July 2009 update

As you may have noticed, we've stopped updating our website and blog. Brina and I have discussed and decided that after 6 years of running blue skies & daisies, it's time to say goodbye to our amazing little company and try our hands at something new.

Something new you ask?

Brina started a secondary company earlier this year, called Two Owls Collect. She offers fine stationery products, custom books and small business print and design and, since our decision, has expanded her collection to include wedding and event stationery.

You can find out what Brina's been up to at her website: www.twoowlscollect.ca and she would be happy to discuss your wedding stationery needs!

As for me, I'm still in a sea of unknown and exciting possibilities. Fear not, our very loyal friends of blue skies & daisies...you'll see me again soon. Promise.

For all our existing couples out there...we're still here for you! We'll work as hard as ever to get all your wedding stationery orders completed

Thank you to everyone for making our company so great!
love,
albertine & brina

On this day, 32 years ago...

Bill and Helen Schenk blessed the world with a beautiful, curly haired, blue-eyed, sassy pants named Brina Louise Schenk.

She is my friend, she is my business partner and she is my family.

I wish her a fun-filled spring day with friends, drinks, lots of friznock and birthday hugs(or slaps, whatever).

Happy Birthday buddy!!!

love you!
teen

one picture that represents my week in vancouver

and, boy, are my arms tired!

I'll be flying into the big city of Vancouver tomorrow for a week of blue skies and daisies working in the same room, as a team, which hasn't happened in a long long time. I tried to find a funny picture of the two of us at work...and all I could find was this picture pre Deanna and Jimmy's wedding where I was lovingly holding Teenie's hand. Ben doesn't seem to mind.

Hope you had a lovely weekend! Rod and I ended up playing outside (my mom would be happy to hear that) for many hours and wrapped up Sunday with the purchase of a 1971 tent trailer. We are so excited for summer. I'll keep you posted on the bs&d fun times.

This is pretty funny

blue skies and daisies @ Got Craft? on May 3rd

Albertine and I will be at Royal Canadian Legion (2205 Commercial Drive, at E. 6th Ave.), in Vancouver, BC selling limited editions of fine stationery in the form of notebooks, notepads and journals. We carefully chose 3 of our beautiful Ready2Wear designs to showcase at Got Craft? along with a few other goodies.

We'd love to see you there and personally show you our 1st collection of fine paper products. This is a new idea for blue skies and daisies so we're going to put it out there and see what kind of response we get. Of course, there are also going to be many many other talented vendors who are busy, probably at this very moment, preparing their handmade goods for you, the people of the world.


Got Craft? is organized by the lovely Lotus Events people (Andrea and Rob) who are genuinely excited about all things crafty and handmade.

show and tell #25

Eri and Philip chose custom colours for their Splendid Rockies Ready2Wear wedding invitations and, instead of including a photo, they decided on using the left panel for their Japanese guests. Genius! Eri and Philip chose this particular design because they are hosting their wedding at Glacier National Park in Montana. So lucky! Rod and I drove through Glacier National Park two summers ago and it was beyond beautiful.

Grand Central Terminal

I found this photo in an old 1973 book about trains "The Great Trains" of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. The photo was taken in the early 1900s when, at the time, this train station was considered one of the most majestic built in America. This photo is stunning with the intense sunbeams and clear and blurry travelers. I didn't realize a book about trains would be so interesting. Now I understand why they have all those train museums around the world. Kinda.

There is no photo credit but I see that as a challenge so I will try and find it.

show and tell #24

Alexandra and Cletus ordered these adorable custom invitations for their summer wedding in Nelson, British Columbia. Damask is a popular style these days and so we drew an original damask invitation for Alexandra and Cletus.

Details: A 1-fold invitation bound with a decorative band and sealed with a monogram sticker.

Music to listen to

I was inspired to post April's Music to listen to this morning while listening to The Current. There are a few goodies to sprinkle around...

1. Coconut Records - Myspace Solo work by Jason Schwartzman. I was pleasantly surprised by what I've heard.



2. The Brothers Movement - Myspace Previously known as Mainline, now the self published band with a new name and mission...



3. Melpo Mene - Myspace Sweet sounds from Sweden.

show and tell #23

Lindsay and Harry decided on our Bunny Love design for their summer 2009 wedding. I believe it was a toss up between Bunny Love and Arts and Crafts. They wanted something unique, playful yet romantic to set the tone for a west coast style Cecil Green celebration. What's unique about Bunny Love is the freedom to choose your own bunny love photo combo. There are 8 in total and, I assume, fairly difficult to choose just 2.

show and tell #22

Jessica and Steve mailed out the adorable Tree, Bush or Rocketship wedding invitation to their guests. Wedding colours were exchanged for the default colours and they took advantage of the real estate by inviting guests to a separate wedding event and had everyone rsvp by email. This is becoming more and more popular as it saves time and money, it's a lot more efficient and involves less paper. I can appreciate it's simplicity.

show and tell #21

Melanie and Robert ordered our Little Blue Fern Thank You Cards to tie it in to their invitations, place cards, table cards and thank you tags. It's a simple design but it has a big impact. Congratulations, Melanie and Robert, on your truly west coast Whistler wedding.

featured bsd wedding : april : renee and mike

THE DETAILS
Location: Mill City Museum, Minneapolis, MN USA
Photographer: Michael B Studios
Our involvement: save-the-date magnet design, custom wedding invitations, ceremony programs.

Renee and Mike took some time out of their married schedule to answer our 4 questions. We got to know them a bit over the months we worked together and even gave them their own nicknames. Thanks, Ren and Big M! Let's see what they have to say about the planning of their wedding, who they are as a couple and what they enjoyed about their wedding.

Renee and Mike's answers are...

show and tell #20

Kristi and Jason ordered a complete set of custom invitations and recently they finished off the set with these beautiful thank you postcards. They were married in Whistler so a clean and modern illustrated mountain design was carried through all their pieces.

Recently, we found this photo of their program on Brian Noppe Photography's blog along with some fantastic photos from their wedding. Kristi and Jason's wedding was coordinated by Bliss Event Planning.

show and tell #19

Rahanna and Bobby ordered this classic Ready2Wear invitation for their summer 2009 wedding on Vancouver Island. This invitation, To India With Love, stands the test of time...so far. Happy planning, Rahanna and Bobby!

the time has finally come....

watch the trailer!

Music to listen to

I'm changing it up today with a bit of music for the soul...

Deerhunter - myspace



Animal Collective - myspace



The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - myspace

show and tell #18

Kristin and Tobias ordered the Bunny Love wedding invitation, without the rsvp postcard, and it turned out just as adorable as ever. Kristin and Tobias supplied the German text to go in the invitation, with a few easy adjustments to the copy layout, as I didn't know what it said. We hope Kristin and Tobias have a wonderful wedding in Germany this summer.

show and tell #17

Holly and Sean are getting married this summer, but not without some really cool wedding invitations! Holly and Sean are the first to use love birds from our Ready2Wear collection and we're SO happy they did. Printed on recycled paper, they turned out just fantastic.

show and tell #16

Erin and Geoff made one of our most popular Ready2Wear design all their own with bright red and blue. Betty's Garden was one of our first designs and it has stayed on top ever since...no matter how hard I try. ha! I do love it's clean, simple and not overly feminine way. Erin and Geoff included a map on the "extra insert" to show guests where the ceremony and reception are taking place; a small piece to put in your purse when you're heading to the wedding events. Easy!

show and tell #15

Amanda and Cameron had this funky little custom wedding invitation designed for their summer 2009 wedding. Amanda and Cameron had a pretty good idea of what they wanted, we just made it happen. They are such a great couple and we hope their wedding is as giggly and fun and they are.

show and tell #14

Marilee and Doug chose a Ready2Wear wedding invitation designs called It's Not A Thistle. They loved this design and didn't change a thing, only added a map to match on the Extra Insert. Erin Norman, of Fuego Events, recommended us to the couple and it's been a delightful warm summer breeze.

show and tell #13

Today we have Cristina and Steve's custom "3 cards in a band" wedding invitation. Yes. That's the technical name for it too. The 3 cards in band is a great way to show off different complimentary textures and colours. The whole thing was printed on recycled paper, so it gives it that earthy feel to it. So perfect for their Hawaii destination wedding.

Let the show and tell begin...again!

Thanks to Albertine for sending me a HUGE box invitations we've designed and printed in the past 4 months!! Thank you, Teenie! It's nice seeing them in person. Awe. We do such great work. Every day, when I remember, I'll be posting a photo of recent work.

Hooray!

The first is a custom 2-fold wedding invitation for Dagney and Peter on recycled paper.

kittens inspired by kittens!

Thanks, Louvens!

What I have learned in Fernie...

10. The Book Exchange - I discovered the book exchange when I walked into one of my favorite places to grab a coffee in Fernie, Tea and Coffee House, and noticed a small shelf of books. There are a few shelves like this around town and the deal is, you can take a book for free as long as it's in good condition and you also contribute to the book exchange. This was a great way for me to 1. take some unnecessary weight off my own book shelf and 2. read free books. I love it!

On top of that, there is another program where you can register your book and see where it goes around the world. Once I find out what this is called, I'll post it.

11. Ski and Snowboarding videos follow you everywhere. You could be sitting down in a restaurant for dinner, browsing a store or grabbing a coffee at a local cafe and guarenteed you will see a ski and/or snowboard video on the walls of each location...just staring you down. It's unbelievable. My roommate, Mike Tonge, is a ski patrol guy at Fernie Alpine Resort and after a long 10 hour work day at the hill, he can come home and put on a ski video while he eats his McDonalds take-out dinner; never tiring of the same DVD. How do they do it?

Rod keeps saying to me "That's a ski town for you."

And then I remember: ohhh yeah. I moved to a ski town.

12. Free camping galore. Growing up in Ontario, I'm used to planning months and months ahead of time for a weekend camping trip and paying good money for it too.


In and around Fernie, there is ample amounts of camping locations and most of them are completely free and empty. Can you tell I'm excited for summer? I'm looking forward to spending my weekend, any weekend we choose, in a cool remote spot on a lake with hardly anyone around. Now that's my idea of camping!

my love for all things SF...including danny tanner.

Well, what would a weekend mini-break to San Francisco be without driving by the Full House house?! Don't front, you know you wish you got to see where Uncle Joey lived.

Last Friday Ben and I, along with our friends Mike & Melinda, flew off to SF to be with our other friend Len for the weekend. It was a weekend trip discussed before Len was even seconded to SF for 6 months and eventually, planned and booked.

our view of SFMOMA from our weekend apartment

Our much owed and overdue family portrait for Len's picture frame (that we got him for his birthday...last year. :|)

Even though this wasn't my first time in SF, since the other 3 have never been before, I got to fall in love with SF all over again through their eyes. Plus! The great thing about having your own local tour guide is you get to visit those pocket neighbourhoods you wouldn't have found otherwise and eat a lot of yummy SF food (ahem...like In & Out burger that I requested in homage to Si and Almonds! YUM!).

View from the top of Lombard Street, with the whole top half of my body hanging outside the window ...ALL the way down.

Had to include this one little shout out to our TT awe!

By Brina & Rod's recommendation from their visit last year, we went into Golden Gate Park and walked around the beautiful Japanese Tea Gardens. We also checked out the Asian Art Museum and in hindsight, wished we did more than take pictures of the M.H. de Young Memorial Building.

Len, Tiffany (another expat living in SF) & me enjoying the Tea Gardens.

Asian Art Museum

M.H. de Young Memorial Building

Sunday we drove out to Sausalito for a gorgeous brunch on one of their many patios over looking the city, as well Len took us up this crazy mountainside that gave us some pretty awesome golden gate bridge photos.

A view of the bridge heading back to the city.

The classic SF postcard shot. Jealous much?

Of course we all wished we had an extra day (or five) in the city to check out the tons of other things we wanted to do on our list but, for the short amount of time we had in the city, it was planned oh-so-perfectly.

Until next time, San Francisco...

our stumbled links #10

Today I'm going to post a few links on Buddhism. The Buddhist teachings are very important to me as they are good reminders as to what is real and what isn't real in our little worlds.


1. Kill the Buddha - by Zen Master Dae Kwang

" Lin Chi Zen Master said, "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a Patriarch, kill the Patriarch." Zen Master Seung Sahn says that in this life we must all kill three things: First we must kill our parents. Second, we must kill the Buddha. And lastly, we must kill him! This kind of speech is sometimes perplexing to people raised in the Judaeo-Christian tradition since we would never say this about Jesus or one of the Prophets. But the meaning here is very interesting and goes far beyond the martial language of the metaphor. Buddhism is quite unique in that its founder never said, "Believe what I say." Buddhism means find out for yourself.. i.e., kill the Buddha..." read more...


2. The Teachings of the Buddha

"The Buddha taught the middle path. In the first sermon known as the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, or the Turning of the Wheel of the Dhamma, the Buddha taught that seekers of truth must avoid two extremes—that of the path of sensual pleasure, and that of extreme penance or austerity. This middle path he explained by means of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

The Four Noble Truths

1. There is suffering.
2. Suffering has a cause: craving.
3. If craving ceases, suffering ceases.
4. There is a path leading to the cessation of suffering.

... read more...


3. Daili Lama - Precious Life

"Every day, think as you wake up,
Today I am fortunate to have woken up,
I am alive, I am a precious human life,
I am not going to waste it
I am going to use it..."

read more ....

Look what Soha found yesterday!

It's interesting when people send you photos of yourself from years ago (maybe only a year) that you've never seen before. Like when Soha, of CountDown Events, emailed this picture yesterday taken at a RealWedding Magazine launch party. WOW! Doesn't that little food ball on the spoon look yummy? I want to eat it again. Yes I do. I'm not sure what I'm looking at but I'm assuming it's the trays of yummy food flying by while we stand here taking this photo.

Good times. Drinking wine, stalking food tray people, catching up with industry friends and making new friends. Awe.

Thanks, Soha!

Left-Right: Brina, Albertine, Camille (Jonetsu Photography) and Lori (Sweet Pea Photography).

Look what I found today!

http://gotcraft.blogspot.com/2009/01/winner.html

This made me laugh...more like giggle. I love it.

featured bsd wedding : march : sarah and erik

The Details
Location: Furry Creek, BC
Photographer: Jane Photo
Our involvement: Cherry Blossom Ready2Wear wedding invitations.

Sarah and Erik ordered our cherry blossom invitations for their May 2008 wedding at Furry Creek Golf and Country Club. They were such an easy couple to work with. All Sarah wanted was a blue cherry blossom design. Easy!

Although we didn't get to spend too much time with Sarah and Erik, we enjoyed their visits and we were so happy they sent us a link of their wedding slideshow. What we found out, after looking through their wedding photos, is that they ordered a cake with the invitation design as inspiration for the chef.

How cool is that?!

To view more photos of Sarah and Erik's wedding. just clicky click right here.

Happy March, everyone!! It's gonna be a good month.

croutons seasoned with love

As you can tell, by the lack of posts lately, we've been quite busy. It is the season, I believe, and we're feeling it and loving it. In a year of economic turmoil, it's surprising that we're having one of the busiest seasons of blue skies and daisies' almost 6 years of life.

I'll be posting some of the work we've been creating for couples getting married in the near future but for now you'll just have to believe my words. They are BEAUTIFUL.

Speaking of beautiful, did you know you can send someone a voice message and also video message through email? Dana showed me. It's called voicebeep from voicebeep.com

We'll chat soon.

Music to listen to

Today I'm gonna post a few female singer/songwriters. They do have such lovely voices.

1. Liz Durrett - Myspace


2. Hanne Hukkelberg - Myspace



3. Rachel Goodrich - myspace

Freedom Art Therapy with REINE

You may have heard a thing or two about Reine Mihlta, the extraordinary photographer/artist. If not, you should! She's quite brilliant.

Albertine forwarded me her latest venture called Freedom Art Therapy. She will bring out your inner creativity and instruct you on how to do it and do it well. If I was in Vancouver and could afford it, I'd be all about it. The best part is, you can accomplish art therapy with your friends! I love it.

New Addition to the Family

Her name is Peerless Gem and she's new around these here parts. It took 18 hours to get this paper cutter settled in from Calgary to Fernie and lots of hours discussing how we're going to take this 1000 lb, 100 year old paper cutter off the back of Rod's truck.

We woke up Sunday morning to this outside our window and kinda wanted to cry...


Rod and I looked at each other absolutely baffled and confused.

"HUN!"

Finally, we called a few strong bulls over to work with us as a team. It worked flawlessly, other than the 30 minutes where we couldn't find one of the wheels that Rod had mysteriously put down somewhere. We found it though, sneaky Rod!

And that's when the real excitement began. I've never seen twenty-something year olds SO excited about a paper cutter. It was like Christmas for them and all they were doing was cutting a phone book into many many pieces and then cheering...like a dog with newspaper.

OHHH I did loved their excitement! It made all the stress worth it. It's a fairly rusty machine at the moment but I'll be putting in some elbow grease time to transform it from a 1910 to a 2010 model. People will see it and be like "ohhh is that a new Peerless Gem? I didn't think they were making them anymore"

And I will smile inside.

you gotta see this wedding dress...

I'm not sure how I got into regularly checking Jasmine photography's blog, which doesn't really matter, but a few days ago I was looking through her recent work and saw this dress! It's such a cool wedding dress! The beautiful wedding photography only makes it look even more sexy and beautiful. I think my mother would be proud to know that I even noticed a dress and called it beautiful.

For more of Lucia and John's wedding photos, and to check out Jasmine's other amazing photos, take this portal.

blue skies and daisies around the world

Somewhat hidden on our website is a page where we post fun comments from our couples (we tend to leave the pretty rare not so nice comments extremely hidden) and a little map about where those couples are from. Most people assume we work only with couples in Vancouver but the truth is most of our couples are from all over North America and a smaller percent are international. It's pretty cool working with people living on different continents. We've even been invited to a few weddings outside of Canada. How cool would that be!? OHH to be an international wedding photographer! Now THAT would be fun.

Dwight "Slippers" Schenk

My big brother recently recorded a solo album and I can't tell you how proud I am of him. His music is so inspiring to me, not just because he's my brother, but because he writes songs that are 100% Dwight. He didn't hold back or wimp out on any of the songs on this album. I know it took him a long long time to finish this, maybe close to 2 years, and you can tell that he put a lot of care into it.

Myspace - Dwight Schenk, Natural Disasters

This is a solo album but he didn't shy away from working with others. There are a lot of contributing musicians and singers on the album. Have a listen.