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I’ve been busy lately working on some special new pieces for the shop, and these new pieces are special! But, more on that later…

All that sewing today left me dying to get out of the house and sit in the sun. My dog, Bear, was desperate to get out too! So, we went for a walk out to the forest behind our house and I took some happy snaps of him playing around in the grass. Any excuse to play with my new camera (and I think it’s quite possibly the best thing I’ve ever bought – after my sewing machine of course!).

I managed to figure out how to play around with the shutter speed and I captured a fun little photo of Bear licking his lips (do dog’s actually have lips?!). Here’s two of my favourites from today’s photo session!

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I woke up this morning and felt like making something a different for a change.  I decided that I would make myself a little pouch to store my make up in my handbag- why not I figured! I don’t normally have spare time to take on little projects like this so it was great fun.

I found the most adorable elephant fabric in my cupboard and I decided it was perfect for my pouch. The little baby elephants makes me smile each time I look at them and I couldn’t resist teaming them with some stripy fabric for the lining, pocket and zipper detail.

It’s nothing fancy, just a little pouch, but I think it’s cute so I thought I’d share x

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Today was a fun day. I decided to give myself the day off from everything and hang out with my brother Marty and learn how to use my new camera. I have always wanted to get into photography but I have never had the time to really explore it properly. So, we grabbed the cameras, packed the dog, drove out to the lake and I began to learn the very basics of my new toy. Marty is obsessed with photography – he lives and breathes it – so it was much more fun and interesting to learn from him than to read the manual (which I probably should do too… eventually!).

I love my little dog Bear but he was a difficult subject to photograph. He’s also a Labrador so the first thing he did was run into the lake – trying to photograph a dirty wet dog who just wouldn’t sit still was tough!  These are two of my favourite images from today’s first lesson (below). Editing the images was lots of fun too!

Marty was my subject for the afternoon, and I was his subject.  I look grumpy in the photo below but I love the colour of my nails (tangerine!). Overall it was a great day and there’s so much more I need to learn about my new camera, but I have promised myself to give myself more time to hang out with my family and pursue other passions. After all, that’s what life is all about xx

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It’s always exciting to receive emails from my customers but when I received the sweetest email from Lisa recently, I felt truly blessed to be able to work with such wonderful clients. I am so happy to be able to share with you these lovely photographs of beautiful bride Lisa and her gorgeous bridal party!

Lisa is wearing the June headpiece and her bridesmaids are wearing Fleurettes in ivory…. pretty!

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I am crazy in love with these photos from beautiful bride Cassy from her recent wedding. Isn’t she lovely? For Cassy’s wedding, I created a slightly smaller version of the Gwyneth piece and I love how she teamed it up with her pretty veil. Thank you Cassy for the photographs! xx

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It’s autumn here in Australia and the leaves are slowing turning to gorgeous shades of gold, orange and red. I don’t feel quite ready for winter yet as our summer was so short and cold but although the winter will feel so cold and long, it won’t be too long before it’s Spring again.

I was browsing some wedding blogs today and rediscovered the gorgeous colour coral. I’ve always associated coral with summer time but I think coral and gold would be an amazing colour palette for a Spring wedding. With coral on the brain, I did some searching for gorgeous coral pieces – here are some of my favs xx

Coral dress by Katie Ermillio [via Pinterest]

Empire State Earrings by Pade Vavra [via Sundance]

Glamourous gold and rhinestone wedding cake by Sugar Couture [via Brides.com]

Peach and coral bridal bouquet [via Wedding Chicks]

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I am so excited to share with you these lovely photographs from beautiful bride Tina. There is so much wedding goodness in these photos – beautifully captured moments, an amazing dress, the loveliest bride, a handsome groom, gorgeous decor, splashes of pink and aqua… oh my!

Tina is wearing the Alannah silk headpiece in fuschia pink with grey french netting details. I can’t help but smile whenever I see these photos.

Thank you Tina!

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On 22 September 2012, my darling fiance and I will be getting married! That’s almost 5 months and 3 days away! I have briefly mentioned our wedding in a few blog posts but to be completely honest, I have been so busy juggling orders, my day job and general life that I just haven’t had a moment to really give it some proper thought. How sad! But, the good news is that I have made a conscious decision to focus more on balancing my work and life so that we can enjoy our engagement and the rest of our lives together. Plus, wedding planning is the best fun a girl could ever have and I just didn’t want to miss out on all the bridal fun and goodness!

Today was the first day in the longest time that I’ve given myself the morning to sit down and really start planning the details and colour palette for our wedding. The hardest part has been the colour scheme – why on earth am I finding this so difficult?! There are so many amazing colours out there and so many beautiful combinations but I just can’t seem to pick a scheme that I feel reflects our personal style. I’ve gone through phases of neutrals…. to purples… to pinks… to greys…. pondered yellows for a bit, then back to neutrals… and around and around I went. I’m now thinking soft tones – perhaps a dusty lilac, pewter or a mushroom with a silver undertone for the bridesmaids dresses – and bouquets in vibrant pinks and purples. That’s my thinking for now anyway!

My first stop this morning was Pinterest to find some inspiration. It truly is my favourite website of all time! I often wonder how people used to live without the internet…. but now I wonder how I ever lived without Pinterest!

I wish I could wear these gorgeous Jimmy Choo shoes without doing serious damage to my ankles! [via Pinterest]

Table decor featuring pink flowers in antique pots [via Somewhere Splendid]

These gorgeous linen napkins are so simple and sweet with just the right amount of gorgeousness [Style Me Pretty via Pinterest]

I love this cake! But it really is too beautiful to eat… that could be a slight problem! [via Caketress]

My favourite bridal hair style! Simple, classic and beautiful [via Pinterest]

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It has been great fun working with Amber on her custom made bridal silk hair flower piece. Amber was in touch with me about a feather and silk flower statement headpiece to compliment her silver metallic lace and rhinestone gown.  She described her ideal headpiece as “pretty, elegant and dreamy” and she was after a fairly large piece with some rhinestones and pearls – an exciting challenge!

Amber also had some extra metallic lace from her dress that she wanted incorporated which I was more than happy to use. I love the textures and details of this piece and I hope she does too!

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One of my favourites things is receiving photographs from my customers from their big day. The lovely bride Hannah recently posted a photo on my Facebook wall and let’s just say… she is one beautiful bride! Stunning, gorgeous, oh my, breathtaking! Hannah was in touch with me a little while ago regarding an ivory bridal hair flower. I modified the Jayne piece for her and the end result can be seen below – lovely!

Thanks Hannah for being such a pleasure to work with and I hope your day was incredible! x

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These Jeffrey Campbell ‘Garret’ heels are just too much fun. Who knew how well orange and fuschia pink would work together, and that gorgeous bow – perfection!  I wish they were available in other colours – it’s quite possible the perfect wedding shoe!

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The lovely Caitlin was in touch with me just recently about a bridal silk flower hair comb for her upcoming wedding. Her wedding day was fast approaching (next weekend!) and she was after a custom piece based on the Helena silk hair comb. She sent me a photo of the pale grey rhinestone motif on her gorgeous ivory wedding dress so I designed a hair comb that would tie everything together nicely =) The end result can be seen below – two ivory silk flowers, pale grey silk organza, no feathers and pretty rhinestones details.

It was a fun little challenge and I love how the piece turned out! I hope she does too xx

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I wish there were more hours in the day to do everything I want to do. On top of my list is to one day learn how to crochet and knit – and hopefully my knitting skills will extend to making a knitted dog sweater for my Labrador, Bear! The little coloured buttons are so cute too!

I found this pattern via Pinterest (of course!)… now I need to find someone who can make it for me =)

Knitted dog sweater pattern [All About you via Pinterest]

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You may have noticed that I have been a little quiet of late.  And, you’d be right! I have been insanely busy working on my new collections of bridal headpieces and silk hair flowers, new photo shoots, existing orders and working with new clients around the world… all while I’ve been working during the day (day job) and organising my wedding! I wouldn’t have been able to  do this without my biggest fan (and fiance) Steve who ensures I eat, sleep and make time to pat and walk our chocolate labrador, Bear.

The good news is that some of my latest collection is now up on my website. You can view the collections here – http://www.percyhandmade.com/shop/ It has been a labour of love and I am thrilled with how it all turned out. Over the coming weeks and months I’ll be adding several dozen new pieces so there’s lots to look forward to!

My new range of exclusive bridal headpieces have been inspired by my own upcoming wedding. I wanted to create pieces that had just the right balance of simplicity whilst still being stylish, detailed and oh so beautiful. The new pieces feature exquisite detailing including individually sewn rhinestones, crystal headbands and millinery silk hair flowers to suit the whole bridal party. Vintage inspired goodness with a contemporary twist!

I’d like to give a huge thank you to my talented brother from Martin Maras Photography for his wonderful photography work. The photos are beyond beautiful and it was a lot of fun capturing my vision in what turned out to be one very long day.

I hope you enjoy my new pieces as much as I enjoyed creating them. It’s so hard to pick a favourite so I’ve posted a number of my favourites below xxx

MARILYN birdcage veil | MABEL silk flower clip with Swarovski pearls and feathers

MONET bridal feather facsinator with rhinestones | WINSLET silk headpiece with millinery leaves and lace

CEZANNE silk rose bridal headpiece | MONIQUE bridal bow with rhinestone

 IRIS silk organza bridal hair flower | AZALEA pale pink millinery roses

EVELYN double silk roses in mushroom | FLYNN silk and rhinestone headband in champagne

BETTY silk bridal hair flower with feathers | BEATRICE black or natural bridal hat

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My friend Kate is getting married in April and I was very excited when she contacted me about a custom hair piece for her special day. Here’s a little sneak peek of her special piece x

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I love the world of online magazines and I especially love the world of Tickle the Imagination!  I was recently featured in the latest issue of the magazine including a little interview. What an honour to be involved in such a gorgeous publication – the wedding and St Valentine’s day issue!

Thank you to Tickle the Imagination for the feature! x

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I have been busy in and out of the studio lately – it’s been a wonderfully busy month! I’m currently juggling a number of orders at the moment including a range of custom orders from wonderful brides around Australia and the US. I just finished four sashes for the lovely Laura from Tasmania… Laura was after four complimentary sashes for her bridesmaids’ black dresses to match her previous purchase of a Camille piece. I love how they turned out and I think they would look great as hair pieces too. You may see variations of these pieces in store very soon… ohh love!

I’ll be posting a few more photos from other custom orders as I finish them – stay tuned!

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This morning I received an email from the lovely Lori. Now, Lori is gorgeous bride Kate’s mother, who I worked with back in August 2010! An incredible blast from the past and her email had me jumping with joy. She was the sweetest customer to work with and her daughter is just gorgeous. Loving her gorgeous blonde curls!

Thanks Lori and Kate! xx

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I had the pleasure of working with beautiful bride Julienne last year to create some pretty dusty purple silk flowers for her December 2011 wedding in Melbourne. Julienne was after a customised version of the Clara hair flowers with a gentle feather spray. It took a bit of time to find feathers from the USA to match the purple silk fabric but I got there in the end and the flowers turned out beautifully!

Julienne was truly special and when she sent through some photos from her big day, I was overcome with excitement! The pretty photos below were taken by Adrian Tuazon Photography in Melbourne.

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It’s been a while between posts… the new year has started with a bang with lots of new clients and orders coming through. Thank you to everyone for their support, it really means so much to me! In between working with my new clients and creating new pieces for the shop, I’ve been planning my wedding (excitement!) and managing my day job so I’ve been a busy girl to say the least.

I’m a little behind on blogging so I thought I’d dedicate some of today to uploading some photographs from some special brides that I worked with in late 2011.  Gorgeous bride My purchased some ivory hair flowers for her November 2011 wedding. She sent through some photos a little while back which I have been meaning to post. The photos are incredible and she looks so beautiful! I also love her bridesmaids dresses… pretty!

Thank you My! xx

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A little bit exciting… the Olivia feather fascinator is featured in the latest edition of Cosmopolitan Bride Autumn 2012!

Be sure to grab a copy and have a peek! Thanks Cosmo Bride xo What a lovely start to 2012!

Category : Blog