Specs & Wings 2010 Review!

This has been such a fun and exciting year as we've gotten to explore starting an art business! Specs & Wings has grown from a dream to a reality this year and I am so thankful for this journey! I can't believe we're doing this!!! God is so good and I love worshiping Him through art. I hope that He is always glorified in what I create! In 2010 lots of fun things have happened and it's been so fun to see it all unfold! Here's a little re-cap..

In the Spring...

I designed a new line of coffee cozies, painted a bride's cast, featured a DIY on my blog, had a tie dye party with Danielle, sewed a large clutch, made 26 "table card" guest books for M+A's wedding, had my coffee cozy featured in Christina Shippey Photography's giveaway, had a huge art swap with some very cool art students, took an online business class, and learned to throw pottery on the wheel!

In the Summer...

 My "moo cards" arrived, I journaled about my art dreams, I re-opened my etsy shop and threw a blog party, Danielle and I started "Flying Olive" and sold our art at the Midland Downtown Farmer's Market, I made custom coffee cozies, painted custom photo paintings, and designed new accessories to sell on etsy and at the market!

In the Fall...

My coffee cozy was featured on Lissa Anglin's Photo blog, Sugar Browns Coffee Shop started to carry my vintage tie coffee cozies, I created a new logo, Flying Olive sold fall artwork at the Farmer's Market, Pink Tumbleweed Boutique started carrying Flying Olive accessories, I made a custom guiar strap, we created lots of fabric pumpkins, I taught on online art journaling class,  Specs &Wings was featured on Pink Coffee Photo Art blog (scroll on down) and included in a holiday art swap on Oh, Hello Friend Blog (#4)!

In the Winter...

 I shared "advent" with my sweet blogging friends and offered a new DIY, made tons of little fabric trees, got to paint a few custom canvases,and also had the priviledge of creating fabric wedding flowers for an entire wedding party!

It's been an incredible year and I can't wait to see what 2011 brings! Thanks for all of your support on this crazy, fun, exciting journey!

happy new year!!!

Our Christmas...

Jeremy and I have had a lovely Christmas! AND we're not done yet!!! :).....We're having more Christmas this weekend! I think it's fun for Christmas to last a while. This year I was really struck by Christmas music....I heard the lyrics in a new way! So, I made this little collage/drawing with some Christmas photos and lyrics. *fun!*

Are you still having Christmas? What's your favorite Christmas song? Some of my favorites include:

Shane and Shane's "Glory in the Highest" CD

Fort Christmas' "Feathers" EP

The song "Sing" by Josh Wilson

The Soundtrack to "Elf"

Sleeping at Last's "December"

I'm excited to hear what your favorites are!!!

happy thursday!

I've been Painting!!!

 I haven't gotten to paint on a larger scale in months so when I recieved a couple of custom orders for the holidays...I jumped at the chance! I love the challenge of creating something to capture someone's heart, feelings, memories, and joy!

This painting was for a sweet bride to give to her fiance! She told me that she was a "free spirit" whereas her fiance was a bit more rustic...she described this idea of a heart with wings and a pair of boots and this was my interpretation! She also asked me to add this Bible verse that her fiance encouraged her with when they first began dating. I love it! I hope he does too!

This painting is for a sweet newly wed couple! She sent me this beautiful photo from thier wedding day and the lyrics to the song of thier first dance as husband and wife. I decided to make this painting about the moments and memories of thier wedding day and incorporate lots of emotion. I highlighted the couple and a tree that was in photo. I added to the branches and decided that the tree symbolizes how thier love will grow and strengthen in the Lord! The swirls are for the emotions welling up in their hearts. I think the sepia tones make it feel like a dreamy old photograph or a sweet memory.

I have so enjoyed doing these paintings, it makes me want to paint more and more! I can see how much I miss it. :) Thanks to these two couples and I hope you love your paintings!!!

happy everything today!

Fabric Wedding Flowers!

Here they are! These are the completed bridal bouquet, corsages, boutineers, and even a hair clip for the bride! I'm so excited to share this with you!

I was going for a simple elegance, soft feel, special details, and a unique design on the bouquet. I wanted it to be a beautiful keepsake from a very special day that the bride could display in her home or pass on to loved ones on thier wedding day...

I wanted a little sparkle here and there...

...with lots of soft fabrics...

....different sizes, pretty colors, and lots of "life"!

The flowers around the edges are the boutineers. They include a small fabric flower and a black and white fabric leaf! The flowers in groups of 3 are the corsages comlete with all of the colors and a sparkly accent button. The one larger blue flower is a hairclilp for the bride!



I really enjoyed creating these fun fabric wedding flowers and I can't wait to see them on the wedding party!

(A special thanks to a super sweet bride! Thanks again!)

happy wednesday!

In the Studio: Fabric *Wedding* Flowers!

I have been waiting for the day when I got to share this "behind the scenes" look at one of my recent custom projects....Fabric Wedding Flowers for an entire wedding party!!! What a dream come true to create something so special! Here's a look in my studio through the process of creating. I'll be posting the finished bridal bouquet, corsages, and boutineers soon!

I started by gathering my supplies. The bride gave me her colors and some ideas about the "feel" of her wedding and let me run with it! I was looking for simple colors, special details, and classic/fun design ideas. When I found the perfect fabrics, some sparkly buttons, and the "hardware" I was invisioning, everything else fell into place!

I started to make each flower, carefully trimming, stitching and adding details like antique style buttons and pearls!

As I carefully handcrafted each item, I tried them on myself to make sure they were a good shape, size, and design to make the wearer feel special!

I saved the bouquet for last as it was my most ambitious attempt! I am so blessed that Jeremy's mom is a wedding designer (check out her amazing designs here!: http://www.imagineifdesigns.com/). She gave me the idea for how to assemble the stems of the flowers...YES! It worked perfectly! Come back soon to see the flowers, soft and complete!

happy tuesday!

(p.s. did you enjoy a look "in the studio"? I'm thinking of doing more posts like this!)

Merry and Bright!

Our days have been! We spent a little time with some dear friends last week in one of our favorite places...SUGAR BROWNS coffee in Lubbock, TX!

We bundled up and headed to Lubbock after work to meet up with Matt and Ragan in the coolest of cool coffee places! We had the biggest house chai available!!!...oh how I've missed you Ragan girl!



 

Y'all are such a blessing to us! What a fantastic Christmas gift to see y'all!



AND guess what else we saw?!?.....My coffee cozies right there on the shelf! AGH!!!

We have had such a merry Christmas time...how about you?

Coming soon....more from our Christmas, new "Specs & Wings" spotted, custom artwork, and surprises for the new year!!!

happy monday!



Advent Gift!...(2 more days!)

Can you believe it's only 2 more days until Christmas! It's the day we've all been waiting for!

The "advent" season is all about waiting in anticipation and HOPE! The people before Jesus came were in advent, waiting on Jesus to come and save them from their sin.

God gave Jesus to us..."For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given..." WHAT AN INCREDIBLE GIFT! We celebrate the HOPE we have because of Him on Christmas! We are in advent right now as we wait to Christ to return and take us home to heaven! Praise God!

To celebrate, I wanted to give y'all a free gift today...printable Christmas gift tags!!! Just right click on the image below to save it to your computer. Then print it out on white cardstock, cut out each tag, punch holes and tie to your gifts with sweet handwritten notes on the back of each one. :)

Enjoy! Merry Christmas to you!!!

Glorious Advent....only 3 days left!!!

It's snowing at our house!!! We live in Texas it's almost never a "white Christmas" so we decided to make our own snow! I cut out some paper snowflakes and we put them on the wall next to our tree! What do you think?

Last night I got to sit by the glow of the tree and spend some time reading the story of Jesus' birth in Luke...what a magnificent mystery! I love it!



It's the most wonderful time of the year and I hope you're enjoying it as much as we are!

What else has been up? We spend a fabulous evening with friends on Monday night drinking coffee and cocoa and looking at Christmas lights! I had the house to myself last night while Jeremy did some shopping so I had a lovely evening cleaning up the house and making it feel like our warm Christmasy get away!

Up next...seeing friends we haven't seen in ages, hanging out with family, and finishing up shopping and wrapping! Merry Christmas!!!

happy *3 days left*!!!



Advent...4 days to go!

 Hope you are having the merriest Christmas season! One of my favorite things about this season is remembering and celebrating the hope that we have because Jesus came. Have you experienced the hope of Jesus Christ? How do you celebrate?

happy *hope* season!

Merry Christmas week!!! (5 days)

Hello lovely friends! I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you today...you guys are amazing and I have LOVED sharing my art and life with you through my blog this year! 

Jeremy and I have been having a really fun Christmas time and I thought I'd share some of my favorite moments so far...

1. A quick trip to Lubbock to see sweet friends and do a little (pre-Christmas madness) shopping!!!

2. Putting up our Christmas tree and decorating the house

3. Watching Elf (twice!)

4. Reading "God is in the Manger" D. Bonhoeffer

5. Singing and Worshiping in the car on the way to Austin

6. A Birthday/shopping trip to Austin with family!

7. Finishing my last custom paintings of the year under the sparkly tree

8. Listening to Christmas music

9. Supporting handmade by shopping on Etsy

10. Spending time with my bff creating gifts

11. Getting really creative with wrapping!

12. Christmas at my church :)

13. Having a pre-Christmas celebration with my sis and bro-in-law over ichat

14. A Birthday/inspiration day with my mom!

15. Lots of coffee, quilts, and twinkly Christmas lights each night at our little home!

What are your favorite moments this Christmas?

happy *merry* monday!!!

8 DAYS!- Wrapping with "mycakies"!

This blog has inspired the wham outta me! Check out "my cakies blog" for the cutest wrapping you've ever seen!!!

Plus these cute tags!?! Get out! :)

Are you still wrapping or shopping? Remember to enjoy every moment and create from deep in your heart! Don't let the stressful or busy moments steal the season's joy for you! Make memories today!

happy friday!



Advent...9 DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Today I'm SO excited about Christmas and I'm THRILLED to share a HUGE INSPIRATION POST!!!

These images that  I've collected from around blog-land are some of the most interesting and inspirational things I've seen this season! I'm excited to be in a restful place next week as I am excitedly await the big day.....which means lots of fun time to create, wrap, try, experiment, decorate and CELEBRATE JESUS! :)

So, to finish the week I'll wrap up the last of my etsy & custom orders and take a holdiay until January! I'm planning to spend the next couple of weeks enjoying family, friends, and the Lord!

Okay...here we go!

1. this ADORABLE wrapping from "mycakies" has me completely smitten! I'm loving those collage style layers!!!

2. I'm loving the beautiful colors and textures of these pretty ornaments hanging like a chandelier!

 SO PRETTY!

3. You can always count on Anthro to make a pretty Christmasy window! I've already started cutting little snowflakes with great plans for a pretty window like this! Don't you love paper snowflakes?

4. If you know me, you know my obsession with all things brach and tree like...this has me totally inspired!

5. This soft and beautiful canvas display is absolutely glowing!!! I can see lighting it up every year!

6. Each year that I learn more about advent I'm more and more excited to create an Advent Calendar! This one is lovely!

7. I REALLY want to hang a group of ornaments over our kitchen table...how cool is that?!

8. I adore these sweet little Christmas trees! I absolutely have a set of fabric ones on my shelf!

9. YARN! You already know my excitement about pompoms but those trees!?! EEEK!

10. I've been DREAMING of a little Christmas tent like this one by Elsie Flannigan at Red Velvet Art! What fun tradition to start!

I hope you're enjoying my advent posts....what are your Christmas favorites?!?

happy thursday!