Freebie Friday! - Vintage Inspired Thank You Cards

It's Friday - yippee! You know what that means... you get a little freebie fabulousness. I just love that word =) The freebie was designed by Two Brunettes - who are absolutely amazing, you must head over there to check out all their goodies. I just love the vintage design with the little yellow flowers and such a great idea to hand write thank yous for your wedding, birthday, shower, maybe even just a "thank you for being awesome!"

You can download the cards HERE

Have a fabulous weekend!

"Happy" Saturday

It is Saturday! And I am Happy.

I hope you have a happy Saturday too!

Tasteful Tatters Valentines Collection!

It's finally here! {drum roll please} I'm so excited to announce the Grand Opening of the Tasteful Tatters Valentines Collection!!! - cheesy I know, but it's so fun. There are 7 pieces in the Collection and they are one-of-a-kind pieces that will not be duplicated. There will be here for only a short time before the big 14th of February. Check out the fun at my site Tasteful Tatters and hurry before they are all gone!!

My Stye Muse... at the moment

is Zooey Deschanel! I seriously heart her and her wardrobe. I tend to change up my look/style every so often but at the present I adore her haha. She has a simple, fresh, "I was born in the wrong era" look about her that I just L-O-V-E. Awhile back I even cut my bangs straight across just like her. I'm a dork I know, but at least I'm admiting it =) Every once in awhile I'll be thrift store hunting and I'm stumble across something and I think to myself "Oh, this is so Zooey" haha. Anyways, my sister Alyssa showed me this Tumblr blog that is dedicated to her and her fashion - kinda stalker-esk but I love it. Here are a few pics I stole from it. Hope you enjoy on this beautiful rainy day!

Special Valentines Preview!

Many of you have asked what new stuff will be on Tasteful Tatters for the new year, and I'm so excited to share with you TWO things to watch for in 2010.

First is a special Valentines Line. I know "line" sounds precocious or something, but it's not that I think I'm some brilliant fashion designer or anything, I just don't really know what else to call it, haha. Below is a little preview for you to chew on of the limited time only Tasteful Tatters Valentines Line. The "collection" if you will consists of all things feminine: lace, silk, flowers, pearls, etc. Now, this is isn't simply subject to you ladies who have big romantic plans for the big 14th of February... no, no, this is for the girls who are going to be hanging out with "the girls" shopping, eating out, watching movies in lieu of boys. I do not want to discriminate. And to be perfectly honest, you could definitely wear these pieces before and well after the 14th.


The line will launch THIS Friday at 9am and there are only single original pieces, so I cannot make custom orders =/ Sorry people, but these are one-of-a-kind haha

And TWO: a Spring 2010 collection is coming soon!!! I am so excited for this. I have been working really hard on it and I am so excited for how fun and springy it is haha. Stay tuned to my twitter and here for some sneak peak photos and updates on what to expect =)

Casey & Jimmy

I know I did a "sneak peak" on these two forever ago and I just realized I never posted more photos from our afternoon together. Now, I don't do these often and I agreed to do this for these two because they came to me with the sweetest story. Casey and Jimmy have been together for a little over a year now (I believe) and having both grown up in the SCV they got very close with each other's families - naturally. Anyways, right before Christmas, and a day before his wife's wedding Jimmy's father passed away suddenly. It was a shock to all and since the Holidays would be hard enough Casey and Jimmy thought that for Christmas, these photos would make great gifts to their friends and family to have and remember. I was so so touched. They were such a wonderful couple filled with lots of love and such great spirits. We had to reschedule over and over again, with all the the changing of events due to the circumstances and the day we could finally do it, there was the worst wind ever in the history of our little town - ok maybe not ever, but it seemed like it.

So here are their beautiful faces!

Freebie Friday!

I know it has been awhile since I have done a freebie Friday - yikes sorry! But I promise this freebie will make up for it, well, at least I hope you think so. So all you ladies, this one if for you. We all know Valentines Day is just around the corner ( 1 month to be exact) so I thought this would be very appropriate =)

I love making V-day cards for my girlfriends, because I believe Valentines is just as much a day for showing those you love how much you appreciate them as it is a "romantic holiday" And while I will still make my own cards this year, this beautiful card designed by Two Brunette's is absolutely to die for! It is totally free and you can print it from your own computer - how awesome is that?! I would stop by their big blog and send them a huge thank you.

I was thinking about printing it off black and white and then water coloring the color in, I'll let you know how it turns out haha. So, click HERE for the link to download this beautiful Valentines Card and send it to someone you love!

And Happy Friday bloggers!

500 Colored Pencils Project

I am so excited for this post!! I've been dying to tell you all about this project I am apart of, but I've been waiting since I had nothing to really show you haha. So anyways, I am apart of this online project started by Lea Redmond from Leafcutter Designs. You should definitely check out her site by the way. She makes the tiniest little letters that you can have made and sent to people. It is seriously the cutest thing ever and such a reasonable price! Anyways, Lea got together a bunch artists in the online community to take part in this little project. Basically the way it works is, she gets sent 500 colored pencils over the course of 20 months. It is super cool because each package comes with a tons of pencils of the same color but all different shades - does that make sense? And the names of the colors are soooo awesome and descriptive.

The so way the project works is, every month I will receive a pencil with my unique shade (this month is BLUE) along with a little journal and some inspiration suggestions to begin my piece. I will then send in whatever I create as well as a little anecdote written in my shade of color pencil about how I came up with the idea, what the picture means, where I got my inspiration from, if it is abstract - what the piece is all about, etc. And then Lea is going to post the art + story on her site and compile it all. What a cool opportunity right?!

So for myself, I will let you all know what the name of the color is and I'll try to describe it as best and I can here on the Blog and if you have any creative ideas for me - leave a comment I'd love to hear it. Aaand, just maybe your inspiration will find it's way into my monthly piece =) So you can be in on the fun too.

I will let you know what shade of blue I get as soon as I get it!

Here is a link to the welcome video Lea posted for us so you can get a better idea of what I'm doing.
I seriously CANNOT wait to begin!!

A Party from Across The Pond

I have been meaning to do this post for weeks now, and I feel so bad for those who have been anxiously waiting for this haha. For my man's birthday this year I wanted to do something above and beyond. This was a big year for him... and the first time that I lived close enough to actually do something big. So I did. His birthday is so close to Christmas, so I wanted to do something completely un-christmas... so naturally a British theme popped in my head haha. Don't ask me why... maybe it's my infatuation with Michael Caine? Either way, it turned out to be a total success. Not only was Andy completely surprised but the whole house was British-ified! Some of the girls totally pitched in and helped me with the transformation. We painted these huge british flags to put up along with a painting of "The Who" logo as well as a huge banner saying "God Save the Queen!" We even had a little makeshift photobooth - which was a HUGE success! After everything we had over 400 pictures - yikes! Here are some of my favs

Pretty Things & Paint

So for Christmas this year, I had no idea what to get most people. I feel like every year I come up with some crafty craft that I can personalize and give to all my girls and then random gift cards or something for the guys (sorry guys, there is just not many of you for me to shop for). This year, I just felt displaced from all the girlys that I loved and had no clue what to do. My sister, Alyssa was on the top of the list. She recently moved to Seattle and I felt like I needed to do something extra special. Of course she got a few fabulous items from Tasteful Tatters (but that was a given). So I decided to make something for her that was made especially for her down to every detail, for her new place in dreary Seattle haha. So I painted her this little mixed media piece to hang up! I wanted to do something bright and open and simple - because that is just so her. The pink on the hearts is made from tulle and the grayish print is actually strips of newspaper (The Los Angeles Times to be exact) because is the epitome of news and politics and is way smarter than me in that respect even though she is years younger. So she got a political yet peaceful painting - I'd say that is achieving a lot haha.

What do you think? Do you like it?

New Year - New Website

For my graduation, my Aunt and Uncle gave me quite possibly the coolest gift ever... my own {dot}com! WooHoo! I know what you're thinking... I'm a total nerd. But I love it. So I got tastefultatters{dot}com and emileesutherland{dot}com. Right now I only have Tasteful up right now, but hopefully soon when I figure this whole website making thing I'll have both up and running. This is just the first phase, so please be gentle with your comments haha. Right now, you can read a bio, look at my gallery of product, leave comments, and there is a link directing you to my Etsy shop - hopefully I can add more soon. I've never done this before and I'd appreciate any kind of feedback. Here are some snaps of the new baby =) Hope you like!!

Happy New Year!

I trust that you all had a safe and wonderful New Years Eve and New Years! Here's to 2010 from me!