Hello Dolly!

Sales taxes, recital choreography, POOL Trade Show prep and my day job have me buried these days! Lucky for me Duncan has been home again this past week so that helps a ton. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by all of the things I haven't blogged about I thought it would be good to just throw out what's new.

Dolly! I bought this Dolly Parton print on Fab.com a while ago. She looks stunning in my kitchen against my new wall paper (it's removable)! This paper will also be decorating my booth walls at POOL next month.

Wedding Pics! Our friends over at Love Me Sailor let us know that our wedding photos are officially en route! I am so excited to see them and share them too! This is a shot from our photo booth. Aren't I the classy bride with my bud light!?

POOL Trade Show. I'm headed back to Las Vegas next month to show my new line and hopefully pick up a bunch of new wholesale accounts. Instead of the usual Cash and Carry booth that I've done in the past (where I sell on site) I'll be sharing a booth with Plastique. Since I'm not busy making thousands of items to sell on site (just samples this time) I get to focus more on new products and fabric prints. I hope to have everything photographed this weekend so I should be able to start sharing some sneak peeks soon!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

How to have FAB Valentine's Day

Fab.com has put together a a feisty collection of fun gifts to give this Valentine's day. Their collection is anything but cliche. Here's a round up of my favs including one of my own. It's okay to love your own creations right!?






Happy Shopping!

Custom Polaroid Necklaces

New product alert! The Polaroid Necklaces that, up until now, have exclusively featured the beautiful shots by Diana at Our.City.Lights are getting a bit more personal. Now you can have your own favorite photo framed in necklace form!

Will it be a family portrait, a shot of your adorable furry friend or your all time best instagram image? Whatever you chose you're sure to love it even more shrunken down to fit onto a one inch button within a Polaroid bamboo frame. Even better, you'll also receive a print of your image on high gloss photo paper printed to look like a polaroid, accompanied by a matching, heavy duty photo magnet perfect for displaying the print on your fridge!



I thought it would be fun to work with a few of my favorite blogger friends to see how they would choose to personalize their necklaces.

Danielle - Sometimes Sweet

Danielle went with this gorgeous shot of her beautiful family in front of a stunning back drop. The vibrant color of the sky draws you in and that little Henry with his loving parents makes my heart melt!

Diana - Our.City.Lights

I couldn't launch the personalized version of the Polaroid Necklace without hearing how Diana would make one just for herself. This dreamy image was taken on her way home from a romantic trip to Rome with her husband.

Katie - Skunkboy Creatures

Katie's daughter's Hope and Poesy are seriously too cute for words so it's no wonder she's excited to keep them close to her heart in necklace form!

Liz - Srsly Liz

It's Walter! If that little furry face isn't the perfect fit for a 1-inch button, I just don't know what is.

If you place your order and get me your image by the end of the day Sunday 12/18 then you can still receive your own personalized Polaroid Necklace via USPS Priority mail before Christmas!

A Sweet (and minty) Christmas Deal

The Fab.com sale concluded early this morning and now it's time for the Vivi Dot elves to start packing up all of those orders. I am so, so happy about how the sale went and feel very thankful to have been featured on such an awesome site. In celebration of a very successful sale on Fab I though it would be nice to feature a holiday deal in my online store as well. I've put together a minty fresh gift pack perfect for the holidays. Here's what it includes:

One Holly Jolly Button Set that also doubles as a gift tag


One Minty Fresh Peppermint Ring


And one pair of festive Peppermint Earrings


You can wrap it all up for one lucky recipient or divide it up and stuff three different stockings with some holiday dots. There's always the option to keep some of it for yourself too! If you buy each item individually it will run you $24.50, but this special holiday set will only set you back $18! No coupon code is needed for this price - nice and easy!

Extra Bonus Gift: If you leave me a comment at check out that let's me know you follow me on twitter and/or follow the Dot Girl Blog then I'll throw in an extra free gift with your purchase. This extra bonus deal is valid on all orders placed before the holiday order cut off (12/19/11)!

Thanks again to everyone who supported the Vivi Dot sale on Fab by tweeting about it, inviting friends to join, blogging about it and making purchases. It's been a week filled with a ton of happy emails and congratulatory tweets that made me feel so very warm and fuzzy!

Some Fab News

I am so excited to share that Vivi Dot will be featured on Fab.com tomorrow!


Fab features daily design inspirations and sales at up to 70% off retail. They work with really incredible brands so to be a part of it is a huge honor. They also offer generous referral credits when your friends sign up through your unique referral URL so it's super easy to rack up 'free money' to spend on gifts for the holidays or to treat yourself (full disclosure- my referral link is used in the post).

The Vivi Dot sale is tomorrow, November 29th and runs for three days. If you sign up today you'll get access to my sale and all the other great sales they run daily.

Happy shopping!

Shop Update

I just published a bunch of new items in the shop!
Here are a few of my new favorites.

The Bicycle Ring Double Set

The Alamo Square Ink Blotter Necklace

The Mesa Dessert Lexington Necklace

Triple Ring Set - Cool Colors

Check out the rest of the new items and shop this weekend and you'll receive 20% off when you enter the coupon code BLOGFRIENDS at checkout. Happy shopping!

Thankful

I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, just as I always do.

In the last month I've gotten married

to the man of my dreams

who I got to hang out with for seven magical days in paradise (after throwing an amazingly fun wedding/dance party).

And when we got tired of that, we did this

I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving filled with love, family, food, good health and good cheer. I can't wait to share all of the wedding details with you in the coming weeks as well as some big, exciting news next week.

PS- I've missed you!!!

Wedding Day Crunch Time

My wedding day is only twenty-five days away! Duncan and I have been plowing through our todo list and we're feeling pretty good about things. I keep waiting for the S*#T to hit the fan which I'm sure it will, but right now we're making things happen at a quick, but bearable pace. We're making sure we keep things fun by feuling our wedding craft days with good music, movie marathons and mimosas.

The big planning pieces are done for the most part and now it's all about executing the DIY aspects of the event which is the best part for me. Right now I'm in the midst of making a belt for my dress, boutonnieres for the boys, jewelry for the girls, centerpieces, and place cards (to name a few). I've also enlisted a few of my favorite artists to contribute to our decor to make it extra special and personal. I am getting all kinds of excited for the big day and can hardly wait for when I get to share all the little details here on the blog.

My Mom and soon to be Mother in Law are doing all of the flowers for our big day so we got up way too early on Sunday and explored the wholesale flower market. We came up with some pretty ideas for the centerpieces and the bouquets so I'm really excited to see how they all come together.

I had a professional blow out last weekend to confirm that it's what I want to do the day of the wedding. I figure it's a good way to start nice and smooth and then put the curls back in myself. It's less nerve wracking then hoping for a good curl day. I won't be wearing it all down, but here's a peek at how the curls will hopefully look- Next week is my makeup trial which I'm very excited for! If you follow me on Pinterest you may have noticed I'm on the lookout for good wedding makeup options for my dark hair, blue eyes combo.

And now I'll leave you with little Olive all wrapped up in ribbon from one of our wedding gifts.


I'm off to my dress fitting tonight! It's all happening people! It's ALL happening!

Halloween Rewind

With the wedding just a month away I've had zero time to keep up here. Instead of feeling guilty about this blog being a ghost town I thought I might do a blog rewind and highlight some fun fall favorites from years past. First up my easy lace pumpkin from last Halloween.

This pretty lace pumpkin is super easy! Simply cut a little hole for the stem and then use black duct tape to attach it securely at the bottom of the pumpkin. Top her off with a shiny black bow and she's ready to go! It doesn't get much easier than that!

Sorry to any long time readers that have already seen this. I figure repeats are better than complete silence.
Happy Fall!

Thrifted Love

Just look at this love seat! I've passed by Antika nearly one hundred times on my way to dance, but have never been able to go in. A few weekends ago when Duncan and I were out running errands for the wedding we spotted this lovely mid century piece in their window. The parking gods also thought we should stop in so they granted us a parking spot right out front!
This store is worth a trip to Seattle! I couldn't help but think of all of you vintage lovers out there as a perused their perfectly curated rooms filled with furniture, home accessories and other fun trinkets. I braced myself as I started checking out the price tags, but was pleasantly surprised. The prices seemed fair and approachable, much more so than other similar shops that only seem to price the items for collectors who are will ing to pay an arm and a leg for something specific.

I hope to go back again soon once I'm off this strict wedding budget. We allowed this purchase to bend the budget rules by deciding to use it in our photobooth - two uses is always better than one!

A little PS- I've been sad that I've been unable to post more regularly, but let's face it until the wedding is over posting will likely be light. I'll pop in with posts when I can and plan to really recommit myself to a blog post schedule mid November (just in time for the holidays)!

Doorbell Makeover

Our house was built in 1946 and there are a lot of wonderful nods to that era in the design. The doorbell with its long chimes and its own little cubby in the wall is definitely one of those features. Unfortunately, the brown plastic housing and gold metallic material that topped off the pretty chimes was well past its prime.I had this doorbell makeover project planned before this house was even officially ours so it was extra fun to finally execute the update. The best part of this project is that it cost me zero dollars because I used materials I already had. I found a spray paint fabric combination I loved and got to work. With a few coats of robins egg blue spray paint and some fabric glue to cover the board that fit into the frame, I was done! Our 1946 doorbell now has a touch of today!

August Birthday Love

My birthday is coming up this weekend (the 14th to be exact) so it's been fun to see who else in the blogging community was born around the same time. I have been pretty behind on my twitter feed lately but I have been by enough to pick up on all of these lovely leo's birth dates (so sorry for anyone I've left out). It makes me feel like the universe really gives the August babies an extra dose of creativity and drive. All of the images I used are pulled from each birthday girl's/boy's blog so just click on each one to be sent straight there.







I hope you all let your lion manes down and party big in celebration of the all kinds of awesome you are!

Pool and Persimmon

Jeni and Keith have made an appearence here on the Dot Girl Blog before when I helped them save the date for their wedding. That date they had us save came and went over the last weekend. I had such an incredible time being a part of their beautiful, thoughtful wedding weekend on the Russian River in Northern California. Every little detail was thoughtfully executed. Jeni, the bride, was the visionary and her family and friends helped her execute everything she had dreamt up. It was such a collaborative, pretty weekend filled with love that I think I'm still glowing in the aftermath of it all. There was an outpouring of love for the couple vocalized through amazing toasts, poems, songs composed especially for them and so much more. They are beautiful people inside and out and this amazing weekend of events was a fantastic reflection of them and the love all of their family and friends have for them.

Top left: Jeni's parents who are stunningly gorgeous * Top right: table decor * Bottom left: tasty cocktails with pretty straws * Bottom right: Rice Crispy Cake!

I love me some market lights above a dance floor!

Me and Stacey (2 of 6 Bridesmaids):

A photo booth print and a party party favor:

Seamus even flew out from NYC for the doggie friendly affair:

Congratulations to Keith and Jeni! If your wedding is any indication of your future life together then I'd say you're in for a beautiful ride!

Signed Sealed (keys) Delivered - She's Ours!

It's official! As of Thursday evening Duncan and I are home owners!
I'm overwhelmed with excitement and can hardly wait to get settled. We have been working our butts off ever since we received the keys. We've ripped out the dirty old pink carpet, hauled it to the dump (all 600 pounds of it), pulled out all of the nails and staples, sanded the floors, scrubbed the kitchen from top to bottom, packed, and started the moving process. My mom came over both Saturday and Sunday to help me with the kitchen which is pretty much set. The rest of the house is empty and filled with dust from the hardwood floor project, but we've got a kitchen! The backyard is just perfect too. We brought over our patio furniture so we have a place to relax when we need a break.

We've got a huge todo list that needs completing before we move all of our furniture this Saturday, but we'll get there. Moving is horrible, but knowing we won't have to do it again for years makes it WAY easier. I hope you're ready for lots of posts related to decorating, home improvement, and caring for chickens in the coming months. I know I can't wait!

Baby Love

I saw my little niece Audrey Jean four times in the first few months of her life. Since then I've been surviving on facetime calls, photos, and videos... until last weekend. It was so fun to finally see this little cutiepie in person. She's the happiest little baby I've ever met and has quite the personality. I love her to pieces and can't wait to see her again in September.
This one of her sleeping is my absolute favorite!