this for granted from time to time, but going to Pismo Beach for breakfast this weekend reminded me just how lucky I am. Here are some pictures from the morning out there!

Kohar & Raffi's Wedding!!

I think that I may actually have been equally if not more excited and impatient about seeing these pictures than the bride and groom themselves! When my friend Kohar started planning her wedding and was in search of a photographer, the first person that came to mind was my friend Jake who shoots for {Mike Larson}. We were classmates in college and I have been following his {blog} and always love seeing his beautiful photos so I knew he would be perfect for shooting Kohar and Raffi's wedding. Their {engagement photos} were just a glimpse of what was to come...these pictures from the wedding day are absolutely stunning! Not only were the bride and groom seriously one of the most gorgeous couples I have seen, but they made great models and the creative and technical skill level of Jake, Steven, and Necia is very impressive. As Jake called it in his blog, this was definitly a Big Fat Armenian Wedding - with its 400 guests and 3 day long celebration filled with lots of love, fun and tradition. I'm sure this was quite a challenge - it's not everyday they shoot weddings this big with a bunch of crazy people like us loud Armenians, but I think they did a fantastic job. I wish Kohar and Raffi a lifetime of health and happiness. Congrats to you both! <3

All White is Overrated :)

I have really been loving the idea of a bride not having to be in white head to toe. Shoes are one of the parts I think a woman can really go all out with and still remain traditional with the dress. It adds a splash of fun and color - it can also be the way to tie in the color of the bridesmaids dresses. Here is a collection of ones I have liked as I have come across them over time. Whether they are Louboutins or J.Crew - these are all super cute!

Canditto ~ Capture Every Moment :)

I came across {Canditto} and thought this was a great idea! Yes, professional photographers should still be hired to capture moments from your special day (if that is in your budget, of course), but there are also so many great candid photos that are taken by your friends and family with their digital cameras that you probably will end up seeing very few of. Here is a solution. Have the Canditto set up somewhere your guests will pass by as they leave and this great invention allows your guests to insert their memory cards and it will upload any picture taken in the past 8 hours (so don't worry about photos still on your memory cards from before...) This is not only a way to collect all the great shots from the night and save the hastle of emailing pictures, putting together a CD of them, or passing around the memory cards, but it also allows the couple to see fun photos from their wedding right away!

Beautiful Engagement Photos :)

Natalie and Garret are getting married! I seriously can't wait :) These are some of the photos from their engagement session with {Jake}, one of {Mike Larson's} photographers. Check out Natalie's blog, {In the Kitchen with Kristie} for some great recipes!

Flicker Photo Layout - Pretty Sweet

This {Flickr link} was sent out a while back at work and while cleaning up my email folders I found it again and thought it was definitely worth sharing!

Vintage Engagement Photoshoot

I feel in love with this absolutely beautiful engagement photoshoot by {Simply Bloom Photography}. Everything from the style of photography to the concept - including peaches and the puppy - work really well together. Check out more shots on their {blog}. I came across these photos on the {Green Wedding Shoes} blog. I really could see these being used in an {Anthropologie} catalog.

Stitch. Rip. Repeat.

I found these letterpressed recipe box sets on the Etsy shop of {Beth Snyder}. Her and her husband are a self-proclaimed "mad-crafting-duo out of Mid-Missouri". In the images above, you can see her process from sketches that went to making the letterpress place, to printing, and finally the finished product. Her work is fun and really has a sense of playful character that I love!

After finding a link in her profile that took me to her {blog} - I was happy to have found several more awesome ideas and creations!

Aside from letterpress, or in combination with, she also creates linoleum block prints as backgrounds or as the designs themselves - which I find very creative and have an appreciation for, being that we had to work with linoleum block carvings in high school and I remember it being rather difficult. For a project that combined the two printing methods, she created and sold many calendars for 2009. A friend of hers actually displayed it in quite a creative way - I will definitely be copying that idea. I often wonder what can be done with the beautiful letterpress calendars that are designed. They are so beautiful - but they are so small that they need some sort of way to be displayed better to get the attention they deserve!

I thought his was a super cool idea in lieu of a typical wedding guest book! She screen printed fabrics and then cut that out into squares which the quest would sign or write a message. She then turned this into a quilt! Awesome and unique :)

Last but not least! Here is a cool idea for a way to store special books or albums - in her case this was a cover made by her mother for her wedding book :) This would also make a nice portfolio or even laptop case (if made with proper reinforcing materials).

A New Binding Technique

So, I decided to try out a new way of binding photo albums and it worked out great! It was
pretty time consuming, but that may have been because it was my first time - of course it was
fun nonetheless! I have also posted some of the other cover styles I am in the process of making. I am selling them if anyone is interested, but really I just wanted to show the way of binding I learned:) In addition to the the books, I also made some boxes from scratch. They are meant to be a set with the album (same style or one that complements it), but really they can be used
for anything!

Make Books All Day!

If I could, I would seriously make books all day long. There is something incredibly therapeutic about it that I cannot put into words. The first book here is a journal I had made for myself a while back and the second is a photo album for a friend. Both are done using the perfect binding method, with the beautiful recycled paper and book cloth I picked up from Paper Source, but if you are in San Luis Obispo, I recommend checking out the great finds at {Paper Sky}., which is pictured above - courtesy of {Cameron Ingalls Inc.} - a local photographer.