Wow, what a year.  2011 has flown by in the blink of an eye!  Sitting here and trying to recap the highlights from the year is difficult because there were so many fun projects, new business acquaintances, collaborations, and opportunities that I’m quite overwhelmed.  {Hence why this post is going to be a mile long}.

This was our first real FULL year in business and it has been full of fun!

There really isn’t a way to thank everyone for the exciting opportunities and mentions and blog features, but we appreciate EVERY bit of support.  Everything from features and mentions down to the comments or “likes” on facebook to the orders and special projects we have been honored to take on.

I’ll try to summarize some of our big announcements and projects, but I’m sure I’ll forget some major ones… After all, I still have “holiday” brain going on.  This year was a year full of new designs for the shop, collaborations and exposure along with fabulous and unexpected opportunities.

Where to begin? I guess starting with January 2011 would make the most logical sense 😉

We kicked off 2011 with a bang after shooting our New Years collection – Vintage Glam New Years, that is.

January:

This month was SUPER for a few reasons.  First off, Adria and I had the pleasure of attending the Martha Stewart Dreamers into Doers event in NYC.  In December of 2010 we were named the “doer of the week”, so this was exciting to get to attend and meet the faces behind the fabulous Martha Brand. We got to attend the meeting, a show taping, meet some fabulous party ladies and Martha herself.  It was an amazing experience and I’ll always remember!

We also had a completely fun time in NYC with Zulema and her sister, Yesi, when they invited us to visit and help style Zulema’s boyfriend’s 50th birthday party.  Not only was the location spectacular (Top floor of Trump Soho), but we met some wonderful friends and got to do what we love…design and style parties!

Then it was back to reality – My sweet little Pierson was waiting on me to plan his super hero party…. Super indeed!

The goal was to change the super hero party marketplace into something with a lot of style and taste…. Nothing too “commercial” and adding touches of art by using Roy Lichtenstein as inspiration in the Pop Art inspired Vintage super hero party.

We met Mandie, of Got What It Cakes, and fell in love with her work (and her personality, of course!).  Pierson’s cake was the first cake Mandie ever did for us and the fun began after that!  Mandie has done so many amazing projects with Anders Ruff and we can’t wait for our next collaboration….

We went from all boy to all sweet… with our “I Heart Valentine’s Day” photo shoot… Totally fabulous and spectacular to be able to style and work with Becca Bond Photography…. that was just the beginning….

We also loved collaborating with Mara of LMG Events and Calligraphy by Jennifer on a more Romantic Valentines Day collection….

Then Marcie, of Celebrating Moments by Marcie, styled her own shoot using our new Romantic valentines day printables… Turned out super cute.

February: We tried to take a tad of a break…. cleaning up the shop a bit and shooting a mini St. Patrick’s Day collection…

We also were featured in BRIDES Magazine, which was a thrill… A wedding with Linda Cylc that we worked on graphics for had several pages of features….

 

The break didn’t last long.  We were contacted by the fabulous ladies of Kiss Me Kate in Australia, and worked out a collaboration that we would work on throughout the year and beyond.  The themed collections that we worked on with them were refreshing, stylish and amazing!  I just adore these ladies and look forward to meeting them in person someday!  It is so awesome to be able to work with these fabulous women around the world!

Throughout the year, here are the fabulous themes that Kiss Me Kate has added to their offerings….

Vintage Milk & Cookies…

Red Riding Hood

Hot Air Balloon

Vintage Race Car

and some more fabulous projects such as their Rokk Ebony party…

More to come from our collaboration with Kiss me Kate… Thanks to Yolanda and Kate for such a wonderful year.  We are excited about the projects that will come for 2012….

March:

Easter time fun… Our photo shoot was so memorable and we even had a live bunny at the shoot.  It was PRECIOUS.  Mini Pearl – we miss you!  We had some amazing desserts…

We were THRILLED to be seen on TV in Arizona on Sonoran Living with our Easter Printables. Nancy, of A to Zebra Celebrations, was the guest and showed how to embellish with our Easter printables….

Stephanie, the host of the show, has become a wonderful friend and now collaborative partner… (See down below for more info…)

 

We had so much fun changing gears and working on a Pirate project with our friend Courtney of Pizzazzerie.  Later in the year, the pirate feature would be shown in Woman’s World Magazine…. We always love working with Courtney….

 

Another international opportunity we have had was working with Emma of Me & Riley events in Dubai!  Emma puts together the most beautiful parties for her clients in Dubai.  I just adore working with her and her fabulous company.  A few of the parties we have featured this year have been….

We love working with our international clients!  Me & Riley has some more beautiful parties in the works that we can’t wait to share this year…

April:

In April we had to wish farewell to a sweet neighbor and friend, Mette.  She moved to Italy so we helped Caryn and her street put together an Americana themed going away party.  This would serve as our shoot for 4th of July… introducing our new 4th of July Pinwheels collection…  It was a little chilly (and we had some cranky management), but overall a blast!

My friend, Suysel, of Tilton Fenwick in NYC had her home featured in Trad Home Magazine, and I was honored to see my artwork on a full spread page.

May:

Jeffrey’s party planning began.  Lego fest 2011… We worked with some amazing vendors and one of our new business collaborators, Morgan of Made by Morgan made the cutest shirts for the party… we have worked with Morgan a ton this year and love her work!

June:

Adria’s daughter, Brynne, had a precious SPA party.  It turned out so cute!

We started thinking about “Back to school”…. A vintage school house shoot with Becca Bond…. So much fun!  We loved adding a School Day printable collection to our shop~ a nice change of pace.

July:

This month we launched our fresh new website.  We had wonderful feedback and teamed up with many fabulous companies as sponsors with ads on our new site.

We introduced our Ruff Draft, which is a column where we share all things DIY and inside the world of our styling and baking and crafting tips.  Once a week, Adria writes in this column and its a great place to find fabulous projects and ideas.

July was BUSY.  We had so much fun styling our Haunted Halloween shoot for the year.  My little Mummy had a costume from Made by Morgan….. I’ll never forget this shoot.  Adria and I talked at 1 am about getting a black cat to join the photo shoot.  By the time I got there the next morning, Adria had talked the Humane society to let us borrow the black cat for a couple hours.  Too bad the cat was mean!

August:

We had an amazing opportunity to work for Universal Studios on a Target promotion for the release of the successful Bridesmaids, the movie.  What an amazing experience.  Adria and I styled and designed a “girls night in” viewing party, Parisian themed, perfect for Bridesmaids fans…

We met a fabulous business owner who moved to Charlotte – Sally from Polka Dot Market, who provided loads of fabulous party ware for this shoot…

Such a cool experience to have our products inside Bridesmaids the movie, and on the shelves at Target!

Adria’s daughter, Grayce, had a super sweet candyland inspired party…..

How fun! Adria did a great job putting together a candy wonderland!

September:

What fun to celebrate with Cupcrazed Cakery (a local cupcake shop in our neighborhood that won Cupcake Wars on Food Network!)  We helped Heather with her celebration party and whipped up a dessert table and printables….

We had the honor of helping with Operation Shower down at the PGA Tour in Atlanta.  Amy Belle and LeAnn were WONDERFUL to work with and we had a blast styling the shower for the military wives.  We will be sharing the full photo feature soon!

We loved collaborating with Pizzazzerie last year on our Pinkoween (Pink + Halloween) collection and so this year we just added a few more designs to the mix.  It was a small scale shoot but added some fresh designs to the mix.

October:

A fabulous and loyal client of ours, Jen Carver of Banner Events, put together an adorable Halloween party with loads of DIY ideas.  We shared it on our site and decided to make her our very first guest contributor.  Jen has wonderful ideas and we love having her write every now and then on our site!

We also collaborated on a super fun project with accessory designer, Tadpole and Lily…. in a Vintage Carnival shoot.  At a REAL carnival that was FABULOUS. Becca Bond Photography captured all the perfect moments…

We met the most amazing developer, Steve Frellick, of Yonder Luxury Mountain rentals.  We met him while looking for a vacation home to visit this summer with a couple families.  We fell in love with his properties and we decided to take our photo shoots off location to his properties to show off his amazing work.

He has become a great friend and we can’t wait to show you more shoots in the future at his places….

The one below was from our Thanksgiving Gobble Day collection, which turned out precious!

We also made an announcement that we would be partnering up with MonMell Designs and bringing our graphics from the table to decor by incorporating our graphics onto their beautiful handcrafted burlap pillows…. We featured some in our Gobble Day shoot….

We showed how to style a kids Thanksgiving table and make it cute AND entertaining…..

November:

Caryn had us design a set of printables for her daughter’s little chef/baking party.  It turned out PRECIOUS!

At the Yonder property, we shot our Christmas, which was a North Pole inspired party and cookie exchange.  We included the best of the best in terms of cookie vendors… and they were awesome!

We incorporated another set of pillow designs from MonMell Designs….

December:
We ended the year with a bang in December…. a huge project for BETTER HOMES & GARDENS!  We are so excited about the article we produced and you will be seeing it next year in the Tricks and Treats magazine that comes out end of August/beginning of September.  What an amazing experience to spend 5 days with the editor and their photographers… can’t wait to share more.

 

We welcomed a few new people to the team this year.  Sonya (Design Editor) and Heidi (Project Assistant) are new and fabulous….

A special thanks to my team.  Caryn, Becky, Sonya , Carrie, Heidi and of course Adria…. I couldn’t do it without you ladies.

CHEERS to an even more exciting 2012!

Here’s to an even more fun filled 2012!

A HUGE thank you to all of the vendors, companies, blogs, facebook fans and clients who have given us strength, confidence and exposure this year.  We appreciate every bit of it. You know who you are!