Tuesday, August 10, 2010

arrangements

basil

dried lavender

mmmm ... basil and dried lavender in the living room today.  I was pruning my garden when I realized that the ton of basil growing would look quite fabulous as part of the flower arrangements for the wedding.  I am doing my own flowers, and I think I will stuff some of these leaves in here and there.  Brown seeds and all.

pictures hanging

bunting

I am enjoying this cloth bunting much on our art wall.  It inspired me to make some bunting for the photobooth.  I mean, if you didn't know it was a photobooth before, hopefully "say cheese" gets the point across!!  I think I am obsessing a bit too much over the photobooth.  Come on wedding - get here already!

signature

Saturday, August 7, 2010

invitations and weevils

invitations

I forgot that I haven't shared our wedding invitations here on the blog.  We were early birds and sent them out way back when - in early June for a September wedding!  I worked very closely with ellothere to create the perfect image.  And when I say worked closely, I mean that over the span of a month we e-mailed back and forth with my 100 million edits and suggestions, and Maddy's many upbeat and helpful responses, along with lots of different versions of the image.  I just wanted the invitations to really imbue our vision of Old Town, Alexandria, our beloved place of residence.  And we were very happy with the results!  You can view a different version that ellothere later created here

wedding map

On that note, we also commissioned this lovely map of Old Town with suggestions of sites to see, places to eat, and things to do, from the wonderfully talented Laura of Wonderland Papers.  She came up with the perfect little map for us, and we were so pleased to send it to our guests so that they might plan their stay.  And, you can see a slightly different version in her shop here.

wands

Next, I wanted to share our solution to the many little ones who might be making it down the aisle on the big day (six little nieces and a nephew all under the age of 7 ... we will see how that one goes.)  Instead of flowers, I picked up these glittery wands from the dairygodmother, a wonderful frozen custard and gourmet popsicle shop in neighboring Del Ray.  I figured, they are gender friendly, any little kid would love them, and they can keep them later!  I love checking tasks off the never ending wedding list.

pepper weevils

Ok, now on to the garden, at long last!  Soo ... the topic today will be pepper weevils.  greedy little creatures are they!  I have yet to see one, as they feed at night.  But such perfect half circles they chomp from the leaves!  There seems to be little out there on the interweb as to what to do when infested with weevils (I kind of like the name though, I must admit.)  But I do NOT like the possibility that they may have laid eggs in my beloved peppers ...  So, I sprayed the leaves heavily with a dishwasher detergent/water mix one night, and although that caused the leaves to turn a tad brown, there seems to be much less weevil activity lately.

I have also read that adding nematodes to the soil can do wonders in getting rid off any weevil larva that may be in the soil.  I think that I will use nematodes next year, as they are great for many different pest defenses.

green peppers growing strong

And look how many delightful peppers there are growing!  Are you to tell me horrid weevils are eating these from the inside?  I so hope not.  But I will keep you updated ... come harvest!  (crossing my fingers).

signature