DIY FLORAL ARRANGEMENT WITH MCKENZIE POWELL

Mckenzie Powell Design besotted blog i

It’s a new year and a new you, better than ever!  Let’s make this a year of learning, expanding your creative skill set and enhancing your life, are you with me?  Have you ever considered trying your hand at a floral arrangement? A thoughtful arrangement can be pulled together fairly quickly, is appreciated by just about everyone, and  there is zero commitment needed if the recipient isn’t head over heels for your thoughtfully chosen florals (silly them). Floral design really is an art, so we thought it best to consult an expert to find out the best way to approach building a small arrangement.

If you aren’t already familiar with McKenzie of McKenzie Powell Designs, she is a premier floral & event designer based here in Seattle (she designs for destination events as well). McKenzie’s florals feel simultaneously lush & organic, appearing effortless but in reality, every detail is carefully considered. We are head over heels for her work (and her), and are certain you will be too!

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ABNORMALS ANONYMOUS

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I am not much for pattern or color, but I think if you have visited here more than once you could probably gather that information on your own.  What I do love is anything animal related, antique engravings, a cheeky sense of humor and entrepreneurs that are truly creative.  I do believe that Abnormals Anonymous encompasses all of these things.  Have you heard of them before?  I accidentally came upon them this weekend and immediately wished I lived somewhere I could use their wallpapers, perhaps in Elle’s future big girl room? Or my studio?  Oh, even better how about a Besotted shop?  I think you get the picture, I like their offerings, but I like their cheeky nature even more.  You just need to read their ‘about’ page and you will understand what I mean.  I hope that this year I can find many more companies and people that will inspire, companies that are doing something creative but not taking themselves too seriously.  My favorite quote from an editor on my own company described it as ‘elegance with a wink’,  I can’t tell you how much I loved that, I want to embody that with everything I do.  Well, being a new mom is not so elegant, I often have spit up on my person (usually in my hair) and we have already discussed that showering is a luxury, so there’s that.

Happy New Year everyone, I can’t wait to see how this year unfolds!  Do you have any big plans to make 2014 your best year ever? Any 365/52 week projects that you might be starting? If so let me know, I am ever curious and would love to know what you have planned!

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and the writer of this delightful blog. She recently re-located to sunny Seattle with her handsome husband and two pups, they just welcomed to the world a baby girl. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

DASHA BY MAGPIE PAPERWORKS

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I was so excited to see that the talented and prolific Jess of Magpie Paper Works has released her Dasha font. Jess, has been kind enough to include me as a tester in some of her upcoming launches and I am sure it’s something she regrets as I always have a lot to comment on.  I have been a font fan for many moons, but Jess really just blows my mind with her creativity, her ingenuity and her professionalism.  Jess has her finger on the pulse on what type of fonts we font fanatics might be craving and then satiates that urge with another beauty of a typeface.  As a designer I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to have access to such beautiful specimens, but her fonts should be collected by anyone that wants to have authentic looking hand-lettered fonts in their collection, they are amongst the best available and she always loads them with many extra, why Dasha has 15 alternate ampersands!  That is seriously unheard of and so very welcome to work with!

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and the writer of this delightful blog. She recently re-located to sunny Seattle with her handsome husband and two pups, they just welcomed to the world a baby girl. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

COUNTRY LIVING BOOKPLATE DOWNLOAD

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Wow, what an amazing way to start the new year by having Country Living magazine feature our download!  I haven’t seen it yet, but I have had many emails that people didn’t know where to find the download so I decided to put it up again so it would be easy.  You can find the download here and you can find all my downloads here.

To celebrate I am offering a 50%  discount on all monogram and custom logo stamps, just use the code HAPPY2014, the code will be available until January 6, 2014.

I am so grateful for the mention and even more excited to be able to invite new friends into my little ‘home’ on the web. I am especially grateful for all my friends (yes, that would be you) that have visited this past year and made this place such a wonderful, creative and supportive place.  I hope I can continue to inspire you to try new things, introduce you to a new skill and maybe even make you laugh out loud every now and then.  Thank you so much and here’s to an amazing new year!

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and the writer of this delightful blog. She recently re-located to sunny Seattle with her handsome husband and two pups, they just welcomed to the world a baby girl. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

PINTEREST CURATOR GARANCE DORE

Curator Garance Dore Besotted

Garance Dore is an internet success story/super star. Her name may be familiar to you as the very chic fashion illustrator (and photographer, writer and blogger). I was happily surprised when I saw that she was curating on Pinterest, it’s always a delight to spot an unexpected luminary there.  As you’d expect, Garance has some very forward boards, she is ‘in the know’ after all.  My favorite board though was her ‘Forever Cool’ a collection of photos of timeless beauties from various decades (from Grace Kelly to a young Kate Moss). I think you might also like to visit her Mes Classiques, Studio and La Parisienne.

I am working on my 2014 new year’s goals as I’m not great with resolutions.  As you can imagine I am more motivated than ever, my brain has been on over drive of what I need to accomplish this year and how I am going to go about doing it.  Do you have big plans as well?  I hope that I can make this place an even better resource for you to accomplish some of those goals, I have been working hard behind the scenes to try to make this happen.  I would love to hear any of your goals, I understand that if you let people know your goals that you are more apt to accomplish them.  Here’s to taking care of business!

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and the writer of this delightful blog. She recently re-located to sunny Seattle with her handsome husband and two pups, they just welcomed to the world a baby girl. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life. Happy New Year!  I am wishing you a ton of happiness, health and prosperity!