Gather & Give Thanks

We love the smell of cornbread dressing baking in the oven & the small bits of leaves that blow in the front door as family members walk through. Thanksgiving is a time to come together, break bread & make memories. It's pulling out those old handwritten recipes and maybe a few new ones and sprawling in front of the TV to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. For us it's throwing the football around the front yard & getting outside to enjoy the warm fall sunlight.

The fall color this year has been beautiful which inspired us to bring Thanksgiving outside with our most recent tablescape. We partnered with two of our favorites, West Elm Birmingham & Empress Stationery to create a casual yet elegant table that is sure to welcome & inspire guests!

We asked Jessica at Empress Stationery to create a custom invite and gave her free reign. She came up with this fabulous design which was even more than we could have dreamed of, gold foil & all!

A navy tablecloth & napkins anchored our table and provided a bold canvas for us to work. Navy contrasts beautifully with the hues of fall and is so on trend right now. Jessica also designed a full paper package to compliment her invite including small menu cards at each place setting & tented place cards.

Also included were these adorable banners placed in West Elm's gold metallic dip bowls filled with almonds for guests to snack on. 

We love repurposing dishes and mixing in new with heirloom pieces. Brown transferware mixed with West Elm's linen textured salad plate gave us a fresh twist on a traditional setting. Gold silverware, the gold bowls & blue cut glass tumblers added a touch of elegance.

Other elements included small pumpkins repurposed from our fall porches (because you're going to throw them out after Thanksgiving anyway), pinecones & colorful branches collected from nearby trees & mercury glass votive and tealight holders from West Elm.

Two black & white striped wingback chairs capped off the ends of the table. The perfect place (after you fight over them with your siblings) to sit back, belly full & relax. West Elm has some amazing textiles available right now & we love mixing their patterns and textures with a few of our own. They feature wool products from the Faribault Woolen Mill Company out of Minnesota. Beautiful tones & a soft texture made us fall in love with this plaid pillow the moment we saw it in the store.

Another one of our West Elm favorites is this ombre throw. Available in 5 colors and with a great price tag these would make great gifts for the upcoming holiday season.

You can't have a gorgeous tablescape without a stunning centerpiece. And we can't do many projects without incorporating a DIY. During a nature walk this summer we spotted a lichen covered tree branch and had the idea of making a candle holder from it. The texture is fun & unexpected.

A chainsaw & hole saw later we had our favorite addition to this tablescape. Aside from the cost of taper candles it was 100% free and fun to make!

After guests enjoy a delicious meal and the sun slowly creeps behind the trees, warm them up with a hot cocoa bar! Using vintage thrift store pieces including milk glass mugs, a gold trinket tray for marshmallows & gold plated serving spoons, this is a simple yet thoughtful gesture for those chilly fall evenings. 

A few leaves are still hanging to the trees and will probably drop after this week is gone. We will put away our fall decor & the sights and smells of Christmas will appear. But for now, take in the last of this season. Be thankful for the things you have and expectant for those you don't. Enjoy the time spent with friends and family. We hope we have inspired you!

Huge thanks to Empress Stationery for this gorgeous custom paper package! Check out their site for more examples of their work including fun Christmas card designs!

(Produced/Styled/Photographed by Spark & Arrow Creative)

Fall DIY: Oak Leaf Hydrangeas

One morning, we were sitting at our dining room table, enjoying our daily cup of coffee and staring outside the window at the beautiful fall color. The vibrant leaves of our Oak Leaf Hydrangea caught our eye. The colors were beautiful! Bright red, orange, burgundy, yellow & green all bathing in the morning light. That's when the idea for this DIY came to be!

Oak Leaf Hydrangeas boast blooms of white during the summer months but are also known for their colorful leaves during the fall. We grabbed our clippers & snipped a few limbs from our large bush and started playing with some fun & easy decor ideas with these lovely leaves! These are perfect for a quick spruce up before Thanksgiving guests arrive.

Now we know, here in the south we prize our precious hydrangea blooms. Don't fret! Here's some info before giving yours a haircut.

1. Oak Leaf Hydrangeas can be pruned during the fall without affecting new growth the following year. In fact, you can prune them early spring and still have beautiful blooms the following summer.

2. When pruning, follow the branch all the way to it's secondary stem & cut where they meet. This makes for a prettier prune & new re-growth.

3. Only trim back 1/3 of your growth unless your plant is severely overgrown. Oak Leaf Hydrangeas tend to droop & cover walkways so a good prune is usually beneficial. For our purposes we only needed a few pretty stems. We will go back later & give ours its proper pruning.

Here's a few easy DIY ideas using Oak Leaf Hydrangea leaves!

We love making our guests feel special and a great way to do this is by adding a special touch to a place setting. For our first idea we cut the small inner leaves of a stem off, tucked them into a neatly folded napkin and topped it off with a small white pumpkin. Simple yet so easy!

The large leaves make a perfect table runner when layered on top of one another. Start on the edges and layer the leaves working towards the center of the table. Hold them in place with a few strategically placed pumpkins. Small votives or vases would also be a pretty addition!

We had this white washed wreath stored away in our craft closet. We pulled it out and added a few leaves to one side making a colorful guest greeter for our front entry! The best part is that this beauty cost us nothing but a few minutes of our time.

Need a pretty centerpiece arrangement but don't want to spend the money on flowers? Try this simple arrangement of fall stems. Clip from your yard & get creative! Pretty arrangements don't always have to be symmetrical. We added in a few natural curly stems for extra interest.

Lastly, everyone has an old basket laying around. Grab yours and fill it with your leftover hydrangea branches & Nandina berries (which are also perfect to decorate with this time of year). You can place this basket on your stairs or front porch to add a fresh touch to your fall decor!

We love finding new ways to spruce up our homes! The beautiful colors this time of year reminds us of the beauty that comes from change. Embrace it, celebrate it & take the time to enjoy every second of every season in your own life!

Fall blessings!

Spark & Arrow

(Produced/Styled/Photographed by Spark & Arrow Creative)

Meet our Friends & Vendors : Empress Stationery

Hello, hello!

This has been a busy week for us here at Spark & Arrow! Did you hear we just went full time? That's right now we (Kamin & Sarah) are all yours all the time. And we have some pretty big things on the books and coming soon so get excited!

But more about that later, we want to introduce you to Jessica at Empress Stationery. Lovely, no?

Friends, if you haven't visited her site go...right now, go! EmpressStationery.com. She is incredibly talented and you are just in time for Christmas Cards. We hung out with Jess and talked business and fun and oh my, we can't wait to show off her studio!

We also had a little fun with a mini interview!

Jessica answered these questions for us...

When did you start Empress Stationery?

I started Empress Stationery when I made my first invitation for a friend in 2008. I was working in advertising for a publishing company, and while my job was great, I was searching for a creative outlet. I found it! All at once, I fell in love with social paper and everything that goes with it. Soon, I found myself with more clients, and worked every night after work to grow this little business into something I could do the rest of my life. It is a labor of love and I wouldn't have it any other way!

What inspires you the most?

I find inspiration in everything, really. That's a hard question. I have several blogs I follow, and magazines that I read. But the real inspiration comes from the people I surround myself with. My fellow creative peers, my family, my friends. Also, for some reason, every time I walk out of Anthropologie, I feel like I'm ready to conquer the world. And I hardly ever buy anything. I think I soak in the "pretties" in that store and I feel like a brand new girl. Yes, shopping is honestly inspiring for me, haha!

Who is your favorite fellow Birmingham Vendor?

My favorite fellow Birmingham vendor is Brittany Lott with Elle Affairs. Brittany was the first local wedding planner to reach out to me and ask me to be part of a joint photo shoot with other local wedding vendors. After working as an Art Director in publishing for so long, I was missing the photo shoot aspect of work, and the team work as well. This way, I had a chance to design for the camera again, and that's always so great because of the creative freedom that comes with it. Brittany trusts me to design what I think will photograph best! From that point, we have built a wonderful working relationship, and she is truly so talented. Check her out at www.elleaffairs.com.

What song is on repeat in your office right now?  

Music in my studio...a must! I still have the same iPod from college (it has survived 8 years!), and besides a very cracked screen, it is still rockin' and rollin'! I don't have a  particular song per say, but my Van Morrison mix is a constant for me. So it has ol' Van of course, but it also has Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood, the Stones, and the rest of the greats. Also, we are currently in Christmas card land, so Bing Crosby is hanging around the office these days!

Jessica and her sister do amazing work at Empress Stationery, and we are so excited for some future projects with them and can't wait to see what Jessica designs next!

She is currently working on Christmas card designs and there are always Weddings in the mix. You  can find more of her work on EmpressStationery.com and in her Etsy Store. But here are a few of our very favorites from her stock!  

Thank you Empress Stationery & stay fabulous!

Love,

Your girls at Spark & Arrow!