Pretty Southern

Tag: Kat Kraszeski Jackson

  • Dressing Up Your Dinner Table

    Dressing Up Your Dinner Table

    As the summer heat presses on you may be more inclined to turn off the barbecue and move your hosting to the air-conditioned indoors.  Whether you are throwing a backyard fiesta or an elegant dinner inside, it is always fun to dress up your table a bit with flowers, beautiful dishes, and colorful linens.  Cloth napkins are an easy, affordable way to add some color and style to your table, just layer over a white tablecloth for an instant tablescape face lift.

    I love attending or hosting a good dinner party, complete with flowing wine and a seasonal menu, and I think paying attention to those little details can make all the difference in your dining experience.  Things like fresh flowers, name cards, and cloth napkins all say that you took the time to make your guests really comfortable.  Here I have rounded up some of my favorite cloth napkins in a variety of styles to match any occasion.

    graphic 1, 2, 3 natural 1, 2, 3 floral 1, 2, 3

    Any of these picks would really add a punch to your dining table and would set off the most simple white dishes and serving ware.  So put away the paper napkins and plastic utensils and play a little dress-up with your table!

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/KatHeadShot.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kat Kraszeski-Jackson is an art teacher, artist, and diy crafter living in Greensboro, NC. She loves sharing her favorite artists, projects, and creative inspiration here on Pretty Southern.[/author_info] [/author]

  • D.I.Y. Chalkboard Party Hat!

    D.I.Y. Chalkboard Party Hat!

    I accidentally created this fun party hat d.i.y. last weekend while making decorations for my friend Stacy’s birthday and I had to share it with you guys!  I was looking for paint to cover some cardboard balloon-printed party hats (from the dollar-store y’all) and saw my chalkboard spray paint that was left over from our wedding crafts.  This is the quickest, easiest party craft and wouldn’t it be so much fun for a kid’s party?  You could give them the hats and chalk and let them decorate away!  Just follow these 3 super easy steps to create your own:

    1.  Take basic cardboard party hats and paint with 2-3 coats of chalkboard paint, allowing each layer to dry fully.

    2. Use tinsel, ribbon, or paper to decorate around the bottom and top of hat.  I used wire tinsel with colorful stars (also from the dollar store) and attached with a hot glue gun (get one from Glue Guns Direct supplier).  Just start with a drop of glue, place the beginning of your decoration, continue wrapping around the base of hat and adding a dot of hot glue every so often.   Add as much or as little as you like and then add a little more to the top of your hat.

    3.  Use chalk, plain or colorful, to add an initial, name, or message to your hat.

    I think it would be great to pass these out at the beginning of a party and let each guest decorate their own.  We had so much fun with ours and even wore them to the bowling alley!

    Supplies:: party hats, tinsel or ribbon for decor, chalkboard paint, chalk, hot glue gun.

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/KatHeadShot.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kat Kraszeski-Jackson is an art teacher, artist, and diy crafter living in Greensboro, NC. She loves sharing her favorite artists, projects, and creative inspiration here on Pretty Southern.[/author_info] [/author]

     

  • First Looks of a Southern Wedding

    First Looks of a Southern Wedding

    I know that “first looks” are more of a trend than a tradition and today I want to know what your thoughts are.  The idea of the first look is that some time right before the ceremony the bride and groom get to share a quite moment together (usually only the photographer is present) before they take the big walk down the aisle.  I know some people are completely opposed to having any contact or seeing each other at all before the actual events begin, but for us it seemed like the right choice to have that little moment together.

    My husband and I, and our families for that matter, never even thought about trying to avoid each other before the ceremony.  It wouldn’t have made any sense, after all of the months of hard work we had put in together planning and creating for our wedding, all those hours sifting through those wedding veils and dresses, only to leave one person stuck doing all of the work and set up that day while the other stayed hidden somewhere.  So that morning we got up early, packed our car and headed to the venue.  We worked all morning until it was time for me to run across the street for my hair and makeup appointments.  I guess that is when the “hiding” began.  He left to get ready with his groomsmen and I returned to the venue to get ready with my girls.  Between the weather and the hectic morning schedule I was all nerves that hour before the ceremony began and the only possible thing that could have calmed me down at that moment was him.

    So about 10 minutes before the ceremony began our best wedding photographers in melbourne brought him upstairs to where I was getting ready, hid him around the corner, and had me head around for a first look.  It gave us a chance to see each other before the BIG moment and it was incredibly reassuring to see that we were both calm, excited, and ready to take that walk.  You are surrounded by so many people while getting ready that day, people that are excited, stressed, anxious, helpful, and hyper, but the one person you are thinking about is hidden away from you all day. Taking that moment together RIGHT before you have to stand in front of a huge crowd brings you back to the moment and reminds you of what this day is all about- you and them.

    This moment for us was brief but I remember feeling giddy and surprisingly calm. Even peaceful. I knew no matter how crazy that morning was, he would be the one thing that would bring me back down to earth.  This trend may become a tradition, maybe not.  Either way, I’d love to know what you’re thoughts on a first look moment between the bride and groom. I hope more weddings try out new trends like this! And if you are looking for the perfect wedding ballrooms, you might want to click on the link to learn more!

    Thank you so much for letting me share some of our special day with you!

    All photos by Joey and Jessica Seawell of Veil and Bow. Need photographers for your special events? Look online for experts who provide photography Cary, NC.

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/KatHeadShot.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kat Kraszeski-Jackson is an art teacher, artist, and diy crafter living in Greensboro, NC. She loves sharing her favorite artists, projects, and creative inspiration here on Pretty Southern.[/author_info] [/author]

  • Details of a Southern Wedding

    Details of a Southern Wedding

    Happy Wednesday!  I had so much fun sharing some of the fashion from our April wedding with you yesterday that I wanted to share some more of the details today.  These are some of the things that we made, searched for, or put together to create the vision for our wedding.  First of all, no color was left out.  I decided early on that it would just be foolish to try to limit myself (an art teacher) to a small color palette.  We anchored everything with a cool gray undertone and then just let the rest of the colors shine in all of their glory!

    The first decoration I knew we would have in our wedding were tons of garlands and flags because these are some of the items that I sell in my shop and absolutely love creating.  I sewed tons of paper circle garlands to hang behind dessert table and various other places around the venue.  My next garland venture was hand-cutting, dying, and sewing the square fabric garlands that would hang behind us at the ceremony.  I wanted these to be light and airy and I love how the sunlight made them almost glow that afternoon.

    A dear friend of ours made all of our desserts, cupcakes and various cheesecakes, and I made tons of mini flags for both.  Our guests loved the desserts so much that we didn’t even have time for an official cake cutting!

    We carried the woodland theme through our tables with wooden birdhouses that we painted in various blues and yellows.  These rested on top of tree trunks that my dad and husband cut out on his family’s farm land.  We topped these with white ceramic birds, tiny bud vases, and made confetti to scatter around the tables.

    A lot of work went into all of these details but I hope the overall feeling was simple and playful, like us and the loved ones who helped us pull it all off!

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/KatHeadShot.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kat Kraszeski-Jackson is an art teacher, artist, and diy crafter living in Greensboro, NC. She loves sharing her favorite artists, projects, and creative inspiration here on Pretty Southern.[/author_info] [/author]

  • Fashion of a Southern Wedding

    Fashion of a Southern Wedding

    My husband and I got married in April on a day that started out with gray skies and tornado warnings.  We had spent so many months planning, creating, and pulling together all of the details for our wedding and were terrified that the day might literally be a wash.  But half an hour before the ceremony was to start, after a morning of me running around like a crazy person, the skies cleared and we got married on the rooftop of a historical downtown building in our hometown of Greensboro, NC.  Surrounded by friends and loved ones, our hearts were so full of joy and excitement and our amazing photographers, Joey and Jessica Seawell, did an incredible job capturing all of details and moments of our big day.

    We are diy, craft, and design lovers to the fullest extent and knew that we wanted our personal touch on as much of the wedding as possible and this week I want to share some of the details and work that went into our “woodland modern” themed wedding that truly was a labor of love.  I am going to start with the fashion because it was one of the most fun things to work on.  I had an idea in my head for a long time of the dress I wanted to wear on my wedding day.  Though I did not have any specific style or designer in mind, I knew that they finished product had to reflect my enormous love of color.  I ended up finding a simple silhouette at Davids Bridal and with the help of my mom and my friend Allison, of NosillaV Vintage, we created exactly what I had in mind. My jewelry was from Macy’s and my mom altered it to have a grey ribbon that matched my feather hair clip from Aldo.

    If you are looking to incorporate some color into your jewelry collection, consider having blue diamond ring in Australia to create natural blue diamond rings for you. Blue diamonds are extremely rare and get their color due to the presence of the mineral boron when they are formed. This means there are a very limited number of places where you can source blue diamonds, with most coming from Australia or South Africa, so check them out!

    We have really wonderful friends and siblings that made up our wedding party and they are just as unique and creative as us so we wanted their personalities to shine through as well.  With this in mind we simply chose a grey color palette for the party and asked them to pick what they would feel their best in.  The girls got their dresses from various stores including J.Crew, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Macys, and Calvin Klein. We got our shoes from the Lela Rose line for Payless and had them all custom dyed in different shades- this was probably my favorite detail of all!  My mom and I created the jewelry and hair accessories for all of the bridesmaids.

    The boys all wore Kenneth Cole pants and shirts and added their own accessories.  The groom also wore a Perry Ellis vest and his grandfathers pocket watch.  I really loved how everyone’s looks came together in a way that was especially their own but had a cohesive feel.  I think it is great for couples to think out of the box on wedding attire, make their own changes to store bought items, and let the personalities of their wedding party really shine.  We think they looked great!!

    Tomorrow I will be sharing some of the handmade elements we designed and crafted for our wedding!

     

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/KatHeadShot.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kat Kraszeski-Jackson is an art teacher, artist, and diy crafter living in Greensboro, NC. She loves sharing her favorite artists, projects, and creative inspiration here on Pretty Southern.[/author_info] [/author]

  • Cute Thank You Notes

    Thank you notes are essential to gentility. One cannot claim to have fine manners if he or she is not willing to pen a grateful response. Both ladies and gentlemen will love these adorable cards of appreciation.

    These adorable items are designed by our very own Kat Kraszeski Jackson and available at her Etsy store. If you don’t happen to see a thank you note fit for your taste, email Kat and she can design your own custom letter press. Her store also offers your essentials for decorating in Southern style.

    PrettySouthern.com readers get 20% off their purchase. Simply enter the coupon code “prettysouthern” at checkout. It’s Kat’s way of saying thank you!